Waiting Room | A Stranger Things Story - Eddie Munson | VOLUME II

Heroes | Part VI

𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐞𝐬 | 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐕𝐈

𝐈 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐑, 𝐌𝐘 𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐘 𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐔𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐍. My eyes squinted shut and my cheek against the ground. I could only hear the sounds of my own grating breaths, gasping to escape from my mouth. Convulsing as I tried to swallow.

I was afraid to open my eyes in the fear that if I did, there would maybe be something worse waiting for me.

I opened one of my eyes, peering out at my surroundings. When I realised there was nothing of any immediate threat I opened both. Seeing the limp bodies of the Demo-bats scattered around beside me.

Rolling over on my back I realised that one of them still had their teeth embedded into my hip, grimacing, I reached my fingers into the mouth to unclench the jaw before batting it away as it sunk lifelessly beside me.

My took a sharp intake of breath as I craned my head upwards to glance down at myself. My black T-shirt was ripped, exposing portions of my stomach as I moved my hand to press it against my abdomen. The pressure of my hand sent a sharp shooting pain throughout my body as I pulled it away, the palm of my hand covered in fresh crimson blood.

I swallowed hard, laying my head back down against the ground, staring up above me at the cascading dark clouds and flaming carmine lightning.

I laid there for a moment, my eyes watering as tears began to trickle down the sides of my face.

The sounds of advancing footsteps and the scuffing of shoes against the hard ground echoed around me.

'Kat!'

I glanced to the right of me, my vision still blurred as I was unresponsive to the dark adumbrate figure stumbled towards me.

'Kat!'

I looked up to see Eddie. His face caked in dirt, speckles of blood on his cheeks and neck. His eyes glossy and red.

'Holy shit, Kat.' He exhaled, dropping to his knees beside me as he examined me. He refrained his hands from touching me as he clenched and unclenched them. Almost as if he wanted to grab me, but knew he would hurt me if he did.
'What did you do?' He breathed out, looking up at me, his eyebrows furrowed with worry.

'It's not that bad, Eddie.' I offered him a small, meek smile.

'This is bad, this is really bad.' He said, tearing his gaze away from me and glancing down at my stomach as he delicately traced his fingers between the rips of my shirt.

'I'm okay, I promise. I just need some bandages or whatever it's not a big deal.' I said, my voice hoarse and quiet.

'We need to get you back, we need to get you to a hospital.' He urged.

'And how do you propose we do that?' I said. Almost as if he had forgotten what life awaited us once we got back to Hawkins.

'Fuck!' He exclaimed, burying his head in his hands, covering his face.

'Eddie, look at me.' I whispered, reaching up to hold his wrist tentatively between my fingers, pulling it down to reveal his disgruntled face.
'I'm okay.' I nodded, reassuringly.

'Why did you do that?' He asked.

'I told you, you're not allowed to do anything stupid and dangerous without me again.' I said, a meagre attempt to lighten the bleak mood.

He bit down on his bottom lip, attempting to suppress his concerned demeanour.

'Come on, we need to go.' He said, standing up from his kneeling position and reaching down to pull me up. One hand on my upper arm and another on my wrist as he began to pull.