Birds Of A Feather // Eddie Munson

009

TW: talks about the death of a parent/hospitals.

Then, the chime of a clock.

"Eddie! Did you hear that?" I called out to the curly haired boy but still no answer. I ran to the back of his trailer where I had seen him walk into. When I walked into what I thought was his room, I was greeted with the dull sounds of machinery and monitors beeping and the smell of cleaning products. I instantly felt sick.

I look at the date on the calendar, April 19th. The day my father died, four days after the crash we got into when I had been crying for takeout food on the way home from kindergarten in the backseat of his car.

When I looked down I expected to see myself as a child given the circumstances, but I wasn't. I was me. 18 year old me. I look up and look around the room for the first time but it's unfamiliar, this isn't the room where he had been.

"Elaine?" My throat dried up and I felt as though I couldn't speak. My fathers voice that I hadn't heard in over a decade rang through my ears, hitting every nerve in my body. Goosebumps rose almost as fast as my tears did. "Dad?" I turn around slowly and there he stood, alive and well. "I've been waiting to speak to you for years. I've missed you so much." He opened out his arms in my direction for a hug, but i backed away. "But, you're dead? How am I seeing you right now?"

"Someone has let you speak to me, someone very powerful. He could even bring me back. To you, to dusty and your mom." I shook my head. I have no idea what he's talking about, this man is not my father. He's dead and I know this. I grab for the door behind me and swing it open, my feet carrying me as fast as they could through the empty hospital halls.

I ran through another door and then there were vines everywhere, covering every inch of the floor, walls and ceiling. I ran over the top of them as they made screaming and squelching sounds. "Running away again?" I look behind me and my Dad is stood there, looking at me with a fire in his eyes that I had never seen before. I look forward again and didn't stop running. "what do you mean again, Dad?" He laughed loudly and when I looked back, he was gone.

I hit something hard in front of me, I didn't even need to see what it was to know. It was him. "I died that day because of you but you lived, you selfish bitch!" My jaw dropped, those tears from before came back. "Dad, I didn't do any of it on purpose! I was a kid! I loved you." A loud sob came from my throat and I covered my mouth quickly. Tears streamed down my face like the walls of a dam brimming with water had just been broken.

He stepped closer to me, making me scramble backwards trying to move away but no luck, the vines had grabbed my ankles and i was unable to move. My dad grabbed me by my neck, lifting me off the floor and slamming me against a wall. I cant die here, I wont die here. I'm not sure where I got the courage, but I reached up and punched the man in front of me as hard as I could, making him tumble back and drop me like a rag doll. I didn't care about the pain in my foot or my neck, I cared about living. I wanted to see Dustin again, my mom, Chrissy. Eddie. I stood up and took off running.

I reached the exit to the hospital and open the doors, expecting to run straight out made me surprised when I ran into barricades. I started pounding on them, screaming for help until my throat felt scratched and sore. My pounds turned into slaps and my screams turned into choked sobs, from behind me came the sound of someone walking, but it sounded like those vines. Wet and squelchy, low groans came from whatever it was as it patted towards me.

I turn around slowly and was met with the most horrid sight I'm pretty sure I had ever witnessed. A man? A creature? With burn marks and rotten flesh all over it, he was missing a nose. "I can save you, Elaine." Oh god. No. I need to leave, get out. Out of the corner of my eye I see a fire extinguisher, swiftly grab it and hit the door as hard as I could. Cracks began to show and I didn't stop. "Elaine, it's no use. It's over, I'm here to save you." I turn around without dropping the extinguisher. "I don't need saving." Then, before I could have another thought, his hand, claw.. whatever it was, reached over my face and lifted me slightly off the floor.

I carried on kicking and hitting the door from where I was and I saw the light shine through and reflect off of him, the sunlight from the outside of the hospital seemed to burn him. I swing the extinguisher up and hit the burned creature in front of me, feeling myself drop to the floor, i scramble to my feet as I hear my Dads voice calling to me. I turn around and run out of the door.

Next thing I know I'm hitting the floor in Eddie's trailer with a broken arm, tears staining my cheeks. "What the mother fuck was that, Elaine?"

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We beat Vecna. lowkey girlbossed it.
More Eddie next chapter I promise, just had to get this one over with🫶🏻