CHAPTER FOUR
004. thompsons and trailers
LIVIN' ON THE EDGE
- AEROSMITH

"TAMALIKA THOMPSON, THAT IS enough!"

Tammy was often the sister who fought battles. At least, that was the role she overtook since the turn of the year. She was the sister who rejected a lot of her parents traditions, which the pair of lovers had dragged stubbornly from India during their emigration to America. She was the sister who recoiled each time they'd sit down to eat dinner from seven until nine at the very least; she was the one who complained about their strict rules and the utilitarian influences of their mother. She rejected their ideas of success as she tried her very best to pursue her art, and on this particular afternoon, Tammy was repulsed by the idea of missing the big game.

It was important to note, that neither of the sisters were fans of basketball.

From her bedroom, Addie could hear every word of her sister's battle against their mother. Their voices shook the house so severely in the familiar earthquake of Thompson disagreement, that even with music playing, she could make out the revised version of an argument as old as the twins themselves. Now granted, last year she was often a keen watcher of her sister's efforts to break the bond of her parent's will, but she no longer had many reasons to spectate the war between her mother and America's influence. She'd grown sour to school events; she'd grown tired of the stares and expectations from every single one of her most enjoyed past times.

While her room was a homage to Hawkin's summers and school events, the girl herself had become a traitor to the work of her younger self.

13 year old Adelade, with her curly hair and poorly accessorised clothes, would've ripped the sweat pants right out of her wardrobe the second Addie went to school. She would've almost exploded when she realised the girl rarely wore the makeup she'd hidden so well in the bottom of her wardrobe - hell, 13 year old Addie would've bullied the living shit out of her older self. That was just who she was.

Who she had to be.

Unlike her sister, Adelade had always been more acutely aware of the family's differences in Hawkins. Nobody really mentioned it to her anymore — not that they ever really did to Tammy to begin with — besides the odd jab from her friends, but her memories of elementary had left very little to be forgotten. Her namesake was damaged by her early years, as was her family's before she was even born. This fact tugged away the family history that once decorated Addie's bedroom walls, and forced the clothes she used to admire so greatly under her bed. Instead, the odd day trip with her friends replaced it; as did her bookcase full of books she'd never read, and pictures she wanted to hide.

Among them, were the few pictures she had with Tommy, and the growing collection of group activities she wished to forget

What that meant, was that Addie wouldn't ally with her sister to fight their mother, and so the pair wouldn't make the basketball game. Depsite the spaces on her wall for the pictures, she was utterly exhausted of having to force the moments that bragged to her guests when they entered her room. Since her disaster of a summer, she had no reason to hang them anymore. Nobody would see them.

She would stay up for a call ( which was a new habit of hers), but Adelade would be asleep before her clock struck midnight.

OoO

EMMA DIDN'T KNOW WHOSE number to have pre dialled into her phone before her and Chrissy's excursion.

Jason had gone to his party after Hawkin's big win, with Penelope following the shadow of one of his teammates. As she left, she specifically told Emma not to 'wait up' or disturb her, and told Chrissy to get another ride home from the party. In fact, the only damn thing Emma got from Penelope that wasn't about ditching her friends, was her reminder to collect her weed. She would use it the next day when the group met for their Saturday movie, or so she told them as she rushed under the arm of a newly popular senior.

Emma also knew Addie was confined to her house. As was Tammy. Neither of them would be able to help if she needed to be saved, and yet the twins seemed to be the only real option. They had a car at least, she considered as her and her friend piled in to Eddie's own mode of transport.

It was rusty; Emma had pictured a motorcycle when he first told the pair they'd be travelling back to his trailer with him, so it really wasn't a bad option for the two. They had their own slightly muddy seats, and a roof that contained the rock music that blasted through his unprepared speakers. It was a luxury in many ways for Emma, but she could tell Chrissy was a little more wary.

Fuck it, she thought as she took Chrissy's hand across the seat for comfort. She trusted Eddie, and against her better judgement. Plus, Emma had already left a short voice message on Addie's phone during the game. It didn't say much; just that she'd be meeting Eddie, and had to bring Chrissy with her.

She noticed as the three pulled up to Eddie's trailer that Chrissy had become increasingly agitated. She assumed it was the prospect of taking drugs - a prospect that often made her feel as sick as it did curious- and did her best to be helpful. She held the girl's hand in the back of the car, drumming the beat of Eddie's music on her palm as they drove in silence. It seemed that Eddie was also nervous; he made consistent eye contact with Emma whenever he could.

That wasn't exactly unusual though; Emma chalked her judgement up to her own imagination personifying her worries.

"Don't get intimidated by my palace." Eddie joked towards Emma.

It was the first time he'd spoken, and calmed the girl down remarkably well.

Eddie was still a little wary of Chrissy. Over their drive, he noticed her deer-like stare and uncomfortable disposition, and used it as an answer to a question that was never actually asked. Of course, there was a part of him that liked the girl. She was sweet, and overly thankful for his help; Chrissy was the closest Eddie had come to meeting any of Emma's friends and he wouldn't take that for granted. So far, she was the kind of person he'd mentally pin to Emma in a classroom, instead of Adelade and Penelope. To him, they were stuck up bitches who never paid attention to anything but themselves, which was far from Emma's attitude to the world. In comparison Chrissy was an angel on Earth.

"You don't remember me, do you?" Eddie asked Chrissy as he fumbled for the keys to his trailer. Chrissy seemed startled by the direct address, but settled into the conversation rather well once she actually considered what he'd asked. Her nervousness was still apparant, but less overwhealming.

"No... I'm sorry."

She had a kind smile - a smile that suited Emma's protective nature well. Eddie could see why Emma was wary of letting the girl in on Penelope's drug orders.

"It's okay. I've changed a lot." Eddie opened the door to his trailer with a flourish, then turned to pull the collar of his shirt down past his chest.

A tattoo came into sight, which resembled the same style as the bats on his arm that Emma quite enjoyed. Although, the girl looked away rather quickly - flustered by the skin that she'd not seen before.

"Back then I didn't have these sweet tats, and my hair was a lot shorter. I'm talking buzz cut."

He turned, taking a quick glance around his home before walking towards the kitchen unit. As he searched for his coke ( something that seemed to remind Emma why she was there, and why she couldn't befriend the man no matter how many times she wanted to ), the two took the time to look around.

The space was rather unkept. Though, Emma felt quite at home in the mess of dishes that were far away from the sink, and recipts which littered the counters. There were no coasters for the many drinks which lined the tables - which Emma noticed Chrissy seemed to stare at for a very long time. Emma considered Chrissy's house ( a house much larger than her own ) and thought that this must've been the messiest place she'd ever seen. Emma's room in comparison was just as untidy, as her friends and Chrissy had pointed out for months.

When it was just her and Chrissy in her little house, Emma didn't mind the mess. That was the best thing about the girl who had quickly become a best friend to her: Chrissy never judged anything besides a person's actions towards her. It was a trait Emma admired in Adelade when the two first became friends, before Middle School made her just as quick to voice any imperfections. Although, Addie never mentioned a thing about anybody else. Just herself and her sister, as well as any activities that the group performed in public.

Chrissy's squeal caught Emma's attention. With a quick glance, she noticed the girl had began to hug herself as she looked out the trailer's large front window.

"Hey. You okay?" Emma asked, gently creeping back towards her friend.

Chrissy nodded, leaning so she could look over her friend's shoulder.

"You find anything?" Chrissy called to Eddie, who was mumbling to himself in his room.

"I'll go see where he is, okay? Just stay here." Emma reassured kindly, before following after Eddie, leaving the cheerleader alone to her thoughts for just one moment.

She had no idea what Eddie's plan was, but Emma hoped more than anything that it all would work out. She dreaded the thought of seeing Chrissy as dumb and lifeless as Penelope became on weed. Her spirit was one of the most beautiful things about the girl; Jason himself had acknowledged it just a month after Heather's funeral, when Chrissy had last been so skittish.

Despite her enviroment, Emma couldn't chase away her frown at the mention of her old friend, even if it was in thought.

"Hey, you okay teach?"

Eddie caught Emma just before a spiral. It was the usual line of thought: Heather, to Addie, to their friendship, back to Heather's place in the group. Then finally, the change that occured over that summer which forced Adelade to give up her popularity. When she lost the want to make friends, she lost the ability to keep them; Emma couldn't keep her best friend from drowning in the mediocraty of Hawkin's High, and that pushed her towards the cheerleader.

"I'm fine. Just worried about Chris, is all. You ready to do this?"

Eddie finished rustling through his room, pulling a bag full of white powder into view. He was moving towards the living room before Emma could get a good look at the drugs - the girl was quick to follow behind him, as she tried her best to avoid snooping for too long.

She only got a good look at his guitar, and the pair of handcuffs which hung from his bedpost.

"Chrissy, hello?"

Eddie's voice travelled through the whole trailer, startling Emma enough for her to lightly jog back to her friend. Although she didn't really understand the plan, she trusted Eddie enough to let him complete whatever it was he wanted to do, including his attempt to click his fingers in front of Chrissy's face.

"Hey Chrissy."

As she walked into the main area to watch the scene, Emma just about caught when the trailer's electric began to dim. All around the trio, lights began to flicker to an unknown rhythm that almost rivalled the speed of her heart after her short scare. Energy buzzed through Emma's hands out of habit after her small jump; her excess nerves expelled themselves through her fingers as they wiggled beside her leg, as Eddie forced out his own anxiety by pacing across the trailer floor. He glanced at Emma in the hopes of finding the source of the disruption. The girl could do nothing but shake her head as she glanced from the lamp, to the ceiling, and then the light on the oven.

Emma had been in some pretty shady places, but Eddie's home was rising ever so slowly to the top of that list as the flickering continued.

"Time to wake up. Hello? Can you hear me?"

Eddie began to clap his hands together in front of Chrissy's face - a face Emma had been too preoccupied to look at. In an attempt to stop the flickering, Emma began to scavenge for wires around the kitchen counter which looked withered or out of order. She ignored the grime and dust that built up at the back of the work space as her hand swiped across the rim of the countertop, until a not so familiar bag of white powder came into her grasp. As Eddie continued to shake Chrissy's shoulders, Emma inspected whatever it was she found.

"Wake up, Chrissy. Chrissy, wake up! I don't like this, Chrissy! Wake up!"

Eddie continued to shout hyterically, glancing back every now and then towards Emma who'd become frozen behind the kitchen counter. It was only when Emma looked up again that she noticed Chrissy's eyes, sunken and white against her face. The image startled Emma out from the safety of the kitchen space.

"Eddie, what the fuck happened to Chrissy? You said you were going to scare her, not fucking OD her!" Emma shouted, gently putting her hand on Chrissy's check. She was cold to the touch - her skin taunt and paling. From her short glance, it looked like she was a doll.

"This wasn't me! She was like this when I walked in, okay?" Eddie defended himself with another hyterically timed shout.

"Chrissy, come on!" Eddie shouted, removing Emma's careful hand to slap her cheeks.

His chant continued, begging Chrissy by name to wake up and return to her friend who'd become increasingly panicked. Now for Eddie, it was the terror that came with Chrissy's haunted white eyes that brought on his hysteria. For the girl stood next to him, it was something entirely too familiar that was weeding out every sense of normality and growth from its very root. A rot of grief was unleashed the second Emma realised Chrissy wasn't waking up; a grief which struck her friend group simultaneously less than a year before. Emma considered only briefly that if Chrissy didn't wake up, it would kill the remaining serenity that the group had left.

But despite the consequences of their actions, the lights around Emma continued to faulter.

"Chrissy, please!" Emma finally shouted - voice hoarse and uncertain.

It was just as she began to plea for Chrissy's life, that the cheerleader lifted from the stained floor of Eddie's trailer. Her arms were slack, and her perfectly maintained hair was as limp as the rest of her face as Chrissy began to float far enough from the ground that she became supernatural. In her shock, it was Eddie who tightly grabbed onto Emma's hand to pull her away from the creature that used to be her friend. She barely registered his help until her back pressed against the boy's chest, but once she did, she thanked him with a shaken breath.

"Chrissy..." Emma became lost in the tirade of words that she wanted to scream into her friend's skull. She had barely any time to consider what was happening, let alone a cause for the dangling of her best friend. She was stuck, mentally and physically, in awe of Chrissy's blank expression. All she knew for sure was that it wasn't Chrissy in front of her; something unexplainable had taken her, and left her body behind.

The poor girl hung with a rotting silence in the air. Emma and Eddie stood with their feet almost drilled into the floor and remained eerily still, save for their thumping hearts, which Emma thought could burst at any moment. The air in the trailer suddenly grew thick as Chrissy’s frame lingered over them, dripping with a sadistic hesitation, as if whatever force that held her was goading its two witnesses, daring them to move. Her jaw dangled below the rest of her face, and they followed the violent quivering of her skin, dancing up her body to rest just behind her seething eyes. It was an act of torture, one which Emma finally decided she couldn’t endure any longer. She wasn’t sure if she could touch Chrissy, even less certain if she could haul her down to the floor. But despite it all, she had to try.

A steady hum of energy grated the space between them as Emma’s hand advanced, just barely pressing past the current which rushed against her. There was so little space between them. Chrissy’s arm was right there… 

Without warning, that arm shot away from Emma’s grasp, convulsing out of shape. Its brittle bones resisted only for a moment, before snapping and crumbling with the ease of stale bread. Chrissy’s morbid puppet master wrenched the shattered remains behind her back before turning to her other limbs, tugging, and jerking and snatching at her, moulding an abstract sculpture from her carcass. Emma dropped to the floor and scrambled back towards Eddie as the sculpting continued, managing a single scream as she desperately searched for Eddie's legs. Chrissy was being stretched taut and through herself, rendering her frame a gothic tangle of jagged edges and hooks. It was then that streaks of blood began to seep from behind her eye sockets, slithering down her disjointed cheeks. Eddie, finally released from his trance, nearly tore the trailer door from its hinges and fled. Chrissy eyes followed Eddie's example, and -while still tethered to Emma’s gaze- caved inwards into the depths of her skull.