Stranger Things Short Stories

Eddie Munson - Five Stages

This has big spoilers for Vol 2 so don't read if you haven't seen it.

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This wasn't the way things were supposed to go. This wasn't how the story was supposed to end. You were supposed to go home together, curl up in bed together and laugh about how much of shit show the last week had been. But now you were alone. Now you were crawling into bed by yourself. Now you were crying instead of laughing because the one person who deserved to survive didn't. 

But Eddie couldn't be gone. There's no way he's dead. Knowing him this is probably just some sort of joke, like he wanted to see how you'd all react to his death. You never saw the body yourself. Maybe Dustin was in on the joke and that's' why he hadn't talked about it much?  Or maybe he's only faking it so he can avoid all those murder allegations because there is no way that Eddie Munson, your Eddie Munson, could not be dead. 

The more time passed, the harder it was to believe. People around you started getting concerned, especially when they saw that frantic look in your eye as you tried to justify the reasons why your Eddie was okay and alive. They tried to help, they really did. But they were irritating more than anything.

People were scared to leave you alone. They were scared in case you ended up hurting yourself. Sometimes you contemplated going back to the upside down just to see if he was still there or sometimes it was just because you felt guilty. Because you should've been there with him. Maybe if you were there he wouldn't have insisted on being so god damn heroic. Maybe he would still be here.

A few weeks since it all kicked off, your parents decided to move out. They wanted to take you with them you really did but the night they suggested it was the night you snapped. You insisted that they didn't care, that they never liked Eddie and that you couldn't leave in case he came back. Because if he did come home then he would probably be scared or hurt and he would need someone to be there for him. 

They left the next morning.

The anger never left though, in fact it only got worse. Every time someone tried to coax you out of the house, every time someone tried to cheer you up you would lose it. Why was no one else sad about this? Eddie was there friend. Eddie was the reason why they're still here breathing yet none of them would even acknowledge what he's gone. The things he's sacrificed so that Mike could eat late night eggos with El or so that Nancy could see Jonathan again.

Everyone seemed to be moving on and yet you felt stuck because Eddie was what made your life feel like living. Eddie is what made you want to wake up in the morning. Eddie is what made you smile even when you were sad.

A few days after your parents left, you decided to take a wander down to Eddie's trailer. Apparently the gate in it had ripped the entire trailer park apart but you had to see it for yourself. It all still seemed so surreal.

When you got there you nearly broke down. This little shitty tin can was where you had spent so many of you nights. It's where some of your happened memories happened and now it was barely even there. Just like Eddie.

His stuff was still there. In some ways you were surprised no body had tried to rob the place but everything still seemed pretty in tack. Well besides the fact taht half of it was blown to bits. His bed was collapsed and there was a gaping hole in the wall but his clothes were still sprawled across the floor. Some of his posters were still handing off the wall and his guitar was still perched neatly on its stand.

That bloody guitar. He never let anyone touch it. He loved it so much, as much as a mother would love its child. You could remember the day he bought it. The bright smile that stretched across his face as he produced it to you. How excited he was that he had finally saved up enough money to buy it. That night you went to watch him and the guys perform. While there wasn't much of  a crowd Eddie still absolutely put his heart and soul into it. Dedicating the song to you 'his little ray of sunshine'. 

Deciding that you didn't want to leave it here and risk it getting ruined, you grabbed one of Eddies shirts of the ground, picked up his guitar and headed home. In the days that followed you visited the remains of Eddie's trailer pretty every day. For hours you'd sit there in compete silence just staring. When Nancy turned up to convince you to go home and rest you started crying to the point where she had to call up Steve and Robin for back up. When Steve tried to lift you off the floor to drag you home you screamed, begging them to leave you here. 'Please let me do this. I'll do anything you want just please give me five more minutes' you tried to say.

That night was the first night you slept without crying. Curled up in a tiny ball of regret and anger wearing Eddie's shirt that you refused to wash just incase it lost his scent. All you could think about was what you could have done differently and what you could be doing right now if he was here with you. 

From this moment on it wasn't like you were there anymore. It was like you were a ghost, a shell of a person who just stopped caring. You spent most of your time in bed, staring off into the distance. Most days you didn't talk and when you did it was only ever one worded answers to one of your friends questions. They would take it in turns to come and visit you because they soon realised that you wouldn't remember to eat if someone didn't physically sit there and eat with you.

Eventually summer rolled round and before you knew it Nancy and that were graduating, preparing to go to college and you still couldn't drag yourself outside for more than five minutes. After 'living' in squalor for the last few months you finally decided to go outside. You really wanted to get some m&ms after experiencing sudden craving for them.

It was there, after wandering around the virtually empty store that you bumped into his uncle, Wayne. He was skinnier than you rembered, an unkept beard stretched across his chin and a very much bald head. He looked like he's aged 20 years in 2 months and in some way that broke your heart. While Eddie never really spent much time with his uncle you knew he cared bout him a lot, after all he was family.

You did the usual chitchat, asking how the other was. While you both said things were fine, you both knew you were lying. Especially when he handed you a letter. Apparently they had found in Eddie's van. Who knew how it got there but it seemed he wrote it before he went on the run, the night Chrissy died. His uncle wished you the best, told you to look after yourself because Eddie would have wanted you to. But all you could manage in return was a smile because how could anyone know what Eddie would have wanted.

Eddie back to your car, m&ms in hand you opened the letter. It was definitely by Eddie, you could tell by his barely readable scrawl taht it was his. You almost laughed at how bad his hand writing was, remembering all the times you teased him about it.

y/n, it read

I know it seems dramatic but if your reading this, things probably didn't turn out  the best for me. If not and you're reading it because you're snooping around my van then this is really embarrassing and I apologise for all the sappy shit I'm about to say.

Anywho I just really wanted to say thank you for being there. For helping me through all the shit and just making my life that bit better. I know I'm a pain in the ass most of the time and I cause more trouble than I'm worth but thank you for always being there.

I know things are going to get really really bad and I'm probably not gonna make it out of this okay but I thought I should just get that off my chest. I hope you don't spend too long mopping around after me because that would be a incredible waste of time. Especially considering your always the one yapping on at me about 'productivity' or whatever.

I'll always love you

- Eddie

p.s. don't let the police or my uncle see the stains on my bed. I kinda want them to think highly of me even if they do think I'm a murderer.

---

They say there are five stages of grief. Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. You were finally in acceptance. Because of Eddie. Not so shockingly hearing from you dead boyfriend helped put that spark of life back into you. You did decide to go to college. You did start hanging out with the guys again and no longer were you mopping around in a crusty old t-shirt.

Of course you were still heartbroken, it would take along time to get over a loss like this one. There were good days and there were bad days.  But you finally understood that Eddie had died so that you and everyone else could live. Not living would be a waste of his death and you sure as hell weren't going to let that happen.