Chapter Text
The first thing that Eddie noticed when he woke up was excruciating, blinding pain.
It shot through his entire body and left him shaking and gasping. He vaguely wished that he could just fall right back asleep and allow the pain to consume him, but couldn’t actually focus on anything besides the pins and needles that felt like they were digging into his skin at every angle.
The second thing he noticed was the cold. Half of his shaking came from the wounds but the other half came from his body’s inability to produce any amount of heat. It felt like the winter that his heat went off because his uncle couldn’t pay the bills, and they were left covering all the windows with blankets so that they wouldn’t freeze to death. I’m definitely freezing to death, Eddie thought.
“You’re not freezing to death,” a slightly-distorted voice stated plainly from above him. Eddie opened his eyes to try and see where it came from but only saw dark shapes. For all he knew, it could be Vecna (Henry? One?) coming to finish the job. He decided it couldn’t be Vecna because he felt a thick cloth drape over his body. The shaking lessened.
“Dustin…?” Eddie mumbled. The human-ish shape didn’t respond. His teeth chattered and his vision didn’t get any better. Instead, Eddie slipped quickly into the darkness again.
He woke up again to the sound of screams. Eddie shot up with wide eyes. His vision was better this time, but he regretted looking around because it reminded him that he was here. In the Upside Down. With no way out.
Eddie wondered if the voice he heard was just a figment of his imagination, but there was definitely a blanket on his torso. He wrapped it around himself. There weren’t any logical explanations for this; no one was in the Upside Down besides him and Eddie doubted that any of the creepy bat-things would help him. Which could only mean a number of things: (a) someone went in with him, (b) Vecna was toying with his mind, or (c) that someone, somehow was already in the Upside Down before he got there. Eddie wasn’t sure which option he liked less.
His head spun in circles and he clutched his temples, reeling in the red hot pain that still consumed his body. It was definitely better than before but Eddie still felt far too weak to move, let alone get up and figure out what the hell was going on. He shivered in the cold and tucked himself further into his blanket.
“Shit– don’t move. Lay back down.” A voice from behind him called out, less distorted this time. It almost sounded like a kid trying to make their voice deeper. Eddie laughed breathlessly, already convinced he was going crazy.
“Y’know, if you’re going to kill me, I’d rather you rip the bandaid off.” Eddie’s voice came out slurred. It felt like his mouth had cotton in it.
“If I was going to kill you I would have done that hours ago.” The voice sounded slightly annoyed now. He felt an icy hand on his forehead that made him lurch back. “Still feverish. You’re lucky I found you when I did.” Eddie finally looked up hoping for familiarity, but he was met with a ragged-looking teenager with a make-shift cloth mask on his face. He had an eye that was almost completely white, jagged scars at the edge of the face-mask, and shaggy light-brown hair that looked like it was cut haphazardly.
Eddie couldn’t help but laugh again, hysteria building up inside his chest. “Who the fuck are you?” This kid couldn’t be older than Dustin or Mike, yet he had a ferocity beyond his age. Eddie didn’t recognize him at all– which felt strange for someone in a small town. Except that he was in the Upside Down. None of this made sense, and if anything, it just made his head hurt worse than it already did.
“Doesn’t matter right now. How did you get here? Those gates are full of soldiers and swarms.”
“Swarms. Right. Soldiers? Not-so-right.” Eddie sat up, despite the disgruntled-kid’s best attempts to push him down. He looked around at his surroundings: he was in some kind of makeshift hut that was completely covered by blankets and reinforced by wood planks. In front of him, Eddie could see multiple guns lined up, which nearly made him jump. “Fuck, man! What are those for?”
“Not you. The Swarms. Morgul bats. Fellbeasts.
Eddie narrowed his eyes. “Wait a minute, wait a minute. Those are from the Lord of the Rings.”
For a moment, Eddie thought the kid looked excited. His eyes shone briefly before tilting his head. “You know Tolkien?”
“Yeah, I love the Lord of the Rings. And fantasy in general.” Eddie looked around at the small enclosure. “I know this place as the Upside Down. They said it’s like the Vale of Shadows.”
The kid shrugged. “Sort of. Not exactly. If you’re using D&D terms, it’s more like the Ethereal Plane– it coexists and overlaps with the material plane, as far as I’m aware.”
Eddie grinned and stuck out his hand. “I’m Eddie. Looks like we have something in common after all.” The kid (who still didn’t have a name as far as Eddie was aware) stared at him like Eddie’s hand would turn into a mimic and bite him. Eddie put his hand down after a few awkward seconds.
No response again. The kid shuffled around and grabbed a gun.
“Okay… can I just give you a name or something? I’d kind of like to call my savior something.” Eddie gave a cheeky grin, hoping that his humor would start to defrost this kid’s attitude. It didn’t. He grabbed a gun and stood up and blatantly disregarded Eddie’s question.
“I’m going out. Stay quiet, stay down. If you hear anything that doesn’t sound like a person, grab one of these and run.” Kid, as Eddie creatively decided to call him in his head, peered outside of the glorified blanket fort. “Rendevouz here when you think the cost is clear. Otherwise, stay down. And for fuck’s sake, don’t let him see you.”
“Him? You mean Vecna?”
“Vecna?” Kid furrowed his eyebrows.
“Right. We use different terminology. You probably call him… Sauron or something.”
Again, Kid stared at him. Eddie was starting to feel severely judged by this teenager. “Henry.”
Eddie felt his blood run cold. How did he know about Henry? He probably run into him then, at some point. Kid must’ve seen the recognition on his face because he scoffed. “I’ve been down here for a while. I know who he is– been running from him since the get-go.”
Before Eddie could ask any more questions, Kid lifted a blanket and exited the fort.
Eddie wasn’t sure how long Kid was gone before he came back holding three dead bat-things, dripping with blood. The stench made him gag. “What are those for?” He asked while holding his nose.
“What do you think?” Kid arched an eyebrow. “Dinner.”
Eddie gagged again. “No way. We’re not actually eating those … right?”
“Look around. Do you see any live animals here? Plants that won’t kill you? The morgul bats are the least poisonous thing I could find– which is saying something, because they’re pretty deadly.”
Kid grabbed something that looked akin to a cutting board and a knife and started cutting the heads off. The concept of mutilating these creatures wasn’t nearly as disgusting as the thought of swallowing those things down. They looked and smelled rotten. “Have you cooked… all of the creatures here?”
“Not all of them,” Kid responded. “Just some. I’m not sure if you’ll be able to eat much of this– but you have to eat something. However much your body will let you. If you want to recover, you have to get your strength back.”
“Right…” Eddie made a face at the bats. “How long have you been down here, exactly?”
Kid shook his head. “I don’t know. None of the clocks here work, and time seems… frozen. At least as far as I can tell. We’re both stuck here, so you have to figure out how to live with it too.”
“Not exactly.” Eddie watched Kid pause for a moment, then continue to slice the bats.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I got in somehow, right? That means there’s definitely a way out.”
“You didn’t get dragged in by a Fell beast?”
“No. I came in on my own.”
Kid paused again. He turned to look at Eddie, eyes wide. “There’s no way. Every gate into this world is being watched by the military. Believe me, I’ve tried.”
Eddie shook his head. “There’s a way out. We can get out– fuck, I need to. My friends probably think I’m dead.” The realization sent waves of anxiety through his core. Dustin, Robin, Nancy, Steve… all of them were probably mourning right now. He needed to make sure they were safe. And tell them that he was safe.
Well. Kinda safe. As safe as he could be, at the mercy of Kid and his blanket fort/armory/butcher shop. He wasn’t sure if he could fully trust him yet, but at this point, he didn’t really have a choice.
“Mine probably do too.” A small voice spoke up. Kid, sounding much more timid than he has since Eddie woke up, stared at him with sad eyes.
“... Hey, y’know, if you’re from Hawkins I probably know them. Maybe I can tell you about how they’re doing.” Kid shifted uncomfortably, so Eddie added, “I get that you don’t quite trust me. But you saved me, so I have no reason to lie to you. Or use this against you– or whatever you think I’m gonna do with this information.”
“You’re not military or anything?”
Eddie barked out a laugh. “Shit, Kid, do you really think that I look like a soldier?”
Kid cleared his throat. “Not really.”
“Okay, then let’s try this again.” He held his hand out. “I’m Eddie Munson. I go to Hawkins High. I play D&D and I’ve been in the Upside Down for… uhh, a day or two. Maybe less.”
Tentatively, Kid shook his hand. It was freezing cold just like the last time. “I’m Will Byers. I’ve been here since 1983.”