More???? Please???? I beg????
STWG Prompt: Waking Up
If Eddie was being honest with himself, he didn’t really expect to wake up.
The bats had closed in and as he said his goodbyes to Dustin, he could physically feel the life leaving him, all the warmth of his blood slowly gushing out, and he was cold.
Though, being honest with himself again, if he had expected to wake up, he would have expected to be handcuffed to a hospital bed, or hidden away in a back shed at one of the kids houses or maybe waking up in Steve’s room, if he was lucky, like he had so many times before.
He definitely wouldn’t have expected to wake up here.
Dirt falling into his eyes and his mouth through the wooden slats above him, no sound at all apart from his own panic, the cold, the fucking damp cold seeping into his skin, the smell of earth around him, his elbows and knees knocking off the wood as he started to freak the fuck out.
They’d buried him, they’d fucking buried him!
Did no one check to see that he was still fucking alive?
How the fuck was he still alive?!
You know what? Sort your fucking priorities out, Eddie, he said to himself. You can continue to ask questions as soon as you GET THE FUCK OUT!
He kicked, he scrabbled, he dug his fingers in between the flimsy, obviously homemade slats of his makeshift coffin and pulled, having to turn his face away from the dirt falling into his eyes again, holding his breath so he didn’t inhale it, feeling it trickle into his ear but deciding that it was the least of his fucking problems.
The fear and frustration and blind motherfucking panic coursed through him and he drove his fist upwards, punching clean through the wood and earth and laughing aloud with joy when he felt air on his hand, down to the wrist.
They’d only buried him as deep as his arm, what a fucking mercy, holy shit.
Okay, okay, okay, chill. Chill.
He was able to punch up pretty easily so he reared back as much as he could in the cramped space and punched again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
He was able to get one arm out as far as his elbow and he swung it down, digging his fingers into the soft earth as hard as he could, using that as leverage to drag his head up. He spat out the dirt in his mouth, his body shaking with coughs as he wedged his shoulder up and pulled his other arm out.
With two hands free he was able to scrabble at the soft earth, slowly, so slowly pulling and dragging and wiggling until he was still buried up to the hips but he could fucking rest for a moment collapsing onto the ground, half in half out, Jesus H. Christ.
He only allowed himself a moment before he pushed against his arms again, lifting himself up and pushing, kicking until his legs were free and he could crawl a couple of feet away.
His whole body shook forward as he heaved, dry and aching with that gut deep pain because there was nothing to throw up.
Eddie allowed himself to tip to the side, rolling onto his back, closing his eyes and just existing for a moment, trying to grapple with the fact that he just dug himself out of his own fucking grave.
That’s so fucking metal.
It didn’t feel very metal right now but it probably would at some point in the future.
Maybe.
Now he just had to figure out if he was stuck inside of a psychological thriller or a supernatural horror.
He was kinda hoping for the second one if he was being honest with himself.
He should probably stop being honest with himself.
Look at what happened when he was.
He woke up after taking a fucking dirt nap.
Fuck.
He opened his eyes, looking up at the sky and all he saw was red.
Well…
Fuck.
Again.
Still in this hellhole, then.
Okay.
Probably time to figure shit out, or whatever.
Eddie groaned as he sat up, giving a cursory glance around, hoping that maybe it was just a really red sky type of day in the Rightside Up but no such luck.
He was met by the sight of black vines and a general sense of decay, so yep. Still in hell, great.
There was a thick plank of wood sticking straight up out of the earth and as he shuffled closer to inspect it, he realised it was a headstone. They’d fashioned him a makeshift headstone.
It was simple, he wouldn’t have expected any more given the lack of materials here in the alternate dimension.
Just his name, Eddie, engraved into the wood, no dates, no epitaph, just Eddie.
He didn’t hate it.
He’d have loved some paragraph about his fuckin sick guitar skills or whatever but he could like simple too.
He rarely did, but he could.
Plus, they took the time in a weird fucky dimension to give him a headstone, how could he hate that?
As he looked closer, he noticed a small little heart near the base, S+E snuggled inside, shallow and hastily carved.
Shit.
He needed to get topside, now.
What a stark reminder that the entire Party thought he was fucking dead.
Steve thought he was fucking dead.
God, he hoped he hadn’t told Wayne yet.
That’s just what he needed, to kill his old man with a fucking heart attack.
Eddie pushed himself to his feet and started walking, not sparing a glance back at his grave, hopeful his next one would be, like, seventy years in the future.
There were grooves cut deep into the earth, practically guiding him back to his trailer, or whatever was left of it in this dimension and Eddie couldn’t stop the sickening feeling building up in his stomach that all of this had been for nothing.
They’d fucking lost.
They can’t have lost, right?
His trailer was just ahead, bisected and falling apart, but he could see the portal glowing so he’d get topside, take a look out the window and see that everything was fine…
Sure, yeah.
Totally.
Eddie looked up, the portal floating above him amongst the debris.
It wasn’t that high, surely if he-
He jumped, his eyebrows flying up into his hairline when he easily reached the lip, hanging by his fingertips off the edge and pulling himself up as smooth as if he was floating in water.
He didn’t exactly understand all those physics Dustin had lectured them all on but this… didn’t seem to be that.
He dropped down to his feet, the amount of colour greeting him almost hurting his eyes but he couldn’t focus on that.
He didn’t have time to.
Because as soon as he straightened up, there was the barrel of a shotgun pressed to his forehead.
Eddie threw his hands up, having to blink a few times before he realised who was behind it.
“Sweetheart?”
Steve was glaring at him, the shotgun held steady and firm in his hand. He looked haggard and dirty and somehow even more injured than Eddie had last seen him.
There was a healing burn along the side of his head, making it look like he’d shaved his hair, there was a deep cut through his eyebrow and his arms were littered with small cuts and bruises, extending up into the sleeves of his dirty polo.
And he was wearing Eddie’s vest.
He was wearing his vest like it was the most natural thing in the world, like it was part of his wardrobe and had been for a while.
Despite the fucking gun pressed to his head, Eddie’s heart flip flopped around in his chest, more to do with affection than fear.
“Sweetheart, I-”
Steve pressed the gun against him harder with a furious grimace.
“I am not your sweetheart. What are you?”
“I-” Eddie swallowed. That seemed like a very specific question.
Not who are you, not what are you doing here, not how are you upright and not in the dirt, rotting?
No.
What are you.
“Stevie it’s- it’s me. It’s Eddie.”
Steve pressed in harder again, walking him backwards until he was up against the wall.
“You are not my Eddie.” He hissed. “I buried my Eddie a month ago.” Steve’s finger moved down to rest against the trigger. “Now I’ll ask you again. What are you?”
“I…” Eddie opened and closed his mouth. “I don’t know.”
I won't deny it, @momotonescreaming's Hole Microfic put the worms in my brain for this one. Different vibes but the worms did worm.
361 notes
·
View notes