Chapter Text
Wayne Munson had always loved his nephew.
From the moment his brother, Dennis Munson, showed him the little devil.
Edward ‘Eddie’ Munson had been a large baby, his fat rolled over his small body and his arms were large and swollen, Wayne had laughed at how puggy he was at the time and teased his sister in law over it calling him ‘Pilsbury’ for the first few months of his life.
But as Eddie grew he slowly began to fit into the rolls of his skin and ironically by age 4 the boy was rather scrawny looking, despite that he was always full of energy. There was never a dull moment babysitting him; he'd find ways to crawl onto the highest shelf, locate the most dangerous of items, and wake up at the earliest time possible.
When he wasn't wreaking havoc on sleep schedules though he was playing pretend, one week he was a cowboy out west riding horses and the next he was a vampire stalking in the night. The kid had such a big imagination and drew a lot of it too, the amount of drawings the kid produced was far more than he and Dennis had ever made combined.
Wayne loved that Eddie was so bright and creative but Dennis was always trying to get him out of his ‘childish’ phase, never truly approved of the way Eddie acted. In private he would often complain to Wayne how Eddie had no interest in sports or fishing and spent a lot of his time doing arts and crafts instead. In his eyes he saw no issue with it, people are born for different things in life and that's just the way it is, but he and his brother had hardly ever seen eye to eye.
Dennis was a complicated man or at least that's what Wayne used to tell himself. Growing up he remembered getting into trouble with his brother quite often, he was the younger of the two so Wayne was raised to listen to Dennis and hardly ever question him.
If his brother dared him to shoplift some cigarettes from a store he’d do it, if Dennis threatened him he would shut up, and if he told Wayne not to tell when he snuck out or sold drugs. He didn't.
Wayne tried to convince himself for many years that's just how siblings were and how family showed love but deep down he always held some kind of discontempt for his brother.
He had tried to keep his thoughts all down for the sake of family for many years, he bit his tongue more times than he could count and allowed most of his brother's misdeeds to go unchecked. The irony of it all though was when Dennis found out he was gay he alerted the whole family and it wasnt long until they all had cut contact with him.
There was no pause for understanding or hesitation, not even a ‘maybe we can change you’ before he was banned from family events and basically disowned. It hurt after years of serving them, helping them, and loving them but as always he just held his tongue, packed his backs, and left without protest. Eddie was just shy of 7 years old when that had happened, and the gift he had bought for him ended up in storage.
It was a difficult time in his life, he tried to linger around other towns in Texas but eventually had to move away and ended up hopping around from state to state for 2 years. He survived by taking odd jobs and shitty apartments before eventually settling in Hawkins, Indiana. It was a small town he could lay low in and though he couldn't get a nice apartment it didn't bust his wallet half as much as most other towns.
Wayne found that he was lonely without the connection of the community he grew up in but didn't miss his family. He missed Eddie but none of the others.
As much as he ran though it seemed like fate had a way of catching up to him and in a bizarre twist of fate, Eddie showed up at his doorstep 11 years old, head buzzed short with a trash bag full of his belongings, and a pair of police officers.
When he spoke with the cops he found out then and there that his sister in law had passed away 3 years back, and that his brother had just been arrested for reckless endangerment of a minor, assault on a police officer, possession of drugs and other illegal substances, and grand theft auto. Apparently no one else in his family wanted to take Eddie in and he was their last attempt before placing him in the foster system.
Had Wayne been a wise man he would’ve let them, but he was never really known for his smarts, so he took Eddie into his small trailer home, the room he had used as storage space got transformed into his room and Eddie got his old room.
As far as he saw it, he and Eddie were the black sheep of their family. No one approved of their ‘lifestyle’. So he wasn't going to abandon him like everyone else had.
At first it was tense. Wayne had never expected to become a caretaker and was unsure how to approach this new responsibility. And Eddie, well he was used to being raised by his father, not a kind fate to his memory.
Eddie used to hide pretty much everything from him and would wait till he either left or was in his own room to step out to get food or watch tv and he only played guitar when Wayne wasn't home. But as time went on they both became more comfortable with each other's presence. Eddie would start to come to him asking for his opinion on drawings or songs he was writing, he even made friends and roped them into a board game he liked a lot.
Of course it wasn't perfect, sometimes when he came home he would find Eddie with a bruised eye or a cut lip and from time to time he had to go to school to pick up Eddie after he got into trouble.
But Wayne never blamed him, Eddie almost always meant well, he had a good heart and half of the cuts he got were from trying to protect his friends or were from the hateful people of Hawkins. And Eddie wasn't the strongest kid, he just wasn't afraid to be himself despite the consequences.
The biggest adjustments though came with budgeting, kids need a lot of things; books, papers, school clothes, shoes, backpacks, calculators, etc. He was happy to provide this of course but Eddie was always looking for ways to justify the space he took up in their home and despite the reassurance Wayne tried to give his nephew always jumped at an opportunity to make money so it wasn't long till he got his first job.
The one good thing Dennis had taught his son was how to fix and understand cars, so Eddie started an apprenticeship at a local mechanic shop by lying about his age and in no time he was upgraded to a part time mechanic. That’s when he started getting into shaddier stuff though, because the owner of the shop was Rick Lipton.
Everyone knew he dealt in drugs, he often did his deals at the shop in fact. The only things the cops were missing was hard evidence against him.
And Wayne wasn’t an idiot; he knew what Eddie was doing behind the scenes, he knew his job alone wouldn't be enough to get him a new guitar or leather jackets. But he also knew that living was expensive and that Eddie deserved to get himself nice things so he mostly let it be. There wasn't much he could do anyway.
Then in High School Eddie formed a club called ‘The Hellfire Club’ it had something to do with his board game, Wayne remembered his nephew showing off the different designs for the logos he had considered and even made shirts for the club members with it. He looked excited for it and as much as Wayne tried to understand the game it always confused him.
But as long as it kept Eddie away from Rick, Wayne was happy.
The following years were all kind of a blur, he had to pick up more hours at the plant to keep him and Eddie floating, he’d never tell him but it was because Eddie isn't working too often at the shop anymore.
And maybe he wasn't paying attention enough but the year he was supposed to graduate Eddie was held back, he learned then that his nephew had been struggling in school, specifically math. Wayne had tried to help but he was just as lost if not even more so than Eddie and the boy had this father’s temper. After 30 minutes of trying to solve the same question he’d become angry and lash out, sometimes leaving for the night and returning the next day.
Unlike his father though he almost always apologized after cooling off.
Despite his efforts, he was held another year.
Eddie promised him that he would graduate this year, but Wayne didn't mind, he never graduated high school either so it would be harsh for him to judge.
Eddie kept his head held high though, and just started pouring more of his passion into his interests like his band and club. At the time he thought the worst thing that could happen is that Eddie failed to graduate and would need to start working for another mechanic shop. But something far worse happened.
In March of 1986 Wayne’s life was turned upside down.
Wayne came home early in the morning from work, he was beyond exhausted and didn't even notice that Eddie’s van was missing from its usual spot, he just walked up to his trailer and found the body of a poor girl lying in his living room. Her corpse was mutilated, arms and legs twisted back in unnatural ways, her eyes had dried blood underneath them, and flies buzzed around her. At first he had first stumbled out of his trailer in shock, nausea hitting him in a wave before the dawning realization hit him and he rushed back in calling for Eddie, he moved past the body and ran through the trailer shouting his name but found no trace of him.
So he called the cops worried someone had attacked Eddie and the girl, it wouldn't be the first time either of them have gotten attacked or followed and if someone like that took Eddie, he couldn't bear to think about what they would do to him considering the body.
But when the police came followed by reporters they all said the same thing. That Eddie had probably killed the girl in his trailer. Wayne at first tried to get them to understand that Eddie has been harassed before and has gotten hurt but each time they drew it back to drugs or metal music or a damn board game as if it had anything to do with it.
He knew Eddie wouldn't do something like this, the boy may cheer and laugh at horror movies but he gags at roadkill. But there was no point trying to fight what people thought, hate runs bright and it wasn't even a day until rumors spread. People glared at him whispering about things they didn't understand and unless they were a reporter they avoided him too. Wayne could hear everything they had to say about how it was only a matter of time, that the boy was always in trouble and that they hoped he'd be caught and arrested.
If Eddie really did run like the cops say then this is why. Wayne knew that.
Not even a full day later agents came by to his trailer and asked to inspect it, he had no fight within him instead he just moved aside and let them in.
To his surprise they asked him to relocate for the time being. It confused him but he also didn't feel like staying in the trailer either so he packed his valuables and needed items. The only issue would be trying to find a place to stay.
An ex boyfriend of his, Luis, was kind enough to let him stay at his place for a bit, and he and his new boyfriend, Alan, expressed their concern for Eddie. Luis had only met Eddie a few times when he was younger but knew that Eddie wasn't capable of taking a life.
Days passed and Wayne was beginning to get desperate, the police werent sending out any search parties and tensions were rising.
So he started putting up flyers himself and asking around the places he knew Eddie hung out but everywhere he went turned out to be a dead end. No one had seen him at the shop, none of his teachers knew anything, the members of Eddie’s band didn't either, and there were no updates from the police, they just shooed him away.
In the end even risked going over to Ricky’s house but as expected no one was there. Wayne walked around the property for a bit and peaked inside one of the windows. There was an open can of food and a pot on the stove but no Eddie.
To make matters worse Alan came home one day frantic and told Wayne and Luis that the majority of the town were ignoring law enforcements now hunting Eddie saying that he’s the leader of a satanic cult.
He knew he couldn't count on the cops helping him find Eddie and now he wasn't even sure there were any souls left in Hawkins who wouldn't shoot Eddie on sight. It hurt him seeing how everyone had twisted the image of his nephew and it hurt even more knowing there was nothing he could do about it even if they did find him.
Both Alan and Luis that night went driving around in their car looking for traces of Eddie, Wayne went by himself in his truck and headed into the woods behind and maybe he was losing his mind but through one of the patches of dense trees he swore could hear Eddie’s voice
Wayne ran around shouting for him in circles but the voice faded and he began to wonder if he ever heard it at all.
The next night was when the earthquake hit.
Alan had been at work in a warehouse when it happened and a pile of collapsing crates landed on his leg and had to be rushed to the hospital. Luis told Wayne he would be staying at the hospital as much as he could but asked if he wouldn mind taking care of his house. Wayne had no complaints; he made sure to keep the place tidy, tend to the garden, and fed the cat.
When he wasn't tending to the house he went out to check on the flyers, if they hadn't been taken down they were defaced.
He never let anyone see how much it affected him, he always kept a straight face as he replaced them silently, occasionally teens or kids would walk past him and shout ‘Devil Boy’ and giggle as they ran off.
Then one fateful day it happened. Wayne had just finished replacing the flyers downtown and went to the temporary shelter set up in the high school, they had a board dedicated to missing persons and resources to help but it never seemed like anyone was bothering to look for Eddie or to help him.
That’s when a small boy approached him, Wayne had instinctively tensed up when he noticed a figure coming up. The kid was walking with a limp and had very politely addressed him as “Mr. Munson”, despite this Wayne was still cautious and attempted to leave before the boy who introduced himself as Dustin could talk more. Then he said:
“I was with him…”
His body ran cold at the words. He could hardly push the words out when he asked where Eddie was, trying to make his voice deep to counter the threatening tears. He knew the answer. There were many dead or missing and more injured.
The small boy stared at him, lip quivering before he pulled out a guitar pick necklace. The first guitar pick Wayne had ever bought for Eddie.
At first he hadn't said anything. He just pressed the pick to his lips and kissed it softly closing his eyes. His whole body had felt weak. He had been searching non-stop for his boy believing that he was alive somewhere and the weight of it all finally crashed on top of him, there was no point in fighting this. So he sat down, looking away as the tears finally broke through. Eddie was gone.
Wayne expected for the boy to just leave, to just leave him with that but instead he sat down with him and talked. Talking how amazing Eddie was, how kind and brave he was.
Then he was hugged. And it all pooled out he sobbed, clutching the necklace, it was the first time he had heard anyone speak so highly of Eddie and with such affection and in the face of everyone else it felt like a small sliver of hope that Eddie’s name wont forever be clouded in satanist conspiracy theories.
“Thank you” was all Wayne could muster.
The next day Wayne went back to the remains of his trailer, it smelt awful and was mostly destroyed, half of it being in the ground. He carefully stepped around carrying a trash bag rummaging through the remains. Most of his mug collection had been shattered but in an act of good grace god seemed to keep his favorite, the Garfield one, intact with just a small chip on his ear. Eddie had bought that one for him.
Halfway through putting stuff into the bag he heard a car pull up when he turned around to face the people ready for a string of curses to be sent his way but instead a boy stepped out of the driver's seat, if he’s remembering correctly that was Steve Harrington, his boss's kid.
Before he could question why he was here of all places others piled out of the car but the only other one he recognized was Dustin who was wearing Eddie’s vest.
The others were two young boys and a slightly older looking girl, they had boxes with them and their eyes didn't hold hate or pity, just remorse.
Mike, Lucas, and Robin were the names of the new people. They had all introduced themselves as friends of Eddie and started helping him by putting the items he had in the trash bag neatly into the boxes Lucas even wrapped up his mug for him to protect it from other items. Then they began rummaging through the remains, picking up items and asking what he would like to keep clearing up trash to see if there was any treasure underneath. With all their help he was able to clear out most of the trailer much quicker than if he had been alone, only one area remained and the others seemed to know too. They excused themselves and headed outside to give him privacy.
If he was being honest he was avoiding the remains of Eddie’s room.
When he finally mustered up the courage he found Dustin there holding Eddie’s guitar. He was stroking it softly and crying, when Wayne approached him the kid apologized quickly trying to put the instrument back down but Wayne didn't mind instead he offered Dustin to teach him some of the beginner cords he taught Eddie. There was a small smile on his face and he nodded. They both worked silently packing up cassette tapes, rings, dnd figures, and all sorts of other little things.
Overall the salvageable items fit in three medium boxes and one small box, it only took so long because of all the trash and debris, the kids all loaded the stuff into Wayne’s car. and as thanks he offered them all one item from Eddie’s things to remember him by with a few exceptions of course.
Steve passed the offer awkwardly saying he didn't know Eddie well enough, Mike took a small hand-made dnd figure, Lucas took a movie poster, and Robin took an Iron Maiden cassette tape.
They all said their goodbyes and said if he needed anything that he could always come looking for them.
On the drive back to Luis’s house he started crying again.