The Devil of Hawkins || Stranger Things

Chapter 2: Intruder

A rustling sound woke Steve. He glanced around his room from the viewpoint of his bed, trying not to lose his fragile grip on sleep.

Nothing.

He listened closely to catch any sounds as he laid back down. After being met with silence, he nestled himself back under the covers and stared up at the ceiling, hoping for sleep to take him again. His blood ran cold as he laid eyes on a creature clinging to his ceiling, he knew it had to be from the Upside Down, what else could manage that? Any hint of sleep had abandoned him. He was trying to reach for the bat he kept by his bed without losing sight of the creature staring at him. The beast was definitely human-esque, but there was something unnatural about it, other than it was on his ceiling.

Could it be a demodog?

Steve didn't dare speculate for long, and was desperate to find his weapon. It wasn't propped up against the end table where he kept it. Did it fall? He knew he had to take his eyes off of the beast to find it, but he also knew that's when the monster would strike.

Why me? He couldn't help but feel that the world just likes to fuck him over, in particular. Steve swallowed and slowly averted his gaze from the creature, trying not to alert it, even though he knew the thing had its eyes, or sensors, or whatever it used locked on him. A loud thud on the ceiling startled his gaze back to the beast, his attention directed to the silhouette of something in its hand he hadn't noticed before. His bat.

Shit.

"Looking for this?" A familiar voice said quietly.

Steve's heart jumped into his throat, he scrambled to remove the blankets as he called to the owner of the voice. "Eddie!? You're ali-" He moved to stand, but was pinned back to the bed, the wind knocked out of him with a strained grunt by the force of a body landing on him.

"Sorry, still getting used to this." Eddie said as he tried to pick up his weight from Steve.

Steve groaned as the weight was lifted, spitting Eddie's hair out of his mouth. "Getting used to wha-" He stopped short as the moonlight hit Eddie's face, only inches from his own. It was far paler than he remembered and was covered in dark vein-like streaks. His lower left cheek and chin were covered in deep scars. "-the fuck happened to you?" He continued.

"Same thing that happened to you." Eddie gently nudged one of Steve's sides with the heel of his palm. Steve winced at the contact with the still tender bite wounds. "But no one was there to help me." A smile with a hint of malice spread across his face, contorting the dark streaks near his eyes and mouth.

Steve moved to sit upright. "Hey, we tri-" Eddie's face relaxed as he cut Steve off by placing a cool hand on his bare chest, pushing him back down to his pillow.

"I'm not blaming anyone." Eddie took the opportunity to run his hand over Steve's lush chest before moving his hand back to the sheets beside him. "Honestly, it's just my luck that the one time I try to do the right thing, it bites me in the ass. Literally, they bit my ass."

Steve tried to stifle a laugh, redirecting it to a snort. A smile Steve was familiar with came over Eddie. The worry that welled up before settled, and he couldn't help but smile back.

"I can't believe you're alive." Steve said, looking up at the man he had been mourning only a few hours earlier. "We literally just had a funeral for you."

"Seriously?" He smirked.

"Yeah, I mean, it was just those of us involved in this whole mess, but even people who haven't met you were there, like El, the girl with superpowers."