Escape ~ S.Harrington

65} Exploring the Haunted House

Nancy, Robin, Alice, Steve, Dustin, and Lucas were all fast asleep in the Wheeler's basement after the events of earlier. Nancy sat up at the sound of Eddie's voice booming through Dustin's walkie.
"Hey, it's Nancy," She picked up the walkie.
"Wheeler! Hey," Eddie replied back, "Um, I'm gonna need a food delivery, like, really soon, unless you want me going out into the world."
"No. No, no, no. Don't do that. Just stay where you are, and we'll be there as soon as we can."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen, um... can you pick me up a six-pack? I know, it's stupid as shit, drinking right now, but a cold beer would really calm my jangled nerves."
Nancy looked back and noticed Max wasn't anywhere in the basement.
"Hey, I'm gonna have to call you back."

She turned off the walkie and woke up Dustin who was supposed to be watching Max.
"Dustin! Wake up."
"What?" He asked, half awake.
"Aren't you supposed to be on Max watch?"
"Yep. Yep, yep, yep. Sorry."
"Okay, then where is she?"
"She's right there," He pointed to where she used to sit on the couch, "A second ago. I swear, I just dozed off for... an hour."

Nancy panicked and ran upstairs with Dustin right on her tail. As they walked through the kitchen, they saw Max coloring next to Holly who was playing with a Lite Brite.
"Morning, guys," Mrs. Wheeler greeted them, "Everything okay?"
"Yeah," Nancy said out of breath, "Yeah, everything's okay."
"I think it's so sweet that you guys are sticking together like this," Karen told them as she placed a pancake on her husband's plate.
"Could try sticking together at a different house for a change," He snarked.
"You know you're welcome here anytime," Karen comforted Dustin.
"Totally," Dustin gave her a little smile, "You're like family. May I?" He pointed at the pancakes.
"Absolutely!"
"Yeah, why not? Take us for all we're worth," Ted rolled his eyes.
"Okay," Dustin proceeded to pile on four or five pancakes to his plate.
"And tell your mom I said hi," Karen changed the subject, "I haven't gotten to talk much with her since the... mall... thing."
"Uh... yeah I'll tell her."

Meanwhile at the table, Nancy was sitting down next to Max.
"Hey," Max took her headphones off.
"Hey," Nancy gave her a weak smile, "You okay?"
"Just couldn't sleep. People kept blasting music in my ears, for some reason. But Holly let me borrow some of her crayons. We've been having a fun morning, right, Holly?"
Holly gave a weak 'mm-hmm' in response.
Nancy looked at all of the drawings strewn across the table that Max had drawn, "Is this what you saw last night?"
"I mean, it's supposed to be. I thought it'd be easier to draw out than explain it, but... not so much."
"Is that..." Nancy pulled the drawing that had what looked to be dead bodies mushed into vines.
"It was like they were on display. And then there was this red fog everywhere. It was like a dream. A nightmare. Except for-"

"Do you think Vecna's trying to scare you?"
"With Billy? Yeah. But when I made it here..." She referred to the area with the fog, "I dunno, something was different. He seemed surprised, almost. Like he didn't want me there."
"Maybe you infiltrated his mind," Dustin hopped in, "he invaded your mind, right? Is it that big of a leap to suggest you somehow wound up in his? Oooh, like Freddy Krueger's boiler room."
"Freddy Krueger?" Holly's face contorted in disgust.
"He's a super burned-up dude with razors for fingers," He explained, "And he kills you in your dreams."
"Seriously?" Nancy snapped at him.
He looked between Max and Nancy and finally got a proper reading on the room, "Sorry. It's a movie. It's not real. Just... think about it. What if you somehow unlocked a back door to Vecna's world? Like, maybe the answer we're looking for is somewhere in this incredibly vague drawing," He held up the picture with the stained-glass window on it, "God, we need Will."

"No shit," Max snapped.
"I tried them again this morning, and it's the same busy signal," Nancy explained, then grabbed the drawing Dustin had been holding, "Is this a window?"
"Yeah," Max said, nonchalantly.
"Stained glass with roses."
"Yeah. See? I'm not so terrible after all."
"Yeah, well, it helps that I've seen it before."