"You were still there. The other stuff was all in your head," Eddie says. "But that doesn't make it not real. Everything he made you saw, that was real, he lived in this messed up version of Hawkins and he made people see all this horrible shit and after he was done torturing them..."

He trails off again, his face screwed up against the emotion. Eddie hadn't known Fred beyond him being the kid who'd caused that accident, and he sure as hell hadn't liked Patrick McKinney, but that doesn't mean he thought any of them deserved to die. What this creep did to Hawkins, a place Eddie has only ever wanted to escape, turns his stomach.

"It was bad," he says finally as his building comes into view. It gives him something to do, getting his keys out of his jacket pocket. "It was really bad. I shouldn't've run.