Hell on Earth

Chapter Seventy Five - The Truth

"So what do you we do now?" Max asked as their group formed a small huddle. Eddie was still curled up into the corner. "We found Eddie. What's our next plan."

"You guys need to go home," Cynthia said as she looked at her friends. "Get some supplies for Eddie. I have a stack of cash in my writing desk. It's the second drawer on the right."

"And what are you going to do?" Robin asked.

"I'm staying here with Eddie," Cynthia said. "I'm can't leave him here like this."

"No," Steve said. "For all we know he could be connected to the Upside Down. Chrissy was killed in his trailer."

"Steve, I know Eddie," Cynthia looked at him. "I know that there is no possible way that Eddie is connected to the Upside Down. You saw the fear in his eyes. I can't leave him. I love him, and he needs me."

"I don't like the idea of leaving you here, Cynthia," Steve said.

"Trust me, Steve," Cynthia said. "That's all I ask."

Steve nodded and backed off from the conversation.

"We'll be back tomorrow," Dustin said.

"I'll see if Eddie can remember anything else and get him up to speed on everything Upside Down," Cynthia said. "After everything he's seen, he needs to be caught up."

"Be safe," Max gave her a hug before heading back out to the car.

Everyone else said goodbye and headed out to the car. It was just Eddie and Cynthia in the boat house. Cynthia sat cross-legged in front of Eddie. Eddie wasn't looking at her. She grabbed at her necklace and started to play with it. Her eyes were trained at her shoes: how could she look at Eddie when all of her lies and omission were finally coming back to haunt her. Where should she even start.

"Um, everyone headed back home for the night," Cynthia said. "They'll be back tomorrow with some supplies for you. We just want to make sure you're safe with everything that's happening." Eddie didn't say a word. Cynthia forced herself to look at Eddie. "It wasn't your fault what happened. You do know that right?"

"It doesn't matter," Eddie said. "I left her there to die."

"Eddie, can you please look at me?" Cynthia asked. Eddie's eyes were trained on the wall. "Please."

Eddie turned and looked at her, "What is this other world you guys told me about. And why are you all so comfortable with it? What haven't you been telling me?"

Cynthia pushed some of her hair behind her ear before going back to having an ironclad grip on her pick necklace. The cool metal of Eddie's ring grounded her to reality, "It all started on November 6, 1983, when Will Byers disappeared. He was taken by a monster we called the demogorgon. At the time, there were three groups all working to stop this thing, even if we didn't know it. There was Dustin and his friends, me and my two friends, and then old police chief Hopper and and Will's mom. Hawkins Lab was doing some experiment, and they gave kid's superpowers. One of the kids escaped, found my brother and his friends, and helped us defeat the demogorgon. We thought that was the end. The monster and the girl with superpowers were gone." Cynthia took a breath. "A year later, it came back. We call the place where the monsters are from the Upside Down. We don't know how but it was back. Something we called the Mind Flayer wanted to take over our world. It tried to use an army of baby demogorgons to do that. Once again, we had our groups, the girl with superpowers wasn't dead, and we defeated it. We thought it was fine." Cynthia bit her lip. "Then, summer came. There was a secret Russian base under the mall, and it opened a path to the Upside Down. That's how we thought the Mind Flayer came back. We had our groups, but we came together in the end. The mall fire was never a fire. It was to cover up everything that had happened." Cynthia took a breath. "I know that's a lot to take in, but those are the basics. You can ask me any questions you want. I know that you probably have a lot."