The Break (An Eddie Munson Story)

Chapter 42: The Revelation {Part 1/3} (+21/22K views!)

A/N: Phew, this writer's block is making the process of constructing chapters, a real thorn in my proverbial side. Thank you so much for the 21+22K views! I appreciate the love and support for this book. I apologise if today's chapter is not as well written as the previous instalments!

Content warming: Depressions, drugs and mentions of eating struggles. Please make safe choices about the potentially triggering content you read.

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The halls were alive with gossip. Lies that spun into outlandish rumours, which spread like wild fire amongst the student body. Apparently, when Lucas Sinclair discovered Eddie Munson in the boys toilets, he was having an overdose! No, he had been trying to summon a demon but the ritual went wrong! Actually, it was a panic attack caused by-

You tried to pay their whisperings no mind. What good would it do? Listening to their excitable chatter only served to give you a migraine, something you desperately wanted to avoid. Overdose. Demons. Panic attack. It did not matter to you.

You were just grateful that it had been Lucas to find him and not another student, someone who would not have alerted you to the situation, giving you time to hide Eddie's drug-filled lunchbox, before any of the teaching staff found it and had immediate grounds to expell the brunet. Most who attended Hawkins did not like Eddie "The Freak" Munson and would have gladly seen him be removed from the school before he had a chance to graduate. Although Lucas was no longer an integral part of the Hellfire Club, having swapped D and D, in favour of 'throwing balls into laundry baskets'- Eddie's words, not yours- he still cared about his eccentic mentor. He was the one who had made the first few years of his highschool life bearable and for that reason, Lucas had risked his social standing and place on the basketball team, to finally return the favour and help Eddie in his own time of need.

You had heard the truth directly from the doctor's at hospital. Eddie was overworked, burnt out. All of his stress had accumulated into what they attributed to a breakdown of sorts. With that as the conclusion on his medical notes, the doctor had advised that he be signed off of school for two weeks, with any tests or assignments rescheduled if necessary.

While Eddie had been placed on house rest  he did still leave the trailer to respond to the beck and call of whoever was on the other end of the pager. You had offered to take his place, complete the drops yourself but your proposal had only been met with a shake of his head and a chaste kiss to your forehead, while he murmured, "I can do it."

He was a stubborn git, you surmised and there were certainly aspects of his current condition, that you were still frightfully concerned about his sleeping habits. Before his breakdown, he had been suffering every night with terrors plaguing his unconscious self but now, now he could not even close his eyes without the help of regular joints, to send him into a dreamless state.

Some ground rules had been put in place, such as Eddie not smoking directly around or in front of you. Though you were over the worst of your self-destructive behaviour, old habits died hard and the last thing you needed, was to be chasing a high, when you needed to focus on helping Eddie, attending school and making money at your part time job, which you had still failed to tell him about. With everything going on in his life, now more than ever, you needed to keep your new employment on the down low.

While the mixture of medication had helped keep him subdued through the nighf, there had been an instance where you had stayed up late, to watch a double feature special on the television. Finding himself wrapped in both your arms and his comforter, he had been coaxed by the glow of the screen into closing his eyes and eventually drifting off into the land of nod. You had been unaware of his slumbering. That was...until his distress had seeped from his internal mindscape and into the waking world.

It was his screams of agony and pleads of help, that never failed to break your heart and send you into a panic. His anguished disposition reminding you frequently of Steve, after he had first experienced a Demogorgon at the Byers Home. The aftermath of the experience had resulted in Steve sneaking into your room and vice versa. Unable to sleep without the disturbance of a night terror, the then King of Hawkins, had taken comfort in having you stay awake with him and knowing that when the mosters came to haunt him in the darkness behind his eyelids, you would be there to wake him up. To hold him close. To tell him that it was over, when little did you know that, the worse was yet to occur.

And so, with those memories always in the forefront of your mind, you did your best to provide Eddie with a safehaven in your waiting arms. Letting him know that, whenever he needed to find solace away from whatever tormented him in the parts of his psyche, you would be there for him. No matter how much you implored him to confide in you, he would always keep the contents of his nightmares to himself, never uttering a word of what he saw in the unaware. It was frustrating to say the least but irregardless of your annoyances, you respected his choices and vowed to just do the best you could to support him through his difficulties.

None of it was a perfect solution. The "Sandman Sativa", as he nicknamed it, may have been allowing him to catch up with his sleep, but the side effects were causing other obstacles in his life. When sober during the daylight hours, Eddie was unusually subdued.
It was as if a darkness would take control of his body and burden to the host with a mental heaviness, that would then force the vessel to require days in bed to recuperate. 

So, when his depression overtook his mind, it did not just affect him but all those around him too. Seeing him so withdrawn made you sick with worry, as you were still clueless to how to rid him of his demons but you were willing to try anything to make him smile again.

What made you most anxious, was the lack of eating. You see, eating was something that became less of a priority when a body was too exhausted to regularly function. So, exhausted in fact that, Eddie could not even lift his head off of the pillow. It was a Catch 22, he needed food to be able to operate correctly but eating also caused him to tire out more. One solution you had discovered was that, tinned soup was easy to consume and could have enough calories to sustain him throughout the day.

"Eddie? Hey, Eds? Did you hear what I said?" you asked him, brushing away a rogue curl, that threatened to obscure the sight of his oh-so-pretty features, from your line of sight.

Your voice brought his empty thoughts back to Earth and away from his unpleasant thoughts of otherworldly realms. The once lively brunet discovered that, he was lying in bed. Though that should have not been much of a surprise to him, he had not left his room at all that day.

The aroma of mixed vegetables and stock, sat heavy in the air, filling his senses with it's savoury perfume. "The soup will be ready in ten minutes, do you want some?" when he fsiled to respond, you smiled despite your inner turmoil. Moving carefully to place a tender kiss on his forehead, you sat up and slipped out of the bed. "Let me bring a bowl in and a couple of spoons- we can share."