Reddie Oneshots

haunted house

ok shut up i know its not spooky season but it is forever spooky season in my heart so here u go
on ao3 by GreenOrnaments

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Eddie trudged along, shivering in the chilly October air despite the warmth of his fleece hoodie. He couldn't believe he had allowed Bill and Stan to talk him into spending his Friday night going to the haunted house put on by their university's drama department. The three of them hardly ever got to hang out lately, what with midterms and part-time jobs demanding much of their free time, and Eddie's suggestion for this rare night of togetherness had been to rent a stack of movies (or even better, videogames) and hole themselves up in his and Stan's dorm room with a healthy supply of popcorn, chips, and soda.

However, Bill, the resident drama geek, who had worked the haunted house for the past two weekends, had suggested that they all check it out from an audience's perspective. Stan had, of course, readily agreed, so unfortunately, Eddie had been outvoted. Which was a shame because he'd really been looking forward to a relaxing night with just them, not them plus a hundred other people in frosty temperatures while his fingers turned into mini popsicles.

"Step it up, Ed, or we'll never get there," Bill called out to him, turning his head back to look at Eddie, who was several strides behind his friends.

"I'm gonna say it again, this is dumb," Eddie grumbled. "It's fucking freezing out. We're all going to catch hypothermia and die, if we don't catch the flu first from being surrounded by so many people during peak season. Besides, it's not like you don't know what this thing is like, you've worked it."

"Yeah, but you guys haven't seen it yet," Bill pointed out. "And we've all worked really hard on it, so I wanna see how you like it."

"Come on, Eddie. It'll be fun," coaxed Stan. "Besides, do you really want to spend every weekend of your entire college experience in your room?" he added.

"Yes, because at least my room is clean. At least MY half of it is," replied Eddie, which caused Stan to roll his eyes in exasperation.

"Don't worry, Eddie, we'll be there to protect you if it gets too scary," teased Bill.

"I am NOT scared," Eddie declared firmly. He wasn't, not really. Sure, sometimes horror movies and stuff frustrated him. He was usually the one to cover his eyes whenever they watched them together, after all. Granted, some (well, most) of the time it was because he literally could not watch someone make a stupid decision that led them right into the monster's trap without getting irrationally angry and going off on a rapidfire tangent that quickly made the other boys regret watching with him. But still.

Mostly, he wasn't all that enthused with going to the haunted house because he knew Stan and Bill were going to be all touchy and clingy the entire time and he was probably going to spend the entire evening as a glorified third wheel.

He saw Bill and Stan exchange a look. "Whatever you say, Ed," said Stan. "Tell you what, next time we all have a free Friday night, you pick what we do. Deal?"

Eddie sighed. "Deal," he agreed, resigning himself to an evening of freezing his ass off while being surrounded by a bunch of over-enthusiastic theatre kids who were determined to make him jump out of his skin.

The three of them made it at last to the edge of the vast field which, in warmer months, usually played host to traveling carnivals, but which was currently sporting a carefully crafted maze made of painted plywood, in addition to a series of temporary mobile buildings, all of which were decorated to look as spooky as possible. Which, if Eddie was being honest, wasn't very. Crude wooden signs that said things like TURN BACK, BEWARE, and ABANDON HOPE were strategically placed along a pathway that led to a large, black tent adorned with orange and purple string lights. To be perfectly frank, it all looked a lot tamer than Eddie had been expecting, not that he would ever risk hurting Bill's feelings by saying so.