YOUR SONG | steve harrington

050

"Okay, 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 all these murders?" Robin questioned as she, Alicia, and Nancy walked up to Hawkins Library.

Nancy forced a smile at the Buckley girl. "Pretty much."

"But Victor committed the eyeball murders, like, way back in the '50s," Robin pointed out.

"Well, '59," Nancy corrected as she opened the door leading into the library.

"That's still technically in the '50s," Alicia spoke up with a small shrug, kind of scared that Nancy would go off since she seemed to be a little annoyed.

Robin nodded at that. "So, that means these murders predate Eleven in the Upside Down by about 30 years?"

"Yeah."

"Which makes spooky Victor Creel like 70 years old," Robin assumed as they walked up to the desk.

"Yep." Nancy rang the bell on the desk, making it chime so it could alert the librarian.

"So, he's a grandpa murderer who can turn invisible and lift people into the air," Robin lightly joked, earning a small laugh from the Sinclair girl.

"It doesn't make sense. I know. That's why I said it was a shot in the dark," Nancy told her, ringing the bell once again. Alicia could tell that Nancy was getting more and more irritated as Robin spoke, but she couldn't exactly stop the girl — she was known to just keep on talking no matter the circumstances.

"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, like," Nancy chimed the bell twice as Robin continued to speak, "really, truly a shot in the dark. Like, we are snipers with blindfolds on who've been spun around fifty times." Nancy begin to hit the bell rapidly, fed up with Robin's rambles.

"Coming!" the librarian shouted as Alicia and Robin glanced at each other, the latter finally sensing Nancy's exasperation.

"Hi. Sorry, we're in a bit of a rush. Could we get the keys to the basement archives?" Nancy asked.

The librarian tsked. "Those are off limits unless you have a library card," she told the Wheeler girl.

Nancy blinked. "I — Well..." she stammered, not knowing what to do now.

"If I may interject," Alicia stepped forward, in between Nancy and Robin, "I don't have my library card, but I'm sure you recognize my face."

The librarian's eyes immediately lit up, recognizing one of her most recurring customers before she went off to college. "Oh, Miss Sinclair! How wonderful it is to see you. How is college treating you?" the librarian queried, although the girls didn't have time to chat.

"Great. I mean, without this place I probably wouldn't even be in college!" Alicia flattered, waving her hands around. "And with that being said, my friends and I actually really need to the basement archives. We have a report due back at school and I think I remember some good sources down there from the last time I was here. So it would be great if we could have the keys to it, if you don't mind."

The librarian glanced at Nancy and Robin, who both gave her a tight lipped grin. "Of course," she finally said. "Give me one second."

"Nicely done," Robin complimented once the librarian walked away, earning a blush to make its way up to Alicia's cheeks. "Where'd you learn how to do that?"

"Carmen," Alicia answered casually, thinking about how flattery always seemed to work whenever Carmen was in charge. "I've spent many times watching her work in action."