-
"You have a call." El walks into my room, handing me the phone. I stopped pinning my dress, spitting out the pins from my mouth and took it from her.
"Hello?"
"Wendy?"
"Yeah?"
"Its Dustin." Oh my god! Its been forever!
"Oh hey Dusty Bun, whats up?" He sighs from the other line.
"Really? We didn't let it go?" He mumbles some stuff. "Quick question, you are coming back for spring break right?"
"Yeah...?" I sat down on my desk, crossed my arm.
"So, we are looking for a team player, d & d, you get a cool shirt, get to hang with me! Just for a little bit. What do you say? You in?" He waited for my response.
"Let me get this straight, i come back for my spring break, wasting my days off with a group of boys playing d&d, instead of being with my boyfriend?"
"Yes! Im so glad that you under-" he was cheering.
"No." He stops laughing.
"What!? Wendy! Why?!"
"I fell asleep when Will was trying to teach me, ill pass thanks. Plus Steve has some stuff planned out for this week, I'm sorry Dusty bun, but ill see you soon okay?" I hung up the phone and went back to my dress.
"Wendy!" Aunt Joyce calls me down. I dragged my suitcase down the steps, hitting my ankles and running back up as I forgot some other things. "Ready? You got your backpack? Passport?"
"Check." I showed her my things.
"What else do you need? Snacks? You know airport food is expensive. How about money? You got cash? I can give you some." She starts rumbling through her purse. I laughed and took her bag and set it down.
"Ill be fine aunt Joyce, ill call you when i get there. Ill be fine." I hugged her tightly. "Ill be home soon. I promise." Argyle, Jonathan, El and Will took me to the airport, dropping me off, and also picking up Mike.
"You sure you don't want one last hit before you go?" Argyle passes me the joint as the kids were heading in to get a seat.
"Hit me."
"Atta girl!" I took a long and big hit, coughing as i exhaled. We walked into the airport, ready to head to my seating area.
"Alright, you guys." I clapped my hands. "Please don't do anything stupid while im gone. Enjoy your break, show Mike the good places, and lastly, don't go in my room. I will kill you all." They nodded slowly. "Okay cool! Ill see you in a week!" I gave them a big hug. "I got you something." I whispered to Will. I hand him a small box. "Happy early birthday."
"Thanks Wendy, you're the best."
"You sure you dont wanna come with me? You know see Dustin, Lucas."
"Ill stay, i want to be here when Mike comes. You go, spend time with Steve. Just promise to come back." They announced my plane and I waved at them goodbye, still struggling with my suitcase. They stood in a like, waving back.
-
The ride was long and stiff. A baby was on board, not letting me get some sleep and a man snoring on my right. Even with my walkman on, I can still hear it. There was no leg room but just a few hours. The plane arrived at the airport and we waited to get off. A lot of shoving and people hitting people with their bags. Of course my suitcase hit a man.
I scanned my eyes around the crowd waiting area for Steve. Nervous, maybe i told him the wrong area, or i passed him. But there he was, with flowers in his hands.
"Steve!" For a second Steve thought it was Joyce but Wendy cut her hair, looking exactly like her. She got bangs! She looks good.
"Wendy!" I sprinted towards him, dropping my bag and attacking him with a kiss. He holds me, humming and placing his hands on the sides of my face. As we pulled apart, I noticed that he was growing a mustache, it was cute. "God I've missed you."
"Its been 3 months." I rubbed my hands over his chest. "I got a surprise for you."
"Really where?" I bite my lip. "Oh."
"Yeah, lets go yeah?" Steve took my stuff and we walked to his car, it was nice to be in his car once again. "Hows the video store?"
"You know same old. Keith hates me still."
"Keith is interesting, but hey, you barely see him and you got Robin." He nods, pouting his lips. I moved closer to him, kissing his cheek and neck. "We got a whole week to ourselves, no interruptions, no babysitting." Steve smirks as he drove. "Just you and me, alone."
"Ive been dreading this day to come." We got to the video store and I skipped my way in.
"Robs!" Robin snaps back, dropping her VHS tapes that she was putting away. "Im back!"
"Holy shit! Yes! Wens!" We hugged and smiled. "Tell me everything! Did Steve-" she looks to the side, her smile fades and her eyes widen, she was looking at Steve. I snap back at him, he drums the countertop, looking away. "Steve say where he was taking you later? Shopping? Eat? That old diner isn't there anymore, you know, with the good burgers, yeah its like a party place now. Or are you guys going home? I don't think home is a good place to you know-" I grabbed her arms and made her stop talking.
"Robin, slow down. You're mumbling now." She nods.
"Just curious, you know. Its not like Steve told me something that might-" I raised my eyebrow.
"Okay!" Steve yells, pushing her away. "She had a lot coffee, you know, band." Steve takes my hand. "Im going to do innovatory in the office, ill take Wendy okay." Steve and I walked in and he sweeps me up and sets me down on the desk. "We got 10 minutes until she figures out what we are doing."
"10 or less."
"I'm going to have you weak." We crashed our bodies together, moaning and kissing. I ran my fingers through his hair, gently pulling as he moans. He took off my shirt, tossing it to the side, and now looking at me. "Well." He look at my ribcage.
"You like it?" There was a tattoo of his name on my ribcage, all nice and small. Argyle took me since I felt like being in a rebel mood. Painful but worth it.
"Now everyone knows you're mine."
"Im all yours Harrington." I wrapped my legs around his waist and pulled him down.
-
We both managed to get out of the office, acting like we just didn't have sex. I hopped on the countertop, watching the two put away movies.
"Wendy." I hummed as I stole candy from their jar. "Do you think Vicky likes boobies?"
"Oh my god! Stop!" Robin groans. "Shes not like that!"
"I mean who stops Fast Times at 53 minutes and 5 seconds?"
"People who likes boobs." Steve claps and pointed at me to make a case.
"Eww! No! Not you too Wendy!"
"No i see it. Vicky likes boobies." I swung my legs. "Robin, come on! It's literally right there!"
"No!" She sighs. "Can we stop talking about this? Can we talk about something else? Like how did you guys know you liked each other?"
"The day I literally fell ontop of him, it was my first day at Hawkins, he was still Nancy."
"After the Halloween party, she was drunk and later on she played hard to get."
"You guys are adorable it makes me want barf." She bangs her head on the poster wall. "Im hopeless."
"No youre not Robin, you just gotta i dont know, own up to it." I shrugged as I laid back as I played with twistlers in my mouth.
"Oh! I think I found our morning movie." Robin ignores me and runs to the movie. "Doctor Zhivago." Steve rolled his eyes and groans.
"Ugh you know I don't do double VHS."
"It's about doomed love."
"Well thats relatable." I passed Steve some movies for him to put back on the shelves.
"Also, Julie Christie is b-b-bonkers hot in this. Like seriously, the most beautiful creature i have seen in my life. Robin comes around the front desk and turns on the Tv.
"We're in Forest Hills trailer park in east Roans County." I which sat up as the news came on. The three of us huddled together and watched. Isn't that where Max moved to? "We don't have a lot of details now, but we can confirm that the body of a Hawkins High student was discovered early this morning. Police have not released the name..."
"Holy shit." We all said.
"Although we are told they're currently in the process of notifying the family." We took a moment.
"A killer? Or?" Steve puts out there. Upside down? No.
"Cant be, Hopper and aunt Joyce destroyed it, he died." I jumped off the countertop. "Could be a killer." Then i took a deep sigh. "But its also Hawkins."
"Uhh Wendy?" I hummed at Robin. "You're nose is bleeding." She passes me some tissues.
"Shit." I cleaned up my nose and ran to the bathroom to clean up and headed out.
"Just 30 more minutes and we can go okay." Steve kisses my head and walks around the store. It was a slow day, but it picked up 10 minutes in. The two we're running around, checking people out, trying to sell them video tapes. "Ready?" I stood up and walk to him. "Here, just try to lock the door this time." Steve tosses the keys to Robin.
"I got this! You love birds have fun!" Just as we we're about to leave, Max and Dustin came running in.
"Hey, Steve." They looked at me. "When did you get back?"
"Just today." I looked at Max. "Hey, you okay? How you been?"
"Fine." She shrugs.
"How many phones do you have?" Dustin asks.
"Did you know someone was murdered today?"
"How many phones do you have?"
"Two, why?"
"Technically three, if you count Keiths." The kid's looked at each other, nodding. What are they up to now.
"Three works." Dustin tosses his bag and himself over the counter. The three of us quickly stood up. The tapes were knocked down. Dustin races to the computer.
"Dustin! What the hell!"
"Setting up base of operations here."
"Base of operations?" I helped Robin clean up the mess he made.
"No! Me and Wendy are about to leave, you need to go!" Steve starts to take Dustin away from the screen. "Get off."
"I need it!" They argued.
"For what?"
"Eddies friends phone numbers" Eddie? Eddie who?
"Your new best friend you think is cooler because he plays your nerdy game?" Steve rolls his eyes. Wait... Eddie Munson? THE Eddie?
"Yes." Dustin realized what he just said turns to Steve. "I never said that."
"Seriously guys, maybe on a Monday you can play around but it's Saturday. Its our busiest day. Plus Steve and Wendy got plans, big ones." Robin puts the sign on the table.
"Look guys, I empathize but this cannot wait till Monday."
"Me being with my girlfriend cant wait." Steve huffs, shrugs his shoulders at me. We weren't going to going home anytime soon.
"Calling Eddies friends are more important?"
"Correct!" The three of us huddled in the front, sighing as they scanned through the phone numbers.
"Want me to strangle him or you guys want to?"
"How about we take turns?" I patted his chest.
"Can you fill them in while i do this?" He turns to Max.
"Fill us in on what? What did you guys do?" I leaned against the countertop. Max turns and had a look on her face. Debating if she should or where to start.
-
Steve and I stayed longer than we expected. Dustin, Max and I called Eddies friends one by one. None of them had seen him or even heard from him. As I twirled the cable around my finger, I watched a girl flirt with Steve, laughing and smiling. I crushed the wire with my hand. He was trying to get away from her but she kept coming back. So what I did was hang up the phone and watched from a far.
"Wendy! Stop undressing Steve with your eyes! You guys will get to make out or whatever later!" Dustin yells and the girl overheard and left.
"Hey guys, I might have a lead." We all turned to Max.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah. Apparently, Eddie gets drugs from some guy named Reefer Rick." What a name. "And sometimes eddie crashes there." After a chat, and some arguments from Dustin and Steve, wondering what thats about, we found an address and a last name. Rick Lipton, lives in the middle of nowhere, right by Lovers Lake.
Steve sighs as we had to drive the kids out there. It was fine by me, just find Eddie, see what went down and we can go.
-
We rolled up to the creepy house, turning on our flashlights, checking the place out. Steve and I stood by each other.
"Love this." He complains.
"Hey, just for tonight, I gotta say, I do miss this stuff. Maybe not the demogorgans or the demodogs, but this yes."
"I just wanted to-" I stopped him, playing around with his jacket.
"We have a week, no rushing. We have all the time in the world." I planted a kiss in his cheek and followed the rest to the front door. The place looked empty, almost untouched. Dustin kept ringing the doorbell over and over again. "Yeah keep ringing it, they probably didn't hear the last 20 rings."
"Yeah, im taking a wild guess that hes not here." I walked away from them to check out the place, still nothing. There was a ticking sound coming from the woods, it almost sounded like a clock, maybe a grandfather. The dinging sounded far away. My eyes didn't move away from the woods. "Wendy." I quickly snapped out and turned to Steve. "They found something." I looked back at the woods and followed Steve into a cabin on the lake. The clock was probably coming from the house, i was making things in my head. Why would a clock be in the woods? We checked out the dark cabin, calling out for Eddie.
"Hey look." I pointed my flashlight at a table with wrappers and bottles. "Someone was here."
"Maybe he heard us, got spooked and ran."
"Dont worry, Steve will get him with his oar." Steve stabbing the hell out the boats.
"I know you think you're being funny, Henderson but considering everyone in this room has nearly died a hundred times, personally, i dont find it funny in the slight-" everyone jumped as Steve and Dustin screamed. I ran to him, Dustin holding me back. Eddie had pinned Steve against the wall with a broken bottle at his neck.
"Whoa! Whoa! Eddie! Eddie!" Dustin tried to calm him down. "Stop! Eddie! Its me. Its Dustin. This is Steve. Hes not gonna hurt you, right Steve?"
"Right, yeah." My hands covered my mouth, trying not to freak out.
"Steve, why don't you drop the oar?" He lets go, making Eddie jump and push the bottle more into his neck. "Hes cool! Hes cool!"
"Im cool man. Im cool." Steve whispers.
"What are you doing here?" Eddie finally speaks.
"We're looking for you. We're here to help."
"Eddie, these are my friends. You know Robin, from band." Robins starts to mimic the flute. "This is my friend Max. The one who never wants to play D & D." Max waves. "This is Wendy, i dont know if you know her." Eddie nods his head.
"Please let Steve go, im begging Eddie." I gently walked up to him. "We're on your side."
"I swear on my mother!" We all nodded. "Right guys?"
"Yes. Yes we swear."
"On Dustin's mother."
"Hell, I even swear on my dead parents." I forced a laugh.
"Yeah, on Wendys parents and Dustins mother." Steve nods again. Eddie looks at Steve for a while, then lets him go. Steve backs away from him and I raced to him. "Im okay."
"Let me see." I checked his neck. There was a little blood but not too much. He takes a breather as Dustins tries to talk to Eddie. I placed my hand on Steve's head, and he placed his on the back of my thigh.
"We want to know what happened." Robin tells Eddie who was squatting down and holding the bottle in his arms.
"You wont believe me." He sniffs.
"Try us." I spoke out. As we all got around Eddie, Steve in the back, he was ready to talk.
"Her body just, like, lifted up into the air and uh and she just, like, hung there. In the air. And her bones...uh, she." Eddie cries. I too would be traumatized if I saw something like that. "Her bones started to snap. Her eyes man. It was like there was something, like, inside her head, pulling. I didn't know what to do. So i... i ran away." I kneeled down in front of Eddie, holding his hand. "I left her there. You all think Im crazy right?"
"We never said we did. We don't think youre crazy. Eddie, i know how this looks." I tried to comfort him.
"Dont bullshit me!" He yells, making Steve get closer to me. "I know how this sounds."
"We're not bullshitting you. We believe you." He forced a laugh. "Why do you we are here?"
"Look, what im about to tell you might be a little difficult to take." Dustin starts off. Eddie nods. "You know how people say Hawkins is... cursed? Theyre not way off. There's another world. A world hidden beneath Hawkins. Sometimes it bleeds into ours."
"Like ghosts and shit?" Ha! I wish it was. Because these bitches are terrifying. Sometimes i still have nightmares from how they look.
"There are some things worse than ghosts."
"These monsters from this other world... we thought they were gone. But they've come back before. Thats why we needed to find you."
"If they're back again, we need to know." Oh no. What about Will? Does he know? He cant step a foot here. I have to warn him.
"It would almost look like dust, swirling dust." Dustin tried to describe it to Eddie.
"No man, there was nothing you could see or uh or touch. You know I tried to wake her man. She couldn't move. It was like she was in a trance or something."
"Or under a spell." Eddie slowly looks up.
"A curse."
"Vecna's curse."
"Who's Vecna?" Steve questions.
"An undead creature of great power."
"A spell caster."
"A dark wizard." My head plops down. Great. More of these sons of bitches. When will it ever stop? There goes my spring break.