MATILDA, eddie munson.

046.

MARCH 26TH, 1986
📍the upside down
21:02 PM

arriving into the upside down with eddie, tillie was shocked to see how similar it was to dustin's description of the place. but her initial surprise left when she heard the shrieks of an animal and robin and nancy's frantic cries.

she turned and saw steve on the floor, with several of some sort of creature attacking his bare chest, and one of their tails wrapped tightly around his neck. eddie quickly grabbed them both a discarded oar each, and then joined nancy and robin in hitting them away.

"what the actual fuck are these things?" tillie panted, hitting one away before it clawed into eddie's back. they looked like some kind of bat, though she couldn't be sure.

one of them attacked nancy, and robin turned her focus to help her, leaving steve defenseless. approaching him, the blonde began hitting at the one around his neck, making its grip loosen.

she felt a scratch against her face, but chose to ignore it, desperately trying to save steve as he suffocated more and more.

eventually, the creature tried to fly away, but a, now free, nancy stopped it, stabbing the bat through its heart. "go to hell."

steve stood up with the help of tillie, and was able to grab the tail of one before it attacked the blonde, slamming it on the floor harshly, before sliding it to eddie who stabbed it through the heart just as nancy had.

"don't even think about going near my mattie, you little son of a bitch," eddie hissed, twisting the oar around in its chest, making it shriek in pain, before eventually splitting into two.

tillie gasped lightly, but all she could really think was why was that weirdly attractive?

any remaining bats fled, and steve stumbled into nancy and robin from the blood loss, who immediately helped support him.

"jesus christ. jesus h. christ!" eddie hollered, before his eyes landed on tillie and the trickle of blood down her cheek. he started to approach her, throwing his oar down on the ground and cupped her face in his hand. "you're bleeding," he said softly, trying to use his thumb to wipe some of the blood from her cheek.

reaching up, tillie gently grazed the wound. "it's just a scratch," she told him. "i'm fine, really."

eddie nodded hesitantly, pulling the sleeve of his jacket up to try and wipe the cut, which wasn't very effective. "shit, i'm sorry, this is really not working."

"it's fine," she told him reassuringly. "seriously, it's just a little cut. i'm not dying."

eddie smiled, pressing a quick kiss to her forehead before turning to look at the others.

"uh, do you guys think that these bats have, like, rabies?" robin questioned. "it's just that like rabies, like, my number one greatest fear. and i think that we should probably get you, and possibly tillie, to a doctor like really soon because once the symptoms set it, it's too late. you're already dead."

before anyone could respond, a loud chittering noise was heard, and they looked up and saw a swarm of bats in the near distance, heading towards the gate in front of them. they formed a small group, staying close together with steve in the front. moving nearer to tillie, eddie slipped his fingers into hers, which had become a regular habit at this point, not that she was complaining.