#Dolly x Eddie sitting in a tree

[bloodibambiidoll]

This is me and modern!Eddie no one can change my mind.😌✌🏽

[portaltothevoid]

For Whom the Bell Tolls - Chapter Two - Voodoo Dolly

Pairing: Eddie Munson x OFC (Kat Ramsay), sequel to Foolin’

Summary: Kat, still reeling from her nightmare, runs into Chrissy on her way to Corroded Coffin’s band practice where she takes them completely by surprise.

Warnings: established relationship, allusion to eating disorders, unhealthy coping mechanisms, mention of pot use, smoking, half of a drug deal

Word count: 2.5k

Chapter song: Voodoo Dolly by Siouxsie and the Banshees

Tag list: @munchabunch @madaboutmunson @michele131 @riffcrusader @prettyboyeddiemunson @idiot-parade

Her new mantra was ‘It was just a dream, a nightmare. It wasn’t real.’ She repeated that to herself over and over again, in the hopes that she could trick herself into believing it. But she knew. She knew the threat was looming and very, very real.

Kat was constantly on edge. For the most part she was able to hide it. Her demeanor appeared calm and collected like usual, but her mind never stopped racing. The fact that it had only been a few days since her nightmare and she was already on her second pack of cigarettes was the telltale sign she truly wasn’t doing well. Not that she allowed room for anyone to pick up on that. She knew Eddie didn’t and couldn’t understand the severity of the situation. She barely knew the severity of it all. All she had was a feeling that clung to her like lichen on an old tree, growing and always present.

Corroded Coffin finally had time to sit with Master of Puppets and now that they all had the studio version of the album, and not just a demo of the title track, Eddie made it his own personal mission for the band to perfect a cover of his and Kat’s new favorite song. The Thursday after it was released, there was a mandatory band practice. Kat, of course, wasn't about to miss it, being the virtuoso that she was. Music still muted the omnipresent feeling of her nightmare’s monster for the time being, so she jumped at any opportunity she could for a distraction from her spiraling mind.

On her way to Gareth’s, she made a quick stop at the general store in town to pick up another pack of cigarettes and grab a snack or two. Lost in her own world, she rounded the aisle and collided with someone exiting. Upon impact, a few Twinkies and Star Crunches fell to the ground, falling from the grasp of the petite frame in front of Kat.

“Oh my god! I am so sorry. I was just in my own world over here,” Kat gushed as she bent down to pick up the snacks that had fallen from the girl’s arms.

“Oh, no! It’s okay! I was in a hurry and… Kat! Hey!” Chrissy said, taking the snacks back from her.

“Chrissy! Hi!” She eyed her arm full of snacks that covered all bases from sweet to savory. “Stocking up?” Kat chuckled. Chrissy’s face reddened slightly.

“Sort of,” she laughed nervously. “Comfort food before I have to deal with my mother. ‘Did you get enough practice in? We need to take your measurements. If I have to take out one more uniform!’” she imitated her mother in a high-pitched mocking voice before rolling her eyes. “You know how moms can be.”

Kat started putting two and two together. Her mother was a model. She grew up in Hollywood. Probably not many people could read between the lines here, but she definitely could. Her brow furrowed in concern. “I mean I have a few minutes before I gotta go to band practice, you wanna talk about anything?” she offered.

“I…you know what? Sure. It’d be nice to catch up with you,” she flashed a genuine smile.

“Cool! I’m just gonna grab a couple things, I’ll be right behind you at the check out.” Chrissy nodded as she headed over to pay for all her things.

Kat grabbed her own box of Star Crunch and a tube of Pringles, after she grabbed a bottle of Mountain Dew, and a king sized Reese’s at the register. 

“Anything else today?” the cashier asked. Chrissy was waiting off to the side for Kat.

“A pack of Marlboro Hundreds, please,” she said as she placed a twenty on the counter. 

“Alright, here you go. Have a nice night, girls.”

“Thanks, you too.” When they exited the store, Kat started walking towards her car. “Did you walk here?” 

“Yeah, gets my mom off my back if I exercise extra after cheer.”

Kat nodded as she took her last cigarette out of the pack in her back pocket. “Do you mind if I have one? I can wait if you do.”

“No, no. Go ahead!”

Kat nodded and she lit it. After she exhaled smoke the opposite direction of Chrissy, she asked, “So what was so bad about today?” She wanted to believe the increasingly dreadful pang in her stomach came from too big of a drag from her cigarette, but she knew the feeling was coming back full force for whatever reason right now.

“Ugh, it’s just everything! My parents are stressing me out. Cheer is exhausting me. And all Jason wants to talk about is stupid basketball.”

“Do you even like Jason?” Kat wondered leaning back against her car. Chrissy furrowed her brow and fidgeted with the corner of her letterman jacket.

“I mean, yeah, he’s a good person once he lets you get to know him.”

Kat just scoffed. “What do you like about him?”

“Well…” she paused, trying to think of reasons, “He’s got nice eyes? He’s cute, um… He cares about me.”

“I have nice eyes, Chrissy,” Kat sighed. “Wanna know what I think?” she proposed as she took another drag of her cig. She was encouraged with a nod. “You don’t like him. You’re with him, because it’s expected and convenient.”

Her face dropped at that observation. She knew Kat was right. “It’s just easier to play the part…” she practically whispered as she started chewing on the inside of her cheek.

“Is it really though? You aren’t happy. I’ve noticed for a while. Since… since that time I ran into after school back around… Halloween I think? You can’t keep living your life for everyone else around you,” Kat advised, her voice coated in sincerity. 

“It’s a little late for that now… I mean maybe in college, when I can get away from all the… the… pressure. I just wish I could shut my mind off for a bit, you know?”

Kat let out a very short, punctuated laugh, “You have no idea. Hey, you ever think about trying weed? It could help. And, I mean, you definitely have the snacks of a stoner,” she lightly teased with a smile, which Chrissy couldn’t help but return.

“I’ve debated it,” she shrugged. “But I’ve never been able to ask anyone for it, or even about it. It’s hard when you’re the golden angel of Hawkins…”

“Listen, if things get bad enough, and you just need a break, you can come to me. Leave a note in my locker or something. Eddie will hook you up, no judgement, no questions. Hell, we’ll even do it with you!”

“I’ll… I’ll think about it. Um, I should probably get going though…”

“Yeah, same. The guys are probably wondering where I am.”

“Alright well, I’ll see you at school tomorrow,” she said, giving Kat a half smile.

“Of course,” Kat nodded as she put out the remains of her cigarette with her shoe.

Chrissy started to turn away, but abruptly turned back and suddenly enveloped Kat in a hug, “Thanks for listening and caring. You’re one of the only ones that seems to notice…”

She gave Chrissy a comforting squeeze, trying to ignore the fact the hairs on the back of her neck were rising. The accompanied feeling of turmoil made her heart sink. “Always,” she said, gently pulling back to show her the truthfulness in her eyes. “I’m always here for you Chrissy. I… I understand what you’re going through. I’ll help you in any way I can, okay?” She smiled up at Kat, giving her another quick hug before she parted from her. “Think about what I said, alright?”

Backing away, Chrissy nodded enthusiastically. “I will. Definitely,” she said with a little wave before she turned to head back home.

Kat started her car and immediately turned up the volume on her stereo. “Fight It Back” by Accept drowned out the creeping, crawling feeling she had all over that was reminiscent of what she felt in her nightmare. She shook her head as if to shake it out of her system. Focusing on the deafeningly loud music, she could feel it receding. She couldn’t get to Gareth’s fast enough.

— — —

“About damn time!” Gareth shouted when he saw Kat walking up his driveway. 

“Where’d you go? What took so long?” Eddie asked as she wrapped him in a one armed hug and gave him a quick peck. 

“Stopped to get snacks,” she revealed, holding up her bag of goodies, “and ran into Chrissy. She had a bad day, so we talked for a bit.” Kat took a drag of her cigarette that she lit on the way in. 

“Chrissy? Like Chrissy Cunningham?” Jeff asked incredulously. 

“Yeah? Why? She’s, like, a total sweetheart. She’s always been nice to me since the first day.”

“Just weird…She only ever sticks to her kind.” 

“I don’t know. Don’t you guys have a song to learn or something?” Kat asked, changing the subject. 

“Ah, I thought so, but Gareth apparently forgot how to play drums!!” Eddie spoke with his frustrated, high-pitched voice while he glared at him. Kat just rolled her eyes at him. 

“I’m sorry not all of us were taught by the actual members themselves!” Gareth challenged in retort. 

“Cut the shit, Gareth. Show me what part is giving you trouble,” she demanded, walking over to stand behind him. 

“It’s this part of the bridge,” he began as he demonstrated his difficulty. 

Kat nodded, “Okay, you’re rushing it and trying to add extra beats. That’s what's messing you up. Eddie’s probably getting too excited and playing faster than he should, throwing you off.”

“Hey!” interrupted Eddie, slightly offended. 

“Get up, I’ll show you,” Kat continued. 

“What?” He looked at her like she just asked him to run over his drum set and set it on fire. “You only play guitar.”

Kat rolled her eyes. “No. I don’t. Now will you move before I make you move?” 

The look on her face and her stance caused Gareth to almost trip over himself. Kat picked up the drum sticks and sat down. “Now, watch me and count,” she instructed, counting off the beat. 

Flawlessly, starting from the start of the lyrical bridge, she played it perfectly. Everyone stared, jaws on the floor. Kat never mentioned she played the drums. It was simply because it had never come up and she didn’t want to brag. She even demonstrated for Gareth what he was doing and then the correct way to do it. “Try it out,” she encouraged. 

“No. Kat, you stay. We’re playing it from the top,” commanded Eddie. His tone was sharp enough that no one protested. 

Kat shrugged, “Okay, giving you guys a four count.” 

Jumping right into the song, she played it front to back as if she’d been playing it all her life. Everyone was shocked, including Kat. It’d been quite some time since she played drums, not that anyone could tell. 

“Where in the hell did you learn that?” Eddie questioned. 

“Oh, uh, well, I started out on drums. Piano too. Mostly drums though when I was super little. It’s the one thing I can play by ear with one listen. Guitar takes me a couple tries… It just never came up before now? Guitars are easier to cart cross country, so I just… stuck with that…” she trailed off as the stares from everyone was making her nervous. 

Eddie just shook his head. “You never cease to amaze me, ya know that? Gareth, you’re fired.”

“What!?”

“No, no, he’s not,” Kat reassured, getting up and shoving Gareth’s drum sticks back at him. “I require too much attention to simply be the drummer,” she spoke with a fake-presumptuous tone as she gave her hair a flip as she headed over to take a seat to watch the rest of their practice. 

“Okay, well, you need to get your own drum set asap,” Eddie mused to Kat during a break which allowed for them to talk amongst themselves. 

“And where am I gonna store it? Aunt Linda and her stupid neighbors would have a fit not even I’d wanna deal with.”

“Just store it at my place,” he offered. 

“Yeah, okay. Because there’s definitely room in your shoebox,” Kat said sarcastically. 

“We— we could store it in my closet… there’s enough room for the bags in there,” he spoke slowly, trying to disguise the sting he felt from her comment. 

Even as enthralled as he was with her drumming, it wasn’t enough to block out how lippy she was today. He knew the dream had bothered her, but clearly he underestimated the longevity of it. While he wanted to let her come to him if she wanted to talk about it, he knew this was the sort of thing he’d have to coax out of her. Sure she was often sarcastic, but never to the point of rudeness. 

Eddie saw his chance after everyone had packed up their gear and he went to say goodbye to her at her car. “Hey is, uh… Is that dream still bothering you? Did anything else happen today?” 

“I mean, yeah. Of course it’s still bothering me. Part of me wonders if it was even a dream. That’s how real it felt. It was like my mind traveled somewhere… else…” Kat shook her head and briefly buried her head in her hands. Eddie reached out and rubbed her shoulders. “I sound so fucking crazy. And— and then that feeling came back when I was talking to Chrissy. It was like— like someone was watching me— watching us…” Fear was slipping through Kat’s voice. She reached in her back pocket for her cigarettes. 

Eddie furrowed his brow. “You’re smoking a lot more too,” he noted. Great. So he did notice, of course he would. 

“It’s fine. I’ll be fine,” she said completely unconvincingly. “I gotta head home, but, uh… Oh!” she said before she reached into her car to grab her wallet out of her bag. “I need more weed.”

“Okay… how much?” 

“This much,” she said, slapping a hundred dollar bill into his hand. His eyes widened. 

“Kat, already?”

“It helps me sleep. Eddie, please,” she whispered defeatedly.

“Yeah. Okay. Tomorrow. I’ll have it for you tomorrow.” 

She gave him a short kiss, “Thank you. I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said as she got in her car. 

Eddie was taken aback by her tonight. He shoved the money into his pocket as he walked over to his van. A sinking feeling of his own started to settle into the pit of his stomach. Granted he didn’t know in depth details of her past life in California, but he knew a spiral when he saw one. No matter what it took, he vowed to protect Kat in any and every way that he could. 

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