Chapter Text
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“You know none of this is real, right?” Steve asked with his arms crossed, watching Robin upend a bag of occult supplies onto his living room floor.
“Oh, just have some fun for once, will you?” Robin stated as she picked up a black candle. “It’s not like we have any other plans for Halloween anyway.”
Steve chuckled and shook his head. “What is all this?”
“I’m going to hold a séance,” she said simply, setting the candle on the carpet. It tipped over and she pursed a frown.
“You’re going to summon a ghost?” He raised his eyebrow at her as she stood and walked over to his coffee table.
“I’m going to try!” Robin said confidently, picking up a stack of coasters.
Steve skeptically picked up the candle that fell over. “And if you do?”
She snatched the candle out of his hand. “I’ll figure it out then.”
He rolled his eyes and watched her set five candles on coasters in a rough circle. She picked up a large box of salt and started pouring it onto the carpet between the candles. “What the hell are you doing?” Steve panicked.
“It’s just salt. You can vacuum it up later.”
Steve groaned and ran his hands through his hair. By the time she closed the box of salt, she had made an attempt at a pentagram, each star tip ending at a candle.
“There,” she said proudly as she set the box on the coffee table.
“Now what?” he sighed grumpily.
“Now for the last touch.” She picked up a heavy-looking case and opened it. Inside was a wooden Ouija board. “My mom got this when she was a kid and gave it to me last year. I’ve been wanting an excuse to give it a try.”
“And you had to ruin my carpet for that?” Steve leaned on the wall and raised an eyebrow at her.
“I didn’t ruin shit.” She set the board on the ground just outside of the circle. “Light the candles, turn off the lights, and come sit next to me.”
Steve rolled his eyes and pushed off of the wall. He grabbed the lighter next to his pack of cigarettes and started lighting them. “This better not burn down my fucking apartment.”
“Can you stop complaining!?”
Steve laughed and turned off the lights before sitting on the floor next to Robin.
“Hand,” she said, holding out hers.
Steve placed his hand in hers and looked over the messy salt pentagram. “Ow!” he exclaimed when he felt a sharp prick on his index finger. He tried to pull his hand away, but she held it firmly, positioning it over the edge of the board and squeezing it. A drop of blood fell from the puncture and onto the salt line. “Oh, come on, that’s going to stain.”
“Shut up,” she snapped, hissing as she pricked her own finger with the pin. She coaxed out a drop of blood on top of Steve’s. After she shook the pain off, she picked up Steve’s hand and took a deep breath.
When she closed her eyes and started saying words Steve didn’t recognize, he rolled his eyes and closed them with her. He heard her gasp, and he opened his eyes.
“Look,” she said excitedly, pointing at the farthest candle. Only a thin wisp of smoke trailed from the singed wick. “I think it worked,” she laughed playfully. “Who do you think it is?”
Steve sighed and shook his head, deciding to play along. “Probably someone very confused. Like some random grandmother.”
Robin chuckled. “What if it’s Billy? Or,” she gasped with wide, excited eyes, “What if it’s Eddie?”
“My grandma theory is more likely.”
“Let’s ask.” She grabbed Steve’s hand and placed it on the planchette with her own. “Do we know you?” She over-enunciated each word.
Steve chuckled when Robin started moving the wooden arrow. It stopped over ‘Yes’ in the upper left corner of the board.
“See!” she said excitedly. “Are you Billy?” Again she spoke slowly and deliberately.
Once again, the planchette moved, heading to the opposite corner and stopping over ‘No’. Steve was amused by Robin’s little game.
“Eddie?”
It moved back to ‘Yes’.
“Oh shit, seriously?” Robin said softly.
It jerked over the word ‘Yes’. Steve looked over at her. She had a look of surprise. “You okay?”
“Steve, I’m not moving this,” she said sincerely.
Steve laughed. “Yeah, okay,” he said, unconvinced.
Robin didn’t bother trying to convince him. “I don’t know what to ask him.” Her mind was entirely blank. “You ask something.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know, that’s why I’m telling you to as—” She paused when the planchette started moving again. One by one it spelled out ‘H-I-B-I-G-B-O-Y’.
“Hibig boy?” Steve squinted.
“He said ‘Hi big boy’, dumbass,” Robin corrected.
Steve swallowed. Even if Robin was controlling it, being reminded of that nickname stung and brought back a lot of hard memories.
“Well, say something,” Robin urged.
Steve shook his head, snapping himself out of his flashbacks. “Um, hi?”
“Nice,” she said flatly.
“I don’t know what to say either,” he defended.
The planchette started moving again. ‘S-A-Y-T-H-I-S’
“Say what?” Robin asked.
‘N-O-N’ the planchette spelled before moving to a blank spot.
“Non?” Robin said, confused.
It continued to spell out ‘I-A-M’
“I am?” She squinted.
The planchet jerked to ‘No’
“Iam?” She corrected, furrowing her brow at the unfamiliar word. “Is that Latin?”
Steve chuckled. “Shouldn’t you know? You’re the one controlling it.”
“I told you, it’s not me. I—”
The planchette moved quickly over ‘S-I-L-E-N-C-E’. They both stared at the board, stalk still and silent. Steve began questioning whether it was actually Robin controlling it. She did not have the dexterity to do that so accurately at that speed. He flinched when it started moving at a slower pace. ‘S-A-Y-O-N-L-Y-T-H-I-S’
“Say only this?” Robin squinted.
‘N-O-T-T-H-A-T-P-A-R-T’
“Sorry.”
‘M-A-Y-B-E-J-U-S-T-W-R-I-T-E-I-T-D-O-W-N’
Steve raised his eyebrow as the little wooden arrow moved from letter to letter. He almost wondered if it was even spelling anything or if it was just going through the goddamn alphabet. “Seriously?” Steve squinted when it stopped on a blank spot in the center of the board. “What the hell did that say?”
“He’s asking us to write something down.” She looked at Steve. “Do you have a notepad?”
“Uh, yeah.” Steve was confused about what was going on, but got up and grabbed the notepad and pen he kept by the phone. He handed it to Robin before returning to his spot next to her.
“Okay,” she said, pen at the ready. The planchette remained in place. Robin reached forward and placed her hand on it, but it remained still. “Steve, put your hand on mine.”
Steve shook his head in resignation and added his hand. Quickly it moved and spelled out the first word, ‘N-O-N,’ then moved to a blank spot. Robin kept her left hand on the planchette as she wrote on the notepad with her right. She wrote each word on a new line until the wooden arrow stopped moving altogether and the paper read:
non
iam
ligas
discidium
levo
saeptum
tuum
Robin took her hand off of the planchette and looked at the paper. “I don’t know if we should say this.”
“Why?”
“You’ve seen Evil Dead. Nothing good comes from reading Latin.”
“You can’t actually believe that?” Steve groaned.
“Plus, I may not understand Latin, but it is a root language, and I can make out the jist of a few of the words. No, bind, disrupt, and lift.” Robin set the notebook down. “I’m not reading it. I don’t know what this is, but I think it’s asking us to bring about chaos, and that sounds like a bad idea.”
“Whatever you say, Rob.” Steve rolled his eyes.
Robin tore out the page and crumpled it up, tossing it toward the trashcan. The paper bounced off the wall and rolled a few inches closer to them. “I’m getting the heebie-jeebies. Let’s just watch the movies you rented.”
Steve chuckled and stood. “I got Evil Dead one and two.”
Robin laughed, getting up as well. “Of course you fucking did.”
Steve blew out the candles, worried they’d get knocked over. He sat with Robin on his couch and started the movie. They spent the rest of the evening watching horror movies and stuffing themselves with candy.
When they saw the peak of dawn on the horizon, Robin picked up the board but left the salt and candles. Steve sighed and walked her to the door before turning his attention to the clumsily made summoning circle. He shook his head and got the vacuum out of the coat closet.
The paper that Robin tossed aside caught his eye. He picked it up and hesitated to toss it into the bin. Curiosity got the better of him, so he flattened it to see the notes.
He got a strange sensation of someone watching him and he turned around to his empty living room. He squinted back down at the paper. “Non i-am leg—how do you even pronounce half of this? Disc-i-dee-um? Seep-tum?” Steve shrugged and tried it out. “Non, ee-um, lie-gas, disc-ee-dee-um, lev-oh, sayp-tum, toom.” He snorted and crumpled it back up.
When he turned around to toss the paper into the trashcan, he froze at what sounded like a match strike. He swallowed and turned around to see the candles lighting by themselves, one by one. Each candle flared back to life with the sound of a match strike. The flames from the candles grew into thin towers of fire as the lights of his apartment dimmed out. The light from the flame was blinding, making Steve shield his eyes as the fire spun together in the center of the pentagram.
“*Fucking finally!*” A familiar voice shouted as the flames burst and petered away.
Steve stared in awe as his lights flickered back on. There was a demon resembling Eddie standing in his living room, casually cracking his neck. His skin was warm gray with lines of black tattoo-esque writing twisting around his body. A multitude of thin silver chains draped over him as his only form of clothing. Strangely, it wasn’t indecent that he was basically nude, as he didn’t seem to have any genitalia. He had four horns coming off of his head. The top two flanked the natural part of his elbow-length wavy hair and curved down the back of his head. The other two started on each temple and curved around his ears. A thin whip-like tail waved wildly behind him as he stretched.
“E—Eddie?” Steve gasped.
“In the flesh.” He paused with a contemplative expression. “If you can call this flesh.” He looked at Steve and a smile spread across his face. “Did you miss me… big boy?”
“Yo—I—th—” Steve stammered, looking into his inhuman eyes. They were black where they should be white, and his irises looked like hellfire. “I have to be fucking dreaming.” He blinked and shook his head.
“Aww,” Eddie cooed. “Are you calling me a dream come true, Harrington?”
“More like a nightmare.” He looked at the ground and raised his hands in disbelief.
“I’ll take it.” Eddie smirked. “Now, how about you finish what you started?”
“What?” Steve snapped his eyes back to the surreal sight, not fully convinced that he hadn’t fallen asleep while watching movies.
Eddie put his hands behind his back and leaned forward with a teasing grin. “Come closer and I’ll tell you.”
“I don’t think so.” Steve took a step back.
“Aw,” he pouted, “And here I thought we were friends, Steve.”
“I was friends with Eddie. You’re not Eddie.” He backed up until he hit the wall.
“Oh, but I am,” he said simply. “A lot has happened since I died in order for me to get where I am today, and I’ll happily tell you about it after you help me finalize this ritual.”
“What does this ritual do?” Steve asked warily. He folded his arms behind his back and gave his hand a pinch. Fuck…
“Just releases me from my last bind.” He stroked the air between them. Sparks shot from his clawed fingers, sending distorted ripples through the air and revealing an invisible dome around him. “Nothing nefarious.”
“Your existence is nefarious.” The rational side of Steve’s brain still fought for this whole thing to be a dream. There was no way he was staring at his dead friend. There’s no way that’s Eddie.
Eddie’s playful expression fell into something akin to annoyance. “I want to take that as a compliment, but I feel like you’re going to be difficult.” He crossed his arms and cocked his hip. “Whatever,” he sighed. “Just get back to cleaning your house.” With that, he lifted his feet off the ground and sat cross-legged midair, holding his ankles.
He furrowed his brow at the being levitating in his living room. “You won’t try anything?”
“I won’t interrupt you cleaning your swanky pad, don’t worry,” Eddie grumbled and spun himself upside down, remaining in the same position. His wavy hair fell limply from between his horns, a few strands catching on them.
Steve swallowed and inched closer to his vacuum. “How do I know I can trust you?”
“Well, that’s up to you, but believe it or not, it’s impossible for us to lie.” He stretched his hands out below him to play with the salt in the center of the pentagram. The tip of his claws pushed the salt around aimlessly.
“Us?” Steve squinted.
“My brand of demons, fiends, servants of the Prince of Darkness, etcetera.”
Steve wasn’t sure if he should trust the words of... whatever it was. “If you can’t lie, then tell me one thing,” he said with a serious face, crossing his arms.
Eddie tilted his head curiously.
“Why did you deviate from the plan that night?”
Eddie’s face fell and he righted himself, dropping his feet back to the ground. He took a deep breath. “It’s been a long time since I thought about that.” He held his elbow and turned away from Steve. The shy demeanor looked strange on him. “But I figured… if I didn’t stay behind and keep them busy…” His tail wrapped around his ankle and he took a deep breath. “They got into the trailer,” he restarted. “We didn’t barricade it well enough. If I’d followed Dustin, the bats would have come through the gate and chased us on that side. I knew if I left the rope intact, Dustin would’ve followed me back into the Upside Down, and I didn’t want that. I ran out of the trailer knowing full well that what I was doing could end with me dying.” He sighed and looked back at Steve. “I was also just done with running and was ashamed by how many times I had.”
Steve dropped his guard a little. He still didn’t trust him, but his story checked out. “You know… you were right to run away. Trust me, sometimes it’s better to run.”
Eddie blinked and relaxed his body. “But that was like what? Four, five years ago?”
“Yeah…” Steve contorted his face in contemplation. “How did you even end up like this?”
Eddie smirked and balanced himself on his thin tail. “I already told you. I’ll tell you when you let me out of here.”
Steve raised his eyebrows with a stern expression. “I don’t think so.”
Eddie shrugged. “Not like I can go anywhere until you do. So, I’ll be here whenever you change your mind.”
Steve stared blankly at the warped version of what was supposed to be Eddie. He couldn't wrap his mind around what he was seeing and, honestly, he didn't want to believe it. He threw his hands up and walked away. “I’m convinced I’m dreaming. I’m going to go to bed, and when I wake up, you’ll be gone.”
“Okay, see you in a few hours.” Eddie returned to floating cross-legged, slowly spinning in various directions.
Steve woke up around noon and walked into the living room. “Shit, you’re still here.”
“Mornin’, sweet cheeks.” Eddie was upside down, stretched out with his ankles crossed, his head a few inches off of the ground. His hair was defying gravity as well, making him look like he was right-side up. He smirked at Steve in his boxers.
Steve groaned. “How do I send you back?”
“Want to get rid of me already, Steve?” He pouted dramatically.
Steve glanced over at the pouting face. He’d returned his eyes to his original brown ones, making the pout even more pathetic. “Don’t look at me like that.” Steve looked away and walked into the kitchen.
“But it’s working.” He grinned and disappeared into smoke for a second before reforming upright, his chains faintly jingling as they settled. “Please?” he said softly and pathetically.
Steve sighed and turned to say something, but entirely forgot what it was when he saw Eddie. He looked exactly as he remembered him five years ago and was just standing in his living room.
“Hey Steve,” he said meekly.
“That’s-” Steve took a deep breath and looked at him in horror. “That’s not fair.”
Eddie huffed a soft, almost sad, laugh. “But it’s me.” He vaguely shrugged.
“No. No, it’s not,” Steve said, more to convince himself. “You’re… that demon thing.”
“We’re one and the same.” Eddie created a hologram effect, overlaying a translucent image of his demon form behind him, displaying the size difference between them. The demon towered at least a foot over him.
“How is that even possible?” Steve strained. He didn’t want to look at his lost friend, but couldn’t take his eyes off him. Flashes of that face, lifeless and covered in blood, kept invading his mind.
The afterimage of the demon faded away. “I already told you what you need to do in order to get that information.” Eddie raised his hand and stroked his ring-covered fingers against the invisible barrier, making it spark.
“How exactly do I release you, anyway?” Steve squinted.
“I’ll tell you if you promise to do it,” Eddie smirked.
“Never mind,” Steve sighed and turned back into his kitchen, forcing himself to look away.
“Oh, come on!” Eddie exclaimed and sat on the ground cross-legged, twirling his finger in the salt next to him.
Steve got himself a bowl of cereal and sat in the living room, facing away from Eddie.
“Are you seriously just going to ignore me now?” Eddie puffed out his cheeks and turned back to his demon form in a dense cloud of black smoke when Steve turned on the TV. “Ignore me all you want. I’m not going anywhere.”
The volume turned up on the TV. Eddie groaned and paced in circles around the tiny enclosure. He watched with an unamused expression as Steve finished his breakfast and cleaned up after himself.
Steve glanced at Eddie and the salt-covered carpet below him. “You said you wouldn’t pull anything if I tried to clean, right?”
“Yes,” Eddie rolled his eyes. “Clean ‘till your heart’s content. And if I’m being honest, as I have to be, the salt keeps getting between my toes.”
Steve chuckled and walked over to the vacuum. He plugged it in and looked toward the circle at Eddie's feet. The candles caught his eye and figured he'd best pick those up first.
“No!” Eddie panicked and held his hand out when Steve reached for one.
“What?” Steve said, startled.
“Don't remove the candles.” He looked at Steve with a distraught expression.
“How am I supposed to clean my living room with them in the way?”
“Just clean around them.”
“Why can't I remove the candles?” Steve squinted.
“Something bad will happen,” Eddie said quickly.
“Bad how?”
Eddie opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He contorted his face and tried again. “I—” he sighed and looked away. “I don't want to tell you.”
“Did you just try to lie?” Steve chuckled.
Eddie glanced at Steve and moved his mouth to create an ‘N’ sound, but froze and pursed his lips.
Steve laughed. “You actually can't lie, can you?”
“No,” he said grumpily. “I can't.”
“Then tell me why I shouldn't move the candles.”
“Just because I can't lie doesn't mean I have to answer your questions.” Eddie's tail flicked at the salt on the floor and a few granules passed through invisible wall with tiny sparks.
“Then I guess I'll just have to find out,” he threatened, reaching for the closest one.
“Please don't.” Eddie’s fear and desperation sounded sincere.
Steve dropped his hand and looked at Eddie. Or rather, up at him. He was easily a foot taller than him. The chains swaying from his chest caught Steve’s eyes. He squinted when he saw they were hanging off of matching nipple rings. “Tell me why and I won't.”
Eddie looked at him warily. “Promise?”
“Promise,” Steve agreed.
“Ugh,” Eddie exclaimed as he ran his hands through his hair.
Steve found himself scanning over the rest of Eddie's body. It was the same body type he had as a human, just a bit more muscular and on a taller frame. His nipple rings weren't the only piercing the chains were attached to. He also had a bellybutton ring, a line of three small rings going down either hip and the same on his shoulders. Each ring had at least one chain, either attached directly to it or threaded through the hoop.
“I don't know…” Eddie groaned. “Humans can lie.”
“I'll keep my word,” Steve reassured.
Eddie sighed and glanced away. “If the candles are moved before I'm released, it’ll send me back.”
Steve squinted at him. “And you don't want to go back?”
“Are you kidding?!” Eddie exclaimed. “Do you know how rare it is for someone to successfully summon a demon these days? Plus, for it to be someone you know? It's unheard of!”
“What's so special about being summoned?” Steve stepped back and leaned on the wall next to his vacuum as he waited for Eddie to respond.
“It's one of the few ways we can have a physical form.”
Steve squinted. “You don't have a physical form?”
“Not down there I don't,” he answered simply.
“So… Hell is real, then?” Steve raised an eyebrow.
“Oh yeah. Honestly, not that bad of a place either… Well, if you're there to serve, anyway,” he corrected. “If you're there for punishment, then it's literally your worst nightmare.”
“How did you become a servant?”
“That part of the tale I'll tell you when you let me out.” Eddie beamed at him.
“If I do let you out, what do you plan to do?”
“Lots of things,” he said cheerily, dragging the tip of his tail over the invisible wall, creating a trail of sparks and ripples. “Mainly sins of the flesh, can't really enjoy those without the ‘flesh’ part.”
“You're not going to kill anyone, are you?”
Eddie laughed. “No, actually, we're not able to cause any direct harm to mortals.”
Steve furrowed his brow in disbelief. “Really?”
“Yep. That's mainly for the higher-ups.” He pointed toward the ceiling.
“You said mostly sins of the flesh. What else?”
“Just standard demon duties, temptations, creating general chaos, etcetera.”
“I'll think about it,” Steve said with uncertainty as he pushed off the wall. “And in the meantime, I'll keep the candles where they are.”
“I guess I'll just be your little caged bird.” He turned into a bat and flew around in circles before appearing as his demon self again.
“Do you know what a bird is?” Steve scoffed with a quirked brow as he secured the vacuum hose.
“Duh, but bats are cooler.” He crossed his legs and returned to floating about three feet off of the ground. He dusted the salt from the bottom of his feet.
Steve rolled his eyes. “Figured you'd never want to see a bat again.”
“Normal bats are fine, it's those fucking Upside Down bats...” He shivered at the memory.
Steve went to turn on the vacuum, but had a thought. “Hey, with the weird force-field thing, will I even be able to clean that?” He pointed to the salt below Eddie.
“Yeah,” Eddie stated, as if it was obvious. “You can come and go freely through these.” He knocked on the force field with his knuckle. It sparked and rippled, but made no sound. “Humans aren't affected by such rules.”
“Good, then just stay where you are so I can get the salt under you.” Steve turned on the vacuum and pushed it toward the circle below Eddie. As Eddie had said, the vacuum didn't hit anything, but a loud cracking sound made Steve freeze and turn off the vacuum. His eyes opened wide when he saw barely visible cracks in the air. He stepped back and watched as the cracks grew and spread over the invisible dome around Eddie, who had a thrilled grin on his face. With a deafening shatter, the dome exploded, and Eddie laughed triumphantly.
“Thank you!” Eddie said gleefully as he appeared in front of Steve from a cloud of dark smoke.
Steve stood stalk still as Eddie grabbed his face and shoved his unnaturally long tongue into his mouth. He didn't know what to think and pushed him away out of reflex. Eddie licked his grinning lips with a forked tongue, winked, and popped into dark smoke that was quickly dissipated by a wind that wasn’t there. Too much had happened too quickly for Steve to fully understand the situation. Plus, he was distracted by the strange taste of sulfur that lingered in his mouth.
Art by FeralSteddie
Art by Lady Lostmind
