Eddie knows that this isn't technically an intervention.
That doesn't make it feel any less like an intervention, though, especially not with the way that everybody are staring at him somberly like he's just told them he has a terminal disease, or something, their hands clasped and their eyes all... glancy, flitting back and forth between him and each other in worry. At least Vickie and Argyle aren't here to join in with the we're-concerned-about-you brigade.
Maybe he does have a terminal disease. Maybe he gave it to Max. What else would you call this connection to a place that he knows is eating away at Hawkins, at the world?
Max, as it turns out, has also been having nightmares that she can't remember. She's used to it, though, has been having them ever since Billy, even worse ever since Vecna. "That's what happens when somebody...screws with your brain like that." She says, resigned. "I thought that it was just residual shit from everything that happened, you know? PTSD, but...if it's also happening to you..."
"Then that's a pattern." Eddie's nails are nubs by this point, his fingertips healing every time he accidentally catches one of them with a fang and splits the skin open. He just wants to be okay, to be a person like he was before, to get to figure out his life and his relationship without this walking diseased scrotum poking around in his mind.
Will and El both report being nightmare free, but Will seems just as haunted as usual, jumpy and quiet like he always is, of late. "I can feel something coming. Like it's... building, even if we still can't pinpoint where he is or why the leaking stopped."
"It's a volcano." El says quietly.
"As in, it's going to explode at any moment and burn us all to ash?" Robin asks, oddly chipper.
"Looking that way." Nancy says. "Eddie, Max, how are the...vampy senses? Any different than usual?"
"Nothing beyond feeling the bats that he sends." Max tilts her head then looks at Eddie, like she's seeking out solidarity. "I feel, maybe...a little less in control."
"...Yeah." Eddie says, taking a breath. "Me too."
"Eddie, I think we need to talk about Kas." Dustin chimes in, uncharacteristically serious, especially for a D&D reference that, under normal circumstances, would be delivered with his usual ultra-nerdy charm. Eddie feels his throat go tight, his heart stutter, the door that he was very purposefully leaving closed creaking open. Kas. The parallel he doesn't want to acknowledge, the obscene kind of glaring, screaming, obviousness of it. It's the fungus that took root in his stomach the day those bats tore him open and he died, the creeping vines that wrapped him up tight from the inside-out, slowly replacing him until there's nothing real left. It's fucking destiny, is what it is.
"Kas?" Steve tries to catch his eye, which Eddie ignores. "Who's that?"
Will, Lucas, and Mike look similarly horrified, eyes wide as they exchange looks heavy with understanding.
"He's from D&D." Lucas says, forehead crinkled in concern.
"Why are we talking about your game right now?" Jonathan asks.
Eddie knocks his hands on the table, agitation rolling through him like a wave that pulls him under, makes him flounder. "It's uh. Kas the Bloody-Handed, technically. Or Kas the Destroyer, if you're close enough to be on a nickname basis. Just the really obvious thing that I was hoping nobody else would realize." His lips curl inwards.
"Kas is Vecna's lieutenant. He serves him for years until betraying him. He's also.." Dustin gives a half-laugh, like he can hardly believe it himself despite being the one to have mentioned the connection. "He's also a vampire."
Everybody is silent, for a moment, taking that in. "That's not..." Nancy starts, trying to smile reassuringly but just looking pained. "That could just be a coincidence!"
"Some fucking coincidence." Eddie mutters.
"Why didn't you say anything?" Steve whispers.
Eddie fiddles with his bat ring, still avoiding eye contact. "Because I was hoping that it was a coincidence."
Robin looks sympathetic. "Yeah...not to freak you out, Eddie, but that's probably not a coincidence."
"Well, what does that mean for me?" Max asks. "I'm a vampire, too, does that mean that I'm another Kas?"
"You didn't turn because he wanted you to, you turned because of Eddie, so you might not be the target." Nancy's scribbling in her little notebook, again. It's comforting to know that somebody's approaching this as logically as possible, but also not, because Nancy's scribbling always means that they're going to have to test a million things out and explore every possible outcome, which means a lot of fun what-ifs like what if you lose control? and what if Vecna can use you as a tool? and what if your vampirism slowly consumes you until you barely resemble your former self?
It also means fun Nancy experiments like making more rodent-vampires and meditating to try and find Vecna and going off in search of more of his scouts in the woods and praying that none of them are Demogorgons.
"So we're in agreement that Eddie wasn't turned by chance?" Robin asks. "That it was by design?"
"This is so awesome and great!" Eddie says, slamming his hands down on the table and standing up. His teeth are grit. "I'm just so goddamn thrilled to be living my goddamn year!"
Steve's hand lands on his shoulder a second later, comforting him in as platonic a way as he can in front of the others. "Eddie, it's okay. We're all here, we're all figuring it out. He can't make you do anything you don't want to."
"You can't know that." Eddie hates the way his voice trembles, the way that, no matter what he's faced, his default mode will still always be fear.
"Don't forget that Kas betrays Vecna in the end!" Mike calls. "That counts for something, right?"
"He betrays him because his sword tells him that Vecna's power should be his." Eddie says, slowly turning around. "Not exactly the most righteous of motivations. That's also after years of service to him."
"I don't think we have years." El's strangely calm, her voice so quiet that it's almost inaudible. "What he's building, it's for the end of the story."
"Meaning?" Lucas prompts.
"Meaning that we need to be ready." She says, eyes narrowing in that intense, single-minded look that she gets when she's angry. "We need to win."
