𝐁𝐎𝐘𝐈𝐒𝐇// 𝐄𝐃𝐃𝐈𝐄 𝐌𝐔𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐗𝐎𝐂

𝐱𝐱𝐱𝐯𝐢𝐢𝐢. ✭ 𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐑 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒

JUNE, 1978; EDDIE

"Get him!" Jason's voice bellowed. Boys stampeded after me, their footsteps as loud as cracks of thunder. Chance sprinted behind them, desperately wanting to save me. "Can't run forever, Munster!"

The playground was wet, nothing but puddles. Rain spattered onto my skin, the fat drops rolling down. My rubber boots tore across the outdoor basketball court, falling heavy on the concrete.

"Gonna get you, Edward!" Another boy mocked my full name snidely, a gleeful cackle following. "Gonna punch you right in your stupid face!"

I was a runner. I ran. I was quick. I was nimble. Chance was not.

"Stop!" A cry of pain wailed from behind me. "That hurts! Stop it!" My head snapped in the direction of the struggle.

Henry Smith was one smart little fuck. He knew better. He knew I would run. He also knew who I'd run back for.

The kid had pulled down the hood of Chance's yellow rain slicker, grabbing a hold of her of her two messy pigtails.

"C'mere, Sparky, c'mon girl!" He yanked her toward the play structure, his fist tangled with a clump of red hair.

"Quit it!" She fussed, trying in vain to push him away. "Stop!" It didn't work. Henry was the biggest kid in our grade. No one could stop him. "Leave me alone! Just leave me alone!" It also didn't help that the other boys joined in, shoving her toward the monkey bars, all the way to the puddle...

The puddle was a colossal gathering of mud that fitted itself under the third monkey bar. What all the kids learned at Heath Park was that if you slipped up on the third swing, you were fucking done for. Rumor was that the puddle could swallow a kid whole.

No, not Chance.
Not her.
It'll eat her up
like it did to Darrin Walsh!

Darrin Walsh actually just moved to Red Wing but the latest Hawkins elementary whisperings were that the puddle sucked him alive. He was eaten up by the dirt. He was a dirt boy, one with the earth.

I gotta do it.
I gotta save her!

I pumped my legs as fast as they would go, sprinting toward my bloody inevitable defeat. My head hung stoically when I stepped toward the gang. As long as they released her, I was theirs. 

Punch me.
Kick me.
Whatever fits the bill.

"Don't!" I panted, my hands falling onto my knees. The bullies chuckled, entertained with my pain. I was in front of them. I had surrendered myself. "Please don't. Just let her go. She didn't do anything."

"'Cept for look extra ugly today." Jason took charge, taking Chance's hair with it. He jerked her little body down, forcing her knees to bend onto the edge of the puddle. The brutish boy crouched beside her, leaning her toward the the mucky mess. I could've sworn I heard Darrin screaming from its depths, begging to go home. "Do you like looking all ugly like that? Thought girls were supposed to be pretty."

"She is pretty!"

I wanted to shout it.

"She's pretty and
you look like a sick Victorian child!"