queenofhawkinshigh: (pic#)
Chrissy Cunningham ([personal profile] queenofhawkinshigh) wrote2022-07-02 08:36 pm
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in that pink dress, they're gonna crucify me

She shouldn't be here. Going into Eddie Munson's trailer to buy drugs is just about the last thing a girl like her should be doing, and Chrissy knows it. That isn't, though, what has her trembling and looking over her shoulder, teeth pressing to her lower lip as they step inside. For anyone to see her now would be the least of her problems, and that's saying something. She can only imagine how they'd react — Jason, her parents, everyone at school. The golden girl, not so golden anymore, all of the effort she's put into not letting anyone see that she's never been that — not golden, just gilded, a perfect surface covering anything but — for naught.

It's worth it, completely, if it clears her head for even just a little while, if it lets her catch her breath. Besides, while he's little more than a stranger, she got the foolish sense, earlier in the woods, that he wasn't looking at that thin gold varnish, but at her, the first person who's actually seen her and not just either what she wants them to see or all her shortcomings in a long time. Just the thought of it makes her feel even crazier than she already does, and she wouldn't have the first idea how to say so without sounding unbelievably stupid, but it makes it easier to follow him inside, arms wrapped around herself and fingers toying absently with the sleeves of her sweater as she looks around.

"Sorry for the mess. Maid took the week off," Eddie says, wry, and Chrissy would smile, offer a reassurance or joke in turn, if her nerves weren't so shot. She wants what she came here for. Anything else can wait.

"You, um... You live here alone?" she asks instead. She doesn't know anything about him, she realizes, except what everyone knows. He's been a senior for years, he sells drugs, he's supposedly a freak. He plays guitar, she knows that now, too. And he's warm, something that makes her feel a little guilty for being so rushed as he searches for the drugs she came here for.

"With my uncle," he answers, moving further into the trailer. "But, uh, he works nights at the plant, bringing home the big bucks."

Heart racing, she turns toward him. "How long does it take?" she asks abruptly. She's never done anything stronger than an ibuprofen or an antibiotic before. This is entirely uncharted territory, and it's terrifying, if not as much so as living with what's in her head. "The Special K. How long to kick in?"

"Oh, uh, well, it depends if you snort it or not," Eddie tells her, with an ease that makes her wonder just how much experience he has here. "If you do, then, uh, yeah. It'll kick in pretty quick."

She nods along. Quick is what she wants. When Eddie looks in yet another little container and says "Oh, shit," though, she feels a fresh burst of nerves. "You're sure you have it?"

"No, no, no, I got it," he assures her quickly. "Uh, somewhere." Without another word, he holds up a hand and runs into the back, where she can only assume his room is, leaving her standing in what amounts for the trailer's living room. It's not such a bad place, really. Run down and lived in, sure, but comfortable —

Or it would be, if the clock weren't beginning to chime.

Gasping, Chrissy turns toward the window, looking out at the still, dark night. There's nothing there, nowhere the ticking sound could be coming from except her own mind. She pulls the curtains shut quickly, turning in the direction of the hallway again. "Eddie?" she calls, trying not to sound so frantic, mostly failing. "Did you find it? Eddie?"

There's no answer. She definitely shouldn't be walking back to Eddie's bedroom, but she's desperate and she needs this now.

She calls his name again, but when she turns into the room, hand against the door frame, he isn't there. Her mother is, sitting at her sewing machine, altering her cheer uniform. "Mom?"

"Just loosening this up for you, sweetheart," her mother says, as sweetly cruel as ever. "You're going to look absolutely beautiful."

Her voice changes, deepens, distorts. Chrissy doesn't have a chance to react before her mother turns, and her face is — wrong, somehow, smile pulled too tight, eyes gone white. With a sharp breath, she pulls the door shut, anything to put distance between them, and she's not at Eddie's, she's at home. How could she be at home?

"Chrissy!" comes her mother's voice from behind her, still with that strange, distorted echo, the door giving way. Instinctively, Chrissy yanks it shut again, fighting as best she can, unable to help letting out a shriek. "Chrissy, open the door! Let go! Let go!" She doesn't want to let go, but she can't hold on, and she's taking off down the hall as soon as the door flies open, not wanting to see what's behind it. Bolting down the stairs, she pauses for just a moment, taking stock of her surroundings. There's a light in the den. Maybe her father will help her. Maybe he needs help.

"Dad!" she calls, taking off again, running to him. "Dad! Dad?"

He turns toward her. His eyes and mouth are sewn up. She screams again, this time loud and long and shrill, until the lights start flickering, and she knows she's caught. There are footsteps on the stairs that definitely don't belong to her mother, a deep voice, one that's become familiar by now, saying her name. She runs anyway, because it's all she can do, away from her struggling father, into the dining room, where she takes in the sight of food on the table — rotted, covered with flies and spiders — before she keeps going, trying to get to the front door, her best possible means of escape.

Throwing the double doors open, she finds, instead of a way out, wooden boards, keeping her trapped in here. "No!" she says, pounding against the planks, throwing her body against them. "Help, help! Somebody help me!"

No one comes. No one hears her. No one's ever heard her.

"Chrissy," the deep voice says again, rounding the corner now. There's nowhere left for her to go, nothing for her to do but cry as the horrible creature encroaches on her, shrinking back like it will make any kind of difference. "Don't cry, Chrissy," he says, lifting one hand, a long, wet, spindly finger brushing a tear off her cheek. "It's time for your suffering to end."

He says it almost like it's a good thing, like he means to be compassionate, like he hasn't been haunting her for days and chasing her through her own home. And she did want that, didn't she? Not to hurt anymore, the way she's hurt for so long. She just didn't want it like this, the thought just barely crossing her mind before he extends his hand, holding it up over her face, snapping her head back.

Everything hurts, her mind and body both, and then everything goes dark. Somewhere, Chrissy crumples, a cheerleading uniform-clad heap on the ground.
didntrun: (009)

[personal profile] didntrun 2022-07-12 04:54 pm (UTC)(link)
"No, it's weird," Eddie says as he jingles his keys in his hand, a little nervous despite himself. Bringing her to the trailer was one thing, he'd had a purpose then, selling her drugs, but his apartment here is something else entirely. He's just bringing her here. Because it's quiet, because it's safe, because even though she technically has somewhere else to go, Eddie hasn't even thought to bring her to the weird ass train station where she can pick up her stuff.

"It's seriously weird," he says before letting them both into the apartment. It isn't much, but at least it's clean.

"It sucks that you missed it." He winces a little, then shakes his head. "Not that it was fun. It was pretty shitty, honestly, and terrifying, but that... you know. That you died."
didntrun: (009)

[personal profile] didntrun 2022-07-13 01:19 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, it's okay," he agrees, a little uncertain.

Eddie realizes he doesn't really know what to do here. He needs to explain this place to her, even though it's as crazy as the whole Upside Down thing, just in different ways. What he should do is sit her down, tell her the deal, and then take her to the train station.

Instead of doing any of that, Eddie asks, "Do you want some water? And maybe to... lie down?"

Christ, it's like he's never talked to a girl before, which isn't true. Eddie does really well with a certain subset of women, usually ones that wear tight jeans and have teased hair and are maybe a little bit older than he is. But now he feels like kind of an idiot just trying to explain Darrow.
didntrun: (009)

[personal profile] didntrun 2022-07-13 04:27 pm (UTC)(link)
She's so small, he thinks, fingers going to his lower lip for a second to push it between his teeth where he chews nervously on his way to the kitchen. What he'd love to do is make her laugh again, take her mind off all the awful shit that's happened, but honestly, Eddie's still kind of shaken himself. He hasn't even fully healed yet, the wounds still fresh.

He's probably dead, too. Back in the Upside Down. Maybe telling her that might help.

Running the water so it gets cold, Eddie goes to grab a glass and stops when he sees an envelope inside the cupboard.

"What the hell?" he asks, taking it down. Chrissy's name is scrawled on the front and he recognizes it from when he'd gotten his own. Still chewing his lip, Eddie fills up the glass, then returns to the living room with the water and with the envelope.

"Um," he says. "I think this is yours."
didntrun: (005)

[personal profile] didntrun 2022-07-15 12:20 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, so, uh... this place is kinda like an alternate dimension," Eddie explains as he sits down on the couch as well, not too close, giving Chrissy some space because this next bit is kind of wild, even for someone like Eddie, who has a pretty extensive imagination.

"We're in this city that's completely self-contained," he tells her. "We can't get out and a bunch of people here are like us, just sort of transported here somehow." He laughs, the sound forced. "Steve Harrington is here."

And he doesn't remember any of the shit they went through together, which sucks, but Eddie just shoves that bit aside.

"The envelope thing is weird, but it's got an ID card and keys for an apartment. Probably a lot like this one. There's some money, it sort of looks like play money, but it's real."
didntrun: (009)

[personal profile] didntrun 2022-07-15 08:25 pm (UTC)(link)
"I don't know," he says. "I don't know how any of it works. The same thing happened to me. One second I was in the Upside Down, that's what they call this other version of Hawkins where Vecna lived. I was fighting off these bats things, just covered in goo and blood and-"

He pauses here, leaning back and lifting up his shirt. The worst wound is still bandaged, but there are others, clear bite marks, pink and healing.

"Anyway," he says and drops his shirt. "The next second I was here. With some bats. The hospital had an envelope just like yours with my name on it."
didntrun: (008)

[personal profile] didntrun 2022-07-17 03:41 pm (UTC)(link)
"Nah, it's okay. Nothing a little advanced healing spell can't fix," Eddie says, knowing she won't understand the reference. They just sort of spill out at times. "Dungeons and Dragons thing, I can't really cast healing spells."

He hasn't talked about it much, how scary it had been, how sure he had been of his own inevitable death. Back in the Upside Down, he doesn't know what happened, how it ended. Steve and Robin don't know, neither does El, and he's keeping his distance from Chief Hopper. Not that he's done anything wrong in Darrow, he just knows the man doesn't like him much.

But he can't talk about it now. Not with Chrissy. Not with what she's gone through.

"It's not so bad," he tells her. "You'll have a place of your own. Money." And she's alive.
didntrun: (009)

[personal profile] didntrun 2022-07-19 08:34 pm (UTC)(link)
"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."
didntrun: (004)

[personal profile] didntrun 2022-07-22 07:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Eddie smiles a little, because it's sweet that she thinks it's crazy, it just goes to show she's kind, probably kinder than a lot of people like him ever thought. People like Chrissy, like Jason, even like Steve, they're usually too popular to be kind.

Some of them grow out of it, apparently, like Steve. Some of them were just always kind, like Chrissy. It's just that people were too scared of her to really notice.

"Don't think the demon tattoos really helped my case," he says with a crooked smile. "Don't worry about it, though, all that's pretty much done with. I feel kinda shitty for my uncle, though."
didntrun: (005)

[personal profile] didntrun 2022-07-25 02:05 pm (UTC)(link)
"Hey," he says, leaning a little closer, although he doesn't touch her. "No. None of this is your fault. Hawkins... they already thought I was weird, you know that. You didn't do that. You didn't do anything wrong."

Eddie Munson has been Eddie the Freak for a long time. A lot longer than just the past week and a half. He'd been a freak in middle school, with his buzzcut and his angry music, and he'd been a freak as a kid, too, with his criminal dad, then his dead parents.

"If they need to blame me..." He shrugs. "It doesn't matter now. Not here. Now we can both be the freaks we were always meant to be." He's hoping to get another smile out of her and he tries one of his own, smile and tentative.
didntrun: (012)

[personal profile] didntrun 2022-07-27 12:42 am (UTC)(link)
"Being a freak?" he asks. "Yeah, I mean, you get to be who you want. Who you are. People say it makes you a freak, but they only mean you don't fit into the little box they've imagined for you."

He smiles again and says, "Y'know, the, uh, the royal you."

Eddie doesn't remember a time when he wasn't looked at sideways from most of the people in Hawkins. He's lived in that trailer with his Uncle Wayne for most of his life, before that it was a different trailer with his dad until his dad was arrested. People thought they knew his parents, they thought they knew his uncle, and they thought they knew him. Wayne never fought against it and honestly, Eddie is glad.

He likes who he is. Most of the time anyway. He has his flaws, everyone does, but he's glad he's never pretended to be anyone besides exactly who he is.
didntrun: (010)

[personal profile] didntrun 2022-07-27 09:18 pm (UTC)(link)
"I mean... levitating vine monster stalking you kind of makes you a freak, yeah," he agrees, smiling at her. "And I mean that as the sincerest compliment. You're in great company. Some of the coolest people in history are freaks. Cleopatra, big time freak, all the snake shit? Tom Waits, so weird, so cool. Ozzy Osbourne, absolute menace, but also very cool."

Gently, Eddie nudges his shoulder against Chrissy's.

"And who cares what anyone back in Hawkins thinks anyway?" he asks. "You're here now and they're not."
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[personal profile] didntrun 2022-07-29 04:31 pm (UTC)(link)
"That's something," Eddie agrees, watching her with a small, crooked smile for a moment. At this point in his own arrival, he had been unconscious in a hospital bed, more than happy to just sleep away the next twelve hours and hope it had all been a really bad, really fucked up dream. Maybe if he hadn't lost so much blood at the time and had been fighting evil bats intent on killing him, he would have cried, too.

He's definitely cried since.

"Do you want something to eat? Or... you can just... I mean, I guess you probably don't want to go to your place yet," he says. "You can stay here and chill for awhile. Maybe take a nap?"

Shit, that sounds so stupid out loud.
didntrun: (005)

[personal profile] didntrun 2022-08-02 12:31 am (UTC)(link)
Eddie manages another grin, finding the idea of her presence here as too much trouble to be pretty funny. They might not know each other well, barely at all, but Eddie had been pleasantly surprised by how much he'd liked Chrissy even after that first interaction. He's always been aware of her, it'd been kind of hard not to be aware of all the popular kids, but beyond thinking she was pretty, since that first time they'd met, Eddie had never considered that she might be someone he could be friends with.

Now here they are.

"Here, I'm gonna... I-" He gestures, then stands up, rather than explaining what he's about to do. He goes down the hall and opens the linen closet, which itself is wild, because he never expected to find himself in a place with a linen closet. But he gets a blanket, one of the nice clean ones that had been here from day one, and comes back to the living room to offer it to Chrissy.

"We can just watch TV or something," he says.

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