#old haunts chrissy

[a-strange-inkling]

I LOVE Old Haunts ❤️❤️❤️❤️

A few questions:

Do you have a link to your Pinterest???? I'd love to see your inspiration

Would you ever do a post for Chrissy's outfits during the 1986 timeframe? We don't really see her outwith the cheerleading uniform but I feel you would come up with something great

Also would you do further outfit posts on 90s Chrissy for fall, Christmas and spring/summer?

No pressure though 💐

Oh! Thank you! 🥰🥰🥰

I actually have been moving my pins to a new account I just made that’s dedicated only to hellcheer (some plain st stuff too) and my fics. I was using my personal one for everything before and it was sort of haphazard. You’re more than welcome to check it out, not everything’s transferred over yet and it still needs some work, but lots of stuff to see if you’re interested: https://pin.it/1lCFbpQ

DISCLAIMER: All boards are just concepts and ideas, nothing pinned means it’s necessarily OH canon (just so I don’t start controversies over the wedding dress, I haven’t decided on a particular one yet, but I do want it to be a little vintage cause I think Chrissy might wear May’s old dress 😭😭😭)

Oh anon, ask and ye shall receive! I have so many pins for her 80s highschool looks, you’re more than welcome to see the rest on the board, but here’s a preview:

So, we only ever had these two outfits outside of her cheer uniform

So, I’ve always assumed my girl likes her pastels 😝 (the pink sleeveless dress is probably a homecoming look, I side with Captain Grace and go along with her headcanon that she had a yellow/gold prom dress even though instinctively I’d have thought blue or pink)

And yesss 90s fall! She really is quite taken with brown 🤎🤎🤎

And some Christmas/New Years looks, she goes all out for Christmas, it’s her favorite holiday:

And my favorite thing is that being a 90s mom, you know for a fact she and the girls got the matching Christmas dresses from Sears like this:

because she had to, it’s a right of passage 🤣

And also she totally rocked one of these flannel granny night dresses their first Christmas in Chicago when she was pregnant with Livvy:

[svvy2003]

@a-strange-inkling's fics are perfect. They did Hellcheer more justice than the Duffers. The Ohu is canon idc. Gwen is one of my fav OCS in the fandom. The Munson sisters are adorable. They gave Vickie so much depth. I just love everything about their fics.

[cunninghamchrissie]

livvy and maggie make a father’s day card to wayne (maggie got impatient when signing her name and much preferred to spread glitter everywhere. eddie’s still washing it off his hair).

[steddielations]

There’s a dog that comes around the trailer park when Eddie moves in with Wayne, back when his head was shaved and his eyes were still haunted by the walls of his dad's house. No one wanted to play with the gaunt looking weird kid, so the first friend he made in Hawkins was this big brown dog, way bigger than any others. It was almost scary, wolf-like but he acted like a puppy, nudging Eddie with his snout, cheering him up, always wanting to play like maybe it was lonely too.

Then Eddie made friends at school, the dog visited less as he got older and more sure of himself, denouncing cliques, especially the jocks who lorded over everyone. The dog stopped visiting entirely and Eddie started to worry something happened to it.

Years later, he spots it with Robin Buckley of all people. She’s talking to it, which might seem strange but Eddie always felt like the dog was a good listener too. After that, he tries to find his old friend again and one night, he catches a glimpse of him but he disappears into the woods.

Instead, Eddie sees Steve Harrington later that night, disheveled and dirtied, total opposite to his usual pristine polos and perfect hair. It’s so out of place, the first of many times that Eddie sees him while out looking for the dog. Eddie never says anything, can’t imagine Steve reacting well to a moonlight conversation with the freak. Sure, Steve was iced out of the popular crowd for reasons all around the rumor mill, made an odd match with Robin at their mall job before the fire, and weirdly enough the new Hellfire boys seem to worship the ground he walks on, but Eddie has no impression of Steve beyond that.

Then Chrissy Cunningham dies in his living room. Eddie runs like hell, terrified and ashamed, hiding in the boathouse. He feels like a scared kid again and finds himself wishing for the dog, his first friend that never judged him and always made him feel safe.

That’s when an unlikely group shows up and Eddie has no time to hide, like they tracked him there by scent. Steve Harrington rushes right to him with big brown puppy eyes that feel so familiar somehow, so comforting. Stunned, Eddie lets Steve wrap him in a warm hug, nuzzling his ear with soft assurances, “Hey, it’s okay. I’m so glad we found you. You’re okay.”

To Eddie's amazement, his body just melts into Steve’s embrace, like greeting an old friend.

[lexirosewrites]

Ok last slick sunday ask that's been sitting in my head!! The 2 part one I did was a great exercise & helped me get some imagery thoughts processed abt things for my haunted Harrington fic 👻

A!Eddie is ofc our favorite famous rock star, an aspirational horror director/actor, fantasy nerd, who's seen w a different omega in every city @ every event

O!Steve is a historian, specifically a costume historian, he has a degree tht he has framed in a reproduction of a rococo golden frame, he has a YouTube channel, Steve's Seams, tht he started initially as a way to keep his adopted mom (B!Claudia) updated & involved w his projects, he specializes in the mid to late Victorian era but he has put in the work on other projects of different eras (high middle ages, Renaissance, regency) Steve makes an effort to make these garments using materials & tools tht r as close to historically accurate as one can get, his videos r informative & calming & his voice is soothing & his projects r creative at their core

he did an entire video series when he was invited to the Met Costumes Department just absolutely nerding out, asking questions, having bubbly conversations. It's this series tht makes his channel suddenly blow up. He's getting comments on old videos, alot of the comments abt how attractive he is, the most popular videos tend to b his videos reviewing costumes in "period piece" movies/shows, not bc he's harsh but bc he takes the time to explain/illustrate how something would've looked if it'd been made accurate to the period the media is meant to b set in

Some time later.........

Eddie & Corroded Coffin r planning a series of music videos for their upcoming album, they've got a reputation for their conceptual albums tht have powerful aesthetics, their albums till now r set in blatantly fantasy worlds following a vague middle ages aesthetic, but now they're stuck.

They've made a rock opera essentially & they know the story they're telling in the album: an alpha detective finds themselves swept up in a missing persons case turned to a murder case tht leads them into a vampiric city underground, literal blood sucking mafia essentially, where they finds the victims omega mate amongst a coven of vampires, now turned & mated to the vampire tht leads the entire underground, the victim had been abusing the omega & when they went to the vampire mafia bc they saw no other recourse, the omega was discovered to b the reincarnation of the leaders first & only love, the album/opera ends w the detective being fed to the hungry horde.

They're throwing ideas back & forth for the music videos w their ever talented manager/agent/creative coordinator A!Chrissy, they have a disappointing meeting but when they come back the next day Chrissy has pep in her step & proudly shows them a YouTube video. It's a critique of one of their music videos from their first big break album, it'd been vaguely set in the middle ages/Renaissance, except this person doesn't care abt the music instead they’re observing the costumes, explaining the time period they'd been borrowing from, how the costumes would've been constructed/actually looked during the historic period they'd presented. Then Chrissy shows them a video of this YouTube channel constructing a Victorian opera gown & opera suit. It's a eureka moment as the band realizes where she's going w this, a Victorian vampire is classic! Why not lean into the whole thing? Eddie is quiet as they discuss giving one word & noncommittal answers, bc he's stuck staring at the gorgeous omega in the paused video, then he speaks up over all the noise saying they NEED this specific historian on their creative team specifically to consult & design the costumes. Chrissy raises an eyebrow but agrees

Steve agrees, signs a rlly big NDA, & is flown out to LA so he can begin his role as a consultant/designer for the 6 music videos the band has conceptualized for the album.

Steve meets the entire team at a meeting meant to discuss & establish the various logistics needed to make the videos the quality the band wants, they've hired a famous horror cinematographer, an even more famous horror director, everyone in the meeting has a lot of experience in a big scale filming environment & Steve doesn't, but he tries to not let it get to him. He wears garments he made himself (ofc) some of them he made on the channel even. A walking skirt in a very sensible deep green & an embroidered matching walking jacket r the focus of the outfit, when he gets to the building he's met by Chrissy & she leads him to the meeting room. He meets everyone especially the band, Eddie stumbles over his words, when Steve removes his walking jacket to reveal the equally green vest Eddie chokes on his water.

Blah blah blah

They don't want any of the ppl who audition for the role of the omega, Eddie is playing the vampire boss ofc & everyone's gotten closer to Steve & tht means everyone basically loves Steve, & hey he's an omega who is more than just pretty & he'd have a rlly easy time making a costume for himself, so Steve ends up as the omega in the music videos. Steddie get closer than they should since Eddie is technically Steve's boss

by the time the albums dropped with the music videos dropping each following week they've fallen fully in love & have discussed mating & Eddie’s been seen w a mystery omega around multiple cities but what's got everyone interested is the fact tht this is clearly the same person & they've been "practicing" for trying for a pup for awhile now😏

Dustin has a full freak out abt his older brother working w his favorite band of all time, AND HE HAD TO FIND OUT THRU PAPARAZZI THT HES DATING EDDIE MUNSON, when he tries to go to Robin w his melodrama tht rlly is more boundless happiness for Steve she blinks at him & tells him she already knew, Steve had told her abt their relationship literally two minutes after a conversation tht was followed by sex tht cemented them as romantic partners, before Dustin can leave to call his mom Robin tells him she knows already as well, after all Eddie had to ask SOMEONE for their blessing to mate & marry Steve & that's how Dustin learns they're engaged 🥰

i love how Steve is just living his best life (AKA making his hyperfixation into a career) and ends up snatched up by a rockstar with big ole heart eyes!!! he deserves nothing less!!!

[starshideurfics]

Ring my bell, part 6

steddie, omegaverse, flagging/signaling culture, there’s plot now, in the smut, mdni 🔞

Part 5

Steve wakes to the sound of the phone ringing. The sky is still pre-dawn purple, and Eddie’s arms are tight around his waist. He hears Wayne shuffle to the phone and answer with a tired, “Munson residence.” Barely two seconds pass before he continues, sounding much more awake, “Kid, slow down. Eddie’s sleeping, s’early. — Yeah, I’ll get him.”

The receiver taps as it’s set down on the counter, and Wayne doesn’t bother keeping his steps quiet as he heads down the hall and pokes his head into the room. “Ed, get up. Got one of your friends on the phone and he’s barely gettin’ a word out that I can follow.”

“Be there in a second,” Eddie grumbles, squeezing around Steve’s waist. “Just gotta grab pants.”

“Morning, Steve,” Wayne adds as he retreats.

“Morning!” Steve calls back, flushing hot. Wayne had Eddie invite him for dinner back in January, told him the only ground rules were no sleepovers on school nights, and practically welcomed him to the family. Doesn’t mean Steve isn’t embarrassed to be caught naked in bed with his boyfriend.

Eddie pushes himself out of bed, gropes around for a pair of ratty sweats that he tugs over his pasty ass, and slouches out to the kitchen. “Yello!” Pause. “Lucas, hey, slow down, dude.” Pause. “What the fuck? Are you okay? Shit, no—Are you safe?” Long pause. “Okay, thanks for the heads up. Do you need someone to come get you? Are your parents gonna freak?” Pause. “Okay, I’ll be right there.”

He jogs back to his room, plucks a shirt from the “still good” clothing pile, and struggles to dress quickly.

“What’s going on?” Steve mumbles, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“Something fucking bad happened, Stevie. Lucas is freaking and Chrissy Cunningham’s dead.” He bites his quavering lip.

“What the fuck?”

“I *sold* to her yesterday, Steve. She was good at hiding it, but she was terrified of something. And Lucas sounded real messed up on the phone.”

Steve swings his legs over the edge of the bed and searches for his clothes. “I’m coming with you.”

“Puppy…”

“Lucas has seen enough bad shit as it is. I’m coming to check on him.”

“And yet you claim you didn’t birth these kids.”

Steve tugs his henley back over his head, and grabs Eddie’s hand. “Now you’re just wasting time.” As usual, he’s the one taking charge and he grabs his keys. “We’re taking my car, you drive like a maniac.”

“Puppy! I’m not that bad!”

“And we’ll look fucking suspicious showing up in your van.”

“…Yeah, okay.”

Steve doesn’t bother saying Eddie is jittery as all hell, that he knows he wouldn’t pay enough attention to the road. They just say bye to Wayne and hurry out to the Bimmer.

“The basketball team started partying out at Benny’s old place when Hargrove moved here… I’m guessing that’s where we’re going?”

Eddie nods, suddenly quiet. As soon as Steve starts driving, Eddie starts shaking his knee so hard that Steve needs him to stop—he’s bouncing too much in his peripheral vision. His right hand shoots out and grabs Eddie’s thigh, squeezing twice. “Ed, hey. We’re gonna get Lucas and get out of there. That’s it.”

“It’s not that… There’s more—we both know Lucas would call you in an emergency over me. But I wasn’t the backup. He called because my phone number is still written on Chrissy’s hand.”

“Eddie…”

“She wanted something stronger than weed! I figured I’d give her some options later! I didn’t think whatever she was scared of would leave her d—” He chokes in the word. “Steve, I hate this.”

“I know, Puppy. Me too.” Steve lifts his hand, holds it palm-up, and Eddie takes it, lacing their fingers together.

When they pull up to Benny’s there are cop cars everywhere, blocking in the cars of the basketball team. Most of the guys are standing around or sitting in the grass, all with the same haunted look, but Lucas is talking to Chief Powell.

Steve parks, and he and Eddie get out together, hands finding each other again.

“I told you,” Lucas says as they approach, his back to them, “There was no screaming. I was one room over and I didn’t hear anything.”

“But you did recognize the phone number written on her hand?”

“Yeah, I noticed it the night before, because it’s my friend’s number.”

“Oh? And who would that friend be?”

Eddie lifts his hand in a quick wave. “That’d be me, Chief. Chrissy loaned me her History notes, told her to call me when she needed ‘em back.”

“Munson. You staying out of trouble?”

“Trying to.”

“And where were you last night?”

“At home, with my boyfriend.” He lifts Steve’s hand, showing their laced fingers and drawing attention to him.

Lucas’s eyes bug out.

Powell shrugs. “We’ll call if we’ve got any more questions.”

[writer-in-theory]

Eddie hates Steve Harrington because they used to be friends. Best friends forever, if the friendship bracelets Steve made when they were 6 were anything to go by.

Eddie hates Steve Harrington for all of the good memories he has of him.

He hates the day they met—when both of them lost recess privileges and spent the entire half hour trying to figure out how to count money, because nickels were hard, okay? He hates knowing that Steve started to sit with him in art class, laughing joyously when Eddie took it upon himself to start finger painting instead of doing the assignment. He hates when Steve picked him first for kickball in gym class, because despite all of the groans from the rest of the class Steve had wrapped his arm around Eddie's shoulder and loudly declared they'd be the winning team (they were). He hates the day that Steve tied the bracelet around his wrist in the first place, saying they had to keep the bracelets forever.

Eddie hates that he knows how kind Steve Harrington can be. He hates the day Steve came over to the trailer the first time, because he was the first person Eddie ever told that he spent more time with his Uncle Wayne than his own parents. Eddie hates that Steve used to make them ants on a log because his babysitter taught him how, and he hates that he knows how lonely Steve had been in that big house. He hates the day Steve convinced Chrissy Cunningham to clip bows in their hair and show them how to use the sparkly lip gloss she got for her birthday. Eddie thought the lip gloss was weirdly sticky on his lips and the bows were itchy, but Steve had lit up like the stars in the sky when he saw himself in the mirror—and he hates that he knows what Steve looks like so brilliantly happy. He hates that he's wondered if Steve's allowed himself to look so pretty again, or if that's a secret kept between them.

Eddie hates that Steve Harrington was his first heartbreak. He'd felt it shatter in his chest when Robert Harrington marched up to the trailer, grabbing Steve's arm roughly and dragging him to the car kicking and screaming. He hates that Uncle Wayne had to defend Eddie, that Mr. Harrington had been the one to teach him about the class system and pure unfairness. He hates that he knows what heartbreak looks like on Steve Harrington, captured in an image of him crying in the backseat of the Harrington car. He hates that it was that day Steve Harrington stopped smiling at him.

Eddie especially hates that it took him being accused of murdering the girl who used to braid flowers in their hair for Steve to smile at him again. The fact that he knows how it feels to have Steve Harrington shaking, terrified, under his hands will haunt him. Watching Steve traipse around the Upside Down in his vest felt like pure torture because he'd remembered the days when that wouldn't have been a big deal at all. It left him wondering what could have been if he'd have fought harder, if Steve had rebelled against his parents sooner.

He hates that it was Steve who carried him out of the Upside Down, and that he was too delirious from the blood loss to properly enjoy it. He hates that it was Steve who stayed at the hospital every day, bringing him and Wayne anything they could possibly need. The pit in his stomach that had settled the moment Steve took off his shirt in the boat hadn't yet eased, and Eddie's not sure if it ever would. He hates that Steve Harrington brought him a book to keep him busy in the hospital, and that he noticed the wince when Eddie had tried to make a joke out of it. He hates that he'd nearly forgotten that his old best friend hated jokes about his smarts.

He hates the small length of braided string he found placed in the first quarter of the book, holding Steve's place for whenever he found it ready to continue the story. He hates that the friendship bracelet looked so worn and old, like Steve really had worn it until it fell off. Eddie hates the blush on Steve Harrington's face when he notices it, and he hates the admission that Eddie wasn't the only one who'd lost a best friend that day, either. He hates the gentle press of a kiss on his cheek, and the blush that warmed Steve Harrington's face once he realized what he'd done. He hates that Steve Harrington had maybe been his first love, hates that he thinks he might've been Steve's, too.

But mostly, Eddie hates the way he can't really hate Steve Harrington at all.

--

thanks as always to @serenity-lattes for convincing me to write this out fully after dumping it in discord

TAGLIST: @alessiamargaux @minispice-1 @shadetea @emily19990 @alexxavicry @raven2008 @whoringrove @strangerleaves @blackpanzy @goodproofingwater @greetings-and-salutations @doralovesit @lesbianpinkhairedjughead @kerlypride @singmeyoursimpsong @im-sam-fucking-winchester @angel_wings_and_tattoos @itch-my-b0nez @Sirrrsnakes @largechaos @NeloteGreitic

[flowercrowngods]

The Last Day.

Steve doesn’t remember what drove him here — he doesn’t remember a lot of things lately, not that he’s mentioned that to anyone. They don’t really question these things anymore. Fucky vision, nightmares without sleeping, or things that just get lost in the everyday grind of remembering to do normal things like eat or drink or where the fuck he put his glasses.

So, he doesn’t remember what drove him here, if he was supposed to get something or if he just needed to get out of the gym, needed to breathe some air that’s not filled with anxiety and grief and the pressure of survivor’s guilt and why and how and when around every corner, behind every door, underneath every donated item and in every bite of stale peanut butter sandwiches.

The library was never a place of comfort for him, and he honestly never really cared about it one war or another. If pressed for it, he couldn’t name five books in all of these shelves. He never really looked.

But now, in the semi-darkness, the empty shelves are somehow daunting. All useful books were taken, children’s books donated to all the families that stayed, all science books stolen by people who were sure they could fix this, could get behind this, could build generators and water refineries and all that shit.

Somehow, the negative space in these shelves draws him in, and he takes a deep breath. A breath that Dustin would like, probably. It smells like books. It smells old. It smells like, somehow, somewhere, there might still be a constant in this world. Something that will remain. Like maybe there will always be a library that smells of old books. No matter how often the world will end.

It’s a strange thought. But comforting. He trails the shelves, not really looking at the books, walking too fast still to make out the titles in the dim light, but he refuses to stop. He refuses to stand. To linger.

The next two rows are completely empty, and it makes him shiver. Robin probably has a name for the feeling. Maybe melancholy. Or maybe he’s just haunted. Susceptible to absence.

Or maybe they’re the same feeling.

Blindly, he reaches for a book, because his hands begin to tingle and he really needs something to do before his lungs catch up and his brain finds out that he’s somehow almost about to panic, or to relapse, or to drop to the floor if his legs don’t regain feeling soon.

He keeps walking, the book in hand. It’s a slim edition, bound in leather, and it feels really old. Looks like it, too.

Michael Bruce

He carefully flips it open, the old paper crackling with the movement, and he wonders briefly if this is the part of the library that’s usually watched like a hawk, the part where you’re not allowed to touch the books without supervision and certainly not without reason. Maybe. Maybe this Michael Bruce hasn’t seen a real face in a long time.

It doesn’t take long for Steve to find out that they’re mostly poems—and of course they are, old books are almost always filled with poems.

He opens the book at a random page, still needing to settle his hands, his heart, his mind. The title makes his heart drop. “The Last Day.”, it’s called; still his eyes glide over the lines, intrigued.

Twas on an autumn's eve, serene and calm. I walked, attendant on the funeral Of an old swain : around, the village crowd Loquacious chatted, till we reach'd the place Where, shrouded up, the sons of other years Lie silent in the grave. The sexton there Had digg'd the bed of death, the narrow house, For all that live, appointed. To the dust We gave the dead. Then moralizing, home The swains return'd, to drown in copious bowls The labours of the day, and thoughts of death.

Okay. Sure. So, maybe this Michael Bruce dude is not the best company when the world is sort of ending. But somehow Steve can’t stop reading, and for the first time he kind of doesn’t want to stop reading a poem. This one’s different anyway. This one just… it gets him.

Images of Barb flood his mind. Eddie. Chrissy. Max. Everyone who was lost, everyone who has an empty coffin in their grave and an NDA penned to their name.

To the dust We gave the dead.

The labours of the day, and thoughts of death.

Maybe that’s why he doesn’t want to go back out there. Head to the gym and fold clothes and check the missing posters and make phone calls to find out, to make sure, to keep in touch. The labours of the day. The thoughts of death.

Shaking hands flip the pages, two at once, because he doesn’t want to live the last day; doesn’t want to hear about it. He needs to know how it ends, needs to make sure, needs to find out, just—

A pause ensued. The fainting sun grew pale, And seem'd to struggle through a sky of blood : While dim eclipse impaird his beam : the earth Shook to her deepest centre : Ocean rag'd, And dash'd his billows on the frighted shore. All was confusion. Heartless, helpless, wild.

Suddenly, what little light was left to stream through the windows disappears, stealing the words from beneath his eyes, and before he can look up and breathe, the door to the library bursts open, revealing a panicked Robin.

“Steve?”

“Robbie?”

“You… You better come see this.”

He hears it in her voice. The resignation. Oceans raging as the fainting sun grows pale. Confusion. Helpless, heartless, wild.

He closes Michael Bruce and runs toward her on numb legs, not ready to find out about the new apocalypse he’s gonna find outside the library. And seeing black skies through the windows and pale faces behind them, reflecting against the growing darkness, he wonders if he shouldn’t have skipped through the last day. The Last Day.

Terror in every look, and pale affright Sat in each eye ; amazed at the past, And for the future trembling.

Steve, too, is trembling. And Robin’s hand in his is shaking just as much.

Poetical works of Michael Bruce : with life and writings. William Stephen ed. 1895.

[deliriumsdelight7]

Okay so I'm too afraid to watch Stranger Things (I have on good authority that it would actually break me) but I feel like I Need to know about hellcheer, what are the most important things to know xD

You, my friend, are in luck, because Hellcheer has all of, like, five minutes of interactions. I’ll only show you the video for the good one so as not to break you. This scene OOZES chemistry:

As for things to know, I will do my best to stick with strictly canon material and avoid headcanons (of which there are many).

For Chrissy Cunningham:

1.) She is a senior in high school, head cheerleader.

2.) She is dating the captain of the basketball team, Jason Carver.

3.) She is being plagued by visions from an otherworldly creature who is essentially feeding off of her trauma. That’s why she’s so jumpy in the clip.

4.) She has an eating disorder. This manifests in her visions as a table full of food that is rotting and fly-infested.

5.) Her mother is abusive. This manifests in her visions with her mother at a sewing machine altering Chrissy’s clothes to fit. Additionally, in the vision, her father is sewn to his recliner, his eyes and mouth sewn shut - implying that he has been violently blinded, immobilized, and silenced by his wife.

6.) Later in the night the same day as the above scene, Chrissy goes to Eddie’s trailer so he can sell her ketamine to try to ignore her visions. The creature haunting her takes this opportunity to kill her brutally in front of Eddie.

For Eddie Munson:

1.) Eddie is loud and abrasive. Compare the scene where he’s introduced to how soft he is with Chrissy:

2.) Eddie lives in a trailer with his uncle. According to the prequel book, his mother is dead and his father is in jail. His father taught him to hotwire cars when he was a kid.

3.) Eddie has been held back twice. His goal is to graduate high school, flip off the principal, and get out of Hawkins, Indiana.

4.) He is not the same person after Chrissy dies. He is deeply traumatized, and blames himself for running away and leaving her in his trailer (even though she was already dead).

5.) Eddie’s uncle, Wayne, is Eddie’s number one supporter. This guy is continuing to shelter his twenty-year-old drug dealer metalhead nephew when he has no obligation to. When he comes home from work to see a dead cheerleader in his trailer, he is 100% positive Eddie didn’t do it. We would all die for Uncle Wayne.

6.) In the last episode of the season, Eddie goes into the alternate dimension where the evil creature lurks and plays Master of Puppets by Metallica as a distraction. Now, people take this as Eddie being a guitar prodigy because that song came out only WEEKS before the events of this season. But more importantly: he dedicates his performance to Chrissy.

(Only the first few seconds of this are relevant)

7.) Chrissy’s death affects Eddie right up to his own. He successfully distracts the creatures in the alternate dimension. He’s in the process of returning to his own when he stops, turns around, and sacrifices himself in order to keep the monsters at bay a little longer. As he’s dying, he says, “I didn’t run away this time.”

Jason Carver (because no Beauty and the Beast style ship is complete without a Gaston):

1.) Jason is Chrissy’s boyfriend and the captain of the basketball team. He is handsome and well-liked, but very self-centered. One of the first times we see him, he takes a town tragedy - a “mall fire” that killed dozens - and makes it about his upcoming basketball game.

2.) When Chrissy dies, he goes off the rails. He gathers his teammates, packs his trunk full of weapons, and goes hunting for Eddie.

3.) We never really see Jason sad about Chrissy’s death. He’s only angry. There’s a scene where a classmate offers her condolences to Jason. He changes the subject.

4.) When someone tells Jason that Chrissy went to Eddie because she was scared, he grows angry and says that she would have come to him. Kinda says a lot about the relationship.

5.) Fun fact: the actor who played Jason based his personality off of Tom Cruise and mega church leaders. Yikes.

Parallels:

1.) ‘86: Chrissy wears a 1986 necklace, and Eddie says that ‘86 is going to be his year.

2.) We never see either character out of their “uniform” - her cheerleading outfit and his Hellfire Club t-shirt (his DnD club).

3.) Both characters were victims of the town’s perception of them. Chrissy didn’t get the help she needed because her life seemed so perfect. Eddie was pursued by a literal mob because the town succumbed to Satanic Panic.

4.) Both had parents who put unfair expectations on them: Chrissy’s mother put the burden of beauty on her, and Eddie’s dad made him help steal cars.

Hopefully that’s a good jumping off point! If anybody else wants to chime in with anything I missed, feel free!

Let me know if you want popular headcanons to go with it!

[flowerfan2]

Eddie is different, afterwards.  Dustin doesn’t understand why no one is doing anything about it.  It’s like the spark has gone out of him, except with Eddie it wasn’t just a spark, it was fireworks, and now he’s like the old flashlight Dustin once found at the back of his closet that barely flickered.

When Eddie doesn’t even want to play D&D, Dustin tries talking about it with Will.  He tells him he doesn’t know why Eddie can’t just snap out of it, and Will glares at him like he suggested raising another baby demodog.  In retrospect, maybe he shouldn’t have made light of being trapped in the Upside Down with the only other guy he knows who went through the same thing.

Dustin knows Eddie’s gone through some shit, he does.  But the truth is he misses him, misses his confident swagger, his disdain for people who are afraid to wave their freak flag high.  He misses his big smile, and his crazy faces.  He misses the way Eddie took care of his little lost sheep.

The government gave Eddie and Wayne a new trailer, but Dustin hasn’t seen it yet.  Max spends as much time as she can with El or hanging out at the Wheeler’s, saying the trailer park still feels haunted to her.  Dustin wonders what it’s like for Eddie, still being there every day, in the place he saw Chrissy die.

Dustin goes to summer camp again, and for a while he’s able to put it all out of his mind.  Suzie is there, and being with her is awesome.  For four weeks he tries to pretend that the insanity and terror of living in Hawkins is no big deal.  But then he comes back home.

After a few days of riding around town on his bike and hanging out with the party,  Dustin decides to organize a trip to the arcade.  He tries to call Steve for a ride, but there’s no answer at his house, and when he goes to get the walkie Mike stops him, saying he thinks he’s busy.  Dustin protests for a while, but finally gives up when El tells him that the Byers are having a barbeque that weekend and he’ll see Steve then.

Saturday dawns hot and bright, and Dustin puts on his favorite camp shirt and heads over to the Byers’ new house early.  Joyce gives him a warm hug, like always, and he goofs around with Will until Jonathan forces them to help set up chairs in the backyard.  People start arriving around lunchtime, but it isn’t until he’s eaten two ketchup-drenched hot dogs and an overcooked burger that he sees Steve arrive, Eddie trailing close behind him.

He wants to run over and give Eddie a giant hug, better even than the one Dustin got from Joyce, but Robin suddenly appears next to him and puts a hand on his arm to hold him back.  “Let him ease into it,” she says softly.  Dustin doesn’t know why Eddie would need to ease into hanging out with his friends, but something in Robin’s tone tells him not to argue.

Eventually Dustin decides enough is enough.  He finds Eddie in the house, sitting next to Steve on the couch, talking softly with Hopper who is leaning against an armchair.  They all swivel their heads towards him when he pokes his head in, and Hopper nods and leaves the room, grunting some kind of greeting at Dustin as he goes by.

“Hey, what’s up?”  Steve says, and Dustin stumbles over both his feet and his words as he throws himself at the two of them.  Steve catches him and holds him tight, and he feels Eddie wrap an arm around him too.

“I want everyone to be okay,” Dustin mumbles, feeling like an idiot but not able to really say anything else.

“We’re okay, dude, don’t worry,” Steve says.  “I mean, Hopper’s grill skills could use some work, but generally speaking that’s not a big deal.”

“Really?  That’s what you’re going with?  You know that’s not what I mean.”  Dustin pushes out of their hold and sits on the coffee table.  He looks at Eddie, and then Steve, who exchange a weird glance, and then Eddie leans forward.

“I’m sorry, bud.  It really wasn’t my year, I guess. But-” Eddie’s eyes flash over to Steve, who gives him a wry grin and knocks their knees together.  “Things are looking up.  I’m okay.  Really.”

Dustin realizes that Eddie does seem better.  He’s completely lost that gray haze.  Even his hair looks better, bouncier, like Steve has been sharing his secrets.  “Do you swear?” he asks, his throat tight.

Eddie laughs, and it makes something glad and joyful bubble up in Dustin’s chest.  Steve looks happy about it too, and he grabs Eddie around his shoulders and pulls him close to his side, making Eddie laugh some more and then rest his head on Steve’s shoulder.  “Yeah, I swear.”

Dustin hears Nancy announcing something about ice pops, and he decides he better get out there before all the good flavors are taken.  “All right.  Fine.  See you around?”

“For sure,” Eddie says, and it’s a little softer and quieter than maybe Eddie was before, but Dustin still feels that warmth inside him.  Because the spark is back in Eddie’s eyes.  It’s not quite fireworks yet, but it’s there, and it’s awesome.  

[a-strange-inkling]

He pulls her into a warm, deep embrace, burying his face in her neck, her hair. Chrissy gasps in delight, holding him tight, breathing him in, feeling as though her heart could burst.

So this is what it’s supposed to feel like.

Lingering a moment more, she moves to sit up while he falls back to lay back on the mattress, arms spread out on either side of him. Some of his ecstasy still lingering apparently.

“The others will be here soon,” she tells him, glancing at the clock, only to hear him chuckling behind her.

She glances over her shoulder, habitually tucking her knees up to her chest.

“What?” she asks, giggling at the sight of him laying flat like that, all spread out, his eyes closed contentedly, laughing to himself.

“Give me a minute, okay?” he says between breaths. “I just nailed the Queen of Hawkins High last night.”

“Oh my God, Eddie,” she whispers to herself, feeling her whole body flushing so violently she has to hide her face in her hands.

He only chuckles all the louder, clearly not sorry at all. She whips around in annoyance, crawling over him purposefully, taking his chin in her hand, giving it a firm little shake. “I’ll let you have your moment, but never,” she chokes on a laugh as he feigns to listen very, very intently, a mischievous, eager glint in his eyes. She presses on regardless, trying valiantly to be serious and stern. “Ever phrase it like that again.”

“No?” he asks with a snicker, a pleasantly warm hand sliding up her thigh, all the tingles returning in full force. “How would you like me to phrase it?”

Her mouth forms a line as she tries not to give him the pleasure of a smile, releasing his chin. “I don’t know…but not like that.” she concludes snootily, swatting his reaching, grabby hand away playfully.

He leans up, snagging the back of her neck and kissing her slow and savoring. She moans in surrender, easing slowly back down against the bed as he rolls on top of her. He’s just short of crushing her, but she only revels under the weight of his body.

“I’m sorry,” he chastises himself, peppering her with doting little kisses she would have never thought him capable of all up and down her face. “I made sweet, sweet love to the Queen of Hawkins High last night. That better?”

She makes a disapproving sound in the back of her throat as she pinches softly up and down his ribs, causing him to break out into a fit of warm intoxicating laughter.

[intothedysphoria]

It took a while but Steve eventually got Lola to put on her socks and go into daycare.

To say that Lola was a precocious child would be putting it mildly. Lola Harrington was one of the oddest four year olds Steve had come across and he could admit that as her father.

Her current mission was a “pre-school boycott”. Steve still wasn’t sure where exactly she’d learned that word. It was nothing bribery couldn’t solve though, and with the promise of yogurt, Lola was finally through the maroon doors and Steve could go to work.

By the time he came to pick her up, she’d already figured out a new demand and the new one was much harder to avoid.

There had been a revelation in the world of boisterous toddlers. A revolution even. A new favourite adult had emerged during a class trip to the movies and now Lola was insisting on rewatching Inside Out 2 to speak to the funny man selling the tickets.

Steve thought it was going to be a problem in that the man would be sickeningly sweet and refuse to address Steve by name. Instead, Steve was greeted with the kind of guy who’d reject him a nightclub back when he still went clubbing.

His voice was the kind of voice Steve would dream about as a teenager and he was definitely wearing mascara. Steve may have had the more lucrative career but this guy had definitely won the genetic lottery.

He was also charismatic in the kind of way that Steve could see deals being sold left and eight if put in front of the right person. Steve may have been a cynic but he could definitely see himself being swept away by that silver tongue.

The name tag said Billy and Steve already knew that name was going to haunt him for at least the next 6 months.

Billy certainly didn’t disappoint. He had a way of sticking in Steve’s life, especially after Steve found out that he also had a job at the local coffee shop he frequented.

It felt like madness, being so consumed by a person who he’d only spoken to twice. Four times if you counted polite small talk in professional settings. He did seem to have a soft spot for Lola’s forthright nature but nothing particularly special towards Steve.

Not that he seemed to have anything particularly against him but he didn’t really have anything for Steve either.

The first time they spoke without Lola, Steve had left her with Robin so he could watch Deadpool and Wolverine. No date, just Steve.

Billy had dyed his hair green and was wearing very thick eyeliner. More in the realms of emo than traditional beauty. He was also swearing under his breath as he tried to get the coffee machine to work.

Steve, being Steve, offered to help and Billy actually accepted.

He was apparently a bit of a technological Luddite and anything made past 1997 seemed to hate him. Steve could relate and they made a few minutes of mindless conversation about hopeless technology fails.

There was a point where Billy’s hand brushed across his, just a little and Steve felt his stomach start dancing with butterflies.

It was probably nothing. Billy was talking to him more now but it was probably nothing.

Lola continued to obsess over Billy to the point where Steve had to explain that Billy was just someone they knew in the context of him being at work and they didn’t have infinite money to spend on movie theatre tickets.

Billy decided to disprove Steve’s point by both giving them discounted tickets and his number. Landline because he didn’t have a mobile.

Steve listened to a lot of Chappell Roan that weekend. She just suited his vibe.

Considering her track record for acidity, Carol was uncharacteristically engaged while listening to Steve’s plight. That may have been due to her planning to hook up with Chrissy Cunningham but Steve took what he could.

She also told him under no circumstances was he to fall back into “high school Steve” because in her own words “he was a colossal bitch and you aren’t that babe.”

Those words were echoing in his head still when his car came to a standstill on a quiet road, hours away from home. There wasn’t a gas station or mechanics anywhere near and there was no way for Steve to contact Lola’s babysitter because his phone was out of battery.

He was at the point of sobbing of frustration when a literal bright light saved him.

Billy in his fast car, stopped by Steve’s Beemer and asked if he was ok. Well, Steve had certainly been better.

Instead of just taking Steve’s word and driving off, Billy sent a ‘wait there’ hand gesture and started fiddling before making a satisfied grunt and watching the engine come to life again.

Billy was explaining with a lot of mechanical jargon what exactly was wrong with his car but the stress had made Steve lose his head. Because he kissed him.

Billy kissed back even more intensely so Steve guessed he wasn’t exactly opposed to Steve’s little crush.

And judging by her face when she found out, Steve was almost completely sure Lola had been planning getting them together since the beginning. She really was such a crafty four year old.

For @dragonflylady77 happy birthday Guin ily ❤️❤️❤️ ( I think I’ve timed this correctly for UK to NZ time)

[justhere4thevibez]

5 facts of a Hellcheer AU where Laura Cunningham is Vecna's first victim, please :)

ooh, this is an interesting one! Thanks for the ask!!!

Chrissy comes to Eddie for drugs not because Vecna is haunting her, but because she thinks there's something wrong with her because she's kind of happy her mom's dead.

Eddie coaxes this information out of her halfway through their first shared joint, and by the start of the second one, he wants to bring her mom back just so he can murder her again. Chrissy might fall even more in love with him when he admits that.

Suspicion falls somehow on Chrissy. Maybe Jason sees her going off with Eddie and thinks she's been "taken in by the darkness." Tries to maybe exorcise her or something.

In this au Hopper's alive, and he doesn't believe Jason's bs for a minute. But he DOES realize that both Chrissy and Eddie are in danger from pitchfork-wielding locals, so he quietly shuffles them off to the cabin he used to hide El in before she got officially adopted until things die down and he can get real proof that they're innocent.

Cue Chrissy and Eddie, both definitely attracted to each other but still mostly strangers, living in near-isolation together. They paw through Hopper's old records, make each other meals as best they can, and try to put the pieces together with the Party while in hiding (because of course Dustin sends a radio with them for communication purposes).

and they fall madly i nlove and live happily ever after because I SAY SO.

[fastcardotmp3]

Wheelingham; S4 AU; Outsider POV (Max); Presumed character death (but not real character death); 1.9k Written for @strangerthingsfemslash week day 3: secret relationship read day 1: different first meeting read day 2: women over thirty

Max goes to Nancy first. 

The lights flicker and the cops roll in and one of them is whispering about— The Cunningham girl? She’s probably dead by now. 

So. Max goes to Nancy, partially because at first she thinks she’ll knock out two Wheelers with one stone before she remembers Mike is already on a plane to California, but also because it’s Nancy. 

Because for the entirety of this past school year, Nancy has managed to bulldoze her way over all of Max’s carefully constructed walls and forced her to keep one of them in her life, at the very least. 

She’s a force of nature, Nancy Wheeler, and the first time she showed up at Max’s trailer with dinner on a night her mom was working a double, that had been apparent, but not everything had been. 

Not the reason Nancy was determined to insert herself in Max’s life; not the underlying despair that Max has learned chases that girl from one fight to the next. 

Max goes to Nancy because Nancy knows what to do when the world ends, in more ways than one. Max goes to Nancy, because she doesn’t realize that saying—

“I overheard the cops talking, they think she might be dead.” 

—she’ll be knocking loose the mask of resolve that Nancy puts on with her hair clips each morning, knocking it straight to the floor and stomping on it hard. 

“They think…” She's small, but normally she takes up mountains of space in Max’s life. She’s got this presence to her which Max can barely admit to herself is grounding, but it is. She actually seems small in this moment though. Wound up and tiny. “And you’re sure— did they say Chrissy? Did they say Cunningham? I don’t… I just—”

“That’s what they said,” Max feels like she’s watching something she’s not supposed to, like when she still lived in California and her mom still cared about the ratings on the movies Max rented from the Blockbuster. “And usually I wouldn’t put too much stock in what the Hawkins PD has to say, but… The lights were… I know what lights like that mean.” 

Nancy clenches down on her jaw and something in her eyes shifts and Max has spent a lot of time with this girl in the past six months. 

Long enough to recognize that there’s a lot Nancy doesn’t talk about, even when she’s actively trying to be vulnerable to make Max feel better; long enough, too, to know that just because Nancy is a force of nature doesn’t mean she’s not also still barely eighteen years old. 

Nancy swallows thickly and her fists clench and unclench around the fabric of her skirt until it's wrinkled and Max wants to ask, but before she gets the chance Nancy is steeling herself and sending Max to the car and telling her to radio Dustin to meet them at the Family Video. 

Before Max has a chance to really get a gauge on what’s going on with Nancy at all (because something is going on) she’s being forced to walk through exactly what and who she saw last night four times over on the fifteen minute drive. 

More than anything, Nancy’s haste reminds Max that they’re in it again. It reminds her that none of it was ever over and she was right, in a lot of ways if not all of them, to expect another shoe to drop. 

The problem is that it’s a lot easier to focus on something going on with Nancy than it is to think about the nightmares that have been haunting her since long before she watched Billy die. He’s starred in her nightmares before, but this is different, this is new, this is so entirely old by now. 

No, it’s easier to let the rest of them try to make sense of what’s going on while she watches the looks on Steve and Robin’s faces when they hear the name Chrissy Cunningham. 

They look at Nancy on instinct, without a beat of hesitation. They look at Nancy.

“Chrissy…? Shit, Nance—”

“Don’t,” she snaps, pushing past Steve’s big and welling eyes that clearly know more than Max does to begin typing away at the computer behind the desk. 

He doesn’t let her run from him though, visibly putting himself between Nancy and the rest of them as he speaks just under his breath enough that Max can’t hear him over Dustin’s own plan-making, but can see the way Nancy’s shoulders tense up and her fingers falter across the keys. 

If Max were, say, Dustin, it would look like the kind of sign that the two of them were starting something up again, but Max has broken up and gotten back together with Lucas enough times to recognize that this isn’t that. 

This is its own thing. This is Nancy on the verge of something else Max has been keenly aware of for too much of her young life: a nervous breakdown. 

Nancy Wheeler is terrified, but not in the same way the rest of them are, not because the world might be ending again. Hers is a different sort of terror, only Max can’t place it. She might even be wrong about the whole thing, looking too hard for a distraction from the pulsing ache at the center of her skull, but there’s something about the slices of conversation she catches that tells her otherwise. 

“... might not actually be…”

“... no way for you to know that, Steve…”

“... not the same as…”

“...don’t have time to… need to focus on this…”

But again, too much is happening with too quick a turnaround for Max to really dig in and find the answers to her queries. 

“Eddie wouldn’t hurt someone,” Dustin is saying with the sort of forceful defensiveness of someone who is being put on trial himself rather than defending a friend. “He wouldn’t. Something else killed Chrissy—”

Max’s eyes train in on the shift in Nancy’s posture, the thick swallow she takes as she turns halfway away from all of them like protecting her soft bits from coming blows. 

“ – or probably something,” Dustin insists. “Which means Eddie is in danger too if he was there.”

“Why would Chrissy have even been at Eddie’s trailer?” Robin asks, the question broad enough to seem as though it’s angled at all of them, but Max can see the way she looks at Nancy, the direction she means for it to land. 

Nancy seems to feel it too. 

“They’re friends,” she says without meeting anyone’s gaze, arms crossed and eyes downturned. “Ever since she broke up with Jason, it’s been— hard. At school. And Eddie’s just— he’s been a friend, so…”

“So maybe she’s with him,” Robin says, but it’s less like a suggestion of theory and more like the kind of thing meant to ease nerves, softer around the edges, almost imploring in nature. 

Nancy’s grip around her own biceps is tight enough to make her skin go white, and by the time they have an address for Reefer Rick, any proximity that Max gets to her feels like the air is vibrating at a different, but not unfamiliar, frequency. 

When Max stepped out of Starcourt on that night in July, the air had tasted like ash. When she had sat unblinking and trembling in the back of a parked ambulance, she hadn’t been able to feel Lucas’s hand in her own past the shake of the world around her. 

“She’s your friend?” Max asks, a murmur of a question just for Nancy after having forced her way into the front seat of the station wagon for their trek across town, letting the other three keep themselves occupied in the back. 

Nancy’s lips purse and what Max can only imagine is an involuntary hum chokes its way out of her throat. 

“I was— I shouldn’t have been so blunt about it,” Max says. “About what I overheard the police saying. I should have said it differently, because we don’t even know if she’s really—”

“She is,” Nancy says stiffly, grip tight on the steering wheel as they turn down a path that leads to the lake. “That’s how these things work. She is.” 

Max doesn’t have an argument for that. 

In her experience it’s the truth, the only truth, that the worst case is the actual case. 

It keeps her quiet in the passenger seat until they’re parking, all the way up to Rick’s front door, through Dustin’s incessant knocking, until she notices Nancy wandering towards the boathouse and hurries to follow behind her. 

The door creaks when they open it, windows mucked up with algae and the general wear of time to the point where even the fading light of day doesn’t permeate the space. The floorboards groan under their feet and the lap of water against the bottom of the boat at the center of the room makes the whole thing eerie. 

Eerie and nerve-wracking and bad, the whole thing has their collective adrenaline pumping right up until a number of things are happening at the same time. 

The toss of a tarp, the guttural scream of a man, the pushing and shoving and trapping of Steve up against the wall as the rest of them merely try to keep up and act on their feet and prepare for an attack and—

“Nance?” 

It’s quiet, but it cuts through the chaos. 

It’s quiet, but it seems as though it has physical weight in its effect on Nancy. 

“You’re—?” the sharp choking-off of a question, the near-buckling of knees, something starts to click into place as Nancy seems to move a woman-possessed across the boathouse until she’s got her hands hovering over Chrissy Cunningham’s shoulders, drifting down her arms, searching, searching, searching for— “are you hurt? You’re hurt? You’re— oh my god, are you real?” 

Chrissy’s got what appears to be Eddie’s leather jacket tied up around one of her arms like a sling, the stain of dried blood smudged on her cheekbone just under her eyes, but she smiles as she places her available hand on Nancy’s cheek. 

Wet and nervous, but a smile all the same. 

And things are clicking into place, because Max has broken up with and gotten back together with Lucas quite a few times. 

“Um, some stuff is— is happening and I don’t know how to explain—” Chrissy shakes her head, lifting her gaze to meet Eddie’s as he drops his attack stance from Steve, “but we’re okay. And you’re here now, so, so that’s—”

“They said you were dead,” Nancy blurts, chin wobbling and voice thick and cracking. “They said— I thought you were dead, I thought—”

It’s bold, when Chrissy cuts her off with a firm kiss to the mouth, right there in front of all of them in the middle of the dark. 

It’s bold, but Max sees the fondness on the older kids’ faces, the clarity that they’ve known the whole time. 

It’s bold, but pretty fucking cool, Max thinks. Proof, maybe, that it doesn’t always have to go the other way, that maybe sometimes their people can get through to the other side, scared and hurt but okay. Not lost. Not entirely. Close enough to be found. 

“Wha– Wait, what the–?” Dustin balks, confusion radiating off of him as bright as the sun beside Max, almost blinding in its comical nature. “Did you know about this?” he looks to her, face all twisted up in not knowing something more than actually having a problem with it. 

Max looks at him, looks at the gentle way Chrissy swipes away Nancy’s tears as they press their foreheads close and relish in the finding. 

And then she looks back at Dustin and shrugs. “It was kind of obvious, dumbass.” 

[tillystealeaves]

Steddie Fic- Part 1: Breakup

I don't know what to title this thing, but it's a 3 part story and this is Part 1. Hope you enjoy!!!!

Or read it on AO3.

Steve stood in the living room, not knowing what to do with himself. Eddie would be here soon. Eddie was working that day, at the music store in the town next to Hawkins (where people didn’t care so much about the Hawkins rumor mill), and his shift ended at 4, which meant Eddie would be getting to Steve’s house by around 4:30 because Steve had invited him over, and it was 4:15 now, so Eddie should be here any minute, and if it was a normal night Steve would probably be pulling something out of the oven but tonight-

Steve stopped himself. He took a breath. He couldn’t allow his mind to go on tangents like that or he was going to word-vomit all over Eddie.

Eddie, who would be arriving any minute.

Steve had thought for a long time about whether he wanted to have this conversation in his house. If he wanted the memories of this to be burned into his mind every time that he walked through his living room. But his house was already full of so many ghosts. Barb sat perpetually at the edge of his pool, his mother cried over a glass of wine at the kitchen counter, and his father was… everywhere. Always telling Steve how everything he did was somehow a stain on the Harrington name.

Besides, the alternative was to do this at Eddie’s house and that… he couldn’t do that. Eddie had been living for less than a year in the new double-wide trailer supplied by the government. His old home, even if it hadn’t been ripped to shreds, would have been forever filled with the ghost of Chrissy. Steve couldn’t make bad memories for Eddie in his new one. (Though he was fairly sure that Eddie wouldn’t be particularly haunted by this conversation anyway.)

And then there was the fact that over the past eight months since the Spring Break from Hell, Eddie’s new trailer had come to mean something to Steve. It felt like… home. Like the way a home should feel, in the way his own never had. It felt lived in, even though it was new. With Wayne’s mug collection and replacement posters tacked up on Eddie’s wall. With music playing or the TV on mute in the living room, coffee brewing in the kitchen because between Eddie’s and Wayne’s work schedule, it was always breakfast time for someone. Steve had felt welcomed there. Safe. Like he belonged. He refused to poison those memories for himself with what was about to happen.

“Stevie?”

Eddie’s voice pulled Steve from his thoughts. He wondered if Eddie had just let himself in or if he’d been knocking for minutes with no answer. Well, Steve figured he could always blame his damaged hearing if Eddie complained about waiting too long.

“Hey Eds.”

Eddie was smiling, warm and easy. Steve tried to freeze the moment in his mind. Sometimes memories were getting lost inside his head- the doctors said it would continue to happen, a side effect of too many head injuries. But Steve swore to himself that he would never let his brain lose this image of Eddie so happy just from arriving at Steve’s house.

Almost as soon as Steve had made a note to remember Eddie’s smile, it vanished. Suddenly, Eddie looked concerned. He approached Steve and put his hands on his shoulders. His long fingered hands, warm, with calluses that that had ghosted over Steve’s arms, his back, his hair- Steve bit the inside of his cheek and pulled himself back into the moment. “What’s up, Steve? You look… less like a ray of sunshine than usual. Something wrong? Is it a migraine?”

Steve stepped back, outside of Eddie’s grip. “No, my head’s fine. I just… can we talk for a minute?”

Eddie sank down on the couch and immediately began fiddling with his rings, his head angled so that his hair was falling in front of his face. “Yeah, of course we can. Um… did I do something wrong?”

His voice sounded so small. Gods, Steve didn’t know if he would be able to do this if Eddie was going to be sad. The whole point was to make Eddie happy- not tonight, of course. Steve knew tonight would sting. But it wouldn’t hurt Eddie. And in the long run, Eddie would be happy. He would be-

“Stevie? You’re sort of scaring me, baby. Did something bad happen? Like, Upside Down bad?”

“No,” Steve answered quickly. He rushed to the couch and sat down, putting his hand reassuringly on Eddie’s knee. (He ignored the voice in his head whispering that this might be the last moment that they touched.) “No, it’s nothing like that. I just-” He had to just do it. He had to put words to what he wanted least in the world, but what he knew was the right thing. “I think we need to stop this thing between us.”

Steve dared to glance up at Eddie, but found that he couldn’t see anything of his expression. His right hand pulled his hair across his face and into his mouth while his left hand fiddled frantically with the rips on his jeans. “Okay.” Eddie’s voice was thick. Was he going to cry? Steve didn’t think this would make him cry. “If that’s what you want, of course, ba- Steve. But is there anything I can do to fix it? I mean, could you maybe tell me what’s not working for you and I can do it better?”

“You didn’t do anything, Eds,” Steve assured him. Eddie had to know that this was absolutely not his fault. It was Steve’s fault, 100%. “It’s just… when two people want different things out of a relationship, someone’s going to end up unhappy. And I don’t want to ever make you unhappy.”

“I’m not unhappy!” Eddie protested. He looked up and even through his hair, Steve could see his eyes were red and wet. Steve looked down at the floor. “Are you unhappy? What am I doing to make you unhappy?”

Steve swallowed past the burning lump in his throat. He really hadn’t expected Eddie to put up a fight. He had expected him to agree, maybe give him a parting hug or maybe say that he was relieved that Steve hadn’t made Eddie have to do this himself. He had hoped that Eddie would say they could still be friends, or at minimum be cool with each other for the sake of the kids. But if this is what Eddie needed from him, he could spell it out.

“You’re not doing anything to make me unhappy. Look, I talked to Robin about this a lot, trying to figure out the best way to handle it. She said I couldn’t keep avoiding it by just wishing that we could stay this way forever. Sometimes, one person in a relationship just expects more out of it than what it is. And if they don’t talk about it, that person is going to get their heart broken. And the other person is going to get sick of them. I don’t want that for us. I don’t want resentment or hurt feelings or- I just think we should stop this where it is. It’s been so great, Eddie.” Steve heard his voice break at that; he hoped Eddie hadn’t noticed. “It’s been really good, but I think we should stop it here before it turns into something bad.”

With his eyes still pointed resolutely at the carpet, Steve could only feel Eddie nod. He heard Eddie take a deep, shaky breath and then felt the couch lift as Eddie stood. “Okay, yeah. Message received. I’ll get out of your hair. Um… bye, Steve.”

Steve didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer. Even with his terrible hearing, every step Eddie took towards the door reverberated through his head and his chest and his heart. He stayed motionless, barely breathing, as the front door squeaked open and clicked shut. It was only when the sound of Eddie’s rickety van faded that he fell forward onto the couch- still warm from Eddie’s body- and allowed himself to sob.

Read the next part: Interlude 1

[medusapelagia]

02 Creel’s House

written for @steddieangstyaugust (prompt: Ghost) and @au-gust (Prompt: Colorless) Rating: Mature Relationship: Steve & Robin, Steve/Eddie if you squint TW: AU, Major character already dead, body horror, monsters, ghosts, homicide, spiders Words: 1688

Homicide suicide.

That's what every newspaper titled the article about Eddie Munson's death. And they weren't totally wrong. Someone actually killed someone else and then killed himself, but both the police and the newspaper assumed it was Eddie who killed Chrissy before killing himself. The truth was the contrary.

Maybe it could sound unrealistic that a cute blond teenage girl killed a young man, but they didn't know that Chrissy was possessed by an evil creature. A creature that even years after his death, Eddie is still hunting down.

He has done his best to keep everyone away from Creel's house. He has screamed in the night, turned on lights and electronic devices, and left messages on the fogged glass of the shower. And it has worked every single time! For almost forty years nobody has stepped inside Creel's house, which is why the entire building is decrypted and full of mold. Totally unsanitary. But this doesn't seem to worry the young couple that just made an offer to buy the place.

They want to renovate it and sell it even better, and in the meantime, they'll take temporary residence in the living room, the only room that still maintains the appearance of a room because it's the room where Eddie and Chrissy died, and Eddie is still waiting for the monster to creep through the wooden cracks and makes his appearance.

Eddie never saw the monster that took the girl he loved so deeply, but he saw the effect he had on her, puppeteering her like she was a toy and not a person. He remembers her white empty eyes and the low growl that came from her mouth before she hit him with a poker in the back of his head. After that he has no idea of what happened, his memories are blurred, and all he knows is that he woke up in a colorless world and quickly found out that's true what they say about ghosts: you become a ghost when you have some unfinished business, and Eddie's business is find the monster that took Chrissy. Exorcize him if he has to! No idea how, but he knows he'll manage somehow.

It takes Eddie a couple of days to understand that the young couple isn't a couple at all. They are joined at the hip but they don't share any physical contact, like Eddie and Chrissy.

It makes Eddie sad remembering Chrissy, but he finds comfort in knowing that at least she's not there, trapped between life and death, so her soul must be resting somewhere else.

The young man, Steve is his name, is really good-looking, totally Eddie's type if he wasn't a ghost. Eddie spends hours studying him. Right now Steve is kneeling in the basement, trying to get enough water pressure for Robin, the girl, to take a shower. Little does he know that Eddie broke all the pipes years before.

Eddie chuckles, amused at Steve’s stubbornness, and Steve turns toward him.

For a little moment, Eddie wonders if Steve can see him, they are eyes into eyes and he’s stepping closer enough that Eddie could touch him if he was still alive.

Steve's hand reaches out toward Eddie and he freezes, staring at the hairy arm… that passes through him to grab a screwdriver from a metal shelf.

Eddie screams, angry and frustrated, and the entire house shakes. Once the earthquake stops, Steve runs upstairs, screaming Robin’s name and dragging her out of the house.

They’ll find out soon that the mysterious earthquake was only at their place and that everyone knows that Creel’s House is haunted.

***

After the basement incident, Eddie decides that it’s time for Robin and Steve to leave, so he tries his old scheme: noises in the night, flickering lights, and whispering in the night. Surprisingly, neither of the two of them seems to be scared by Eddie’s efforts. Instead of running for their life, screaming from the top of their lungs, they start filming the weird things that keep happening in the house and post them on their socials. They get a great number of followers, that’s a new word Eddie just learned, that quickly transforms into a pilgrimage of curious people who want to live the experience of meeting a ghost.

Eddie never shows himself when those outsiders come to Creel’s House, but every single one of them swears they felt his presence. 

The bright side is that finally, after almost forty years, the presence of so many people in Creel’s House attracts the monster Eddie was waiting for. 

It starts with a cold feeling that both the humans and the ghost can feel even if it's August.

Robin says it's the old wall, but Steve seems not convinced. He keeps filming around the house, finding spiders crawling from under the wooden floor and moving toward the attic, the only room Eddie never managed to explore and whose key was lost ages ago.

Finally, the two humans are starting to feel scared.

"I think we should leave. Like right now." Robin says, looking at the creepy row of insects that keeps marching toward the attic.

"Ok. Wait for me in the car," Steve replies, but Eddie can tell that something is wrong. His body language is different, and when turns toward Eddie he seems to have the same white empty eyes Chrissy had when she killed him.

"Hello, Edward." Steve says with a voice that's not his, but it's Creel's.

"Did you say something?" Robin asks, turning just in time to see the empty look on Steve's face. She starts to scream, running toward him, but Eddie concentrates all his energy and manages to push her out of the house, closing the door behind her.

The woman keeps screaming Steve's name, punching the door with desperation, but Eddie won't let her back inside, no matter what.

"Forty years and you never left this shit hole?"

"I was waiting for you!" Eddie snarls back.

"Oh, do you think I didn't have any other place to be, Edward? Your energy is attractive, but the world is full of people whose lives a living nightmares and who are an easier prey. If it wasn't for this young man here I would have never set foot back in here and you would have waited for eternity." The creature with Steve's face cackles.

"Leave him alone!" Eddie yells, trying to shake the possessed body.

"Why should I? His desperation is so tasty. He hides it under a fake smile but his life is a mess. He's lost and I can make all of this end. I'm a savior."

"You're a fucking killer!"

"That's just a consequence. When I feed from them I free them of their demons. Sadly. They die. Humans are so fragile, you know?" Creel says, snapping Steve's arms like it was a toothpick.

"Let him go! Let him go or…"

"Or what, Edward? What are you going to do? Huh?" Creel's voice asks, amused.

Eddie tries to hit the creature inside Steve's body, but his punch passes through Steve's body without hitting him. Still, that gesture isn't completely futile because for a fraction of a second Eddie sees the inside of the attic, a room made of reds and blues with a huge pumping machine. He doesn't really know what he saw, but Eddie knows it is something important because Creel freezes.

"No!" he screams, but Eddie is already sprinting toward the attic, taking a few shortcuts through the walls that Steve's body can't take.

The sturdy wooden door is still standing in front of him, like an impenetrable wall, but there's a tiny hole the little insects are using to get inside. Eddie never tried to change his form before, he just used to run through the walls, but he concentrated, making himself small enough to finally break through into the attic.

On the other side, Creel, still in Steve's body, is trying to break down the door, but Eddie's eyes are pinned to an old body, almost mummified, connected to so many tubes, and lying inside a sort of pentagram.

A body trapped between life and death.

Eddie stares at the fragile body with pity, and finally, he remembers why Chrissy and he went to Creel's house all those years ago.

All the kids in town knew the story of the crazy Doctor Victor Creel who made experiments on homeless people to cure his ill child and Chrissy wanted to write an article in the school newspaper about it. She has done tons of research in the public library and all she needed was to get into the house and take a few pictures to add them to her article, and for doing that she needed Eddie's lockpicking skills.

But they never managed to get any pictures. Chrissy was attacked by Creel as soon as she got inside, she killed Eddie and then she killed herself, all because of the creature lying on that rusty bed.

With a last push, the wooden door finally yields and Steve's body falls on the ground, one arm broken and the other badly bruised. Creel stares at Eddie, and then he leaves Steve's body to get back to his own and protect himself, but this time Eddie is determined to put an end to the murderous story of the family.

He gets into Steve's body, something he never did before, and uses his good hand to erase the chalk pentagram from the floor.

The body lying on the rusty bed writhes and shrieks, staring with his white eyes at Eddie, cursing him one last time, before dying.

For a moment Eddie remains in Steve's body, enjoying the feeling of being alive once more, but then he sees Steve's memories. Creel was right, the young man's memories are full of pain and sorrow, but also of joy and friendship, and Eddie can rob him of his own life.

"I hope I'll meet you in the next life," Eddie whispers, and for a moment their soul connects and that's enough for Eddie to be sure that he'll find him again soon.