Chapter Text
“I don’t know, I… I thought I was just having a nightmare.” Eddie mumbled. The group was huddled together in Steve’s room, surrounding Eddie who was still sitting on the bed. Robin and Nancy had their pinkies laced together. Dustin sat next to Steve who was standing in front of the desk. Mike, Lucas, and Max stood by the door. Lucas had an arm wrapped around Max protectively while Mike held her hand as an attempt at comfort. Eddie couldn’t match Steve’s gaze, preferring to stare at the floor.
“What do you remember of your dream?” Nancy prodded gently. Eddie shook his head, trying to let a thought fly loose.
“I was back in the upside down. Where I died… Um, there was the swarm of bats again, but they weren’t attacking me, just kind of surrounding me. There was a thing, I don’t know if he was a person or something else but he was tall. He had horns spiraling out of his head. He uh, approached me, or at least tried to, but I tried to run. He froze me though. I… I couldn’t move. It felt like there was an invisible box around me. He got me by the throat and pulled me off the ground. He looked like he was inspecting me or something. I couldn't tell what he was doing but his eyes were…I mean the bluest blue and they were glowing kind of like when mine– but much brighter.” A clap of thunder interrupted Eddie’s rambling, causing him to jump and look outside. It began to rain.
“Venca had blue eyes.” Mike was seemingly grasping at straws.
“Yeah but he didn’t have horns, unless he can shapeshift now.” Robin snarked. “Stay focused Eddie, what happened after that.”
“Right, yeah, uh. So he was choking me, I couldn’t breathe. I think he could tell I was panicking because he said something like ‘why must you breathe’ and then I just stopped. Once I got over the shock of not doing it I realized I didn’t have to.” Silence hung through the room. “I had wings too, like these big fleshy gray things. It felt like I had two more arms than normal.”
“Wings?” Lucas asked, incredulous.
“Yeah, these massive wings.” Eddie confirmed, motioning with his arms just how big they were. Steve was hard to read once Eddie chanced a look at him, like he was deep in thought. His eyes scanned the room, landing on Max. She looked like she was beginning to disassociate.
“What did you say he looked like again?” Dustin asked, locked in to the story.
“Really tall, like 7 or 8 feet, bright blue eyes, horns sticking out of his head. He had these really fucked up sharp teeth too.”
“I wish Will was here, he could probably draw it for us.” Mike muttered with a look of familiar longing. Lucas looked like he just had an epiphany.
“We wouldn’t need him to…” He spoke to no one in particular. They all shot him a confused look as he sprinted out of the room and down the stairs. Shortly after, he re-emerged with a DnD textbook. The gang huddled around Lucas who had posted up next to Eddie. He flipped through the pages with haste, finally landing on a two page spread of a creature far too familiar.
“Molag Bal…” Eddie, Dustin, and Mike chorused. There he was, all of his traits, powers and weaknesses alike.
“So my hunch was right. You have the vampire virus, and HE is why.” Lucas sounded a little too excited about this revelation.
“Okay so this confirms it. But why are characters and sicknesses from a tabletop game becoming reality?” Steve stomped out, clearly upset.
“Well…I haven’t really gotten that far.” Lucas seemed flustered now, quickly shutting himself up.
“We should probably call Will and El, they should know shit is going down again.” Max finally spoke up, keeping her eyes down. “She might know what’s going on, or at least be able to see what Eddie sees when he’s having a … nightmare.” The group hummed along. A mountain of guilt piled itself onto Eddie’s shoulders then; these poor kids deserve a break and he took that away from them.
“It’s getting late for you guys, why don’t you head home and we’ll work this out more tomorrow.” Steve offered. He looked exhausted.
“What happens if Eddie has another nightmare and we’re not here for it.” Dustin argued. Eddie felt mildly offended at the prospect of being their new science experiment, but he had a point, they needed to observe what happens when it happens. Steve seemed to weigh his options.
“Alright… Boys, call your parents, tell them you're staying with me tonight; Hellfire was being hosted at my house and the rain doesn’t look like it’s going to let up or something like that. Max, tell Mrs.Mayfield that you’ll be staying with either Robin or Nancy.” Steve proclaimed, assuming the traditional babysitter pose. Eddie thought that given any other situation he would have found it hot.
“Guess we gotta make the best of a bad situation. Nancy and I will run to the store and pick up some snacks, you guys can do what you gotta do.” Robin seemed excited at the prospect of a sleepover, all things considered. “Oh! And I've got some rentals from Family Video I can pick up from my house too if we need to stay up– might as well be entertained.” Robin ushered Nancy out of the room, keeping tightly close behind her.
“What’s their deal?” Mike questioned to himself.
“You guys know where the spare blankets and shit are, make yourselves comfortable downstairs.” Steve wrangled the group, gently shoving them out the door before shutting it in Dustin’s face, leaving just the two of them.
“You scared me pretty bad there.” Steve mumbled. Eddie’s head hung with shame, the guilt kicking back in.
“I’m sorry…” Steve sat on the mattress next to him.
“Why are you sorry?” Their knees brushed together– Eddie found it was easier to ground himself with Steve closer to him.
“You guys shouldn’t have to keep going through this shit and now it’s my fault.If I’d just stayed…” Eddie couldn’t bring himself to finish his thought.
“Hey, stop. That’s horseshit Eddie. It’s not your fault, you can’t put that blame on yourself. We all care about you, we’re looking out because we care.” Steve placed a gentle hand on Eddie’s knee. Steve’s face began migrating into his personal space. Eddie muttered a quiet ‘right’ as he went to mirror Steve’s motion. Their noses bumped, Eddie unable to take his eyes off Steve–Steve was busy staring at his lips.
Steve couldn’t meet his eyes before. He scared him, he scared everyone– none of this would be an issue if he just stayed dead and left them all alone. All these thoughts swarmed around Eddie’s mind, the weight of guilt building a lump in his throat.
Just as Steve moved to close the gap, Eddie shook his head finely, pulling away and standing up, putting a healthy distance between them. Steve looked like he was just burned.
“I should probably help set up downstairs…” He said, keeping his eyes to the floor. Steve mumbled an okay as Eddie left, closing the door gently behind him, leaving Steve all alone.
* * *
The kids must have thought they were hilarious. They were all sat in front of the television, snacks in tow. Robin had snatched her rental copy of The Lost Boys which had apparently been released while Eddie was out of commission. They refused to disclose what the film was about, much to Eddie’s chagrin. Steve was sitting in the love seat across from Eddie, keeping his eyes almost forcefully locked on the television screen. He gnawed on a red vine mindlessly.
Eddie continued to stare, popping an M&M in his mouth. On the couch next to him sat Nancy and Robin sitting awfully cozy, as well as Lucas and Max. Talk about a love boat. Mike and Dustin were posted up on the floor in front of the coffee table, bickering over a bag of chips. Looking back up at Steve, he nearly jumped when he was met with a pair of already staring eyes. He motioned his head to Robin and Nance, widening his eyes in a ‘are you seeing this too’ mental message. Eddie smirked, nodding, as Robin tucked her head onto Robin’s shoulder. Knowing Nancy as little as he did, he half expected her to shove her off but instead she relaxed her head into Robin’s nuzzle. He felt quite a deal boggled but decided not to press the matter. From in front of the T.V, the two boys bickered quietly.
“I’m telling you dude, you don’t want to know.” Dustin winced, remembering.
“I just want to know why he was sleeping in Steve’s room to begin with.” Mike bit back, clearly not picking up on the hint.
“Are you 10 Mike? Why do you THINK he was in there?” Dustin was sick of this conversation. Mike sat and truly, smoke-producing-gears-grindingly thought…
“OH SHIT!” He yelled, jumping to his feet. Half the gang thought something serious was about to happen, while Eddie, Robin, and Max booed him. Max threw popcorn kernels at Mike to sit back down. He did, embarrassed and red in the face.
“No way. Dustin, there is no way.” Mike spoke even quieter now.
“Why do you think I didn’t want to talk about it?”
“You didn’t see them–”
“Yes I did.”
“But Steve’s not gay.” Dustin gave a half passionate shrug. They both turned to look at Steve, then Eddie, then Steve again.
“Well, it makes sense. He wasn’t able to find his perfect girlfriend after Nancy, so maybe he was just looking in the wrong places.” Dustin looked more content thinking about the romantic implications.
“That's…you can do that?” Mike looked a bit scared, but curious all the same. Dustin nodded, listing off other famous celebrities that did the same thing. “That’s interesting to know.” Mike gave a smirk, but it didn’t quite meet his eyes. He trained his focus back to the TV.
“So how are we going to go about this tonight?” Max asked Lucas, who was utterly enthralled by the vampires on screen.
“We’ll probably have someone on watch every couple of hours to watch Eddie and make sure nothing happens or if something does happen, wake us up for it.” Lucas confirmed confidently. He flashed her a smile full of warmth and love. Max matched it with her eyes, but couldn’t quite muster up the smile or enthusiasm. She tucked her head onto his shoulder and turned her attention back to the movie.
Soon enough, the movie came to an end, and everyone decided it was time to head to bed, migrating to the guest bedroom. They drew straws to determine who would be responsible for staying up first– It was Nancy. She set up a chair in front of the bed as Eddie began to make himself comfortable.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to fall back asleep immediately, just warning you.” Eddie mumbled as he shifted under the covers. His head was still swimmy, even after the momentary distraction. Nancy reassured him that that was okay. Steve bid a stunted goodnight to the two of them before heading back to his bedroom. Mike, Dustin, and Lucas remained in the Living Room while Max and Robin tucked in in Mr and Mrs. Harrington’s room. It was quiet and dark, but it was too loud in Eddie’s head– he needed to talk about something, anything.
“So what’s going on with you and Robin?” He blurted before he could stop himself. He could hear Nancy shift in her seat, though he couldn’t see her. She swallowed, taking a moment to think through her response.
“We grew a lot closer after everything happened last year. She’s different, but it’s a nice different.” She answered simply. He could read the implication crystal clear.
“I gotcha…I didn’t know you were–”
“I didn’t either.” She cut him off, maybe afraid of what saying it out loud would cause. He could understand all too well. “But she was…I mean she is great. I don’t feel so lonely anymore.” Her tone sounded like she was reminiscing on fond memories and Eddie could feel his teeth ache with how sweet it was.
“Jonathan understood I guess?” Eddie asked. He didn’t know very much about their relationship, but from what he could remember of Steve and Nancy’s ‘I miss you please kiss me better’ eyes, it probably wasn’t going too well.
“Yeah. He was honestly very sweet about it– it was a mutual break regardless.” The sweet tone was gone now, but she didn’t sound somber either. They both remained quiet after that. Eddie shut his eyes, trying to focus on sleep, but nothing. He turned his head to the alarm clock. The truffle was still there. He stared hard, remembering what Steve had told him, and it made his chest swim with bees a little. He burned that image into his retinas, and eventually his eyes grew heavy and his consciousness betrayed him.
* * *
Somewhere across the country Will Byers awoke, screaming, from a nightmare.