wires, steve harrington

forty-nine.

that night, dustin slept on the floor in meadow's room. she hadn't even noticed that he'd walked in until she woke up and saw him laying by her bed. she had stood and put a blanket on top of him, hoping it would make him more comfortable.

truthfully, what had happened hadn't felt real. at all. everything else that happened with the upside down felt like a fever dream, too, but this was just.. on a different level.

people were evacuating hawkins like the plague after the "earthquake". meadow knew that reporters always had to come up with some sort of excuse, some logical explanation for what happened in hawkins. but this was really rich.

"this is only the latest tragedy to befall this once-safe town." a reporter had commented. "most recently, a string of high school students were killed in a series of ritualistic murders, which have been linked to a local satanic cult known as 'hellfire'. eddie munson, the leader of this cult and prime suspect in the murders, has been missing since the earthquake and is presumed dead."

meadow, who had been watching the news, clenched her hand into a fist. "that's bullshit." she said to steve, who had come over to check on her and dustin. "eddie didn't do shit."

steve nodded. "people are going to believe what they want. it isn't like they can hear about the actual truth and believe it."

the gate had sort of exploded, causing what could be seen as the earthquake. the people of hawkins had panicked, and there were hundreds of cars lined up to leave hawkins immediately. honestly, if meadow didn't know how much more work needed to be done to save the stupid ass town, she would've joined them.

claudia henderson was extremely anxious about all of this, and kept clutching her cat to her chest. "oh, it's just horrible." she had said, looking between her children. she was relieved to hear that meadow and dustin had been hanging out with steve at family video during the earthquake, and that he'd taken them behind the counter where they'd been safe. if only she knew what her kids had actually been doing.

dustin hadn't gotten better. slowly, he had peeled himself away from his room, but he refused to talk to anyone that wasn't meadow. she'd explained to their mother that eddie was missing, and it was taking a toll on dustin. claudia had accepted that answer, though, and let her kids grieve by themselves.

meadow couldn't stop thinking about it. about how eddie had, even if jokingly, confessed to having feelings for her somewhere along the line. how he'd made plans to go to a concert with her, how he'd shredded his guitar with only down strums, and how he'd died right in front of her.

she hadn't known eddie for very long, and she felt guilty for mourning him as much as she was. it wasn't like she had had the connection to him that her brother had. however, she mourned what could've been. the friendship that she could've had with the only person she'd ever met who liked heavy metal as much as she did.

she had his guitar, now, (at least, his guitar from the upside down) and had fixed the broken strings. it played easily, and meadow would be lying if she said she'd never wanted to learn how to play guitar.

however, she could hardly bare to pick it up most of the time. it reminded her too much of eddie, eddie who hadn't deserved any of the shit that had been thrown at him. eddie who had died a hero, yet might never be remembered as one.

what was worse, almost, than losing eddie was what had happened to max. meadow adored and loved dustin, but she'd always wondered growing up what it would be like to have a little sister. someone who she could talk to about boys, who she could give her clothes and hand me downs to.

and max had been a sister to her. and now she was in a coma, with no functioning limbs.

max had been in meadow's protection, she felt, when she died. she felt so guilty. she shouldn't have let her go into that stupid house, and she shouldn't have let eddie cut that stupid rope. there were so many things that she wanted to change, that she wanted to do over. so many things that went wrong that she wished she could alter.