Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
006. BACK TO BABY SITTING
" back on the bench dingus"
THE GROUP HAD ALL GATHERED IN THE WHEELERS BASEMENT, and Anya, Steve, Dustin, and Lucas were all on victor creel research duty. Nancy and Robin both believed that, whoever this guy was, he was connected to vecna and his first attack."okay, be honest." steve said as he read through a flyer. "uh.. you guys understand any of this?""no." lucas groaned. "yeah." anya said at the same time, not looking up from the article in her hands."pretty straightforward." dustin agreed. Steve looked over at him. "oh, straightforward, really?" Anya looked up. "what's confusing you?" she asked "so far, everyone vecna has cursed has died, except for this old victor creel dude nancy found. he's the only known survivor, so if anyone knows how to beat this curse, it's him!" dustin summarized.
"that's assuming he was cursed." steve argued. "We don't even know." he put his hand to his temple. "how can vecna have existed in the '50s? it doesn't make sense.""as far as we know, eleven didn't create the upside down." dustin told him. "she opened a gate to it. the upside down has probably been around for thousands of years. millions. I wouldn't be surprised if it predated the dinosaurs."steve was then completely lost. "dinosaurs? what are we-""okay," lucas cut him off, "but if a gate didn't exist in the '50s, how did vecna get through?""and how's he getting through now?" steve added."and why now?" the other boy agreed.
"and why then?" steve continued. "he just pops out in the '50s, kills one family, and he's like, 'i'm good', and poof he just disappears.. just.. gone? only to return thirty years later and start killing some random teens? no, i don't buy it." he shook his head.Anya looked up from her article. "how many stephen king books have you guys read?"steve turned back to her.".. only the summaries you've given me. why?" he had still remembered the summaries she gave him?
"cicadas disappear, right. sometimes in horror movies, in.. in some books and stuff, sometimes the villains disappear for an extended period after they've had enough feeding. maybe vecna has to pop out every now and then to keep himself strong enough to be alive. but he's still.. he's still waiting to reach his full strength or something."dustin shrugged. "it's a good idea.""best one we have so far." steve agreed.
"straightforward my ass. you know, henderson, some humility? every now and then it wouldn't hurt you." he complained about dustin as he sat next to anya, who was focused on a new article now."any idea what she's writing?" dustin asked, making everyone look at max. she was huddled in the corner, as she had been all morning, completely focused on her pen and paper. "did she sleep?"lucas looked at him. "i mean.. would you?" anya frowned.
the door opened, and everyone turned again as nancy and robin walked downstairs. "okay, so, we have a plan.""thanks to nancy's newspaper minions, we are now rock-star psychology students at the university of notre dame." robin said, handing steve and anya one of their new fake files."notre dame? nice." the girl said, smiling at robin."i'm now ruth." nancy said.
"and i'm rose.""so, we called pennhurst asylum, told them we'd like to speak with victor creel for a thesis we're co-writing on paranoid schizophrenics." nancy began."-to which they said no." robin frowned.nancy nodded. "but, we landed a three o'clock with the director.""now all we have to do is charm him and convince him to let us talk to victor.""and then maybe we can rid max of this curse."steve looked at her over his shoulder. "about that. we've been doing our victor creel homework, and, uh.. we got some questions.""lots of questions." anya agreed."so do we." nancy said. "maybe victor has some answers."
steve thought for a second. "wait,wait, wait a second. uh.. where's me and anya's.. our fake files?"anya looked up at him. "we're not going.""what?""We don't have fake files because we're not going." she explained. "back on the bench dingus."steve, who didn't want to be stuck on house arrest with the kids anymore, followed nancy and robin upstairs. "why is it always me and anya who are always watching them? it can be fun, yeah, sometimes, but i want to get to do something for once.""oh, you wanna wear a cute little schoolgirl costume? i'm sure that would really impress the director." anya replied sarcastically, following them into nancy's bedroom, where she was attempting to craft an outfit for robin.
"i know you guys are staring at me." max said after nancy and robin had left. the others, called out, diverted their attention."what, sorry? no.""just hanging out." steve argued, putting an arm over Anya's shoulder not really registering what he was doing, but then realizing and awkwardly moved his arm off of her pretending to read the random book she'd grabbed while tossing a baseball with his free hand. max laughed. "how you think your eyes boring into the back of my head is protecting me from vecna, i don't know."
she then stood from her seat, her letters seemingly finished. when she walked over to the others, she rolled her eyes as they continued to pretend they weren't looking at her. "you can look at me now.""thank you. sorry."she then handed an envelope to each of them, and all four quickly made a move to open them before she stopped them. "hey, what are you doing? no, don't, that's not for now, don't open it now."
They all quickly closed the envelopes, and dustin held his up. "i'm sorry, what is this?"max cleared her throat. "it's, um.. it's a fail-safe. for after. if things don't work out."lucas shook his head. "wait, woah, max, things are gonna work out.""no!" she argued. "no, i don't need you to reassure me right now and tell me it's all gonna work out, because people have been telling me that my entire life and it's almost never true. it's never true." she repeated." mean, of course this asshole curses me. should've seen that one coming." wordlessly, she grabbed dustin's walkie talkie. "if we go to east hawkins, will this thing still reach pennhurst?"dustin nodded. "of course, yeah.""wait, why are we talking about east hawkins?" steve asked before getting struck with realization. "no. no. no!" as usual, no one listened to steve, and max walked outside, fully prepared to walk to east hawkins if she had to.
"max. max, seriously. seriously, i'm not joking, okay? i'm not driving you anywhere."she kept walking. "steve, if you think i'm going to spend what is likely the last day of my life in the armpit that is mike wheeler's basement, then you're out of your mind. so either take me where i need to go or tie me down, which is technically kidnapping of a minor- and if i live to see another day, steve, i swear to god, i will prosecute." max tugged at the car door, and groaned when she found it to be locked. "open the door."he gave her a look. "uh, no.""i know a good lawyer." she threatened.from behind steve, anya reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his keys, using them to unlock the car. "hey!" he complained, watching as she climbed into the passenger seat.
"come one asshole, since when were we ever the good babysitters" she smirked.
