Lost ❄️ Reddie

16

Eddie shivered and pulled his arms inside the sweatshirt he was wearing. He had stolen it from Richie's backpack before he left the Byers house. The smell comforted him, as if Richie was with him, going after the memories he so desperately wanted to get back.

He walked down the main road, realizing how much cooler it was getting. It must've been getting closer to winter. Eddie could see little white clouds appearing whenever he breathed.
As Eddie got closer to the edge of town, he began to feel uneasy and shaky.

"You shouldn't be out here," a voice said.

Eddie turned around, panicked. Then, he met a pair of brown eyes and sighed in relief.

"What're you doing out here, Eddie?" El asked, her arms crossed. "It's four in the morning."

"Why are you out here?" Eddie snapped right back, challenging El.

"I had a vivid dream of you walking around and it woke me up, and I realized it wasn't a dream," El said, walking up to Eddie with a frown on her face.

"You have visions too?" Eddie asked. He didn't know the full extent of El's powers, but he didn't expect them to be like his.

"Not like yours. Mine are solely when I'm focused in a specific setting with the right conditions, while yours are whenever you want to see. And, you can see through time. You can see past visions, current ones, and I think you may be able to see future ones, too."

"I haven't seen the future," Eddie said, turning to walk away from her and head down the road, when he felt a magnetic-like pull. It didn't take him long to realize El was holding him back with her powers. "Let go, El."

"I'm not stopping you," El said, rolling her eyes and jogging up to Eddie. "I'm coming with you."

"What?"

"I'm not stupid. I know you want your memories back and you're probably pissed that Papa took everything away from you," El said gently, letting up on her powers and standing beside him.

"Papa?"

"Brenner. Sorry, I grew up in his lab and that's what I knew him as."

Eddie nodded in understanding and walked past the town line, looking out ahead of him. The crisp air seemed to awaken his senses as the two walked, the sun eventually rising a bit and spreading the purple colors of dawn all over the sky.

After walking for a while, Eddie stopped in his tracks.

"I need to find Brenner."

El smiled and followed him into a heavily wooded area and sat down on a log. Eddie sat next to her, closing his eyes and trying to pull out some focus.

"Have you found any of them?" asked Brenner's snarling voice, glaring at a pair of individuals in white jackets.

"We're not sure, sir. We think it's a small chance that they'd actually go back to Hawkins-" one of the people said, looking afraid and fidgeting.

"Did you check?" Brenner growled, stepping toward the person who had responded.

"N-no... we didn't. We just don't think-"

Brenner cut the scientist off again, grabbing her neck. "Check. Your orders were to find my experiments, and you refuse to check in Hawkins because you don't think they'll go back?!" he yelled, making the girl take in a shaky breath and shake.

"We, we can check," she whimpered, and Brenner threw her to the ground.

"Go," Brenner demanded, and the girl quickly ran away. Then, he turned to the other scientist. "Have you looked for any besides Thirteen and Eleven?"

"Yes sir, and we believe we've got a hit," the other scientist said, clearly haunted by the image of his partner being attacked.

"Which one is it?"

"Number Eight. We've got footage of someone who looks like Eight in Aloville, and she seems to be alone every time."

Brenner nodded, seemingly impressed and slightly less stressed out. "Let's go to Aloville, then," he said, walking down the hallway, his scientist following.

Eddie's eyes fluttered open and he looked over to El, who was waiting patiently for what he had to say.

"Do you know Eight?" he asked, not wasting any time.

El's eyes widened fearfully. "Kali?" she asked, though she knew Eddie wouldn't recognized the name.

"He's after her. She's in Aloville."

El stood up immediately. "We need to get there first and warn her. Then, we can find a way to ambush Pa- Brenner, and get your memories back."

"Okay, but where's Aloville?"

"It's hours south of here, but we can hitchhike."

"Isn't that dangerous?" Eddie asked, cocking his head in confusion.

El shrugged. "I've done it before. Besides, you can creep them out with your psychic stuff and I can move things with my mind."

Eddie nodded and followed her out of the woods, and they were about to walk down the road when a car stopped beside them. Both turned and saw a truck beside them.

El went bright red and Eddie realized that they were in deep shit as the driver rolled the window down.

"You two better have a good explanation," Hopper said, glaring at the two teenagers, who were obviously guilty of running away.

El sighed and climbed into the truck, and Eddie crawled into the back. Hopper was about to start the car, but El held out her hand and stopped it from starting.

"El, let go," Hopper ordered, looking both exhausted and angry.

"No, we do have a good explanation," El said, giving Hopper a pleading look. "Please, dad."

Hopper sighed. "Fine. Why the hell did you two run off? I had Joyce on the phone trying to figure out where the hell you two went before everyone else wakes up and loses their shit!"

"We know where to find Brenner," El said, knowing that would catch Hopper's attention.

"How?"

"Eddie can find people in real time, but he doesn't need to use anything or focus super hard. It's a part of him."

Hopper sighed. "Where's Brenner?" he asked, mentally angry at himself for giving in to El's and Eddie's ability to convince him to listen.

"He's head to Aloville," Eddie said. "And he's also sent people to Hawkins for El and I, so we can't go back."

Hopper nodded and El let up so he could start the truck. They drove away from Hawkins and stopped at a pay phone so Hopper could call Joyce and his backup.

Eddie knew Richie would be pissed and terrified when he realized he'd run off, but Eddie couldn't care.

He was going to get his memories back.