What's in the cellar, Henderson?

Chapter Two: Crying, Crying, and More Crying

Third POV

This was the worst pain Eddie had ever felt, worse than breaking his arm, worse than every single hangover he's ever had combined. His back hurt, open wounds stung more than anything, his teeth ached, his newly grown wings burned. Every single inch of his body was in some sort of searing pain.

"Jesus fuck." Eddie winced, closing his eyes tightly. He tried not to breathe too hard, even when taking small breaths his torso ached.

All he wished for was something to stop the seating pain all over his body. And he thought actually dying was the worst thing he could go through, but coming back to life proved to be so much worse than staying dead. He almost wished he stayed dead, it's not like the people of Hawkins would throw a "You're Not Dead, Yay!" Party for him.

Maybe the people in Hellfire, along with Steve, Robin, and Nancy. But how could he even go up to them and say, "hey I'm not dead I'm actually a monster now!" What was he supposed to do?

A big part of him wanted to stay there, hide from everyone, run away again. It was so easy to retreat and borrow into a hole, but if he managed to stay and fight once, then he could do it again. Even with the near constant pain in every part of his body, Eddie forced himself to get up only to stumble and fall again just causing more pain.

"Fucking shit." He panted, closing his eyes tightly again to hold back the tears that threatened to come pouring out. It took everything in him to get up again and stay up for only a few seconds before falling again. His new wings made balancing so much harder.

"Goddammit!!" Eddie cried out, wrapping his arms around himself gently, trying not to cause himself any more pain than he already was in. Again, he attempted to get up but this time he couldn't get himself onto his feet.

So he stayed there, holding himself up by his elbows, cussing under his breath. Finally he was able stand up and stay there despite swaying to get some sense of good balance back, he smiled and laughed a bit, "finally." Of course he was still in pain but at least he could finally stand without falling.

Eddie let out a shaky sigh, closing his eyes as he leaned his head back and spread his wings out. It was such a weird feeling to move them, but it felt somewhat familiar. They felt like extra arms, just unable to pick things up, though it had also been like thousands of little needles stabbing him.

Slowly, he opened and closed his wings, getting used to how they felt and how to use them. He really wanted to see if he could fly, but that was like trying to run when you just learned to walk. After doing the same motion a couple of times he started to slowly walk, well he mostly stumbled around trying to gain some sort of balance.

Eddie put his arms out in front of him and began awkwardly walking to his Unlces trailer, hoping he would find some bandages there for his open wounds. He still had no idea how the hell he was standing and breathing, how he was alive. Even though he could feel the sharp fangs in his mouth, he could feel the cold wind on his wings, every single small sensation on them too, he could see his hands that had grown sharp claws. Despite seeing and feeling the changes, Eddie still hadn't processed all of it. Coming back to life after very clearly dying wasn't an easy thing to come to terms to.

As he walked, well it was more of a weird crab waddle, he noticed the bats on the ground begin to move again. Almost immediately he froze, unable to run or fight despite how badly he wanted to either. He watched the bats fly up again, all of them screeching and squawking. To Eddie's surprise, they didn't swarm and attack him again, they didn't even stay there fore than thirty seconds at the most. Instead, they flew away, not paying any attention to Eddie's presence. 

"Holy shit." Eddie let himself breath again but the anxiety was still there as he thought about how brutally the bats had attacked him before. He closed his eyes tightly trying to block out the memory of dying.