Chapter Text
The party I went to was winding down, most people had already left, Laura, the friend I came with left early with her ex to rekindle the lost toxic romance they once had, so the expensive uber fair wouldn’t be shared, what is the good thing about having a job, if I'm going to be spending all of it on one uber ride?
Walking outside the giant cabin or better said the mansion the party was held at, still felt out of a horror movie scene, enchantingly beautiful with a lingering feeling of creepiness, accentuated by the dusk’s thick fog. As I walked to the picnic table at the edge of the property near the main road, the silence of the woods became louder without the deafening music of the cabin, all alone and in silence the uneasy feeling just got bigger and my anxiety started making itself known, the uber I ordered was 20 minutes away, close by considering it was a 40-minute drive back to my small two-bedroom apartment. The desperate need for noise made me open the Spotify app and play the first thing I could find, Metallica’s Master of puppets album, even though I’m not the biggest Metallica no one could deny it was a great album and a perfect way to fill a boring silence with awesome guitar solos, and recently I just couldn’t get the damn solo of the main tittle out of my head, it was just playing around in my mind all day.
Battery’s gentle guitar intro made my body relaxed as I closed my eyes to enjoy the rhythm, I haven’t slept well in weeks, I keep having these horrible nightmares that are so clear and feel so real, as if I was living other people’s lives, terribly sad lives. They started about three weeks ago, and happened every single night on the clock, then woke me up at 3 am sharp without question.
The first one was one of the worsts, I was in a dark bathroom stall kneeling on the floor making myself throw up, I thought I was over it, that my self-image and relationship with food had gotten better, but no, here I was once again purging myself of all the food that made me feel like a piece of shit, a concerned voice I didn’t recognized asked me if I was okay and when I responded with the usual fine, a strange voice came out, it was a softer and higher than my usual voice but still raspy from the vomiting and coughing, the other girl left and all that could be heard was the buzzing of the dim ceiling lights, it was all so eerie, I looked at my hands and legs and realized they didn’t looked like mine at all, skinny toned legs and small dainty white fingers greeted me a big contrast from my usual thick thighs, round fingers and olive complexion, I didn’t know yet if this was a nightmare or my subconscious was playing tricks on me and giving me all that I ever wanted, to be a white skinny girl that everyone liked, even still I was doing the same bullshit, hating myself and my looks, to then take it all out in my body by burning my throat with gastric fluids. It became clear this was a horrible nightmare when someone banged on the stall door, I yelled again for the girl to leave me alone, but it all became worse than a stranger knowing I was bulimic.
“Chrissy” the mature, sweet voice of a woman started calling me, I knew it was me she was talking to, but the voice kept repeating the same name, Chrissy, Chrissy again and again.
“Mom?” this wasn’t my mother’s voice, at least that I remember, when she died, I was too young to actually know if this was how she sounded like, the home videos and CDs helped me know her voice but just to an extent. The lights flickered a strange green color, then the sight of disfigured skin I would come to familiarize myself with in the upcoming weeks, walked closer to the stall.
The voice had started to speak disturbingly sweet, then the horrible comments about my weight and image kept coming, taunting me repeating what I already knew and called myself every day, the banging became louder I was screaming from the top of my lungs for it to go away but it just kept getting faster and louder with no sign of stopping, I was preparing myself for the worst, and right there it all stopped and the noise of the buzzing light was heard once again. That’s around the time I woke up, confused, and covered in sweat I still remembered everything so vividly, which was weird considering I could never remember a single thing that happened in any of my dreams, I grabbed my phone wrote all I could remember to calm my racing heart and distract my startled mind, I was so worried for this random girl, Chrissy, her issued didn’t seem as different than mine when I was in high school, eating disorders, self-image issues and all that, well it was true if I excluded terrifying screams and a horrible slimy Deadpool like skinned creature, but well it was just a dream, she didn’t exist, nothing really happened and I would never see her in my dreams again. I wish I could say that was true.
The next night I was once again about to fall asleep in my bed, I had some slow Ella Fitzgerald song playing from my phone when I was once again in the same bathroom stall I was the previous night, I fled the room immediately, running straight out I saw a glimpse of myself on the bathroom mirrors, a beautiful blonde cheerleader in uniform colors I did not recognize reflected back at me, as I kept going down the strange school’s hallway, I stopped knowingly at a random locker slipping a cryptic note inside. I looked around and was finally able to read the school’s name in some random banner, Hawkins High School, it didn’t give much information, I’ve never heard of any place named Hawkins before, I kept exploring the school, it looked old but not in a rundown way, more old school than anything, everything seemed too aesthetically vintage to have been deliberate by a public school. The bell suddenly rang, and finally the halls filled out with students, it was a sight out of the John Hughes’ movies I hate so much, then I remembered what the note said, I was meeting someone in the clearing at the back of the school, didn’t really know where that was but the back of the school was an easy enough place to start.
I followed the woods trail, it was most likely around here, don’t think that a school can have any other back, it was probably around 2, the middle of the day, nevertheless the woods still felt dark and foggy, a howl made me turn and look around, the anxiety of being alone and not knowing who I was meeting was bubbling out to the surface and making everything worse. Finally, after a few steps I ended up near a picnic table at the ending of the trail, every noise became louder, and I couldn't bear the silence any longer.
“Hello?” Sure dumbass, say the one thing you shouldn’t say in horror movies, I loved my brain in this moment. A loud chime made my soul jump, a big wooden clock appeared in one of the trees, the echo of its ticking was incredibly loud, it felt like it was inside my skull, as I got closer cracks emerged from the clock’s glass creating a whole in the center, then my worst nightmare happened, what looked like hundreds of spiders started crawling out, the sound of their tinny legs made my skin crawl, no, no, no, no, I didn’t care anymore, as I stepped back ready to sprint back where I came from I collided with something hard.
“Whoa, hey, hey, hey. Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you” A tall long-haired guy looked back at me with his hand up in an apologetic manner.
“You, okay?” The concern was evident in his voice, god I probably look crazy right now, or well I guess Chrissy, I turn back again, and the clock had disappeared.
As we seat down on the picnic table, I finally calm down enough to really take him in, he whoever he is, is really handsome, big dark eyes, sharp jawline, strong nose, deep smooth voice that could’ve made me melt if I wasn’t scared as shit and I still couldn’t get over that hair, so long, and dark if I think about it enough my hands start to feel like they’re running down the unruly curls. He was the exact type of guy I would have a crush on, but right now ogling the man wouldn’t answer the question of why we’re here, I know he’s starting back at me weirdly, even a blind man could tell I was nervous, he starts taking off his jacket and vest combo and my brain fully short circuits, how can my mind imagine a guy so incredibly hot and beautiful?
“There’s, uh… There’s nothing to worry about. Okay?” He sits down in front of me with a black lunchbox in hand.
“No one ever comes here. We’re safe. I promise” He reassures me, but I don’t know exactly why I should be reassured, this is starting to sound like a suspicious drug deal or something. He finally opens the box with his extremely hot ringed hands, and shit it is weed; I won’t judge you Chrissy I indulge in said lettuce from time to time. But my nerves don’t calm down, like she’s never done this before.
“So, how does this work exactly?” He explains the usual, cash only and half ounce for 20 seems good to me at least, the sight of the bags just brings me back to high school, when my dumb stoner friends would take out some to roll it up and make a joint, we wanted to be the kids on Skins so badly it ended up being pretty cringey, but it was fun, nonetheless. A goddamn squirrel startles me and he looks over it at this point.
“Hey, uh, we don’t need to do this. Just give me the word and I’ll just walk away, okay?”
“It’s not that. I don’t want you to go!” I said that last part a little too eagerly, but I truly didn’t want him to go, being left alone right now wasn’t a choice, and it didn’t hurt to have the company of the handsome guy.
“Do you ever feel like you’re losing your mind?” Chrissy’s voice quivered and I lowered my so he wouldn’t notice the watery eyes.
“Um, you know, just on a daily basis” His smile was nice, and it felt good that he was trying to make things less awkward and put me at ease.
“You know, this isn’t the first time that we’ve, um… hung out”
“No?” Chrissy, how could you honestly forget this man? Even after I woke up, I knew I would never be able to forget his face.
“You don’t remember?”
“I’m sorry. I-…”
“That’s okay” He looked dejected for a second, then without warning felt down backwards out of the table bench making me gasp.
“I wouldn’t remember me either, Chrissy” He got up, hair full of leaves, that was the moment I knew, Chrissy if you’re not going to kiss this boy I will, I swear to god.
The banter kept flowing, and damn he was funny, he was charming, I hated my head so much at that moment, making up cute guys out of thin air, I would never be able to meet. He said he played with his band at talent show, can’t remember the name right know, Coffin something? Then he did the biggest sin of them all and slowly pulled down the collar of his shirt to show his tattoos, I never wanted to wake up again, I could stay there and watch him talk for hours, but they say you should be careful what you wish for.
“Uh, so, in other news, flattery works with me, so” He had gotten close to the table again and opened the box for the second time, his big beautiful brown eyes stared at me intently and a pinch of amusement as he continued to smile.
“Twenty-five percent discount for the half. Fifteen bucks. You’re robbing me blind here, you know” He used his hands to talk which was cute, everything about him expressed so much emotion, even if it was just a simple sentence.
“Do you have anything, maybe…stronger?” His eyes looked at me with intrigue but mainly concern, still I agreed to meet him after a basketball game that was happening that afternoon and go to his trailer to get the “Special K” as he called it. I still didn’t personally know his name, but Chrissy could manage the situations.
After the game I was careful to not be seen and followed handsome tall guy to his van, Chrissy had a reputation to keep, and he was not good for it. He opened the door for me and in a joking, way exclaimed “My lady” I gave him a silent thanks and got in, the drive was dead silent, when he first got in, he tried to put a tape in but then caught himself and put his arm back, because quote “He didn’t want to scare me”. We arrived at his trailer or as he said his “castle”, he apologized for the mess but honestly it didn’t bother me, I used to see my brother’s room in such horrible conditions, nothing would ever compare to the mess that dumbass Kurt could make to a room in 10 minutes.
We were the only ones inside, apparently his uncle worked the night shifts at a plant, it reminded me of my dad, he used to work the night shift at a factory outside the city, he would leave some money for food to my brother, and we would order some pizza most of the time, but when Kurt finally got his license he used to take mom’s old busted car without our dad’s permission and drive me around, take me to the movies, satisfying my every whim, and honestly being the best older brother in the fucking world, when we were together not even the slightest moment was boring.
I got a bit distracted and didn’t catch everything that was going on in hot guy dream world, but deduced he went to his room to look for the K while I waited for him in the living room, and the worst that could happen, happened. The clock chimed once again, I slowly walked towards the noise and looked out of the window, the night was dark and felt even darker, knowing that something horrible could happen at any second.
Closing the curtains in terror, I called for him “Eddie? Did you find it?” Finally knowing his name, Eddie, I called it like a prayer for any response, for any help I could find, unfortunately my cries were met with silence, so I rushed into the corridor, searching, and calling for Eddie. I no longer was in the small trailer but instead in a larger house, Chrissy’s mother was sitting in a chair, sewing a dress, the same dress she was referring to back in the bathroom stall, Chrissy called out to her in desperation, but it only made things worse. Her mother's voice changed into a deep, creepy groan and turned around, her face looked almost demonic, straight out of a horror movie. I bolted out the room and found myself in another corridor, hyperventilating as I stood by the door, I tugged at it to keep it shut as her “mother” creature banged and pushed to open it, the creature continued to yell for me to open the door and Chrissy screamed in terror in return.
When the door finally broke, I fled down a flight of stairs where I found Chrissy’s dad, he was sitting in a chair, but when he turned around, just like her mother, his face was a horrific disfigured mess, his eyes were gouged out and his mouth was sewn shut, as he continued to scream back at me, Chrissy screamed and started walking back to the living room entrance when a wall light started flickering, an ominous voice started calling her name, I watched in terror as a fleshy creature walked down the stairs, the same one I caught a glimpse back at the school’s bathroom. I ran, leaving Chrissy’s mumbling “dad" behind and halted to a stop when I heard loud buzzing coming from what looked like a dining room, the room was infested with spiders and flies covering various dishes of food on a table, I ran past the room of straight up nightmares and pulled open at the set of doors in front of me, finding out that the exit was completely closed shut, I banged, screamed and begged for help, for anyone to at least hear me, but no one came.
The voice calling out to Chrissy began coming closer, I saw the silhouette of the tall creature coming towards me, its breathing was loud and horse as it stomped through the hallway, I watched it frozen in place, trembling in fear.
“Don’t cry Chrissy. It’s time for your suffering…to end” The creature extended its hand and pierced though Chrissy’s skull with loud cracking noise, the last thing I remember seeing was Eddie’s face as Chrissy’s body slumped to the floor.
I still don’t know how the dreams work, it feels as if I’m lucid dreaming intro another person’s body but they’re controlling it, like I’m a spectator inside their brain, sometimes I have free will to move around but most of the time the person has the reins, the first time was Chrissy then a girl named Max, and at the last one a kid named Dustin, that was last night and like clock I was expecting to have the nightmares again tonight. As Dustin I saw the worst sight of all, Eddie’s eyes as life left him, now I didn’t even have the silver lining of seeing his face every time I came to the horrible and dreadful place called Hawkins, complete with its own little place of terrors the upside down.
By the time my mind came back to reality Master Of Puppets’ solo was playing, my head followed the rhythm of the guitar. I heard it last night in the dream, the first and last time I’ll see Eddie play guitar I guess, I still can’t believe I’m this sad over a fictional dreamed guy’s dead, all day I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him. He dedicated his solo to Chrissy and played his heart out to distract those goddamn bats, and when it was time to make a decision, he didn’t run, I can’t say I don’t understand his sacrifice, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that I think it was unwarranted, because he was one of the only good things about the dreams and I’m going to miss seeing his handsome face.
“I’m ridiculous” I muttered as I groaned, trashed, and shook my head.
The sound of ruffling leave caught my ear and from the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of movement between the trees directly in front of me. I froze, my mind began to race, the anxiety building up again, accompanied with an extensive list of the worst-case scenarios, a distressed figure dressed in a hospital gown erupted from the trees, the tall long-haired man was looking around frantically as if he was looking for something. My body jump standing from the wooden bench, but froze once again when his brown eyes finally landed on my face, a lot of the horrible scenarios were coming true, at least it wasn’t Vecna or whatever the dream people ended calling the evil guy, I will die like any other girl that’s ever been murdered in the woods, by a random guy that just saw her all alone and vulnerable, white women’s murder podcasts here I go.
As he slowly made his way closer, I made my peace and accepted my fate as a murder victim, he stopped at the bench across from me, his eyes still looked frightened, and all his movements were filled with a sense of insecurity that still didn’t stop me from feeling uneasy, that was until I took him all in, the same tall slender frame, the long unruly hair, the fidgety and awkward stance he had when he was frightened, which in my dreams happened quite a lot, Eddie it was fucking Eddie or maybe I finally went full on crazy and should go directly to the psych ward this dude just ran from.
“Is that Metallica?” His voice quivered and sounded desperate for an answer that my frozen throat couldn’t give, with the best of my cognitive abilities I nodded my head, his face instantly lighting up, a big laugh scaped his mouth and his eyes watered, his body slumped on the bench, the small tears became intense sobs, his hands going straight to his face. He looked so scared and vulnerable; his face had the same look it had the night Chrissy died.
“Eddie, you, okay?” Finally, my throat decided to work as it should, but my brain decided to go and say the dumbest shit imaginable.
“How do you know my name?” He turned to face me, his know bloodshot eyes made me freeze. I’ve fucked up.
“I…I don’t kno-” While scrambling for something to say and avoiding gaze, my eyes noticed the blood dripping down one of his legs.
“I…please stay here, let me get something for your leg” A very good excuse to escape the situation and pretend it was solely to help him.
I ran back to the house party straight to the entrance bathroom in search for a first aid kit, I opened the wooden cabinet under the sink and found a little green bag with the distinctive white cross in the center, I took a minute to assess the situation. A guy that’s been in all my dreams from the last couple of weeks was now outside, asking why I know his name. There’s only one possible option, it’s all just a coincidence, a random guy named Eddie that happens to look like the Eddie from your dreams is outside and needs help, or the less rational option, it was really Eddie, Eddie Munson, the metalhead from your terrible nightmares that just died is outside and asking why you know his name, either way this is actual bullshit. Why does the worse and weirdest shit always happen to me?
Running back to the table waiting for me outside felt like an eternity, a part of me hoped he wasn’t sitting there, that it just was a sick trick my mind was playing on me, but no he was in fact still in the same place I left him. His eyes turned to my running form and fuck I can’t look at them, not after watching them close forever the nigh before, my eyes felt watery, was I about to cry again? I’m really losing my fucking mind.
“Hey…” I crouched and grabbed my knees as I catch my breath, I really need to start working out or something, because I have zero physical condition.
“You didn’t answer my question” His voice was stern and defensive, the harshness startled me and put me on the spot.
“I…you wouldn’t believe me” I avert my gaze and rub my neck nervously.
“Try me, It can’t be worse than the week I just had” A chuckle scaped his lips, his eyes looking at me with an amused expression. I never thought that beautiful smile would ever be really directed at me, he was no longer just a dream.