Raising Hel | a Stranger Things fanfiction

Chapter 5

Timeline check: sets on Saturday 22nd of March 1986 - during ST4 episode 2

Hellen paces in her small hotel room. Now that the shock has passed and that she's sure that no reporters followed her from the trailer park, her brain is firing up.

She wishes she'd brought Eddie's letters with her, maybe she would have found a clue in there. Right now she has no idea where to start. All she has are a few names – Gareth, Jeff, Dustin – but no last name and the sick feeling that if she starts asking around for Eddie, it might not work out for her. That police officer barely hid the fact that she might be an accomplice!

Besides, it's not like she could do anything more than hope for a call from Wayne Munson... No, she must let the police to their job to find Eddie and clear the mystery surrounding that cheerleader's death. In the meantime, she can work on the other reason she came to Hawkins. She opens her suitcase, pulls out a heavy folder and starts spreading its content on the bed. She only stops reading and taking notes when the hunger gives her a headache.

*

Eddie is lying on the dirty floor of the cabin, staring at a spider making its web between the ceiling and a pillar. The effect of the weed is long gone and he ran out of paper an hour ago. He found some snacks and a bunch of beers in Rick's boat, but those too didn't last him long. So it's just him and his thoughts now. Remnants of terror, fear for himself, but mostly guilt.

He ran.

He left Chrissy without even checking if she was alive. The idea of her agonizing for hours is maddening. And even if she was already dead – God! He wishes she was – what kind of man does leaving her like that makes him? He thinks back at that last D&D party, when he told the others there was no shame in running.

– Guess what, douchebag, he whispers to himself. There is.

He contemplates breaking inside Rick's house to look for some secret stash of drugs the cops might have not found. More booze. Maybe some food too. The sun is getting low, the first neighbor is half a mile away, nobody would see him. Unless the cops got hinted to look for him here. It's not that much of a secret Eddie's getting his drugs from Reefer Rick.

It's dark when he musters the courage to open the shed's door, only to close it back as quietly as he can. He saw lights coming from the other side of the house. His pulse beats in his hears. He looks frantically for somewhere to hide, decides to go for the boat. First, he wraps a bottle in a dirty cloth, smashes it, grabs the biggest piece and crawls under the tarp. Darkness swallows him, he feels like suffocating although he knows there's plenty of air around him.

Time stretches. He's breathing too loudly, he can't hear anything from outside. His body starts to ache, but he's frightened to move. He waits until finally he hears noises: the creack of the door and muffled voices. He shuts his eyes close and grits his teeth. He clenches his fist around the broken bottle.

Staying completely silent while someone pokes at the tarp drives Eddie to the edge of breaking down. If this doesn't stop now, he's gonna have to act first. Hopefully, the surprise will benefit him.

He jumps out of the boat and grabs the first thing that comes to his reach. Which turns out to be Harrington's jacket. He pushes him toward the wall and press the shard against his neck. The cabin has erupted into shouts and cries but it takes a while for Eddie to realize what they're saying. His brain is already too busy trying to decide whether or not he's capable of actually wounding Harrington.

Then he turns his head and sees Dustin with two girls. A senior student he recognizes from the school's band and a red-haired girl about Dustin's age. Robin and Max, as the boy introduces them. And of course, there's Steve fucking Harrington. The betrayal feels like acid dissolving its way through his body. So his little protege chose to team up with Harrington to go looking for him, uh?

But the teenager's words manage to calm Eddie. They're here to help...They're on his side...A tiny bloom of hope rises inside him, he lets go of Steve and steps back. His legs shake so hard now that he crouches down to the floor. The scene of Chrissy's death flashes again in his head and he shudders. A girl flying up in the air and having all the bones in her body snapped by an invisible force ? They're going to think he's insane. They're going to think he's lying!

Tears fill up his eyes. He looks away as Dustin kneels in front of him.

– We just want to know what happened.

– You won't believe me...

It's the look on the redhead's face that finally convinces him to talk.