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the bright early morning sun was shining down on stanleys car — but he wasn't really in a ball of sunshine type of mood. a twisted mood maybe, but nothing involving sunshine. the car got parked in the front of eddies house, but stanley felt his heart sink to his stomach when he noticed sonias silver, beat up van wasn't in the driveway like it normally was whenever he would drive by in the past.
                          
a soft "he's not here." came from stanleys lips, his brows furrowed as he tried to think of anywhere else he would be. mike peered his head out from the glass window, seeing a light on in the kitchen from afar. "maybe we should go in." he suggested, looking over at stanley with a sliver of hope held in his deep brown eyes. the golden haired boy stared ahead of himself for a moment before nodding timidly and opening the car door, getting out.
                          
mike followed his actions and closed the car door, beginning to approach the silent house side by side with stan. all the times where stanley could actually enter the house, he dreaded every second of it.
                          
whenever they decide to hang out together or watch a movie, the woman would never leave them be. it's like she was always in need of her son. "stanley..." mike uttered, getting the boys attention. stanley turned his head, seeing the anxious expression on his pale features. what had mike's eyes was a metal loop that held two keys presented on the clean counter. "holy shit, is this to your moms-" mike interrupted him. "my moms old basement, yeah..." he trailed off, brows furrowed as he watched stanley pick the keys up.
                          
mike's parents both died in a house fire years ago, so it came to a shock for the both of them. "why would he be there?" stanley breathed, the silver keys jingling in his hands. the silence between the two hurt stanley immensely, causing an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of one of the twos stomachs. "i know this must be hard for you, but we gotta go there...you can stay in the car if you want to." stanley offered carefully. mike pulled his stare away from the empty counter and shook his head at stanleys words. "no, let's go." he said surely, slipping his fingers into stanleys and pulled him out of the house and back to the car.
                          
stanley was now beginning to mentally scold eddie for always getting into unnecessary trouble like this, though he knew this wasn't even partly his fault.
                          
eddie woke up to the vile smell of dust which felt as if he was suffocating. pulling at the rough and scratchy rope securing his wrists tightly, he let out a frustrated yell. dried tears stained his cheeks as his eyes tiredly scanned around the dark room, making his head ache from all that was happening. "eddie." a voice called. eddie looked over, seeing that familiar head of dark curls. "richie?" he questioned, brows crossed. "richie..." he trailed off, leaning forward as if that could help get rid of the ropes. "you were asking for it, coming here so stupidly." the boy pitied a sigh, compatible with a shake of his head as he looked around the room. he sat beside him, his hands resting on his own lap.
                          
"i didn't ask for this." eddie sobbed, his mouth like a permanent frown. "oh, but you did. you came here trusting hockstetter! he's a psychopath! you know better, babe." richie huffed, almost irritated with him and his doings. upset tears trailed down eddies worn out features, helplessly pulling at the robes once more. "that won't do any good." richie gave smartly. "well then help me! you're—you're just sitting there! looking at me!" he cried. richie held a small smile, shaking his head. "i can't help you with this." he softly told, standing up. eddie lifted his own chin to watch him, seeing richie get close and press his pale pink lips to his cheek, though he couldn't feel it. a hard sting hit eddie on the side of his face, snapping him out of his daze. instead of seeing richie, he was met with patrick. "morning, sleeping beauty." he grinned.
                          
eddie cringed, looking around. "where is she?" he asked, his tone dull. "she's-" a siren could be heard close by, making eddies eyes widen. before he could shout and plead help at the top of his lungs, patrick gave a snarling look at him and pointed a finger in his face warningly. "say anything and i will slit your throat right here." he threatened, making eddies heart sink to his chest. eddie kept his eyes on the closed door, desperately wanting to yell, but he knew he'd be dead before the police could even show up. sonias large figure appeared at the end of the hallway, making eddie shake his head slightly.
                          
"you'll get caught." eddie faced his mother. sonia kept her sunken eyes on her son, then flicked them over to the broken window covered with an old blanket covered in muck. "shut your mouth, you don't know what you're talking about." she said to the 'stupid kid' she had in her mind. eddie sniffled, glancing over at the man before his eyes trailed back to his mother. "you'll get caught...and i'll go back home and live with stanley. you'll be in jail rotting away like the cell you put me in." he told with a hint of a smile on his lips. sonia walked over and slapped the back of her hand with eddies head, causing a whimper to escape from the boys mouth, his eyes shutting from the harsh hit. 
                          
"i hate you." eddies violent words spoke through the approaching sirens. sonia kept her wary eyes on the window. "i hate you!" eddie screamed, tears filling in his eyes once again. eddies breath caught in the back of his throat as a gun was now pointed to his forehead so suddenly. "you ungrateful little shit! i've done nothing but protect you and you wanna sit there and act so selfish!" sonia argued back. "protect me?! my friends protected me from you! you're the monster here! you're supposed to be my mother and take care of me and love me!" eddie explained. "not whatever the fuck this is!" sonia took the safety off the firearm, making eddie close his eyes in fear of getting shot.
                          
"well you never deserved it. you're just like your father. pathetic!" a loud, roaring gunshot blasted throughout the house causing eddie to flinch as he heard a heavy drop creak to the floor. once his eyes remained dark, eddie slowly opened them to see a man in a police uniform standing before the scene. everything happened so fast, it was like a blur. a woman walked through the door and had patrick handcuffed and shoved into the back of a police car. eddies mother was on the floor with a gunshot to the chest, which made eddies eyes widen in shock. seeing his mother unconscious, a gun loosely held in her meaty hand. the pearls around her neck that she wore every day in hopes of seeing her grandmother again. eddie looked away, the feeling of vomiting coming in a rush but nothing erupted. eddie couldn't hear anything, only muffles surrounding him, along with his last name being thrown in there a few times. someone untied the ropes from his wrists, but he was too dazed to check who stood behind him.
                          
like he said, everything was blurred together.
                          
TWO MONTHS LATER
                          
the day everything went down, eddie was petrified. it was hard for him to sleep every night, but knowing that his mother was dead, it made him feel slightly safer about the whole situation. it's not like he was totally safe, but she was gone now and patrick was in jail. nobody would tell eddie where sonia was stored, but he didn't want to know anyway. it was probably better to keep it that way. mr. and mrs. uris took full custody of eddie, almost thinking of him as a charity case knowing how shallow they were, but he lived with stanley now so it didn't really bother him so much. however, eddie hasn't seen or spoken to richie ever since that day. sometimes he wanted to, but he forgot how to contact him. everything from before slipped his mind when that gun was pointed at his face. at times he could still smell the smokey scent that surrounded him. 
                          
"eddie?" a soft voice called out. eddies chocolate brown eyes looked up, seeing the careful look on stanleys face as he stood by the door. "i wanna see richie." he said out of nowhere, fiddling with the blanket above his lap. stanley seemed hesitant at the words that came out of his mouth. "eds, i dunno..." he trailed off, not wanting to remind him of all that's happened in his past. "i know you care about me, but i'm seventeen and i can do what i want and right now i want to talk to richie." he stared firmly. stanley sighed in defeat, glancing behind himself. "i'll call ben." he nodded, not wanting to argue with him about this any longer.
                          
eddie had nightmares nearly every night since his mother was killed right in front of him. some of her, some of richie, even some of him being killed himself but he was going to therapy for that. he wanted to get help and not have to look over his shoulder every time he went out to go grocery shopping. "he's on the phone." stanley told him, eddie sighing when he noticed stanley meant the house phone. he got up and made his way to the kitchen, stopping in the hallway by the door before he picked up the phone. "eddie, are you sure-" eddie knew ben was about to do the same thing asking like stanley did which made him interrupt his sentence. "yes, i'm sure." he said with a dragged on groan, getting tired of all the worrying — however, it was nice to know his friends cared about him at times like these.
                          
"are you ready to go back to your house?" ben asked cautiously, knowing eddie hasn't been there since the whole thing went down. eddie was silent for a bit, the silence ringing loudly in his ear before he cleared his throat. "see you there." he assured before hanging up and slipping his shoes on.