MATILDA, eddie munson.

043.

MARCH 26TH, 1986
📍the woods
13:12 PM

the two walked through the woods hand in hand, completely clueless as to what to do next. they'd stupidly dropped the supercom in the lake and were now lost in the woods with no way of contacting the others.

tillie came to a halt. "shh, can you hear that?" in the distance, she could hear several bangs and men's voices.

"hear what?" eddie asked.

"well, you're not going to hear anything if you're talking," she told him with a smile, and the boy shut up.

after a moment of listening, he whispered, "voices."

the girl nodded in confirmation, and the two began heading down a hill trying to track down where the sounds came from.

they managed to find the source, and hid behind a tree, watching as a group of construction workers worked on the road.

"wait, here," eddie whispered, beginning to move out of his hiding spot, only to be grabbed and pulled back in by matilda.

"what are you doing?" she hissed. "do you want to get caught?"

"they have a way to contact the others," the boy explained, pointing at a belt which had been discarded on a table, a walkie attached to it. "it's the only way."

as much as she hated to admit it, eddie was right. they had no other means of communication right now, and the only thing they could do was risk this. "fine, but be careful, okay? extremely careful, i mean it, eddie.."

eddie smiled at her concern. "you're so cute when you're worried," he told her, planting a kiss to her hand. "i'll be fine, promise."

and with that, he cautiously headed down the hill and hid behind another tree, before darting to the table and grabbing the walkie and then running back up to tillie.

"told you i'd be fine," he smirked, before trying to connect to dustin's supercom. "shit, it's not working."

"just keep trying," she encouraged him as they began to stroll through the woods again.

on his fourth go, eddie was able to connect to the same wavelength. "dustin, can you hear me? wheeler?"

"eddie. holy shit," dustin replied, making the two of them sigh in relief. "are you two okay?"

"nah, man. pretty.. pretty goddamn far from okay," eddie told the boy, rubbing his face glumly.

"where are you?" dustin asked.

"uh," eddie faltered, looking around at their surroundings. he glanced to tillie. "do you know where we are?" he asked her quietly.

"we're near skull rock," the blonde replied.

"near skull rock," eddie repeated into the radio. "do you know it?"

"uh, yeah," dustin answered. "that's near cornwallis and— hold tight. we're coming. we're coming."

— 📻🪐🏹 —

MARCH 26TH, 1986
📍skull rock
13:27 PM

once they'd reached skull rock, eddie slumped down onto the ground in defeat, bringing his knees into his body as he leant against the large rock. tillie watched him, able to tell just how exhausted he was of everything.

she hesitantly took a seat beside him, copying his position. "you okay?"

the boy exhaled deeply and nodded. "fine," he whispered.

"no, you're not," matilda replied. "you're not fine at all."

"yeah, i'm not," he swallowed. "i'm just really sick of all this. this isn't how i planned spring break at all and i—" he stopped himself as his voice audibly broke.

taking a page out of his book, she slowly wrapped her arms around his neck and brought him nearer, his face on her shoulder. she heard him sniffle, before he began to softly cry.

"shh, it's okay," she said gently, running her fingers through his hair. "it's okay, i know."

after a short while, eddie pulled away and wiped his eyes. "i'm sorry. i'm just tired. i'm not usually that emotional, i swear.."

"it's okay," she told him. she could tell he seemed sort of embarrassed by his display of emotions. "everyone cries sometimes. i mean, look at me, i cry on the daily. it doesn't make you any less of a man, you know? in fact, i think it makes you more of one. not a lot of men are strong enough to show how they really feel."

"thanks, mats," eddie smiled. he reached up and patted his head. "you better not have messed my hair up, though."

matilda laughed at the concern on his face. "you still look great, don't worry."

the boy smiled gently, before their joking stopped and things turned serious again. "mattie, how are we supposed to get out of this? i mean, eventually, we're going to get caught and there's no way we can prove it was a dark wizard from another dimension who killed chrissy and myles. it sounds ridiculous just saying it."

"you know, i didn't get accepted into any colleges," tillie told him, leaning on his shoulder. "and that's because i didn't apply for any. i know i'm smart, but i never saw that kind of future for me. i had this plan to run away the second i graduate."

"by yourself?" eddie asked, wrapping his arm around her waist. "that's so lame."

"yeah, i guess," matilda responded. "maybe i could still run away. and since it's so lame to do it by myself, maybe you should come with me. maybe that's how we get out of this mess."

"you'd let me crash your get-out-of-hawkins plan?" eddie grinned. "i'm honored."

"i'm being serious," tillie told him, noticing his teasing tone. "i always thought i'd get out of this shithole alone, but that was before i had you. so, if you wanted, you're more than welcome to run away with me and we can start a life somewhere far away from here."

eddie furrowed his brows. "are you being genuine, right now?"

he adored the idea of moving away and being with tillie, just the two of them. they'd be away from her family, and from the assholes at school and everything would just be perfect.

"i mean, it was only an idea," she shook him off. "i'm not forcing you to, i just wanted to give you the option, you know and—"

"of course i'll come with you," he interrupted. "i would go absolutely anywhere with you."

— 📻🪐🏹 —

the question is: will they or will they not get to runaway? 👀

I LOVE HAVING THIS SORT OF POWER HAHAHA

WORD COUNT — 1061.