didntrun | (no subject)

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silent darrow

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This is not what Eddie had planned for the day. Not even close.

"Shit," he breathes as he presses back against a brick wall, his eyes squeezed shut tight against the ash falling from the sky, as if he'll be able to wake up if he just tries hard enough. Because this has to be a dream. It has to be. There is no way in hell he turned a corner while walking to work and found himself in the fucking Upside Down.

Darrow is full of bullshit, he's well aware of that, but someone would have told him if this was possible. Someone would have, because they wouldn't want him to end up here completely unaware that it was possible, without a weapon, without a hope in the world of actually surviving.

Eddie doesn't know the last time he's been this scared. It isn't just sweaty armpits and shaking hands, this is bone deep, ice cold dread that paralyzes his muscles and closes his throat and makes it so he can't do anything at all but think about running.

Run, his brain says. Run, run, run, runrunrunrunrunrun...

He opens his eyes and he's still here. Ash still drifts down from the dark, stormy sky. And somewhere out there in the shadows, very large teeth gnash together, something snapping between them, the sound of a brittle bone breaking into pieces.

Something lurches around a corner up ahead, a jarring movement on long legs and Eddie stares, disbelieving, as the fucked up version of someone in a sexy nurse costume staggers forward. Two more follow, their faces covered by something he can't make out from this distance. They seem blind, but then he shifts slightly, his jacket scraping against the wall, and all three turn in his direction. More follow around the corner.

Runrunrunrunrunrunrunrun.

Eddie turns and begins to run.

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He barrels into her and knocks her clean off her feet, sends her sprawling on the sidewalk. She scrambles to her feet, dark eyes wide and a little wild and, when she sees it's Eddie, relief floods through her. At least she isn't on her own down here.

"Eddie," she says, gripping his arm. "We're...there's greys down here, okay? We'll be okay."

Providing those don't turn on her as well, that is. Providing they give her something she can use.

"Fuck," Eddie hisses out, grabbing Alex and pulling her up, pulling her along, because those things are still behind them and they're still coming and Eddie doesn't want to die here. It's too much like the place where he really did die.

"Come on," he breathes, still trying to pull her. "It's not okay, we're not okay. There are things following us."

She can't remember, in the scramble, if Eddie's ever seen her do it, backed into a corner, when she's had to drag a grey in for help. She's not sure if he's ever seen what she's really capable of, when it comes down to surviving.

Still, now isn't the time to talk about it. Once she's back on her feet, she keeps pace with him.

"Where the fuck are we?" She asks, narrowly avoiding taking a spill on a pile of rubble.

He shakes his head, because he doesn't know. None of this makes sense. It looks like Darrow, but it's wrong somehow.

"It reminds me of the Upside Down," he admits. "Like we're marching straight into Mordor and that didn't go so well for me the first time."

He's afraid. He doesn't want to die and he sure as hell doesn't want to die down here, wherever here is.

"Yeah, well, you didn't have last time, did you?" she says, flashing him a sharp grin. "When we get out of here, remind me to tell you about the time I went the other side of the veil. There were crocodiles."

It's so absurd that it makes Eddie laugh and in this shitty, ashy world, he gropes for Alex's hand and squeezes tight. He loves this girl, loves that they're friends, loves that she loves Chrissy, too.

"You're such a freak," he says with fondness. "So where do we go now? We can't just hang out in this place, there are monsters everywhere."

"True fact. Gold ones. With green eyes." Grinning, she squeezes his hand back and pauses, looking down the street. "Everything looks the same, right? Just...shitty. So, maybe, my place at Dimera still has wards? We could head there and see?"

At least, if it does, it would give her something solid at her back if they have to stand and fight.

Eddie looks back the way they'd come, then shakes his head. "I mean, yeah, your place. But not that way. We have to find a different way around, there are things back there..."

He shakes his head again. In a campaign, he can be brave. He's the Dungeon Master, he can create worlds and threats and help his party find ways to fight back, but here, he's just Eddie Munson. Still scared.

Alex knows that she doesn't look like much, but she's spent so much of her life just trying to survive a world that wanted her dead, and that doesn't change. Especially not when she looks at Eddie and sees the panic in his dark eyes.

"C'mon," she says. "We can head up a few blocks and cut across towards Dimera and then circle back down." She squeezes his fingers. "Keep hold of me."

He trusts her. For awhile there, back in Hawkins, he hadn't been able to trust anyone. Dustin and Steve and Nancy and Robin, that had come after, after he'd already been hiding, scared and alone and convinced he was going to be put in jail for hurting someone he would never hurt.

Trust had come slowly, but it's here, with Alex.

"Okay," he says. "Lead the way."

Alex is a creature who's always known how to survive. She's figured it out, through sheer force of will. The snake in her ribcage shifts, lifts its head, and she keeps a death grip on Eddie's hand as they move quickly down the street, clinging to the buildings, sticking to shadow.

"If anything happens, get behind me," she says, glancing over her shoulder. The air around them is teaming with greys. She'll be able to find what she needs, if it comes to it.

That feels cowardly, leaving Alex to face whatever might come for them, especially when she has a daughter. Eddie is a coward in a lot of ways, but he thinks, in a moment like that, he might do what's right. For Edie's sake, if nothing else.

Still, he nods, because he knows Alex won't like it if he argues with her.

"I wish I had a weapon," he whispers. "Anything. Even a baseball bat."

Its not funny -- it's the furthest thing from funny -- but when Eddie says that, Alex laughs, too loud, too harsh. She thinks about that time she woke up with a bloody bat between her and Danny in the bed at Dimera. She thinks about how it had felt to swing with all of Holly's skill and preternatural strength.

"We're going to be okay," she says, and squeezes his hand. "Building's just around that bend."

She can't promise that. Eddie wants to believe her, but he knows she can't really promise that they'll be okay. No one knows that better than Eddie, who tried. He really did, he tried to protect others and be okay, but in the end, he'd been a coward.

Saving Dustin was probably the bravest thing he's ever done, and he knows how that ended.

Eddie nods and tries a smile, except then something shrieks in the deepening shadows and his eyes widen.

That one sounded way too close for comfort and Alex lets go of Eddie's hand so that she can claw the silver bangle that she always wears off her wrist. The greys, always circling, come at her in a rush, then, mouths gaping in horror, eyes wide. She ignores most of them, because she's looking for something in particular, an indistinct quality, and then...

She sees it. The ghost of a young woman with a set jaw and a dangerous look in her eye, her hands curled loosely into fists. Strong. Alex nods, and then she turns to look after Eddie.

"Promise me you won't freak out," she says, but she doesn't give him time to answer. She turns to the grey and pictures opening a door. She lets her in.

He's not going to freak out. Not about anything Alex does, because he trusts her like he's only trusted a few people. Eddie is going to freak out about whatever monster is coming at them around the corner and he doesn't know why Alex is taking off her bracelet, unless she's planning to get into a thrown down, knock out sort of fight with a creature.

"What?" he asks, because he doesn't understand what's happening.

She hears the question, but she's going under, making room, and she doesn't necessarily hear it. She'll explain later. She'll make it good later. For now, there's preternatural strength flooding through her muscles, all of the ghost's grief and loss and rage at a life cut short. There's a brick on the floor, not far from her foot, and she bends fluidly to pick it up, weighing it in her hand.

One of them, her or the grey, bares her teeth.

Eddie doesn't know what's happening. He doesn't know where Alex went, because this isn't exactly her, not anymore, and she'd made him promise not to freak out. He isn't. He's sticking with her, scared as he is, and in the end, Eddie isn't the reason they get separated.

The monsters that come around the corner are the reason. They move fluidly, intelligently, and they separate Eddie from Alex before he even realizes it's happened.

She'll never get used to it - -that feeling of being split open, that sense of having two hearts beating in her chest. Its easier to keep hold of herself, now, but she can still feel the grey inside her head, trying to get deeper. She stamps down on it; she'll make her apologies later, if they get out of here.

"Run, Eddie," she says. "I'll be okay." Her grip tightens on the brick, and she dances back a step. "I can handle this."

He doesn't want to. Christ, he doesn't want to leave her, because leaving her is the shitty, cowardly thing to do. But he's scared and panic is clawing at his throat and he scrambles back and away and calls, "I'll go to the house!"

And she has to come. She has to.

Eddie runs.

There was someone running down the street.

Will, who'd only just gotten a phone call through to Stan– maybe... maybe. God, he hoped so... Will, who'd been down there for at least a day, nearly ducked into an alcove on the other side of the street to hide from the person, because hiding was what he did best. But even in the haze, he recognized their shape, the way they moved, and heart hammering in his chest, he called out:

"Eddie?!"

"Will?"

Maybe it isn't Will. Maybe this place is lying to him, maybe it's another trap, another monster, but he can't help the way hope grows in him. He can't stop himself from turning toward the voice.

But it is Will and Eddie moves fast, toward the alcove where he can see his friend, his heart still hammering. "There are things following me," he breathes and he tries to make himself small.

"Come with me," he said, gripping Eddie's hand tight. He'd already scoped out a couple of hidden places, and he knew of one that wasn't far.

He ducked out of the alcove, moving fast, then into a narrow alley, making sure to keep his friend close.

All of Hawkins had heard the story of Will Byers. The wrong story, as it turned out, the real story much more harrowing and terrifying, and Eddie has really only gotten bits and pieces of it now.

What he knows for certain is that Will survived in the place where Eddie died, and he did it for a long time. So he'll follow Will wherever he goes.

"What is this place?" he asks, keeping his voice low as they move.

"I don't know. It's different," Will said, turning to meet Eddie's eyes briefly, his expression but fearful and determined.

Finding a door, he turned the knob, relieved to find it open like it had been the last time he'd come this way. Slipping inside the darkened shell of a building, Will led Eddie towards the back, where there was the empty remains of a walkin freezer with a good, strong door.

"It's like Darrow, and not, just like with Hawkins, but... there's no Vecna. I mean, I can't feel him here. I'd... I think I'd be able to feel him."

Eddie nods, hates that it's true, hopes it is at the same time. If Will is able to feel someone like that, at least he can promise they're not in danger from that kind of monster.

There are others, but at least they don't seem to be all that smart.

"The monsters out there are different, too," he says as he takes in where they've come. It's a good place to hide and Eddie is happy to just hide. "They're not like the things I saw in um... well, the other version of Hawkins."

"The upside down? Yeah, no. They're..." Will winced. "They don't seem very smart, for one. Which is good, I guess?"

The demobats and dogs were animals, too, but they were clever, and connected to something bigger. The things here seemed almost as lost as he and Eddie were.

Closing the door behind them, after making sure the safety latch still worked and they wouldn't end up trapped inside, Will leaned back against and empty set of shelves and tried to catch his breath.

Eddie is a lot of talk. He knows he is, that's why he makes such a good Dungeon Master, but when it comes down to moments like this, he's just so fucking lost. Will knows what to do here better than Eddie ever will.

"What happens if um... if we don't go back?" he asks. "Or if we get separated? We'll have to find food and water at some point if we're stuck here for that long."

Or what if something comes for them? The question he can't bring himself to ask.

"I found a little food," Will said, hurrying over to the stash he'd put inside backpack he'd found. Stolen, really, but it wasn't like anyone was using it.

He'd found a few cans, and a church-key can opener, and a few packages of crackers and even a box of granola bars that didn't look too questionable, and a couple of cans of flat soda.

"You're right, we should have somewhere to meetup. You know, if we do get separated."

It's a relief, having someone else in charge, having another person make decisions for him. They might feel like small decisions, the food, the soda, even the backpack, but they're still decisions made.

It gives Eddie enough confidence to nod and then suggest, "Here. If we go out and get separated, we come back here. It's safe and I'll remember how to get here."

"Okay," Will agreed, reaching out and resting a hand on Eddie's arm. "We're gonna be okay."

As soon as he made the promise, his stomach swooped anxiously. He couldn't know that, and no matter how badly he didn't want to think about it, the truth was that they probably hadn't both made it out of the Upside Down in one piece.

Eddie nods, too, even though he's not entirely sure that's true. He wants it to be, though. He wants Will to get back to Stan, to his mother, to his art and all the cool shit he's going to do in his life. Eddie wants that for himself, too, minus the mother and Stan, but Chrissy and... well, kind of Will's mom, too. It's not like Mrs. Byers has let him get away with not being mothered.

"Yeah," he says. "We have to. We should think of looking for a way out. There has to be a way, right?"

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