Complete Chaos

045

The bell that was hanging above the door moved as someone opened the door.

"I'll be there in a second," Julia responded from the backroom while she switched Melody's diaper. 

"How many phones do you have," the person asked. The voice sounded familiar to Julia.

Finishing clipping on Melody's onesie and throwing the diaper into the trash can, she carried her eight-month-old daughter on her hip and walked to the front of her establishment.

She was greeted by a very impatient Dustin and a worried Max.

"What's wrong?"

"Julia, how many phones do you have? It's urgent."

Julia pointed at the telephone on her right "only one why."

Dustin shook his head "that won't be enough." Before she could ask him why one telephone wasn't enough, he said, "I'll go ask Steve," looking at Max.

"Dustin, wait." But the teen was already out of the door, leaving Max with a confused Julia.

Max opened her mouth and looked down; she didn't know how to tell Julia what she saw.

"Chrissy, she, uh, she's dead." Julia's heart stopped for a second hearing the news as the little hairs in her arms went up.

Julia shook her head, not believing Max, "I saw her yesterday. She's not dead." Julia knew Max wouldn't lie about something like that; she was probably just confused. Julia saw Chrissy yesterday at the game, and she didn't see anything wrong with her.

"I'm sorry, Julia, but I saw her this morning. She was wearing her cheerleader outfit. Same thing she was in when I saw her with Eddie last night," Max began to explain.

Julia took a step forward "wait, she was with Eddie." Max nodded, "I don't know why they were together, but after I saw Eddie and Chrissy go in the trailer, something else happened. Nothing that weird or anything. I mean, Eddie always drives like a maniac, and the power goes off at my place all the time. It's a piece of shit, but this morning, I started to think back, and I don't know. The look on his face. He was scared, Julia. Really scared. Maybe he was scared because, you know, h-he just killed someone."

Julia put a hand out, stopping Max, "Wait, wait, you think Eddie killed Chissy."

The Eddie she knew from freshman year wouldn't hurt a fly, but that was years ago, and people change. Even she had changed in the last year. She didn't want to believe Eddie could be capable of such a thing. 

"I d-don't know, maybe he did, maybe something else killed her, but that's impossible, right?"

Julias mind was going all over the place thinking of a reasonable explanation, but in Hawkins things don't work out like that.

"The only one that knows what really happened is Eddie. We want to contact his friends to see if anyone has heard from him."

Melody began to fuss. "By any chance, has he contacted you, or do you know where he could be?" Max knew a little bit about Julia and Eddie's history from Dustin; that's why she was their first option.

Julia blinked a few times and stared at Max, "I don't know. The only place I can think of is his uncle's work, but that's the first place the police will go looking for him."

Max made her way to the door, "I'll update you if we find something," Max said, her hand on the door.

"Stop right there. I'm going."

Max dropped her hand from the door "hurry, you know how Dustin gets when we keep him waiting."

"Let me just get Melody's things." Julia rushed to the backroom and packed a few things.