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juiceicicles · 10 months

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Mean and Scary | Chapter 2: Ghosts in the Pool

Pts: 1, 2, 3

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He had never really intended to tell anyone about the nightmares. The sleepless nights, the tossing and turning interrupted by the absolute worst headaches and the bloodstained pillows thanks to the newly developed nose bleed problem. It made him feel weak. Nobody else was having these problems. Maybe it was karma from his attempt to just forget Barb this first go-around, maybe the numerous head injuries had aligned to create a new way of making him miserable. But Max just looked so tired, and if anyone could relate in their little Party, maybe Steve could.

And apparently, Steve understood almost perfectly. Max had opened up to him too, and confessed that she only really felt sane when she was listening to music. She’d given him her old walkman, the one she used before she realized she needed an upgrade if it was going to become a constant in her life. It was bulky, and the headphones were small and uncomfortable, but the reprieve from his own thoughts was better than any drug.

Well, any drug Steve had tried. Hence the standing in the Munson trailer, waiting to expand his horrisions. It still felt weird to be here. Not the trailer park, or even the trailer itself, he’d seen it from the outside countless times to pick and drop Max off. But here, in Eddie Munson’s living room. Waiting for drugs. After the russians Steve was almost entirely sure he’d never be able to even get drunk again. It felt too similar, felt like he was back in that cold room surrounded by needles and bone-saws. But he needed something or else he’d never fall asleep again, and the two days he’d gone without were already kicking his ass.

Was it smart to go to Dustins newest brother figure in search of illicit substances? No. Was he going to do it anyways? Yes. He just needed some fucking sleep, just this once. (He knew that he couldn’t guarantee that. That if this worked, he’d probably be coming back time and time again. But he was never the sharpest bulb in the shed, and he’s choosing to blame his remarkable lack of decision making on the sleep deprivation.)

There were dozens of baseball caps and mugs covering the walls around him. From sports teams, to shitty diners, to T.V. memorobila, there was everything. He idly wondered if any of the items were ever used, considering they were high enough on the wall that he would need a ladder to access them, and Eddie was about his height.

“Sorry for the mess, maid took the week off.” Eddie was digging around the trailer, looking for whatever it was Steve had agreed to purchase and later on actually take (was he really doing this? Should he be doing this? God, Robin was gonna be so pissed if she ever found out)

“You um,” Steve swallowed, he honestly couldn’t tell you why he was so nervous. He felt like there were livewires where his blood vessels should be, “you live here alone?”

“With my uncle. But, uh, he works nights at the plant. Bringing home the big bucks.” There were various clunking and clicking sounds from where Eddie was opening up what was presumably any container he found in his junk drawer mixed in with the sounds of singing softly crooning from the tinny speakers in Steve’s headphones. His favorite song was playing, and he turned the volume up a little more.

“How long does it take?”

“Sorry?”

Steve took a deep breath to calm his nerves, seriously why was he so anxious? “The- the, uh, Special K? How long to kick in?”

“Oh, uh, well, it depends on if you snort it or not.” Christ, this was so dumb, “Uh, if you do, then, yeah. It'll kick in pretty quick.” This was so, so, dumb. “Ohhh…shit.”

“You’re sure you have it?” the part of Steve that had been desperately begging him to just go the fuck home was silently hoping that Munson just didn’t have any. The other part, the part that hadn’t slept in two days and had been getting pretty shit sleep for the last week and a half, was desperately begging that he did.

“No, no, I got it. Um, somewhere.” Eddie turned around and went into his room, most likely to continue his part in the hide and seek game he was playing with this illegal drug. Seriously, why wouldn’t you keep that somewhere safe?

Tick tock. Tick tock.

Steve whipped around to stare at the window, as the music played in the background to the sound of a clock chiming in the distance.

Tick tock. Tick tock.

Steve really hoped he wasn’t going crazy. That some total whackjob decided to put a grandfather clock in the backyard of their trailer for some reason. But he knew he was kidding himself, it was so clear. Like it was coming from down a long hallway. Except the only hallway in the trailer was to Eddie’s room, and the sound was coming from the opposite direction. All those knocks to the head were finally getting to him. He was officially going insane.

As he scanned the darkness outside the window, the ticking and the chiming just got louder, and louder, and louder, until it felt like it was coming from inside his head. He frantically closed the curtains.

“Eddie?” Steve called over his shoulder, “Did you find it? Eddie?”

Silence. Gone were the sounds of hollow metal opening and closing, or Eddie’s weird ramblings to nobody, or the sounds of another person’s footsteps on the carpet. Steve slowly started to walk down the hallway. Eddie probably wouldn’t want him to see his room, but after years of monsters and possession and all things Upside-Down, Steve would rather take the chance of upsetting him over the chance of anything else. Granted the Upside-Down and the beasts that came with it were not usually quiet, at least from this end of things, but Steve was paranoid. He thinks he’s earned that much for all the brain trauma he’s most definitely had over time.

“Eddie?” He entered the room, only to find that Eddie wasn’t there. In fact, this wasn’t even Eddie’s room. It couldn’t be. This was Steve’s porch. The pool shone a light-blue glow over the surroundings, steam misting off the surface of the water in lazy swirls. The air felt cool, but not cold. Like it always did right before it became too cold to swim even in heated water, right before the Harringtons had to close the pool up. There were empty beer cans littered in a small pile, each with a small jagged hole punched into the bottom, next to some pool chairs with an ashtray situated between them on a small table.

And there, sitting on the diving board of the pool, was Barbara Holland. Her back was facing Steve, but he would have to be blind not to recognize her. Her curly red hair made a dark brown in the low light but discernible all the same, the dark blue denim jacket she had been wearing that night, color swallowed up by the black night around her. Resting her hands on her legs, one cradling the other with blood running down her fingers. Dripping slowly into the water below, the dark red quickly fading into the surrounding blue with each new droplet.

“B-Barb?”

This couldn’t possibly be real. Barb was dead. Barb had died here, on this night, in his pool. She was the ghost over his shoulder, never remembered quite right, and not always at the forefront of his mind, but never really forgotten. She was a scar that would never heal, a guilt that would never fade. Even if he hadn’t ever really admitted it, he agreed with Nancy. What she had said that halloween. He killed Barb, he just didn’t really let himself think about it.

“Still pretending, Steve?” She said, still not looking back. Still swaying her legs casually, sitting at the foot of her grave.

“Still bullshit?” The word reverberated through the air. And even though there were no walls, it felt like it was closing in on him. She finally turned around, and where her brown eyes had once been were milky white pupils, surrounded by black. Water dribbled from her mouth as she spoke. Her face was rotting, water logged and bloated. She didn’t look like a ghost, she looked like a corpse. Slugs crawled out of holes in her skin, and vines wrapped around her legs and propelled her forwards, her muscles too decayed to stand without assistance

Steve turned around and booked it. He slammed the door to the pool closed, drawing the blinds over the panes of glass. Holding his back to the door, he turned around to see that where the Munson trailer had once been, the viney Upside-Down tunnels had replaced it.

The vines slithered over eachother, covering the door to the pool and creating a solid wall of plant matter. Chittering and screeching echoed down pathways, the smell of kerosine and the distinct iron-copper of blood filled the air and choked Steve’s lungs.

“You killed me!” The distorted voice of Barbara Holland filled his head, so loud it was deafening. Steve covered his ears. “If it wasn’t for you, I’d be alive! My parents wouldn’t had to bury an empty casket! It’s your fault Steve!”

Steve ran, trying desperately to get away from the voice, but it wasn’t coming from behind him. It was coming from around him, like a bubble of loathing and blame.

“Nancy lied to you Steve! There was no ‘we’. It was all you!” Barb laughed, empty and hollow, “you’ll never make up for it, murderer! One day, they’ll realize! One day, they’ll all know! And when that day comes, nobody will want to see your pathetic face ever. Again.”

There in the diverging pathways of the tunnels stood Dustin, and then Robin, then Max, and Lucas, and Mike, and Joyce, and it just went on, and on, and on. Their sneers, their disgust, their backs turned as they walked away from him.

“If you had just focused on someone other than yourself for one fucking second, I’d be alive. Nancy would be happy! Thank god Jonathan was there for her, to be what she really needed.”

“You just can’t help yourself, can you?” Barb kept going. She’d finally gotten her chance to say everything she didn’t when she was alive, and she seemed to be making the most of it. “Needed to win over perfect prissy Nancy Wheeler? Needed to prove to your douchebag friends that you could conquer any woman? That nobody could say no to King Steve!”

Steve would protest if he could breathe at all. He felt like he’d been running for days, and he was panting heavily from the strain.

“You’ll never be enough to make up for what the world lost when you took me from it.” Barb's voice sounded farther away, until finally it faded entirely.

Steve slumped down the wall, creepy vines and shit be damned. He couldn’t think, he couldn’t breathe, he just needed a second to get his bearings together and then he’d start looking for a way out.

“Steve”

@bowl-o-queerios is me, I just can’t comment on this blog

#don’t read this it’s bad #but if you do #thank you #lol #steddie #steve harrington #steve harrington angst #steve gets vecna’d #Eddie Munson #is technically there #stranger things fic #stranger things 4 #Mean and Scary

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piganatur · 1 year

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THE EIGHTH SENSE EP 2

I have to start with the scenes after the intro. In the first ep Jaewon sat with his back to the fish tank

this shot feels so oppressive. First, the focus is on the fish swimming in the tank, then it shifts to the therapist lady meanwhile Jaewon remains out of focus with his back to the viewer, blocked in by both sides. The lights in this shot are insane, it’s like the different sides of a coin.

Fast forward to the second ep

Now Jaewon faces the camera but he won’t look up and he is shown through the fish tank. It’s like he’s in the deep now, up until the moment he stands and leaves, kind of scaring the fishes that scatter for a moment. Once again, note the reflection of the lights.

Episode two is just as solid as the first one. Finally a drama where the extreme close ups are incorporated into the story for a reason and not just to be aesthetic (which ofc they still are) (I’m totally not side eyeing Nevertheless,) Could the shower scene be that insane without the extreme close ups? Nope.

There’s so much to unpack here. Like Jaewon being so soft around Jihuyn. I mean it only took them one (1) bus ride to the sea to act like bffs yet the moment Jihyun wakes up Jaewon has the nerve to pretend he doesn’t know what his name is and ask him again….boy you’re such an unbothered chill sunbae *cackles* Never have I witnessed such a tragedy going down over the assignment of rooms. The sheer disappointment of not sharing a room with the freshman you’ve only just (presumably) learned the name of... Jaewon really had to pause like that before (and after) reading Jihyun’s name, huh? pls chill

Can we take a hot second to appreciate that in Free Bird’s promo shots and posters (so in the past when Eunji and Jaewon were presumably together) Eunji is always seen wearing a blue wetsuit while Jaewon wears black. And when Jaewon takes Jihyun to the shop, he deliberately chooses two identical black wetsuits for them so they would have that couple look match. Aaand Eunji also wears a black wetsuit now (trying to match with Jaewon) but it’s one she chooses herself not like the one Jihyun wears that Jaewon chose for him.

I’m completely normal about the dressing scene just like I was completely normal about the phone strapping scene in The crossing. (Although I have to mention that Jaewon is still so soft around Jihyun it kinda hurts, all heart eyed and shit)

Jaewon taking care of Jihyun, telling him he must be cold so warm up like Jaewon himself wasn’t in the same sea and couldn’t possibly feel cold. At this point, he’s still taking care of Jihyun like a good sunbae but he’s doing all that multiplied by 10000. He’s running the extra mile every given time and I’m not sure he’s even aware of it. Sometimes it’s a conscious decision but other times it’s just his curiosity and attraction to Jihyun. Like when they play the ‘I like you’ drinking game, Jaewon stops clapping the second he utters Jihyun’s name. Unlike the others, he doesn’t stop because Jihyun won’t continue the line and the game stalls, he turns to Jihyun, waiting for his reaction and his system crashes. It crashes a lot around Jihyun.

Jihyun is such a complex little bean, not enough people talk about him. He says he’s afraid of a lot of things but that never stops him. When he talked with his boss about the places people coming to live in Seoul visit he said he only went to the Gangnam station area once. His boss lady asked 'Have you ever gone on subway line 2?' and Jihyun said he didn’t. They talked about the Han river parks and the next time Jihyun visited a park by taking subway line 2.

He joins the surf club even though his roommate and hometown friend can’t understand his reasons for joining (and, even though he can’t swim which made me go BOI the things you do for a hot dude) Although he acts like he wants to spend time away his roommate and messes up by visiting the Han river park an hour away from their university, he still calls his roommate, sends a text to his mum, keeping in touch with the familiar people in his life. He also does that on the beach like an anchor in times he’s in need not to feel scared and that’s so precious. He does things his own way, going through the process of trial and error, constantly trying not to be scared.

I’m still loving Yoonwon to bits. Besides Jaewon, she’s the only member of the club genuinely happy that kwiyomi has joined. She welcomes him and keeps being nice to him. Her singing at the bonfire healed my soul and I don’t even like singing in films but she’s magical.

Yo, the confrontation scene between Eunji and Jaewon? The fact that after Jaewon tells her he has zero feelings for her (neither good nor bad) a club member comes out and passes between them saying 'It’s cold, so cold'. That’s how you put down the groundwork for a scene. I think Eunji is so pissed because she knows something’s up. But then Jaewon says 'Let’s give each other that basic courtesy.' He means it both ways. He won’t tell others about why they broke up (from an outside perspective, it would be Eunji’s fault). In turn, Eunji should back off and not question the inner workings behind their breakup. But then she does, and Jaewon literally logs out of that conversation, and it is ridiculously in-your-face. He rather chooses to go to Jihyun than speak with his ex for another second. In that scene, before Eunji leaves, her looking at Jaewon looking at Jihyun is so powerful. Her eyes tell that she knows.

I’m having such a ride. Can’t wait for next week.

#theres so much to love in this series #jihyun matching his steps with jaewon on the beach #his gentle teasing #no but like jaewon really cant keep his hands off jihyun #not that anyones complaining #jaewon honey u do u #and when he asked jihyun whether he knows how to swim and jihyun said “i guess so”#that head tilt of jaewon was like a momentary lapse in the system #someday i will be able to write a chill ten-line post about t8s but today is not that day #not like anyone will read this #but if you do #pls watch the eighth sense #its self care #the eighth sense #여덟 번째 감각 #ep rundown

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