ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴍᴇ ʀᴇᴀʟ [eddie munson]

ꜰʀᴇᴇ ʙɪʀᴅ ²

** tw: violence /  blood / gun violence **

Almost leaping out of the car, without even turning off the engine, Lorraine took the gun in hand and ran towards Eddie's trailer. She tucked the gun between her cargo pants and dirty shirt after putting on the safety once more. Heart pumping, fingers numb, teeth grinding against each other in fear of what she might find. When she flung the door open, she could see Dustin waving his arms at the gate that sprawled across the ceiling of Eddie's living room. The rope that tethered the two worlds together tightly gripped in Dustin's hands.

"Stop, Eddie!" He screamed, with all his might, the saliva flinging from his lips with how much force and determination he had in his words "No! Stop! Stop!"

Quickly going to his side, Dustin was confused and strung his eyebrows together, whispering her name so softly in the form of a question. Lorraine paid no mind to Dustin's question or confusion, peering her head upwards and seeing Eddie picking up his shield and spear. Her heart started to race faster, her cheeks growing colder as the terror began to set in. Again, Dustin's voice shouted beside her as her voice was lost in what, in her mind, was a deafening silence.

Like in slow motion, she saw Eddie's eyes look back at them, he too was as surprised as Dustin to see Lorraine standing there beside the mattress. Her mouth began to open slowly, like she would finally be able to utter a word but the fear gripped her tongue and made it impossible. The silence she felt envelope her somehow grew louder, feeling Dustin shake and jump in desperation beside her. His eyes twinkled in the light of the gate, soft and warm. Her eyebrows furrowed as she saw the look in his eye, something she was always afraid of seeing - a goodbye.

"Eddie, what are you doing?!" Lorraine felt like someone else had shouted, someone who lived deep in her gut that rarely poked their head out of the dirt. The sounds, the Demobats that screeched from the other side, Dustin's deep pants suddenly came back to flood her ears. He darted his eyes towards Dustin, before landing on her once more.

"Buying some time." He sighed deeply, before disappearing from the small slit of the gate and out of sight.

Lorraine heard Dustin screaming again, shouting, almost in tears as he felt he couldn't do anything. The panic was setting in his bones. She didn't hesitate, that little monster that lived in her gut immediately looked around the room, looking for anything that could inspire her and chase after him. Without a word spoken she quickly walked over to grab a chair that sat by the small table, placing it close to the mattress. Although her arm seemed to pulsate with pain, she took the mattress in her hands and flipped it to the side.

"You stay here, Dustin," She breathed harshly, without looking at him, as she placed the chair directly under the gate and began to step backwards.

"No, no, you're not going in alone." He began, standing in front of her trying to stop her, "I'll go with you, we'll both help."

Her heart pained her seeing how scared he was, how deeply he wanted to protect Eddie, just as much as she did. She calmly placed two hands on his shoulders and looked him deep in the eye. "I couldn't live with myself if you got stuck there - or worse."

Dustin gulped, as Lorraine tried to gently push him to the side. Between his protests and shouts, Lorraine began to run towards the chair, placing a foot on it before taking what felt like the biggest leap of her life. The chair fell backwards as her foot slipped from its surface, with stretched out arms she was able to cradle her elbows on the other side of the gate. The moment was quick, and Lorraine had no time to brace herself as she felt how her body was pulled from her world into the other - the force knocked the air out of her lungs as she flipped and landed on her back.