The Runaways - Book 1

9

2 days later.....

Dustin Henderson had, compared to most people he knew, had an easy life with very little loss. He could barely re-emerge his father, so him leaving had never felt that much of a great deal to him, in fact the only time he'd ever dealt with death was when demadog had eaten his cat. To say the death of Eddie Munson had been hard on him would have been an understatement and although he was keeping himself busy at the make shift shelter in the school gym, his usual happy persona was long gone. Replaced by a very somber person.

The town of Hawkins reflected perfectly how Dustin was feeling, after Vecna and upside how broken through to the real world the town of Hawkins had gone into panic mode, with most of the town evacuating due to an "earthquake" that had ripped a huge hole in the town. Buildings were destroyed and people were dead, or missing. Things were never going to be the same again, and even though Dustin and his friends knew that Eddie had been the hero in the end, sacrificing himself to save the others, the town still had him pinned as a killer, and going as far to say that he had died in the earthquake.

It was as Dustin walked round the lab that he spotted Indigo, still wearing Eddie's Hellfire t-shirt but now covering it with his denim waist coat that Steve had given her. She was staring up at the missing persons board, looking at the poster of Eddie that had been vandalised with satanic images and 'murderer' written across it.

"Indigo?" Dustin said as he approached her, she didn't turn at first, but her shoulders slumped at the sound of his voice. She hated to admit but she could barely look at Dustin anymore, every time she did she saw the image of him sobbing, his clothes soaked through with Eddie's blood. "Indigo, can we talk....please" his voice cracked which has Indigo finally turn to look at him. Her face looked tired. Dark bags were under her eyes, her eyes themselves were red and bloodshot from the near constant crying.

Reaching out, she grabbed Dustin's hand before walking over to an empty camping bed that had been put up in the middle of the room.

"I know you don't want to talk about him, I know it hurts but.. I need to tell you, when he died he, he died talking about you-"

"Dustin, I can't-"

"No. You have to! The reason he stayed was for you, he told me to keep an eye on you and then... then when he was dying he told me to tell you something," both Dusting and Indigo squeezed one another's hand, their eyes burning with tears that were threatening to fall. "He wanted me to tell you he loved you" the moment the words left Dustin's mouth Indigo's head fell to his shoulder, silent sobs had her body shaking.

"H...he, he didn't let me say it" she managed to choke out into Dustin's neck, she couldn't get the tears to stop, or the pain to dull, even a little. "He promised me we could leave this town together and he went and did it without me" Dustin wrapped an arm around her, for the first time keeping his own tears back.

They say their, Dustin holding Indigo as she cried until Nancy finally appeared, Jonathan in tow, both of them prying Indigo from Dustin, and taking her to the Old hopper house, where the rest of their friends had gathered. It was at that house, where she became a shell. She sat on the dusty old sofa and stared into nothing, never sleeping, never eating. Even when El had gone into her mind, all El had been able to find was Indigo's mind self, curled up crying. She didn't talk, she didn't blink very often. Everything in her body was fighting to keep her upright but her mind itself was stuck in one thing and one thing only. Eddie. The loss of him. How much she loved him. Nothing mattered to her anymore.

"How's she been?" Steve asked Nancy, who was busy using a wash clothes to wipe Indigo down.

"No change. She's in there, but I think she's in shock, I managed to get a banana into her earlier, although I'm not sure she even knew she was eating"

"Dustin isn't much better, he's doing things but he isn't Dustin, y'know?" Nancy nodded in response, before she looked out the window at the slowly changing scenery.

"It's the end of the world isn't it?"

"No... no... maybe" Steve really didn't know, all he did know was that it was going to take Indigo a long time to get back to who she was, in fact he wasn't convinced she'd ever be completely herself again. It wasn't hard to tell that, although they'd only just met, a piece of her had died along with Eddie. He watched as tears fell from the girls eyes, Nancy wiping them almost immediately.

"It happens every day. The crying. The silence makes it so much worse" she rested her head on her cousin, her hand placed on her knee.

"I wish I'd died beside him, I wish I'd been there" Indigo's croaky voice said, breaking the eery silence that had filled the small cabin.

"Indigo-"

"It would have been heavenly? Don't you think?"