Wrapped Around Your Finger - Eddie Munson

Chapter Twelve: The Deal

It was March now, we'll be graduating soon. I'd been helping Eddie study and do his homework to keep his grade up. We both swore he'd be walking that stage with me. The Hellfire Club campaign would be ending soon, the torch would be passed on to someone else. It was bittersweet. I was glad to be getting out of highschool, but I knew I'd miss the Hellfire Club.

Lately I'd been having nightmares again. They weren't as bad as the time I missed my medication, but they were still leaking through. My dad and I discussed seeing a doctor soon to up my dose. I'd started having migraines a lot too, not a lot helped with that besides a shit tone of painkillers and grass. I could thank Eddie for that.

It was lunch and Eddie was going in one of his rants again. He stood up in the table and started picking out different groups of people, complaining about how they don't get judged for their hobbies, but we do. Jason said something to him I didn't hear as I'd gotten accustomed to tuning him out. Eddie turned to him and made his devil face again, growling at Jason as he backed off.

I looked over and Chrissy was staring blankly at the table. She had been acting off lately, she'd been really quiet and isolated. I tried getting her to talk to me, but she only said I wouldn't understand. She reassured me she was speaking with the school counselor and that everything was fine, but when Eddie told me what she asked him for I knew something was really wrong.

"That's not like her. She's been acting strange recently, but I didn't think she was so bad she'd go this far." I told Eddie.

"I know and she asked me not to tell you too. Obviously I was going to and I didn't let her know that."

"She knows she can talk to me! I don't understand why she's hiding." I sighed, "I won't stop her, she can make her own decisions. I just really wish she wouldn't."

"Do you want to come?" He asked.

"No. Again I'm not gonna stop her, but hopefully she'll actually talk to me now after this."

Mike and Dustin started talking, trying to tell Eddie that Lucas was going to miss the club meeting tonight because of his basketball game. Eddie was getting visibly upset before he snapped at them when they suggested we postpone. He told them they'd need to find a replacement for tonight, before shoving them off.

We were sitting in the storage room waiting for Mike and Dustin to show up, hopefully with a stand in. The doors opened and Dustin and Mike came in, followed by a young girl I didn't recognize.

"Absolutely not." Eddie protested.

"You asked for a sub. We delivered." Dustin festered to Erica.

"This is Hellfire Club, not babysitting club." He retorted.

"I'm 11, you long haired freak." She sassed him.

"My, my, the child speaks!" He laughs. "So, what's your name child?"

"Erica Sinclair." She crossed her arms and scoffed.

"So this is Sinclair's infamous sister?"

"You're sharp." She quipped.

"What's your class and level? Level one dwarf?" He teases.

"My name is Lady Applejack. And I'm a chaotic good half-elf rogue, level 14. I will sneak behind any monster you throw my way and stab them in the back with my poison-soaked kukri. And I'll smile as I watch them die a slow, agonizing death. So, we gonna do this, or we gonna keep chitchatting like this is your mommy's book club?" She answered, he pauses for a moment before cracking a wide smile.

"Welcome to Hellfire." He holds out his hand. She looks him up and down before shaking it. The campaign begins, the faint sounds of the basketball game hiding behind Eddie's voice as he narrated the scene.

"The hooded cultists chant, "Hail Lord Vecna. Hail Lord Vecna." They turn to you, remove their hoods. You recognize most of them from Makbar. But there is one you do not recognize, his skin shriveled, desiccated. And something else. He is not only missing his left arm, but his left eye!" He covers his left eye with his hand as we all tell.

"No! No!" Dustin cries.

"Vecna's dead! He was killed by Kas!" I cried.

"So it was thought, my friends. So it was thought, but Vecna lives!" He shouts. We fight Vecna and his cultists, barely making it to the end. "You are scared. You're tired. You are injured. Do you flee Vecna and his cultists? Or stand your ground and fight?" Eddie asks us.

"I say we fight. To the death. To the death. To the death." I answer.

"To the death!" We all chant. We continue fighting, but we are truly getting our asses locked here. We're down to two people left in.

"Time-out! Time-out! Guys, I hate to say this, but we've got to flee." Mike pulls us all aside to discuss our strategies.

"I concur." Dustin adds.

"Didn't we just agree "to the death"?" I asked.

"That wasn't literal. Vecna just decimated us. We can't kill him with two players." Mike argues.

"You too? He only has 15 hit points left. Don't be pussies." Erica scoffs.

"Pussies? Really? 'Cause we're not delusional?" Mike looked at her like she was crazy.

"Delusional? How about not cowards?" We were all bickering amongst ourselves when Eddie spoke up.

"If I may interject, gentlemen, Lady Applejack. Whilst I respect the passion, you'd be wise to take Gareth the Great's concern to heart. There is no shame in running. Don't try to be heroes. Not today, 'kay?" Eddie tried convincing us to give up, but I wasn't going to be swayed that easily. We turned back to each other and continued to discuss what to do. Erica only had 12 hit points left and I had 7. Erica made the call, we were doing this.

"That's a miss!" Eddie shouted.

"No!" We groaned.

We all cried pleas at whatever DnD gods were listening as we kept fighting. We were on our last leg, there was no way we were gonna win this. Erica was the only one left alive and she was down to 5 hit points, but we were so close. If she could manage to dodge Vecna's next move she might be able to win this.

"Crit hit!" We all cheered. Erica did it. We won, we killed Vecna.

I caught a ride with Mike and Nancy and had them drop me off at Eddie's. I knew he was doing a deal with Chrissy and I didn't want to get in the middle off that. Hopefully she'll come talk to me now, I can't handle seeing my best friend suffer in silence.

"This is, uh, my castle." I heard Eddie speaking to someone outside as he opened the door. Chrissy walked in, shocked to see me.

"Chrissy?" I asked.

"Oh, Hannah, hey. I was gonna tell you after. I just didn't want you to worry." She explained.

"I'm already worried Chrissy, but I won't stop you. You're your own person."

"So um, the Special K, how long does it take to kick in?" She asked.

"Special K? Chrissy!" I gasped.

"Oh, uh, well, it depends if you snort it or not. Uh, if you do, then, uh, yeah. It'll, uh, kick in pretty quick." Eddie looked cautiously at me before he scrambled around looking for the drugs.

"Are you sure you have it?" She asked.

"Yeah, one sec." He answered, "Princess, can you help me look?" We walked back to his room to keep looking. We rummaged around his drawers and shelves until he found it. He spoke to his guitar, which made me snort. We walked back out to give Chrissy her Special K.

"Peaceful bliss, just moments away. Chrissy? Chrissy. Hello? Chrissy. Hey, Chrissy, wake up. Hey. Hello? Chrissy. Hello? Hey, Chrissy!" Eddie started yelling, Chrissy was standing in the living room, eyes rolled back. The lights started flickering and Chrissy still wouldn't respond to us.

"Chrissy. Chrissy!" I cried, trying to shake her awake. Suddenly she flew up into the air, snaking into the ceiling. Eddie and I both screamed as her bones cracked and twisted. Her jaw unhinged with a sickening pop as her eyes burst from her head before she crashed back into the floor, dead.