THE CURSED - s.harrington ✓

EIGHTEEN

All the guilt she would feel from the killings and mostly all the pain, Billy, Chrissy her dad leaving. And her breakup with Steve over the summer.

"Hey."

"You okay?"

Melanie nods, "Yeah.. I just couldn't sleep. People kept blasting music in my ears, for some reason."

Nancy chuckles as Melanie continues, "But Holly let me and Max borrow some of her crayons."

Max smiles seeing Melanie talk like she always did she joins in on the small conversation as she takes off her headphones, "We've been having fun, right, Holly?"

"Mm-hmm."

Nancy looks at the drawings infront of Melanie, "Is this what you saw last night?"

"I mean, it's supposed to be. I thought it'd be easier to draw it out than to explain it, but... Not so much."

"Is that...?" Nancy says pointing out on drawing of which were suppose to be Fred and Chrissy.

Melanie can feel a small break in her heart remembering Chrissy but she quickly pushes it down not wanting her humanity back, "It was like they were on display. And then there was this red fog everywhere. It was like a dream. A nightmare."

"You think Vecna's just trying to scare you?"

"With Billy? Yeah. But when I made it here... I dunno, something was different. He seemed surprised, almost. Like he didn't want me there."

Dustin sits down at the table when he's finally done taking most of the pancakes,
"Maybe you infiltrated his mind. He invaded your mind, right? Is it that big a leap to suggest you somehow wound up in his? Like Freddie Krueger's boiler room."

Holly looked at him weirdly suddenly joining in on the four of them, "Freddie Krueger?"

"He's a super burned-up dude with razors for fingers. And he kills you in your dreams."

Nancy turns to Dustin annoyed of him trying to scare her little sister, "Dustin! Seriously?"

"Sorry. It's a movie. It's not real." Holly nods confused and goes back to her computer ignoring they're conversation.

"Just... think about it. What if you somehow unlocked a backdoor to Vecna's world? Like, maybe the answer we're looking for is somewhere in this incredibly vague drawing. God, we need Will."

Melanie rolled her eyes, "No shit. I can't draw anything else but a dead body."

Everyone looked at her concerned and just decided to ignore it. Max cleared her throat, "I tried them again this morning, and it's the same busy signal."

Nancy took one of the drawings and turned to Melanie, "Is this a window?"

"Yeah."

"Stained glass with roses."

"Yeah. See? I'm not so terrible after all." Melanie says bossy towards Dustin to which he scoffs as he pulls a face.

"Yeah, well, it helps that I've seen it before."

Dustin, Max and Melanie watch confused as Nancy starts folding the papers together like a puzzel. After everything is put together she goes over all the lines with a pen.

"It's pieces of a house." Max says realizing. Melanie also turns to the drawings seeing it.

Nancy nods, "Not just any house. It's Victor Creel's house."

Nancy stands up from the table and Dustin turns, "Where you going?"

"Waking the others."

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