#THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO POST at 4am and it didn’t 😭 Probably bad time of day for a fic drop

[eddiemunsonsmum]

Tales of Wolves - Eddie Munson

Eddie Munson x OC | Eddie Munson x Karmen Jones

Summary: Eddie is still recovering from his ordeal in The Upside Down and now he's being forced to watch Teen Wolf. Worst year ever. He's not happy about it but Karmen decides after the movie reminds her, to tell him about the time she saw a werewolf. Eddie doesn't believe her... Until she describes it.

Tags: S4 spoilers, Fluff, Joking, Banter, Mentions of Eddie's time in the Psych Ward and mental health struggles, being medicated etc, mentions of toxic relationships (not Kaddie), Eddie's titty tatts.

Words: 3k

Notes: Just another little lore drop. This sits somewhere between Diffident and Flashback.

~~

1986

Teen Wolf was possibly the most absurd movie Eddie had ever volunteered to watch. Regardless, Michael J. Fox was a treasure and in this juicy chapter of the young actor’s career, he wasn’t playing a character flirting with his own Mother. So all in all, there wasn’t much to complain about. 

Except for the fact that Eddie hadn’t actually volunteered to watch it. It was a ‘ balls in baskets’ kind of movie and he’d been avoiding it since its release a year prior.

He’d heard nothing but good things even from his decidedly ‘Not Jock’ friends but Eddie wasn’t really in the headspace at that particular point in time to concede that he enjoyed a sports movie even if it was really more slice of life.

He’d been recovering at home for a few weeks now after his ordeal in the upside down or as his closest loved ones knew it:

‘The car accident’

He’d also spent some time in the Psych Ward and was now heavily medicated and learning above all else, how to be himself again.

Unfortunately for him, regardless of his fragile mental state his loved ones had apparently decided that what was best for Eddie was to be treated completely normally and as if he was not on the verge of a breakdown at any given moment.

He was displeased that it was working.

Karmen had gone back to teasing him playfully in the last few days. It was payback for the times he had pulled her leg during his healing journey and she had been too afraid to retaliate for fear of him taking it personally and setting his recovery back.

He knew he deserved it but it didn’t stop him being frustrated with himself every time he fell for a silly ploy he might have seen right through months earlier.

He had missed her playfulness for the most part. But such instances of toying with him included her holding a Back to the Future VHS in her arms in Family Video and asking him pointedly if he’d liked to watch a movie starring the aforementioned Mr. Michael Andrew Fox.

He had agreed excitedly without looking at what else she was browsing. Ignoring the smirk on her lips as she dumped the contents into their basket. Figuring she, like him, was just excited to watch the DeLoreon reach 88 miles per hour together for the fourth time since last August.

She knew full well he had been avoiding Teen Wolf and took the opportunity to finally watch it when it was presented to her so readily. Now he was stuck watching the decisively good movie and being annoyed that he was enjoying it when he should probably just be grateful that he was enjoying anything at all at this point in his life.

He was still in the thick of pretending to hate it when Karmen leaned towards him. Not taking her eyes off the hairy man on the screen as she whispered conspiratorially from the corner of her mouth.

“You know, I saw a werewolf once.”

Eddie sighed deeply, reaching for the remote. His interest was piqued but he refused to show it. She knew he wouldn’t be able to resist asking thousands of questions about the casual statement. 

He stopped the movie. Clasping his hands together as he turned to her with a tired expression.

“A werewolf?” He asked simply. Waiting patiently for her to elaborate. 

She would have to be pretty damn convincing to have him fall for it.

“Yeah!” She insisted, nodding earnestly as he narrowed his eyes at her.

“Are you fucking with me?” He asked flatly, feeling like he already knew the answer. “Because you already have my attention, you don’t need to make things up.” He added sarcastically as if he was talking to a child. 

Karmen scoffed at his mocking.

“No!” She exclaimed defiantly. .”Ask John, he saw it too!”

Now that was interesting. He would ask John. Her best friend loved to pull the wool over people’s eyes as well but there was something he loved more than that which Eddie could count on almost infallibly. 

He enjoyed pretending he had no idea what Karmen was talking about and making her look stupid. Gas-lighting, Karmen would call it in the future after she learned about it on TikTok. But in the jovial banter kind of way where he later admitted he was just being silly. Not in the kind of way Eddie’s Dad did, where he doubled down until the other person believed him and started to think they were crazy.

Eddie wasn’t sure it was really any better but he’d heard enough stories about the more colorful moments of Karmen’s friendship with John over the years to understand that she hadn’t exactly been all roses, no thorns the entire time either. Mostly he believed that it just wasn’t really his business.

He would ask John about the ‘werewolf’ before giving any kind of satisfying reaction to Karmen. Whether the man felt like playing or not in the moment, Eddie would find out the truth definitively within the week. 

The other man always showed his hand eventually, unlike Karmen. For as bad as she was at lying when it mattered, she could keep up a ruse for weeks if it brought her enjoyment. 

“Where were you then?” Eddie questioned, refusing to fall for her trickery for a second time in one day.

She was tatting his tits or whatever the saying was. Not the good kind of tit tatts either like demons and spiders.

“Over near the trailer park actually. It was super late at night. We were the only ones on the road.” She explained simply, making Eddie snicker.

“Okay so you’re definitely fucking with me.” He said knowingly, rolling his eyes as she shrugged her shoulders at him adamantly.

“I’m not!” She laughed, tapping him on the arm as he held up the remote, ready to restart the movie. “It wasn’t too long before I met you.”

"Convenient." Eddie smirked, hitting play and jumping when she snatched the remote from him and stopped the movie again. He reached for it, fingers coming just shy as she lobbed it over her shoulder. The sound of it thumping into the cushions behind her drowned out by Eddie’s groan.

“Look. I know what I saw!” She argued, crossing her arms over her chest as he resigned himself to taking the bait.

“Alright, tell me about it then.” He said half-heartedly, not wanting to sound too curious but being hit with a stab of guilt as the smile on her face faltered. “What?” He asked after a moment of silence. Suddenly regretting his choice of indifference. “You know I’m just fucking with you, right?” He asked quickly, placing a reassuring hand on her thigh. “I’m actually very interested.” 

It was insane how fast she could catch him in her snare with a small pout.

Karmen chuckled at that. Nodding that she knew he was just playing.

“It’s not you.” She explained, biting at her lip as she turned to look at him with dark eyes.

“What?” He asked again, confused this time as he studied her face and she shrugged. Her smile slipped back into place as if it had never left.

“Well, I actually don’t know what I saw.” She admitted softly. “But ‘werewolf’ was as close as we could come up with.” She said scandalously, widening her eyes as he stared at her with intrigue. 

“What does that mean?” He asked, with a shake of his head. “What did it look like?”

Karmen huffed at the question.

“You’re going to think I’m mental.”

~~

1984

“You know you can always call me but Jesus Christ this is getting ridiculous.” John sighed, his hands tight on the steering wheel of his 70s pick up as he navigated the dark winding roads that lead them from the outskirts of Hawkins back into the town center.

“You didn’t have to come.” Karmen replied bitterly, not looking up as she stared blankly out the passenger side window.

“No?” John asked incredulously. “And where would you have ended up if I didn’t?”

She didn’t answer. John rolled his eyes at her silence.

“That’s what I thought.” He murmured, making her sniff. 

“I’ll call someone else next time.” She mumbled, frustrated by the lecture. She’d called him specifically because he was the least likely to lecture her.

“No, don’t do that shit!” He exclaimed.

“What?” She hissed as he shook his head at her.

“That toxic crap.” He answered simply. Putting on a voice as he continued. “Guess I’m just the worst Mom ever then.” He said dumbly. “It’s bullshit. You know you need to calm down and you’re mad because I’m pointing it out.”

“I don’t need your opinions John, I need a ride.” Karmen snapped, finally turning in her seat to face him.

“The stipulation of the ride is that you have to listen to my opinions.” He retorted, screwing up his face at her as she huffed defiantly.

“You know what!” She said angrily. “Pull over! I’ll just wal–”

A flash of gray darted in front of the headlights. Both occupants of the car gasped in unison as John slammed his foot down on the break. The tires screeched against the asphalt as they came to a grinding halt in the middle of the country road on the outskirts of town. 

They lurched forwards in their seats, both sitting back up and blinking in confusion as they started out the front of the car. The bug-sprayed windscreen suddenly all too clear as the silence in the vehicle consumed them.

Disbelieving eyes were wide, gazing towards the fog that rose from the road in front of them. Swirling in the beams from the headlights and encircling the reason they had come to such a sudden stop.

The creature stood about thirty inches tall. The vague shape of a dog with strange backward knees and long feet that looked more human than paws.

It was smooth like one of those hairless cats. Slick rolls of skin covering the entirety of its body.

Karmen inhaled shakily in the silence of the car. Bottom lip trembling as she started at the road in front of them. Her blood had run cold. Fear tingled along her spine, making goosebumps appear all over her body as her tongue darted out to lick at her dry lips.

She exhaled shakily, body quaking as a cloud of fog blew through her lips and her eyes flicked towards John to make sure he could see it too.

“What is…” He breathed, still staring out the windscreen as the creature moved suddenly and they both jumped back in their chairs. Their hands scrambling to find one another as they watched it bend its long strangely shaped legs.

It knelt down, giant head tilting as if it was inspecting the headlights but… It didn’t seem to have eyes.

Karmen’s hand shook in John’s and he squeezed it tighter, revealing to her as he did so that he was trembling too.  

They both moved their heads along with the animal. Two sets of wide eyes, unblinking as they observed it nod its head several times towards the direction of the car as if sniffing the air. 

Its large cumbersome head seemed too big for its body. Strange folds came to a point in the middle where its nose should be. It reminded Karmen of a flower ready to bloom.

Its janky movements continued to startle them as it suddenly stood up straight. Reminiscent of a dog that heard a whistle on a frequency they couldn’t and suddenly as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone. 

It bounded away towards the side of the road. Disappeared from the streaks of light emanating from John’s car and blended with the shadows. Leaving them aghast, frightened and questioning for years to come if they had actually seen what they thought they had or if it had been a late night trick of the mind.

~~

1986

“I think if John hadn’t been there I would have convinced myself I didn’t actually see it. I was pretty drunk.” Karmen admitted softly. “But every few months I ask him if it really happened and he assures me it did.” She laughed bitterly. “I Kind of wish he’d lie to me to be honest.” 

Eddie stared at her with hard eyes. His jovial demeanor had disappeared completely as he listened to her story. The familiarity of the description made his own blood run cold.

It wasn’t a werewolf.

It was a Demodog. 

Described by her just as Dustin had described them to him.

The realization that Karmen had experienced even a slither of the horrors he had. The horrors he continued to keep from her…

That she had unknowingly been so close… So goddamn close to being ripped apart. If John hadn’t picked her up. If she’d had the chance to get out of the car before he could stop her... 

She would have been eaten alive. Named another unexplained missing person. More backstory to his own Lore without him ever actually meeting her. 

Never getting to know her as he did now.

It made tears brim at the edges of his vision. 

The knowledge that for the year before they actually met, they had been so close and yet so goddamn far. 

Always intertwining. As though they were meant to meet and endure this together.

He was glad she didn’t have to live through the things he did. Although he had an inkling she would have handled them just a touch better than he did. But there was a selfish part of him that wished they had met even earlier. That perhaps if they’d been together longer, something would have rubbed off on him and he would have somehow avoided the entire mess in the first place as she always seemed to manage without even knowing she was doing it.

Even though he knew deep down that not being together on the night Chrissy died had been pure coincidence and regardless of the length of their relationship, he probably would have played that stupid game the same way and won the same stupid prize.

It was nice to think that maybe there was an alternate universe version of Eddie out there that hadn’t gone back to his trailer with Chrissy that night and instead had told her he had somewhere else to be. Returning to Karmen’s place and going to bed at a reasonable time. Waking up in the morning and watching the news together about the Hawkins High Student that had been murdered in their own home overnight and theorizing with each other about who had done it.

Although he supposed that probably meant there was another alternate version of himself out there that never woke up again after passing out in Dustin’s arms.

He wondered what the Karmen in that universe was up to right now.

“Eddie?” Karmen asked softly. 

“Huh?” He asked dumbly, being wrenched from his thoughts by a soft hand on his cheek, covering the scars he’d acquired from a creature so similar to the one she described. But instead of a giant head with seemingly no features it had sharp little fangs it bared readily as it prepared to sink into his flesh.

She chuckled in a way that he could tell was belittling of herself. A spiteful sound as she dropped her hand and shook her head in his direction.

“You think I’m crazy right?” She asked, a murmur of a question as Eddie gasped at her statement. 

Another parallel. His own words parroted back at him unknowingly.

“No.” He assured her, a whisper of a word. He wanted to say more. To reassure her whole-heartedly that he believed her. That he understood in a way she couldn’t even begin to imagine.

That he knew she was telling the truth.

Was this it?

The moment where he finally let his mask slip?

Where he cracked and divulged all of the dreadful, nasty secrets that plagued him. The horrors that he suffered through alone in the dead of night and resealed the lid on in the light of day. Using all his strength to shove the door to his memories closed and leaning his back up against it as he caught his breath and prayed that one day it would stay locked on its own.

“Ask John about it.” Karmen said again, sounding defeated and seemingly oblivious to his plight. “Although there is a chance he will take the opportunity to make me look crazy for fun.” She admitted with a laugh, fishing for the remote she’d thrown behind her and settling back against the couch.

“I believe you.” Eddie said earnestly, his throat dry as he forced the words forward. All he could think of to say without stepping away from the door and accidentally letting it fall open in a way he had wanted to since he’d woken up in the hospital weeks earlier. 

“Sure.” Karmen said half-heartedly. Reluctantly choosing to believe, that he believed, for her own sanity. “Anyway.” She segwayed feebly, pressing play on the remote once more and turning back to the movie as Eddie continued to stare at her with a deep set frown on his features.

“You know I–”

“Do you think his dick gets hairy?” Karmen asked frankly, cutting him off to avoid hearing any more of his fawning. He could not believe her all he liked, she knew what she saw. 

Sort of.

He didn’t have to keep reassuring her she wasn’t insane.

Eddie shut his mouth at the question. Feeling a strange mix of frustration and yet relief, that he’d been interrupted as he turned the key. Having time to let it go and back away from the door before it was his turn to speak again. Choosing once more to leave it locked and not let her inside.

“Werewolves have dog dicks don’t they?” He asked after a moment, turning himself back to the TV too as Karmen shrugged in reply.

“What about when they’re human?” She queried, watching as a good looking blonde threw herself at the handsome young man that she was struggling to believe was ‘the school nerd’.

Maybe art really did imitate life.

“Mm.” Eddie hummed. “Probably a normal human schlong with an abnormal amount of pubes.” He conceded leaning in to whisper conspiratorially as she had done earlier.

“You know I saw one of those once.” He murmured, making her laugh.

“Sure you did Eddie.” She grinned sarcastically.

“I know what I saw.” He countered quietly, raising his shoulders as he wrapped an arm around her and settled in to watch the rest of the film.

He wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep the door closed but he’d decided one thing over the last few treacherous weeks of recovery. That if he ever did decide to open it, he needed backup.

~

Read the rest of the series here :)

This series is so personal to me, so it means the world to me when someone let’s me know they enjoy a work from this series. If you guys liked this please pleaseee consider letting me know via comment, reblog, message, anon ask etc.  

Tags: @3ddi3-daydreamer @micheledawn1975 @munson-blurbs @wheels-of-despair @browneyes528 @stevemunsons