Chapter Text
Steve POV:
Dead leaves crushed beneath my feet. Wind whistled, supplying a noise to the otherwise silence.
what...?
Before us was a damp patch of grass. Blank of the body it should be holding.
I exchanged glances with Nancy and Robin. For once all of us, even Robin, especially Robin, were speechless.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Nancy pick up her head and turned to her left and right. No traces of Vecna even left.
Did we actually lose?
Robin's mouth parted. I braced myself for a string of words to follow the silence. But her mouth closed again, everyone lost in thought.
The wind whistled again. A faint noise losing itself in it.
A felt a tremble rooted deep in my stomach. Everything felt wrong.
Oh no... no no no NO
A growing sense was rising. A sense of urgency.
"Um-" I was Nancy's voice that boomed among the silence, "-Should we split up and look?"
Robin pulled her fingers through her hair, nervous laughter bubbling, "Split up? Split up!? Do you want us all to get killed?"
"Well, what other choice do we have? We have to kill him... or it... one way or another. The entire f-fucking world depends on us!" My own voice shocking me. Stressed, I brushed my hair back out of my eyes.
"Ok-ok, Uh. I'll scout right. Robin left. Steve, search behind the house. Don't go too far. If you need help, scream" Nancy instructed, waving her hands in vague directions. Then picking up her gun again, walking off.
"Good luck" Robin said uncertainly.
"Good luck" I responded.
~
~
Do you ever get this feeling? When your feet rock unwillingly? Like your about to start sprinting in any given direction?
It had been maybe barely 2 minutes since I began my search when I heard a sound much different than the wind's shrieks.
Or maybe I'm just paranoid. A paranoid, stressed, single mother of seven. Or at least that what the kids, alongside Robin, say.
And right now, is about time those babysitter instincts kicked in. Because I swear to God, I heard Dustin scream, and unless the damned wind really likes to play tricks, what he said sure sounded like "Eddie".
I had no concept of direction. Still, I went with my gut, and if it were a person, it would be basically dragging me right now.
The breath was sucked from my lungs. I jumped fallen trees. Miraculously avoiding the mess of vines on the ground.
I've never ran so fast, yet still felt like I was going so fucking slow.
I could hear the sounds of cries from assumably miles away.
But when the voices faded, only then did I begin to halt. I pushed about 3 low tree branches out of my way, before a guttural sob racked through my body at the sight.
A body laid sprawled out in the open street. That body belonged to Eddie.
"Oh my god, holy shitting fuck" I spoke aloud
I faintly heard the sounds of irregular, clomping footsteps fading from far away. I tried to avert my gaze, and look for, assumably, Dustin's figure nearby, but I couldn't tear my eyes away.
I didn't even realize I had started rushing over until I tripped on my own sore, worn feet. I fell onto my elbows, inches away from Eddie's face. I was buzzing with energy yet couldn't bring myself to do more than crawl.
"Hey, hey, hey... Eddie"
Pursuing forward, I sat up behind him, cradling his face with shaky hands. His eye lids slowly opened halfway, after seeming to have been forced close.
I brought my left pointer and middle finger, about to press into his neck and check for a pulse. I horrifically realized the open flesh stretching further than just his face. Everywhere was a mess. The blood dripping from his lip seemed to be drying, but his face still remained relatively warm.
"Fuck... fuck"
I could feel my own tears slipping down my face, gathering at the point of my nose. It fell, joining itself with the old tears still resting on the corners Eddie's eyes. Pooling in the creases of his smile lines.
Finally, I maneuvered my right hand so I could check for a pulse on that side. His skin was becoming cold. I began to feel more panicked, rapidly moving my fingers around. I pressed hard enough to feel my own heartbeat in my fingers. Wait. No that's not right. My heart was beating much fucking faster. What was it then?
Distracted, I caught a glimpse of his eyelids widening further. I flinched back when only the whites of his eyes were showing.
Angling my wrist upwards, I felt closer to his jawline.
A beat
So faint and gentle I wasn't even sure I felt it. But after a few seconds there it was again, but fainter. The third beat was barely there at all.
"Oh my god you son of a bitch, Eddie Munson" I exhaled in relief. Now a new problem at hands.
I brought my hand away from his neck. Then resuming both my hands back to the sides of his head, tangled into his knotted hair, trying to avoid the torn flesh and blood everywhere else.
I shuddered; he looked so dead.
His body was limp, I couldn't even see his chest rise to breathe.
oh my god his stomach-
The bats had punctured 4 holes into his stomach. His shirt was lifted slightly, exposing 2 of the disgusting wounds. Matching my own 2. The other 2 gashes were higher on his chest, shown through the slashes in his Hellfire shirt.
Everywhere was blood. The longest parts of his hair encrusted with dried tissue and red hidden in his dark brown hair.
I examined some more, though fairly unsettled by his eyes, I used one of my hands to cover them, hovering a few inches.
I couldn't tell what part of his face was bleeding and what part had simply been bled onto.
His skin was ripped. A huge wound from below his left eye to the collar of his shirt. Thankfully his face was barely bleeding anymore.
With concentration, I lifted Eddie's head from my lap and softly onto the ground. Glancing around, I realized I did not have any bandages or of that sort on me.
Still crouched over, I examined Eddie's outfit for any doable clean cloth. My eyes landed on his face.
"Oh thank fuck" I muttered, whilst unknotting the bandana from his head.
With the cloth in my hand, I moved down to his torso. Cautiously pulled off the soak cloth that was embedded in his skin.
I cringed at how the shirt stuck to him, bringing flesh with it as I lifted it to about his armpits.
Once only the four wretched wounds where showing, I opened the skull cloth to cover them. With no other way to tie the back. I lifted Eddie, putting one of my legs under his back just above, and one just below where I needed to knot the bandana. With the added space, I quickly double knotted it, making sure it was secure enough.
Instinctively, I leaned over, bringing my ear close to his mouth. After about 10 seconds I still couldn't hear any breathing.
Immediately I centered one hand over the other right above his heart and began chest compressions.
I whisper-counted out loud.
"1,2,3,4, 5..." I started
~
"...28,29,30"
Nearly on top of him, I used my right hand to hold his nose closed and pressed my mouth to his half scabbed, wounded, partially already opened mouth.
I puffed 2 breaths of air. Before going back into chest compressions.
The world seemed to tune itself out. I repeated the same numbers a few times until I could actually hear breathing that was not just mine.
I slowed down, finishing with a couple more pumps to his ribs before bending back over to listen intently. I heard a few raspy, but promising, breaths.
I sat up, grabbing fistfuls of Eddie's shirt collar, pulling him up with me.
"Eddie?!" I sobbed, shaking him by the shoulders
what if it's not enough? I'm no professional
"Eddie wake up! Eddie, please wake up!" I pleaded, scalding tears flooding my eyes.
"You promised! You fucking promised!" I poked him in the chest with my pointer finger
"No one left behind! Remember?! You said it... you wouldn't try to be the hero!"
"We've lost so many. We can't lose you. Dustin can't lose you... I can't lose you." I stammer out. Emotion seared into my words.
"Eddie?" I watched his pupils slowly roll down, showing themselves over the plain white his eyes were before. He blinked slowly, then squinted his eyes again at me.
"...steve...?" Eddie murmured slowly
"Yes!" I wept, "I'm here. I'm right here. You're ok. I've got you." Euphoric words tumbling from my mouth
I wrapped my arms around his chest, engulfing him into a desperate hug.
"I thought we lost you" I sobbed into his hair
He embraced me back with little strength. I clutched onto him, still supporting us both upright.
Softly, he took one of his arms off of my neck and started to push me away.
I let go of him a bit as he turned away from me and vomited dark crimson.
I leaned away from the putrid smell, but still used my hand to hold back his matted hair.
After a while he spat on the ground and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, then he turned back to me.
"Are you sure I'm ok?" His lip quivered, small tears bubbled in his eyes, streaking down the sides of his face.
My hand still in his hair, I brought him a bit closer to me, "I'll make sure of it"
Then Eddie's eyes closed, and he collapsed on me.