Chapter Text
Spring 1986
Vecna was finally dead and could hurt them no longer. Steve felt so relieved that he was buzzing. He, Robin and Nance had not stopped talking all the way back through the rotting, skeletal trees, making plans for what they would get up to this summer knowing that they were finally free from all the Upside Down crap. When the sound of Dustin screaming drifted through the eerie woods to them. They had desperately tried to move faster to get to him, but Steve had been hindered by his bat bite injuries, and couldn’t get there as quickly, as he would have otherwise been able.
He felt like he was trapped in a nightmare, hearing Dustin screaming for his help, and not being able to get there fast enough. He had never heard Dustin scream like that, raw and desperate. Steve was terrified about what they would find when they eventually got to him and Eddie. When they finally found them, at the opposite end of Forest Hills to Eddie's home, Dustin was covered in blood rocking a shockingly pale and quiet Eddie back and forth in an attempt to comfort himself, unable to let go of the battered and bloodied metalhead he cradled. It felt like a punch to Steve’s gut to see Eddie, who was usually never still, lifeless in Dustin’s arms. They were supposed to have won, everyone should have lived this time. Nancy and Robin had to forcefully pull Dustin away from Eddie as he sobbed, so that Steve put his first aid skills to work.
"Make sure he's not going into shock." Steve called to the girls as they tried to force Dustin's attention away from Steve as he crouched down on the ground to attend to Eddie. He reeled off the symptoms, as he checked to see if Eddie was breathing.
He couldn’t find Eddie’s pulse. So, he began mouth to mouth, he could taste Eddie’s blood as he tried again and again to breathe life back into the metalhead. He began chest compressions and could feel Eddie’s chest crack underneath his hands, as he pressed down hard, to try and get Eddie's heart pumping. He was solely focused on bringing Eddie round. Tears and snot streamed down Steve’s face, as he repeatedly tried to revive the other man. His hands, face and body were covered in Eddie’s blood, and still he refused to give up hope. He hadn’t realised that there was anything wrong until he could feel Robin ripping him away from Eddie, her fingers digging into his shoulder painfully in her attempt.
“Steve? Steve! We have to go!” She cried urgently, as he struggled to return to the task he had set himself.
“We can’t leave Eddie behind!” He screamed at her, trying to pull away. No one deserved to be left in this hell hole dead or alive.
“If we don’t leave him then we’re never going to get out of here alive. Look!” Her panicked yelling finally cut through to him, he followed her finger to where she was pointing, now aware that the Upside Down seemed to be in the process of an earthquake. The malevolent world around them appeared to be collapsing in on itself. Nancy was already dragging a sobbing Dustin away at a limping run towards the gate in Eddie’s trailer.
And so, Steve had taken hold of Robin’s hand and ran through Forest Hills. The shaking under foot had become more and more violent as they gained on the trailer. By the time they had entered the demo-bat ravaged home Dustin was just disappearing through the gate. Nancy had begun to climb the makeshift rope that dangled through the portal in the ceiling. The trailer was quaking scarily by the time Robin began to hoist herself up, Steve already on the rope behind her as she disappeared through the ceiling.
He was just cresting the gate when the trailer below him fell away around him. With a grunt he shoved himself through the viscera encrusted portal –