⇢ ˗ˏˋ ✰🎨 🎸 ࿐ྂ

"𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐞?"
➶-͙˚ ༘✶ ˗ˏˋ ✰꒰ 📎 🍒 ꒱✰ ˎˊ- ➶ °*ೃ
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EDDIE STARED AT THE STATE OF HIS peacefully sleeping girlfriend, her arms caressing his waist as she laid in between his legs. He was leaning back against the frigid mineral grey rock that was in the shape of a skull, many thoughts invading his aching mind as he stared onto the alluvial chalky dirt beneath him.

It was nearly ten a.m and Cerise was sleeping in a calm state. Too calm.

Eddie stared down at his girlfriend, the faint whispers of uneasiness, climbing in his stomach. His intuition was screaming at him that Cerise was being consumed by a form of depravity, but his mind also bore the thought that it was simply the stress of running away from their issues.

However,  for what seemed to be the millionth time within the hour, Eddie attempted to get in contact with the other teens, repetitively speaking over the radio. So when he finally reached Dustin, he was relieved.

"Eddie, holy shit, are you okay?" Dustin's muffled voice rang over the radio. Eddie clenched his fist tightly, attempting to steady his drumming heartbeat, not wanting to wake Cerise. He rubbed his eyes in frustration, his metallic silver rings bruising his dirtied fingers as he curled them into fists.

"Nah, man. Pretty...pretty goddamn far from okay." Eddie instinctively looked down at the sleeping girl below him and stroked his index finger on her cheek. He let out a hefty sigh of frustration, the only thing anchoring him down with sanity being Cerise.

He quickly told Dustin where he and Cerise were at and swiftly pushed down the antenna of the walkie-talkie and sighed in frustration. At that same moment, Cerise's eyes fluttered open sleepily, her strange daze still laced in her eyes. Eddie withered away his worried expression and plastered on a faux calm one.

"Oh—mornin,'" Cerise muttered, her tone of voice penetrating icier than an arctic glacier. Eddie frowned at her tone, noticing the way she instantly got up from her sleeping state and hurriedly rushed out of Eddie's embrace.

"Um, good morning?" Eddie didn't intend to contort it into a question, but he was incredibly perplexed by the way she was acting that it slipped out.

It was odd. The atmosphere Cerise conveyed, was completely strange and her typical idiosyncratic bubbly personality, was gone, nothing but a dubious aura was radiating off of the younger Harrington.

Eddie cautiously stared at her, noticing the way sweat was forming pearls on her forehead. She looked visibly anxious and she was incessantly pacing back and forth on the grainy dirt. Huffing in frustration, Cerise threw off her pastel pink coat, throwing it onto the floor as the dirt decorated the designer fabric.

"You okay, Little Red?" Eddie asked in worry. He trod closer to her, holding out his arms so he could hold her elbows, but she backed away, throwing her hand onto her damp forehead.

"Y-Yeah, the weather is just really hot right now," Cerise monotonously said, her gaze glued to the scaly rigid tree bark. Eddie scrunched his eyebrows and he noticed how his fingertips were bleakly numb from the frosty wind.

"Um, Cerise, it's like fifty degrees right now," Eddie cautiously declared his concern for his girlfriend, rising by the second.

Cerise looked up straight at the sky, the thin cirrostratus sheeting a delicate blanket over the cerulean skies. The sun's beaming light rays peeked through the clouds and when the blinding gold sun glittered on her skin, she winced, subconsciously pulling her arm away from the light.

Eddie inspected her intently, stalkingly examining the way she winced at the harsh sunlight that shone on her. It seemed as if Cerise was acting like a vampire, but Eddie knew the legends weren't true.

"Oh? Well, I'm just not cold right now."

That was nearly impossible. Eddie knew Cerise well enough to know that she gets cold easily. That's why he always kept his own stash of jackets and shirts specifically labeled for his girlfriend.

Minutes went by and Cerise still hasn't spoken a word to Eddie. He insistently stared at her, internally wishing that he could simply hug her, but he couldn't. Not when he didn't know what was wrong with her.

Wrestling sounds of twigs snapping and reverberating voices echoing in the forest perked Eddie's ears. He instinctively grabbed Cerise by the waist, a small yelp escaping her lips as he put his hand on top of her mouth. His cold rings sent a shiver down her spine and she was about to scream until Eddie gave her a sign motioning to 'be quiet.'

"Yeah, yeah. Even with it staring at you in the face, you can't admit it. You can't admit you were wrong, butthead." Eddie instantly recognized the voice as Steve Harrington and he audibly sighed in relief.

He stood down from the rock, Cerise by his side, scaring both Dustin and Steve as they jumped in their places, panic-stricken expressions written on their faces.

"I concur. You, Dustin Henderson, are a total butthead." Eddie rested his hands against his hips, internally fighting back a smile of relief when he saw Dustin shoot him a grin. The young curly-haired freshman wrapped his arms around one of his father figures and Steve took this opportunity to embrace his sister, considering that he hasn't seen her for nearly an entire day.

Steve sauntered towards his sister, raising his arms to tackle her body in a heart-wrenching embrace, however, the older Harrington's relieved face was twisted into an enraged one when he noticed the lacerations and throbbing purple bruises decorating her face.

He immediately caressed his sister's cheeks, his chocolate brown eyes mercilessly scanning her body, his body indignantly freezing from alarm and anger. Cerise backed away from her brother's touch, swatting his hand away.

"I'm fine. Just a little banged up," Cerise nonchalantly assured, backing away from the boy. Her head was held low and her eyes did not meet Steve's, something that he instantly noticed and his sibling radar went off.

It was a small action Steve always detected with his sister. Whenever he would converse with her, she would direct her eye contact straight to Steve's. So when Cerise held her gaze to the dirt, Steve's worry skyrocketed.

"Are you sure? I'm your brother, I can when something is off." Steve's tone was uneasy, not buying for a second that his sister was fine.

"Yeah, don't worry, bro, I'm okay," Cerise reassured with a smile that was sinisterly creeping up to her face. Steve reciprocated a contrived smile, but once Cerise turned away, that grin was slapped off his face and replaced with concern. 

He observed his sister's shuffling footsteps scuffing the dry dirt. Her fumbling clumsiness was even more prominent today and the orbs of cold sweat trailed down her forehead.

Anger rose in his chest again when he spotted Eddie. Steve wasted no time and charged toward the Munson boy, grabbing a fistful of his shirt and abruptly pressing his back against the rock where nobody could see them.

"I swear to God, Munson, did you give my sister drugs again!?" Steve noticed Eddie's confused and furious visage and continued, not letting the boy speak. "Ressie is literally showing the symptoms of withdrawals, so I swear if you—"

Eddie had enough of Steve's absurd accusations. He forcefully pushed his hands off of his chest and stood as tall as he did, his doe eyes darkening with pure malice.

"Hey man, back off! No way in hell I would give that shit to her after I knew what it did to her. Do you think I would make her go back to rehab? Did you really think I would do that to the girl I love?" 

Steve's hardened expression faltered ever so slightly when Eddie confessed to him that he basically loves his sister. He regained his set tone and was about to speak up once again until Eddie interrupted him.

"Look, earlier in the night, Cerise was acting weird. She said this one phrase and I don't know why, but it really irked me." He had Steve's undivided attention now. If something was wrong with Cerise, Steve would go through hell and back if it means he figures out what is wrong with his sister.

"Well, what did she say?" Steve pressed.

Eddie paused and inhaled a deep shaky breath, the aura of anticipation and apprehension filling the chilly air. "She said 'he likes it cold.'"

That was it. That was all it took for Steve to storm from his place and form a beeline to Cerise. His frantic eyes scanned for his sister, ignoring the questions that were muffled in his eardrums. In the sense of Steve's dismay, Eddie's worry was burgeoning by the second.

Eddie and Steve were on the search for Cerise who seemed to disappear without the notice of the other teens. But when Robin spotted Cerise wandering in the middle of the forest several yards away from them, she ran to the girl, gently caressing her elbows as she turned Cerise around.

"You can't walk off like that, Cherry, or else we're gonna have to put a leash on you," Robin joked, expecting a laugh to escape the young Harrington's lips, but when she only saw the befuddled look on her face, Robin looked at her in question.

"Who are you?" Cerise asked with a baffled expression, not knowing this girl who was. Robin snorted, assuming her best friend was playing a cruel joke on her.

Little did Robin know.

"Hah, that's not funny, Cherry," Robin snorted with a nervous laugh. She caught the way Cerise's visage still held the utterly confused look and that's when her heart dropped. Cerise's eyes were filled with nothing, the void she held in her eyes, saddening Robin."W-What? You don't know who I am?"

Everyone walked up to the two girls and they all observed the way Robin's lips quivered as if she were about to cry. Steve put a concerned hand on his friend's shoulder and noticed her blue eyes were dazing at his sister.

"She doesn't know who I am," Robin whispered so only Steve could hear. The boy noticed the tears brimming on the edge of her waterline and he shot her a sympathetic look. The freshman stalked toward Cerise and saw how she was backing away from them.

"Cerise, um, do you know who these people are?" Steve gestured to Nancy, Dustin, Max, and Lucas. Cerise scanned their faces and pointed to each of them.

First, she pointed toward Max. She nodded her head. Next, was Lucas and she nodded her head then.

But when she looked at Nancy and Dustin, her head tilted to the side and she shook her head no.

Nancy and Dustin looked like they were just backslapped in the face with Eddie's rings, their aching shoulders slumping at the sound of their good friend not recognizing them. Nancy felt like she lost one of her closest friends, whereas, Dustin's heart wrenched at the fact he was losing his older sister.

Wanting to diffuse the cumbrous aura, Steve spoke up, attempting to hold up the facade as if there was nothing wrong so Cerise wouldn't get suspicious.

"Ressie, are you up for a walk?" Steve held his composure, silently shooing away the confused glances from the teens behind Cerise.

"I can do this all day," Cerise stated with a vile smirk. It easily shook everyone's nerves, the usually optimistic Cerise, was holding the pretense of a murderous psycho from a sinister thriller movie. She walked away from the group, stalking her way to the rock in the shape of a skull as her brother and the rest of the teens stood behind, not wanting Cerise to hear this conversation.

"There's something wrong with Cerise," Dustin declared as if it was not the most obvious thing in the world. Everyone stared at him incredulously and he scratched the back of his head while diverting his gaze to the sky.

"The Mind Flayer is in her," Steve blurted, not in the mood to ease anyone into the heavyweight situation they were currently in. Everyone held looks of shock, fear, and confusion, except for Eddie and Robin who looked utterly lost.

"Impossible, we killed it last year," Max factually remarked thinking it was the truth.

"Did we though?" Steve blurted in an annoyed tone. "Apparently that little shit, Vecna, has a crush on my sister or something," he sarcastically sneered.

Dustin noticed how Robin and Eddie held looks of perplexity, and he explained to them precisely who and what the Mind Flayer was. Once they were caught up, everyone agreed that they will do whatever it takes to get it out of Cerise, then continue with their mission to take out Vecna.

The teens started to follow Steve, who knew exactly where to take his sister so they can wipe out the monster once and for all. Cerise followed loosely behind them, sticking close to Eddie who seemed to be her only sort of comfort out of all the strangers she was with.

She tightened her grip on his arm and Eddie couldn't help but smile, considering the situation they were in, Cerise found comfort with him by her side. Eddie tugged a dopey smile on his lips  and placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head and led them to follow the rest of the kids.

Robin was standing in the front with Steve. She wiped away the dry tears that trailed down her cheeks before and Robin knew Steve would give her sympathy which was something she wasn't in the mood for, so she spoke up, hoping to alter the atmosphere.

"So, where are we going again?"

"We're going to take her to a place where this happened before. To the cabin."

petition for steve and eddie to get along 🤞

also, i have two steve books in my drafts and i still need to post them omg. one of them has been sitting in my drafts since october and i've been holding them off.