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acowardinmordor · 1 year

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Flip the Board - pt 3

Part One - Part Two

This is going to have to migrate to Ao3. I'm incapable of keeping things short. I'll try to catch everyone in tags when I post part four, which will flip this to posting by chapter, rather than by scene.

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Eddie didn’t skip as he rushed out the side door of the school, headed for the parking lot, but it was close to it. Dustin was standing with his back to the school, next to the van, imitating Harrington’s frustrated mom pose, with a lunchbox hanging from his left hand, and his backpack over his shoulders. Max was leaning against the van, while Lucas argued, and Mike glowered.

Good progress, but they needed to get moving and were two party members shy of a successful departure.

Eddie hurried over, clapping to bleed off the excess energy, then flung open the door. Ignoring the random stuttered confusion, he snagged his supply and shoved it under the driver’s seat, then reached for bags and whatever else they had on them.

“What the hell?” Max asked as he yanked the skateboard out of her hands.

“Chill, Red, I’m not stealing your board, you’re coming too.”

“No, really, what the hell?” Lucas added.

“Shh, Sinclair. Hold your questions til the end of class. Dustin, you’re three for five. Did they not want to skip out? I don’t care. They have to. Do I need to go back for them? Come on. Chop chop. Where’s Robin and Wheeler?”

“I’m right here?”

“Wheeler the Elder,” Eddie amended with a flap of his hand, “You, Sir Michaelmas, are already accounted for.”

“Okay, Dustin, what shit is this?!” Mike snapped. He turned to face off with Dustin, and Lucas turned with him. “You said this was Code Red.”

Dustin was his favorite.

Kid didn’t blink, didn’t hesitate, didn’t even glance at Eddie for confirmation. Which was one hell of a thing since it was Dustin, who can, did, and would question everything he encountered -- all at the top of his lungs. It wasn’t like Eddie took the time to explain a damn thing after telling him to get the others. Yeah, Dustin tried to ask something after Eddie told him to get the others, but lunch was ending and step one had to start immediately, so Eddie sprinted out of the theater and trusted that Dustin would listen.

“It IS a Code Red.”

“How the hell would he even know to say that? He probably just overheard you talking about something and thought it would be a good joke.”

“It isn’t a joke,” Dustin insisted. “This is real. He knows something, and it’s serious.”

“Nancy graduated last year, but we’re supposed to think this is real?” Lucas said.

Oh shit.

“Just because he doesn’t know everything doesn’t mean it isn’t real. Steve gets things wrong all the time and we still listen to him!”

Maybe this meant that the vision thing wasn’t real. Eddie scrambled backwards in his head, trying to figure out if he knew that or not. He saw her around all the time. Around the school all the time. She was in Hawkins during spring break.

Whoops?

Apocalypse canceled?

Oh wait.

No. Dammit.

He remembered this. He already knew this. Wheeler mentioned it after a couple campaign sessions. Damn. So much for hope. For a second he thought he hadn’t received some insane prophetic revelation.

“She’s working for the paper right?” Eddie interrupted before Mike could yell. “I knew that, sort of. A bit. I knew she was in Hawkins. That counts. It isn’t relevant to this. Got confused. Don’t complain, Wheeler junior, would you rather I know everything your sister does? I know you hate it when Steve talks to her, would you rather it was me?”

Mike’s eyeroll was the most ridiculous, but Lucas and Max joined in.

Dustin was officially Eddie’s only child now; steadfast little shithead.

Eddie clapped again.

“Right! Dustin! Where are the other two?”

“Okay. I told the others.” Dustin scowled a promise that all this good behavior was going to be repaid with the mother of all favors, but he answered, “Robin wasn’t sure when Steve finished his shift. She only knew it was before class ended today. She went to call him and see if Nancy was in the newspaper office. She’s either gonna show up with Nancy in a minute, or she’s going to be out here to let us know where Steve and Nancy are.

“And,” he continued, “The rest of Hellfire is pissed at you. Gareth said he was going to plan a coup for Hellfire and for Corroded Coffin. I am being very patient right now. It is taking everything I have to sound This Calm, but, Eddie, Dude, you need to start answering questions before I think you’re a Russian spy.”

Eddie blinked.

“Uh.” Blinked again. “What do Russian spies have to do with demo-monsters and the Upside Down?” The kids all jumped when he said that name. He waved his hand, clearing it like a bad smell. “Dammit. Okay. Never mind, gotta learn about the communist infiltration later. Mayfield?”

“What now, Munson?”

“Don’t with that tone, Red. You have your walkman with you? Put it on. Kate Bush. Running Up that Hill. It’s your favorite song. Keep rewinding and listening until we can make you a loop tape.”

“What the hell?”

“Just put the headphones on.”

“Why should I listen to some dipshit who didn’t even know about the Russians?”

“Because you’re in trouble. The life-in-danger kind of trouble. Not the ‘you’re grounded’ kind.”

She snorted. For a second, Eddie saw how the others hadn’t noticed. She was good at fronting, if he hadn’t seen her before, he would believe it.

“Have you been having headaches? Have you been having awful nightmares and thinking you’re hearing things and been thinking about how maybe it would be easier if--” He stopped before he outed any secrets. She heard what he didn’t say, and the suddenly serious look on her face was confirmation. “Just do it. It’ll keep you safe.”

Lucas had her walkman out already, skipping past the need to understand and lunging for her bag the second Eddie persuaded him. Good. That was good. Lucas would be good at this, and if he stuck with her, that was better odds on saving a second one. Their plan, using her, using a kid as bait for the interdimensional hell wizard was bullshit, and he wasn’t doing that again. No fucking way.

He knew the bats dropped, but he also knew the ground shook and there was a noise like the world tore apart right at the end.

That was the last shot of the movie that arrived in his brain half an hour ago. A sound like the world screaming, louder than Dustin’s yelling, and then; a cafeteria.

Maybe Max and the others pulled it off. Maybe they didn’t. He wasn’t gambling on this stuff.

“Eddie.”

“Dustin.”

“Are you going to explain stuff? Cause I’m trusting you right now, but even if I was okay not knowing what the hell, and I’m not, and you know that, even if I was going to be okay with it, no one else is going to be.”

“Yeah. You don’t know about this stuff,” Mike added.

“I didn’t,” Eddie tossed back, stressing the past tense.

“And you learned about all of this while standing on a table in the middle of the cafeteria?”

For once, Nancy Wheeler’s ability to instantly override any conversation she entered was a blessing. Eddie didn’t know how to answer Mike’s question except with a plain ‘yes’ which would do exactly nothing to clarify any of this.

“Munson, if this is some kind of a joke, I will personally ensure that you do not graduate,” she announced as she joined them, deadly serious. “You have no idea how serious this is, and you can’t decide to use it as a prank the day before Spring Break because you think it’ll be funny.”

Eddie turned and smiled, “Ms Nancy Wheeler, you’re looking as delightfully felonious as ever.”

“Munson.”

“Not a joke,” he cut her off. “Robin, where’s Steve right now?”

“Well he was at Family Video, but I called and told him Dustin called Code Red, and I think he tried to spontaneously teleport to the school to help before I finished the sentence. Luckily he smacked into the edge of the counter, so he stopped to listen for a sec, so I told him to go home and we’d meet him there. But that was a couple minutes ago, so he’s probably breaking driving laws and freaking out right now. By the time we get there, he’s going to be at least half as freaked out as I am right now.”

“What is going on?” Nancy hissed.

“Normal Hawkins shit, apparently,” Eddie said, “It’s the end of the world and I know what’s coming.”

“Bullshit. This isn’t a joke. I don’t know how you found out about any of this, but this isn’t one of your games!”

The fizz of victorious energy he floated on tempered by a few points. Eddie heard the sharp edge of Nancy’s voice, and held it up against the fear as she described Vecna’s plan. There were similarities. She didn’t believe him yet, but she believed it was possible.

The others continued bickering while he and Nancy squared off.

“He isn’t joking,” Dustin repeated stubbornly.

“Oh, so our DM suddenly knows about the Upside Down and we’re just supposed to trust he isn’t making it a story?” Mike yelled.

“It’s Eddie! Of course we trust him!”

“Well,” Robin dragged out the word, “some proof would be nice.”

“You want proof that I’m not joking, Nancy?” Eddie hummed a little, and kept his focus on her. Goddamn, at least this bullshit was giving him some top shelf opportunities for dramatics. He waited until the quiet got a tiny bit tense, then quietly, simply, said, “In 1983, your shoe boxes were full of shoes. Now they’re full of guns. Pick them up on the way to Harrington’s, would you? All of them.”

“What.” Her face froze, blank.

He had more things he could say, but if he could convince Nancy, he figured the kids would shut up until they got everyone in one place. She was scary enough to buy him a little more time.

“Am I wrong?”

“How do you know that?”

“Told you. End of the world and I know what’s coming.”

She nodded once, cautious and serious.

Eddie clapped his hands loudly to break the mood, and turned back to the gremlins. “Max, Lucas, Robin, you’re with me. Dustin, Mike, go with Nancy. ”

“No, get back here, Munson, how do you know that? How do you know any of this?”

“Yeah, sorry, I would, but we’re on the clock. I’m not gonna waste time doing this song and dance twice aaaaaaaand, tragically, for me, but excellent news for Henderson; I need Harrington.”

#Flip the Board #time travel fix it #Eddie Munson #Steddie #not that they've spoken yet #but give me and eds a break #he was bleeding to death half an hour #and 4500 words ago

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