Chapter Seventy-Three: Is This A Dream?

The first thing I heard was the sound of a clock chiming...and then I opened my eyes. 

I was standing in the living room of a trailer, and standing there, staring out the window, was none other than Chrissy Cunningham. She yanked the curtains closed, whirling around, only to let out a shriek when she saw me standing there.

"What are you doing here?!" She exclaimed. 

"Wait, what?" I asked. "What are you talking about?"

"I told you in the parking lot to leave me alone or I'd get a restraining order! Eddie!" She ran past me, down the hall towards one of the bedrooms. I followed her, keeping my distance by standing at the end of the hallway.

"Is this actually happening?" I asked. She ignored me, running into the room at the end of the hall.

"Eddie?! Mom..."

"Just loosening this up for you, sweetheart. You're going to look absolutely beautiful." Towards the end of the sentence, the voice of a woman distorted into that same deep, monstrous voice I had heard in the bathroom.

Chrissy gasped, rushing back into the hall and shutting the door behind her...only to find that the trailer had completely changed around us, and we were now standing in an old, gigantic house. She looked at me with wide eyes.

"Chrissy...I need you to tell me what is going on." I said, walking slowly towards her.

"No, stay away from me!" She shouted. I held up my hands, stopping in place.

"Ok, I know I freaked you out earlier," I said gently, "But Chrissy...I had a dream this afternoon. I saw what happened in the bathroom. I don't know how, or why, but I want to help you because I don't think this is any ordinary dream. Is this a dream, Chrissy?"

"No...I don't know," She cried, "I was with Eddie and then you were here and my mother...I don't know what's happening!" 

The door jerked open behind her and she whirled around, pulling it shut again. I ran over to help her, both of us grabbing onto the doorknob and attempting to force it shut again.

"CHRISSY! CHRISSY, OPEN THE DOOR! LET GO! LET GO! CHRISSY!"

The door slipped out of our grasp, flying open. I pushed Chrissy in front of me.

"Run!" I shouted, taking off down the hallway behind her. We bolted down the stairs, and I quickly began looking for a way out.

"Dad?" I looked up as Chrissy ran into the living room of the house. "Dad...Dad!"

She screamed and I ran in behind her to see a man sitting in an arm chair. His eyes and mouth were sewn shut and he was mumbling, trying to speak to her.

"Chrissy, come on!" I grabbed her hand, going to pull her back into the hallway when all of a sudden the lights began flickering. I pushed her behind my, my hair standing on end as it always did whenever the lights would flicker. 

"Chrissy..." My eyes widened, and I looked up at the stairs to see some kind of veiny, mangled creature slowly making their way down the stairs. I turned around, pushing her in front of me and running back through the living room and out the opposite door as the man attempted to scream at us from his armchair. 

We ran down the hallway, past a rotting, fly and spider infested dinner that was set out on a table. I dragged her out of the dining room and to the front door, jerking it open to reveal that it was all boarded up.

"No!" She shouted.

"Chrissy!"

I stepped back, driving my foot into the boards at full force, but they didn't budge. I sighed, taking several steps back before running at them and ramming my shoulder into them.

"Hurry, he's coming!' She begged. "HELP! HELP, SOMEBODY HELP US!" 

"Chrissy..." I turned around as the man from the stairs, now completely bathed in shadows, slowly made his way towards us. I stepped in front of Chrissy.

" Riley...what are you doing here, Riley?"

"Oh, so you know me then?" I asked. "Well if that's true, then you know that you're not going to touch this girl. Not if I have anything to do with it."

"But you don't...do you? You're not supposed to be here, which means..." 

It was at that moment that several veiny, mangled tentacles shot out of the wall, wrapping around my arms and legs and dragging me backwards so that I was pinned against the wall. I immediately began pulling at them, but they were incredibly strong. Unnaturally strong. 

"I'll deal with you later." He said, stepping up towards Chrissy, who moved so that her back was against the boarded up doorway. 

"Riley?" She whimpered, looking over at me.

"Leave her alone!" I shouted. He ignored me, reaching a slimy, long-fingered hand up to her face.

"Don't cry, Chrissy. Its time...for your suffering...to end." He extended his hand over her face, and she looked up at it with wide, tear-filled eyes as he wrapped his fingers around her head.

The view in my head changed, flashing between Chrissy and this monster and an image of what looked like Chrissy, laying on the floor, her bones all snapping of their own accord. The monster dug his finger violently into her face as her eyes were sucked back into her skull, disappearing and leaving gaping, bloody sockets in their place. I heard a loud scream and then-

I bolted up right in bed, screaming as I fought to catch my breath. Steve wasted no time wrapping his arms around me and pulling me back against his chest.

"Chrissy? CHRISSY!" I shouted, looking around.

"Riles, Riley, calm down." Steve tried, tightening his grip around me. I leaned back into his chest, trying to force myself to calm down as images of the mangled girl still flew through my head. I put a shaking hand over my mouth as tears streamed down my face. "Riley...what happened?"

"Chrissy Cunnigham..." I sobbed, moving my head to look back at him, "Steve...I think Chrissy Cunningham is dead."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what? What are you talking about?"

Instead of answering him, I jumped out of bed and rushed to the storage closet. I didn't know where Chrissy lived, or if she was even at her house in the first place, so I did the only thing I could think to do. Steve followed me out of the bedroom as I ripped open the door and pulled out the box that contained my father's belongings. I dug through it, pulling out his old police uniform and some other such objects until I found what I was looking for; His old police scanner.

"Riley, hold on, can you just slow down for a minute and talk to me?" He asked. I hauled it over to one of our side tables, plugging it in and setting it up before tuning into the Hawkins station.

"I have no way of knowing where she is," I said, wiping tears from my eyes, "And as much as it pains me to say it, I think its too late for me to help her, so the best I can do is just wait and see if Powell gets a call about a body." 

"Ok, you're freaking me out here, can you please just explain what the heck you saw?" I sat down on the couch, burying my head in my hands and trying to catch my breath as the static from the scanner filled the room. He knelt down in front of me, putting a hand on my knee. 

"She could see me, Steve." I said, forcing myself to look up at him. He furrowed his eyebrows.

"What?" I shook my head.

"She knew I was there. It wasn't like a dream, it was like it was really happening, and she could see me and hear me, and she even brought up what happened in the parking lot." I explained. "That thing, whatever it was that attacked her in the bathroom, it was after her again and...it knew who I was."

"How is any of that possible?" Steve questioned, sitting down on the couch beside me. I shook my head.

"I have no idea," I told him, "The only thing even remotely similar that I know if is when Eleven blindfolds herself and watches people, but not only can they not see her, I don't have superpowers."

"And you're sure this wasn't just some elaborate dream?" He asked. I shrugged, glancing over at the police scanner.

"I don't know," I said truthfully, "That's what I'm waiting to find out."

"So...if Chrissy is found dead..." He continued.

"Then my dream was somehow real. It actually happened." He nodded. 

"So...we wait." We both leaned back on the couch, and Steve wrapped an arm around me. I folded my legs beside me and laid my head on his shoulder, both of us anxiously awaiting the call that we desperately hoped would never come. 

~~~

"All available units, we've got a potential 10-35 down at the Munson place. I repeat, potential 10-35, reports say we've got a body."

Steve had fallen asleep again, but I was wide awake, sitting beside him with my knees drawn to my chest when the call finally came in. Steve jerked awake as the scanner roared to life early Saturday morning.

"10-35?" He asked.

"Potential 10-35," I corrected, "Major Crime Alert."

"It could be someone else." He tried. I shook my head, standing up  from the couch.

"Its at the Munson place," I replied, pushing my hair out of my face, "Chrissy told me in the dream that she was Eddie."

I walked into our bedroom again, opening our closet and beginning to pull out clothes to wear. Steve followed me, leaning against the doorframe.

"What are you doing?"

"What do you think I'm doing? I'm going down there." I said, walking over to my dresser to get a pair of jeans. 

"Going down there?" He asked. "Riley, its a crime scene." 

"Yeah, a crime scene that Powell will be running point on. He's not gonna send me away. Besides, I'm only going to confirm that what happened in my dream was real." I explained.

"Well...what about work?" He questioned. I shrugged.

"Guess I'm calling in sick."

~~~

I arrived at the trailer park only moments after the police did, so they had yet to set up a barricade to keep people out. I climbed out of my truck just as Powell and Callahan walked up to the man who'd made the call.

"Mr. Munson," Powell greeted, "Where is she?"

"I just found her there," He said, gesturing back towards his trailer, "I swear, I don't even know her name. I never seen her 'fore." 

"Just calm down and stay back." Powell told him, heading for the trailer. Someone stepped up beside me, and I glanced over to see that it was Max, still dressed in her pajamas. It was only now that I remembered she lived here. 

Powell and Calahan stepped inside the trailer, leaving the door open behind them. I maneuvered myself so that I could see into the trailer through the cops that were handling civilians in the yard...and sure enough, laying on the floor with her arms contorted behind her back...was Chrissy Cunningham, still wearing her Hawkins Cardigan over her cheer uniform. 

Max stepped up beside me just as one of the officers slapped a hand down on our shoulders.

"You can't be out here. Get back inside." He said. "Back inside.

"Right, sorry." I said, grabbing Max's shoulders and steering her back towards her house, where her mother was standing on the porch. "Get dressed, try to radio the others."

"You think something is going on?" She asked. I swallowed nervously, nodding in response.

"Pretty confident in that idea, yeah."