𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐲

five. HERE TO HELP.

     

     RHYS GOT anxious watching Robin and Max go to the left side of the shack and Steve grabbed an oar, hitting the tarps. "What are you doing, man?" Rhys exclaimed. "Checking if he's in there." The other replied and Rhys looks at Dustin who stared at Steve. "Then take the tarp off!" He exclaimed at the older.

"If you're so brave, you do it." The nineteen year old said and Rhys just rolled his eyes. "Right. Because an oar will definitely stop whatever is hiding under the tarps, there is nothing there!" Rhys said as he rushed over, trying to grab the oar from the taller's hands. "Just pull the tarp off." He demanded as the girls completely turned to watch them and Steve turned to the shorter blonde man. "Fine." He says and Rhys raised his brows. "Are you sure you're brave enough, big boy?" He asked and Steve instantly nods his head, but his hands are still gripping the oar, not letting go.

He glanced down then at the tarp, then back at Rhys. "Yeah, yeah, watch me." He says and Rhys gestured. "Then by all means--" He's cut off by the shout from Eddie jumping out of the boat, from under the tarp and they all yell in fright as Eddie grabbed Steve, bringing him over to the wall where he shoves him against it, holding up a beer bottle to his neck.

"Eddie!" Dustin and Rhys exclaim at the same time as the younger of the two pointed at the older and Rhys just flips him off quickly before turning back to the two. "Eddie! Stop! Eddie!" Dustin shouted as Eddie looked over at them. "It's me. It's Dustin. This is Steve. He's not gonna hurt you, right, Steve?" Dustin says as Rhys sighed. "Right, yeah." The boy nods, looking at Eddie. "Steve, why don't you just drop the oar?" Rhys tells him.

Steve softly breathes out, dropping it but at the thud, Eddie digs the broken bottle further into Steve's neck. "He's cool! He's cool." Dustin says. "I'm cool, man. I'm cool." Steve says quickly. "What are you doing here?" Eddie asked, his brows furrowed. "They were looking for you..." Rhys says and Eddie glanced at him. "We're here to help." Robin spoke up and Eddie looked over at them next.

"Eddie, these are my friends. You know Robin, from band." Dustin pointed at the girl behind him to his right who then imitates playing a trumpet. "This is my friend, Max. The one who never wants to play D&D." Dustin gestured to the other girl who just waved awkwardly. "Eddie. We're on your side. I swear on my mother. Right, guys?" Dustin said as Eddie glanced over at Rhys again who just nods softly. "Yes, yes, we swear." Max nods quickly.

"Yeah. On Dustin's mother."

"Yeah, Dustin's... Dustin's mother." Steve says quietly and Rhys stepped forward a bit, reaching out. "Eddie," he grabs his arm and that's when Eddie lets go of Steve, turning to Rhys right away. "You good?" Rhys whispers when he saw Eddie staring blankly at the floor and the boy just drops down, sliding down the wall so Rhys crouched down in front of him.

"Uh, so, Eds, I sort of couldn't find, um, any Honeycomb or chocolate milk. I hope that's okay." Rhys whispers as he slowly pried Eddie's fingers off the beer bottle and the boy finally glanced up. "Yeah, that's okay." He whispered, staring into Rhys' green eyes that always grounded him as his defensive and cold demeanour suddenly washed away and Dustin came over, kneeling down next to Rhys who carefully set down the bottle.

"Eddie... We just want to talk." Dustin says but the Munson doesn't look away from the Campbell in front of him. "We want to know what happened." Robin said as she came to kneel beside Dustin. "You won't believe me." Eddie glanced over, sniffling.

"Try us." Max says and Rhys reached out, grabbing Eddie's hand gently. "It might be a bit of help to talk about what happened, especially to more than one person... Come on, Eddie." He says and Eddie looks at him, his eyes all doey looking. "Okay, Rhys." He whispers, giving in as he finally decides to talk about it.

"Wait, I'm sorry, who's Rhys?" Dustin turns his head to look at the blond then at his brunette friend. "Him." Eddie says softly, pointing at Rhys who just nods. "My name isn't Harry, just for the record." He glanced at the others. "The nickname Dirty Harry came from... you know what? Nevermind, unimportant." He quickly stood up and held out his hand for Eddie.

He set down a little milk crate for Eddie to sit on, putting one by him to sit next to him as Dustin, Max, Robin all stood or sat in front of the pair. "It's okay. They want to help." Rhys whispers to Eddie, rubbing his arm gently before leaning back and looking at the others.

Eddie got to talking about it then about Chrissy and him going back to his place after Hellfire and the basketball game, "her body, just like, lifted up into the air and, uh... And she just, like, hung there. In the air." Clearly having to think back to the night before shook Eddie up after previously being fine because of Rhys taking his mind off of it as the blond stared at him.

"And her bones... uh, she..." He got quiet and whimpered a bit as he turned to Rhys who reached out, grabbing his hand gently. "Her bones started to snap. Her eyes, man. It... it was like there was something, like, inside her head, pulling. I... I didn't know what to do, so I... I ran away, here to Rhys," he looked to the blond male sitting beside him who just softly squeezed his hand before turning away.

"I left her there." His eyes got glossy and he glanced away quickly, scoffing. "You all think I'm crazy, right?" He says, bringing his hand up to his face. "No. We don't think you're crazy." Dustin said as Rhys just looked over at Eddie. "Don't bullshit me, man! I know how this sounds." Eddie turns his head away, clutching onto Rhys' hand right back as he looks back at him. "We're not bullshitting you." Max spoke up as Rhys glanced over at the girls and boys.

"We believe you." Robin says and Rhys slowly moved onto the floor, beside Eddie, leaning closer. "Listen, I don't know these weirdo friends of yours... but it seems like, they know a thing or two, so maybe... we could trust them when they say they believe you?" He whispers and Eddie just turns his head to look at him, nodding softly as Dustin glanced between them.

"Look, Rhys is right," he spoke up, saying the name weirdly, "but, uh, what I'm about to tell you might be a little... difficult to take." Dustin says and Eddie nods, "okay..." He said as he pulled Rhys' arm closer to him, basically onto his lap as the blond stayed there, kneeling by him. "You know how people say Hawkins is... cursed? They're not way off."

 

 

 

authors note chapter is a bit shorter bc i sort of rushed it but hey that's ok 😀
+ back to our regular 9:00 am schedule bc i'm back to work (someone maim me)