Chapter Text
The black void grew silent, the last threads of Max’s subconscious and living light were back where they were meant to be. El’s fingers flinched in exhaustion, her head falling forward. She’d done it. She’d got her dear friend back, or at least she hoped so. It was enough for now to hear Max’s soft heart beat. Lucas’s quiet sobs and falling tears sent splinters through her own breaking heart, and for a moment El just breathed until someone else’s whimpers drew her ears.
She stood, eyes searching the never ending darkness. El couldn’t figure out the whereabouts of the cries, Mike's voice was calling her too, telling her to come back. But her focus was on the unknown mourner.
“Please Eddie. No please Eddie, come back”
It was Dustin.
El ran, her feet splashing and her heart hammering.
No no no.
She drew near, and the distraught expression of pure anguish on Dustin’s face made her falter. Her breath came quick, catching up with herself.
On the ground was a boy, no not a boy. More like a man, dressed in a bandana and covered in blood.
His eyes were black, dead and seeing nothing.
Dustin’s hands were grasping his jacket, softly shaking him with his cries for the man named Eddie to come back.
El sat, her heart going to her friend, her fingers stroking his back. Hoping somehow he knew she was here.
She’d never met Eddie, but he’d been there with her friends. He was a friend to them.
And so, just as she had with Max, she reached out. Trying to find the remnants of the lost member of their party. She wanted to meet him, have her friends say “Hey El, this is Eddie.” She let the weight of Dustin’s love for him embrace her, all the pain and feeling he felt was now hers, she couldn’t go without trying. So she tried, searching for eternity, probing for a tingle, a little part of the man in front of her that remained somewhere in the cosmos.
A smile danced in her peripheral for just a second, a big smile, cheeky, and promising something, it made El fill with warmth and smile back.
She searched for it again.
Long limbs with dexterous fingers strummed on the table, on his knees, they plucked strings and fed his soul.
El called for it, and heard the faint sounds of a melody, it was soft at first and fierce the next, she remembered Mike telling her this was Rock and Roll.
It faded and El grabbed for it.
A mass of hair, brown and wavy, the head that owned it bobbed as he walked ahead in slow motion. Autumn colours swept through the air, their shapes like leaves, and the tendrils of soft wavy brown moved with them.
“It’s over here.” She heard a female voice call excitedly.
The black void turned into a tumbling vortex of images. A face glittered, a pretty one, eyes crinkling into a smile. It wasn’t his.
A heart beat thundered through her mind, staggering El, and it rained around her. Each hit of water to puddle sounded like a thousand heart beats. Like every thump his heart had ever uttered fell around her all at once.
Whoever that voice and that smile belonged to was earth shatteringly important to this man.
The rain stopped, and a wooden door appeared. As El neared it, the form shifted taking on that of a plastic thinner door. It was rounded at the corners and had a rusted handle. The door of a trailer, or maybe a beat up RV.
The handle was shaking. El pulled it down, and inside music was blasting, and someone was screaming. No not screaming, singing, they were bellowing the lyrics to a song she’d never heard before.
El followed the sound down the small corridor in the trailer, the carpet was worn and tattered, and the walls slightly stained.
The door to Eddie’s room was open, and inside on the old mattress was Eddie, his guitar in hand and El gasped. The man was creating the music himself, and he was lost in it. His head swung up and down, his hair thrown everywhere, and his ring clad fingers danced along the neck of the guitar.
The song ended and Eddie flung up his hand, it ran through his hair, and he laughed softly to himself. El couldn’t help but smile, she could see why her friends invited him into their party.
Was this a memory? Or the remains of Eddie lingering in time and space. His afterlife?
El really couldn’t say.
El watched him, the way he moved through his space, his hand writing as he hastily wrote down the words and music for his song.
“How long have you been there?” His head turned to hers abruptly, midnight black eyes looking right at her. She felt all the air exit her lungs.
“Well your uncle let me in, and you know, I was just enjoying the show.” Behind El, almost touching her back was a woman, she smiled mysteriously, wiggling eyebrows and brilliant eyes. Then she stepped through El, and she could feel her life force. The odd sensation made the picture fade.
And Eddie, the trailer and the woman evaporated.
“Eddie!” El called madly, her thin tether to him seemed to have vanished.
Had she witnessed the very last piece or him that existed? A happy memory called forth at the end?
El blinked, she’s been so close. She knew she had, but somehow he’d slipped away.
Her knees buckled, and the silence pulled her to the ground. She hugged her legs close, her chin between them.
She couldn’t hear Mike, or Will. Lucas’s cries had faded and so had Dustin’s.
She was alone.
Pat pat pat.
Like a leaking tap.
Pat pat pat.
No, more like feet treading shallow water.
El froze, her hands tightening their hold around her legs.
Slowly her eyes moved, turning her head to dare to look behind her.
Was it Vecna? Come to finish her at her weakest?
She blinked, not realising she’d been crying. Her vision was blurry, frayed on the edges.
A figure was walking towards her, blood dripping, falling into the water making the whole of the floor red.
Their clothes were rags, ripped open, gaping wounds.
The man was in front of her, and she looked up into their face, trying to see it.
Eddie.
The man was here, no longer a memory, but solid and looking right at her.
“You’re El then?“ he said, face pale and death like. But a smile ghosted his lips, twitching in the corners.
“I am.” El breathed.
“You’re the superhero.” He stated, properly smiling, and El watched as he got down onto his knees, joining her on the floor.
“I’m no hero, not this time.” She said, and Eddie’s eyebrows drew together.
“No? You sure about that?” He asked.
“I couldn’t stop him.” El cried.
“This isn’t all on you kid.” Eddie said, his hand softly landing on her shoulder giving it a small comforting shake.
“How are you here?” El said, watching him.
“You brought me here.” He said, not at all concerned about the blood weeping from the cuts and what looked like bite marks all over his body.
“I don’t understand.”
“No? Well that makes two of us. I was gone though, I know that. Just Dustin’s swollen eyes, and then nothing at all. I woke up here, surrounded by falling rain and my life flashing before my eyes.”
“Did you hear the drumming? Your heartbeat?” El said, searching his eyes.
Eddie’s surprised look made El’s chest tighten. If he’d heard it then, maybe they had a chance-
“No I didn’t hear that, I can’t hear it at all. My chest feels empty.” Eddie bit his lip.
El visibly deflated.
“But I saw something else.” Eddie leaned back, his eyes searching the void, trying to remember exactly what he had heard.
“What was it?” El questioned, hoping wildly.
“Snippets of my life. Voices I didn’t think I’d ever hear again. My mom. My dad. My uncle. Her.” Eddie stopped, his eyes filling up. He gulped, trying to smile again, and failing.
“I’m dead right?” Eddies voice caught.
“I don’t know.” El said, hoping he’d believe her.
Eddie stood, his joints clicking. He walked away a little, and El panicked jumping up to join him.
“I saw her.” El shouted, Eddie stopped.
“The girl at your trailer, she was pretty.” El supplied, she couldn’t let him fade. Not again.
“You did?” He said.
“Yes, I know she means a lot to you.” El called out.
“Oh yeah.” Eddie said, turning around, “Only the world.”
He smiled sadly.
“She needs you.”
Eddie's face fell, but his eyes watched El as she approached him.
“I’m trying to bring you back-“
“You know I saw something else.” Eddie said, startling her. Her eyes watched a stream of blood falling from his lips.
“What do you mean?” El cocked her head, curious.
Eddie must have felt the drip and ran his sleeve over his bottom lip, but he didn’t acknowledge it. He spoke softly, “I could feel something reaching for me from far away, and as I let myself be found, I saw you. A small girl with a shaved head, doing the impossible, making friends, saving the world.” He smiled again.
“Mike wouldn’t shut up about you at the first Hellfire Club, pretty annoying actually, I didn’t know all of this then. I’m glad I got to meet you El.” Eddie turned back around, like he had someplace to be, like she was keeping him from getting there. Maybe she was, but she really didn’t want him to go.
“Wait! I’m glad I met you too.” El caught up to him.
“Kid I got someplace to be.” Eddie said, not slowing his pace.
“Where? Where are you going?” El begged.
Eddie stopped, his limbs felt tingly, and his head felt light.
Where was he going?
“I don’t know.” He gave her. “I just feel like I have to leave.” He was terrified, there was a tug around his waist, like some force was pulling him away from El and into the unknown.
“Just stop please!” El cried.
Eddie stopped, but the effort to remain in the same spot was painful.
“I think, I think I can save you. Please please please let me try.” El was in front of him, her hands grabbed his own.
“How do you intend to do that?” Eddie asked, looking deathly afraid.
“I got you here didn’t I? I saved Max, let me try to save you.” El searched his face, her own eyes begging his to trust her.
She didn’t stop Vecna, she wasn’t there to save Chrissy or any of the other victims of his.
But maybe, no one had to die today.
Wouldn’t that be a victory?
“Alright Jane Hopper, let’s try.” Eddie smiled brightly, his eyes glistening.
Eddie's hands were frozen cold in her own warm alive ones, his skin like ash against her pink. Eddie gulped, his chest echoing a lingering ghost of a heart beat.
El watched his Adam’s apple bob, and the slight tremble of his bottom lip. Her own heart was hammering an insane rhythm. She needed to be strong. She thought of Papa, and Nina, she needed to focus. To allow her veins to fill with the same energy she’d conjured to lift Nina.
“Ready Eddie?”
Eddie nodded.
“Eyes on me, and think of her, think of the people that matter to you. Think of your music, how you feel when you play your guitar. Let it flood you, bring it back Eddie.”
El focused on the cold palms in her hands. She imagined them overflowing with warmth, her own heat spreading to the blood in his. She imagined the colour coming back, the tips of his fingers blushing red, and she sent that blush further up. Life sewing itself to his bones, twirling an old pattern within his muscles, and then igniting a flame to reawaken his silent chest. She thought of the rain, each drop thumping with precious life, Eddie’s life. Her eyes watched as the water of her void started to rain up, specks of light dancing like fireflies.
Eddie's eyes grew wide, his mouth opening in wonder. The sight was magical. He’d seen hell. The cold smokey red clouds of Vecna’s awful empire. This was wholly different, pure miraculous life was rising to meet him, creating a cluster of stars that consumed his form.
They rested on his body, covered his vision and he could hear voices and the notes of a song. The song was being hummed, gently and imperfectly, but the most beautiful sound Eddie had ever heard. He felt like he was resting somewhere incredibly safe, it was warm here, like floating in a hot pool, and he closed his eyes. A heavy heart beat, not his, vibrated in the pool. El had brought him back to his mother, where his life began.
The lights launched into a rhythmic whirl, circling him everywhere, and the humming turned into an uninhibited laugh.
El focused on the lights, telling them to find their home. Her nose was bleeding, and her brain strained in her skull, she knew she wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer, her body was failing her now.
The lights disappeared, and El felt Eddie’s hand begin to warm till it reached a boiling heat. The warmth spread, filling his pale skin with life, white turned to pinkish cream, and a blush settled into his cheeks.
El smiled, finally letting his hands fall away from her own.
Then Eddie disappeared.
——————-
Somewhere in the upside down.
Dustin’s eyes were dripping all over him, salt ran into his slightly parted mouth.
“Jesus Henderson, you’re really trying to drown me huh?” Eddie croaked.
Dustin jumped, and Eddie felt the mess of his abdomen clench in pain.
“Eddie, god you’re alive!” Dustin shrieked, he resettled Eddie back where he was on his lap, he didn’t know what to do with his hands, so they just hovered over his friend.
“Just about buddy, though not for long. Don’t suppose you know how we can get out of here?” Eddie chuckled, remembering how he’d pretty much doomed them to a life in the upside down.
“EDDIE!” Eddie’s heart leapt at hearing your voice, though it was horribly distressed.
Dustin turned to see you crashing through the caravan door, covered like himself in grime and a little blood.
“Eddie!” You’d reached them, Eddie couldn’t take his eyes off of you as you fussed over him. He watched your tears roll down your cheek until he couldn’t take it anymore and had to brush them off himself, even though the pain was excruciating.
He could feel himself drifting again, your words and Dustin’s becoming inaudible, and his vision took on a misty haze around the edges. His mind felt lighter, like he’d reached a higher level of pain to strange happy bliss. Then black. He thought he saw her again, the odd girl with a shaved head, the one that made his body glow alive.
Much later.
The room was white - heaven then? Eddie Asked himself. Hell, he didn’t think he’d make the cut.
The haze of his vision was gone, and his eyes rested on a head, a brown shaggy head, they seemed to be asleep so Eddie took in the rest of the room. He seemed to be in a hospital, a coat was laid over the other chair near the door, it looked like it belonged to you. The dark green faux leather jacket you’d worn that first time he’d seen you, black rimmed eyes and soaked through to the bone. He could smell the rain from that day, and could still see the drops that ran from your shoulders to your elbows as you sat next to him on the bus. That wasn’t you sitting by the bed though, but you must be close, and that thought made Eddie try to sit up.
“Don’t sit up.” His eyes darted to the girl who’d been slumbering in the chair. An odd recognition, a weird black void, a blood red floor and millions of fireflies flashed in Eddie's mind.
“You?” Eddie gasped.
“Me.” El said. “So you remember?”
Eddie nodded, “I thought you said you weren’t a superhero?”