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Once Upon a Time…
There was a boy. Nay, a man, a dungeon master, a guitar legend. Who was currently cursed to live as a bat.
What very few people knew about the town of Hawkins, was that it had more mystery and power than most small towns in America and that power interested specific types of people. People who might, perhaps, curse a poor, nerdy but lovable drug dealer to live as a bat. Solely because he sold some drugs to their nephew! And maybe flirted with him a bit and maybe gave him a blow job because he was damn hot. Sadly, if you were say a witch, drawn to the power in Hawkins and you disapproved of the lifestyle - both lifestyles, drugs and queerness, as far as Eddie could tell - you might end up cursing a poor, unsuspecting nerd.
According to the homophobic witch, Eddie was stuck as a bat until a princess could give him true love’s kiss. Now the witch was probably trying to teach him some sort of lesson on how to be straight what with the girl-shaped proviso in the curse, but the joke was on her because Eddie was bi and didn’t have a problem kissing a girl or a boy. The problem for him was convincing some girl to hang out with him, as a bat, and fall in love. That was way harder for Eddie to accomplish. So he kinda gave up hope and ran/flew into the woods to escape the witch and her nephew, who Eddie had noticed wasn’t being punished for the same transgressions.
Eddie had been stuck as a bat for nearly three months until, one day, Chrissy Cunningham walked into the clearing in the woods near the high school where Eddie spent most of his days. He knew bats were nocturnal but he couldn’t seem to get on the same schedule as the rest of them, keeping instead his preferred human schedule that saw him waking up at noon and staying up until two at night.
It was after school, Eddie had heard the bell and the distant hoards of students leave the campus in their loud cars, when she came out here alone. Pretty much no one did any more. Not since he’d disappeared/been turned into a bat and his customers gave up on him. Now it was more just a peaceful place to hang out since there wasn’t a lot else to do as a bat except hang out.
Get it? Hang out? Because bats liked to hang upside down? Well, Eddie thought it was funny. And as far as he could tell the crickets and the black birds in the clearing thought he was funny too.
She sat down at the decaying picnic table and looked around like she was afraid of someone following her. After a few minutes she settled down and opened a text book. Eddie couldn’t see what it was from his high above and upside down vantage point but it was thick like one of the science textbooks. Maybe bio? He dropped down, gliding on silent wings, until he was a little closer and had a better angle. He looked again and still couldn’t make it out, just four columns of text over the two pages she had open. No illustrations to help him guess the subject.
He waited a few more minutes before curiosity got the better of him again and he swooped down closer. This time maybe a bit too close because she gasped as he flew by and batted at air above her head where he had just been. She started to freak out again, this time not being able to settle down and Eddie felt bad. He’d just wanted to know what she was reading, indulge in a little normal high school bullshit instead of all the weird magic he’d been dealing with for the last few months.
He decided to risk it, if he could apologize he would. He honestly hoped it would calm her down and make up for the way he’d freaked her out. He swooped down again, this time landing on the table with a bit of a skid. If he could grab onto a branch it was pretty easy to stop but a table was a totally different matter. “Hey, hey, hey!” He said, his voice came out in English but higher pitched than when he was human. “Sorry to scare you!”
Chrissy, of course, screamed again. “Oh my god!” She said and raised her hand to take a swipe at him. He screeched in fear and curled up in his wings, worried that one smack from her hand would smash his tiny bat body in one blow. “Oh my god.” She said again but this time with less fear. No hand came down to smack him into the table and after a few more moments he lifted one wing to look out at her.
“Hello?” He said again. “Sorry to scare you.”
“You can talk?” She said, louder than warranted he thought, but with much less fear than before. She looked around. “Am I on Candid Camera?” Her eyes went wide with fear. “Or hallucinating?”
“Uh, I can guarantee that you aren’t on Candid Camera and you're not hallucinating but I’m not sure how to prove that last one.” He swept one wing aside like it was a cape, and bowed as far as his little body allowed. “Eddie Munson, at your service, milady.”
“Eddie Munson? Wasn’t he the guy who went missing at the end of last semester?”
“Oh, people noticed?” Eddie asked. Honestly, he hadn’t thought most people in Hawkins had outside the few people who cared about him. He even figured his customers hadn’t cared so much as found another dealer and stopped thinking about Eddie altogether.
He’d known Wayne missed him. While the cops thought he’d run away, Wayne was worried something worse had happened after they found his abandoned van. Eddie checked in on him before he left for work every evening, hanging out on the underside of the eave over the kitchen window and watching the man as he got ready. If he was lucky, Wayne would call someone and Eddie would find out how his Uncle was doing from whatever he could overhear. It was harder to spy on his friends but he thought they probably didn’t miss him too much. He knew they’d never replace him as a guitarist but they were probably better off without him ruining their reputations with his antics every lunch.
He realized he’d been stuck in his own head feeling sorry for himself again instead of answering her and said, “I mean, yes, I am he! The man turned bat by an evil curse.”
Chrissy leaned over her book on her elbows and rested her head in her hands. “But why a bat?” Then she blushed. “I’m sorry that was rude. I guess what I was trying to ask is curses can happen?”
Eddie waddled a little closer to Chrissy since she seemed to no longer be scared of him. Her eyes were so big and blue. It was a good thing his body was covered in dark brown fur right now because otherwise she’d see his blush. She had been pretty in middle school but in high school she was gorgeous and being this close made his inside turn to mush. At least he never seemed to get tongue tied when he was nervous. “Trust me, I did not think curses were a possible risk until this happened.” He gestured to his body with the little hand-like bits at the end of his wings.
“Why were you cursed?” She asked. How much truth should he tell her? She’s always seemed kind and trustworthy from afar but she also always seemed very sheltered and she ran with some judgemental assholes. In the end, he could probably dodge if she decided a queer, cursed bat man was someone to hurt. At his lengthy pause she fluttered her hands a bit on the table and said, “Oh, was that question too personal? I probably shouldn’t pry.”
“Uh, well did you know my reputation?”
She flushed and looked away from him. “Um, I don’t know a nice way to ask this, but which one? I know that some people said you ran a satanic cult on campus, and that some people said you sold drugs.” She looked down at her fluttering hands and flexed them as if to stop their flutter. “And there’s been some other rumors too.”
“Fair, fair. I guess my reputations precede me.” He backed up a bit, body tensed for a quick retreat if necessary. “Well, the drug dealing is true. I dealt some pretty soft stuff to a new customer of mine, and some other stuff happened which was all very consensual, and bam outta no where, his aunt comes by and catches us. Turns out she’s a bitch and a witch. She cursed me to be a bat ‘until a princess can give me true love’s kiss.’”
“Oh, wow, like a fairy tale.” Chrissy said, totally skipping over the more counter-cultural parts of Eddie’s confession.
“Like a fairy tale,” Eddie agreed.
She kept her gaze on her hands on the table. “Well, next week is prom and I’m up for prom queen. My friends all say I’m a shoe in.” Eddie was confused, why were they talking about prom all the sudden. He tilted his head as if that might make what she was saying make sense. “Do you think prom queen would be good enough to count?”
“To count for what?”
“To break the curse, silly.” Chrissy said and laughed like Eddie was playing a joke.
He'd been so hung up on the idea of royalty being a literal thing he hadn’t thought about the potential possibility of it being a metaphor. “I don't know. Hadn’t thought about it before.” He began because the only time he thought about prom was when he was on one of his rants and he wasn’t going to start his rant against prom and herd conformity to this lovely girl who was asking if she could help break his curse. “But maybe? At least for that part. But it still requires true love’s kiss.”
Now it was her turn to blush, not that she could tell he’d been blushing earlier. “Oh, well.” She laughed awkwardly, a high pitched, nervous twitter that would have hurt his human ears. “Um, I guess I can admit to having a bit of a crush on you.” She squeaked and gripped the table, her knuckles going white with tension. He couldn't stop staring at her expressive hands, wishing he could hold them in his. He took the next best option and waddled over to one of them and leaned up against it, hoping it would sooth her obvious tension. “I kinda have since middle school. The talent show.”
Eddie thought for a moment. “You did the thing, with the-” if he had hands he would have mimed cheering a bit but now he was forced to say, “uh, pom poms and the back flip.”
“You remember?” Her hands had relaxed enough that she started to stroke the top of Eddie’s head, in between his ears, with one of her fingers.
“Yeah, you were really nice to my band.”
“Corroded Coffin!” She blurted out, loud enough to make Eddie jump a bit. “Sorry.”
“No worries, instincts to avoid loud noises, I guess.” They breathed in silence at the table in the clearing for a while while she stroked his head and he nuzzled against her hand. Daring and intimate in a way he’d never been at school with anyone let alone Chrissy Cunningham.
“Eddie, I’d like to try to break your curse if I win prom queen next week.”
“Alright, princess.” He said. “I guess we can meet back up here in a week and a half. You can try then?”
“Oh, I was thinking you could stay in my house until then, that way when I get back from prom we could try right away?”
“Uh, sure.” He said because the idea of being warm and safe from predators for the next week, even if the kiss didn’t work, sounded heavenly.
Turned out she got a ride home from friends or her boyfriend Jason everyday. “I want to break up with him, but he won’t let me. I’m hoping after prom he won’t have a reason any more and I can go.” Was all she’d said about it like not letting someone break up with you was a normal statement. Eddie was pretty sure that wasn’t how relationships worked, but he’d never really dated anyone so he could be wrong. He didn’t think he was though.
Since he couldn’t ride home with her, they had to meet up at her house. She gave him directions but they were not as helpful from a bat’s eye view above the streets as driving in a car and it took him longer than he wanted. However, he found a tree to rest in and waited to see which room was hers as the sun went down.
Soon enough, one of the rooms facing the backyard, lit up and Eddie could see Chrissy walking around in there. He flew over landing on the windowsill and tapped on it with his little claws. It wasn’t a very loud sound but Eddie was afraid of calling out in case someone heard him. Chrissy must have been expecting him, though, because she opened her window and held out her hand for him to climb into.
“Hey, Eddie.” She greeted him.
“Hey, princess.” He said as he hopped from her hand onto her bed. “This is nice, so soft.” He flopped back on it, his wings spread wide. It wasn’t as comfy a position to be in as a bat as when he’d been human, but after months of rough nature, a soft bedspread over a mattress felt blissfully comforting. “You can leave me here to die. I’m good.”
Chrissy smiled and poked him in the belly. He gripped onto her finger with his feet and hung upside down as she pulled him up in front of her face. “Do you need anything? For sleeping or whatever?”
Which was a good point, and they started working out exactly how Eddie was going to eat and sleep for the next week. They decided she’d keep her window cracked during the day so he could squeeze in and out of it as he’d like to go hunting or to spy on his Uncle Wayne. And while a soft pillow next to Chrissy sounded like an amazing way to sleep, in the end, he had to hang upside down from the curtain rod above the window near her bed. It meant that for a week the first and last thing Eddie saw every day was Chrissy in her bed.
The next week, the night of prom, Eddie helped Chrissy get ready. “Eddie, stop trying to help.” She laughed at him as he tried to hand her a make-up brush.
“But you are going to the battlefields of Hawkins High prom to win a favor for me, a lowly and cursed jester, O lady knight. I must repay you somehow.” He squeaked.
“Lady knight? I thought I was a princess?” She said, applying a shimmering blue color to her lid.
“You are indeed a princess already. Royalty of Hawkins High to be crowned queen this evening. You are also a knight ready to do battle for little ole me.”
“If I was a princess already, we could have broken the curse ages ago.”
“We’re already pushing it with the prom queen title, I think.” Eddie said, too afraid to share his fear that as wonderful, kind, and caring Chrissy was it wouldn’t be enough to break his curse.
She looked in the mirror. “Alright, I think I’m done.” She turned to him, still standing on her vanity. “How do I look?”
“Like Hawkins High’s newest prom queen.” He said.
“Thanks, Eddie. You’re the best.” She leaned forward and placed a small peck in between his ears.
The warmth of her lips against his head felt like an explosion as a tornado of heat and fire whipped around Eddie and through him, blotting out all his senses as he tried to withstand it and hold himself together. It went on for what felt like years without anything to anchor him but it must have been only moments because the next thing he knew, Eddie was looking up at Chrissy who was looking back down at him with wide, frightened eyes.
“Oh my god, Eddie.” She said as her Mom called out, “Chrissy, what was that noise.”
Chrissy looked at Eddie then went to the door and poked her head out, “sorry Mom, I tripped over some shoe boxes.”
Meanwhile Eddie realized he was no longer on the vanity. He was on the floor. And he wasn’t small any longer. He looked down and realized he was human. And naked. He grabbed a pillow from Chrissy’s bed (with his human arm and human hand!) and covered his junk. For his modesty.
“You better be ready for Jason, he’s coming to pick you up at seven.”
“Yes, Mom.” She called back before closing the door and turning back to him with a whisper. “Oh, my god. Eddie! You’re back.”
“Holy shit.” Eddie said, looking back at her with wide eyes.
Her eyes darted down to the pillow in his lap then back to his eyes. “Um, let me see if any of my clothes might fit you.”
She darted into her closet and rooted around, finally tossing a pair of sweats and a large t-shirt to him. “These are probably the largest things I own, I hope they fit.”
Three months ago, Eddie wouldn’t have dared be caught dead in Hawkin’s High gym sweats and a church community volunteer day shirt, but today Eddie was human again and got to wear clothes again so it no longer mattered to Eddie. Chrissy turned around to give him some privacy and he pulled the sweats on and the shirt, marveling at the softness of the fabric against his skin and the indefinable Chrissy smell he was enveloped within. “I’m decent, princess.” He paused. “I guess you really are Hawkins High royalty.”
She ran over to Eddie and wrapped him in her arms. “Oh, my god. You’re human, and you’re okay. I was so worried.” She said and squeezed him tight. Slowly, testing the waters so to speak, he wrapped his arms around her. She sighed into his chest before looking up at him.
“Can I kiss you, princess?” Eddie asked, humbled as the implications of breaking his curse started to filter through his mind. She nodded and he bent down to match their lips together. It started very chastely, just a press of lips against lips but she sighed against him and he licked at the seam of her lips opening them up and deepening the kiss. It was warm and hot and wet and Eddie wasn’t sure he’d ever had a better kiss in his life.
She pulled back. “Oh, god. I broke the curse.” She started laughing. “I really have to break up with Jason!”
“Yeah, uh, true love’s kiss and all.” Eddie agreed.
“Oh, wow. True love, huh?” Chrissy teased. She leaned forward again and bit down on his lip before kissing him again.
“Yeah, true love.” He said and smiled down at her.
Later, Chrissy would win prom queen. Later, she could break up with Jason. Later, Eddie would return to Wayne and find out his neighbor Max Mayfield knew about the weirdness in Hawkins and could help him get in contact with people who could help with his three months of displacement. Later, Chrissy and Eddie would start dating, both newly graduated from high school and ready to leave Hawkins behind them, curses and all.