Livin' on a Prayer/ OC x Eddie Munson

Chapter 7: Another One Bites the Dust

     Steve and Robyn looked at me with wide eyes. "What do you mean?" Steve asked. I sighed and flipped on the TV. They were still broadcasting about the death of the Hawkins High student out by the lake. They gawked at the TV before turning back to us. "Who was it?"

     "We think that it was Chrissy." I said softly. "That's out by where Reefer Rick lives. Or rather where he lived before going to prison. She came to Eddie's last night looking to buy something." I explained. Steve shot a look at Eddie. He just held up his hands. "That's enough Steve. We think she may have gone out there either looking for something or to find someone else to sell to her."

     "Why do you think this has to do with the Upside Down?" Robin asked while nudging Steve to pay attention and stop glowering at Eddie.

     "Her limbs were snapped and her eyes had been sucked out of her skull. But other than that there were no other signs of trauma." Eddie said as he moved closer to me. "I'm not sure what that has to do with that Upside Down place but Jess seems pretty convinced that they are connected." he explained with a shrug.

     "The way they described her injuries it definitely felt wrong. If a human had done it there would have been other signs of trauma." I said with a sigh.

     "But if it was a monster from the Upside Down there would have been more trauma too." Steve argued. I shook my head.

     "Not if its not on our side. What if it is stuck in the Upside Down?" I asked. "Maybe it's finding a way to kill from that side." I reasoned. Eddie nodded in agreement with me.

     "Like what? Some kind of wizard?" Robin asked skeptically.

     "Exactly!" I exclaimed and turned to look at Eddie. "Kind of like Vecna from your campaign."

     "You're right. I'm proud of you for putting those together." he said as he leaned over and pressed a kiss to the top of my head.

     "Excuse me but who the hell is Vecna?" Steve asked as the door burst open and Dustin came in with Max. "What are they doing here?"

     "There you guys are! We were worried about you!" Dustin shouted as he and Max ran to me and wrapped me in a hug.

     "Woah guys! I'm fine." I said as I hugged them back. I looked back at Steve and shrugged. "Vecna is a dark sorcerer in D&D. He's quite the bad guy." I said nonchalantly. Eddie's mouth fell open and he gawked at me.

     "He's so much more than that." Eddie said as he turned back to Steve and Robin. He proceeded to launch into a full explanation of Vecna to my two friends. I turned back and looked at Dustin and Max who had still not let me go. I pulled them off to the side.

     "What's wrong you guys? You scared me half to death when you burst through that door." I said as I brought them closer to me in a tighter hug. After a minute they both stepped back and looked at me.

     "Well when we heard about the student who was killed out by Lovers Lake we started to worry. I knew you hadn't come home yet and mom hadn't heard from you this morning either so I went out to start looking for you. I knew you'd gone over to Eddie's so that was the first place I went." Dustin explained. Max nodded.

     "I remembered seeing you last night and when I looked outside Eddie's van was gone and I had no idea where you'd gone. So when I saw Dustin we thought we'd come check here." Max said softly. "Not that we thought Eddie had hurt you. We just couldn't imagine losing you too so soon after what happened to Billy." she explained as she hugged me again. I sighed a little and hugged her back.

     "I'm fine. But there are some things you all need to be filled in on." I said. I proceeded to tell them our theories about Chrissy and the Upside Down. Max looked at me and furrowed her brow as I led them back over to the main group.

     "Wait you think it was Chrissy? I saw her in the bathroom crying at school yesterday. She seemed to be going through some shit. She looked terrified. Then I saw her coming out of Ms. Kelly's office and she didn't look much better. What if this Vecna creep was in her head or something. It could explain the attacking from the Upside Down. We know that El can travel interdimensionally through her mind." Max explained. I nodded a little in agreement. Everything she said made complete sense. It was the only probable theory we had currently.

     The sound of a breaking news story on the TV broke us out of our conversation. We all stared at the TV in horror as we got notification that a second student had been killed. This time it was a boy. "Another one bites the dust." Steve said rubbing his face tiredly.

    I studied the TV and jumped to my feet. "Holy shit that's Nancy back there talking to that cop!" I said as I hurried to grab my bag. "We need to go see what's going on and make sure she'd okay." It took a couple of minutes to get the store shut down citing it was due to system issues. We all piled into Eddie's van and started towards the scene. It wasn't long before we came upon the road block where the killing had happened. We slowly got out of the car and I waved to Nancy to get her attention. She looked like she was on the verge of tears as she waved back at me.

     It was another couple of minutes before the police let Nancy go. She hurried over to me and I wrapped her up in a hug. "God Nance. What happened?" I asked as I squeezed her.

     "Fred was killed. The same way that girl was this morning. We'd come out this way to investigate it for the school paper but then we got separated as I was trying to interview the people that lived in the area she was found in. Then I heard the sirens and ran to find him like that. It was unnatural." Nancy said with a shudder. I sighed.

     "Boy do we have a lot to tell you. Get in the van we will explain it on the way to my house." I said as I nodded to Eddie. We all piled into the van and started to the house explaining everything to Nancy who sat there with wide eyes as she listened.