no stranger could it be (eddie munson x oc)

the boating shack

"...underneath the town, in a different dimension. And if we don't stop him, he'll kill again."

The explanation Steve gave from the driver's seat came to a close. "So," he cleared his throat. "That's what we're... trying to do."

Maria sat hunched over in the middle of the backseat, elbows resting on her knees, though one leg bounced up and down repeatedly as the anxiety expressed itself in her body somehow. She put a thumb to her mouth, chewing the polished nail there.

Robin was turned around from her spot in shotgun, staring at the cheerleader from over the seat with wary eyes. Maria simply stared through her, out the windshield and off to the horizon. The sun had set almost entirely, painting the pavement below in a soft cobalt.

When she realized he was done talking, she forced out a response, if only to prove she hadn't gone comatose. "Okay," she rasped.

Robin nodded carefully. "You're taking this well. You only look like you're gonna vomit a little bit."

"Yeah." She swallowed around bile, correctly predicted. "A little bit."

"Whoa, hey," Steve called, shooting a look into the rearview mirror back at her. "Not in the car, if you can help it."

She shook her head as she forced the nausea down. "I'm okay," she said. "I'm just going to... need a minute."

"Well..." Steve focused on the road once more. "We don't have too many of those."

"You believe us?" Robin peered at Maria, who finally managed to make eye contact.

She didn't nod, instead breathing slowly. "I knew something was going on with her," She explained, voice quiet. "She was scared, and seeing things, all through the week before..." She frowned, replaying all their conversations in her head as though she could pick out the time Chrissy mentioned a shadow demon tormenting her. No such luck.

She continued, "I thought it was just... her home situation, or something. She was seeing that therapist—"

"Ms. Kelley," Robin finished. "We know. All those symptoms are 'cause of Vecna."

"Henderson and Nancy and the rest of those guys are all going to check out the house of that guy, Creel. We think they're connected."

Maria rested her face in her hands, attempting to force the information to sink into her brain with ease. "God," was her only answer, muffled into her palms. She ran them down her face. An unrelated, but seemingly important thought pushed through. "If this is all true, Eddie's innocence will be so much harder to prove."

Robin gave a silent agreement in the form of a shrug, and faced forward once more.

"Yeah, well," Steve grumbled, as he turned the car into the driveway of a house Maria had seen only once or twice before. "Maybe we can buy him some time."

She sat up to examine the rundown house by the lake, an old suburban home with what looked like a boating shack off to the side. The name found her a moment later. "Rick's place," she said. "The guys were talking about it." She took another look around as Steve parked the car. "I hope we got here first."

Inside the shack, Eddie hadn't expected the night to be so dark, without so much as an oil lamp to let him see across the room. Outside, the moon shone on the black lake, but the expanse of the water only drove home the absolute isolation he was forced into. This sucked, for real.

The moment he heard tires screech in the driveway, however, he suddenly didn't take his lack of company for granted anymore.

Eddie scrambled to his feet from his spot on the splintered wooden floor, ducking when the headlights swept through the window. He heard the car park, then footsteps, and he dashed to the corner, wooden oar in hand as a makeshift weapon if it had to be.