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Brief mentions of ST S4 imagery like dead bodies and Vecna
She was back in the facility, blood splattered across the walls and bodies from which it came from scattered about.
At this point, Nancy had lost count on how many times she had been back here, reliving the chase, thinking she was about to be killed.
She ran down that same corridor to the same barred door and frantically pulled at the planks to get out before giving up and fleeing into another room. It always ended up with her strapped to that chair, the horrifically slimy tentacles holding her down while Vecna approached, reaching out one hand over her face. This time, when she screamed and looked past those bony fingers, she didn’t see his scarred face. Instead it was Barb.
Nancy jolted upward with a gasp and at the same time, her knee slammed into the edge of the coffee table counter.
“Fuck,” she hissed out, reaching down and rubbing the sore spot.
It was only mid afternoon on that Saturday, and about an hour ago, before she and Eddie had their timed GED study sessions, Nancy had started on her homework, finished quickly, and decided to lay back on the couch for a quick nap.
It wasn’t a question of whether she was sleeping okay or not; it was if any of them were sleeping much. There were a few times she’d woken up at the sounds of bumps in the night, hushed murmurs, most of it she attributed to her nine other housemates who were probably also waking up in the middle of the night, maybe heading into the other rooms for an ear to talk off about a bad dream. Some nights were better than others, but the past day since her conversation with Vax was nothing but anxiety-filled, and when she thought of how she didn’t need to feel that way in the first week of college, the anxiety only increased.
A nap right now was clearly not a good idea.
Getting a GED was never something that Eddie had wanted to do. He’d wanted to walk across that stage, he’d wanted to wave to his uncle Wayne, he’d wanted to snatch that diploma from Principal Higgins’ claws and flip him the bird as he sauntered off the stage. He’d wanted to graduate high school, something his father had never done, something that Wayne had never managed either.
But that wasn’t about to happen. He was too old now to enroll again for his senior year, didn’t want to do it again for the fourth time even if he could, didn’t want to be graduating with a buch of 18 year olds when he was 21 and old enough to drink legally (of course, here in Vallo, the 18 year olds were also old enough to drink. That wasn’t the point).
Getting his GED wasn’t the same thing, but it was better than nothing. Wayne had gone back for his GED, had told Eddie that was always an option if high school didn’t end up panning out after all. Eddie’s father had never gotten his GED, so at least he’d still be beating him.
And now that he’d resigned himself to it, he found he didn’t mind quite so much. Having the freedom to study how he wanted to study was, well, kind of nice. Better than being forced to read all those terrible novels and then have Ms. O’Donall telling him how wrong all his opinions were and looking at him like he’d crawled out of a sewer.
It was early, but he’d made himself and Nancy a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches and had grabbed them a couple of beer and he thought they might eat before they started studying, but he’d only just put everything on the coffee table when Nancy woke up suddenly, banging her knee against the table, knocking over one of the beers.
Eddie threw himself back and away from her, startled by the sudden movement and thud, and then as soon as his brain caught up to his body and he realized what had happened, he sprang foward again to right the beer, using the sleeve of his hoodie to sop up the spilled beer.
“You alright?” Eddie asked, looking up at her as he rubbed the table with his forearm. “That sounded like it hurt.”
She hadn’t realized Eddie had put anything down on the table. There was an empty mug there already from her first coffee (which apparently had not had the desired effect), but that was it. Nancy felt bad at the loss of beer and she reached down for her bag. Grabbing fast food between classes usually meant grabbing a shit ton of napkins and shoving them in your bag. “Yeah, I… yeah. Sorry.” She held out a few for Eddie to wipe at his sleeve, and the others she set down over what remained of the beer.
That being taken care of, Nancy brought her hands to her eyes, pressing her palms against them. “I just… I guess the sleep was long enough for a dream.” Dropping them in her lap, she spotted the sandwiches and gave Eddie a small smile. “Thanks. You didn’t have to do that.”
“I shoulda known you’d be carrying napkins around. Nancy Wheeler, always one step ahead,” Eddie said, shooting her a grin and dabbing absently at his sleeve. He guessed that probably meant that he’d have to wash it now.
“Anyway, I was already making one for myself. Wasn’t much work to throw on another for you. Pretty sure the Munson Deluxe Grilled Cheese is the best study food out there.” The secret was using mayo instead of butter – he’d found some garlic mayo in the fridge today, thank whoever’d picked that up, it was definitely going to kick the sandwich up a notch – and three different types of cheese.
He settled down on his side of the coffee table, sitting cross-legged on the floor. “Bad dream, huh?” he asked. “You wanna talk about it?”
Eddie didn’t especially like talking about his dreams, and after what had happened with Steve when people’s nightmares had been coming to life, he figured most people at least got the general idea of what went bump in Eddie’s night. But he figured if other people needed to get their shit off their chest, the least he could do was listen.
Nancy reached over and slid one plate toward herself. Maybe she said it wasn’t necessary but she was more than grateful that he had. Also, she’d realized it has been a while since she had eaten. Picking up one half of the sandwich, she took a bite, and then paused. “Holy shit, Munson,” she mumbled around her food. Was this the best grilled cheese she ever had? Most likely. Her mom made them but then her mom wasn’t exactly the best chef in the world, bless her.
She didn’t really want to talk about it; she wanted to keep eating the sandwich and singing its praises. But if there was anything Nancy learned over the years spent in Trauma-Full Hawkins, it was that keeping it bottled up inside was not only bad for your mental health but also made it easier for a certain no-nosed monster to come after.
She took her time chewing on that one piece before she answered. “It’s probably not too different from anything the rest of us are having. Hawkins opening up into hell, being chased down a corridor by a killer, hands reaching out over your face that look like its about to claw it off. You know.”
Eddie shot Nancy a toothy grin when she bit into his grilled cheese. “Harrington might have me beat in the kitchen in general, but you’d better believe I make the best grilled cheese in Hawkins.”
He grimaced at Nancy’s dream though. “That’s rough,” he said. “I’m sorry. My dreams are really more of the demobat variety –” that,and the people suddenly floating up to the ceiling where they then got twisted up like origami, “but long corridors are fucking creepy as all hell.”
He shoved his grilled cheese across the table and got up and walked around it so he could sit next to Nancy on the couch. “You get them every time you go to sleep?”
Nancy settled back into the cushions, her plate and grilled cheese going with her, and she angled herself in a way where she could talk to Eddie at the same time. True, she hadn’t known anyone as good as Steve as far as cooking was concerned but sometimes, it was the simplest dishes that gave an extra boost of serotonin. She’d have to either drag the recipe out of him or convince Eddie to make her grilled cheese sandwiches every week.
Maybe it was doable. Her with the doughnuts and him with the grilled cheese.
“Not all the time,” she said after swallowing her next bite. “Normally, I don’t remember anything, just know that there was something that made me wake up in the middle of the night. I’d toss and turn a bit then go back to sleep. It comes and goes. Usually it’s the same. Vecna in the hallways.” This time, she saw her best friend’s face behind that mask.
Eddie frowned, and gave Nancy’s knee a squeeze. “All of this is such a lot of bullshit,” Eddie grumbled. “I don’t know we’re supposed to do with all of this. But…” He shrugged. “I dunno, sleeping with other people around seems to help with me.”
Steve especially. Steve was an unequivocal badass, and knowing he was around kept the demons at bay. That, and a good chunk of Eddie’s nightmares involved Steve getting fucked up, and it figured that somehow knowing Steve was right there help convince his subconscious that everything was alright. It was why he dozed off most movie nights, head pillowed on Steve’s shoulder, or when just the two of them would watch movies. He and Kate didn’t often sleep after they hooked up – now that he had the van, there was less of a need to rent a hotel room – but he found falling asleep next to her helped a bit too.
“If you wanted to catch some shut eye instead of studying, I’ve been told my lap makes an excellent pillow, you know.”
At least Nancy had only just taken her next bite, otherwise, she may have potentially choked. The idea of sleeping around to cope hadn’t even occurred to her, especially because she still had Jonathan in her life… right? They were a whole universe apart now rather than states, and they felt like they were drifting apart before.
“Whatever works, Munson, no judgment,” she said, after the bite. “Not sure if it would count as cheating if I tried that. Even if… if Jonathan never showed up.” There was always that possibility even if she didn’t want to think of it for her sake and Will’s. Per her memories, they’d both come back to Indiana afterwards, but there was still a great deal of awkwardness between them. Particularly when Jonathan had made a jab at Steve, who she felt herself getting protective over, not as a former boyfriend but as a renewed friend.
“I might take you up on that offer after this wondrous creation! Seriously, it’s so good, I might just go into a food coma.”
Eddie frowned, picked up his own sandwich, and chewed thoughtfully. “I’ve never really done the whole dating thing.” He’d done a fair amount of hooking up back home, but Kate was probably the closest thing he had done to dating in his life, and they were pretty far from a boyfriend/girlfriend kind of situation. “So I probably don’t know what I’m talking about. But if he never shows up, and you never get sent back home, are you going to be happy just waiting for him? Not that I think you should be going out sowing your wild oats, and it’s only been two months so who knows, maybe he will show up.” El had been here longer than that before anyone else had shown up. “But something to keep in mind, I guess.”
“Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it,” Nancy said, giving him a sly smile very briefly till she perceived the rest of what he was saying. “You know, sometimes the people who are usually outside of a situation can provide the best advice.”
After another pause in the conversation where she chewed at another bite, Nancy put her sandwich back down on the plate. She didn’t want to talk about her and Jonathan (or a potential lack thereof) anymore, but now that he had brought up dating, it seemed like the perfect time to bug him about. “How come you haven’t though? Done the dating thing, I mean. Is it just not your thing to do or just not interested in anyone here?”
Eddie shrugged. “When you’re a guy who likes sleeping with other guys, it’s easier to just hook up and go on your way. At least, back home it was.” Obviously, things were very different here in Vallo. “There weren’t really any girls at school that I was interested in either, except for Chrissy, but…”
But, almost everyone in Hawkins thought he’d murdered her – not just murdered her, but had done that to her.
He cleared his throat. “Anyway, there is someone here I like, but I’m pretty sure the feeling’s not mutual. So I suppose I’ll just pine dramatically instead.” He sighed dramatically and flopped against the arm of the couch, anguished, right up until he shot Nancy a small smile. “What do you think? Very unrequited love I think.”
Nancy raised her eyebrows slightly. She had not an idea before this of Eddie’s preferences but it was probably because she had hardly given it a thought. Before landing in Vallo, they were all a bit preoccupied with surviving and since landing here, she’d been focused on trying to figure out the new universe. Maybe it was time to start thinking past her own shit.
“I honestly would not have expected you and Chrissy but…” She had half a thought to tell him they would have made a cute couple but considering her end, it might not have been appropriate. An ending that she knew without a second thought that it hadn’t come from Eddie. Partly because she trusted what her friends told her and also because of Fred Benson’s disappearance and murder right after that.
Another friend lost to that monster.
The moment Eddie did his dramatic declaration and flop was when Nancy took the time to blink a few times to keep herself from getting too emotional. Composed, she returned his smile. “Unrequited love, huh? I’d say they’d be crazy not to give you a chance. Maybe you just have to do something to get their attention?”
Eddie shrugged. He and Chrissy probably wouldn’t have happened anyway. He thought, maybe, that there’d been something there, that he’d charmed her a little, but she was still dating that asshole Jason, and… well, it was better not to think about what ifs.
Instead, he thought about doing something to get Steve’s attention. It wouldn’t be hard, really. He was already pretty sure he had Steve’s attention, at least. Maybe not like that, but he was pretty good at making Steve notice him. The problem was that he was pretty sure Steve didn’t like him like that. Eddie wasn’t exactly known for his subtlety, so Steve had to know, right? And Steve knew and hadn’t done anything about it, it meant that he wasn’t interested. Trying to make a move would only make things awkward, which would have been bad enough if they’d only been friends, but they also lived together, which would make any ensuing awkwardness a hundred times worse.
Eddie wasn’t what someone might call shy, but he wasn’t an idiot either.
“Maybe,” Eddie said, shrugging. “But I’m pretty sure he’s not interested. And it’s not like I’m unhappy with where things are right now. Anyone here in Vallo caught your eye, Wheeler?”
She was curious. She wanted to pry further especially when Eddie said “he”. But Nancy held back. She shook her head instead, then ducked it down to scarf down the last of her sandwich. She held up a finger to indicate she had more to say. She just needed to swallow the piece of food in her mouth.
“Not quite. I mean… I showed up and decided to do research. Can’t really get time to date around while doing that. And also. There is the matter of Jonathan.” She shook her head again, leaning back into the cushions. “We were already drifting apart. I could feel it. Even before he moved away, there were moments when it felt like he just wasn’t getting me. And it had been eight months and we couldn’t see each other…”
Nancy gave half a shrug. “Now we’re here. With… a lot more space. From other people and all of Hawkins and the chaos and some of us are still having nightmares.”
Eddie frowned. “I don’t know much of anything about what went on with you guys. Hell, I didn’t even really know Byers.” They’d had a couple of the same classes, briefly, but Jonathan had kept to himself. “But I don’t know if long distance relationships ever really work out.” He frowned thoughtfully. “Well, Dustin’s seems to be going well.”
He’d actually had doubts about whether or not Susie was real, but her actual existence had been confirmed by Steve when he’d explained to Eddie why they were all teasing Dustin about that Neverending Story song.
“Huh.” Apparently, Dustin and her had that in common and she hadn’t realized. At some point, Nancy decided she might have to ask how he was doing in regards to that, unless it was too soon to bring up. “I guess they take a certain amount of strength. And… depend on a whole lot of other goals. Like college plans or something.”
Which brought her attention back to what they were supposed to be doing. Nancy glanced over at the books she had on the table and then back at Eddie. “I think we can consider this study session very much delayed. So what do we do instead?”
“Oh yeah, there’s no studying happening in this house tonight.” At least, not for him. The kids who were actually still in high school might’ve been studying tonight. “Guess you probably don’t want to try napping again, huh?”
Nancy laughed and reached over to close the books with affirmation. “I mean, we could. But maybe a little later. The food and everything got me energized instead.” What she did instead was get up and grab a beer for herself and bring it back along with the television remote.
Plopping down right next to him and leaning back, holding up her bottle and tapping it against his. “Some mind-numbing show instead?”