Hell & Back

Chapter Fifteen

Everyone was sitting in the basement. Chrissy sat on the stair above the one Steve and Eddie were sharing. They seemed to move together now and know what the other was thinking without even a motion. They effortlessly finished each others sentences and would go off on their own tangents while telling the group how they came through the door. Eleven was listening intently and seemed to get a little irritated when they would get distracted.

Chrissy listened and as she watched Eddie get excited and almost jump out of his seat on certain parts. When Steve took over he would play with his rings and nod continuously. Chrissy couldn't imagine him being still enough to stake out a building for hours. She was idly playing with stands of his hair when Eleven spoke "He sent you. Henry."

Everyone was quiet "Why would he send us? He was trying to kill us, it happened everyone couple weeks." Steve said "Yeah, man." Eddie added feeling the need to back Steve up. Chrissy had stopped playing with his hair and gone completely still. He turned to look at her, afraid that Vecna may have got ahold of her again. Her eyes were focused on the window high on the wall. Eddie looked and seen a boy just on the wood line.

"We will be right back." Eddie said standing up "Let's go, dude." Steve was up before Eddie finished his statement. Chrissy followed behind them at a distance. They walked outside and snuck around back but whoever had been standing there had left. Steve headed back into the house after a few minutes of looking around the wood line.

"Who was that?" Eddie asked Chrissy. They were still in the backyard, Eddie leaned against the house while Chrissy was still staring at the woods. The wind was blowing strands of hair into his face but he didn't take his eyes off of where she was looking. "I don't know" She finally said low "He came by the picnic tables at school yesterday and than Nancy seen him outside the house this morning."

"You didn't think to mention that?" Eddie asked sounding meaner than he meant to. He wasn't mad or annoyed, only upset that she hadn't told him. Chrissy turned around to face him and looked like he had slapped her, there were tears running down her face. "Chrissy.." He said reaching out to her but she just ran off.

She had never expected him to sound so disappointed in her. She just didn't want them to have something else to worry about. She wasn't trying to make anyone worry about her. She ran down the road and had it in mind to just go home when she realized that if her mom seen her crying she would believe she was right about Eddie. Maybe she was.

Chrissy stopped walking beside the park and headed towards the swings. She needed to calm down, than she would be able to go back and ask Nancy to drive her home, she would put on a smile and walk into her house. She could break down in her room like always and no one would know. "You shouldn't be out here alone." A voice said from behind her. Chrissy turned and seen the boy from earlier. "Something bad is coming for you." He said still starring at her.

Eddie walked into the house, he walked into the basement and grabbed his coat. "I gotta go." He said and headed back towards the stairs. "What's going on?" Nancy said "Steve said you guys seen a boy starring in through the window, was it a blonde boy?" He didn't want to stay here answering questions but Nancy had been here and may know what's going "Yeah." He said pulling on his coat.

Eddie listened as Nancy told him about this morning and Chrissy saying that he had come to walk her to school. Why would she lie about not knowing him? Was there something going on? He headed out the house without saying anything. He didn't know what to think but they apparently had to have a conversation but first he needed to get his head together. Question was where was he going to do that?

Vecna had shown him her moving on a hundred times and every time he expected it but it was always her telling him not him trying to figure out why some guy was following them around. Chrissy had a boyfriend when they first got together. He couldn't blame her for moving on. He was gone for a year, and they never really talked about even being officially together. He sat down on the curb and lit a cigarette, What the hell was all he could think.

Chrissy sat on the swing completely silent. The boy was still there, how could he know that something was after her. And why her? "Who?" She said in a low voice. The boys eyes fixed on hers hard "You know who." He said. Chrissy couldn't pull her eyes away from his, she felt frozen and the shivers going down her spine didn't help. "How...? How do you know that?" She chocked out. "You will be the sacrifice needed." He said and headed back into the woods. "Wait." Chrissy yelled but he was already gone without a trace.

Eddie heard her voice, he looked over and seen her standing by the woods, her hair was blowing in the wind. She was shaking but not from the chill in the air, this was from crying. He did this, he made her cry. He reached out to touch her shoulder but she jumped before he even got the chance. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." He said with a smile, the memory hit him of the first time they actually spoke.

She didn't say anything though, she just jumped into his arms and held on tight to him crying into his shirt. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to disappoint you." She said through tears. It was like a physical blow to hear her say those words. He pushed her away a little and lifted her chin so she was looking at him, he could see nothing but pain in her eyes "You could never disappoint me." He said and whipped the tears from her cheek. "I don't know what's going on or why you won't tell me, but know that I love you and will always keep you safe." Before she could reply he leaned down and kissed her.

Whether it was shock or annoyance it took her a moment to kiss him back. When she finally did though she held nothing back, she wrapped her arms around his neck and he lifted her up. Everything else seemed to float away for a moment but both their fears were still there. 

They both sat down on the swing set, Eddie faced the woods while Chrissy faced the rest of the park, and Chrissy told  him about the boy. "I lied to Nancy because I didn't want the day to be ruined by him. I didn't want to spend the whole day out looking for some new threat." She said. Eddie was moving his swing back and forth dragging his feet on the ground. 

He took a moment to process what he was just told. "Okay, so this guy, who we don't know, has some kind of knowledge about Vecna." Eddie said "So are they connected?" He asked more to himself. "Byers is connected to him so he would of a threat but I wonder if he would know if anyone else is connected." 

Chrissy stayed quiet while Eddie thought aloud. She wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer. If he was connected to Vecna that would mean that he was watching her. She reached over and placed her hand over Eddie's, he was holding on to the swing making his rings stand out more. They dug into the palm of her hand but instead of pulling away she held on tighter. Eddie stopped moving and placed his other hand over top of hers. "You're safe, I promise." He said meeting her eyes. 

The words didn't comfort her this time. She turned and looked at the wood line where the boy had been. 'You will be the sacrifice needed' a shudder went through her. For some reason she didn't believe that Eddie was going to be able to keep his promise this time. "Let's go home." She said standing up but not taking her eyes off the woods.