Never going Back ⋆ Stranger Things

6. The House on the Lake

Saturday, March 22.

Robin was Oz's favorite coworker. Really, she was. Which is why it did sort of hurt when Oz had to busy himself with plotting how he was going to strangle the life out of her. He was going to do the same to Steve, of course, but that pained him just a little less. He and Steve had never really enjoyed each other's presence, after all.

It no longer mattered just how much Oz liked Robin as a person. After this, killing her was the least he could do to get revenge.

"You cooled off yet?" On the other end of the shed, Eddie Munson was sitting on the floor, legs crossed and big brown eyes inspecting Oz like he was a wild animal.

Eddie's presence was the main reason Oz wanted to murder his coworkers. Sure, they'd kidnapped him, and this fact alone was not ideal, but to lock him in a house with Eddie Munson was taking things a step too far.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, a voice gnawed at Oz's brain, telling him that this was some sort of cosmic punishment.

"Fuck you," Oz garbled against the gag they'd tied around his head, feeling a bit of drool slipping out down his jaw. He struggled against the tie on his wrists, holding him down against the wooden beam like he was less than human, a monster who was chomping at the bit to tear Eddie's throat out.

"Right, right," Eddie agreed, twisting the big, bulky metal rings on his hand. "I guess I'd be pretty pissed too. I mean, I have a hard time believing anything they were saying. For you it's a bit easier, though, right? With the whole—" Eddie sort-of lamely stuck out his tongue and attempted to roll his eyes back. He looked like a dog having a seizure. Oz wanted to bite him for real.

"Sorry. Probably not the right thing to say." Eddie went back to nervously playing with his rings, eyes flitting back and forth but never really looking at Oz. "You're not happy to have me here. I get it. Most people wouldn't be, especially not considering the... uh. The Chrissy... thing."

Right. The fact that Eddie Munson had, supposedly, broken all of the bones in Chrissy Cunningham's body and gouged her eyes out. Something that Oz had learned of exactly eight hours before being locked in a house with him. That certainly hadn't helped his anger.

Oz mumbled something else against his gag, and Eddie cracked a genuine smile at that.

"Jeez, man," Eddie said as he leaned forward, "want me to get that off of you?"

No, Oz wanted to bite at him. To make some snide remark of how he's very comfortable drooling all over himself, actually. Still, as Eddie slowly but surely approached Oz he nodded, once, to let Eddie know it was alright. There was something comforting in seeing the way Eddie hesitated to even come near Oz, much less touch him. At least that didn't give Oz the feeling like Eddie might murder him if the opportunity presented itself.

Eddie's hands wrapped themselves behind Oz's head, untying the gag as he, for some reason, kept his eyes locked on Oz's. Oz, in turn, tried his hardest to look literally anywhere else, but it proved to be rather difficult with Eddie's face barely an inch away from his own. He could feel Eddie's breath on his face, the boy's tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth as he focussed on undoing the knot.

"There. That's a lot better, right?"

Oz couldn't help but feel slightly like a little kid as he rolled his jaw, giving a short but appreciative nod towards Eddie. He wasn't sure why they maintained eye contact, or why Eddie took a few seconds too long to move away from him again, but he did know that it had left him breathless. Like he'd just been choked.

"I didn't do it. The Chrissy thing, I mean." Oz kept quiet as Eddie spoke. "She came to my trailer that night to buy some... stuff. I was only gone for a second to look for it, but when I came back she was all wrong. Her eyes were all rolled back into her head and she was completely frozen. I—I tried to wake her up, you know, but she didn't. Couldn't, I think. She just, out of nowhere, started floating. No jokes, man. Levitating in my kitchen. Her eyes were bleeding. I feel like I'm crazy even saying it out loud but Henderson and the crowd didn't even seem shocked. How fucked is that? How much worse could shit get that they're used to this?"