I See You (Please See Me): Chapter 1
Part 1 of the Their Year (‘86, Baby!) series
A Stranger Things Fanfic
Trigger warning: violence, mentions of abuse and drugs
The game was over, but the tension that had settled in Chrissy’s stomach hadn’t faded. Jason offered to give her a ride to Benny’s, but she told him she needed to go home and change first. And it was true. She would go home and change, just after she went to Eddie’s.
When she stepped outside, she found Eddie casually leaning against an old green and white striped van, talking to a curly-haired freshman who was raving about something she couldn’t hear. She chewed her lip and waited close to the building, standing between lights so no one would notice her. Eddie’s eyes found her instantly, and she realized how obvious she must have been.
“Go home, Henderson. Your mama’s probably worried about you. We’ll talk after break, got it?” Eddie pushed the kid away, whacking him lightly on the back.
“Bye, Eddie! Have a good spring break!”
“Yeah, sure, kid.” He gave a half-hearted wave, waited until the boy was out of sight, then jerked his head slightly towards the van. Chrissy headed his way and climbed into the passenger side.
“You sure you wanna do this?” he asked. She nodded, though she couldn’t speak past the lump in her throat. Anything to get rid of the crazy things she was seeing.
When he started the van, music blared from the speakers, and she jumped. He turned it down a bit, but didn’t turn it off, for which she was thankful. This might not be the kind of music she generally listened to, but she thought the silence would be unbearable.
He was quiet most of the drive (thought his fingers wouldn’t stop tapping, on the steering wheel, his leg, the seat, anything), and she wished she knew whether it was because he didn’t have anything to say, or if he thought she wanted quiet. She was tempted to ask. She didn’t.
They pulled up to an old trailer, and he turned off the vehicle, then dropped out the door. She climbed out after him, and he gestured to the trailer. “This is, uh, my castle.” He was trying to make her laugh again. She forced a smile, but all she could think was of how quiet and dark it was, and how if Jason or her parents found out she ever set foot here–
He held the door open for her, then glanced around nervously, snatching up old papers and wrappers. “Sorry for the mess. Uh, the maid took the week off.”
She turned around to give him some privacy and looked around the cramped room. She crossed her arms over her chest. “You, um, you live here alone?”
“With my uncle, but, uh, he works nights at the plant. Brining home the big bucks,” he finished dryly.
She turned back to face him. “How long does it take?”
He looked up from the drawer he was rifling through. “Sorry?”
She dropped her eyes to the floor and swung her arms awkwardly beside her. “The Special K. How long does it take to kick in?”
He went back to the drawer. “Oh, well, it depends if you snort it or not.” Chrissy nodded along like she knew anything about drugs. “Uh, if you do, then, yeah, it’ll, uh, kick in pretty quick.” He leaned on the counter and grinned like he was sharing some sort of inside joke. He opened a tin, glanced down at it, then cursed and shut it.
“You’re sure you have it?” Chrissy asked. If he didn’t, if she had come here for nothing–
“No, no, I got it. Um, somewhere.” He glanced to both sides, then spun around and headed into another room.
She wanted him to find it, but at the same time, she didn’t want to be alone. She briefly considered following him into what she assumed was his room, but decided that would be weird. Instead she bounced on her toes and waited for him to come back.
A clock chimed.
The clock chimed.
It was the one from the woods, she was sure of it, even though she couldn’t see it. She stepped toward the window, but saw nothing. She could barely breathe and she slammed the curtains shut, hoping they’d drown out the sound.
“Eddie? Did you find it?” She hated how her voice trembled, but she couldn’t help it.
He didn’t answer.
The trailer wasn’t that big.
“Eddie?”
She didn’t care if going in his room was weird anymore. She followed him in and heard a strange but familiar clicking sound. “Eddie?”
Her mom sat in the middle of the room, altering her cheer uniform again. “Mom?”
“Just loosening this up for you, sweetheart.” Her mother’s voice sounded strange, almost tinny, as though it were through a radio. “You’re going to look absolutely beautiful.” The voice slowed down, and suddenly it didn’t sound like her mom’s voice at all. Her mom turned around, and her face was–wrong. Chrissy ran, slamming the door behind her.
She turned around, breathing hard, and she was–she was home. But no, that wasn’t right, was it?"
She didn’t have time to think before the door started to open, and her mom (it was her voice again) shouted her name. She whirled around and grabbed the handle, fighting to keep it closed.
“Chrissy, open the door!” her mother shouted.
“No!” she screamed again and again as the voice echoed in her mind.
“Let go! Let got! Let go!"
The door flung open, and she let go and ran down the hall and stairs as the thing that used to be her mother shouted her name again. When she made it downstairs, she saw a familiar figure in the living room, watching tv.
“Dad!” she called desperately, running to him. “Dad, Dad!” She grabbed the chair, and he turned around, eyes and mouth sewn shut, blood covering his face.
She screamed.
The light flickered, and she stared at it, feet glued to the floor. Something wet and heavy stomped down the stairs. It growled, and she ran in the other direction.
Spoiled food, flies, and spiders covered the kitchen table, but the sight didn’t deter her for long. “Chrissy!" She was running again, this time to the door. She threw it open, but boards covered the other side, blocking her in.
“No,” she sobbed. She banged on the boards and screamed for help. “Chrissy." She froze. The–thing–followed slowly. It didn’t need to run. It was inevitable. The boards pressed against her back, and she knew she was trapped. The creature made its way over until it stood only a couple feet away. She sobbed, but couldn’t move, couldn’t think.
“Don’t cry, Chrissy," the creature said, brushing her cheek with one long, taloned finger. She turned away. “It’s time for your suffering to end." He spread his and over her head, and she couldn’t stop shaking.
Then . . . music.
She recognized it, though she didn’t know where she could have heard it. Her mother would never let something like that be played in the house.
But . . . it did sound kind of like what Eddie had played in the van for her.
The van–on the way to his trailer. Which she hadn’t left. She was still at his trailer, not at home. This–the monster, the house, the lights, the bugs–it was all in her head. She had to get out, had to leave. Had to find her way back to the only person who had bothered to see that something was wrong. To the one person who might be able to help her.
The creature grabbed her head, tips of its nails digging into her head. She closed her eyes. It was all in her head, all in her head, all in her head. She focused on finding her way back to Eddie, back to his trailer. She focused on those silver rings she hadn’t worked up the courage to ask about, the musty, smoky smell of the trailer, him falling off the picnic bench to make her laugh. (Her brain rather unhelpfully suggested his hesitant, mischievous smile, but she pushed the thought away.)
The creature’s talons vanished from her head and she opened her eyes. She was now in the clearing with the picnic bench, the sun shining brightly despite the late hour. The music was louder now, and it sounded like it was buried in the woods. She ran after it as fast as she could.
The music grew louder and louder, and eventually she found what appeared to be a hole in the air in the middle of the woods, almost like a television screen. It showed Eddie’s trailer from . . . was that the ceiling? She could see Eddie on the floor, staring in horror in her direction. A table and tape player had been knocked over behind him, and she guessed that was where the music came from.
She leapt through the hole in the air and fell straight down. Eddie’s already wide eyes widened even further, and he ran forward to catch her. She clung to him with one arm and sobbed. He was the only thing that seemed real in that moment, and she needed it, needed him.
It suddenly occurred to her that she couldn’t move her right arm. Just as suddenly, pain flowed through it, making her cry out.
Eddie was muttering something into her hair, and when she pulled away a bit, she realized he was alternating between cursing and saying her name.
Finally, he pried her off him and sat her gently down on the floor. He swallowed. “I don’t know what that was, but I’m afraid nothing I’ve got can help.”