"Hey, you remember what I said last year, right? We're Zombie Boy and Ghost Boy. I'm not ever gonna leave you."
"Promise?"
"One hundred percent."
***
In which Alistair fights the monster that possessed his friend alongside his friends, while trying...
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Chapter Seventy-Eight: Waiting In The RV
(Papa, Pt. 5)
***
The War Zone lived up to its name and ad.
That was Alistair's first impression when they arrived and he saw the large sign that was almost an exact replica of the ad minus the action guy, with bazookas and rocket launchers to boot. In front of the store was dozens of cars and even more people, carrying out paper bags from the store—whether they were hunters, rednecks, or paranoid townspeople, Alistair didn't know and he particularly didn't want to find out. All he knew was that if any of those rednecks spotted Eddie, or him, Dustin and Lucas or Hugin, they'd be mobbed—and Alistair didn't really want the paranoid, small-minded conservatives finding out about his ability to come back from the dead.
Apparently it seemed to be a mutual thought, because when Steve parked the RV out of sight, only he, Rowan, Nancy, Max, Erica, Cami, Valerie, Robin and Leo got up to head into the War Zone and get the weapons—basically, anyone who wasn't Eddie or in the Hellfire Club, Hugin automatically staying out of sight due to being, well... undead.
Alistair didn't complain—it was risky if him, Dustin or Lucas headed in there, and Rowan was already taking a big risk heading in with her closeness to Eddie and her obvious metal band shirt and battle jacket. But his sister still took off her sword and told them, after already saying it earlier when they first parked, "Stay out of sight, especially you, Eddie. And keep Hugin hidden, squirt. We'll be back."
"Got it," Alistair said dryly as he saluted his sister, Hugin cawing an affirmative at Rowan's order, Eddie saluting her as well as he said, "Yes, ma'am."
His sister, however, still gave them all a look before she headed out of the RV, closing it behind her.
Once she did and everyone walked away to the War Zone to get weapons, silence hung in the air, heavy and awkward.
It was broken when Eddie turned to him and asked, "Al, what did you mean that you died once? Because you were kidding, right?"
Alistair bit his lip, hand grazing his chest as Lucas and Dustin remained quiet—especially Lucas, since he'd seen the tentacle impale Alistair, and he pushed the memories away before they could overwhelm him, the feeling of being impaled, the blood filling his lungs and choking him, the cold that never left his bones—as Eddie looked between them, face growing paler as he looked back to Alistair and said in a voice threatening to crack, "Please tell me you were kidding, Al."
Alistair's mouth twisted, before he looked away and murmured, "I really wish I was."
He didn't need to look to know Eddie's face had filled with horror, had shattered at the realisation the boy he saw as a younger brother had died, before he questioned in a voice barely keeping from shaking, "What... what happened? Because you, uh... you don't really look dead."
