"No one believes it," Eddie offers, not knowing how much comfort that will offer, if any. "They all think I lured you back to my trailer for some satanic ritual. It justified their little game of Hunt the Freak."

He says it with a bitter smile, because being a freak had never bothered Eddie before. Knowing people blame him for Chrissy's death sucks, but it isn't like he did anything to try and help her. Maybe Eddie didn't kill her, but he didn't save her either. But being weird, being different, that's all the evidence they needed that he would do something as awful as that.

"But this place, it's sort of magic," he says, not wanting to dwell on what Hawkins thinks he did. "I still can't cast spells, but yeah, that's the only way I can explain the envelope and the bank account and the ID card."