Chapter Text
The Hawkins County Fair. Steve came every year, had since he was an infant. It once was a place filled with happy memories but not anymore. The fair reminded him of that night six years ago now. The night they lost Billy.
“Are you okay?” Robin asked, gently taking his hand. Steve glanced at her before giving her a smile. It didn’t reach his eyes, they hadn’t in years, but he had mastered the art of making it look genuine.
“Yeah,” Steve answered, giving her small hand a squeeze. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Well,” she trailed off. The words didn’t need to be said. July 4th. It was the anniversary of Billy’s death. Five years and ninety-nine days since Eddie’s death. Not that Steve was counting…
“I’m okay,” Steve said, giving her another smile. Robin stared up at him, analyzing his expression for even a hint that he was lying. Too bad he had learned to hide behind a mask too well even for her.
“If you say so,” she agreed after a minute, leaning into his arm. “Just don’t want you to be hurting, Stevie.”
He swallowed hard before nodding, pressing a tender kiss to her hair. “Don’t worry about me, birdie.”
She smiled up at him at the nickname, giving his hand a squeeze. “Go on the Ferris Wheel with me?”
“Don’t you want to take Vickie up there?” he asked, shaking his head and hiding his building sadness.
“I did yesterday when we came, but the Party’s together tonight. I want to have some fun with you.”
“Fine,” he agreed, going for begrudging and coming out far too fond. “But I’m not kissing you at the top.”
~*~
The Party spent the evening together, laughing and talking about old times. Lucas pushed Max around in her wheelchair, telling her about the rides as she struggled to see in the mixture of dark and too-bright lights. Suzie came up to see Dustin, and the pair were disgustingly adorable, sharing food and holding hands. Mike and Jane were also in their own little world, happy to be together for the summer again.
Nancy and Jonathan had disappeared at some point, and Steve was pretty sure he saw them by the bathrooms. Poor Nancy and her pregnancy sensitivity… Will was enjoying himself, having brought the boy he met at college to the fair. Robin clung to Steve, talking his ear off as normal.
It was nice in the most heartbreaking way.
Steve followed his friends, the only single one of the bunch. He watched the happy couples all around him, and he tried to keep the bitterness from his heart. He missed Billy… He missed Eddie…
Steve could count the number of meaningful relationships he had on one hand, and every one of them ended tragically. Nancy had never loved him. Sure, they were good friends now, but that was built with shared trauma on a battlefield against creatures far beyond their imaginations.
The second had been Billy. The boy was rough around the edges. He spat venom in his words, fought battles in and off the field with a vengeance, suffered at the hands of his father… They were like fire and gasoline. They brought out the worst - and best - in each other. They fought and beat each other to a pulp then fucked like they couldn’t live without one another. They spent so much time wrapped up in each other, and yet Steve couldn’t even fucking see that something had possessed his lover. Couldn’t see until it was too late - until the kids were trying to kill Billy, Billy was trying to kill them, and then a fucking meat bag monster tore his heart out.
He still had nightmares. Billy’s screams of agony still rattled around his skull at the worst of times. He remembered crawling into bed that first night after only to smell Billy’s cologne and cigarettes on his pillow. That was the first night he broke. He sobbed for hours, clinging to that pillow, clinging to the last little bit of Billy he had left. The scene kept playing over in his mind, ruining his happy memories and tainting them red in Billy’s blood. It took him two weeks to even leave his room.
By then, the nightmares were so bad, he turned to other means to stay awake or numb the pain, and that only led him into a worse place. He approached Eddie Munson, the town freak, with the desire to buy drugs and just forget about how empty and cold his bedroom felt. How heavy Billy’s necklace was around his neck and how his mother’s wedding ring burned into his skin.
And then he fucking tripped, fell right into Eddie’s lap, and was madly in love again. Eddie didn’t ask questions, and he paid for the drugs, smoked them in the woods, and tried to turn his brain off. It took a few weeks before Eddie hung around long enough to share a blunt with him.
“You know,” he had started quietly one night, taking a drag and blowing it out his nose like a dragon, “I don’t know why you’re so upset, but if you ever need anyone to talk to, I’m all ears.”
Steve had nodded, refusing to open up at the time, but a few weeks later, he did. He didn’t know why he felt like he could talk to Eddie. They never talked in school. Hell, they avoided each other like the plague, and yet Eddie was the first person to ever know of Steve’s love for the lost Cali boy.
Steve had cried his eyes out again, head in Eddie’s shoulder and soaking through his jacket and shirt. The older teen had just held him, listening to everything he said. He made no comment about Steve being in love with a guy even though he had every opportunity to. Eddie stroked his hair, offered him comfort, and told him it would all be okay and that he would find love again.
They became friends after that, and a few months later, Steve found happiness again with Eddie curled under his sheets. It still hurt that Billy was gone, but he knew the other would have wanted him to move on. He still wore Billy’s necklace, and Eddie always kissed it with reverence and apology to a boy he only knew in passing.
When shit hit the fan and they were face to face with demons again, Steve had told Eddie one thing: “Don’t be a fucking hero.”
Of course, Eddie didn’t listen to him.
He went ahead, forever the martyr, and he sacrificed himself to save the lives of four freshmen, a senior, a junior, and the boy he was in love with. Steve had screamed and cried, kicked and sobbed as he watched the second boy he loved spit blood down his chin and smile sadly at him. Eddie had slipped his rings off, dropping them in Steve’s hand with the last of his strength. “I love you,” he had choked out, blood splattering on Steve’s face.
“I love you too,” Steve had sobbed, clinging to his arm. It was the first and last time he ever said those words to Eddie’s face.
Robin had dragged him away, telling him the portal would close if they didn’t go right then. Steve had tried to fight her, but then Dustin was there, crying about the death of his friend, and he couldn’t make the boy go through losing him too.
Dealing with the aftermath of Eddie’s death was worse than Billy’s. He stared in bed for months . His parents grew annoyed with him, and his friends called daily in worry. He lost nearly forty pounds, turning into a walking skeleton. Eddie’s rings sat on a different chain around his neck, and he constantly held onto the remnants of his boys.
When he finally came out of his room, none of the others recognized him. His hair was flat, greasy, and lifeless. His clothes hung awkwardly on his skinner frame. His cheeks were sunken in, and his eyes were ringed with bags. His skin was several shades lighter, almost translucent in places.
His parents sent him into a program. Pills were shoved down his throat to make him sleep, and then more were added to stop his nightmares and screaming. They kept him nearly overdosed on antidepressants. He turned into a zombie, staring out a window but seeing nothing.
It was the worst year of his life, but he learned a valuable lesson. He learned how to lie and make himself look normal. He ate his meals, careful to throw them back up only when he knew no one was looking. He took his pills, finding comfort in the numbness. He learned how to hide his depression behind shockingly easygoing smiles. Taught himself how to speak and what to say until he had the entire place wrapped around his finger, and they discharged him back into his parents' care.
The lying never stopped. He had flushed his pills down the toilet once he had gotten them as he found comfort in other things. Once again, he was smoking pot to ease the pain in his chest. He cried about Eddie every time he did, and when he found himself throwing up in the toilet from the side effects, he thought of Billy and his missing heart.
Keeping his real feelings to himself, he successfully managed the front that his friends couldn’t see behind anymore. The mask was like a second skin, and Steve was fine most days with it, but on other days, the itch to slice it off was too much.
Billy’s pocket knife was helpful those nights. In the beginning, his hand had shaken too much, and the cuts on his legs were wobbly. After a few tries, he grew comfortable and confident, and he sliced the mask away with ease, leaving behind perfectly straight and even scars.
Now, everyone that he had moved on. Of course, he hadn’t. He had sworn off love and stopped dating entirely. He couldn’t even hook up anymore. No one was like Billy, and no one was like Eddie.
“Stevie?”
He blinked, turning to look down at Robin who was looking up at him with concern. Oh, no, he was slipping… “Are you sure you’re okay?” she pressed, holding onto the corndog he couldn’t even remember ordering.
“Yeah,” he said softly, and his voice sounded tired to his own ears. He needed to gather himself again. He needed to put the mask back in place.
Robin handed him the corndog before reaching up to cup his cheek, stroking her thumb under his eye. It reminded him too much of how Eddie used to hold his face when he had nightmares about Billy, so he pulled away, fighting back tears. “It’s okay to not be okay, you know,” she said softly, frown twisting her features down.
“I’m fine,” he choked out, taking a bite of the corndog just to do something else.
“Stevie,” she pressed, “you’re not fine, and it’s okay. You lost-”
“Can we not talk about this?” he asked quickly, looking down at her with red-rimmed eyes on the verge of tears. Her frown deepened, but she nodded, taking his hand and giving it a squeeze.
“I’m here for you.”
Don’t be, he wanted to say. He had always been afraid of losing Robin and Dustin, the next two people he loved. He felt cursed after losing Billy and then Eddie. He was always afraid that his two best friends would crumble into dust if he held onto them too tight. “Thank you,” he said instead because that’s what was expected of him. His mask was sliding back in place. “Want to go on the Ferris Wheel now?”
She watched him nervously like he was a caged animal. He felt like one. Like a tiger in too small of a cage, pacing behind the bars and clawing to climb out. Bile started to rise in the back of his throat. “We don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
“I want to,” he said quickly.
She frowned for a moment. “Promise you’ll tell me if anything is up?”
He swallowed. “I promise,” he agreed.
After finishing their food, Steve ran to the bathroom while Robin waited in line. His corndog quickly ended up in the trash as well as the rest of the contents of his stomach. Bile came up towards the end, burning his throat, and he tried to forget about how it reminded up of the Upside Down and Eddie’s blood on his face.
He rushed back to Robin, barely making it in time to join her. They climbed into the car, and she immediately clung onto his arm. He chewed his gum aggressively, hoping that it combined with the water he used to rinse out his mouth, would hide what he had done.
He held her close, stroking her hair, as they relaxed and enjoyed the view. Too bad Steve hadn’t been paying attention to what time it was.
The first firework went off just as they hit the top of the Ferris Wheel, the gears creaking as it came to a stop. He assumed they were emptying the car at the bottom and putting a new couple in. “Fireworks!” Robin gasped.
Steve swallowed his gum and tried hard not to shake. As the fireworks continued to explore, images flashed before his eyes. Images of the Spider Monster bearing over them. The creature taking up the center of the mall. The fireworks they had thrown at the beast, watching them explode in a colorful array. The roar it had let out as Billy stood in front of it. Billy-
Tears immediately sprung to his eyes. The image of Billy standing before the Spider Monster, staring up at it in a mixture of terror and resolve as its flowered mouth opened and revealed its fanged teeth. El on the floor, whimpering and crying as she tried to get away from the beast. Billy’s hands caught in the creature’s tongue, defending a girl he didn’t even know. His screams as he used his strength - feeble as it was at the time - to keep the creature back. The tentacled mouths shooting out, digging into his abdomen and sinking their teeth into his waist. His screams cutting out as he dropped to his knees, blood pouring from his mouth before the tongue shot forward again and tore his heart from his chest, his head flinging back. His eyes finding Steve’s across the mall, and how Steve watched as the pain bleed away into the wide-eyed look of a kid that was afraid to die before collapsing as the tentacles let go. Dead before Steve could even scream.
The image changed. Eddie was on the ground in the dirt, legs bent funny with blood on his mouth. A bruise was forming around his neck and blood soaking into his Hellfire shirt at his waist. His hands and feet twitching as his body continued to pump blood in an effort to survive but only succeeded in killing the boy faster. His brown eyes were so wide, pain and fear filling them with tears. Dustin holding onto him, calling his name. Those eyes found him, looked so much like Billy’s before whispering his final goodbye.
Steve didn’t even know he was screaming, thrashing around in the cart and doing everything he could just to get away. Get away from the fear, the memories, the trauma, and the deaths of his two beloved boys. He didn’t notice the wheel moving again or Robin screaming over him, trying to catch himself before he flung himself out of the wheel entirely.
The door opened, and he was gone, running and screaming with the fireworks behind him. He couldn’t hear his friends calling him or running after him. He couldn’t hear or see anything besides Billy and Eddie. The boys screams filled his ears, making him cover his eyes to try and stop the noise. The images wouldn’t stop. He kept seeing them. Both of them.
They kept calling out to him, begging for help, and he couldn’t do a damn thing. He wasn’t strong enough. He was never strong enough!
He collapsed in the middle of the woods, legs giving out under him. He gasped wildly, looking around the space and only seeing more phantom memories. Billy was on his knees to the left, reaching out for him before his heart seemingly exploded from his chest. Eddie was on his right, twisted up like one of Vecna’s victims, jaw broken but still moving as he called out to Steve.
Sobbing louder, Steve curled in on himself, burying his head in his knees and holding on tight. He wanted it to stop. He needed it to stop. If he couldn’t have them, then he needed to be free of them, but he knew he would never be free. A throat crossed his mind, and suddenly his tears dried up.
He pushed himself up, wiping his sleeve over his eyes. The sounds of footsteps came closer, and he looked around to see that the woods had lost Billy and Eddie. Robin was the first one through the trees, followed immediately by Dustin.
“Steve!” they screamed, running up to him.
His breath came out in a shaky gasp as they threw their arms around him, the others coming into view. Well, except for Nancy and Max, but neither of them were in running condition exactly.
“Are you okay?!” Lucas called, sliding up to the trio.
“I’m fine,” Steve said quietly.
“Fine?!” The kids and Robin snapped. “You started screaming on the Ferris Wheel. They had to spin the whole thing and get you off, and then you just went running through the fucking grounds and into the woods!” Robin snapped.
“I’m sorry,” Steve tried again. A numbness was beginning to cover him, filling his limbs with lead and making him heavy. He wanted to go home. “The fireworks…” he started.
“Oh, shit,” Dustin cursed. “I should have mentioned them.”
“I just wasn’t expecting it. It had me thinking about what happened. At the mall.”
The others grew quiet, looking between each other. After his time in the psychiatric hospital, he ended up telling them all about him and Billy as well as his romance with Eddie. None of them had known about it at the time, and they felt guilty for not understanding their friend in his time of need. Now it made sense to them all while Steve always hid inside during the fireworks and avoided the trailer park.
“We’re sorry,” Robin said. “I forgot. I’m so stupid, I forgot-”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said softly with a shake of his head. “I thought I’d be better after all these years.”
“You don’t have to rush,” Jonathan said, crouching down beside the trio. “We understand, you know.”
“I know,” Steve admitted though he knew deep down that they didn’t. They all had their significant others. None of them had to watch the love of their life get murdered by monsters. Twice.
Helping him stand, the others stayed close to him as he dusted off his pants. The fireworks had stopped, and he felt like he could breathe again. The images of Billy and Eddie stayed away for now too. “I should go home.”
“Steve,” Robin argued, “you just had a massive panic attack.”
“Yeah, and I’m fuckin’ exhausted because of it,” he quipped, sighing heavily. “I just want to go home and sleep.”
“I’ll go with you,” Dustin said.
“No,” Steve cut in, “Suzie came all this way to see you.”
“Then I will,” Robin said. “I’ll just tell Vickie I can’t.”
“I’m fine,” Steve argued, feeling the beginning of annoyance. The scars on his thighs were beginning to itch. “I’m just gonna go home and sleep.”
“Well, at least let me drive you,” Jonathan argued.
“I drove here.”
“We’ll take you to get your car in the morning. I don’t want you passing out on the wheel and getting yourself killed.”
Steve sighed and agreed, and the group walked back towards the carnival. Robin took Steve to Jonathan’s car while the others went to get Max and Nancy. The pair stayed close together while they waited. “I’m worried about you,” Robin finally said.
“Don’t be,” Steve answered. “I’m f-”
“If you say you’re fine one more time, I swear I’m kicking you in the nuts,” she threatened. He chuckled at her words, looking down at her again. Guilt twisted inside him.
“I really am, birdie,” he said, tucking a stray lock behind her ear.
“No, you’re not. You’re getting skinny again, Steve,” she argued. “You’re bony, and you’re having more attacks again. Plus you’ve been zoning out.” Did she learn all that from just one night? Maybe his mask wasn’t as good as he thought.
“You know March and July are hard for me,” he tried to say.
“So are the months before, between, and after,” she sighed. Turning, she reached for his hands, holding them tight in hers. “I’m afraid you’re going to go to the hospital again,” she confessed, voice small and cracking around the edges. Her eyes were filled with unshed tears as she looked up at him. He suddenly wished she was enough to change his mind.
“I’m not going back to the hospital,” he promised, squeezing her hands.
“Have you been taking your meds?”
“Every day,” he lied.
“Then why are you getting worse?” she questioned, tears beginning to slip.
He swallowed down the truth and painted another pretty lie. “Maybe they’re not working as well anymore. I’ll call my doctor and ask about changing them or upping the dose.”
She nodded, and he let go of her hands to wipe her tears away. Embracing her, he felt his heart lurch. Robin didn’t deserve this. Didn’t deserve to listen to his lies and worry herself sick over whether or not his depression was drowning him again. He wanted to take her stress away…
The others came in a few minutes later, and the two friends parted. Steve took the time to hug each of them tightly, wishing each a silent goodbye. He climbed into the backseat of Jonathan’s car, watching as the others went their separate ways.
“Are you sure you’re okay, Steve?” Nancy asked, doing her best to turn in the passenger seat to look at him.
“Yeah,” he answered, leaning forward to press a kiss on her cheek. “Just… had a rough night.”
Jonathan said nothing as they drove, and Steve looked out the window. All he saw were familiar places, and as each passed him by, he said goodbye. They ended up at Steve’s parents’ house not even ten minutes later. “Thanks for the ride,” he said, leaning forward to give Nancy’s cheek another kiss before thinking, fuck it, and landing one on Jonathan’s. The man chuckled softly.
“You promise to call if you need anything?” Nancy asked.
“I promise.” She stared up at him as he climbed out of the car. He offered her a smile before waving as Jonathan slowly took off down the road again. “Goodbye,” he whispered after the car was long gone.
Turning, Steve slowly walked up the driveway, unlocked the house, and made his way upstairs. His parents were gone - no real surprise there. They were always gone, especially after Steve’s trip to the psych ward. They couldn’t stand to look at him or be near him, so they just kept enough money in his account to survive, paid the bills on the house, and never called.
Tonight, it didn’t bother Steve.
By the time he entered his room, his nerves were creeping up again. He slowly stripped himself down, tossing his clothes in the overflowing dirty laundry pile in the corner. Thinking for a minute, he decided to shower.
He kept the water ice cold as he did so, using the time to mentally prepare himself. He was going to see his boys again.
After his shower, he didn’t bother to dry off instead walking back to his room even though he was trembling from the cold. Sitting on his bed, Steve reached for his end table and the hidden box in the back. Billy’s pocket knife glistened in the low light of his room. His thighs itched again, specifically around his mountain of scars.
The crisscrossed network of healed cuts had turned his thighs into a depressing mosaic. Sometimes cutting was the only way to get his brain to turn off. Sometimes it was the only thing that let him forget about his pain. Tonight… Tonight it would bring him comfort in the best way possible.
He started as he always did, cleaning the blade with his stashed away alcohol. Then he let out a breath as he pressed the tip into his thigh and sliced through the tortured skin. The relief that twisted in his gut made him let out a sigh. It felt like the memories of before was slowly dripping out of him as the river of blood moved quickly.
He cut himself again, and again, and again. He reopened nearly every scar. His thighs were bleeding terribly now. The scent of copper filled his nose, and he shivered in the humidity of his bedroom. He looked down, seeing his handiwork creating small pools of blood on his sheets. Normally, he tried not to make a mess, but he didn’t care tonight. He didn’t care about anything anymore.
Reaching behind him, Steve unclasped the two necklaces he wore. He slipped Billy’s mother’s wedding ring off first, sliding it onto his left ring finger. He has always taken it as a promise of their future together. Billy had been shy about showing and eventually gifting it to him, so Steve cherished it. It was loose on his finger where it once had been tight. He really had lost weight…
Then he slipped Eddie’s rings on his fingers. They had always been too big, but he didn’t mind. He felt closer to them now as he reclasped the necklaces. He looked up, catching sight of himself in the mirror.
He looked like a ghost. Too pale and bony. He was sharp everywhere he once was soft. He looked dwarfed in his bed. Steve looked away, disgusted with himself. Looking down at the knife, he sighed once more before pressing it into his left wrist. He cut quick and deep, gasping at the new pain. His mind was already hazy from early and the bleeding of his legs, so he moved quickly. Clumsily taking the knife in his left hand, he slit his other wrist before falling back onto his bed.
A coldness was beginning to creep into his toes and fingertips. He closed his eyes and welcomed it as he kissed each ring. “Let me see my boys again,” he whispered to who he didn’t know. Just to something. Anything that would listen and make his dreams come true.
Steve’s eyes slipped closed, and he drifted to sleep with a smile on his lips.
~*~
A warmth tickled his cheeks. Steve grunted and tried to bat it away, but his wrists ached. “Wake up,” a voice whispered to him. The warmth returned, more insistent this time.
“Wake up,” the voice cooed again. No, wait, that voice was different.
Steve grunted again, turning into his pillow. “Leave me alone.”
“Six years and that’s all you have to say to me?”
The voice finally seemed to register, and Steve sat up, whipping his head around. Billy was there, stupid curly mullet sleep ruffled, stupid fucking face smiling at him, stupid tan making his skin glow in the morning rays. He gasped, staring at the man. “Billy?” he whispered finally.
The other chuckled, reaching out and gently running the back of his knuckles along Steve’s cheek. “The one and only.”
“Don’t forget me.”
Steve turned, seeing Eddie now stretching like a cat. He was shirtless, tattoos on display with the sheet around his hips. His hair was also a mess in that adorable way it got when they spent too much time lying awake at night talking and not sleeping. “Eddie?”
“Mhmm,” he hummed, propping himself up on his elbow before leaning in close. His warm eyes melted the coldness around Steve’s heart. “That’s my name, don’t wear it out.”
A choked sob came out of Steve as he threw one of his arms around each of his boys. “Billy! Eddie!” he cried, clinging as tight as he could. The boys hugged him back, holding his skinny frame gingerly but with enough strength to ground him. “I missed you!”
“Is that why you did it?” Billy asked softly, nosing at Steve’s temple.
“Did what?”
“Kill yourself,” Eddie answered.
It was quiet for a moment, the boys pulling back to look at their newly deceased lover. “Steve…” Eddie started, cupping his cheek. He wasn’t wearing any of his rings. “Why did you do it?”
Steve sniffled, wiping his eyes only to wack the rings against them. He looked down, Eddie’s rings still on his own fingers. Slipping them off, he stole his partner’s hand and slipped the rings back onto the correct fingers. “I missed you too much.”
“That’s not a good reason,” Billy argued. “It wasn’t your time yet.”
Steve shrugged, unclasping the necklace around his neck and tying it back behind Billy’s. “I couldn’t go on without you.”
“Steve,” Eddie sighed, sitting up and pulling him in close. “Look at yourself.” Too embarrassed and suddenly very ashamed, Steve refused, clinging to Eddie instead while also curling his hand into Billy’s. “You’re not yourself anymore.”
“I wasn’t myself after you died,” Steve admitted, finding the tears still rising. He thought he was dried up at this point.
“You weren’t supposed to do this,” Billy argued, pressing a kiss to a pointed shoulder.
“I don’t care,” Steve said quickly. “I’m just happy to be with you again.”
“At the cost of your own life?” Eddie asked. “We would have kept waiting for you.”
Steve shook his head. “How was I supposed to keep on going? I could barely even get out of bed.”
“You were supposed to do it for us.”
“For you?” Steve snapped, pulling away and poking Eddie in the chest. “I told you not to do anything stupid!”
Eddie frowned, cupping the now angered boy’s cheek. “I did it to save you.”
Shaking his head again, Steve frowned. “You didn’t have to. We would have been fine.”
“No,” Billy said gently, “you wouldn’t have.” Steve turned to look at him, about to say something before Billy continued. “Someone had to die that night. Someone had to take Max’s place. It was the only way to balance the scales.”
“And now you’ve tipped them again,” Eddie said. “Things will have to be fixed.”
“Fixed?” Steve asked, looking between them. He had a sinking feeling… He started sobbing again, clinging onto his boys tightly. “I don’t have to go back, do I?! Please tell me I don’t have to!” The looks on Billy’s and Eddie’s faces were enough. His sobs only grew louder, and he clung tighter to them. “No, please! Please, don’t make me go back! I can’t live without you! I can’t!”
“It’s not your time, Steve,” Billy said, and it was clear that he was getting choked up as well. Eddie was crying softly, droplets hitting Steve’s bare skin.
“No, please! I don’t care that it’s not my time! I don’t care! I can’t do it anymore!”
“It’s not our decision, little one,” Eddie whispered, holding his partner tight. “You need to go back now.”
Suddenly, the sounds of a heart monitor were heard beeping faintly in the background. “No!” Steve screamed.
“Let go, Steve,” Billy whispered.
“No,” he sobbed.
“It’s not your time,” Eddie said again, pressing a bruising kiss to Steve’s shoulder.
“We’ll see you soon,” Billy promised, tears running down his own cheeks.
The sounds of the heart monitor were growing louder, and Steve could feel the cold beginning to seep into his bones again. “No,” he begged, trying to keep his hold on his boys. He could feel his grip slipping through, and Billy and Eddie both were beginning to pull back. “Please!”
“We love you…”