Billy's gone.
Ruby Buckley's world ended with him.
But Hawkins isn't done with her yet.
When strange deaths begin again, Ruby is pulled into the heart of the storm. Between shadowy nightmares, the town's newest outcast, and someone she was never s...
( songs for the chapter ) breathing // kate bush still loving you // scorpions
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Ruby sat in the backseat of Nancy's car between Max and Lucas, picking at the chipped nail polish on her thumb, now cracked in the same fractured pattern as the walls of the Creel house.
They were headed to Reefer Rick's to check on Eddie, drop off food, supplies, and catch him up on everything from the cemetery, to Vecna's red soup mind world (thanks, Steve), and finally, the Creel house.
A thin cut ran along Ruby's cheekbone, courtesy of the flashlight that had exploded in her face. Max insisted it looked badass, but to Ruby it was just proof. Physical evidence that last night really had happened.
Not a nightmare she'd half-imagined in Mrs. Click's class, not a fever-hallucination, not something her mind invented to make boredom tolerable.
It was real. As real as every person in this car.
And if she's being dramatic, which she normally tries not to be, but sue her she gets to be dramatic right now, it was as real as the fucking plague.
Goddamn it, Hawkins.
Her leg bounced restlessly, nerves twisting tighter with every mile. All she could think about right now was Eddie.
Not the music pounding in her headphones 24/7. Not Dustin's aggressively loud chewing. Not the shopping bags shifting and rattling in the trunk. Not even the radio humming faintly under all of it.
Just Eddie.
The messy, impossible waves of dark hair. The pale skin mapped with tattoos she pretended not to stare at.
And those eyes, warm, chocolate brown, soft in a way that surprised her, even after everything between them.
Soft... and hurting.
Eddie's eyes were full of pain and guilt. And grief.
Her best friend had been murdered brutally, violently, right in front of him.
He'd been alone when it happened.
He was still alone, hiding, hunted, blamed. And they, she, had left him like that longer than they should've.
"I'm sure he's okay, Rubes. Don't worry," Max whispered, placing a steadying hand on Ruby's bouncing knee. Ruby froze. She must've muttered the last bit out loud.
"I hope you're right." Ruby rubbed her eyes with her thumb and forefinger before laying her hand over Max's, forcing a small smile. It didn't reach her eyes. Max noticed.
