Chapter Text
Chapter one:
Chrissy, are you there?
Chrissy Cunningham didn't go to school that day.
It was Thursday, just two days away from spring break. The sun had already set, and her pink bedroom was covered in the dim warm light that was coming just from the in betweens of the shutters.
Mornings were always an easy thing for Chrissy. She appreciated them more than any other time of the day, since it was when she could mostly find peace and start off in a way she desired.
But that Thursday wasn't like every other day. Chrissy wasn't feeling alright.
She had already set her usual alarm to wake up, but ended up with a horrible headache, once again. That last week had been a huge torture for her. No matter what she did, or where she went, she'd always have that headache. A sharp, intense pain going right through her eye and nailing her brain in the back of her skull.
She winked a few times, trying to wipe off the foggy vision in her eyes. As she got off her bed, she tried to head towards the bathroom in her own room.
Phillip, Chrissy's dad, was working side by side with the former mayor of Hawkins, a fact that stored in for the Cunninghams lots of money, and a wide house. They lived in the suburbs of Hawkins, just a few blocks away from the mayor.
The girl was weirded out by how dizzy she was feeling; she had to grab the door knob in order to stand still. Her eyes were blurry, but she could still make out the space in the room. Once she figured out the sink's location, she leaned on it, trying to stay in position.
The mirror seemed dirty, full of hot steam sticking on it like fog on a window. She lifted her arm in order to wipe it, but noticed there was nothing on the glass; it was her eyesight that tricked her.
The ache kept sharpening her skull more and more. Now, it reached the point her eyes got sucked in her brain, causing her ears to ring from the high blood pressure. Or at least she thought.
She sensed something liquid running on her upper chin.
It was blood.
Chrissy stared at it, shocked. She didn't have a nosebleed before, even though she's been in that type of situation. She shut her eyes, trying to breathe.
And then, the phone rang.
Chrissy picked it up in no time. "Hello?"
"Chrissy, are you there?" A deep, raspy voice asked. Chrissy stopped. Only a few seconds later did her brain start to function.
"Dad?"
"Do you think this is your father?" The voice, now lower, questioned. Something about it made her guts tighten, she didn't like this.
"Who are you, then?"
"Hey, Chrissy". The voice did, with much more sarcasm this time. "Who do you think I am?"
A sense of uneasiness took over her. The person on the phone was obviously using some type of machine to alter their voice. Talking to a stranger was never easy. "I don't know ...what do you want?"
"The question is not 'who I am' or 'what I want'. The question is 'where am I', don't you think?"
The girl tried to keep calm. She was now dreadful during this call, and she wanted it to end. "Wh...where are you, then?"
"Step towards your window and you'll see."
Chrissy stepped towards her room window, and pushed the curtains aside.
"I ...I don't see anything." She said as she was gazing through the courtyard outside their house.
"How so?" The voice wondered.
Chrissy gulped. "There's no one out there"
"I didn't say there was gonna be anyone"
Then, a slight cold breeze blew on her face through the partially open window. The girl lifted her head up, seeing a mass of dark clouds spreading all over her house. The clouds got thicker and thicker, and the breeze was now colder.
The sound of cracking autumn leaves was what brought her to gaze back to the grass. She could decipher a small figure, walking right beside the last fence of their surroundings. It was grey, short, and was wearing dirty, ripped rags and no shoes.
The figure walked for a little more, until Chrissy couldn't handle the sight of it.
"Why..why did u do this?" The girl let out a shaky breath.
"Did what?" The same raspy voice replied.
Then, the phone started making unusual noises. Crack after crack, and screech after screech. It pinned her ear, making it ache.
Chrissy immediately checked outside, the figure was not there anymore, and the sunlight returned like before.
The noises from the phone paused.
Now, there was a sharp screech, even louder.
"Chrissy... CHRISSY?? I've loosened it up for you sweetheart... you're gonna look absolutely amazing!" Another, loud and high pitched voice came out of it. A voice she has been hearing all of her life until…until her mother died. Many years ago.
But that wasn't normal. None of it was. Chrissy tried to collect her thoughts and calm down. Out of everything; the random guy that called her, the scary figure, her mom's voice… It was too much. But that last one shook her up for a lot of reasons.
She banged the phone on its holder, and it broke into several pieces.
Instantly, her father entered her room, wondering what's going on. "Everything alright? I heard noises."
The girl nodded positively. She lied. Nothing was ok.
The next day, Friday, she decided to go to school normally. She didn't wake up with a headache so she thought she would be fine.
Mid-day, and Eddie asked her to meet in the woods for drug dealing. She would only buy weed, but Eddie had suggested something stronger.
Seeing Eddie after this whole time loosened up her thoughts a bit. Like removing a big weight from her. Eddie was cheerful, despite all this, and he also reminded her of the moment they first met, when she had longer hair and he had a buzzcut.
Besides that, the whole hangout was delightful, Chrissy mentioned her new crush, Vickie, as Eddie did his best to advise her on how to get girls -it didn't work.
Until she mentioned her most recent call.
To her surprise, Eddie wasn't as shocked as she thought he'd be. Instead, he took it calm, staring at her like something awful would happen due to that call.
"Did you get many calls like this?"
Chrissy shook her head in disagreement. "Why?"
Eddie's eyes narrowed, thinking it might have been the same call he got the other day. "It's just…there's some - many - people calling just for pranks and to scare others. Take care, will you?"
The girl agreed. "Sure will."
And with that, Chrissy returned home.
That night, the same feeling of being watched took over. She replayed the moment in her head multiple times, trying to catch hints or signs on Eddie's expressions.
He behaved weirdly, nothing stood out. Was Eddie the one that called her, that's why he knew about all this?
To quiet down her thoughts, she decided to take the stronger drug Eddie had given; she hoped it would have some effect.
Once she was about to sniff the white dust off her desk, the phone rang.
"Hello?" Chrissy answered.
"Hello again." The same, raspy voice as before spoke.
Chrissy panicked, starting to breathe loudly "What do you want?"
"Oh, I'm pretty sure you know what I want" The voice was now menacing. And after long seconds passed, he finally spoke again. "What's your favourite scary movie?"
"I..I don't like scary movies." The grill let out a shaky breath.
"Come on, you gotta have one, everyone does"
"T..the evil dead." She strutted. It was the first movie that came to mind, and after watching it once, it scared her to death. Maybe with that one that horrific experience with this call would end.
"Isn't this the one with the Teenagers getting possesed by a demon in a campsite?" The voice pondered.
"It was a wooden cabin." She corrected him in fear.
"Right...do you wanna know what my favourite movie is?"
"What is it." She did.
"Nightmare on Elm street." The voice answered.
"Isn't this the one… with the guy… with the claws?" Chrissy did in between her intense breaths. Talking and even thinking about these films brought her a feeling of feasibility.
"Yeah. The one who hunts teenagers in their dreams" The voice was now fading away, as if it echoed all over the place. Chrissy gulpep, she was frightened.
The echo was now louder, waving away from her bedroom. She felt chills on her spine.
Chrissy returned to the already broken phone. "Why..why are you telling me that?"
"Why do you think…"
Unexpectedly, the phone began screeching again, and making an extremely sharp sound that stapled her right ear as she was holding the phone. After a while, that same high pitched voice came out of it.
It was her mom's voice, yelling.
Chrissy couldn't handle it. She banged the phone back to its position, damaging it even more. Tears started rolling down her cheeks.
She decided to call Eddie. If she called anyone else, like Jason - with whom they weren't on good terms- he'd worry, and probably would put her in a mental hospital if he heard all that's happening. And, of course, she didn't want him to know she started drugs. Overall, he was an asshole.
"Hi Eddie…"she did as soon as Eddie picked up.
"Hi, all ok? Did the drug kick in?" Eddie was curious.
"Eddie...does the drug make you hallucinate?" Chrissy didn't remember if she consumed the amount of the drug that was on her desk or not. Everything seemed so real, yet fake, if she indeed sniffed the drug, then everything was just in her mind.
"No, I mean...it can make you dizzy and stuff but...it doesn't give you hallucinations… Why?"
The girl paused. "Do you remember the calls I told you that I've been getting earlier today?"
"Yeah…" Eddie did.
"I got one now. It..it was the same guy as before." And she kept on describing what he asked her, about the horror movies, and the event that took place afterwards. The more she was explaining, the more she felt a new presence in the house.
She didn't want to be alone.
Moments passed after the call, she stayed still. The phone rang again, but thankfully died due to the damage.
She didn't want to leave her bedroom. She headed for the window, impatient on when Eddie would be there, how much time it would take him to come.
She thought about biting her nails from feeling on edge, but it wasn't worth it. She hadn't put her hands in her mouth in years. She wasn't 6 years old anymore.
She turned around to feel the breeze of the open window on her back.
Instantly, something grabbed her from her throat, making her choke intensely.
Chrissy grabbed the hand, thankful that her dad had taught her how to fight. She pulled the hand away with force, turned around, and twisted it a fair amount in order to get out of there, and ran to the door.
She didn't manage to see the person; looked like a guy, and was wearing a white , scary and long mask.
She ran downstairs with speed, and tried to open the door so as to leave as soon as possible.
With tears in her eyes, she shook the door handle, but it didn't open. She heard the guy coming over, with heavy, steady steps.
"Where are you going, Chrissy?" The guy said, leaning towards her.
Chrissy breathed. Where the fuck was Eddie? Why was he not there..yet? Or....
The guy pushed her to the door, making her bump her spine on the doorknob. He twisted and squeezed her backwards, caging her like a small bird. He ignored her little whining and the infinite tears rolling down her cheeks.
"No..please, Eddie no.."She bawled. Honestly, she didn't know why she thought it was Eddie.
The guy pulled out a knife, facing it towards her stomach.
"Chrissy!" Eddie's screams could be heard from afar. "Chrissy!"
"Eddie!" Chrissy yelled. The guy seemed to pull away for a while, as if he was scared of Eddie's voice. But he didn't flinch; he placed the knife back to the same area, threatening her with her life.
Chrissy was somehow relieved it wasn't Eddie behind the mask.
The guys flinched again; Eddie was now banging the door with force in order to break in. He pushed Chrissy even more, preventing Eddie from succeeding entering.
The guy pushed her onto the door with all his strength again, and stabbed her not once, but over twice in the stomach.
Chrissy stopped screaming from the pain. Now, what was left of her fell down on the floor, slowly soaking in blood.
"CHRISSY!" Eddie screamed at the top of his lungs, pushing the door for good once he noticed there was nothing blocking it; when he saw Chrissy's dead body laying on the floor he lost the earth below his feet. He leaned beneath her, not able to stand still after witnessing that Chrissy was having several spams for a while, one after the other, before she finally let out her last breath.
"Shit". The guy was still standing opposite him. Eddie raised his sight to him, still in shock. He glared at the dead body, drowning in blood. Eddie, in anger now, wanted to chase the guy until he was dead himself.
The guy lifted his head to Eddie's sight, he was staring at the body this whole time. Once he saw Eddie was not just sad, but angry about the whole thing, he ran away.
Eddie went after him. He ran upstairs, following him, and ended up in Chrissy's bedroom, only to find an open window with some now broken glasses all over the place.
He stood there, trying to catch his breath.
The guy ran away. Chrissy was dead. And she didn't take any of the drugs from before; her desk was still full of white dust.
Thanks to his quick thinking, he cleaned the powder from her desk, avoiding any drug mentions later on.
He returned as fast as he could back to the hall, but the body wasn't there anymore.
It was slowly floating above the surface of the earth. Eyes wide open, completely white, as if there was now no sign of life anymore.
"Oh no, no,no…." Eddie repeated over and over. The body now reached the ceiling; once it did, lights started going on and off, flickering and causing a huge, intense black flash. The windows were opening and closing on their own; the place was now extremely cold.
Eddie felt a presence standing behind him. He didn't bother to check.
Her now dead body slammed on the ceiling with a loud thumb.
"JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!"
Chrissy's limbs started snapping one by one. First the arms then the legs. And then, as if this wasn't enough, her eyes popped entirely out of her eyelids with a loud pop. The view wasn't only terrifying, but also disgusting.
Eddie screamed again at that horrific and disgusting view.. within a few minutes all of her bones were out of place, as her eyeballs weren't in her lids whatsoever. Eddie was shocked. He couldn't imagine that this would ever happen to anyone, especially an innocent girl like Chrissy.