Master of Puppets

Chapter 11

Max's hospital room had been busy all day. Lucas and Eleven sat by her side while Mike, Will, and Dustin excitedly shared what she'd missed the previous week. For one, their good friend Eddie Munson was somehow back from the dead and to make things even weirder, he was now a full blooded vampire. He'd even been able to sneak in to see her with the help of what Dustin called a 'master disguise' (read: sunglasses and a hoodie). Eddie couldn't exactly show his face in public on account of the fact that he was supposed to be dead , and before that the whole town thought he was a murderer . So making a public appearance wasn't exactly on his to-do list.

Eddie never really spoke to Max at school, but...he'd unfortunately known her brother. When he'd met the kids, they'd long since stopped hanging out with Max, but seeing Lucas like this was difficult to say the least. He and Eleven had been the closest to Max, and he could see just how much her condition affected them. While Lucas sat quietly by her side, Eleven tried peering into her mind every time she visited. She knew Max was in there, she just had to find her.

Steve and Jonathan were always on transport duty, so they often waited outside for the kids to return, but this time Steve had opted to come inside as well. He hadn't really been up to see Max since they brought her to the hospital that first day, but he felt like he needed to keep an eye on Eddie, since he was supposed to keep a low profile, but knowing the metalhead... well, Steve wasn't convinced Eddie had it in him to be discreet. He hadn't visited because, honestly, he'd always felt a pant guilt when he thought of her. Seeing her laying in that hospital bed, lifeless, frail... it was a reminder that he hadn't been fast enough to save her. That he hadn't been fast enough to save Eddie either.

Speaking of Munson... they hadn't really talked since the bite. Eddie, for one, was way too embarrassed to bring it up, but he felt like they'd passed some sort of invisible threshold. As if the whole experience had made them a bit closer. He wanted to talk about it, of course, but it made his stomach twist in all the wrong ways at the thought of facing Harrington and saying the words "we should probably talk..."

Unfortunately, according to Eddie, Steve must have felt the complete opposite. Harrington had avoided him like the plague, suddenly 'remembering' that he needed to be somewhere when Eddie walked in the room, 'accidentally' leaving something in his car, etc. just so they couldn't possibly be left alone together.

Eddie wasn't stupid, he knew something was up. He'd been through this exact situation before and it certainly wasn't fun reliving it. He could still remember how hurt he'd been when his last - and only - fling bolted on him. When he thought he'd met someone that really liked him and then... poof.

"Hey. Eddie." Dustin called, breaking him out of his thoughts. "I'm doing a snack run and I need another pair of arms."

Eddie raised an eyebrow. "How many snacks are you getting?"

"Don't question me, man, we're growing boys." Henderson stated. "We need all the calories we can get. Plus we'll need some for the ride home."

They were only 15 minutes away from the hospital, but Eddie didn't have it in him to argue. He just rolled his eyes and looked over at Steve. "Hey, you want anything?"

"Nope. I'm good." Steve said, refusing to take his eyes off the magazine he was reading. Frankly, he was staring at it so intently in an effort to not look up that Eddie wasn't convinced he was absorbing a thing. Eddie sighed in frustration, but his heart still stung. This was getting old.