no one lives forever || part 2

o4 || dustin

October was coming to a head and the town wasn't really in the mood to celebrate the darkest holiday of them all, this year. It was the first year in a long time that Dustin wasn't excited about Halloween being on the horizon. In years past, if he wasn't spending it getting loads of candy, he would spend it with his sister and more recently, Eddie. He had lost Eddie in the same battle he thought he truly lost his sister in as well. She hadn't been the same since that day. Then again, neither had he. He held this sort of scorn to life now. He had always been a fight to the death kind of guy . . . That made him dwell on the last time he played dungeons and dragons. A game he normally spent hours upon hours not only playing, but thinking about and concocting up skills and traits for his characters; he now couldn't stand the thought of. The last time he ever played was in a fight against Lord Vecna and Eddie Munson was at the head of the table. Probably the most compelling campaign since the days of Will the Wise's stories or even Mike and his tale of the demogorgan-

All of it brought nothing but sorrow for him now. Something he once truly loved was now a reminder of all the things he had lost in life. His innocence was slipping from him. Girls were more important to him now than ever. Not that he was getting any kind of attention but negative from them. It was the Snowball Dance every day now. The only girl that ever really looked his way was Max and she was . . . well, another person lost in the battle against Vecna. Their /zoomer/. His heart ached every time he was able to bring himself to visit. More times than not, Lucas was there. He had read her so many books. He was pretty sure her subconscious was filled to the brim with the best fantasy and horror novels that Lucas could get his hands on. He had even asked Delilah to borrow a copy of Pet Sematary to read to her. Seeing Max was sad, but seeing how hard Lucas was taking it was even worse. It was like watching Delilah mourn for Eddie. Only he wished Delilah read books and cried rather than drink and cry. He almost missed when she smoked weed all the time. Sure she was numb to things, but not in this way. She was numb to everything now a days.

Suzie was something else he felt as if he had lost. The two had only spoken maybe twice since everything had gone down. Her family and their strict religion was starting to cause a lot of friction between the two. The distance obviously wasn't helping either. He felt completely disconnected from her much like he did a lot of things. He couldn't relate to anyone anymore. Things just felt different and uneasy. He knew just as well as his crying, drunk, vomit covered sister had said;

It wasn't over.

He knew that she was right. Something felt different in Hawkins period ever since the fight against Vecna. The quaint, odd Indiana homestead had turned into a hellscape. People lost their homes, their loved ones, and more at the hands of Vecna. And he knew this was just the beginning. All of this seemingly rested on his shoulders. His back up was preoccupied for the most part. Though he had seen Steve coming around a little more. Sometimes it was to see him and other times, he just wanted to say hi to Delilah. He wouldn't even stay for long. He briefly wondered if maybe he was just buying pot from her. He wasn't sure who her new supplier was now that Fuzzy had moved to Colorado. He was also well aware that she would kill him if she found out he knew about her extracurricular job.

Dustin had just gotten home from school and judging by the garage and the driveway, only Delilah was home. He half wondered if she would be awake. Sometimes she slept until 6 in the evening depending on how late she was up drinking the night before. He threw his book bag down in his room before petting a sleeping Tews that had been curled up at the foot of his bed. Tews had doubled in size and was approaching young cat stage and out of her kitten era. As he headed into the kitchen to make himself a snack, he noticed Delilah in the dining room, planted in one of the chairs, munching on a sandwich. She nodded up towards him.

"Hey," She said, mouth stuffed full of white bread, "How was school?" She asked, still muffled by the bunny bread marshmallowing in her mouth as she chewed.