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jadeylovesmarvelxo · 4 months

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Eddie gets beaten on by Jason and his crew and Reader (who has a crush on him) sees him limping to his van and she walks over to him and helps him into the van, drives him home and then does her best to patch him up and help him, maybe ending with a sweet kiss? Request by @somethingvicked

Mentions of violence, blood. Little bits of angst sprinkled with fluff and a speechless Eddie. mdni.

Eddie x fem!reader.

🖤

Not canon compliant because Jason is alive in this for story purposes, Vecna is gone for good though. Bye bye you grinchy ass looking bitch 💁‍♀️

🖤

The first hit came before Eddie could even dodge it. Jason's fist hits his face with precision, then another blow to his stomach doubles Eddie over.

"We all know you killed Chrissy and the others, you freak, I don't give a shit what the chief of police said, you did it" Jason's face is red with fury, lost in a haze of violence. One of his friends holds Eddie's arms around his back, so he can't defend himself.

Which is when Eddie has the extremely dumb idea to use his head to smash into Carver's nose. It works in the fact that it sends him stumbling back...doesn't help the pain he's already feeling though, the force of the hit sends another wave of agony through him.

Fuck, did he actually break his nose on Carver's face?

He can feel his heart pounding in his chest, he did not survive almost getting eaten alive by demobats to get killed by Jason and his friends. Jason stumbles to his feet and the grip on his shoulders tightens courtesy of David and Liam.

"Tell me what you did to her, Munson! Say it, you fucking asshole" Jason screams at him, Eddie wants to tell him everything, everything that went down during Spring Break, the Demobats, The Upside Down, Vecna. All of it.

But he can't. Nda's were signed and let's be real, Jason wouldn't believe him even if Eddie did tell the truth. He was still trying to wrap his head around it himself. "I didn't hurt her man. I didn't hurt any of them I swear it" Eddie chokes out. His ribs are aching and he's sure his bandages have come loose.

There's another thump that catches him off guard, hits the sensitive spots where the bats tore into him and he's blinking back tears of pain.

He expects another blow to knock him off his feet but when he looks up Jason's fist is cocked and he's in position to hit Eddie again but the hit doesn't come. Instead, Jason's face crumples in pain and he drops his hand, within seconds Eddie is tossed unceremoniously onto the floor and Jason and his friends are gone.

What the fuck?

He doesn't know how he does it but he manages to drag his ass up into a standing position and limps all the way to his van, tries to calm his racing heart and figures a smoke might settle his nerves.

His fingers are shaking as he tries to light up, then he almost drops it when a soft voice comes out of nowhere.

"Are you okay?"

🖤

You saw Eddie limping to his van just as you were ready to bike home. Even from where you were you could see the blood on his shirt. Jason and his friends must have caught up to him, you have no doubt about it.

Everyone knew what happened at Spring Break, at least with the murders. How Eddie was blamed then cleared, Hawkins finding the real culprit Henry Creel, a deranged serial killer.

To be honest you never believed that Eddie had anything to do with the murders in the first place, there were rumours about the state of the bodies, bones broken and twisted in ways that couldn't be natural, eyeballs sunken in and jaws broken. It was the stuff of nightmares.

Some idiots thought that Eddie was a vessel for satan and that's what Dungeons and Dragons was about, a satanic ritual. It was ridiculous. Your friend's cousin played D&D and it was just a fantasy game. Nothing satanic about it.

Without thinking you head over to Eddie. Maybe you could help? You were a whiz with first aid and he looked like he needed patched up and like he could use a friend. Quietly you approach him as he tries to light his cigarette, his hands are shaking so you reach out to steady them.

"You okay?" He peers up at you, big brown eyes wide and kinda like a deer in headlights, he really was beautiful. Normally being this close to someone you had a crush on for almost the whole school year would be mortifying but you were more worried about his injuries than your racing heart right now.

"Hi Eddie" you murmur and he's still gawking at you but accepts your help to light the cigarette, watches you curiously as he takes the first drag.

"Uh hi sweetheart" you and Eddie talked a few times, every time you did he would have a cheeky smile (all dimples) and a cute nickname for you. It did not help with your crush one bit, even though he probably called everybody some sort of nickname, it still made your heart skip a beat.

"Carver did a number on you" you wince as you take in the cuts and bruises on his arm, the blood on his face "I can drive you home, take a look at the injuries?" He nods and tosses you his keys.

You help Eddie into the van as best as you can then head inside. He gives you directions to head to his trailer and you get him there and inside with minimal fuss.

"Okay, you'll need to take your shirt off" you murmur as Eddie points you in the direction of a first aid kit. Eddie grins, "Trying to get me naked or something princess?" he teases and you do your best to hide how flustered you are.

It wasn't your fault, his eyes were so pretty and the way his voice deepened at the end of the sentence gave you butterflies. Shit. This was so not the time.

You locate the first aid kit and get out new bandages, wipes and plasters, scissors and painkillers.

When you head back into Eddie's room he's propped up on the bed. He's shirtless, tattoos on full display and from your vantage point you can see some scars where his bandages have fallen off, silvery scars that look a lot like bite marks...

Eddie looks nervous which is rare for him so you don't comment on the scars, you're curious though but don't want to push. "Do they still hurt?" you ask quietly and his smile dims just a bit.

"A little, not as bad as when it first happened though, fucking bats" he curses then his gaze widens as it meets yours. Bats?

"Bats?" you probe gently and make sure that his bandages are secure again, from the small peeks that you can see, the bite marks are healing but still red, some are healed or are silvery scars. It looks like he was mauled, the thought makes your hands shake.

He sighs, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you princess" your heart skips a beat again but you ignore that, still curious what he means.

"Yeah? Try me. Any person in this stupid town can see that it's cursed or something isn't right" Eddie bites his lips and he looks like he wants to tell you, he really does.

"I wish I could sweetheart but it's uh complicated, nda's and cover-ups and shit" Oh. Well shit. "But yeah bats, big bats, not cute ones either but ugly little shits with super sharp teeth and claws. I can let you know that much"

You're stunned but then some of the things that you've heard Dustin say to Jason and other people who don't believe that Eddie's innocent come back to you.

"He's not a murderer. He's a hero. You stupid assholes don't deserve what he did for you"

So Eddie was protecting the town? Dustin too and maybe other people were involved? You smile and begin to clean up Eddie's cuts. "Hmm, Dustin's right then" Eddie looks confused and you lean forward to clean the blood on his nose.

"Oh yeah? What did the little butthead say?" he asks with a fond expression, you giggle at his tone. Like Dustin is his little brother or something, it's sweet. It's sweet how he looks after people in Hellfire Club, and it pisses you off that people just think he's a freak and don't look past their stupid prejudices to see how good Eddie is.

"That you're a hero. I believe that Eddie Munson, then again I've always thought you were a hero" it's Eddie's turn to be speechless as he gawks at you.

"You think I'm a hero?" he looks like he can't believe that anyone would ever think that about him and it hurts your heart so much.

"Well yeah, anyone who takes lost sheep under their wing and protects them like you do? Or risks his life for a town that can't see past their own stupid prejudices to see what's really happening? Yeah, I think you're a hero Eddie" your speech is impassioned and a bit of a rant so you're breathless, eyes sparkling at the end of it.

Once again Eddie is speechless but not for the reasons you think. "You're beautiful" he murmurs awed and you're flustered once again. Damn it.

"Maybe the hero gets the girl?" he asks softly and there goes your traitor heart again. Does he mean you? Or some other girl maybe. The thought hurts your heart but you plaster a smile on your face.

"I'm not sure any girl could resist those pretty eyes Eddie" a faint blush coats his cheeks at your compliment and he fakes a swoon, smiles at you all dimples and cuteness.

"Flattery works with me princess, not only am I a hero but I also have pretty eyes" you giggle at his overdramatic gestures.

He's all patched up now so he puts his shirt back in and a funny tension hangs in the air. "So, uh would you like to hang out again? when I'm not all beat up and shit. Maybe Friday?" Oh. You beam and nod feeling shy all of a sudden.

"Like a date?" you ask hopefully and he's still blushing faintly. It's so cute and you're sure tonight you're going to be squealing over every interaction the two of you had.

"Yeah, a date princess, he moves closer and the way he's looking at you is sending your heart into overdrive. "can, can I kiss you?" He asks and you nod, wanting nothing more than to press your lips against his plush pink ones.

He strokes your cheek and then his lips meet yours, it starts off gentle and hesitant, then it deepens and you gasp pulling him closer. You both come away a little bit dazed and you giggle as he flops dramatically on the bed.

"Now that was some kiss sweetheart, he beams at the sound of your giggles, when you sober up you bite your lip and decide to tell him a secret.

"I never thought you'd notice me" you say it quietly but he still hears it and gapes like you've truly stunned him this time.

"Seeing your pretty smile dragged me out of bed most days sweetheart, even more than d&d but that's our little secret" he winks and you make a zipping motion. Before you leave Eddie pulls you into another kiss then another.

Okay, so maybe you could be a little late to return your movie at Family Video if it meant kissing Eddie some more.

🖤💌

#eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson angst #eddie munson hurt/comfort #eddie munson #eddie munson x female reader

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morgan1creel · 3 months

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no because.. why are people on TikTok and Instagram so sensitive about an “ evil “ character having a redeemable backstory? WHY ARE PEOPLE MAD THAT HENRY IS BASICALLY INNOCENT?? like oh my gosh I’m sorry your hate for everyone turned out to be incorrect I’m such a party pooper wawa.

( I got literal death threats because I put a silly comment in a TikTok video asking who their favorite st character was and DARE I SAY Henry creel and I get RAIDED.

anyways I will be educating these people from now on but please newer or st fans that haven’t heard of the first shadow please just look up the plot or atleast a video explaining it?! If anybody needs help there’s a video in dept explaining everything that happens in tfs

anyways rise Henry defenders, RISE !!!

#the first shadow #henry creel #stranger things #tfs spoilers #vecna #vecna stranger things #vecna/henry/001 #vecna/henry/one

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henrycreelvecna · 1 year

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Hi that playlist has songs that really remind me of henry vecna 001 so thats cool

#Spotify #henry creel is a slay #henry creel #vecna #001 #st 001 #henry creel defender #vecnussy

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sattlersquarry · 10 months

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superfreaky (steve harrington x fem!reader)

Summary: [AU inspired by Freaky (2020); modern body-swap-with-a-slasher AU] The Hawkins Hacker has been terrorizing your town for years now. What happens when he digs his hooks into you is surprising. It's shocking. It's downright superfreaky.

Word Count: ~7.3k

Warnings: 18+ PLEASE!!!! for language, violence, grief, mentions of alcoholism, mentions of death and serial killers/slashers. all the characters are at least 18 in this (and Steve is the same age as the others). There's no descriptors of the reader except when she and Henry Creel swap bodies (then, you're Jamie Campbell Bower). Also Officer Callahan is your stepbrother in this.

a/n: this is a halloween fic. I'm aware that it's mid-November and everyone on this website has moved onto winter/holiday fics. I'm late! I'm sorry! Blame depression/personal life weirdness/my horoscope.

🔪🔪🔪

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12th, 2023

Your life kind of sucks.

Just a little.

Currently, you’re dressed in a godawful tiger suit on a Thursday night, shaking your clip-on tiger tail like there’s no tomorrow. You don’t want to be here, but extracurriculars look great on college applications. If you want to get far, far away from Hawkins, Indiana after graduation, this is the kind of shit you have to do to be impressive on paper.

Plus, someone must be the brave soul that dons the Hawkins High school mascot costume on the sidelines of basketball games. The brave soul that gets soda cans chucked at your head by Billy Hargrove.

You turn and scowl when you feel the liquid splash across your back—not that Billy can see through your stitched-on tiger expression.

He and his buddies laugh and laugh, until team captain Steve Harrington chews them out for being assholes. You can’t help it—you inwardly swoon at the sight of him defending your honor. With that floppy hair and those gorgeous eyes and…

You snap yourself out of your wild, romantically charged fantasies about said basketball player when he jogs his way toward you.

“Hey, Y/N, you okay?” he asks quietly. You lift your mascot head and give him a small smile.

“I’m good,” you say. You shrug. “I’m used to it.”

Steve sighs and shakes his head.

“I’m really sorry. I told Hargrove to cut it out when you threw the nachos last week, but he just doesn’t know when to quit.”

The Tiger cheerleaders begin the school fight song.

“I’ve gotta get back into it,” you say. “But, um, thanks.”

“Anytime,” Steve says. He shoots you a smile before jogging back to his teammates. The timeout is over, and he steps back onto the court.

As you flail around next to the cheerleaders, the Tigers sink a three-pointer thanks to Steve and win the game.

Post-game, you shuffle into the parking lot with your best friends Robin Buckley and Jonathan Byers by your side. Jonathan works for the school paper and photographs the games while his girlfriend, Nancy Wheeler, interviews players and attendees on the sidelines. Robin is in band and plays the trumpet. (Sometimes, you wish you’d followed their extracurricular pathways instead of going the mascot route.)

“You don’t have to do this, you know,” Robin points out, sensing your disdain as you glare at the tiger head in your hands and the oversize, fuzzy orange slippers adorning your feet.

“I do!” you say. “It’s senior year, fall semester. I can’t flake now. It’ll look bad on my applications.”

“You and those applications,” Jonathan says with a shake of his head. “You’ve been worrying about them since we were freshmen.”

“Obviously! They’re my ticket out of this town. It’s not safe here anymore.”

Robin and Jonathan share a look. They know what you’re referring to: the Hawkins Hacker.

The Hacker is the town's own slasher. He claimed victims every year around homecoming for years and years, until 2016, when he suddenly stopped. However, just last night he killed again. The whole town—including your stepbrother Phil, who’s a cop—are on edge.

“Do you need a ride home?” Jonathan asks, spinning his car keys in his hand.

“No, it’s okay,” you say. “My stepmom’s on her way. And there are plenty of people around. I’m totally safe!”

Famous last words.

Literally. (Almost.)

“You sure?” Robin questions. “Because he’s taking me and Nancy home too, but he’s got an extra seat!”

“I’m good,” you say. You hold up your cell phone. “She texted me an hour ago to say she’d get me on time. I’ll see you guys tomorrow, okay?”

Your friends look a little worried, but you wave them off. Game attendees meander out of the school and head to their cars. It’s a sea of people. You’re fine.

However, the minutes tick by, and the crowd thins out. You watch the away team hop a school bus and zip back to their hometown. You feel the temperature of your tiger suit inch up a few degrees when you see Steve wander to his BMW with a couple teammates in tow.

It’s considerably quieter than it was when you first left the game. You text your stepmom LeAnn once, twice. Then you call her once, twice, three times. A third text, a fourth call. Nothing. Radio silence.

By now, it’s dead quiet. Everyone is gone. You feel an icy chill zip down your spine, like you’re being watched…

You miss your father. He died about a year ago, and he was always on time.

You startle when the phone in your hand buzzes. It’s your stepbrother Phil.

“Hey!” you say. “Where’s LeAnn?”

“Passed out again,” Phil says with a beleaguered sigh. “Where are you? Did Jonathan give you a ride home?”

“No, I told him your mom was coming to get me,” you say. “Can you—”

Beep! Beep! Beep!

You pull the phone away from your ear and groan. It’s dead. Just great.

A streetlight across the parking lot flickers. When your eyes adjust, your heart drops through your stupid mascot feet and to the center of the earth: there’s a man watching you.

You can’t tell, but it looks like he’s wearing a mask. You gulp, panic stretching itself through every fiber of your being.

“Please don’t be the Hawkins Hacker,” you mumble to yourself. “Please don’t be the Hacker. Please don’t be the Hacker.”

The Man continues to stare. Something glints in his hand. It frightens you.

“My stepbrother is on his way!” you yell, hoping to scare him off. “He’s a cop. With a gun.”

That doesn’t seem to bother the man at all. In fact, you see him walk toward you—a slow, Michael-Meyers-esque stride that has you shrieking in fear and stumbling to the school doors.

You yank at them to no avail. You don’t bother looking back and instead run around the school building to the football field. Panting from exertion and sheer fear, you duck under the bleachers and hide behind a big banner.

You slap a hand over your mouth to quiet your panicked whimpers. Why oh why did you trust LeAnn to get you on time, when every night for the past month she’s drank a whole bottle of chardonnay at 6 p.m. and passed out? Why didn’t you go with Jonathan when he offered? Hell, why didn’t you ask Steve for a ride? He’s a nice guy! He would’ve done it!

Now, you’re hiding from a slasher in a stupid rubber gray mask. And if you die and come back as a ghost, you’ll be wearing the Hawkins High mascot suit for all eternity.

You watch the Hackers’ feet as he stands in front of the bleachers and listen as he steps on them. He seems to think you’ve left, and you hear him wander off.

Or, so you think. Actually, he sneaks up behind you and grabs your leg, yanking you out from your hiding place.

You scream and kick at him, hitting him right in the nose and giving you the chance to run.

You don’t get far, though. He tackles you somewhere around the fifty-yard line.

“No! No!” you scream as he raises the knife above you. The knife has a spider carved in the handle with red ruby eyes. “Please! No!”

You push at him, knocking his mask off. His face is gaunt: all sallow cheekbones and purple under-eye bags. His eyes are a dull, washed-out blue, and his blonde hair is scraggly and unwashed.

You hate that his face is the last face you’ll ever see.

He plunges the dagger into your shoulder just a few inches shy of your heart and you scream in pain, the bloodcurdling sound echoing across the football field. The Hacker hisses in pain and drops the knife. He touches his shoulder and looks angry at the sight of blood on his fingertips.

His blood. From the wound that appeared on his shoulder after he stabbed you in the same spot.

Bang! Bang!

“GET AWAY FROM HER!” Phil roars from across the football stadium, gun raised in the air.

The Hacker stumbles to his feet and ambles off. Still prone on the ground, you turn on your stomach and watch him go, shocked at what you witnessed. How did he get stabbed?

You’re in so much shock, you don’t even realize that Phil is by your side until he gently helps you sit up.

“You’re okay!” he says, voice tinged with an urgency you’ve never heard from him before. “I’ve got you, okay? I’ve got you.”

“It hurt him too,” you mutter, a bit delirious. “It hurt him too!”

“Try to stay calm, okay?” Phil says. “You’re in shock. I got you, Y/N.”

You hear him bark into his radio: “This is Officer Callahan! Send an RA unit to the Hawkins High football field! My stepsisters’ been stabbed!”

The rest of your evening is a blur. You get patched up by paramedics and then taken to the police station to give a statement.

LeAnn arrives as you’re sitting with the sketch artist, crying and screaming and apologizing a million times. You forgive her (even though you aren’t sure you want to), and later that night, you hear Phil chewing her out for drinking and forgetting you again.

“She could’ve died, Mom!” you hear him yell as you lie in bed and try to sleep. “If I had been just a minute too late, we would’ve lost her and Allen in the span of 11 months!”

“I’m sorry!” LeAnn sobs. “I just had one glass—”

“One glass, Mom?! Try the whole bottle!”

Despite your anger at her, your heart breaks for LeAnn. You know your dad’s death has been hard on her. She hasn’t been doing too well since he passed, but sometimes you wish she’d realize you weren’t doing that great either. Phil tries to comfort you both, but he’s so busy with work, his pep talks are usually thirty seconds long between bites of a bagel before he’s rushing off to save Hawkins again.

Your phone blows up with texts and DMs. Somehow, the kids at school found out what happened and won’t stop messaging you for details on your encounter with the Hacker. You can’t deal with it. Except, there are some messages that you do respond to:

---

Text Thread with BOBBIN and JONNY B GOOD

BOBBIN: Oh my God!!! Y/N are you okay??? Please text back!!!

JONNY B GOOD: We saw what happened on the news. Please text us when you have a chance. We’re worried about you and thinking of you rn.

BOBBIN: WE’RE FREAKING OUT!!! ARE YOU OKAY???

JONNY B GOOD: Robin, just chill. She’s probably resting.

BOBBIN: Please don’t die and leave me alone to third wheel Nancy and Jonathan!!

JONNY B GOOD: Wooooow.

YOU: Wow is right. I got stabbed and those are your priorities?

BOBBIN: SHE LIVES!!!! YEAHHHHHHH!!!

YOU: Yep, I’m alive. I’m really sorry but I feel like shit. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?

JONNY B GOOD: Of course. We’re here when you need us.

BOBBIN: WE LOVE YOU <3

YOU: <3

---

DMs from steve.anthony.h83

STEVE (steve.anthony.h83): Hey Y/N I saw the news I rly hope ur OK

YOU (y/n.y/l/n86): Hi Steve, thank you for reaching out. It means a lot to me. I’m not feeling too good right now.

STEVE (steve.anthony.h83): Im sry to here that that sux 😞😢💔

---

God, even his text message typos and cheesy emoji usage are endearing. You’re in too deep with this crush.

---

YOU (y/n.y/l/n86): Yeah. But I think I’ll be okay.

STEVE (steve.anthony.h83): Anything I can do 2 help? Maybe I can get u smtg, wats ur fav candy?

YOU (y/n.y/l/n86): Oh, that’s sweet, but you don’t have to do that!

STEVE (steve.anthony.h83): I want too 😃 do u like nougat

YOU (y/n.y/l/n86): I love nougat!

STEVE (steve.anthony.h83): Perfect 😃 Ill bring u sum tmrw after school 🍫

YOU (y/n.y/l/n86): Thank you, Steve ❤️

STEVE (steve.anthony.h83): Feel better Y/N 😃😃

You go to sleep, shaken up but in slightly higher spirits thanks to your conversation with Steve.

🔪🔪🔪

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13th, 2023

You blink awake hours later, startled at the sight around you.

You aren’t in your room. You’re lying on a mattress on a concrete floor. The room around you is full of weird stuff: grandfather clocks, paintings upon paintings of black widow spiders, and mannequins with nails in their faces like Pinhead.

“What the hell!” you say. You gasp and clutch your neck. “Why is my voice so deep?!”

You stagger to your feet and look around the creepy space. Why are you further from the floor than usual? In the corner, you see a mirror half-covered with a sheet. You yank it off and gasp.

“AHHHH! IT’S THE HAWKINS HACKER!” you scream.

The Hacker screams as well. You reach your hand toward the glass—and the Hacker reaches his hand toward it as well. You pull it away and so does he.

The you in the reflection is the Hacker. Holy shit.

You realize where you are: the old mill. Phil told you to stay away from this place because it’s where drug deals go down, and where Eleanor Gillespie got attacked by birds that one time.

You rush away before you can freak out too much. You head downtown, mind swirling.

This must just be a nightmare. Right? A really, really realistic, terrifying lucid dream.

But when you hit your head on a tree branch (because you’re way, way taller than you used to be) and it actually hurts, you realize it’s not a dream. You’re really the Hawkins Hacker. Somehow, you’ve swapped bodies with a homicidal maniac.

You need to find Phil. He’s been your stepbrother for a decade now and you trust him more than anyone else. He might be able to know what to do—or just be a shoulder to cry on.

You pass an electronics store, and your heart sinks when you see your face—the Hackers’ face—on TV.

“The Hawkins Hacker has been identified as Henry Creel,” the news anchor says, showing a photo of the face that you are unfortunately saddled with now. “He’s most known for killing his mother, father, and sister as a teenager—and also for driving a Jeep Wrangler through a Dairy Queen drive-through window without a license.”

“Hey!” someone shouts nearby, having connected the dots. “You’re the killer guy from TV!”

You don’t even stop to see who’s yelling at you before you run as fast as you can, ducking through alleyways to lose whoever’s chasing you.

You can’t go to the police station now that your face is plastered all over the news and social media. But you need an ally, or allies.

Besides Phil, the people you trust the most are Robin and Jonathan. You sneak into Hawkins High through the gymnasium doors, wishing you had your mascot head to hide under. Then, you take a quick shower in the locker rooms and hide until class change is done.

You slink through the empty hallways and make it to the school’s auditorium. That’s where you, Robin, and Jonathan spend study hall every day.

You open the door to the theater as quiet as a mouse, hiding in the wings for a moment when you overhear them talking about you.

“I hope Y/N’s doing okay,” Robin says with a sigh. She takes a bite of an apple and says through chews, “Why did she blow us off earlier?”

“Give her a break, Rob,” Jonathan says. “She’s probably really shaken up. But it is weird that she even came to school anyway. I wonder—”

“Guys!” you say, stepping onto the stage. “It’s me! Don’t freak out.”

They immediately freak out.

“AHHHHH!!! THE HACKER!!!” Robin screams. She chucks an apple core at your head and it bounces between your eyes. You stumble back and groan.

“COME ON!” Jonathan says, grabbing her hand and dragging her away from your, fear flashing in both of their eyes.

“Wait!” you shout. “Come back!”

You follow them as they run through the hallways and end up in the school cafeteria’s kitchen. A lunch lady shrieks and runs out when she sees you.

“Stop!” you call, following Robin and Jonathan to the back room. “Wait! Please just hear me out.”

Jonathan snatches up a soup ladle and hits you in the spine with it.

“ARGH! Dude, stop!”

Robin grabs a tray of mozzarella sticks and lifts it above her head. The sticks go flying when she whacks you in the head. Repeatedly.

Angry that they won’t stop hitting you, you yank the tray out of Robin’s hand and toss it away. Your newfound strength the body you’ve found yourself in possesses surprises you. The old you would’ve grappled with Robin a lot longer before getting the tray from her, if you even got it at all.

Robin tries to jump on your back piggyback-style to tackle you to the ground, and you elbow her in the stomach.

“Cut that out!” you bark as she wheezes.

Jonathan hits you again with the ladle and you shove his shoulder, a bit too hard. He falls on his butt and winces.

“Enough!” you say. “We’ve hit each other over and over. Can we agree we’re all tired and end this?!”

“No!” Jonathan says, pulling himself back to his feet by gripping a countertop. “You attacked our friend and now you’re attacking us!”

“I’m not attacking you!” you say. “I’m trying to get you to listen. I am not Henry Creel. I am not the Hawkins Hacker. I’M Y/N! YOUR FRIEND Y/N Y/L/N!”

“As if!” Robin scoffs. “I’m calling 911.”

You snatch the phone from her hands and hold it high above your head. She’s tall, but not tall enough to reach it thanks to your longer arms.

“I promise!” you beg, holding your other arm up in surrender. “It’s me. It’s Y/N!”

“Yeah, right!” Jonathan says darkly. He picks up the ladle again, wielding it like a lethal weapon. “Tell us something only Y/N would know or we’re going to the cops.”

“What’s Y/N’s favorite movie?” Robin asks, eyes narrowed.

“I tell everyone it’s Casablanca but it’s The Muppets Take Manhattan!”

“Favorite candy?” Jonathan demands.

“Three Musketeers because I feel guilty that everyone shits on nougat when it’s really not that bad!”

“Who’s Y/N’s biggest crush?” Robin asks.

The face that’s not yours blushes deeply.

“Duh,” you say. “It’s Steve the Hair Harrington.”

Jonathan and Robin share a look. A sense of realization flashes on their faces.

“Handshake?” you offer. You hand Robin her phone back and hold out your hands—or, Henry Creel’s hands—and wait.

Robin and Jonathan slap you five, before the three of you complete the intricate handshake you made up in seventh grade.

“Holy shit!” Robin shrieks, eyes shining. “You’re really Y/N!”

She pulls you and Jonathan in for a group hug and you laugh.

“Oh, thank god,” you say. “If you didn’t believe me, I don’t know what I’d—"

“Hold on,” Jonathan says, pulling out of the hug. “If you’re actually Y/N, that means the Hawkins Hacker is going around school wearing your face!”

“Oh damn,” Robin says. “Is that why you look hot today?”

“What do you mean I look hot?” you say, trying not to take offense to the implication that you don’t look hot every day.

Robin opens Instagram and shows you a photo posted to the student-run Hawkins High Gossip Instagram page. It’s a blurry photo of you (or Henry Creel in your body) walking in the hall past Billy and his asshole friends, who are checking you out. Instead of your usual mousy wardrobe of flowy skirts and cardigans, you’re wearing a tight black tank top, a red leather jacket, and bright red lipstick.

“Hot damn!” you blurt out. “I do look hot! Shit, have I hurt anyone? Or, has he hurt anyone?”

Jonathan grimaces.

“Tommy H. was found unconscious in the chem lab,” he says. “He was mostly fine, except his eyebrows were burned clean off…”

“But if fake-you did that,” Robin says quickly, “you aren’t liable because you weren’t in control of your body!”

“I don’t even know how we body-swapped in the first place!” you lament. “How do I get control of my body back?!”

“Let’s think about this,” Jonathan says. “Maybe it was some kind…spell? Or enchantment?”

“Enchantment?!” you snap. “Dude, be for real!”

“Wait,” Robin says, eyes shining. “I heard about this!”

She opened the internet app on her phone and went to www,theweeklywatcher,com/body-swap.

“No fucking way,” you say. “The Weekly Watcher is not a refutable source!”

“Why not?!” she says, scrolling ferociously until— “Ah! Found it.”

She shows you an article about the mythology of body swapping. At first, you roll your eyes, but then—

“That knife!” you gasp. “That’s the knife he had!”

You point to the photo, featuring the ruby-eyed spider in the knife handle.

“According to this,” Jonathan says, “that knife is an artifact that was used in ancient rituals."

“If you’re struck with the blade when the clock strikes midnight,” Robin reads, “you and your attacker switch places. And you have 24 hours to stab him and switch back.”

“No, no, no!” you groan. “That means we only have 12 hours left!”

“That’s plenty of time,” Jonathan says. “Where’s the knife? You have it, right?”

“No!” you say. “Phil took it as evidence.”

“So we’ll just steal it from the police station,” Robin says, as if it’s easy and obvious.

“Oh, sure,” you lament. “We’ll just waltz into the police station while I have the face and body of a mass murderer and steal evidence. Easy-peasy!”

“We’ll figure something out,” Jonathan says. “Come on.”

The three of you head toward the exit and end up walking past the woodshop classroom. You do a double-take and watch yourself enter the hallway. Or, you watch the Hawkins Hacker parade around as you.

“Hey, stop!” you shout at Henry Creel. He pauses and turns. A shiver runs down your spine at the dark, evil look gracing your features. Features you’ve seen your whole life, features you’ve struggled to like after years of taunting and bullying. Now, they’re marred with the evil spirit of the Hawkins Hacker.

Yet, goddamn. You look hot with red lipstick. Who knew slashers had good fashion sense?

“Don’t try to run,” Jonathan says, the waver in his voice indicating that his bravery is false. “We’ve got you cornered.”

The Hacker suddenly changes expressions. Instead of a nasty glare, he opens his eyes wide, covers his cheeks with his hands, and shrieks: “AHHHH! IT’S THE HAWKINS HACKER! GET HIM!”

A couple cops run around the corner of the hall and you curse, rushing toward a side door with Robin and Jonathan in tow.

“GET YOUR KEYS!” you yell. “We have to get out of here or I’m headed to jail forever!”

Jonathan struggles to start his car, but he peels away just before the cops can stop you all. After your first-ever police chase, you three lose your tail in the parking lot of the big-box store LeAnn works at.

You hide out in a changing room while Jonathan and Robin find you a disguise—a plastic Halloween mask of Bill Clinton’s face.

“I can’t see or breathe in this thing,” you grumble as your friends lead you back to the car.

“If you get arrested,” Robin points out, “you won’t be able to switch back.”

You bite your tongue from any further complaints, too worried about just that.

“So, what’s the plan?” Jonathan asks, once you all are back in his car. “How can we get the knife?”

“About that,” Robin says. “I think we need to bring in your stepbrother.”

“If Phil doesn't believe us, we're in big trouble!” you protest.

“He’s an ally!” Robin shoots back. “And we need one if we’re going to…oh shit.”

She holds up her phone screen for you and Jonathan to see. You squint through the eye holes of your uncomfortable mask and gasp when you realize what’s going on.

“Fuck!” you groan. “What the hell is he doing?!”

It’s another post from the school gossip Insta. The Hawkins Hacker is schmoozing with Billy and his clique of jerks at the local indoor mini-golf place. You watch in the video as he leans into Billy’s ear and whispers something before sauntering off.

The caption of the post says, “OMG is Y/N Y/L/N like, hot now?!”

“I resent this!” you snap. “Why is everyone under the impression that I’m not hot all the time?!”

“No, no, no!” Jonathan gasps. “Look!”

At the tail end of the video, you see Nancy and Steve follow Henry Creel into the glow-in-the-dark golf course.

“They’re going to get killed!” he says, turning the ignition in his car with shaking hands and reversing haphazardly, almost taking out a mulberry bush as he speeds toward the golf place. “Robin, call Nancy now.”

“She’s not picking up!” Robin says, phone to her ear. “I’ll text!”

Your stomach churns with anxiety. If the Hacker kills Nancy and Steve while he’s in your body and you switch back, you’ll feel guilty forever. You’ll also go to jail. But if you don’t switch back, you’ll go to jail as Henry! This is all too much.

You’re certain the pale face that doesn’t belong to you is green right now as Jonathan drives like a racecar driver to save his girlfriend and your crush from “your” wrath.

🔪🔪🔪

Steve’s not sure what’s gotten into you today.

First, you showed up to school. That was surprising after your attack.

“Hey!” he had said when you walked into woodshop class. “How you feeling?”

You hadn’t responded, but you had looked quite intrigued when he accidentally cut his finger working on his birdhouse.

“Ah, shit,” he’d grumbled. “Do you have a—”

You leaned over and licked the blood clean off his finger. It startled him—and annoyed him when that freak Eddie Munson mumbled, “Whoa, that’s hot,” from across the worktable.

Steve’s cheeks glowed rosy red, flustered at your boldness. But you’d left class before he could do or say anything about it (or give you the candy he brought for you).

And now, after school, you’re standing with Billy and whispering salacious things into his ear. Since when do you like Billy? Billy, the guy that throws things at you? Billy, the guy that wrote “Y/N Y/L/N is an ugly stupid bitch” on the bathroom stalls? Billy, the guy that didn’t give you the time of day until you dressed differently?!

Why doesn’t she like me?! Steve thought, trying to look unaffected as you continued flirting with Billy. He fails, the wrinkle between his brows getting deeper as you continue talking to Billy in a low voice.

“Steve,” Nancy says urgently, rushing up to him. “We need to talk.”

“Can it wait?” Steve says. He crosses his arms. “I don’t want to do anything right now except sulk.”

“Something’s really, really wrong,” Nancy continues, ignoring Steve’s pity party. “Jonathan’s MIA and isn’t messaging me back. And neither is Robin. And Carol claims she saw them earlier get in Jonathan’s car with a tall, blond weirdo.”

“So, maybe they have a new friend,” Steve says. He squeezes the handle of his mini-golf putter and watches you walk toward the glow-in-the-dark course. “I need to go talk to Y/N.”

“No!” Nancy hisses, following him as they cut through the crowds. She tucks her phone deep in her purse. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. The Hawkins Hacker is a tall, blond weirdo. Carol didn’t get a good look, but—”

“But you think your boyfriend and Robin are rubbing elbows with a killer? Nance, that’s bullshit.”

“It’s not!” she snaps. “I think that, somehow, that tall blond weirdo is actually Y/N and that girl that you’re going to go talk to is the Hacker.”

“That makes no goddamn sense,” Steve says. “Body-swapping isn’t possible.”

“Just listen to me! I was reading an article in The Weekly Watcher…”

Nancy follows Steve into the course, whispering her findings and bringing up Y/N’s odd behavior as they navigate the dark room lit up with black lights.

The more he listens, the more it makes sense. You’re not acting like yourself. But it still seems too far-fetched.

“I don’t know, Nance,” Steve says, scanning the room for you. “I think you need to stop listening to Robin so much.”

Swish! The beaded curtain leading into the next section of the course rattles as Henry Creel barrels through.

“Nancy! Steve!” he yells. “Watch out!”

Henry pushes them to the side and grabs Y/N’s hand—huh, when did you sneak up behind Steve and Nancy? The Hacker twists your wrist and you cry out.

“Y/N!” Steve shouts, rushing forward to protect you. Before he can, Jonathan and Robin grab his arms.

“No, no, let them fight!” Robin says.

“Let go of me!” Steve snaps.

He watches, helpless, as the Hawkins Hacker punches you between the eyes and you crumple like sand.

“Whoa, cool!” Henry Creel says, turning around and facing the four teens with an excited glimmer in his eye. “I’ve never knocked someone out with one punch before.”

“Wait!” Nancy says. “Am I right?”

“Right about what?” Jonathan asks.

“Did Henry and Y/N…switch bodies?”

Henry (or, Y/N?) puts his hands on his hips.

“Girl, how did you know?”

It all becomes too much for Steve. He blacks out.

🔪🔪🔪

When Steve wakes, he’s lying on the Byers’ couch. Henry Creel sits on a kitchen chair next to him.

Steve opens his mouth to scream.

“Wait!” Henry says. “Steve, don’t freak out. It’s me! I know I look like the Hacker, but it’s Y/N!”

Across the room, the person that looks like you is tied to another kitchen chair.

“Steve, don’t listen to him!” Y/N laments. “He’s crazy! He brainwashed these three idiots into working for him!”

“Who are you calling idiot, idiot?” Robin snaps.

“Steve, I was right,” Nancy explains patiently, resting a hand on his shoulder. “Y/N and Henry Creel have switched places.”

“No!” the tied-up Y/N shrieks. “Please! Steve, look at me.”

Steve turns his head toward her.

“No!” Henry says. “Look at me, Steve.”

Steve turns back toward the Hacker/potential real you.

“Steve!” the tied-up Y/N groans, trying to sound in distress but actually moaning like a Bridgerton reject. “Steve! Steeeeeeeve!”

“Oh, dry up, bitch!” Robin snaps.

“Jesus Christ, Robin!” Henry says. “Don’t talk to him like that when he’s got my face. That’s rude.”

“This is all too much,” Steve says, jumping to his feet. “I—I can’t be here.”

He darts toward the door, but before he can exit the Byers house, Henry stands and says, “We danced together at our freshman year Snow Ball!”

Steve pauses with his hand on the door handle.

“It was in the parking lot,” Henry continues. “You were vaping and I was leaving early, because truthfully, I was having a terrible time. But I saw you, and you saw me, and we split a snowflake-shaped sugar cookie and talked for, like, half an hour. And then someone propped the doors open and we could hear the DJ, and he was playing that creepy ’80s song about always watching someone, and we ragged on the lyrics for being weird and stalker-y. But you asked me if I wanted to dance, and we did for half a minute, and then my dad came to pick me up and I left. But that was the most fun I had had all semester and it gave me a fat, embarrassing crush on you. And I really, really wish I wasn’t a total coward, or I would’ve told you way sooner than our senior year—and when I wasn’t in the body of a serial killer.”

Steve watches the way Henry nervously wrings his hands—he recognizes it as a habit of yours. For a long minute, he’s not sure what to think.

🔪🔪🔪

For a long minute, you’re not sure what to think.

You just blurted out your secret crush on Steve Harrington to Steve Harrington, and he’s staring at you like he doesn’t understand you.

But then, he gives you a small smile.

“Maybe this is weird to say while you’re in the body of a serial killer,” Steve says, “but I have a fat, embarrassing crush on you, too.”

Your heart soars.

“Pathetic,” the fake-you/the Hacker grumbles. “You’re both cowards. I can’t wait to gut you like a fish.”

“That’s enough!” Nancy says sharply, shoving a sock into the Hacker’s mouth. He glares up at her with your face, but Nancy doesn’t even flinch.

“Now that that’s out of the way,” Jonathan says, “let’s divide and conquer. I’ll stay here to keep an eye on murder Barbie.”

He nods in the direction of the scowling, incapacitated Hacker.

“And I’ll drive the rest of us to the police station,” Nancy says. “Y/N, you’ll stay in the car while we distract your stepbrother and steal that knife back. He should be the only one working, because everyone else is hunting you. Er, Henry.”

“Knife?” Steve asks. “What knife?”

“It’s a spooky, magic dagger and it’s the reason Y/N and Henry Creel are swapped!” Robin says.

Steve blinks once, twice.

“Right. Totally. That makes sense.”

“Let’s go!” you say. “We have four more hours to do this!”

🔪🔪🔪

While Nancy and Robin go to get the knife, you and Steve wait in the car.

It’s a little awkward, due to the circumstances. When you imagined sitting in the backseat of a car with Steve Harrington, you hoped for something a little more amorous. Not you in the body of the Hawkins Hacker.

You start to feel a little brave and even consider reaching for his hand to hold—when you see the fake you running down the sidewalk and into the station.

“What?!” you say. “How’d he get out?!”

“Shit,” Steve says. “You stay out of sight, I’ll try and stop him.”

“No!” you say. “My stepbrother’s in there! I have to go help. You stay here and call Jonathan! Make sure he’s okay.”

Steve frowns but nods, agreeing to stay behind.

When you bolt into the police station, you see Phil with his hand on his holster, glaring at Robin and Nancy. Fake you feigns a frightened gasp and runs behind him when you enter, and Phil pulls his gun and points it at you. You throw your hands up.

“Don’t shoot!” you squeak.

“Kill him!” Henry says from his hiding spot.

“Don’t! Stop!” Robin and Nancy shout.

You see the spider dagger on the ground by your friends’ feet. Before you can try and grab it, Henry does and runs out of the station.

Phil doesn’t even give him a second look.

“Put your hands behind your head,” he says to you, “and walk slowly into the cell.”

“This is a mistake!” you protest, but following his instructions so you don’t get pumped with lead.

“Please, Officer Callahan,” Robin begs.

“We’re telling the truth,” Nancy says, “just—”

“Quiet, you two!” he barks. “You! Keep walking.”

You gulp and step into the cell.

“Do you remember what I got you for Christmas in 2017?” you ask.

“Shut up,” Phil says. You glance behind. He still has the gun pointed at your back, but you see his hands shaking. And his finger’s not on the trigger.

“It was a pack of limited-edition Pokémon cards,” you continue. “Mint condition. With a holographic Charizard. But I didn’t realize I ordered a rip-off pack called Pokeymans, so it was actually a Chumpizard card.”

“How the fuck do you know that?!” Phil demands, voice shaking in tandem with his hands.

“Because I’m not the Hawkins Hacker!” you say. “I’m really Y/N. And…I’m sorry about this.”

With Henry Creel’s strength, you knock the gun out of Phil’s hands. It skitters across the floor, and you yank him by the arm into the cell.

He stumbles against the back wall and you step out, closing the door and locking him inside.

“HEY!” Phil screams, yanking at the bars. “LET ME OUT!”

“I’m so sorry!” you say. “But it’s really me. I have to hunt that bitch down and stab him with the stolen dagger and then our bodies will switch back and things will be normal again!”

“STAY AWAY FROM MY SISTER!” Phil roars, evidently not buying into the body-swap story.

Touched, you clasp your hands to your chest.

“Wait, you called me your sister!” you say. “Not stepsister! That’s so sweet. You’re my brother, Phil. And I’m going to make things right.”

Phil furrows his brow, confused, as you run out with Nancy and Robin in tow.

Jonathan and Steve meet you three out front.

“Your brother can’t drive for shit!” Steve says. “He just almost ran us over with his squad car.” “That wasn’t Phil!” you say. “It was Henry! He stole his cop car. But why? Where the fuck is he going?”

“Earlier this evening,” Nancy says urgently, “I heard you—uh, him—tell Billy that they should throw a homecoming party at the old mill, since they canceled the real dance.”

“That’s where he lives!" you say. "His homebase. It’s where I woke up this morning.”

“It’s his hunting ground,” Robin says darkly. “No doubt he’ll be killing teens left and right.”

“We have to stop him,” Jonathan says.

“No shit, Byers!” Steve says. “Let’s go!”

🔪🔪🔪

When you arrive at the mill, your group agrees to split up.

“Wait!” Steve says, before you dart off. “Hold out your arm.”

You hesitate and do as he says. He attaches his watch to your wrist.

“I always have it set for five minutes ahead,” Steve explains. “So I’m not late to stuff. So we have 30 minutes to find the Hacker, get the knife, and do the switch.”

“Everyone keep your phones close,” Jonathan says. “Move out!”

You divide and conquer, searching the party of wild, drunk teenagers for the evil man wearing your face. Eventually, you find him in an empty back room — towering over an unconscious Billy with an axe in hand, ready to whack the bully in the skull.

“WAIT!” you yell. “STOP!”

The Hacker freezes and turns, giving you an evil smile. You see the hilt of the magical dagger shining in a sheath attached to his belt.

“It’s you again,” he spits.

“Yes, hi,” you say. “It’s me. And I’m going to ask you to put the axe down before I make you.”

The Hacker cackles.

“Really?” he says. “Even in your pathetic, puny body, I could overpower you in half a second. Plus, this jerk makes your life hell. Don’t you want me to finish him off?”

“No!” you snap. “Because I’m not a monster like you!”

You notice Jonathan in a doorframe behind the Hacker, staying out of his eyeline.

“What’s your problem, man?” you ask, hoping to distract him so Jonathan can take him by surprise. “Why do you kill people?”

“Do you really want to know why?” Henry asks. You nod.

“Well, guess what: there’s no reason. None at all. I kill people because I think it’s fun!”

“You’re sick,” you mutter.

He grins evilly.

“And you’re my next vict—Argh!”

Jonathan interrupts the Hacker’s evil spiel by hitting him in the back of the skull with a fire extinguisher. The murderer crumples to the ground, the axe flying out of his reach.

He doesn’t stay down for long. Thankfully, you’re able to tackle him and snatch the magical knife into your hand.

You raise it above your head, and—

Beep. Beep. Beep.

You gasp and look at Steve’s watch. The timer is done. You’re out of time.

The Hacker laughs and laughs and laughs.

“Shit,” you say, tears of anger and despair welling up in your eyes. “Shit! I’m stuck like this!”

“I win!” the Hacker cackles. “You’ll be tossed in jail, and I’ll be free to keep killing. I think I'll stab your little boyfriend Steve next.”

You’re about to drop the dagger and run, unsure of where to go or what to do, when Jonathan says: “Wait, the clock tower!”

You whip your head over to look at him, brow furrowed.

“The clock tower in the library!” Jonathan continues. “It’s not going off! You still have time!”

Puzzle pieces fall into place.

“Steve sets his watch five minutes ahead,” you say, glancing at your wrist.

Henry Creel’s eyes widen, and then you plunge the dagger into his shoulder.

You feel strange, like you’re floating in the air. Then, suddenly, both you and the Hacker are thrown backward.

When you hazily blink and sit up, you see the Hacker doing the same.

“It worked!” you say, face splitting into a grin.

The Hacker glares at you. You feel a chill down your spine. But before he can do or say anything, your brother swoops in with his gun raised.

“Hands where I can see them!” Phil yells. The Hacker grumbles but obeys. You and Jonathan skirt away from him as Phil slaps handcuffs on the killer and drags him into a squad car.

“Y/N!” Robin shouts, running over with Nancy and Steve in tow. “Are you okay?!”

“I’m okay,” you say. You wince and grip your shoulder. “Except I reopened my shoulder wound, and I think I’m going to have really, really freaky dreams every night for the rest of my life.”

Phil races back over once his colleagues have Henry Creel in custody, fussing over you like a mother (brother) hen. You find yourself seated in the back of an ambulance with a freshly bandaged shoulder.

After Phil steps away to debrief Chief Hopper on the arrest (and to lock the magical dagger away once and for all), Steve wanders over.

“Can I sit here?” he asks, gesturing vaguely next to you on the back bumper of the ambulance. You nod and scoot over.

“How’s your arm?” Steve asks.

“It’s mine again,” you say, “so it feels amazing, despite the stab wound.”

“I’m definitely glad to see you as yourself again,” Steve says, cheeks flushing pink. He looks down at his fidgeting hands, the epitome of bashful, when he adds, “Actually, now that you’re yourself again, I was going to ask if you wanted to go on a date with me sometime.”

Your insides melt.

“Really?” you practically squeal, trying not to sound too eager. “Ah, I mean. That would be cool, or whatever.”

Before you can convince yourself not to, you give Steve a quick kiss on the cheek. He beams at you, but you both roll your eyes when you hear Robin, Jonathan, and Nancy hoot and holler from a few yards away.

Everything will be fine, now. You’ll be fine. That’s what you tell yourself when Phil drives you home and LeAnn gives you a million hugs and says how happy she is that you’re okay. That’s what you tell yourself when you fall asleep after having a lovely text conversation with Steve. That’s what you tell yourself when you have nightmares about being stuck as the Hacker forever, nightmares where he escapes jail and kills you (and everyone you love) once and for all.

But you tell yourself it’s fine, that you’re fine. That nothing is wrong, despite the chill down your spine that can’t quite go away.

🔪🔪🔪

a/n a happy yet spooky ending. is everything really fine? is the hacker really gone for good? maybe I'll write a sequel one day. or maybe I won't, as to not torture y/n any more.

tag list: @hollandweather @starry-eyed-steve @aloneinthehellfire @a-dealwith-god

if any of my mutuals (or anyone else) would like to be tagged in any of my future steve fics, lmk!

#st fic: superfreaky #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x fem!reader #steve harrington x you #steve harrington x y/n

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penny00dreadful · 11 months

Text

Return of The King - Part 9 - Complete

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 AO3

It seemed obvious that things would go down the way that they did.

They’d never been given any guarantees that things would be easy now that Steve had come back from the dead and was by their side again.

They’d never been told they could win.

They’d never been told that Steve was impenetrable.

They’d never been told Venca couldn’t take over again.

They’d all… dropped their guard.

They were walking through the barren wasteland of an entirely different world, one which Henry Creel had corrupted and torn apart to fit what he wanted.

Everyone was tense. The military presence that surrounded them, walking with them on all sides, felt incredibly confining.

Restrictive and stifling.

Like they were all expected to fall in line whenever they said boo.

Well if they thought that then these fuckers would have another thing coming. Eddie had never really done well with authority and he sure as shit wasn’t about to start now.

He got that from Wayne, though Wayne was a bit smarter about it. He knew when to pick his fights and when to walk away but even now Eddie could see his uncle bristling under the soldiers gaze.

Nancy was doing no better but she didn’t bother to hide her animosity, openly glaring at all of them and purposely planting herself behind the soldier that had condescended to her about having a gun.

Haunting every step he took like some terrible shadow.

They couldn’t get a read on Vecna yet but Owens had theorised, based on Vecna’s patterns in the past, that he would hunker down somewhere of significance to him now that the Upside-Down version of his home had been all but destroyed.

And the only other place of such major significance they could think of was the Lab.

Owens had advised that the best way to get inside and get down to the levels below where Creel would most likely be hiding, was through the front door.

Which seemed like a hell of a trap to Eddie but apparently he wasn’t the one in charge, no matter how he, Will and Mike grumbled that they would have definitely trapped the front fucking door if it was one of their campaigns.

They had just begun to walk past the treeline, entering the very edge of the woods when Eddie felt Steve start to grow tense beside him again. But it wasn’t a predatory tension this time, it wasn’t one made to defend or attack.

It was a tension of fear.

“Stevie?”

Steve’s shoulders were so ridgid it was a wonder they didn’t snap off. Looking up at him, Eddie felt his stomach drop all the way through to the centre of the earth at what he saw in front of him.

Because Steve’s bright yellow eyes snapped to him as they widened in shock and fear, the smallest trickle of red bleeding into them, like a droplet of paint into a glass of water.

Eddie could feel his heart thumping as he stared, stopped dead in the middle of their procession along with Steve, who was as still as stone, so unmoving it was downright unnerving.

It must have barely been half a second, half of a half of a second as they stared at each other but Eddie could see what was about to happen only a moment before it did.

He threw his hand out, trying to stop him, trying to reach Steve in time but it was too late.

Steve looked down at him, a world of pain and misery, resignation and realisation at what was about to happen to him and he opened his mouth.

“Run.”

Eddie felt his body wrenched around against his will, his legs pumping and his lungs burning as he ran, pelted, sprinted as fast as he could.

Away.

There were footsteps behind, in front of, surrounding him. Wayne, the Fellowship, the military, were running too, in the same direction.

When he glanced around, thinking he could spare the second and not run into a fucking tree, he could see painted on their faces, the same kind of fear and lack of control in everyone else that he felt.

It didn’t feel like it had before when Steve had Commanded them. Back then it had felt warm and soft and safe. He’d made it pleasant for everyone whenever he Commanded them to do anything, made it easy, made them want to do it.

It was nothing like that now.

Now Eddie was driven by an all encompassing, blinding fear to get away, get as far away as you can and then go some more. It was. His mind was still his, mostly, but his body was not. It was like there was the crack of a whip behind him, like he was some abused workhorse, forced to move. Like he was a brain stuck in a jar on top of a robot or something, completely helpless to force himself to a stop or to turn and run back towards his boy.

The military was quickly outstripping them, well trained for a command to run. Beside them Wayne was holding his own surprisingly well, fit for a man of his age after so many years of manual labour.

Every member of the Fellowship was following.

Every single one.

Except-

“Go, Birdie!” Steve’s begging shouts behind them were fading, his voice high and panicked and painful to hear. “I can’t keep him out much longer, please! Please go!”

Eddie could just about make out Robin screaming back “Fuck you, you asshole! Not a chance!”

As awful as it was, as terrible, awful, and unforgivable as it was to think it, Eddie was happy that Steve wasn’t alone for this.

He was pretty sure Vecna himself wouldn’t have been able to rip Robin away.

Not after what she’d been through, not after she’d nearly lay down to die next to his body, not after she just got him back.

She would refuse to lose him again and if it came down to it she would die with him this time.

Of that, Eddie had absolutely no doubt.

He hated to think that it might come to that, that they might lose Steve again.

He couldn’t… he couldn’t.

Not after he’d just gotten him.

Not after he’d just had him… been allowed to keep him. He was his. Steve belonged to him. To them. Vecna couldn’t…

He just couldn’t take him away again!

The rest of the Fellowship wouldn’t survive another blow like that. They wouldn’t survive losing Steve again.

And Eddie wouldn’t be able to help them this time. He wouldn’t be able to pull them back from the edge, because…

Because he’d be right there, going over that edge with them.

As it was Eddie was already half frantic, his brain firing off in all directions. One side was trying to halt his body to turn around and run straight back to Steve, wrap his arms and legs around him and refuse to let him go for anything.

The other side was conjuring up the most horrific imagery of Steve completely under Vecna’s thrall, ripping Robin to shreds in the most gruesome way possible because that was how Vecna played these games.

He’d then let Steve wake up for long enough to see what he had done to his soulmate and Steve’s mind would be broken beyond repair, easy for Vecna to take over again and kill every other member of the Fellowship in the exact same way. Each time waking up to see just what he had done, falling more and more into despair and madness until he was nothing but an empty shell of a person, somewhere where Vecna could live permanently if he wanted to.

Shit was that why he had never gone through any of his own gates? Could he not? Did he need some way to… to wear someone to enact his global domination?

Eddie wasn’t sure. His mind was too foggy, he couldn’t concentrate. All he could do was remember the fear and defeat in Steve’s eyes as he realised what was happening to him, what he would have to do.

He was picturing the scene, over and over again. Steve cradling Robin’s eviscerated corpse in his arms as he screamed himself bloody over it. Sometimes Robin was whole, just completely torn open at the stomach and chest. Sometimes she was scattered in pieces. Sometimes Steve had ripped her throat out, her blood coating his mouth, all the way down his neck, the tears cutting clean lines through the red as he went hoarse from his cries before he broke.

Eddie’s lungs were burning, his eyes were burning, his shins and knees were burning and he could barely see in front of him, his body on autopilot as it was, still running, but slowing.

Finally the Command was wearing off.

Finally, they could go back, mount a rescue mission, chop Vecna up into shitty little pieces, kiss and hug and hide Steve away in his pocket forever so nothing could ever touch him again.

Maybe Eddie would be the only one doing that.

But they needed Robin too. Can’t have one without the other and Eddie refused to get Steve back and not have a pointy elbowed snarky lesbian at his side.

He refused.

They were going to go get Steve and Robin and they were going to be safe.

They still had time, surely?

At least he thought so, until he became aware of another sound around him.

The old familiar screeching. The flapping wings. The sounds of too long arms being dragged along the ground. The pounding of clawed feet getting closer. The terrible roar of a petal faced monstrosity.

The predator was gone.

Left behind.

Now there was only prey.

Ripe to be picked off.

“Shelter!” Wayne shouted over everything, panting with the extra effort of speaking, everyone still being pushed forwards. “Too open! Need shelter!”

What did it matter? Did they even know if they could stop running to even find somewhere to hide?

Now that he could feel the Command leaving them behind, he could feel the toll on his body. He’d have to keep running using his own mental will power. But that was next to impossible because all he wanted to do, all he could think about was turning back and running to Steve. He had no willpower besides that. He had to get back to him.

He couldn’t lose him again.

“Oakview houses!” Nancy shouted. “To the left!”

Their bodies were still being pushed in one direction, otherwise Eddie would have already broken away.

He didn’t have time to think, didn’t really want to think right now, all of this was just so fucked up, it was so fucked, it was so fucked.

He followed without complaint or input when the group as a whole veered to the left and he threw himself through the front door that two of the soldiers were holding open, able to stop their running which gave him momentary hope that he would be able to stop too.

He passed through the threshold, landing in a hallway and just… stopped.

He froze there for a second, a moment, just to be sure he wasn’t about to sprint off again, just to be sure his body was his.

Okay, okay.

He could go back for them.

The front door was blocked, everyone was trying to keep the creatures out.

Maybe there was a back door, a window or a garage or something he could use to get out-

“Eddie!”

Nancy’s voice cracked through his head, bringing him back to the present.

She was shouting at him. Something… he wasn’t really sure what but he went stumbling backward as Will yanked the shotgun from his grip and whirled around, firing off through the window.

What were they doing?

They didn’t have fucking time to fight of monsters and shit!

Steve and Robin were out there alone and they were all wasting time?!

“We have to go back!” Eddie shouted, already starting to move. “They need us! We have to help! We have to-”

There were hands on him, multiple hands as the kids tried to shove him back, away from the door. They seemed to have formed some kind of wall, surrounding him, keeping him from going any further.

Will was shooting side by side with Wayne, El was ripping demogorgons apart with her fucking mind, Dustin, Mike, Lucas and Max were glaring at him like he was being fucking unreasonable which he wasn’t.

He could easily get past the kids, they weren’t as strong as he was and they’d left a gap in their ranks just behind him.

Eddie turned and bolted, only managing to get two steps in before Jonathan frantically cried out “Argyle!” and Eddie found himself bodily slammed to the side.

Argyle had him pinned, pressed into the wall, all of his body weight up against his chest, both hands on his upper arms holding him in place with a surprisingly strong and unforgiving grip.

Eddie tried to wrench out of it, tried to push, tried punching him in the arms and chest, yanking at his hair, kicking him in the legs and shins.

They weren’t listening. Nobody was listening!

“Get the fuck off of me! We have to go back! We have to get-”

“It’s all good, Eddster.” Argyle gave him an easy smile, doing his best to avoid the blows but taking them with a placid face whenever they landed, like Eddie wasn’t putting everything he had into fighting him off.

“Please man-" Eddie begged, he just needed him to understand, "please, I have to get to him, he can’t die on me again.” His body was betraying him, the fight was starting to leave him and left in his way was just the devastating realisation that he could very well lose Steve again. He could already be lost. He hadn’t even had him for that long, how was that fair? How was that fair?!

He couldn’t even see Argyle’s face anymore, his vision was completely blurry with tears and there was a painful lump in his throat that he had to fight to speak around. “I just got him- I just got him. He's mine to keep, you can’t ask me to- I can’t let him die again. I need him here with me. Please.” Eddie whispered out.

He would have been embarrassed about it if he was in his right mind and he would be worried Argyle wouldn’t be able to hear him if they weren’t so close. “I can’t leave him behind. Not again. Not after last time. Don’t ask me to do it again.”

Argyle raised a hand and slowly untangled Eddie’s fist from his hair, holding it close to his chest.

“We’ll get your man back, my dude. It’s okay. No one here is going to leave him behind.”

There was gunfire and shouts and monsters bellowing all around them and then there was Eddie and Argyle in their own little bubble, Eddie trying and failing miserably not to break down and Argyle taking it with grace.

By the time the last monster had been felled and the noise had quietened down to heavy breathing and guns being reloaded, Eddie was swamped in Argyle’s arms somehow managing to pull himself together.

Mostly.

Almost.

Somewhat.

“Ed.”

He looked up, lifting his head from Argyle’s shoulder to find his uncle watching him with a determined set to his jaw.

“We do not leave anyone behind. Not Steve and certainly not Robin.”

There was a scoff next to him and without even taking a breath, Wayne rounded on the soldier, the one who seemed to believe himself to be the most important and pointed an angry finger at him.

“You are not in charge, here.”

Both Nancy and Jonathan had moved next to him, bracketing Wayne. Argyle unwound his arms from around Eddie’s shoulders, handing him over to the kids while he placed himself at Jonathan’s side.

The kids had been hovering nearby, watching the slump to Eddie’s shoulders and the complete despair that had overtaken him, despair that he had never shown in the whole time after Steve’s death. The raw panic and fear and anguish that had never once shown its face when he had let them lean on him, steady.

It appeared that they thought now was the time to return the favour, waiting their turn to flood him with affection, each and every one surrounding him and practically being the only thing still holding him upright.

While the soldiers and the others argued in the background, Doctor Owens was watching it all happen with his mouth firmly shut, the kids surrounded him with arms over him and hands on shoulders, wherever they could reach, trying to comfort them any way they could.

“Eddie.”

He glanced up from his crumpled position against the wall, Dustin right in front of him with Erica tucked under one arm, staring at him with the most resilient determination he’d ever seen on the kids face.

And that was saying something.

“No matter what happens we are not losing Steve again.” Dustin said. “And we are not losing Robin. We’ll get them both back.”

Erica nodded. “Scoops Troop for life.”

“Vecna has fucked up this time.” Max said from his side. “He took Steve from us once before and there is no way in hell we would ever let that happen again.”

“Vecna can have the whole goddamn world if he wants.” Lucas looked up at him. Or- shit, across at him. These kids were getting so fucking tall. “But we’ll never let him have Steve.”

The rest of the kids huddled around him were nodding in agreement, the same determination visible on their faces and Eddie felt like he was going to cry all over again but for completely different reasons this time.

“I am going to reach out.” El said quietly from her spot on Dustin’s other side and next to Mike. “I will see if I can find them.”

“Are you going to be able to without some static or something?” Max asked.

“I should be okay. As long as everyone keeps quiet.” She sent a pointed look over towards the soldiers who seemed to have lost their argument and were grumbling about it.

They looked at El like she was insane but a pointed glare from Owens kept them from making any out loud complaint.

When El closed her eyes and sat herself down cross legged on the floor, the others followed, surrounding her and waiting with bated breath for her to please dear god tell them that Steve and Robin were still okay.

“They’ve moved.” She said, tilting her head a little to the side as blood began to trickle out of her nose.

Eddie had the horrible realisation that maybe he shouldn’t have let her do this? What if they were both dead and she had found their bodies? What if Steve had gone feral and ripped Robin to pieces like he’d feared? What if she opened herself up to Vecna? What if? What if? What if?

“They’re singing to each other.” El tilted her head back the other way before softly warbling out “-more than ever. And if you only hold me tight. We'll be holding on forever.”

“So they’re okay?” Eddie said out loud before he could stop himself, forgetting for a moment that she needed the quiet but she didn’t seem mad about it.

“They’re not hurt. But they’re scared. And angry. They’re-”

El’s breath stuttered and all of the colour drained from her face. She reached a hand out towards the group, looking for someone, anyone to hold on to. Max was the quickest to react, catching her hand up in a firm grip and giving it a squeeze.

“I don’t want to go back there. I don’t want to go back.” El whimpered, snapping her eyes open.

“Go back where, Ellie?” Max asked, pulling her into a hug. “Where are they?”

“They’re- they’re in the Rainbow Room.”

“Oh fuck.” Max tightened her arms. “Of course he’d bring them there.”

“What’s the Rainbow Room?”

“It’s where that bastard-” Max pointed at Owens who had also gone pale at the mention of it, “and everyone else like him kept her and other children captive for years so they could run fucking experiments on them!”

Well apparently there were other bits of the fucking story that Eddie had been missing out on because if he had known that Owens was involved in that part of everything he would have punched him in the face the first chance he got.

He probably also wouldn’t have been so okay with Steve agreeing to fucking experimentation to see if they could make him human again, what the fuck?

He wasn’t sure how Nancy and Jonathan had restrained themselves for so long. This didn’t seem to be new information to them at all.

“Do you think we can do this without you?” Eddie asked her, finding his voice surprisingly strong for how fucked up he was feeling inside. “You don’t have to go back, no one can force you.”

There was a grunt from one of the soldiers, who all looked remarkably unsurprised at the news of child experimentation.

“No one can force you.” Eddie snapped in their direction, feeling that little bit of his old self from the last month come back.

“I-” El hesitated, unwrapping herself from around Max. “I’m not sure. Maybe you could if it wasn’t for-” she took in a deep breath, meeting his eyes dead on. “If it wasn’t for Steve. Henry is weak and vulnerable. But if he gets full control over Steve then I will be the only one able to stop him.”

“El.” Eddie sighed, trying not to think too hard about it but being forced to anyway. Fuck this apocalypse. Fuck Vecna. Fuck everything. “We can’t ask you to do that.”

“No one is asking me. I am doing it. I can’t let Steve fall to darkness this way. He wouldn’t want it.”

Eddie nodded and thought that maybe he had leant her one too many fantasy books but the sentiment was the same. They couldn’t leave Steve to that fate and they couldn’t let Vecna win.

Vecna would not take the soul of their party again.

The kids helped El and Eddie back to their feet, putting the two of them right at the middle of their circle as everyone made a plan to get to Hawkins Lab in one piece and maybe, finally, hopefully kill Vecna for good this time.

Leaving the house through the front door was one of the most surreal experiences of Eddie’s life. He thought he might have been freaking out for a few minutes at most but seeing the carnage outside and the state the house was in told him it must have been a lot longer than a few minutes.

Bodies of demogorgons, demodogs and demobats were piled so high that the ground was barely visible. Some of the carcases were still on fire, smouldering away in heaps, rivers of black demonic blood flowing through any gap they could find. It looked like nearly every creature in the whole of the Upside Down had come for them and they had all managed to fight them off without any of Eddie’s input, though there were probably still plenty of creatures around.

The military probably helped some, Eddie was loath to admit, but looking at the majority of bodies ripped in half or torn limb from limb it was clear that El had done a lot of the heavy lifting.

That must have been such a metal sight, he was bummed to have missed it.

The stench was almost unbearable. The smell of wet, cold rot, charred flesh, black blood and festering entrails assaulted them as they picked their way around the pile.

It stayed in their nose long after they’d left the bodies behind.

Why had it smelled so rotted?

It was like Vecna was predicting his own death, like the creatures under his control were preemptively decaying from the inside out, the way they might do once he died.

Eddie didn’t fucking know. He didn’t fucking know how any of this worked.

Would these creatures go back to what they once were once Vecna was dead? Or would they fall when their master did, tied to him in life and in death with no chance no matter what?

He had no idea.

When the spectre of Hawkins Lab loomed at them through the trees, everyone’s steps faltered, but none more than El’s and Owens.

Not a single one of them wanted to go inside.

But Steve was in there. Robin was in there.

Vecna was in there.

They had to. There was no way in hell any of them would be pulling out now.

Eddie watched the way the kids squared their shoulders and held their heads high, being the first to pick up their pace and walk into the building through the front door.

They had been there from the start and it seemed they were determined to be there at the end.

The soul of the Fellowship was in there. Their babysitter was in there. There was no way they were turning back now.

“We won’t be able to use the elevator.” Owens muttered, subdued, casting nervous eyes around the high ceilings of the reception hall. “There’s a hidden emergency staircase behind the receptionist's desk that we can go down.”

“Fantastic.” Eddie rolled his eyes, sticking close to the kids as they charged ahead, wrenching open the door that Owens had pointed at and immediately getting bowled backwards as a barrage of vines shot out, attempting to ensnare all of them.

“Fuck this shit!” Dustin cried out, wrenching an axe from his backpack.

The kids were fucking vicious, barely taking a breath as they laid into the vines before anyone older could raise a weapon. Years and years of lost childhood, death, trauma and anger were spilling out of them as they assaulted the vines in front of them, chopping them up into small pieces, burning them, shooting them, tearing them apart and stabbing them with complete reckless abandon.

When the last vine retreated, slithering backwards into the darkness the kids didn’t even hesitate.

“Come on!” Will growled, a level of rage in him Eddie had never thought possible. “We’re fucking finishing this!”

Eddie glanced back at Jonathan, who looked like he’d never seen Will before, staring at him in awe, a small smile creeping over his face.

“You heard ‘em.” He said when he caught Eddie looking. Eddie could only nod in response and follow the kids into the bowels of the building.

The journey down was dark, it was echoey and there was the sound of something steadily dripping, almost matching up with their steps bouncing off the walls.

Their flashlights cast shadows across the walls and every turn down another flight of stairs had Eddie tensing, expecting to find Vecna or Evil Steve waiting for them in the darkness.

It all felt very Khazad-dûm to him.

Every time he glanced down into the darkness he was almost surprised that he couldn’t see the shape of a man in shadow, yet maybe greater still whom terror seemed to go before standing in the darkness, fire rising up to meet him, catching his great sword and whip of many thongs ablaze.

Okay.

Maybe that was a little much but he really felt like it wouldn’t be the strangest thing to happen if a Balrog came to block their path.

Though he had no idea who the Gandalf stand-in would be.

Probably El.

It didn’t really seem to matter anyway now that they had reached the bottom and there was no corrupted Maiar there for El to tell “You cannot pass.”

There was just a security door.

Though he wasn’t quite sure which was more terrifying.

Jesus H. Christ, he just hoped Steve and Robin were okay. Wished for it. Prayed for it.

The apprehension didn’t lighten any as they all flooded into the narrow hallways at once, sticking as close together as they possibly could and keeping their eyes peeled in every direction apart from El, who was staring straight ahead, almost refusing to look anywhere else but at her destination.

A pair of nondescript double doors met them, standing innocently closed and silent.

“Ready?” El asked, not taking her eyes off of it.

“I feel like we should probably be the ones asking you that.” Eddie answered with a hand on her shoulder.

“Then I am ready.”

She threw her hand out and with a scream, blasted the doors clean off their hinges and back into the room.

The second after the explosion and through the chaos of all of them crowding into the room, Eddie heard a cry of “Steve, stop!” in a familiar voice.

It was like Eddie had tunnel vision. He couldn’t register anything else in the room, not the large, looming lich that had appeared almost slithering through the broken mirror at the back, not the rest of the Fellowship, battle cries and all as they didn’t even give Vecna a chance to speak, just started releasing a barrage of fire down on top of him, not even his uncle who scrambled to hold him back, but lost his grip.

All he could see were the two in front of him.

Robin had her back to them, holding her hands up in a placating gesture in front of Steve who was standing with his back against one of the walls, his eyes blood red and his face twisted into a terrible snarl.

He was staring at them all with an unreserved hunger, looking like he would be ready to tear them apart at a moment's notice.

So why hadn’t he yet?

“Evie!” Robin shouted. “Look at me!”

Steve’s bright red eyes snapped over to her and his posture immediately softened, though the snarl remained in place. She placed a hand on either side of his face and Eddie half expected them to be ripped off, but Steve didn’t even flinch.

He leant into her grip, eyes slowly blinking at her.

“Good. That’s good, Evie. Just keep looking at me.”

Steve made another sound out of his throat, not quite a snarl but not soft either as Eddie approached, chaos raining down behind him.

Just as he was about arms length from Robin, Steve snapped his eyes up again, but he wasn’t looking at Eddie, he was looking at Vecna who had a hand out towards him, seemingly trying to call him over, to thrall him.

Steve’s eyes fluttered ever so slightly, getting a glazed and hazy look about them before Robin moved, putting herself in between Vecna and Steve, practised, like she’d done it a few times already.

She was imploring Steve to look at her again.

Which he did, much to Vecna’s irritation, if the screech he let out was anything to go by. It seemed that this was a well worn dance at this stage, between the three of them. Vecna would try to gain more control over Steve and Robin would stand in the way.

Vecna’s frustration could be felt and if Eddie had to guess, he was also reeling from the fact that the Mind Flayer wasn’t answering anymore.

Eddie would bet his guitar that if Vecna tried to hurt Robin, Steve would attack, so that gave her an unusual level of protection.

He felt more than saw Steve’s eyes move to him. That predator's gaze settled on him and chilled him down to the bone.

Though Steve snarled and his body went tense, he didn’t move to attack like he had before, just stared him down like he was waiting for a challenge.

Robin took the risk, allowing herself a lightning quick turn of the head to see who was behind her.

“Evie. It’s Eddie. It’s our Eddie, your Eddie. You don’t want to hurt him. He’s on our side. He’s on our side.” She extended an arm behind her and held her hand open.

Eddie stretched his own hand out, eyes still locked on Steve while Steve watched Robin’s fingers curl around his and pull him into their little bubble.

He could hear the fight going on behind them, could hear the shouts of anger and the rush of bullets, Vecna’s inhuman screeching, El’s screaming, could feel the heat from fire that was just a little too close for comfort, could feel the static of psychokinetic energy around them but couldn’t take his eyes off Steve for anything in that moment.

It was like time stopped around them when Steve’s blood red eyes met his, full of hunger and pain and a guarded watchfulness. He stepped in close, close enough to touch and Steve’s eyes tracked over his face and down to his neck, where the band-aid still covered the little marks left there by Steve barely twelve hours ago.

Something in Steve’s eye’s flickered, getting softer for just a moment before they went hard again, fangs bared and face morphing in that terrible, horrible, twisted way, the same as it had done back at the van. More angular, more pointed, more severe, waves of danger and anger radiating off of him.

Eddie took a wary step back and Steve lunged before he or Robin could do much more. He grabbed violently at their joined arms and swung them around, sending the two of them crashing into the wall behind him with such force Eddie was pretty sure his brains were spilling out of his ears.

He and Robin were still somehow holding hands and as he struggled to see through his swimming vision, he squeezed tight, waiting with bated breath for her to squeeze back.

When she did he let out a sigh of relief, blinking the haze away and trying to find Steve in the chaos, wondering why he wasn’t being fucking drained dry yet in a very unsexy way.

But Steve had his back to them, grappling with a vine that had curled around the space he and Robin had just been thrown out of, almost wrestling with it as it tried to wrench itself out of his grasp.

Steve was holding on tight, each pull of the vine, trying to retreat to Vecna, pulling Steve forward little by little while Vecna screamed, floating in the air above a lake of flames, the force of his telekinetic blast pushing everyone away from him and keeping them there.

Vecna/Henry/One looked fucked up.

One of his arms was missing and his left leg was charred almost beyond recognition. His body was riddled with holes and slash marks that were staying open but refused to bleed, his face twisted in concentration and his whole body shaking as he tried to keep everyone away.

El stood against the onslaught, her own hand extended and a silent scream coming from her mouth, completely soaked in blood from the nose down.

Steve pulled at the vine again, wrapping it around his arm like it was some kind of life line and when the vine tried to pull away again, he didn’t resist, going with it as it careened back through the space towards Vecna.

El noticed.

Redirecting her hand just slightly, Steve was slingshotted forwards until he crashed into the mangled and mottled form of Vecna, wrapping his inhumanly strong legs around his body to keep him in place and, just like he had with the demogorgon at the van, stuck his fingers into Vecna’s mouth.

One hand began to pull down while the other began to pull up, a monstrous roar ringing throughout the room from deep within Steve’s chest, looking every bit the animal that he was in that moment as Vecna’s own screams of pain joined him.

It began very slowly then happened all at once, like once Steve had created the first tear at the corner of Vecna’s mouth, the rest all went like pulling a thread from a sweater.

Just as the sound felt like it reached a crescendo, Eddie worrying that he was already bleeding from his ears, there was a disgusting, stomach churning squelching noise as Vecna’s temples caved in with a horrific crunch and Steve finally managed to tear his head apart.

Almost in slow motion, the two of them went crashing to the floor, directly into the roaring flames below, no longer visible.

Eddie scrambled to his feet, screaming Steve’s name along with everyone else, ready to jump in with the rest of them and pull him out, third degree burns be damned, they couldn’t lose him now. They couldn’t.

But just as they all reached the edge, Robin and Eddie still with their hands clutched between them, a figure stumbled out of the flames.

Steve collapsed to the floor, his clothes mostly burned away and half of a crushed and charred skull clutched in his hand.

He looked slightly worse for wear, covered in blood and burns but there was far less damage to his skin than Eddie would have thought possible. His clothes were singed and in tatters but thankfully, (for everyone else at least, not for Eddie, even though now was not the time) they kept his decency.

Pushing himself up to his knees and looking at them all, Eddie nearly cried in relief seeing those yellow cat-like eyes back again and the soft tilt to Steve’s brow.

He and Robin shot forward, enveloping Steve in hugs far too vigorous for the burns currently covering him, though he didn’t complain. The kids were right behind them, throwing themselves into the pile without a care in the world.

Steve looked around at all of them, the burn on the side of his face already starting to heal, and opened his mouth to say something when El cut him off with a gasp.

“We need to go! Now!” She jumped out of the big group hug. “The gates are closing and I don’t know if I’ll be able to open them again!”

No rest for the wicked, it seemed. Or for… whatever this Fellowship was.

Steve snapped his mouth closed but then opened it again just as quickly. “What are we waiting for then, let’s go!”

In the rush to get back up the stairs and out of the woods, Eddie was still desperate to hold Steve’s hand like some kind of teenage girl, take a moment to hold him close or tell him how much he cares about him or any of those other lovey dovey things but they didn’t have time.

Robin held on tight to his hand the whole way through ascending from the depths of the lab and Eddie could tell she was trying to stop herself from having a panic attack, probably reasoning she could have as many panic attacks as her heart desired once they got out of this fucking dimension and back into their world.

Eddie could relate.

He was a second away from jumping for joy or collapsing into a heap, he didn’t know which.

Maybe both at the same time.

“Closest gate?” Jonathan shouted back at them.

“Fred!” Nancy called back.

The sky above them was already starting to shift from its ever present red lightning and dark clouds back to a yellow gaseous form, almost like some kind of fucked up watercolour painting.

As they ran through the forest and down the streets they came across democreatures that seemed to have dropped dead with no cause and others that turned and ran at the sight of them.

One or two just watched them pass from a distance, tilting their heads, almost curious.

The glowing red energy from the gate ahead was waning, spitting and knitting together in fits and starts, already much smaller than any of them had ever seen it before.

They practically shoved the kids through first despite their protest and sent the military through just after. Eddie had half a mind to leave Owens behind but despite his anger, couldn’t leave someone here to suffer a fate worse than death.

When Owens disappeared to the other side, Argyle went next, followed by Nancy, Jonathan and Wayne, the three of them giving Eddie, Robin and Steve significant looks as if to say ‘don’t fight about who goes last for too long.’

They looked at each other before Eddie held his other hand out, taking Steve’s. Robin was still attached to his other side.

“We go together, no arguing Mr. Self-Sacrifice.”

Steve scowled at him but shrugged.

“Okay.” He reached over and shoved Robin through, her shouts of profanity getting lost in the noise as her weight pulled Eddie through which in turn all but yanked Steve into the Rightside-Up.

Eddie had landed with a crash half on top of Robin and then Steve’s weight came crushing down on the two of them in some kind of ridiculous imitation of that movie night on the couch.

They both rolled off Robin as quickly as they could while she continued to curse at them, hoping they hadn’t flattened her down to a pancake.

The rest of their group were in similar situations, groaning on the ground or just staring up at the stars in the sky, not quite believing that it was really over.

“Dusty?!” A woman's voice called through the night, the light of a flashlight bouncing around as a car door slammed closed and someone ran towards them.

“Mom?!” Dustin screeched, shooting to his feet and being crushed to his mothers chest, barely able to get a breath in.

“Oh, thank god you’re all-oh!” She raised what looked like a walkie to her mouth pressing and releasing the button, trying to speak into it. “Hopper, they’re here! They’re through!”

“Give me that.” Dustin snatched the walkie from his mothers hand to her admonishment, pressing the button down. “Fred’s gate. We came through Fred’s gate. All present and accounted for. Vecna’s dead. For good this time.”

Eddie let his head thunk back down onto the asphalt, with a huge sigh of relief. Robin and Steve’s hands in each of his.

They’d done it.

It was over.

They got out.

It was done.

Steve’s eyes stayed yellow.

No matter how long he stared at himself in the mirror, no matter how hard he tried to will himself to make them change back, to not look so alien, they stayed yellow.

Eddie didn’t care much. Steve was Steve, human eye colour or not, he was just happy to have him in his bed every night since the defeat and the definitive closure of the gates.

It wasn’t like it had been when Steve had died. Back then the gates had gone dark but the grooves extended down so deep the bottom couldn’t be seen.

Now, though the grooves were still there, the deepest of them was only a few feet down and there was no longer a lingering sense of dread surrounding them.

Steve had all but moved in with him and Wayne. He still kept a small amount of his stuff back at his parents house and he would go back every so often but it was only for a couple of hours at a time.

He always ended every night in bed with Eddie.

Eddie could tell it was weighing on him, the vampire thing. When they were all at war, Steve could deal with it. He could have the extra abilities and be content with them because he might need them in the future, to keep everyone safe.

But now they were all but useless. He refused to use them outside of anything lifesaving and nothing lifesaving came up in the weeks that followed, because why would it?

Things were back to normal now.

Or as normal as they could be.

It killed Eddie to see Steve so resigned to his fate of watching everyone around him slowly die of old age, so much so that he finally conceded and agreed with Steve about meeting with Owens to call in that favour.��

To see if he could change him back.

It was a gruelling process, going through experiment after experiment, testing different theories and suggestions, oftentimes leaving Steve weak or irritable or starving.

Eddie would have accused Owens of willful torture if he, Wayne, Claudia and Hopper hadn’t been sitting in on those experiments, listening to Steve and Owens bouncing ideas off each other about how they could get it to work.

It wasn’t an evil scientist doing something cruel, it was a scientist and a vampire fumbling around in the dark trying to find the right answer.

But Steve was determined. He always was. That was just who he was.

Their last ditch attempt came in the form of a full body blood transfusion.

Owens theorised that the ‘affliction’ was in Steve’s blood, in his body and the only possible way to get it out was to cycle all of the blood out while simultaneously replacing it with new human blood.

It would take days, constant monitoring and gallons and gallons of blood.

If one drop of Steve’s blood remained in his body, it would ‘infect’ the rest of the new blood and they would be back to square one.

Steve was put under, lying in a coma in a hospital bed for four solid days while a total of sixty units of blood were slowly pumped into his body on one side while he was drained of blood from the other.

Eddie was by his side the entire time, as was Robin. The both of them were so terrified and so hopeful about what this could mean.

But by the end of the fourth day, when the last unit of blood had been pumped in and the tubes and monitors were removed from his body, waiting for him to wake up, both Eddie and Robin were almost crazy with impatience and worry.

And when Steve opened his eyes on the morning of the fifth day, smiling at them, that beautifully familiar honey-brown looking at them with an entirely human gaze, the three of them started crying and Eddie was sure that he would never, ever let his boy go for anything in the world.

Immortality or not, they belonged to each other forever.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 AO3

Anniversary announcement post

It's finished! I hope you all loved it as much as I did, though it gave me trouble in some parts, I love Steve and Eddie in this and I had such a good goddamned time being in Eddie's head through all of this, he's so much fun!

Much love to all of you who've stuck with me through this drought and I'm hoping the incoming wave of fics I have ready for you is enough to make up for it. 🖤

@romanticdestruction, @darkwitchoferie, @justforthedead89, @didntwant2come, @estrellami-1, @warlordess, @goodolefashionedloverboi, @weeennussy, @studentlife-with-sassyaf-friends, @bestwifehaver

As always, my biggest thanks and much love to @hbyrde36 for the beta work with this and for supporting me through the end of this story kicking my ass.

Much love and thanks also goes out to the STWG who helped me push past a monumental writers block and finally get this story finished. 😊

#steddie #steve and robin #steve x eddie #stranger things #eddie x steve #eddie and robin #steddie fic #stranger things fic #fanfic #penny00dreadful #steddie vampire fic #steddie fanfic #vampire au #steddie vampire au #vampire steve #vampire steve harrington #Return of The King #ao3 #pennys anniversary event

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