⇢ ˗ˏˋ ✰🎨 🎸 ࿐ྂ

"𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐤𝐚𝐲, 𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐲, 𝐢'𝐦 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞."
➶-͙˚ ༘✶ ˗ˏˋ ✰꒰ 📎 🍒 ꒱✰ ˎˊ- ➶ °*ೃ
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-𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒-
brief mentions of overdoses and rehab. reader discretion is advised

CERISE COULD NOT BELIEVE HER EARS. She was questioning if she was hearing his words correctly. His coherent yet unfathomable words were bouncing in her brain, bruising spots of confusion, pain, and betrayal in her head. Her eyes glossed with a thin film of tears threatening to trail down her cheeks.

She saw the way Eddie looked like he was recently hit with Steve's baseball bat and she winced, seeing that indeed, he was crying as well. Perhaps it was tears of joy after holding in the secret for so long, or it could have been that he wasn't sure how Cerise would react and his worst fear would come true.

He would lose her forever.

"Please say something, Cerise," Eddie pleaded, noticing how the girl was staring off into the boring desiccating wood of the shed. He wasn't patient anymore. Eddie stood up on his feet and crouched below to face Cerise, interlocking one of his hands with hers, while the other caressed her cheek, forcing Cerise to look into his pleading eyes.

"Baby, can you please say something?" Eddie was desperate now. He needed to hear what Cerise was thinking.

She was silent. Cerise was never quiet so when she looked down to see Eddie's eyes, he gulped in nervous anticipation, feeling that words were rising in her throat. She opened her mouth to speak, but closed it and retracted her hand from Eddie's grip, a frown etching on his face.

"Am I high right now?" Cease airly asked herself. A stifled laugh escaped Eddie's lips and he shook his head to only see that his girl was laughing along his side.

To see that Cerise was able to make a joke in such a serious situation, lifted a massive weight on Eddie's chest. He saw that she still had questions in her head and he was more than glad to answer them.

"No. No, you're not, Little Red." It slipped out of Eddie's mouth, but Cerise whipped her head at him, a sudden rush of familiarity running in her veins at the nickname.

"Why have I heard that name before?"

Eddie internally cursed at himself for letting such a foolish mistake leave his mouth. He always called her that back when they were together. It felt so natural to him to call her the nickname she always adored.

"I used to call you that all the time. Your name is the literal definition of Little Red Riding Hood and you know how I am; couldn't resist nicknames." Eddie dramatically whipped his curly locks over his shoulder, a boisterous laugh leaving Cerise's lips.

The tension was thinning by the second, but Cerise's mind was still hungry for questions. She licked her lips nervously and fiddled with the necklaces Steve and Billy gave her on her neck.

"What happened? Why can't remember us being together?" Her eyes were filled with shame, she felt upset at herself because she knew that her not remembering her supposed boyfriend, shattered Eddie's heart.

"Back in summer last year, one day, I went to the picnic table that I would always deal with people and smoke weed to only see that there was another beautiful girl already at my spot." Eddie paused, reminiscing on the day he genuinely took in the sight of Cerise Harrington. Her hair was in a messy bun, her eyes framing a ghastly expression, her dark circles under her eyes sunken into her sockets.

"And you know, with my irresistible charm, you fell for me." Cerise chuckled at Eddie's  sarcastic egocentric tone, nodding for him to continue. "Actually that was a lie; I instantly fell for you, but your mind was still mangled from...um, Billy's death."

Eddie was sure to be cautious with his words, knowing thoroughly how Billy's name used to be an emotional trigger for the girl. "So yeah, you know, after several months or so, and after me begging you to go out on a date with me, we became a happily married couple."

"What?!"

"I'm kidding!" Eddie threw up his hands in surrender, a smirk not leaving his lips, and Cerise sardonically flipped him off. The light-hearted aura in the room soon dissipated when Eddie's serious expression came back on his face.

"One day, I went to your house and saw you in your room, sitting on your bed with an empty bottle of vodka and a revolver in your hands." Eddie's voice started to shake, the severely painful memory that was permanently seared into his head, starting to haunt him back in a distressing reality.

"I took it away before you could do anything stupid, but that was also when your brother came back home. He was not pleased to see me and he had some... 'interesting' words to say to me."

Cerise felt her head drop, completely not remembering these events. At least from the perspective that Eddie was telling her. She could see the way his face was contorting with pain and as an instinct, Cerise placed a hand on his forearm, Eddie put his hand on top of hers to feel the comfort of her touch.

"What else happened?" Cerise asked calmly, wanting to understand the full story.

"Despite the hatred Steve had for me, we both agreed that you needed to go to rehab," Eddie paused and turned toward Cerise to give her a humorless chuckle. "You did not want to go to rehab at all, so when Steve said that he signed you up already, you snapped."

Eddie was full-on sobbing, his chest rising and falling with the sobs from his mouth, desperately gasping for air in an attempt to keep his composure. Cerise shed tears along with him, scooting closer to Eddie so she can wrap her arms around him.

"I should've seen it coming. It was my fault. I'm a drug dealer for fucks sake, I don't know how I let you did what you did next."

"What did I do?" Cerise warily asked, her racked sobs threatening her airways.

"You overdosed. You did not want to go to rehab at all, so when you were alone one day, which was a complete mistake on my part, Steve and I found you, lifeless on the floor."

Cerise felt like shit. She couldn't believe she would do something so foolish for such selfish reasons. The Cerise from one year ago, was utterly different from the one today.

"Because of the overdose, your memories were impaired. It's odd really, that all of your memories came back, except for the times you've spent with me. It's like I'm being punished." Eddie calmed himself and exhaled a shaky sigh, looking up at Cerise with his now bloodshot eyes.

"But it seems like my angel finally found her way back to me and now that you're back in my life, I will never let you go," Eddie whispered, bringing her knuckles up to his lips and repetitively peppering soft kisses on them.

Cerise smiled, a sudden overwhelming sensation of what seemed to be a blocking weight in her chest, was finally lifted. Without warning, she embraced Eddie in a heart-wrenching hug, her tears shamelessly staining his denim vest. Eddie held her body close to his, leaving no space between their clothed skin. He closed his eyes, feeling nothing else except the comforting touch of Cerise.

"Wow...I can't believe I forgot all of this," Cerise started, pulling away from Eddie slightly. "But most of all, how the hell could I forget about dating such a wonderful person like you?" Cerise's voice was lightly laced with sarcasm, but mostly anger. Cerise blamed herself for everyone's troubles and right now, that statement is deemed to be true. "Is that why Steve hates you so much? Because he blames you for my overdose?"

Eddie nodded his head and cleared his throat before speaking. "Steve assumed I was the one providing you with drugs and you know how 'King Steve' is; jumping to conclusions and shit. So when he found out that you forgot about your relationship with me, he forbade me from seeing you, saying 'this is for the best.'"

Cerise shook her head in anger, wanting to punch her brother for forbidding something so absurd and stupid. "No wonder he always acted so protective and bitchy whenever I was around you," Cerise muttered to herself. It all made sense now. Steve was always an overprotective brother to Cerise, but when it came to Eddie, his protectiveness became exorbitant.

The pair sat in silence for several seconds, nothing but the rippling tides of the lake filling their ears. Cerise turned to Eddie and he looked up at her with his doe eyes, the redness in them gradually fading. She had a sympathetic and a guilty expression on her face and Eddie instantly noticed it, knowing what she was about to say. He knew her all too well.

"I know what you're thinking and don't you dare, for a second, blame yourself for hurting me. Yes, at first, it hurt harder than getting stabbed but seeing you finally rebuild back your life to what you deserved, was all the happiness I needed. Even if it meant I was couldn't be a part of it."

Eddie paused and prepared himself for what he had to say next. His hands were sweating and his breathing became ragged.

"Even after I tell you everything and if you don't want anything to do with me anymore, just know that I totally under—"

Eddie's nervous rambling was swiftly cut off by Cerise smashing her lips with his. He was caught by surprise at first, but Eddie instantly moved his lips in sync with hers, his hands roaming modestly on her waist. The one thing Eddie has been yearning for in his life came back to him.

Cerise was the one to pull away first, needing air. She rested her forehead against his, feeling the soft tickling sensation of his curly bangs. She stifled out a laugh, Eddie grinning along with her.

"You know, you talk too much, Munson." Eddie snorted a laugh and pressed feather-light kisses against her lips multiple times before finally looking into her eyes.

"You used to tell me that all the time when we were first together," Eddie paused, nervously fumbling with the hem of Cerise's shirt. "What does this mean? For us?"

"As I said before, honey, I think you still stand a good chance with me," Cerise smirked lightly, seeing the light in Eddie's eyes gleam with pure bliss. The smile did not leave his face as he embraced Cerise back in a bone-crushing hug but looked down at her to meet her eyes while their warmth was radiating off one another.

"Can I kiss you again?" Eddie asked sheepishly. Cerise nodded and the pair were met with each other's warm lips, feeling as if nothing else in the world mattered except for them. Everything was perfect and Eddie and Cerise were happy.

But that's just when everything fell apart.

The sudden aching feeling in Cerise's bruising head pierced her sensitive skull. She winced loudly and begrudgingly let go of Eddie's embrace, her toppling over slightly. Eddie didn't waste a second and grabbed Cerise's arms, his once happy demeanor instantly morphing into worry.

"Woah, Woah, sweetheart, what's wrong?" Cerise couldn't answer him. The pain was so unbearable and to top it all off, the sounds of the malevolent grandfather clock was intruding on her hearing once again.

She fell onto the wooden planks, a small crashing sound echoing in the shed after knocking down supplies. Eddie held her body in his hands, desperately hoping to comfort any pain.

However, what Eddie noticed next, made his mended heart shatter once again. Just like Chrissy, Cerise's eyes were filmed with a milky white screen, her body now completely frozen in his grasp.

"Oh God, no, no! Not you." Eddie's cheeks which were once dried with tears were now streaming uncontrollably. He couldn't lose her, no, he can't. Not again. "Baby, please don't leave me again!"

Through his racked sobs and desperate attempts to wake Cerise up, Eddie snatched the walkie-talkie that was on the other side of the shed, His shaking and tear-soaked hands pulled up the long antenna, desperately calling for whoever was on the other end of the line.

✰*ੈ✩➶༄✰

Steve Harrington was rubbing his face in frustration, just hearing that Max was likely one of Vecna's victims. All of the teens in the office of Hawkins High were fearing for their lives, but for Steve, his life was about to crumble down in a matter of seconds.

"Hey! Hey! Does anyone hear me!? Dammit, this is a code red, something is wrong with Cerise," Eddie screamed through the staticky muffles of the device. His tone was filled with anguish, his choking sobs not going unnoticed by the teen at Hawkins High.

At the mention of his sister, Steve thrashed his head at Eddie's voice, his heart incessantly beating out of his anxiety-filled chest. He snatched the walkie-talkie from Dustin's backpack, tears already forming on his waterline as his worst nightmare was coming true.

"Eddie, what's wrong?" Nobody has ever heard Steve use this tone of voice before. It was filled with such authority and despondence that it frightened the freshman.

"Steve, I think Vecna has Cerise. I repeat, he has her!"

Cerise was going to die. That was the only sentence that was running through Steve's damaged mind. He dropped the device on the floor, ignoring the calls from the rest of the teens, his frigid body forcing itself to move. He sprinted out the doors of Hawkins High, tears flying out of his eyes.

He opened the door to his BMW and started the car with such force, he completely forgot to put on his seatbelt as he sped over one hundred miles an hour on the empty roads of the small town. Steve's weeping sobs were filling the echoing car, with nothing else on his mind except his sister.

"Don't leave me, Ressie," Steve whispered, his heart splitting by the second.

Meanwhile, as Steve was speeding his way to Rick's house, Eddie was trying everything in his power, an attempt to wake the girl he treasured with his life. The trauma he endured with Chrissy's death was already something, but seeing Cerise, the love of his life, enduring the same moments before death, broke Eddie.

"I beg, please wake up, Cerise!" Eddie pleaded, hoping that something would work.

But nothing was working. Eddie Munson, the sweet innocent boy who was accused of murder, was not watching the most important person in his life being taken away from him. Again.

Just like the traumatizing memories of Chrissy, Cerise's body flew up into the air, all two hundred and six bones that were in her body, were being snapped into obliteration. Her jaw popped loose and her eyes burst out of her sockets, dripping crimson liquid onto the wooden planks.

Eddie couldn't do anything, deep inside, he knew he had to face the inevitable death in front of him. He lifted his knees up to his chest, cradling his body, not wanting to see Cerise's body disfigure.

That's when Eddie heard the loud thumping sound of Cerise's body dropping onto the floor. His voice cracked as he let out a screaming rage of agony. Despite Cerise being dead in front of him, he felt the urge that he still had to be there for her.

With all the energy that he was able to muster up, Eddie swayed his legs in front of her mutilated body and sat down to cross his legs, to only bring her lifeless corpse into his arms. Tears from his eyes were trickling down onto her icy skin.

"You're okay. Y-You're okay. I'm not going anywhere, sweetheart. I'm here. You're okay," Eddie placed kisses on her ghastly skin, her body cool to the touch. He diverted his eyes away from Cerise's empty bloodied sockets. He played with her curly chestnut hair, twirling the spirals in between his ring-cladded fingers.

"I love you. Eddie's here, baby," Eddie mumbled in a light tone, his quivering lips kissing her forehead. He rubbed comforting circles on her dead skin. Eddie was in denial, he simply couldn't fathom the fact that Cerise was gone, no he wouldn't.

"You're not gone," Eddie deniably whispered to himself. But in reality, all signs of life from Cerise were officially gone. Her heartbeat slowed into nothing, and the flickering shadows of her smile has vanished. Her life was stolen by the cold embrace of death. Steve was too late, Eddie was in denial, and Vecna took the once happy young Harrington girl within his grasp.

Cerise Harrington was dead for good and nobody could do anything about it.

welp...happy Monday??

predictions for cerise??

also thank you all sm for 17k reads on this book. i literally love you all so so much.