Breathe ⭐️ Reddie

04

In all of his time working for the Hive, Eddie had never been genuinely scared of anything he faced. It had a lot to do with the environment he was brought up in, as well as the fact that he had never been tasked with completing a job alone. He had always had members who had worked for years covering him and teaching him.

Things were different after he ran out of the club. For the first time, Eddie was terrified. The entire mission seemed to have been compromised from the start. How the hell did their buyer know anything about where the group was hiding?

Goosebumps appeared on Eddie's still paled arms as he thought about what would happen if they were caught. They only had one job now.

Get out of the city and get back to Derry.

"Can you drive any faster?" Bev asked Stan, who was attempting to navigate the busy streets, hoping to escape before whoever was after them tried to cut them off.

"If I go any faster we risk getting into trouble with the police. Then we're sitting ducks. Anyone who can help us is miles away, Marsh," Stan snapped back.

"Then risk it. That guy said he had people everywhere," Eddie said.

"Eddie-"

"Push on the fucking gas, Stanley!"

Stan huffed but sped up the car anyway, turning down an emptier street to avoid the traffic.

Mike sat next to Eddie, who had his knees pulled to his chest. He always tried to act tough, but Mike knew he was afraid.

"Hey, you okay?" Mike asked calmly, gently putting his hand on Eddie's tense shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Just a little shaken and unsure of how that guy seemed to know everything about what I was doing, I guess."

"Okay, well you're safe now. We can bring the goods back and do business with someone else. Where's the briefcase, Eddie?"

Eddie's eyes widened and he felt his blood run cold. He started breathing heavily, feeling his lungs close up. Mike saw the start of his asthma attack and immediately grabbed his inhaler from where it sat on the seat next to them.

"Deep breaths, Eddie. What's going on?" Mike asked, even though he had an idea of why Eddie was freaking out.

"I forgot the briefcase in the club," he said quietly.

"YOU WHAT?!" Bev screamed from the front, turning around in her seat.

"I panicked!"

"That was your one fucking job! Leave with at least one briefcase, Eddie! Either the one we started with or the one with our drug money! How do you forget your one fucking job?"

"You guys told me to get out of there!"

Bev glared at him, fire in her eyes.

Stan scoffed from the front. "Wow, Eddie, you're so right. We should have reminded you that your only fucking job was to grab a briefcase on the way out. Damn, our bad."

Eddie shot an angry look back at both Bev and Stan. It wasn't his fault. They told him to run, and they said to be safe. The only way to be safe was to run, and he wasn't really thinking about the briefcase or the deal in the moment anyway.

Bev and Stan looked at each other, both annoyed with Eddie. Mike gave him a pitiful look.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, Eddie saw someone walking in front of their van. He snapped his head toward the windshield, realizing Stan wasn't paying attention to a person crossing the street.

"STAN LOOK OUT!" Eddie yelled.

Stan punched the horn slammed on the breaks, causing Eddie and Mike to smash into the back of the seats in front of them.

The boy who had been crossing the street in front of them tried to dive out of the way, only to slam into the side of their van. They screeched to a stop, and Eddie, Mike, and Bev scrambled out to see what had happened.

The street where the boy laid was empty, so there were no passerby's attempting to help them, and thankfully no one to call the police.

Stan rolled down the driver's window. "Is he alive?" he asked, voice low.

"Yeah, he's breathing," Mike responded, lifting up the boy's head.

Eddie snickered a little bit, earning a questioning look from Bev. "Sorry, it's just that Stan just yelled at me about how my one job was to grab the briefcase. Hey, Stan? Isn't your one job to drive us and not fucking hit people? Nice one."

"Fuck off, Eddie," Stan growled.

"What are we supposed to do?" Bev asked quietly.

Silence overtook the empty street. They hadn't thought about what to do on the off chance that they knock someone out with their van.

"We can't leave him," Mike said.

"Why not?" Stan asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"There may not be cameras down this street, but we're in New York City. There's cameras all over the city and they'll be able to trace it back to us. There'll be an investigation, and then we're all screwed."

Eddie nodded in agreement. "Not only that, but he might have seen you and Bev in the front. When he wakes up he might be able to remember then it's even easier to find us."

"Fine, then we'll just kill him and throw the body off some bridge on our way back to Derry," Stan deadpanned.

"Stan!"

"What?"

"We aren't going to kill someone who doesn't deserve it!" Eddie cried.

"Fine, then what do you think we should do, Edward?" Stan asked, annoyed. "We need to make a choice before whoever's after us tries to cut off our exit."

Eddie stood still for a second, thinking about what to do. It was technically his fault they were in the situation, not that he'd ever admit it to Stan, so he had to decide what they did.

"We have to take him with us. We can restrain him and keep our faces hidden, and keep him in the back of the van with the curtain closed so he doesn't see where we're going. Then we let the Hive make a choice," Eddie said, bending down and pushing some of the curls out of the boy's face. There was a pair of broken glasses on the ground beside him, which Eddie picked up gingerly and handed to Bev. He also had a large duffel bag that Bev brought with her to throw in the van.

Though they didn't all agree or want to take the boy with them, it was their best option. So, Mike helped Eddie carry the boy to the back of the van and tie him up. They closed the curtain, keeping him in the dark of the very back of the van.

They all pulled on black ski masks and started driving further away from the city in silence.

"When he wakes up, you're breaking the ice," Stan said to Eddie, pulling onto the road that would take them home.

"Fine, but I doubt he'll want to say anything to any of us. After all, Stan did hit him with a van and kidnap him."

"It was your choice to take him with us," Stan snapped.

"Wouldn't have had to if you hadn't hit him."

"Well if you hadn't forgotten the briefcase I wouldn't have been distracted!"

The two continued to argue, while Mike and Bev shared annoyed looks. They loved their friends, but Stan and Eddie almost always let their arguments overpower rational thoughts.

This continued arguing for nearly an hour, Bev going through the boy's bag, until they heard a terrified yell from the back of the van.