LEWIS FAMILY CABIN

HAWKINS, INDIANA

SEPTEMBER 21, 2025, 12:58 PM

Pacing back and forth by the door, Demona kept checking her phone. Despite having turned off her location (as well as her ‘read’ receipts), Jessica was still trying to contact her. She was messaging her so often that Demona wasn’t even reading them anymore, and just swiping the texts away as they popped up before glancing out of the window again. It wasn’t that she necessarily wanted to ignore her friend, but rather a necessity now that things had quickly gone from bad to deadly.

First, Demona had watched her old friends and old lover perform their hearts out on the very same stage she and Eddie had once performed together on. Then, she had gone home to an argument with her best friend. Just when she thought things were at their lowest, Eddie had shown up covered in blood, only for the two of them to be attacked by a creature from another dimension, and for Eddie to tell Demona that his girl was dead. Now, they were locked up in her family’s cabin, waiting for Steve to return with supplies. It wasn’t at all how she expected to spend her weekend, but reality and dreams were two different things entirely.

Finally, though, the sound of Steve’s car on the driveway snapped her out of her pacing, and Demona opened the cabin door before half-rushing onto the porch. He was carrying two pizzas in his hands, along with a bag with two 2-liters of Mountain Dew and a backpack over his shoulder. She didn’t even care about the backpack at the moment, though, gratefully taking the boxes.

“Took you long enough. Were they lined up out the door??” Despite her words, her tone showed her gratitude, Steve looking more serious than he had before.

“No, but the cops were everywhere.” Steve’s words had the blonde stopping, looking back over her shoulder at the man before half-turning to face him. “They’re looking for Eddie everywhere, and they’re sending out search parties for you.”

That caught her attention. Sure, it made sense for the cops to be looking for Eddie. After all, they suspected him of the murder of his girlfriend. But Demona?? As far as she knew, they wouldn’t be able to connect her to Chrissy at all, except for the fact they had been classmates years ago. Her confusion was clearly written all over her face, and after a sigh, Steve stepped forward, his voice lower after glancing around.

“Jessica, your roommate? She couldn’t get a hold of you, so she went home and found the place destroyed. You weren’t kidding when you said–anyways, she saw the place trashed and found some blood near the door, so she called the cops.” Steve hesitated then, glancing at Eddie in the doorway before turning his gaze back to her. “Witnesses saw him chase after you at the end of the show last night, and they know you two used to be a thing. They think he’s gone off the deep end and killed you both.”

“ . . . Fuck.” Swearing quieter than she expected, Demona turned to go back into the cabin, only to see Eddie standing there. She didn’t know what was going on in his head, but whatever it was, she doubted it would be any improvement to his previous mental state.