I See You (Please See Me): Chapter 4

A Stranger Things Fanfic

Trigger warning: violence

Of course Dustin insisted on being the one to stay with Eddie. Of course he did. It didn’t matter when Eddie had told him they were going back to the school. Dustin wanted to come anyway. Eddie tapped his finger on his knee. What was he supposed to do with the kid after his errand? He wasn’t taking him to his trailer (he hadn’t wanted to take Chrissy there either, but she was desperate, and it was only supposed to be for a few minutes), and he certainly wasn’t going to the kid’s house. No doubt Mrs. Henderson would take one look at him and kick him out.

He threw his head back against the seat of the van. He wasn’t a babysitter. Was the kid just expecting the two of them to play DnD all day?

“So, let me get this straight,” Dustin said, and something in his amused tone immediately set Eddie on edge. “You were so excited about bringing Chrissy Cunningham to your trailer, that you just let your supplies at school?”

Eddie gritted his teeth. “I wasn’t excited to bring her. I didn’t want to keep her out any later than I had to.”

“Right, cause if she arrived late to the basketball team’s party, the consequences would be terrible, wouldn’t they?”

Eddie gripped the steering wheel. “I think you should stop talking right about now.”

“I’m just trying to understand,” the kid said innocently.

Eddie rolled his eyes. He had taken the notebook with some vague plans for a new campaign home, but sure, he had left a couple other books at the school for the night. It wasn’t the first time he had done it, and it wouldn’t be–well, if he actually managed a D in Ms. O’Donnell’s, then it would be the last time. The point was that Dustin was reading into things and needed to stop before he said something stupid.

“We’re here,” Eddie said, jerking to a stop a little quicker than necessary. He hopped out, and Dustin followed. “Just grabbing a few things,” he called behind him. “I’ll be out in a second. You can stay in the car.”

“Nancy said no one goes anywhere alone.”

“Right, and we gotta listen to Wheeler, don’t we?” He was bluffing, and he was sure the younger boy knew it. Whatever had happened to Chrissy the night before had spooked him, but they had no plan whatsoever, and somehow he didn’t think sticking to the buddy system would cut it.

There were a few other people in the school: a couple teachers, the janitor, a couple newspaper kids (including Wheeler’s stalker), all who had some last-minute things to finish or collect now that spring break had officially begun.

Eddie hurried to the storage room, listening carefully to Dustin’s continuing footsteps behind him. Geez, if the kid started floating too–

He pushed open the door to the storage room, snatched up his old, beat-up DnD rulebook, the binder of notes on the Vecna compaign, some pens, and the few cans of Mountain Dew left, and turned around, ushering Dustin ahead of him. “Okay, got my stuff. Let’s get outta here.”

“Hey, hey, I can walk on my own, Eddie!”

“Then move faster.”

Dustin huffed, then froze altogether, sending Eddie stumbling into him. “What’s he doing?” he asked, pointing at the skinny kid with glasses, running from the newspaper room. “You think he’s okay? What d’you think scared him so bad?”

Eddie felt a chill run down his spine. It must have hit Dustin in the same moent, because he cursed and was running before Eddie realized it. He ran after the younger boy and managed to catch up quickly. They heard the front door slam as they turned the corner, and they ran outside as well. The newspaper kid had stopped running now and was standing still in the middle of the parking lot.

Too still.

Dustin cursed again, then ran to the boy, shouting at him. “Hey, hey, wake up!”

It all felt far too familiar.

Eddie dug through his pockets, searching for his keys. Where had he parked? He had music in the van, if only he could reach it. He just had to reach it.

“Eddie!” Dustin shrieked, and he whirled around. Dustin was clutching onto the other boy’s arm as he floated up. Hands shaking, Eddie ran to the van, knowing he was far too late already.

Snap. Dustin screamed.

Eddie found the keys, fumbled with them, and dropped them.

More bones snapped, and then thunk.

He couldn’t look. He just couldn’t.

“Eddie, Eddie, help!” Dustin begged.

He couldn’t grab the keys. His fingers were trembling too muhc. He managed to scoop them up in both hands and shove them in his pocket. Of their own volition, his feet dragged him over to both boys. He fought not to gag when he saw every one of the boy’s limbs twisted at such terrible angles, and his eyes–

“We have to do something,” Dustin said. “We–we have to help.”

Eddie couldn’t move. He tried to tell the younger boy that they were too late, they couldn’t help, but he couldn’t speak either. He couldn’t drag his eyes away from the boy’s body, and a traitorous part of him imagined Chrissy lying there like that.

A woman screamed. Eddie looked over his shoulder and spotted a teacher in front of the school door. His stomach dropped. The teacher ran back in the school, probably to call the cops. Eddie grabbed Dustin’s arm and dragged him to his feet.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m not letting you go to jail cause of me,” Eddie hissed in his ear, and he dragged him off to the woods, the pit in his stomach growing with every step they took away from the body.

Dustin recovered remarkably quickly. Eddie remembered them mentioning doing this stuff before and wondered how many people had died. He, on the other hand, couldn’t stop shaking, couldn’t stop thinking of Chrissy in that trance, the newspaper kid with his limbs broken and eyes sucked in. It reminded him of something, actually. Something he very much did not want to think about right now.

“Where are we going?” Dustin asked.

“Skull Rock. You heard of it?”

“Yeah. I’ve never been there, but I think everyone’s heard of it. I didn’t think it would be one of your hangouts, though. Unless you’ve gone with a particular cheerleader, maybe?”

Eddie whirled around to glare at the kid. “Stop talking, or I’m gonna leave you here. I go there for deals sometimes since its out of the way. Also you better not say anything like that in front of Chrissy. She’s got a boyfriend.”

“Who’s a jerk,” Dustin pointed out.

“Yeah, well, that’s not any of your business or mine, so shut up.” He turned back around and continued the steady march to their place of refuge.

“Eddie?”

“I said shut up.”

“I know, but it’s not about Chrissy. We’re going the wrong way.”

Eddie sighed and turned around. “I think I know how to get to Skull Rock. I’ve been there often enough, and you haven’t, so why don’t you just–”

Dustin held up a compass and raised his eyebrows significantly. “You were saying?”

Eddie leaned closer and frowned. The needle was pointing the wrong way. He looked up at the trees surrounding them. No, they were going the right way. Following the needle would lead them straight back to the school. He turned around and kept walking. “Think you need a new compass, Dustin.”

Dustin ran to keep up. “Compasses don’t just break–”

“I know how a compass works, kid, but maybe, you just left it too close to a magnet in that bag of yours.”

“I don’t keep magnets in my bag, and I’m very careful with my compass!”

Eddie stopped and whirled around to face him. “Well you must have, because we’re going the right way, so unless the electromagnetic fields have suddenly shifted in Hawkins, I don’t know what to tell you!”

Dustin froze, and for a second Eddie felt guilty. The kid was probably just as scared as he was, and he shouldn’t have yelled–

Dustin cursed and stared at the compass. He took a few steps off in the wrong direction, cursing with every step.

“Dustin?” He didn’t turn around. “Hey, Dustin? Care to clue me in on what’s going on?”

“The electromagnetic fields changed,” Dustin called over his shoulder.

The kid was losing his mind. “Hey, hey, wait!” Eddie ran in front of him, grabbed his shoulders, and held him at arm’s length, stooping over a bit to look him in the eye. “I was joking, alright? The electromagnetic fields don’t jsut change on their own.”

“Exactly!” Dustin looked delighted, as though he wasn’t talking like a madman.

Eddie folded his arms. “Are you going to explain, or just go wandering off in the woods by yourself when the police are probably organizing a manhunt for us right now?”

“The monsters, including Vecna, live in an alternate dimension, but sometimes gates open between our worlds, and we’ve found those gates before because they draw compass needles. The gates usually let the monsters into our world, but in this case, we can go through ourselves, find Vecna, and kill him before he can hurt anyone else.”

Eddie’s mind was moving sluggishly, and he stared at Dustin for a minute. “You want us to go into another dimension to fight an evil wizard?”

“Yes.”

“Absolutely not.”

“But–”

“No,” Eddie said firmly. “We have no weapons, and we are not going in there alone.”

Dustin nodded as though this were obvious. “We’ll go find it, and then I’ll contact Steve, and everyone can come meet us there!”

“Contact Harrington? How?”

“My walkie-talkie.” Eddie stared at him. “What? I was going to contact him, but I figured it would be better to wait until we had a location to give.”

Eddie closed his eyes. “Um, no. We’re sticking to the old plan. We go to Skull Rock, call your buddies, and hope they’ve managed to talk to your friend with superpowers. And then, once they get here, we’ll decided what to do, because I don’t know if you noticed, but we’re going to be suspects numbers 1 and 2 for that kid’s murder.”

“But they don’t have proof,” Dustin protested. “Ms. Atwood just saw us for a second standing near him.”

Eddie laughed dully. “Do you really think that matters? The cops’ll take one look at me and not bother to listen to anything we say, whether we mention monsters or not. They’ll throw me in jail, say I’ve ‘corrupted’ you, and throw you in juvie. Now since we don’t want that, we cannot be caught. Understand?”

Dustin swallowed. “Yeah, I get it.”

Eddie clapped his hand on his shoulder. “Good. Now why don’t you call Harrington and tell him we’re on our way to Skull Rock.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m sure he knows where that is.”

Dustin unzipped his backpack and found the walkie-talkie. “Hello? Steve, this is Dustin. Do you copy? Over.”

He repeated the message a couple of times before Harrington answered. “Hey, Dustin. Look, we’re a little busy right now, so could you maybe call back later?”

“No! This is very important. Can anyone else hear you right now?”

“Just a second.” Static fizzed for a moment, then, “Okay, just me. What’s up?”

“Vecna found a second victim, and he killed him this time. Also, the cops might think Eddie and I did it.”

Static again. “They might? How much is might?”

Eddie yanked the walkie-talkie out of Dustin’s hand. “Ms. Atwood saw the two of us standing near the dead kid in an empty parking lot, so why don’t you figure that one out for yourself, Harrington?”

He tossed the walkie-talkie back, and Dustin caught it. “So anyway, we’re on our way to Skull Rock to wait for everybody. Also there seems to be a new gate.”

Harrington cursed. “You’re sure?”

“Yep. The compass started messing up again.”

“Excuse me?” Harrington asked.

“Forget it. Yes, I’m sure.”

“Okay, I’ll let the others know. We’ll meet you guys as soon as we can. Oh, and Dustin? Don’t you dare go find that gate by yourself.” For once, something Eddie could agree with. He raised his eyebrows, and Dustin looked down, abashed.

“I won’t.”

“Good. Over and out.” Dustin looked overjoyed when Harrington used the phrase, and Eddie snorted. The kid pushed in the antenna and stuffed the walkie-talkie in his backpack.

They reached Skull Rock fifteen minutes later and settled in to wait.

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