𓆩♡𓆪

"𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐘 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄..." Eddie was saying, his voice breaking. "Lifted up into the air and, uh...and she just hung there. In the air. And her bones..." he winced, as if reliving the memory was too painful.

Lizzie was sitting on the ground beside Steve and the others, her knees pulled to her chest as she herself recalled everything that Eddie was saying.

"Her bones started to snap." Eddie forced out through gritted teeth. "Her eyes, man...it, it was like there was something, like, inside her head, pulling. I...I didn't know what to do, so I, I ran away."

Lizzie saw his eyes glisten and his voice broke as he went on, "I left her there, dragging Lizzie with me." He swallowed hard before scoffing at himself and wiping his eyes. "You all think I'm crazy, right?"

"No." Dustin said. "We don't think you're crazy."

"Don't bullshit me, man!" Eddie burst out. "I know how this sounds."

"We're not bullshitting you." Max said.

"We believe you." Robin added with earnest.

Eddie sighed, frustratedly. Lizzie layed her forehead against her knees, letting a few stray tears fall down as the conversation paused for a moment. She felt utterly hopeless.

"Look," Dustin's voice was reassuring. "What I'm about to tell you-" he turned to speak to Lizzie, "-both of you-" He faced Eddie once again. "-might be a little...difficult, to take."

Lizzie lifted her head back up, intriged. Eddie seemed confused, but interested as well, "Okay?" He spoke reluctantly.

"You know how people say Hawkins is...cursed?" Dustin started, sending a shiver down Lizzie's spine. "They're not way off."

Lizzie swallowed hard, breathing deeply despite her tightening chest. Dustin continued on, "There's another world. A world hidden beneath Hawkins. Sometimes it bleeds into ours."

"Like ghosts and shit?" Eddie asked.

"There are some things worse than ghosts." Max replied ominously.

"There are monsters, in this other world." Dustin explained. "And we thought they were gone. But they've come back before."

Lizzie tasted blood from how hard she was biting down om her bottom lip at Dustin's words. This is so fucking crazy.

"That's why we needed to find you guys." Dustin finished.

"If they're back again, we need to know."
Max said.

"That night, did you see anything?" Robin questioned. Lizzie shook her head.

"Dark particles, maybe?" Max offered, hoping to jog her memory.

"It would almost look like dust, swirling dust." Dustin explained further.

But Lizzie just shook her head once again. "Just, the lights. They were flickering."

"There wasn't anything that you could see." Eddie added.

The group sighed frustratedly, getting nowhere with this questioning.

"You know, I tried to wake her, man." Eddie said softly. "She couldn't move."

"It was like she was in some kind of trance or something." Lizzie recalled. She could still feel how stiff, how frozen, Chrissy had been when she had grabbed her.

"Or under a spell." Dustin gasped.

"A curse." Eddie said, and Lizzie could see the two of them practically communicating telepathically, both on the same page. She, however, wasn't even in the same book as them.

"What do you mean, a curse?" Lizzie wanted to be in on whatever the two boys were cooking up.

"Vecna's curse." Dustin said simply.

"Who's Vecna?" Steve was just as confused as his sister.

"An undead creature of great power." Dustin said, and Lizzie realized that they were talking about D&D.

"A spell caster." Eddie looked up at the group.

"A dark wizard." Dustin offered.

"Okay, but that's just a game." Lizzie laughed, shaking her head at their ridiculous. "It's not real."

"No, but it's the best metaphor for what's going on here." Dustin said.

"They always name these monsters after D&D villians." Steve told a still confused Lizzie.

"Oh," was all she could say.

"They might have made up names." Dustin shot a glare at Steve. "But these creatures, these monsters...they are very real."

𓆩♡𓆪

Dustin, Steve, Robin and Max had left shortly after, leaving Eddie and Lizzie alone once again, to process all of that information. The sun had gone down and the two of them went back to their on and off gaurding and sleeping routine.

Eddie woke from his third shift of sleeping, noticing that it was daylight outside. He saw Lizzie slumped against the wall, staring straight out the window.

She looked over to him when she heard rustling around, and she offered him a smile. "Good morning." her voice was hoarse and her under eyes puffy.

"Morning." Eddie returned her smile, climbing out of the boat and going over to her.
"You look tired." He sat down on a crate next to the one she was on and tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear, making Lizzie smile.

"That's cause I am." she joked, closing her eyes wearily.

"Well, you can go sleep now. I'll keep watch." Eddie told her, dropping his hand from her face.

Lizzie shook her head. "I don't wanna sleep."

"But I thought you said you were tired."

Lizzie giggled at his confusion. "I am. But...I just..." he voice trailed off as she tried to gain the courage to say what was on her mind. "You said that we'd talk. About us."

"That's right." Eddie remembered saying those words. "We got a little distracted, huh?"

"Yeah," Lizzie nodded. "And if you don't wanna talk about it, that's fine. I mean, I get it, that's the least important thing right now."

Eddie frowned. "No. No, we should talk about it."

"Okay," Lizzie breathed a sigh of relief.

"So..." Eddie didn't really know where to start.

"What did our kiss mean to you?" Lizzie cut to the chase.

"Oh, wow." Eddie scoffed. "Jumping right in, are we now?"

Lizzie sighed and looked at the ground. "I really like you, Eddie." she spoke softly, feeling Eddie's energy shift as he realized how serious she was being.

"I like you too." Eddie was embarrassed to admit this. He'd never felt this way about anybody before, and the feeling was still new.

"You make me feel so safe, so comfortable..." Lizzie still couldn't make eye contact. Her cheeks were a flaming red as she confessed her inner feelings. "You make me feel like I can do anything. I've never felt like this for anybody before."

"Well, I'm glad that I make you feel that way." Eddie smiled. "Because I feel the same way. You make me feel so understood. I've never had anybody want to get to know me, deeper than surface level, ya know? I mean, of course, I have friends and they know me, but they didn't always. They came to me because they knew me as the 'freak' and they could relate to that. But you wanted to know me. Who I truly was. And that makes me feel like I could do anything."

Lizzie was smiling so big her cheeks were aching. "So what now?"

"What do you mean 'what now?'" Eddie raised an eyebrow at her. "We just spilled our deepest feelings to each other and all you have to say is 'what now'?" His tone of voice indicated that he was joking around.

Lizzie giggled. "Are we...ya know..." she blushed impossibly redder. "Officially together now?"

Eddie laughed at this. "Sweetheart, we are on the run for a murder that we didn't commit."

Lizzie wasn't phased by this, instead she continued to stare at Eddie expectedly until she earned a sigh from him. "Okay," he gave in. "Yes. We can be officially together, if that's what you want."

"Is that what you want?" Lizzie's heart fluttered.

"Of course it is." Eddie smiled at her, admiring how beautiful she looked with the morning light shining on her face from the window.

They leaned closer, meeting in the middle with a sweet kiss. Everything felt right.

Suddenly, the sound of tires approaching interrupted the moment and Eddie jumped to his feet. He looked out the window, searching for the vehicle that made that noise.

"What is it?" Lizzie asked, slowly rising to her feet as well.

"I don't know." Eddie kept his voice quiet. "I don't see anything."

Just then, the door was flung open and Steve, Robin, Max and Dustin were stepping inside. Lizzie and Eddie nearly had a heart attack from fear and shock as the group just waltzed right inside.

"Delivery service." Dustin announced, holding up a bag full of groceries.

Lizzie and Eddie exchanged a glance wondering what the hell they had gotten themselves into.

𓆩♡𓆪

Lizzie cracked open a, somehow, still cold can of coke, taking a long drink from it. The sweet, cold liquid ran over her tongue and down her throat. She took a seat on the ground, continuing to sip her soda while Eddie dug through the rest of the stuff the gang had brought them like a rabid animal.

"So, we got, uh, some good news and some bad news." Dustin said. "How do you prefer it?"

"Bad news first, always." Eddie spoke with his mouth full and, despite his bad manners, Lizzie nodded in agreement.

Steve walked over to her and leaned against the wall beside her, looking down and giving her a warm, comforting smile.

"Alright." Dustin sighed. "We tapped into the Hawkins PD dispatch with our Cerebro, and they're definitely looking for you."

Eddie tensed up and Lizzie sucked in a breath.

"And they came to speak with me about Mom's car being there," Steve said hesitantly. "She and Dad are on that trip and I was working and couldn't have picked up Chrissy, the timelines don't match up, so we have alibis, but Lizzie, obviously, doesn't."

"Did you tell them anything?" Lizzie set her coke down on the floor beside her, not able to stomach anymore of the drink.

"All I said was you went out with friends and I haven't seen you since." Steve reassured her.

"But they're pretty sure you're with Eddie." Robin said, making Lizzie drop her head into her hands.

"Like 100% sure." Max added softly.

"And they're also pretty convinced that you guys killed Chrissy together." Dustin told them. "Like, 100% convinced."

Lizzie lifted her head from her own grasp when Eddie said, "And the good news?"

"Neither of your names have gone public yet." Robin said. "But if we found out about you, it's only a matter of time before other's do too. And once that gets out, everyone and their shallow minded mother is gonna be gunning for you."

"Fantastic." Lizzie groaned.

"Hunt the freak, right?" Eddie said sadly.

"Exactly." Robin returned his solemn expression.

"So, before that happens," Dustin tried to remain positive. "We need to find Vecna, kill him, and prove your innocence."

"That's all, Dustin?" Eddie snapped. "That's all?"

"Yeah, no, that's pretty much it." Dustin ignored his sarcasm.

"Listen," Robin said. "I know everything that Dustin's saying sounds totally delusional-"

"It's ridiculous!" Lizzie couldn't hold her tongue anymore. She stood quickly to emphasize her frustration. "All of this is ridiculous! I mean, I want to believe you guys, and I watched Chrissy die in an unexplainable fashion, but an alternate dimension? Monsters? C'mon!"

"You believed us when we told you." Dustin reminded her.

"Yeah? Well, I've slept on it, and I've decided that it's crazy!" Lizzie glared at him.

"It's not crazy, Liz." Steve stepped forward so he could look her in the eye. "You have to trust us okay? Trust me."

"I'm being framed for murder!" Lizzie carried on with her breakdown. "I'm going to go to jail, and spend the rest of my life rotting in a cell, surrounded by actual criminals and-"

She was hyperventilating now, and she had to stop talking because she couldn't breathe. She clutched at her chest as it heaved, and Steve practically teleported to her side to help her sit down.

"Lizzie," Robin spoke gently. "Everything that we are telling you is true. We would never lie to you, we want to help you. And we've actually been through this kind of thing before."

Lizzie was starting to calm down as she listened to Robin keep talking, "I mean, they have a few times, and I have once. Mine was more human-flesh-based, their's was more smoke-related..."

Robin's voice trailed off when she saw Lizzie's confused expression. "The bottom line is," she changed the subject. "Objectively, I really feel like we got this."

"Well, usually we rely on this girl who has superpowers." Steve was sitting next to Lizzie on the ground now, leaving one of his hands on her shoulder for comfort. "But, uh, those went bye-bye, so..."

"So, we're technically in more of the-" Robin tried to jump in. She and Steve spoke over each other, thinking out loud, before Max cut them both off; "Brainstorming phase."

Steve snapped his fingers. "Brainstorming, exactly."

"There's nothing to worry about." Dusin sputtered, but by the tone of his voice, Eddie and Lizzie knew that he was lying.

Police sirens wailed in the distance, further exposing the group's lies.

"Shit!" Eddie gasped.

"Both of you get down!" Steve hissed, helping Lizzie get to her feet. She ran over to the storage closet in the corner, the very same one that she had hid from the group the other night, climbing inside. Steve shut the door on her and Lizzie sat in complete darkness, listening to everyone help Eddie get back into the boat and hide under the tarp.

The sirens came and went, echoing from far away now.

"Stay where you are!" Dustin demanded. "We'll be right back."

The front door was flung open and then slammed shut, an eerie silence falling over the inside of the boathouse. Lizzie tucked her legs to her chest, resting her forehead on her knees.

She wanted to believe the group, that they would figure this out and everything would be fine. But still, she couldn't stop the few stray tears that escaped from her eyes as a feeling of hopelessness settled into her chest.

𓆩♡𓆪

The group did not, in fact, come right back.

The sunlight was no longer shining through the crack in between the door of the storage closet. Lizzie quietly pushed it open and crawled out.

"Eddie?" She whispered.

"Yeah?"

"I think we can come out now." She couldn't help but to giggle at the fact that the two of them had been hiding away for multiple hours now. So long that the sun had gone down, neither of them daring to move.

"You're probably right." Eddie flung the tarp back and sat up.

Lizzie went over to the hanging boat where he was and sat down on a splintering wooden stool beside it. She sighed, staring at the ground for a moment before looking up and meeting Eddie's eyes.

"Do you believe them?" She asked, keeping her voice down.

"What do you mean?" Eddie shifted inside the boat.

"Do you think that they'll be able to figure this out and clear our names?" She explained.

"Oh."

The energy inside the room got heavier when Eddie strugged to answer, the silence was strangely loud and the tension thick.

"I have to." He finally spoke. "You know?"

"Yeah, I guess that's the only thing we can do." Lizzie shrugged.

Eddie reached out one of his trembling hands and tucked a piece of blond hair behind Lizzie's ear. "Have some hope, okay?"

Lizzie nodded, letting herself lean against his touch, her cheek now pressed against his palm, him cradling her face in one hand.

There was some more silence, but it wasn't as dark as the last time. Lizzie titled her head as Eddie leaned in a kissed her.

Maybe everything would be okay.

𓆩♡𓆪

𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞!
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― 𝐜𝐚𝐭