Bloody Negatives {Stranger things}

Chapter Ten

《Chapter Ten》
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Tally Parker and Eddie Munson had shared exactly one conversation in all the time they'd known each other.

It must have been when Tally was ten-ish, Eddie a couple years older. They were eating lunch in their elementary school cafeteria.

Tally had asked Eddie if he could borrow a pencil. Eddie had muttered an awkward "sure" and given one to him. When the lunch hour ended, Eddie left before Tally had the chance to give it back.

Tally had been keeping that pencil in the right pocket of his jacket ever since, just in case he saw the right moment to return the pencil. The right moment never happened.

Oddly enough, right now, staring at Eddie sitting nervously on the floor of a boathouse, he felt the urge to hand Eddie the pencil, though he doubted the older boy would remember what it was from.

"He wants to kill me," Eddie muttered, hitting his head repeatedly against the aluminium wall of the boathouse.

"He thinks you killed his girlfriend," Tally said, not meaning for his tone to sound so defensive.

"I mean, I knew he hated me," Eddie laughed, shaking his head. "Never thought he'd try to pull something like that."

Tally hunched over, starting to feel sick again. "He's scared. We're all scared."

Eddie nodded, resting his arm on his knee. He didn't speak but Tally could feel some sort of understanding between him and Eddie.

"Always so dramatic with you," Dustin said to Tally, shaking his head.

"What do you mean?" Tally yelped loudly as Eddie and Max laughed. "It's a very dramatic situation!"

Soon all four of them were laughing. It felt good, to be genuinely happy for the first time in weeks. Tally didn't want it to end. But it did, of course.

They all slowly grew quiet after a few minutes, and Tally could feel the illness inside of him return.

He slumped onto the ground, resting his back against the boathouse's wall right next to Eddie. His head was throbbing again. After having the pain take residence in his mind for such a long time, he was able to describe it almost flawlessly by now. It felt like a monster had been put inside his head, and it was doing all it could to escape, clawing and biting desperately.

He looked at Eddie. Eddie had been going through almost the exact same thing Tally had. They'd both witnessed one of the murders. They'd both been suspected of one of the murders. Tally wondered if Eddie's head hurt as much as his did. He wondered if Eddie was as terrified as he was.

"I guess you should both stick around here for a while," Dustin remarked after a long, tense few minutes of silence. "Just in case the police decide that they want to arrest Tally, too."

A shiver darted down Tally's spine. He was really, really hoping that no one was going to want to arrest him anytime soon. He was also really hoping that Jason wasn't going to figure out where Eddie was hiding, since he could already feel how difficult that conversation would be.

"You're leaving already?" Eddie asked, raising a single eyebrow. Tally had always wanted to learn how to do that.

Dustin nodded. "My mom thinks Tally's trying to murder me. If I don't get home soon she's going to end up calling the cops. And that's attention that we don't need right now."

Max nodded in agreement as she fiddled with one of the straps on her backpack. "I should get home, too. I have an awful headache."

Tally felt his face crease deeply as he frowned. He knew that Eddie was innocent, but he was still terrified to be spending a night alone with the older boy. What if that... Mind Flayer thing came back? Tally had absolutely no idea what he'd do if they were suddenly put in danger.

"You'll be fine," Dustin insisted. "And if you aren't, just give me a call," he gestured to the walkie-talkie lying next to Eddie's foot.

Tally felt the cold aluminum wall against his bare neck and nodded meekly. He closed his eyes so he didn't have to watch Max and Dustin leave the boathouse, leaving him and Eddie completely alone.

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