The Year Everything Flipped Upside Down || Eddie Munson

Timeless Flight

—She packed my bags last night pre-flight

Zero hour 9:00 a.m.

And I'm gonna be high

As a kite by then

I miss the Earth so much I miss my wife

It's lonely out in space

On such a timeless flight—

    –Elton John

The walk continued in silence until they made it through the woods into the trailer park. When they crossed through the edge of the woods their eyes landed on the rest of the group sitting on a picnic table in the middle of the trailer park.
"So you're saying that this thing that killed Fred and Chrissy." Nancy spoke, once the two of them joined the rest of the group. "It's from the Upside Down?"
"I mean if the shoe fits." Steve shrugged.
"Our working theory is that he attacks with a spell," Dustin spoke up next, "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 that this is different." Max this time, looking up for the first time. "Something new."
"It doesn't make sense."
"It's only a theory." Dustin shrugs to Nancy.
"No, Fred and Chrissy, it doesn't make sense." Nancy shakes her head, "I mean why them?"
"Maybe, the wrong place at the wrong time?" Dustin offers. "They were both at the game."
"And near the trailer park." Max gives.
"We're at the trailer park." Steve murmurs, looking around. "Should we maybe not be here?"
"There is something about this place." Nancy speaks up. "Fred started acting weird the moment we got here." Robin asks what she means, "scared, on edge, upset."
"What if it's just for the kills?" Everyone pauses to look at Alex who'd been uncharacteristically quiet. "Maybe Fred was acting weird because you were about to investigate a murder." Alex shrugs before continuing. "What if it doesn't have some secret meaning behind them?"
"Max said Chrissy was upset, too." Dustin points out.
"Yeah, but not here."
"She was upset, she had been having headaches and nosebleeds and she was stressed out, and then she said she'd seen something" Alex mumbles, she not even thinking about the possibility of what could be happening to her, she doesn't believe it, she won't.
"Serial killers stalk their prey, right?" Robin asks, "So, maybe Fred and Chrissy saw this Vecman- Dustin immediately corrects her, muttering 'Vecna'
"I don't know about you but if I saw a freaky wizard monster, I would mention it to someone."
"Maybe they did."
"Chrissy did." Alex mutters, adding to Max, "Chrissy told me she saw her mom and then her feet turned into something she couldn't explain, something not human." Alex runs a hand down her face. Why didn't she pick these things up, why did she dismiss it? Why didn't she notice?
"I also saw Chrissy leaving Miss Kelly's office," Max adds, "If you saw a monster you wouldn't go to the police- they'd never believe you, but you might go to-"
"Your shrink." Robin nods, or your friend Alex thinks, why didn't she pick this up? She puts her hands into fists, digging her nails into her palms. Squeezing her eyes shut she couldn't even believe herself, it flew over her head- it didn't but she thought she was overreacting. Now Chrissy is dead. She got sloppy, she thought the gate was closed, thought it was safe. Safe to just be teenagers who get headaches and nosebleeds and not have to worry about dying from a fantasy monster from a roleplaying game that bled into their town.
Alex never wanted to be involved with any of this, but from the beginning she has been. Claudia Henderson has called her about watching Dustin while she had some work thing that night, she ended up following Dustin into the forest, eventually meeting up with his friends.
Then there was no going back, she was in it. No backing out, it was all about keeping the kids safe and saving Will.
That's where she met Steve, then became close friends, that ended with them finding a job at the mall together, meeting Robin, that finished with the mall burning down and the gate closed. Or so they thought.