'Nothing scares me anymore.'
In which Hopper's daughter returns for the summer, but everything goes wrong.
Max Mayfield x fem!oc
season 3 - season 4
completed until season 5
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"And after you talked to Wayne, what happened?" The two officers kept asking the two girls the same questions. "I heard barking from the dog, and then... he was just gone." Nancy answered and Lexi nodded. "See anyone lurking about? Who looks like they shouldn't be there?"
"No. No, no, there was nobody there." Lexi shook her head. "Nobody." He seemed to not trust them. "We already told this to Officer Daniels. Did you look into Victor Creel?" Nancy raised her brows. "Sorry, what's that?" One of the officers scoffed. "Victor Creel. Wayne got it in her head that the old nut did this. Victor's locked away. Don't need to worry about him, all right? Now, you said last you saw Fred, he was by the picnic tables. Do I have that right?"
The two girls turned their attention to the familiar car that approached the scene. "Ms. Wheeler? Lexi? He was by the picnic tables. Is that correct? Ms. Wheeler? Alexandra? Does the picnic table ring a bell?"
Steve, Robin, Dustin and Max got out of the car and Lexi let out a sigh of relief. "Excuse me." She told the officers, who were too slow to protest and ran to Max. She crushed the redhead with a hug.
After Nancy joined them, they sat down on a bench to put their storied together. "You're saying that this thing that killed Fred and Chrissy, it's from the Upside Down?" Nancy asked them. "If the shoe fits."
"Our working theory is that he attacks with a spell or a curse. Now, whether or not he's doing the bidding of the Mind Flayer or just loves killing teens, we don't know. All we know is this is something different. Something new."
"Doesn't make sense." Lexi shook her head. "It's only a theory." Dustin shrugged. :No, Fred and Chrissy don't make sense." Lexi said. "She's right, why them?" Nancy agreed. "Maybe they were just in the wrong place. Were both at the game."
"And near the trailer park." Max added. "We're at the trailer park. Uh, should we maybe not be here?" Steve looked around the place. "There is something about this place." Lexi shook her head. "Fred started acting weird the second we got here."
"Acting weird as in...?" Robin looked between Nancy and Lexi. "Scared, on edge, upset." Lexi listed. "Max said Chrissy was upset too." Dustin pointed out. "Yeah, but not here. She was crying in the bathroom at school."
"Serial killers stalk their prey before they strike, right? So, maybe Fred and Chrissy saw this Vecman" Robin theoritized. "Vecna." Dustin corrected her. "Dunno about you, but if I saw some freaky wizard monster, I would mention it to someone."
"Maybe they did. I saw Chrissy leaving Ms. Kelley's office. If you saw a monster, you... you wouldn't go to the police. They'd never believe you. But you might go to your..." Max shrugged. "Your shrink."
They all got up and walked to Steve's car, until Nancy pulled Lexi towards her own car. "Whoa, whoa, Nance. Nance! Where you going?" Steve called out. "Oh, there's just something I wanna check on first." Max looked at Lexi, who shrugged. "Something you wanna share with us?"
"I don't wanna waste your time. It's a real shot in the dark." Nancy shrugged. "Yeah, okay. Are you out of your mind? Flying solo with Vecna on the loose? No, it's too dangerous. You need... You need someone to... Here. I'll stick with Nance and Lexi. Take the car, check out the shrink."
"Don't think you want me driving your car." Robin caught the keys. "Why?" Steve stopped. "I don't have a license." Robin shook her head. "Why?" Steve furrowed her brows. "I'm poor." She shrugged. "I can drive." Lexi grinned. "No, never again. Please. Anybody but you. No. No chance."
"Come on." Dustin complained. "No." He shook his head. "All right, okay. This is stupid. Us ladies will stick together. Unless you think we need you to protect us." Lexi grinned and ran to Max. "Be careful." She gave her a quick peck on the lips and ran back.
"Help me get this straight. Eddie's uncle, Wayne, thinks that Victor Creel escaped from Pennhurst Asylum and that he's the one running around committing these murders?" Robin asked as soon as they walked in the library. "Pretty much." Lexi nodded. "But Victor committed the eyeball murders, like, way back in the '50s."
"Well, '59." Nancy corrected her. "So, that means these murders predate Eleven in the Upside Down by about 30 years?" She asked. "Yeah." Lexi confirmed once again. "Which makes spooky Victor Creel like 70 years old."
"Yep." Nancy said before she rung the bell. "So, he's a grandpa murderer who can turn invisible and lift people into the air." She squinted her eyes. "It doesn't make sense. I know. That's why I said it was a shot in the dark."
"I know. I just thought that by shot in the dark, you were being modest or hiding something super solid up your sleeve that you were gonna wow us with later. But this is really, truly a shot in the dark. Like, we are snipers with blindfolds on who've been spun around 50 times."
"Coming!" Nancy finally stopped ringing the bell as the librarian walked in. "Hi. Sorry, we're in a bit of a rush. Could we get the keys to the basement archives?" The woman nodded. "Of course. Give me one sec."
"Did I come off mean or condescending?" Lexi furrowed her brows at Robin's question that was meant for Nancy. "No." The brunette shook her head. "Right. Sorry. It's just, you seem annoyed. You don't know me well. I don't really have a filter or a strong grasp of social cues."
"Okay." Nancy nodded. "If I say something that upsets you, just know that I know it's a flaw. Believe me, my mother reminds me daily." She chuckled a little. "Got it." Lexi winced at her tone. "All right, ladies. Here you go. Have fun." Lexi took the keys. "Yep. We'll try."
The three girls walked to the basement and took some newspaper to look through. "Anything... juicy over there?" Robin asked the two girls. "No." Lexi sighed. "Nothing new."
"Yep, same here. Victor seemed like a normal guy. Dead family, missing eyes, took a plea deal, sent to Pennhurst. Blah, blah, blah, blah. What are we looking for exactly? Nance?" She knocked on the wood. "Any mention of dark wizards or alternate dimensions? Things in that vein?"
"I don't know. Okay? It's starting to seem like this was just a big waste of time. You're obviously bored. Why don't you call Steve? I'm sure he'll pick you up. And I mean, we're not really in danger here, so..."
"You do know that Steve and I are, like, totally not a thing, right?" Lexi knew she should stay quiet, but she totally enjoyed that drama. "What?" Nancy scoffed, "So, I figure you and Jonathan are still going strong 'cause you guys are going to college together. You're one of those unstoppable power couples, but I... I just... I wanted to make sure that you knew that Steve and I are just friends. Like, platonic with a capital P. Just in case that's adding any tension between us."
"It wasn't." They walked over to some more newspapers and they looked through them. "Holy shit. The Weekly Watcher. I can't believe they have this." Robin picked one up. "Don't they write about, like, Bigfoot and UFOs?" Lexi asked. "First, UFOs are absolutely real. Bigfoot I'm still on the fence about. But may I remind you we are looking for information on dark wizards? If someone's gonna write about that, it's gonna be these weirdos."
"Elvis cloned by aliens." Nancy read from the screen and walked back to her own newspaper, but Lexi stayed patient and looked through The Weekly Watcher with Robin. "You never know."
"Victor Creel claims vengeful demon killed family. The murder that shocked a small community." Robin read after a while. "Ha, ha. That's very funny." Nancy scoffed. "She's not kidding. Get over here."
"According to several insiders, Victor believed his house was haunted by an ancient demon. Victor allegedly hired a priest to exorcise the demon from his home. Pretty novel for the '50s. Exorcist wasn't out yet."
"Keep... Keep going." Nancy furrowed her brows. "Okay, so Victor claimed this exorcism failed, but it angered this demon, which then murdered his family, removing their eyes. Victor believed he was spared as a punishment." She read. "That's pretty convenient for Victor."
"Yeah, or super inconvenient. Victor was declared legally insane by the court, right? What if this is why? It sounds insane. Just didn't go public because... The plea bargain. The records were sealed. What if a demon did invade Victor's home? It's just, this demon wasn't any old demon. It was Vecna."
They walked out of the library and Lexi took out the walkie. "Dustin, do you copy?" She pushed the button. "Yeah, I copy." He answered. "So, Nancy's a genius. Vecna's first victims date back all the way to 1959. Her shot in the dark was a bull's-eye."
"Okay, that's totally bonkers, but I can't really talk right now." He sighed. "What are you doing?" She furrowed her brows."Breaking and entering school to retrieve confidential and extremely personal files."
"Can you repeat that?" Robin snatched the walkie. "Just get your ass over here, stat. We'll explain everything."
