The Hellfire Club

The rest of Freya Mackey's Friday morning is fairly uneventful. She manages to avoid her freshman friends and her best friend, which she counts as a win given recent developments. She also somehow managed to get a B+ on her chemistry midterm, which she also counts as a win.

It's the little things in life.

Unfortunately, the time has come where the blonde finds herself unable to avoid the conflict that will inevitably arise once Eddie finds out that Lucas won't be at Hellfire. She's sure he will have a lot to say, and he will most likely say it very loudly.

She hypothesizes that it will go something like this: "Oh no! Lucas Sinclair has been taken over by the dark side! Blah, blah, blah. I'm Eddie Munson and I want all of Hawkins to know that I'm a nerd."

Or something like that...

"Have you told him yet?" The girl questions as she comes up behind Mike and Dustin in the cafeteria.

The two boys glance at eachother before shaking their heads.

"We were kind of hoping you would do it." Dustin informs the blonde.

"Right!" Mike agrees, "Maybe ease him into it. Put him in a good mood and then rip off the band aid?"

"Put him in a good mood?" Freya snorts, "I'm his friend, not his hoe. No freaking way am I doing that."

"But Freya! You're not just his friend, you're his best friend." Dustin tries once more to convince the girl but she simply shakes her head and wanders off to the table.

"There's my girl!"

The blonde comes to a halt, not sure how Eddie could even see her with the magazine covering his face.

"What?" She questions, freaked out by the greeting. He's never called her that before.

"What?" Eddie questions back, pulling the book away from his face to look up at the girl. "Oh, Reya, finally. You gotta come look at the art on this D&D character! She's a total badass."

"Oh." She mutters, taking a seat next to him.

Why does her stomach hurt now? She felt fine a second ago.

She chalks it up to the anxiety of knowing what's going to happen any second now.

"Oh, man! Listen to this: 'Dungeons and Dragons, at first regarded as a harmless game of make-believe now has both parents and psychologists concerned. Studies have linked violent behavior to the game, saying it promotes satanic worship, ritual sacrifice, sodomy, suicide, and even," he pauses for dramatic effect. Freya groans and throws her head into her arms on the table. "murder!"

The magazine slams down next to the girl's head making her wince.

"Society has to blame something, we're an easy target." One of Eddie's clones states, initating a conversation that the girl doesn't want to have at eleven thirty in the morning.

"Exactly." Eddie agrees, "We're the freaks because we like to play a fantasy game, but as long as you're into band-"

"Eddie, no! Don't stand on the damn table!" Freya pleads, picking her head up off the table. It's eleven in the morning!

The Munson boy ignores her, pushing himself onto the table anyway, "or science, or parties..."

"Seriously, please get down." The blonde begs, shrinking down in her seat despite her firm tone.

"Or a game where you toss balls into laundry baskets!"

Jason didn't like that one very much. The boy stands from his seat, "you want something, freak?"

Eddie puts his hands up to his head like horns and makes the most disgusting sound Freya has ever heard come out of his mouth. The girl sees Jason mutter something to himself, but she doesn't catch what he says. Not that it matters anyway, her bestfriend is still waltzing around on top of the lunch table.

"It's forced conformity! That's what's killing the kids!" The curly headed teen yells, leaping off of the table into a group of their peers. He allows two cheerleaders to pass as Freya turns and profusely apologizes to the girl he had just terrorized. "That's the real monster."

The boys at the table giggle in glee at the show they had just witnessed while Freya sighs and leans back into her seat. She has a headache now.

She squeezes her eyes shut, rubbing her temples with two fingers. Her skull begins to pulsate. It feels as if there's a little person inside her brain trying to beat their way out.

It's been like this for about a day and a half. This bad atleast. She's always been prone to headaches, her doctors concluded it was because she never slept well... or stress.

When the thumping finally dulls down and she opens her eyes again Eddie is screaming at the group to shut up. One glance at Dustin and Mike helps her draw the conclusion that they had spilled the beans about Lucas.

"You're saying Sinclair's been taken in by the dark side?"

She knew he would say something stupid like that.

Instead of letting the sarcastic remark bubbling in her throat slip, the blonde leans over to dig through her bag for her bottle of aspirin. She takes a tablet from the bottle and sits back up. Without making it too obvious the girl steals the carton of chocolate milk from Eddie's tray and slips the pill between her lips. By the time the pill is down Eddie is back out of his seat.

He didn't know the headaches were getting worse, and she didn't want him to worry. Plus, he had enough going on, and it didn't seem like that big of a deal so Freya was sure he wouldn't even care.

"Can I level with you?" Eddie turns back toward the table, "Jeff graduates this year, Gareth's got, what? A year and a half? Me, I am army-crawling my way toward a D in Ms. O'Donnell's. If I don't blow her final I'm gonna walk that stage next month, I'm gonna look Principal Higgins dead in the eye, I'm gonna flip him the bird, I'm gonna snatch that diploma, and I'm gonna run like hell outta here!"

"And where will I be in this future plan, Munson?" Freya finally chimes in to the banter, slightly offended that he forgot about her in his speech.

"By my side, obviously, my dear." Eddie fires back as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. The girl scoffs, nodding along sarcastically even though she knew he was right.

"Didn't you say that last year?"

"And the year before."

The girl laughs at the boys calling Eddie out, "Gentlemen, don't you know he's been staying behind on purpose so he could graduate with me?"

Eddie mocks the girl, flipping her off, "You wouldn't last a day in this place without me, Reya."

Freya laughs again, "I did just fine sophmore year when you got mono, didn't I?"

"Shut up!" The boy snaps teasingly, "this year is different! This is my year! I can feel it! '86, baby!"

"Our year." The blonde corrects.

"Yeah, okay, our year." The boy emphasizes, "You know what that means? It means you are the future of Hellfire." He wanders behind Dustin and Mike, placing his hands on their shoulders as he speaks. "I knew it the moment I saw you-"

The sound of something ticking in her ear distracts Freya from Eddie's no doubt encouraging monologue. The girl jumps at the sudden noise, looking over her shoulder for the source.

Nothing. There's nothing there.

What the hell?

When the girl gives up her search, Eddie finishes up his speech and scares the two freshman off to find a sub for Hellfire tonight. The boy finally sits back in his seat next to the shaken girl giving her about 5 minutes left before lunch is over to actually speak to him.

The rest of the boys at the table huddle up, talking about some book they were reading while Eddie starts picking at his food again.

"Why aren't you eating?" The boy questions firmly, not even looking up from his own tray.

"I had a big breakfast." Freya lies through her teeth. Truth is, she hasn't had much of an appetite since the headaches started to get worse.

"Liar." Eddie looks up at her, holding eye contact until she looks away. "We were late this morning, remember?"

She's starting to like him more when he's going off on freshman than when he's paying attention to her eating habits. When she doesn't answer the boy grabs her chin and turns her head so she's looking at him once again. Unfortunately for the teenage boy, his best friend is probably the most stubborn person on the planet so her eyes instantly close so she doesn't have to be guilted by his big brown eyes.

"Are you five?" The boy scoffs.

"Are you my mother?" The girl retorts.

The boy laughs, shaking her head side to side with his hand, "Why won't you tell me what's wrong? You think I didn't notice how weird you were acting all of lunch?"

His tone is playful, but she knows if she opens her eyes his face will be anything but that.

"Well you didn't seem too worried." The blonde counters, squeezing her eyes shut even tighter.

Eddie scoffs, "I was educating America's youth, darling."

This causes the girl's eyes to snap open, "what's with you and the pet names today?"

The change in topic throws the boy off for a second, "huh?"

Why the hell did you just ask him that?

"Huh?" The girl plays stupid.

"You're being weird today, you know that?"

"No, you're being weird."

"You jumped out of a moving vehicle."

"You made me late."

"We were literally 5 minutes early!"

"Nu uh!"

"Yeah huh!"

"Hey!" Gareth shouts over the duo's banter, "If you guys are done making out over there, the lunch bell just rang."

It's only then that Freya realizes how close her face has drifted towards Eddie's. Her eyes widen and she nearly falls out of her seat as she quickily backs away.

"You're so weird, Gareth." The girl remarks, grabbing her bag and walking away from the boys.

After attending Ms. O'Donnell's class and seeing everyone but her failing bestfriend in their assigned seat, Freya begins to worry. Eddie wasn't one to care about school, but this class was the only thing stopping him from walking at graduation next month, he wouldn't miss it for no reason.

Therefore, as soon as the bell rings Freya books it out of the classroom and toward the school's doors. Eddie wouldn't hide in the bathroom for an entire period so there was only one other place to look.

The leaves crunch under the girl's feet as she wonders through the forest behind the school's soccer field. Part of her liked it back here, while her anxious side counted about a million reasons for her to turn and run. She's never walked through here alone, Eddie was always with her.

She knows she's close to the picnic table when her best friend's voice cuts through the wind blowing around her. The girl frowns, wrapping her arms around herself as she creeps her way toward the opening.

Who the hell is he talking to?

Don't get her wrong, Freya Mackey is anything but possesive. She didn't care that Eddie had taken someone else outside, she just found it odd. He never came out here without atleast inviting her to come with him.

She can't quite pinpoint the other voice so she hides behind a tree, close enough to hear the ongoing conversation, but far enough away that she couldn't see them and they couldn't see her.

Or so she thought.

"I feel like I'm losing my mind right now doing a drug deal with Chrissy Cunningham, the queen of Hawkins High."

Freya's mood suddenly goes sour.

Chrissy? Really?

"You know, this isn't the first time that we've, um... hung out."

Of course. Here we freaking go. Why does he always bring this up?

"No?" Chrissy's voice is so sweet, it gives Freya a toothache.

"You don't remember?"

"Of course she doesn't, you bozo." Freya whispers to herself.

"I'm sorry, I..." the cheerleader apologizes.

"It's okay."

A loud crash immediately follows those two words, then a surprised shout leaves Chrissy's mouth.

Why is he so dramatic?

"I wouldn't remember me either, Chrissy!"

The ticking sound returns, it's even louder than at lunch. Freya frowns, unable to focus on the conversation with the distracting tick, tick, tick.

"Freeeeyyaaaa." A haunting voice whispers so lightly the girl almost mistakes it for the wind.

No one calls her Freya anymore. Everyone around her knows the impact her full name has had on her since the accident.

The closest person to call her by her full name is Eddie, but he's called her Reya since they were in elementary school. He was the only one that called her that.

But he was too busy with Chrissy, it couldn't be him messing with her. He wouldn't do something like that anyway.

The girl shakes her head, willing the thoughts to float away with the wind. When she looks down to collect herself, a black spider is crawling across her shoe toward her ankle.

She slaps her hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming and blowing her cover. She shakes her foot, sending the spider flying onto the leaves a good distance away from her.

"Are you seriously spying on me?"

An arm wraps around the girl's waist, pulling her away from the tree she was hiding behind. Eddie spins her in a circle before dropping her back onto her feet.

From the whisper to the spider to the playful teasing, Freya is left so disoriented all she can do is stare at Eddie in disbelief.

"Woah, Reya? What's wrong?" Eddie's voice is full of panic as he reaches his hands out to the steady the girl.

She didn't even notice that she was swaying.

"I-I heard- no, I mean I saw-" she sighs, taking a moment to collect herself. "There was a spider on my shoe, and then I was attacked by a curly headed freak."

The boy breathes a sigh of relief, though he doesn't fully believe her. Instead of arguing, he takes his wins where he can get them and allows himself to atleast be grateful that her sense of humor is still intact. Though he makes sure to put the moment in the back of his mind with a note to ask her about it when she calms down.

"So," he wraps an arm around the girl, pulling her away from the trees, "wanna tell me why you were spying on me?"

"I wasn't spying! I was just making sure you were okay, you skipped Ms. O'Donnell's class." The girl responds, but her voice is unusually timid.

"I had a customer, no big deal."

"Oh, really? Chrissy 'the queen' Cunningham buying drugs from you, no offense, isn't a big deal?" Freya laughs, finally starting to feel better now that the field is in sight just beyond the trees.

Instead of responding Eddie drops to the ground, clutching his chest and faking convulsions.

"What are you doing?" The girl blankly asks, not at all amused by his antics.

"That's the second time today that you've stabbed me!" Eddie shrieks.

Okay, maybe she is slightly amused.

"Oh no!" She plays along, dropping to her knees beside him. "What can I do to fix it?"

"Kiss it better."

She's thrown off by the request, but complies in her own special way. She raises her thumb to her lips before kissing it and placing it on the "wound".

"Better?" She asks softly.

"No, not really, but I'll get over it!" Eddie hops to his feet, practically skipping his way out of the woods.

"You're so annoying, Eddie Munson!"

"You love me, Reya Mackey!"

And maybe, maybe, she did.