wanted - Eddie Munson

maybe

August 7th, 1985

It's been just over a month. Billy's funeral came and went. None of us have talked about what happened, except for two days after the fourth when Max and I sat down and she explained everything to me then when Steve and Nancy had separate talks. From the youngest Byers going missing before we even go to Hawkins and up to the secret labs that experimented on children and El having superpowers. Well, she had superpowers.

She'd tried to the last month but to no avail, it seemed her powers were gone. All used up.

Nancy and I had a similar talk except from the perspective of two older sisters. Mike had been involved in all of the inter-dimensional bullshit from the very start. He'd hidden El in his basement for weeks apparently. Nancy explained that she knew how tough it was to be an older sibling of one of the kids that's right in the middle of it, and we found a sort of bond in that.

Steve sat Robin and me down. Trying to wrap our minds around it all. Thankfully, I'd had this discussion with Max and Nancy before so I'd gotten the gist of it. Robin, however, was still wearing a confused expression. Her eyes were locked onto a random spot on Steve's carpet and her eyebrows were tightly knitted together.

"Rob, you alright?" Steve asked from his place on the couch. His elbows resting on his knees as he looked over the coffee table at our friend, sitting on the floor as she stared.

"Hmm?" She hummed, popping her head up as if he'd just woke her up from a trance. "Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's just- the Demo-things-"

"Demogorgons and Demodogs." He corrected and she nodded, looking back at the floor.

"Where'd they come from and why did they just come out two years ago?" She asked, shaking her head and moving her hand to pick at a loose string on her jeans.

"They came from the Upside Down, and the when is a bit fuzzy to me too. Pretty sure it has something to do with El and cracking open the first gate- I don't know." He shrugged before shaking his head to clear his confusion.

"Are there other species of these Demo creatures? Like is it just the dogs and the gorgons or are there more?" She was fully animated in her question, moving her hands around with each of the creatures.

"Uhm- Don't actually know. There's probably more, but they're in the Upside Down and the gate is..." He stopped, thoughts of Hopper and what the late police chief had to do to close the gate. "Closed. The gate is closed."

"Right. Yeah." Robin drew quietly, going back to the string on her jeans.

"So, just to be clear, we're like... 100% positive that nothing is coming back, right?" I asked. Max had thoroughly told me that nothing would ever return but I knew that part of her was just saying that as a ploy to get me to leave.

"As far as we know. We've thought that every time, but this one just feels different. So, yeah, pretty sure it's gone." Steve nodded to which I returned. That was reassuring.

Max knew I wanted to leave after I graduated, go back to California, and all that. The issue is that I didn't want to leave her here, but now I definitely don't want to leave her. I don't want to leave my sister behind in this cursed town to fight off whatever terrifying monster decides to come out next.

"If it helps any," Steve started, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Every time something has come out of the gate, it's been after El and she's moving away with the Byers in October so..."

I nodded again, not giving any other answer.

Maybe max is right. Maybe leaving this shithole is what's best for me. Maybe some time away would be good for me. Even if it's just for a little while. God knows I can't leave permanently, I can't leave Max permanently. But maybe a vacation.