Chapter Text
Dark lashes flutter as tired eyes open slowly to reveal the red sky above them. The sound of thunder crashing around him makes his body tense as he registered the dark clouds. The flashing sky made him squint as he stared at it from under furrowed brows.
Where am I?
He turned his head slowly. A tinge of pain burned somewhere in the left side of this neck and he grimaced at the feeling. Blinking rapidly as something started to come back to him. A memory clawing at the inside of his head, desperate to find his eyes and playback.
Suddenly he was staring at the sky again but this time he was screaming. Eyes and mouth wide as sharp teeth sunk into his flesh. He flailed and writhed in an attempt to remove the creatures but he was held down from every direction. He kicked his legs wildly but accomplished nothing. The clever little fuckers giving him leverage and then pulling his restraints taunt as he tried to strike at them.
He thrashed his head, chin swiping repeatedly against smooth, wet skin. The animal nibbling at his neck paying him no mind as he butted at it with his chin.
He was in agony. Hundreds of little bites being taken all over his body at once. Fangs scraping against his broken flesh. He knew he was being eaten alive and there was nothing he could do but scream.
The memory playing out behind his lids ended abruptly with another loud crack of thunder. His frightened eyes fading back into reality as he stared at the fallen bats around him. His eyes darting to the arm he had splayed out beside him. The tail of a dead bat was wrapped around his wrist. Heavy and lifeless as he snapped his arm back towards his body. Dragging the bat with it and shouting out in terror as it grew closer.
He closed his eyes for a second, realizing what had happened and trying to calm his racing heart. He lifted his trembling hand to inspect the damage on his arm. Open wounds that suddenly ached and burned as if they hadn’t been there all along.
He swallowed thickly. Trying his best to take a deep breath before rising up to the best of his ability and looking down at his front.
Pain tore through his abdomen at the sight. Rising up over his chest and concentrating on the left side of his body. His shirt was in tatters, drenched in blood. He could see red flesh that should be deep below the skin. His body was carved away in the patterns of little teeth.
Fuck.
Eddie let his head fall back against the rough gravel. Everything hurt so badly. He wasn’t sure he could move. He’d have to wait for the others to come back from the Creel House. Dustin would tell them what he had done and-
Dustin!
Eddie gasped, taking quick shaky breaths as he remembered lying in the kid’s arms. He’d told him to stay there. But the dumbass had followed him. He remembered now. He’d thought he was dying. Thought maybe he did die. But now he was awake and he didn’t know how or why.
How long has it been?
He gritted his teeth as he turned his head, looking for his trailer in the distance. He could just see it from where he was laying. The door was wide open but otherwise nothing seemed amiss.
Fuck… I-I’ve gotta’ get over there.
It takes a lot longer than he would have liked to gather the strength to move. He wanted to but his body wasn’t ready. Every time he lifted his arms, ready to attempt to roll over, his breathing would go into hyperdrive. The apprehension of the movement, the fear of the pain. He took short, shallow breaths. Stars spotted his vision as the edges grew dark. Only placing his hands back by his sides would calm him.
He pushed through on the sixth try. Willing himself to roll the second he had his forearms tucked against his battered chest. A scream ripped from his throat as he moved onto his stomach. The loose rocks grating against his wounds. He dropped his forehead against the ground. Shoulders shaking as a broken whine escaped him.
I can’t… I can’t do it.
He sobbed against the ground, his tears rolling back over his eyelids. Blood stained drool falling from his open mouth as he cried.
Who was he kidding? He wasn’t a hero. He couldn’t even save his own life.
He wasn’t sure how long he laid there. Time was a foreign construct down here. He wasn’t sure if time was even moving in the Right Side Up. Was time even moving here? Or was he still stuck in 1983?
Guess I’ll never find out…
He lifted his head. The wound on his neck aching as he stared at his trailer. His tongue darted out to lick over his lips as he thought about all the memories he’d lived through in that old thing.
Wayne.
He thought, his eyes welling with tears once more. He hadn’t seen the man for days before the incident with Chrissy. In the days after her death he was eaten away by the guilt of knowing he’d left his Uncle to find her body. After everything the man had done for him, that was his reward. To find he’d raised a murderer.
He didn’t know if Wayne thought he did it or not. Didn’t know if there was a single person in the world he could count on to believe it wasn’t him. Even if they did believe him, they wouldn’t believe his batshit story about what had really happened.
Except maybe…
Eddie shut his eyes tight. Trying not to think about it.
He hadn’t seen Karmen since the day Chrissy died. He’d left her place early so he could go home before school and grab the things he’d need to run Hellfire that night. They hadn’t really spent much time apart the few weeks prior. But Eddie wasn’t sure how long the finale of his campaign would take. So he opted to tell her he would sleep at his own place Friday night.
It was a good thing he supposed. He shuddered to think how worried she would have been if he’d told her he was coming back that night and then never showed up. She might have come looking for him or he may have felt obligated to go to her. He could have inadvertently left Chrissy for her to find. He could have dragged her into this mess as well.
Oh God, he could have ruined her life as well. He really was no good for her.
Fuck.
He couldn’t let this be it for him. Couldn’t let this be his legacy. His most precious people forever thinking him a murderer. Karmen not knowing or understanding what happened with Chrissy. Wayne not knowing how or why Eddie died.
He needed to get back. Needed to make it back to the trailer. They’d find him in the trailer.
With a newfound resolve he scraped his arms against the ground underneath him. Groaning in pain as rocks and other debris grated against them and settled into the wounds on his chest as he moved his arms out from under himself laid down flat with his palms pressed into the dirt by his sides.
He took a sharp breath, forcing it out in a war cry of sorts as he pushed himself upwards. The weakened muscles in his arms trembling and the eaten away muscles of his chest screaming for relief from the agony of exertion.
He pulled his knees up under him, watching his tears wet the ground underneath him as he wobbled precariously. Now firmly in a position to move. He looked up at the trailer once more. Putting one hand in front of the other and screaming at himself.
Crawl!
~~
Dark eyes blink open. Lashes fluttering against stained carpet as the harsh thudding of movement hit his ear. The reverb of something large vibrated against the ear he has to the ground. Something big and fast.
Something inside the trailer.
His heart dropped as he tried to stifle a panicked breath. He can’t fight. He can’t even stand. He estimated it had taken him several hours to make it this far.
All for nothing, he might add.
Dustin wasn’t in the trailer. None of them were.
They were gone.
They left me.
He was alone here. Or at least, he was before he’d passed out.
Clawing at the carpet of his bedroom floor he pulled himself up again. The pain of the motion was the same as the first time but this time he was silent. Scared for his life or at least what was left of it. He held in his screams, his face turning red as he rocked himself on the spot, waiting for the pain to fade before moving again.
He had crawled the extra few feet to his bedroom so that if by chance there were still things alive in this world, he wouldn’t be directly in front of the entryway when they caught his scent and came looking.
He looked around the room frantically. His only option was to hide, he realized as he dragged himself towards his closet. It turned out that somewhere in the scuffle he’d hurt his left leg pretty bad. Putting pressure on it was agony but trying to crawl with only one leg and a nibbled on torso was way worse.
The sound of movement had faded but his breathing had sped up. He pressed his back against the wall of his closet, trying to make himself seem as small as possible as he pulled the door closed as far as he could. Cursing himself when something blocked it from closing completely, the last inch refusing to budge as he jiggled it desperately with one arm. His ragged breathing became louder every second as he hurtled towards a panic attack.
Forgetting the door, he crossed his arms over his front. Burying his head in them and trying to calm down all while staying as still as he could. He didn’t want to know what it was. Didn’t want to stare death in the face as it lunged for him and he got to understand what it really felt like to be eaten alive.
He should have died in Dustin’s arms. That should have been the end of his story. But instead he’d woken up alone in this Godforsaken place. Doomed to die a terrifying and painful death at the jaws of some big otherworldly creature. Then there was starvation, dehydration or maybe even loneliness that would help to kill him quickly.
Perhaps a slow and painful death due to injury. His wounds were not the kind to heal themselves without intervention, he could tell that from one look at them. Even if they did, they were bound to get infected and he wouldn’t live through that alone.
They left me.
After everything, they left him there. He felt perhaps he should just be happy that Dustin got out alive. That he did what he’d set out to do and saved them all. That he was the only casualty.
But they left me.
He should have seen it coming to be quite honest. He wasn’t one of them, didn’t know them, really. He was just some guy that stumbled into the wrong place at the wrong time. They’d come for him not because they wanted or needed to save him. But because they needed his knowledge of what had happened.
Eddie jolted suddenly at a loud crash from the other end of the trailer. Shuffling down slightly against the floor and screwing his eyes shut as he shivered violently.
It’s back.
The sound grew closer. Louder, until suddenly the closet door was ripped aside. Eddie’s mouth opened in a silent scream.
But then, nothing.
He blinked in confusion, lifting his head slightly to peak at the dark shape in the doorway, illuminated from behind by a bright light.
Harrington?
“He’s alive!”
~~
Dustin and Nancy stood together in silence. Heads raised as they both stared above them with bated breath. Waiting to watch as Steve and Robin carried Eddie’s lifeless body back inside his trailer and they could begin to work out how to get him back through the gate before it closed.
As soon as they had realized that the gates had not fully closed yet, Dustin had been insistent that they return for him. Refusing point blank to accept any answer other than yes and even going so far as to threaten to go back on his own. That was the only reason they were standing there right now.
They knew he would do it.
The gates were slowly growing smaller. Eddie was dead. Retrieving his body wasn’t worth the risk of being trapped in the Upside Down forever. Regardless of how much they had liked him.
The door to the alternate version of the trailer flew open. Hitting against the wall and making a terrible, loud sound. Both Dustin and Nancy jumped even though they had been expecting it.
They watched as Steve pushed his way inside, empty handed.
“He’s not there!” He shouted up at them as Robin appeared next to him. Both of them staring up at the gate and looking to their friends for what to do next.
“What do you mean he’s not there?” Dustin asked angrily. They hadn’t moved him before they left.
“He’s not fucking there man!” Steve replied with a shrug. “I don’t know what else to say!” He called back, frowning as he shook his head.
“But that’s where we left him!” Dustin said dumbly, making Steve scoff.
“I know that, I saw it! Remember?” He asked, frustrated. He had been the one that had to prise Dustin away from Eddie. Physically carrying him kicking and screaming back to the Right Side Up.
“Something… Something must have taken him.” Dustin whispered, lip trembling as he imagined Eddie’s body being swallowed up by a hungry monster.
“His whole body?” Nancy asked skeptically. “I think we would know if there was something big enough to do that left in there.” She said with a shake of her head. Her own mind unconsciously conjuring up a similar vision to Dustin’s.
“So what then?” Steve asked. “You think he just got up and walked away?”
“That’s not what I’m saying!” Dustin shouted back, voice breaking.
“Guys!” Robin interjected, holding up her hands to stop the arguing. “I don’t mean to be a downer, but this hole is getting smaller.” She said hastily, pointing towards the gate. “Who knows when it’ll close completely. What if it gets halfway and just snaps shut like the gate in that movie with the hunky archaeologist?”
She looked at Steve, brows furrowed and mouth a thin line as they made a silent decision.
“Robin’s right. We need to get out of here.” Steve agreed solemnly.
“Not without Eddie!” Dustin countered as Nancy stepped forward to place a comforting hand on his shoulder.
“We can’t fucking find Eddie, man!” Steve shouted, grabbing at the rope they’d thrown through the gate to replace the sheet Eddie had cut off.
“Exactly!” Dustin cried, voice thick with emotion. “Maybe… Maybe he did walk away. What if he’s alive? You’re just gonna’ trap him in there?”
“Look!” Nancy interjected suddenly. Pointing upwards towards Steve’s feet in the Upside Down. The man turned around himself wildly, patting at his clothes.
“What?” He asked quickly when he realized she wasn’t pointing directly at him and there was no little creepy creature on his shoulder.
“What is that? By your feet? Is that blood?” She asked shakily. Continuing to point as Steve and Robin both turned to look at the floor
“I don’t… Oh shit look!” Steve gasped, his own hand pointing at the blood Nancy had spotted. Following it with his finger in a trail down the hallway. He looked up at Robin and they stared at one another for a startled second before he ripped away his gaze. “Eddie?” He asked as he began to move. Robin on his heels as they both started to shout. “Eddie?”
“Eddie!” Robin called, as they swung around the corner into the bedroom. Both falling silent, disappointment poignant as they registered the empty room.
“It just ends.” Steve whispered, staring at the spot on the carpet when the trail seemed to stop dead.
“No it doesn’t, look!” Robin pointed excitedly! The mark of a bloody palm left on the cupboard next to the stained carpet. The door pulled closed all but an inch.
“Eddie?” Steve asked again, rushing forward and yanking the door open. His eyes widening at the sight of his friend squashed against the back wall of the closest. Sharp eyes slowly coming up to meet his. “Oh shit!” He called out excitedly. “He’s alive!”