#the reason is because Eddie has to die by bat venom and his body has to be left in the upside down

[the-angst-chronicles-fanworks]

Made myself sad here we go

Nancy, Robin, and Steve come back from torching Vecna to find Eddie bleeding out.

Between their combined first aid knowledge, they are able to stem the flow and get him out of the upside down and to a hospital, in time to save him.

Over the next year, Steve and Eddie grow close, into very good friends. Maybe something more.

Then Vecna comes back. The whole group works together to fight him. They lose.

Steve wakes up back on that day, when they first went against Vecna to save Max. He has a chance, a do-over. He thought thinks it was a silly dream at first, but everything plays out the same.

He has a year. He and Eddie fall in love. The world ends. Steve wakes up, back on that day.

Steve loses count of the loops. It’s hard to keep track, anyway, when the loop is so long. But he falls deeper in love with Eddie every time, and it crushes him when he wakes up back in 1986 and Eddie doesn’t remember

And nothing Steve is doing is working. Every time, Vecna wins. Because what Steve doesn’t know is that the only way to defeat Vecna, to end the loop, is to let Eddie die on that day in 1986.