Into Every Stranger Generation

Chapter 16

 "What in the actual fuck!?" Mike yelled at Dustin and Steve. "How could you keep this from me? All this time, you let me think Eddie was dead and he was sitting here in this house? It's like Hopper keeping El from me all over again!"

Eddie sighed, his face in his hands. After El, Mike, and Hopper had appeared, shocked as hell to find him alive, Eddie had gotten ahold of Dustin on the walkie. He was only supposed to contact them in the case of an emergency, but he was pretty certain this counted. Mike looked ready to physically assault someone. He might be a skinny little shit but he was angry. He had ranted and raved the entire time they were waiting for the other two to show.

"Mike, we were trying to keep Eddie safe," Dustin reasoned. "He's still wanted for murder. We figured the fewer people who knew, the better. We weren't trying to hide anything from you or piss you off, I swear."

"But you did hide it from me! Eddie is my friend too. I had a goddamn right to know! That's fucked up, man! I grieved for him. I have spent the last month thinking that my friend was dead and you knew it and you let me go on hurting! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Munson, how long have you been hiding in Rick's house?" Hopper interrupted, clearing his throat. Eddie got the impression that he was attempting to change the subject and deescalate the situation.

Eddie puffed up his cheeks, blowing air out through his teeth. The police chief had always made him a bit edgy. He'd had more than a few run-ins with Hopper over the years. Hopper had never arrested him, but he had given him a stern warning when he caught Eddie dealing behind the bowling alley one night. Hopper had been the one that had arrested his dad the last time and he didn't want to see Eddie head down that same road.

"About six weeks total, ever since Chrissy died," he answered. "I freaked out when I saw..." Eddie shuddered, twisting his rings maddeningly around his fingers. Becca's hand immediately settled over his and he felt some of the tension ease, his body relaxing slightly at her touch. "When that happened, I couldn't deal. I didn't know what the hell had just happened. It was the most messed up shit I have ever seen, until the bloody flesh monster tonight anyway. I had nowhere else to go. I knew I couldn't stay in the trailer. There was no way the cops would believe I didn't have anything to do with it. I knew Rick was doing some time so I came here. It's secluded, out of the way, and it was empty. I hid out here until Patrick died and then I was hiding at Skull Rock. They came and we went into the Upside Down to fight this Vecna creep and stop him from destroying the town. I died and then I wasn't dead and I still had to hide because we can't tell anybody a monster named Vecna killed those people. So, here I still am, making sure the townsfolk don't come to burn me at the stake."

"You died?" El questioned. "What do you mean you died and then you weren't dead?"

Dustin laughed uncomfortably. "So...funny story. Eddie got attacked by demobats in the Upside Down. He died or at least we thought he did. He wasn't breathing and had no pulse. All signs pointed to him being very much not alive. We brought him back here because we didn't want to leave his body there. We wanted to bring him home, but when we got him into the trailer, he woke up."

"He woke up?" Mike questioned suspiciously. "Like he wasn't really dead? You just thought he was?"

"No," Eddie muttered, squeezing Becca's hand tightly in his own. "I was really dead. Technically, I still am."

"I don't understand..." El began.

Eddie closed his eyes, preparing himself for more looks of horror coming his way. This was the part he dreaded. He remembered Nancy, Robin, Steve, and Dustin's faces when he changed the first time. It was one of the worst moments of his life to have his friends look at him like he was a terrifying monster and now he was going to have to do it again. Mike would never look at him the same.