Things That Go Bump In The Night [Stranger Things Monster AU]

Chapter Four

I decide to take Will up on his offer of joining him and his friends for their Dungeons and Dragons campaign, he assures me that I will get along with the DM despite him never telling me their name. I knock softly on the front door of the Byers-Hopper residence, Will has a huge grin on his face as soon as he opens the door, “Come on in, everyone is already here. Come meet them.”, he states excitedly as he closes the front door behind me once I am inside. “Everyone this is Y/n. Y/n this is Mike, Max, Dustin, Lucas, his sister, Erica, Gareth, Jeff, and our DM Eddie.”, my eyes scan over the others sitting around the large dining table, giving them each a smile. But my smile falters slightly when I meet the gaze of the Dungeon Master himself, it is none other than Eddie Munson himself. The very same Eddie Munson that Hopper warned me about last week.

“Hi.”, I greet everyone in a soft voice, Eddie’s intense gaze making me a bit nervous, but I eventually push it away as everyone else around the table says their hellos back to me. “Y/n is the one I was telling you about that played back in college.”, Will says. I hear a scoff come from the head of the table, I look to see Eddie roll his eyes, “I’m curious about how good she says she is.”, he stands up from his seat and approaches us slowly. He makes a snide comment about what class and level I am, I bite back a sneer to give him a sly smirk, “Try a level seventeen half-elf ranger who is not only a Beast Master, but also single-handedly took out four Basilisks after her friends fell in the fight.”, I state proudly, “So are we gonna stand here all day measuring dick sizes or are we gonna play?”

Everyone has stopped talking to hear me speak, their eyes wide and their mouth left agape in awe, even Eddie is looking at me with wide eyes as I stare him down. I watch as a smirk tugs at the corner of Eddie’s lips, he holds his right hand out towards me, “Welcome to Hellfire”, he says, there is a joyful look in his eyes and for a moment they flash a crimson red at me. As to whether he meant to do it or not, I do not know. I place my right hand in his and give it a shake with a smile of my own, once that is all said and done, Mike and Dustin scoot apart to let me sit between the pair of them. 

I am quickly brought up to speed on the campaign and what is going on, I nibble the on the end of my pencil as I listen intently. I can’t help but be enthralled by Eddie’s voice as he narrates everything, I am awed by the way his tone and voice change when he voices characters. As the evening turns into night, I find myself actually enjoying myself, being surrounded by others who are just as passionate about the game as I am. We soon find ourselves huddled away from the table, deciding on what we need to do, there are only so few of us left to fight against this Vecna, myself included. “There’s no shame in running, you don’t have to be heroes.”, Eddie’s voices once he has brought our attention back to him, telling us we should heed our fellow companion’s concern.

I chew the inside of my bottom lip, “No, we all agreed to the death. Lady Applejack.”, I look between every pair of eyes in the huddle, “We can do this, don’t give up now.”, I tell them, trying to keep their spirits up despite us losing the majority of them in the fight. It seems my little pep talk does the trick because they are all nodding and agreeing, “Give me the dice.”, Dustin says once we have formed a group at the end of the table opposite of Eddie, he tosses the d20 to the young man. He catches the die with one hand, we all nod when he looks at all of us before turning his attention back to the table.

All of us are holding our breaths in anticipation, Eddie leans over his screen to look at the die, a devious smirk grows upon his face, “That’s a miss.”, he laughs. We all groan in unison, now we are left to two, me and Lady Applejack, she takes the die from Dustin and steps up to the table. Another miss, I swallow the lump that has formed in my throat as I am the last person standing on the map against Vecna. We are only needing eighteen hit points or more to succeed, I roll the d20 in my palm for a moment, I take a deep breath and look over the table to see Eddie giving me a big grin. “You got this.”, Mike whispers beside me, I feel everyone slightly pat my shoulders as if to wish me luck.