#HIS DUMBASS EYES AREN'T ALIGNED ...

[furansupanchimera]

Behold, the only piece of art I've made that actually looks good 🥲🔫

[madaboutmunson]

People = Shit (Part 10 of 11 of Let Me Call You Sweetheart)

Warnings for the entire story not just this chapter: Darkfic, out of character Eddie Munson, alternative universe, present day, Death, abuse (emotional, mental and physical, harassment, violence, torture, imprisonment, coersion, unrequited love, drugs, alcohol, illness, blood, gore, food disorder, mental illness, vampirism, hypnotism, weirdness, the upside down, bats, monsters

@munchabunch

You watch the coffee pot gurgle away as you say across the table from Eddie, avoiding his eyes. You'd been putting up a good fight all night, but you weren't sure how much you had left.

You break the silence, "Do you think they'll let me play tomorrow?"

"I think they'd be a sorry lot of dumbasses if they didn't", he answers.

"I just want to play, you know? Nothing comes close to that feeling on stage, not a thing I've experienced in my whole life."

"Look, even if this time isn't your time, there will be other chances. It's not like the planets have to align. You actually have talent. I know you think it's just the guitar, but it's not. She lets you play like that, but she doesn't make you play like that," He says, leaning forward across the table towards you.

You get up quickly from your seat to get the coffee, anything to create distance between you both. You pour two cups and set them in the middle of the table, too afraid to place the cup near him.

He pulls the cup towards him. You roll your eyes at yourself. You forgot the sugar and cream. You reach over the sink to get it when you hear Eddie shout, "Enough!"

You turn towards his voice, but he moves impossibly fast towards you, his face inches from yours. His hands grip the counter top either side of you.

Through clenched teeth, he says, "I need you to relax."

"Jesus, Eddie! I'm calm ok" you say, looking at his face.

His eyes are trained on your neck, "No, you aren't", he says, biting his lips. You hear the countertop beside you crunch under his hand, "I really can't emphasise enough how much you need to relax right now because I am seconds away from draining the ever-living essence out of you" a droplet of blood runs down the side of his bottom lip.

You close your eyes quickly, think of playing the guitar in your closet, and take deep breaths. You were still afraid, but you manage to slow your heartbeat a little.

His eyes soften, and he lets go of the counter and moves back to his seat. You grab your coffee and chuck it down the sink.

You grab a saucepan, fill it with milk and malt powder, and heat it up on the stove.

You dare not look at him through fear of setting yourself off again.

"So...that explains...some things," you try to joke a little, pouring yourself a hot malt drink.

"That wasn't supposed to happen," he says, almost annoyed.

"Would you rather I stayed over here, or may I sit back down?" You ask.

"You can sit," he says

You sit in your chair and take a sip of your drink, looking at the table, "At least I feel slightly less insane about the whole guitar thing now", you laugh.

"How are you like this?" He laughs.

"Dude. I have felt insane all week, and this made me feel normal, like, oh, Vampire, that makes sense. It's the first thing that made sense this time!" You smile at him.

"And you can just accept that?" Eddie says, tilting his head at you.

"Seriously, I threw someone across a room with the power of the guitar, which by the way was talking to me, in my head,  and is like obsessed with you....like, ending people obsessed. I think processing that a person I only see at night, who threatened to, and I quote, 'Drain me' and who can be entirely hypnotic, is a vampire is much easier to accept."

He leans back in his chair and gives a huge grin, exposing his fangs to your unashamedly for the first time.

"Well...I am flattered," he says, laughing.

"Ok, good, maybe you can tell me what the fuck is happening because I am losing my mind."

"Well-" He starts. Only to be interrupted by a knocking at the door.

You sit still in silence until you start hearing a dull thud against the door every few seconds, and you get up to answer it before someone breaks your door in two.

"Hey, please stop. I'm here." You say, putting the door chain across and opening up the door a little bit.

You are met with the sweaty face of Mr Harrington and a little wave from Dustin Henderson, "Is he here?" They say in unison.

You look over at where Eddie was, but he's gone.

"He's gone now," you say, unchaining the door.

Mr Harrington starts shouting into the air, "If you're still here, Eddie, we just want to talk"

"How desperate are you for these reshoots, exactly? " You ask, folding your arms.

"It's pretty urgent," Dustin says, pulling back a curtain sharply to see if Eddie is behind it.

"Now you've invited him in, you should probably come back to mine for safety", Mr Harrington reasons, still searching around.

"No, I'm good, thanks, Mr Harrington," you say kindly.

Dustin rounds on you, "You aren't afraid of Eddie?"

You look confused, "No...well...you know what, no. I have been alone with him often. I don't have many reasons to be afraid of him" this was a half-truth. Being pinned up against the counter had been scary, but now you know his truth. He could have literally killed you at any point but didn't.

"You've been *alone* with him", Mr Harrington panics.

"Oh geez, not like that," you say, disgusted.

Mr Harrington breathes a sigh of relief with his hand on his chest.

"But I mean, who could blame someone if they did, right?" You say a little too thoughtfully.

Mr Harrington shrugs a little, nodding, and Dustin shakes his head at you both.

You look over them both a bit more closely now. They are armed with wooden stakes, crossbows, and daggers.

"What the actual fuck?" You exclaim, "Are you trying to kill him??!"

They both freeze until Mr Harrington speaks, "He is not your friend." He says seriously, searching around the house.

"Ok, well, I'd prefer my home did not become a murder scene, ok? If I ever see him again, I'll ask him to call you. Unless, of course, this isn't about the game at all?" You eye them suspiciously.

Mr Harrington goes to say something, but Dustin stops him, "We just want to talk to him."

You narrow your eyes at them both. Something wasn't right here. Eddie had no reason to hide from them, and yet he did.

"Well, if he turns up again, I'll be sure to let you know" this time, it is actually a lie, and they know it, "I suggest you leave my house before I have to call someone to remove you."

Dustin looks at you like you are insane. Mr Harrington is still shouting into the air, "Eddie...we just want to talk...please...whatever you've got planned...just...we're sorry, ok?"

The sorry hangs in the air, and you feel your lip curl into a sneer.

"I think you should both leave." You say more sternly, your hand inching towards your guitar case.

"Steve...STEVE!!!" Dustin yells, walking backwards away from you.

Mr Harrington eventually diverts his attention from the air to you. He looks between you and the guitar case. You narrow your eyes at him and flick open a clasp.

As Mr Harrington goes to charge forward, Dustin grabs him and starts pulling him towards the door, "They're a lost cause", he looks to you as he shoves Mr Harrington out of the door, "We're leaving, ok" he puts his free hand in the air like he's surrendering.

You let them leave.

You run over to the door, put on all the locks, and barricade the door, moving around the house and ensuring all windows and doors are secured. Finally, you settle in the living room, your guitar case open next to you.

"Eddie?" You call out gently, the guitar strings hum, and a mist crawls along the floor to the armchair opposite, and slowly his form appears.

You breathe a sigh of relief.

"Why did you run?" You ask with genuine concern.

He steeples his fingers, "They won't allow me to explain, or at least won't try to understand, that all of this is a means to an end."

Eddie tells you what happened in 1986 "I couldn't go home, and they couldn't stay where I was. At first, they tried to split their time, but soon they had other responsibilities. As they got older, I stayed the same. As they had families, I stayed the same. As they betrayed me and left me to rot!! I. stayed. The. same." He emphasises each of those last words.

"But with time on my hands, I found I could do more than I realised. The first clue was the guitar, which initially they had been kind enough to leave me. But, if I played it right with all my might, I could see glimmers of the past or the future."

"I was foolish enough to tell them about my discoveries, intentions, and hopes that I could change my fate. They warned me about what could happen, but I just wanted to have my life back, grow old with them, but they refused."

His face looks furious, but his eyes swim with agonising pain.

"So they stole her from me. Hid her away in a vault, where no one could touch her. Then I had to wait. I waited so very long...years...decades. Wasting away. Feeding on wasteland creatures... Until she tempted someone to play her again. Oh, and when I heard her sing my name, I was home." He closes his eyes, and a tear escapes, but his face is pure ecstasy.

He leans forward in his seat, hunched over enthusiastically, "But one day, something weird happened. Someone called me. Some hippy dippy seance shit around Hawkins, and it thinned the veil. So I gave them a show. You know the whole lights flickering thing, spelling out their names, rookie shit. So more people came, and I gave them more theatrics each time the veil thinned. Once it was thin enough in that place, I eventually learned how to pass through the barrier without them. "

"It took me a year to track down both guitars, with the help of some people on this side of things. Minions, if you will. They wanted to be turned, and sure, I promised them I would, but I had no intention of doing it. Humans will do the wildest things if you can give them what they crave." He shakes his head and laughs. "I knew in my cold, dead heart that if it was possible to change my fate, I could change the fate of all of what happened in Hawkins."

He looks over at your open guitar case and looks back at you

"I couldn't get hold of the one in the vault, but I could get the veil thin enough there to pass through whenever I wanted, but to not sound the alarm, I had to leave her there in that...that...prison" his fists clench.

"It was the same story with the other guitar, I could do things, but there was not enough power. I dragged many a famous guitarist to their demise so we could play in unison, and though the power was there, the connection was not. I needed a soul match, one the guitars would respond to like they respond to me. Which I found completely by accident about two years ago."

"Two kids, desperate for love and stardom. All they needed was someone to pave the path for them to walk. Though one was more of a confident walker than the other." He gives you a wry smile

Your jaw drops a little, "Terry and Harley..." You say in a whisper. He nods.

"I gave them the objects of their affection. Jenna was easy. She was free to go wherever. But, for you, I had to lay a complex set-up. An affordable guitar, a job position suddenly opening up, but we got you there " he smiles proudly.

"Thankfully, due to toxic masculinity, Terry had a lot of wrestling with his feelings, or even, you know, expressing them. Which gave me time to get to know you. I saw how you lived. I saw your passions, your failings, your joy, your tears, your heart and soul. I saw it all, and I never once interfered."

"I'd obviously heard about the carnival, and for shits and giggles, I thought I'd scare the living hell out of Steve and Dustin by putting her in the window across the road."

He reaches over and takes your hand, "But then you saw her because she called you over, and the rest is history."

"I hide from them because they don't believe in me and would rather end me than take a chance on a different life."

"How do you know it will work?" You say curiously.

"Because we already did a test, remember?" He says, looking into your eyes.

"My nightmare? The guy with the spear. That was you before this. In the past?"

He nods and smiles happily, "We saved him," he says, gripping your hand between his.

"And I think we can do it for all of Hawkins. We just need enough power" he looks awkwardly at the floor.

"But the power isn't generated by the music alone?" You venture.

He shakes his head, "It isn't enough"

You nod, understanding, "The bat cull, right?"

"Right," he says

"Except the bats are too small fry to undo everything," you say nervously.

He takes your chin on his index finger and lifts it up, so you look at him again. "I'm not asking you to commit a sin you haven't already..." He says tentatively.

"Oh..." You say your eyes fill with tears, and your heart rate picks up, "I didn't imagine those things."

A flash of red glints in Eddie's eyes, "Relax, please", he says, tensing his jaw, "all of that is cleared away for you. No one will know except us."

You shut your eyes again and think about playing your guitar in the closet, but the guitar is dripping with blood, guts and brains.

You bring your knees up to your chest and clasp your hands over your head, gently rocking yourself. Trying to self-soothe to block out the panic. Then, snapshots flash into your mind with the realisation of what you had done. How could you have done those horrific things?!

Eddie snarls and grabs at your throat. He squeezes his eyes shut and just manages to reign it in, "GODDAMMIT!" He yells through his teeth and then shakily says, "I'm going to move away, alright? Do not, and I cannot emphasise this enough, do not make any sudden movements."

"Do you think it would help if you went out and found yourself something to eat?" You say hoarsely, keeping absolutely still, "Mainly because you keep telling me to relax, but it's you that's on a hair trigger."

"Touché," he says, wiping his mouth with his fingers, "I don't know how much it will help but let me see what I can find, and I'll be right back" he turns to mist and leaves again.

You curl up tighter into your ball and sob. You'd killed them. The first might have been an accident, but the second and third were very deliberate. So now you were a murderer. Who could possibly understand that?

Maybe if Eddie was right, he was your best chance. If you could pull this plan off, you could undo all of this.

Your phone buzzes, a message from Terry, "We want you to play with us tomorrow."

You think back to what Eddie had told you about your so-called friends. You weren't anything but a thing to them, a collectable, a lead guitarist, a potential love interest, not a person who could make their own way.

You grip the phone tightly and type through your ire, "Thank you so much. I'll make sure it's unforgettable!"

You take the time Eddie is away to sob and rage as much as you possibly can. You want to make sure to exhaust yourself, so you can remain as calm as possible around him.

You take it out on your surroundings. First, finding an old baseball bat and taking out the cabinets in the living room. Then all the delicate China dolls on display that were a daily reminder of what a less than perfect specimen you were. Next to meet their demise all your father's old sports trophies. A reminder of your own inadequacies.

You only stop when you almost cut yourself on some broken glass and decide to do a careful sweep-up. Before going out to sit on the back porch and try to use some star gazing to relax, so on his return you can understand the plan of action. You needed to be centred, focused, and with no distractions. You could do this. You could make this right.

Eddie assembles next to you, "Bet that can be a lot of fun", you say with half a smile.

"Oh, the mist stuff, yep, very handy. Speaking of...did you clear out your living room or something?" He says curiously.

"Or something", you mumble, looking at the floor.

Eddie puts his arm around your shoulders, and you quickly shrug out of it, "No one who really knew those people will miss them. They were bad, terrible people." He says

"Just because someone is bad doesn't give me the right to hurt them, Eddie."

"We are gonna change all that. We are gonna undo all of this"

"We are? At least that will be some good...I can't undo what I am now...who could ever understand what I did? Everyone hates me now, so fuck it, right?"

"I understand what you did. I'm on your side," Eddie says in earnest.

"Got a funny way of showing it", you laugh, touching your neck.

"Yeah, well, I'm trying my best here. Also, you are one to talk. I can fucking hear you avoiding my eyes," He says, frustrated.

"Because the voice in my head is actually insane for you, and no offence, but I'm like not there with it. In that bar, I felt that jealousy, but I knew it wasn't mine, but it was coursing through me."

"Yes, exactly...How can I put this...I've been at this undead stuff for quite a while. I can handle myself just fine around all sorts of heightened emotions, but when I hear your pulse race, it's not just your pulse. I can hear her too. So you are intertwined, just like me and mine. Except even if you were a Vampire, you wouldn't hear mine because I'm dead so... but just know it is so very, very, very tempting." He says, trailing off, looking at your neck again.

You clap your hands hard in front of his face, "Hey! No!"

He glowers at you.

"I'm just trying to keep it professional in here. Though I do have a couple of questions."

"Ok, shoot "

"You said you promised a bunch of minions you'd turn them, but you never did. Why? Also, have you ever turned anyone else into a vampire?"

"Mainly because they don't understand what they will miss out on or how much extra pain and loss you have to go through, and no, I've never turned anyone else."

"Would you?"

"No," he says quickly" Are you asking for yourself?"

"No, I don't think so. Even though the powers seem very cool, It sounds very lonely."

"So tomorrow..." He quickly changes the subject, "We'll take the encore when the place is full to capacity."

"Do you think this can really work? Like, we can barely sit in the same room as one another without something almost going wrong." You say, rubbing your hand down the side of your face, "And with the bats, you looked real bad at the end."

"In that place, I'm sort of part of all, so when you kill a bat or cut a vine, that happened to me too, but we aren't doing that this time. That won't happen again," he animatedly assures you.

"The other thing? Shit, I don't know. It seemed easier with the guitars there, though. Maybe we could..." He quickly grabs a chunky piece of stick for the floor, quickly slicing off the loose bark with one of his fingernails like it was a pen knife. Once satisfied, he says, "practice?" He puts it between his teeth, bites down on it, and tilts his head at you, raising his eyebrows.

You think for a moment, grab his bandana from his pocket, and hand it to him. He nods and ties it around his face knotting it at the back of his head.

You reach around the back of his head quickly and ensure the knot is tightened.

His head immediately snaps to look at your neck, and you hear a faint crunch sound next to your ear. You move away slowly and dare to look up at him. The whites of his eyes are red, and his usual brown eyes look like his iris has wholly disappeared.

"Sorry, I was just testing," you say, looking at the floor.

Something instinctively raises your hand upwards, so your palm is facing Eddie. He mirrors your actions, so your hands are a few centimetres apart.

You see a tiny dark swirling cloud appear in the gap, like the ones that filled the sky in your nightmare.

Your heart rate starts to pick up. Your eyes move between your hands and Eddies face.

He's trying desperately to keep his eyes on your hands.

"Closer.. " the voice in your head hisses. You slowly push your hand another tiny increment towards Eddie's.

The voice in your head exhales with pleasure, and the tiny swirling cloud disappears into a blip, like turning off an old TV.

Before you can register any disappointment, an explosion of red lightning erupts, encircling your hands and snaking its way up your arms.

You can see Eddie's demonic eyes squinted like he's smiling under there, and a drop of blood falls from his eye. "He's home," two voices say in your mind, you immediately feel your heart slow, and you feel entirely at peace for a few moments, but the electricity having nowhere to go, begins to burn your arm, and you have to tear your hand away.

You shake some sparks from your arm. "Shit!"

Eddie grabs you by your shoulders. You realise his restraints are missing, but he's not aggressively shaking you. It's pure, innocent excitement.

He smiles widely at you, his eyes returning to normal, "Oh my fucking god!!! We can actually do this. I know now, she told me. We are going to fix everything. Right back to Henry. We can save them all."

You look up at him and smile back, feeling for the first time that you were worthwhile, you could make a difference, you mattered, you weren't a waste of oxygen,  and you had a purpose.

You instinctively look away from him.

"Hey! no!" He says excitedly, turning your head back to him," it was just something we had to push past. Look!" He holds your hand near his again, and the sparks and smoke fire up straight away, but you aren't scared this time. Eddie's eyes don't change. "See!" He says, laughing, shaking his head.

You hear a car screech to a halt outside, "EDDIE!!" You hear Mr Harrington yell. Both your heads snap in the direction of the familiar voice.