no stranger could it be (eddie munson x oc)

the woods

The late light of dusk touched down in long streaks, filtered through gnarled branches only just beginning to green. Bright as it was, the sight felt empty to her, fake and dull.

Fifteen hours had passed since the death of Hawkins High's head cheerleader and her best friend. Maybe sixteen. Maria hadn't been there to start counting.

She wished the news had been more surprising, truly, but there was a sick sense of prophecy coming true that accompanied the phone call she received from the police when they told her yes, Chrissy Cunningham is dead, and yes, we're very sorry.

We know you two were close. Let us know if you need anything.

Maria's feet crunched softly on damp leaves as she walked, lost in thought, absentmindedly fiddling with a macrame bracelet between her fingers. Her eyes refused to dry.

Potential homicide, the news had said, but she found that difficult to believe. Chrissy was unwell. Maybe not to the public, granted, but Maria wasn't the public, and secrets were shared between confidants all the way until the end. Just because she was popular didn't mean—

A sound pulled Maria's mind from its spiel. A twig snap, of course. How terribly cliche.

She froze, and the vastness of the forest dawned on her for the first time, seemingly growing the longer she thought about it. She might have imagined it, but the sky seemed darker now. The hand holding the bracelet enclosed the item in a fist, white-knuckled. She kept walking.

Another sound, this time a faint rustling. The dark hairs on her neck bristled, and she picked up the pace.

What had she been thinking? If her friend truly was killed, now was just about the worst time to be wandering on the outskirts of town, deep in the woods, and alone. She never claimed to be street-smart.

One more crack of a branch underfoot sent images of Chrissy into her brain—bloodied, maybe, cold, lifeless—and adrenaline to her legs. The sounds, she realized, were getting faster, and closer. She broke into a jog, breath growing shorter as it kept in time with her steps.

Running now, she couldn't tell from which direction the other pair of footsteps was coming. She felt surrounded. She could very well be surrounded.

Maria broke into a sprint, rounded a tree, and crashed.

The scream that left her was involuntary and terrified, piercing the sky as her body collided with another force and sent her reeling to the ground. Her back hit the leaves, and she heard that she wasn't the only one who screamed.

She braced for imminent death, struck with terror, struggling to sit up, with hands out as feeble weapons. She stopped and heaved for air as her eyes adjusted to the figure in front of her.

Shock morphed to surprise as she saw the outline of a classmate, a man currently under investigation as the murder suspect for her best friend's death.

Equally as scared and scrambling away from her was Eddie Munson, hair and eyes both wild.

The two stared from their spots on the forest floor, each waiting for the other to attack. Maria watched the recognition flash across his face, followed by more fear. She must have mirrored it.

"Eddie," Maria breathed, halfway to a question, but more as though saying it would confirm whether or not he was real.

At his name, he flinched, his brown eyes still huge and glinting with the sky's last lights, and he stared for another moment in disbelief, before frantically clawing his way to his feet.