Hell & Back

Chapter Twenty Five

"Eddie." He heard a voice say his name. He was back in the darkness. He looked around but saw no one, maybe it was all in his mind. Wait all of this is his mind, he pressed the palms of his hands into his eyes. "A bit confusing, isn't it?" The male voice said again. Eddie uncovered his eyes and looked around again. He let out a sigh and started walking again. Great now his own mind was messing with him.

"It's rude to ignore guest." The voice said from behind him. Eddie spun around and finally seen a boy walking out of the blackness. His blonde hair was long and pushed back so you could see his earring. He was muscular built, only emphasized by his muscle shirt and tight jeans. He wore boots but they didn't make a sound. He was smoking a cigarette as well. "Can I get one?" Eddie said unfazed by the intruder. Honestly he was just glad to not be alone.

"So your trapped in my mind to? I don't think I know you." Eddie said taking the cigarette the boy offered. "The Mind Flayer left a little behind, I happened to be what he left. Billy." He said giving a smirk. "Mind Flayer?" Eddie asked, how many monsters were inside of him? "Yeah, you know big spider looking fucker." Billy said "Messes with your mind." Eddie looked at him confused and than put it together "Vecna. We call him Vecna now." Eddie said still watching him. "I been out of the game awhile." Billy said waving his hand "Regardless I may be able to help get you out of here."

Chrissy was sitting in the waiting room quietly lost in thought. Pregnant? She was pregnant and she hadn't even finished high school? Not to mention a monster is hunting her and Eddie can't wake up. Eddie. Would he be mad? Would he still want to be with her? Oh my, how would she even tell him? She put her head in her hands and tried to take a deep breath.

"Hey are you okay?" Nancy asked coming and sitting beside her. Chrissy composed herself before looking up "Yeah just worried." She said forcing a small smile. Nancy had become one of her only friends the past year and she hated keeping something this big from her but she didn't even know what to say. "He spend a year in the Upside Down fighting monsters, no way he would let something like this kill him" Nancy said with a laugh. Chrissy took her hand and squeezed it.

She had finally fallen asleep when a doctor came out. Steve woke her up and they both walked over to him. Nancy was with Johnathan in a room while he recovered from his part. "We stopped the bleeding and relieved the pressure on his brain. The brains a tricky thing though and we won't know if any permanent damage was caused until he wakes up." The doctor said. "Can we see him?" Steve asked, he had an arm around Chrissy's shoulders. "I'll have a nurse come for you when he is into a room." The doctor said and walked away.

It felt like hours before the nurse came to get them, the sun was up and Steve had gone to get them coffee and tell Nancy and Johnathan the news. Finally she came and they both jumped up out of their chairs. "Your here for Edward Munson?" She asked looking them over. "Yes." Chrissy said almost to excitedly. "Follow me." She said and started down the hall. When they reached the room, Chrissy could barely make herself go inside.

Eddie was laying there still sleeping but instead of looking the way he had all those other times he know looked sick. They had cut the side of his hair and pinned the rest of it to one side, where they had shaved had tubs coming out with blood running through them. He had tubs and wires all around him. Chrissy walked over and took one of his hand that there laying on the bed. "His brainwaves are shown here." The nurse said pointing out one of the machines "he is still in there."

She watched as the white line moved up and down "Can he hear us?" Chrissy asked not meeting anyones eye. "It's like being asleep, something's you hear and others you don't." She said "Breakfast will be brought up in about an hour." was all she said before turning and leaving. Steve had taken a seat in one of the chairs while Chrissy remained standing by the bedside. "Wonder how he's gonna feel about the new hair." Steve said. Chrissy pushed away some of the fallen curls and whispered "Please wake up." reaching up to dry the tears in running down her cheeks.

"We have been through four different memories." Eddie asked getting annoyed "As much as I enjoy taking the walk down memory lane, I don't see how this is helping." Billy was walking beside him quietly. "I don't understand." He said in a low voice. "It should work." Eddie stopped and turned towards him. They were the same height but Billy was built better than he was, that had never stopped him before. "You don't know if this will even work?" Eddie asked anger building in his voice.

"Listen man, when I was under its control, that chick with the powers, she used a memory of my mom to bring me back. It was only long enough for me to let the Mind Flayer, Vecna, whatever kill my body but he remained inside of me, so even when my body died my mind didn't." Billy tried explaining but it was confusing. "So your apart of him, how do I know your not leading me to him?" Eddie asked "You don't." Billy said plainly. "I did bad shit, I hurt people I didn't want to. I couldn't stop him. But I can maybe help you and hell maybe when I finally officially die I'll have done something to make up for it a little bit."

Eddie let the thoughts sink in and than remembered something that Eleven had said. "Maybe we don't need to be looking through the good memories, maybe the answer is in the bad." He said thinking out loud. Billy looked at him taking out another cigarette "The door was in the bad, so I'd never look, maybe this one is the same." Eddie said now pacing excitedly. "Okay so where to than?" Billy asked handing him a lit cigarette. "I think I know." He said taking a deep breath and walking towards a door.