Vecna's Pawn || Eddie Munson

~It's Back~

~Lenora Hills, California 1986~

Aaron POV:

California sucks ass. Whether you're in Hawkins or Lenora Hills, life will always suck.

My sister Eleven has been having trouble adjusting to Lenora. Did I say Lenora? I meant Angela. She's the worst kind of bitch.

Will and I try to protect her but Will isn't exactly scrappy and I can't always be there. After all, I'm not even a high school student anymore.

I spend most of my days getting high with Jonathan and Argyle in the back of a pizza delivery van.

I never used to drink or smoke. I swore it off actually, but Billy's death hit me really hard and I needed a way to drown out the pain. Therapy? What's that?

Today was supposed to be a normal day of spring break. My adoptive brother, Mike came to visit and the young ones wanted to spend the day at the roller rink. I figured it was to celebrate Will's birthday or something.

Apparently El freaked out on Angela and hit her over the head with a roller skate. Luckily I was sober enough to pick them up because Jonathan and Argyle were definitely not. They kept going on about how Angela would be fine because the roller skate was made out of rubber.

Right after we brought El home she got sent to a juvenile detention centre.

Mike was going nuts.

Then there we were, trying to come up with a plan to get El back when all of a sudden there was a knock at our door.

Imagine our surprise to see Doctor Owens' goons standing by the door telling us that El was fine. What a bunch of bullshit.

Now we're being held prisoners in our own home. Wonderful, right?

Since then I've been sitting in my room for hours, bored out of my mind when my phone rings. I pick it up quickly, before the men downstairs hear.

"Hello?" I whisper.

"Hey dingus!" I hear Robins muffled voice on the other end of the phone.

"Robin, you need to be quiet, this is serious." A familiar voice hushes. "Aaron? It's Steve. We need your help."

I start to get worried when I hear his tone. "Yeah, of course. What's wrong?"

The line is silent for a minute. "It's back." He says and my whole body stiffens.

"We're calling it Vecna. It killed Chrissy Cunningham and everyone thinks this 'Eddie' guy did it but he's innocent and we're trying to protect him but we need your help."

I gulp nervously. "Steve...you promised." I almost whimper.

I can hear him let out a shaky sigh. "I know Aaron, but you're our only chance."

I contemplate it silently for a moment. "Aaron? You still there?"

"Yeah," I reply. "Look, Steve. There's a lot of shit happening here. Eleven is with Doctor Owens somewhere, Joyce is on some business trip, and the rest of us are on house arrest. I can't just leave."

"Holy shit. Okay...so a lot of shit has happened but I know you can find a way, and besides, Will, Mike and Jonathan can handle this without you." He practically begs.

I sigh into the phone. "Alright," I finally agree. I hear Robin shout their victory in the background. "I'll figure something out, okay? But if I die, I'm holding you both responsible."

"Thank you so much Aaron, it means a lot." Before I can say anything else, he hangs up.

"Shit.." I mutter to myself. Now I've got to explain all this to everyone else.

Before I can explain anything, I hear gunshots. I spot Jonathan and the boys trying to make their escape while one of Doctor Owens' men shoot at the intruders. "I shoot, you run!" He tells them. They do as he says and I follow.

We make it outside just as Argyle drives up to our house. "Stop the car!!" Jonathan yells at him. He slams on the brakes and we all hop into the back, with the guy who helped us quickly bleeding out in the back.

"Woah, woah, woah, is that real blood man?!" Argyle questions in a spooked tone. We all ignore his question and yell at him to drive.

Shortly after we hit the road, once we're far enough away to stop, I tell them to pull over.

"What? Why??" Will questions me.

"Because," I tell him. "I need to go back to Hawkins."

The car erupts into chaos after I say that. "Absolutely not! Are you insane?!?" Jonathan scolds me. "That's the first place they'll go looking for you."

"I know, okay?" A sad but pleading smile appears on my face. "Steve called." I tell them. "It's back and they need me."

The car goes quiet. Not a single sound is uttered and not a single movement is made until, "...what's back?"

I sigh as I face Argyle. In the time I've spent in Lenora Hills he's become someone I can count on and I hate to leave him like this.

"Hawkins is cursed." I state bluntly. "There's another dimension beneath it that we call, 'The Upside down'. There's a gate that keeps opening and letting evil creatures from that dimension, into our dimension. Got it?" I finish.

He stares at me a while.

"That's narly man."

•••••

After asking Argyle for a stash of weed and spending hours on a bus, I finally made it to Hawkins.

I stopped at my old house and stole my brothers bike, before pedalling over to the address Steve gave me.

He said they were in the shed so I wasted no time with the house. I knocked on the door and I heard some rustling coming from inside. "Come in, Aaron." I hear Steve's voice whisper.

"Wait, Aaron Wheeler?!" I hear another voice whisper shout before I step inside.

"That would be me." I say as I lock eyes with none other than Eddie Munson.

Fuck.

So that's the 'Eddie' guy they were talking about.

Fuck.

Eddie Munson has hated me since they day we met. What I did?, you may ask? Absolutely nothing. Eddie has this weird vendetta against all jocks. I used to pretend to be a popular basketball jock to fit in with the crowd and go unnoticed, so naturally to him, I'm one of them.

I'm about to speak when I'm brought into a bone crushing hug. "I've missed you so much Ronnie." Robin says as she squeezes my rib cage.

I groan at the nickname before bringing Steve into the hug with us. "I missed you Aaron." He smiles.

I hug him tighter.

As we all let go, I make eye contact with the person I left behind.

"Max..."