SINISTER ~ STRANGER THINGS (2)

THEY CALL HIM VECNA

"Uh oh," Bianca widens her eyes, coming to El's side.

Mike and Will soon join them, equally shocked at the scene before them. They all make their way to El, knowing she was in big trouble this time.

"What did you do?" Mike questions El. "El, what did you do?"

"Mike, stop. That's not helping," Bianca glares, touching El's shoulder. "Are you okay?"

The girl stays silent, eyes never leaving Angela's bloody nose as Mike's words echo in her mind.

"Hey, Jane, you with us?" Marco questions, wincing as Angela continues to scream. "It's gonna be alright. It's almost 6. Jonathan will pick us up soon."

She simply nods, stepping away from the chaos with her arm looped in Bianca's.

Before Bianca walks off, however, she turns to Angela with a fake look of sympathy. "You should probably get that checked out."

"Bee."

"What? I could've hit her. I didn't," she reminds them, following them out the doors into the crisp chill of the desert air.

____

As the moon replaces the sun in the Hawkins sky, Dustin and the group finally make their way to the home settled near Lover's Lake, in search of Eddie.

"So, like, exactly how sure are you that Eddie is innocent?" Sam glances at the kids as Steve pulls into Reefer Rick's driveway.

For what it was worth, the home itself wasn't too bad, being a quaint little cabin right on the edge of the lake. In other circumstances, Sam would think it was cute, but the whole potential murderer living in a convicted drug dealer's house aspect put a damper on things.

"Sam!" Dustin shouts.

"I'm sorry!" she groans. "I just find all of this just the tiniest bit creepy. Am I the only one here?"

"No, you definitely are not," Steve inspects the exterior of the cabin with concerned eyes.

"I'm sure it'll be fine, guys. We once snuck into a Russian base," Robin teases, opening the back door.

"Did you forget that was like 95% unintentional?" Sam raises her eyebrows, handing everyone a flashlight.

"Also, it didn't turn out well for any of us," Steve adds, opening Sam's door.

"Okay, bad analogy," she puts her hands up. "Sue me."

"Bold, saying that to a lawyer's kid," Max jokes.

"Everyone focus, please," Dustin requests, annoyance in his tone as he leads them up the driveway to the front door.

He rings the doorbell once, which garners absolutely no reaction from whoever may or may not be inside. Unsatisfied, he tries a bunch more times, even resorting to knocking.

"Okay. Well, that's settled. I guess he's not here."

"Eddie! It's Dustin!"

"Look, we just wanna talk, okay?"

"If he's in there, he's not gonna open the door. He's not stupid," Sam voices, maintaining a steady light on the woods near the house, not in the mood for any surprise attacks.

"No cops, I swear. We just wanna help!" Dustin ignores her, continuing his attempts. "Eddie! Reefer Rick!"

"Don't scream that."

"Rick!"

"He's not there," Steve tries.

"Reefer Rick!" he drops his voice to a whisper. "He could just be really high."