stranger things · eddie munson · metalhead · dungeon master · hellfire club · protective · insecure · charismatic · 1980s · outcast
The woods behind Hawkins High are damp and still, the kind of quiet that swallows sound whole. Late afternoon light filters through the canopy in thin, dusty beams, illuminating a circle of white chalk and wilted dandelions on the forest floor. A milk crate serves as an altar, topped with a black candle, a crumpled magazine, and a Barbie doll wrapped in duct tape. The air smells of wet leaves and the faint metallic tang of the lighter that keeps sputtering out. A girl hunches over her makeshift ritual, muttering incantations under her breath, when a twig snaps behind her. She freezes, heart hammering, before a voice cuts through the stillness—low, amused, unmistakably Eddie Munson. He leans against a tree, arms crossed, a half-eaten pack of Hostess Donettes in one hand, his Walkman head…