Breathe ⭐️ Reddie

41

Eddie heard footsteps approaching the door. His gun was in its holster, and he was holding Richie's hand tightly. There was no threat that they could see, but Eddie couldn't shake the feeling that Henry Bowers was going to be the one to open the door.

The door creaked open, and a boy that looked to be around twenty peaked through the crack. "Mike?!" he whisper-shouted, eyes wide. "It's ten o'clock and you live hours away! What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Hey, Jonathan," Mike murmured. "Can we come in?"

"Depends. Are you going to explain why there's eleven teenagers on my front porch?"

Mike nodded toward Eddie and Stan. "They'll explain. It's important. Please tell me everyone's still awake?"

The boy, Jonathan, nodded and sighed deeply, opening the door to let everyone inside. They all filed in, covering their weapons as not to make anyone in the household think they were under attack.

"Wait in here," Jonathan said, pointing to a large living room area, before disappearing down a hallway.

Eddie looked around the room. All over the walls were pictures, both drawings and photographs. He smiled softly at a family photo on the wall. He had never been allowed to do any kind of pictures in fear of them being traced.

Footsteps pounded down the hallway and three people came out, accompanied by Jonathan. They all looked shocked.

"What are you guys doing here?!" asked a boy who looked to be their age. He ran forward and pulled his friends into hugs. "And who are all of these other people?!"

Mike smiled brightly, standing up and hugging the boy, as well as the other two girls who had entered the room. "It's great to see you guys," he said with a sigh of relief.

"Are you going to tell us who these people are?" one of the women asked.

"This is Stan, Mike, Bev, Eddie, Richie, Bill, and Ben," Mike said, pointing them all off. "Guys, this is Joyce, Will, and El. I don't know why we're here, but-"

"They're here for me," El said, cutting him off.

"What?" Joyce asked, instinctively putting herself between the strangers and El.

"She's not in any danger, ma'am," Eddie said, standing up and ignoring Richie's attempts to pull him back down. "We work for an organization and we discovered dangerous groups trying to track her down. We were sent to find her and contact our superiors and that's it. I promise, we don't mean any trouble or danger."

Joyce didn't seem convinced, but El moved to stand in front of Eddie. "If you mean no danger, why do you carry weapons?"

"Precautions. In case another group comes after us," Eddie answered coolly, taking his gun out, removing the bullets and placing it on the ground as a sign of peace.

El smiled at him. "I've seen you in my dreams. I lost my powers so I can't locate people, but I have vivid dreams. You're not a danger to me. None of you are."

Stan stood up and walked over next to Eddie eyes narrowed in confusion. "Do you see the future?"

"No. I can see people though and assume their intentions and just have... senses, I guess. You are all safe, but you have relations with dangerous people," she said.

"Bowers," Eddie said, nodding.

To everyone's surprise, El shook her head. "No, not the Scorpions. Yes, they're dangerous, but there's not enough of them still alive."

Eddie furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "What are you talking about? Most of them are in custody at our headquarters." He didn't bother to try to keep things secret.

El seemed to know what was going on anyway, so there was no point in secrecy. "They were, but they're dead now. I don't think you understand what you're part of, Eddie," she said softly, before addressing the other Hive members. "None of you do."

"What are you talking about?" Bev asked, her throat tight, her hands balled into tight fists.

El sighed and walked into the living room, sitting on the ground lightly. Eddie and Stan followed, taking their spots on the couches and chairs back, staring at El.

She looked around at the group, making sure they were all paying attention. "Very few people know that the Hive exists. I'm not psychic. I didn't just discover it in a dream. Sure, I learned about you all through my dreams but not the Hive itself. I've known of the Hive for years."

Eddie shared a confused expression with Stan. "What do you mean? Only people who belong to the Hive know about it," Eddie said, more to himself than to the others, but they all nodded in agreement nonetheless.

"Yes, that's true. People who belong to it, or have connections. The lab I grew up in, the one I was taken to," El inhaled deeply and tears sprung to her eyes, "it was part of the Hive."

"What?!" Richie asked in shock, his hair standing on end and goosebumps forming on his arms. He faced Eddie. "Did you know about that?!"

El answered before Eddie could. "No one but the superiors knew. And I'm not sure all of them knew. H.I.V.E was originally an abbreviation. It stood for Hawkins, Indiana Viewing Experiment. A group designed to watch people born with abilities, such as myself, and to analyze their powers. Eventually they branched out, very few people knowing the origin. Only some of the superiors knew. There are secret headquarters all over the country, but most of the workers and agents believe they're the only one. No one really knows why they exist."

Eddie's heart had dropped. All his life, he thought he was part of a group working for the greater good. He didn't know the full story of the lab, but he didn't trust anything that had to do with experimental procedures on people.

"There's Hive groups all over the country?" Mike Hanlon asked, eyes wide with confusion.

"Yes. Everything you think you know about the Hive is wrong. You're not working and completing jobs to keep the Hive functioning. No, you're working to build up intel. All of the cameras and radios link to a central base, and they're analyzed. The purpose is to find people like me and the other powered people."

"I don't understand," Eddie said. "It didn't take us any time to find you. Why the hell would they have us find you without knowledge of what the Hive really is?" 

El thought for a second, her hand on her chin. "They probably didn't expect me to know. Maybe they didn't even know everything. None of you are killers. You're all good people, trying to complete your mission. Meaning, if you know nothing, you'll contact the Hive and let them know you've found me. If they sent someone else, someone older, I'd have taken precautions myself and I'd be far from here. With you coming, I didn't sense danger." She looked at her knees, disappointment in her eyes. "They've gotten smarter."

Eddie's pain in his gut didn't fade. In fact, it increasingly got worse and he grabbed Stan's arm, staring deeply into his eyes in shock. "Please tell me you didn't contact the Hive when we got here."

Stan inhaled sharply, pulling out a burner phone. "I did... they just messaged me back. They said to clear out of the zone."

El ran her hand through her hair, clearly overwhelmed. "They most likely contacted the central base. They've found me, and that's their ultimate goal."

"Meaning?" Eddie asked, pure fear and confusion laced in his voice.

El sighed again, wrapping her arms around her knees. "It means they're on their way."