"Hey, Dustin, this is Eddie the Banished. You there?" The voice of Eddie over the walkie-talkie woke Nancy up. "Earth to Dustin."
"Hey, it's Nancy." She radioed back. "Wheeler! Hey. Um, I'm gonna need a food delivery, like, really soon, unless you me going out into the world." Eddie's voice rang through the basement making everyone start to stir in their sleep. "No. No, no, no. Don't do that. Stay where you are, and we'll be there as soon as we can." Nancy said into the walkie-talkie. "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."
"Who's drinking this early in the morning?" Ryan asked sitting up from the hard floor. "Ryan? Have you seen Max." Nancy asked seeing the spot on the couch empty. "No, who are you talking to."
"Eddie." Nancy answered shortly. Nancy threw the walkie-talkie to Ryan as Nancy started to wake Dustin up. "Hey, freak." Ryan spoke into the walkie. "Ryan," Ryan could practically hear the grin on his face. "What's happening over on your end?" Eddie questioned the girl as he shoved a spoonful of food into his mouth.
"Don't talk with your mouth full. And Dustin was on Max watch and he fell asleep." Ryan ridiculed the boy as she walked up the stairs. Eddie mumbled a sorry making Ryan laugh. And there she was. Max was sitting in the kitchen. Without hesitation Ryan shut the walkie down. "Ryan?" Eddie asked before realizing she turned it off.
Ryan sat down next to Max grabbing her attention. Max takes her headphones off stopping the music. "Hi," Ryan smiled at Max before responding, "you okay?" Ryan examined her face in hopes in would give her an answer and it did. "I just couldn't sleep. People kept blasting music in my ears, for some reason." Ryan laughed at her humor in the dark times they were currently in.
Max started drawing again making Ryan look down at what she was drawing. "Is this what you saw?" Max nodded her head at the question as they both looked at.
Just then Nancy came up behind them looking at the drawing too. "Their bodies, they were on display, and there was this red fog everywhere. It was like a dream. A nightmare." Ryan shuddered at the thought of seeing those things so close and being close to death. "Do you think he's just trying to scare you?" Nancy asked Max as she pulled up a chair next to Ryan. "With Billy, yes. But something was different when I got here. It was almost like he didn't want me there." Max said looking over the drawings. "Like Freddy Kruger's boiler room." Holly's ears perked up at the name, "Freddy Kruger?"
"Dustin, don't you dare say anything." Ryan warned putting her finger to her lips as a way to say 'shh.' Dustin rolled his eyes before continuing. "Just think about it. What if you had somehow unlocked a backdoor to Vecna's world? Like maybe the answer we are looking for is somewhere in this incredibly vague drawing. God, we need will." Dustin said holding up one of the drawings, "no shit." Nancy glared at Max for swearing in front of Holly, the littlest and cutest Wheeler.
"But I tried them again this morning, and it's the same busy signal." Max finishes as Nancy grabs the drawing out of Dustin's hands. "Is this a window?" Ryan looked at it as Max answered yes to Nancy. "Stained glass with roses."
"Nancy Drew, back at it again." Ryan joked making Nancy Drew not so happy. "Sorry." Ryan shyly apologized. "Yeah. See? I'm not so terrible after all." Max spited back at Dustin for his 'rude' comment earlier. Dustin just made a weird face in response as Nancy continues. "Yeah, well, it helps that I've seen it before." Nancy started taking all of the drawings and started to fold them in specific shapes. Ryan looked at her weird as she was acting like Joyce with the magnets. Pretty soon after folding the papers and placing them around like puzzle pieces, it started to look like a house.
Nancy took a black marker and started to trace the outline of it. "It's pieces of a house." Max spoke after Nancy had finished the outline. "Not just any house. It's Victor Creel's house." Ryan got up from her chair and started to walk downstairs to wake the others up. "Steve... wake up..." Ryan sing-song in his ear before totally screaming his name into his ear, "Steve!" He jumped awake with a groan before glaring at Ryan. "I'll get you for that Sullivan." Steve threatened causing Ryan to gasp sarcastically. Dustin, Max and Nancy got the rest of them up as Steve and Ryan started arguing. "Steve. Ryan. We don't have time for this." Nancy broke the fight up as she headed upstairs with the rest following her.
"Wait!" Ryan suddenly stopped remembering what Eddie had said. "Someone needs to go bring food to Eddie." Nancy cringed realizing she was right. "Steve, drop me off in Loch Nora." Ryan demanded before climbing into the car while Steve rolled his eyes.
Pretty soon, Steve had drove into Loch Nora. "Steve, drop me off in a couple of blocks, Lily's parents hate me." Steve scoffed at Ryan before pulling off to the side of the road and unlocking the door. Ryan got out of the car without bidding Steve a thank you. Steve drives off to Victor's house while Ryan noticed that Lily's parents weren't home so she could just knock on the door of the house. Ryan was going to knock before just deciding to walk into the house.
"Lily?" The sound of pattering feet caught Ryan's attention. "Ryan?" Lily questioned before looking down the stairs seeing her best friend at the bottom. "Care to be my chauffeur?" In which Lily nodded yes before grabbing money and her car keys. They get into the car and Lily turns on the music which was playing a random hit song that had been played ten times that day alone.
Lily pulls into the convenience store. Lily handed Ryan some money. "I'll be back in five minutes." Lily nodded in acknowledgment. Ryan walked into the store hearing the bell jingle making it known that someone had entered the store. She walked up and down the aisle picking stuff out that she thought Eddie would like. She had picked out a couple of snacks before heading towards the back of the store grabbing a six pack for him. Ryan set the things on the counter looking at the cashier dead in the eye. "ID?" He asked the underage girl in which she pulled out a fake ID that said she was 25 years old.
He rolls his eyes before letting it slide and she payed with the cash Lily had gave her having some left over. Ryan grabbed the bagged items and kicked the door open heading out to Lily's car throwing the bag in the back. "Lovers Lake." Lily started driving hearing where she needed to go. The two rode in silence watching the scenery go by. Pretty soon the car came to a stop and Ryan hopped out grabbing the bag.
"Lily, go back to your house. I'll be over later." Ryan said before slamming the car door. The dry leaves crunched under her shoes as she walked towards the shack. She pushes the door open to see the boat uncovered and no one in the shack at all. Ryan started to worry that he had left and went to get food on his own.
"Eddie?" Ryan whisper-shouted while setting the bags down looking high and low for Eddie. Ryan yelped at the feeling of someone touching her shoulder. "Holy shit!" Ryan slapped his chest while regaining her posture from being scared half to death.
Eddie laughed at Ryan before going to the table and seeing what she had bought. "It's not that funny, you freak." Ryan muttered as Eddie opened a beer before downing it. "Slow down." Ryan said while hopping into the boat making Eddie follow her, him hopping in as well and sitting next to her.
"So how is Eddie the Banished?" Ryan asked breaking the silence and taking the beer from him taking a sip of it. He sighed before taking the beer from Ryan, "better, now that I have food." He answered and took another sip of the beer.
They sat in silence for a while before Eddie got up and out of the boat and sitting down near the window. Ryan looked back at the boy before turning around to be facing him. "Eddie, we're so close to killing Vecna. You'll be a free man soon." Ryan gave a slight smile to Eddie while he scoffed at her words. "I'll never be a free man," before Ryan had a chance to respond they heard a car pull in. Ryan hops out of the boat and crawled over to Eddie. They look out the window to see someone they both dreaded. Jason.
"Shit. Shit." Eddie rushes away from the window to the other window to watch the basketball team go into the house. Ryan grabs the walkie-talkie before radioing to Dustin. "Dustin! We got a code red." No response. Ryan hit the walkie-talkie thinking it would help. Eddie takes the walkie-talkie from Ryan before speaking. "It's Eddie. You remember me, right? Hey, if anyones there, I really think I might be in a bit of trouble here. Okay? Wheeler? Anybody?!" Ryan grabs his arm taking him to the boat.
She grabs the oars and gives one of them to Eddie as he was still radioing Dustin. "Eddie! He's not there, we gotta get out of here." Ryan yelled dropping the boat in the water. They start rowing as fast as they could which wasn't really working out. "Hey, you freaks! Where do you think you're going!" Jason yelled out seeing the boat in the water. "Shit!" Ryan yelled out as Eddie tried to start the engine. "Fucking dumbass!" She yelled out as it wasn't starting. She kept rowing as Jason and the others started to swim in the lake.
"These motherfuckers are fast as fuck." Ryan said seeing them getting closer. Jason stopped swimming seeing Patrick had stopped as well. Patrick got pulled under the water by nothing startling the three of them. "Patrick."
He was pulled up into the air just like how Max was. "Vecna." Ryan whispered seeing the boy in the air. Eddie backed up in the boat causing it to tip and they both fall off the boat. Ryan quickly swam up rubbing her eyes getting the water out seeing Patrick still in the air. His bones started to crack in ways that weren't humanly possible making Ryan get sick to her stomach. Ryan had to stop herself from puking hearing the very visible bones crack. Ryan looked away seeing his jaw breaking before falling into the water again.
-
Ryan swam to shore before trying the walkie realizing it was water-damaged and broken beyond repair. "Well, this is absolutely fried." Ryan threw the walkie on the ground before Eddie started to walk through the forest. Ryan followed behind him making sure to be quiet with her steps. They come across a construction site. "There's a walkie in that guys belt." Ryan pointed out before Eddie started to go out to grab it. Ryan grabbed his shoulder holding him back.
"I'll get it, I'm not the one wanted for murder." Ryan went out of the forest quickly grabbing the walkie and running back to the forest. Ryan hands the walkie to Eddie as they ventured through the forest. "Dustin, can you hear me? Wheeler?" Ryan sat down on a rock in the forest realizing it was Skull Rock. "Eddie. Holy shit. Are you okay?" Ryan's ears peaked up at Dustin's voice. "Nah, man. Pretty... pretty god damn far from okay."
"Where are you?" Dustin asked. "Skull Rock. Do you know it?" Ryan answered taking the walkie from Eddie. "Ryan? And uh, yeah. That's near Cornwallis and- Hold tight. We're coming. We're coming." Ryan sighed out in relief hoping that they were saved.
The two of them sat in silence once more as they were both too stressed out to talk to each other without arguing. Ryan grew bored of just sitting on a rock in the middle of nowhere in silence. Ryan got up from her 'seat' and started walking around the skull. "What are you doing?" Eddie questioned getting up as well. "Trying to entertain myself." She grabbed ahold of one of the pieces that were sticking out of the skull and started to pull herself up. She was rock-climbing.
"Be careful." Eddie told her as he didn't want her to get hurt. Ryan secretly rolled her eyes before making it to the top of the rock. "I see Steve!" Ryan yelled out seeing the guy in a yellow crewneck. Ryan sat down on the rock and started to slide down quicker then she would have liked. Luckily Eddie had caught her before she violently smacked the ground.
"Cant admit you're wrong, you butthead." With that Eddie decided to make his entrance. "I concur. You, Dustin Henderson, are a... total butthead." Dustin turned around at his voice, "Jesus, we thought you were a goner." Ryan came from behind the rock before making her entrance.
"Took you long enough." Steve's head immediately snapped hearing her voice before quickly running up to her and embracing her in a hug. Ryan gladly accepted the hug before Nancy spoke. "We have some bad news." Ryan let go of the hug looking at Nancy, "what kinda bad news."
"You're now wanted for murder." Ryan's jaw dropped hearing the words coming out of her mouth.
-
Ryan was frozen in place. Lucas tried getting her awake. He waved his hands in front of her face. "Stop that." Ryan said grabbing his hand and throwing it out of her face. "When we got to the shore, we tried calling you guys, but, uh... the walkie was busted, man. Drenched. So, uh, I did the thing that I do now, apparently. I ran." Eddie laughed out before Nancy questioned, "do you know what time this was? The attack?"
"Yeah, no, I... I know exactly what time it was. My walkie wasn't the only thing that got soaked." He said taking his watch off and throwing it at Nancy who caught it then looked at the time on the watch. "9:27."
"Same time our flashlights went kablooey." Robin spoke. "Which means what, exactly?" Steve asked confused as to what Nancy and Robin were saying. "That, that surge of energy was Vecna attacking Patrick." Nancy announced.
"So we just need to go to the Upside Down and kill him. Easy enough. Right?" Ryan said after a while of not speaking. "Stake through the heart." Max added.
"If he has a heart."
"A stake? Is he like a vamp? Is he a vampire?" Ryan mentally face palmed at Steve's stupidity before Max explained that it was a metaphor. "A bullet should work on him right?" Ryan shook her head no as if this was anything like the Demo-dogs it was a no. "I saw we chop his head off." Lucas suggested.
"I'd say all of the above, but we can't do any of that 'till we find a way into the Upside Down." Nancy pointed out as they don't know how to get there. "Boom!" Ryan jumped at the scream from Dustin causing Eddie to laugh. "Bada... bada... boom. I was right. Skull Rock was north. This worked correctly when we left the Wheelers'. It was correct when we got in the car on Curly. But it started to slip the further east we went. Now it's way off. When i was leading us here, I wasn't wrong. The compass was." Dustin explained holding the compass up.
"So you're using faulty equipment. You're still wrong." Steve argued back to Dustin. "Except it isn't faulty. Lucas, remember what can affect a compass?" Lucas looked like a lightbulb went off in his head, "an electromagnetic field."
"In the presence of a stronger electromagnetic field, the needle will deflect towards that power. So either there's some super big magnet around here, or..."
"There's a gate." Ryan finished for Dustin. "But we're nowhere near the lab." Ryan sucked in a breath realizing that, that was true. "But what if, somehow, there's another gate? A gate that we don't know about. It'd have to be smaller. Way less powerful."
"A snack-size gate." Robin said. "What, how."
"No idea. All I know is that something is causing this disturbance, and the last time we e seen anything like it, it was a gate. And I hope it is because then we'd have a way to Vecna. And a shot at freeing Max from this curse." Dustin said as he started walking away heading back into the forest. "Eddie and Ryan are still wanted. We can't just go hike in the woods."
"This little steel capsule might be the key to saving Max, Eddie and Ryan. What day you, Eddie the Banished."Everyone turned to Eddie waiting for his response. And of course he had to make a reference to D&D making everyone confused besides Dustin and Lucas.
"Hey, freak. Next time answer in English." Ryan joked as she walked next to him before he ran back and grabbed some of the stuff he left on the ground at Skull Rock. They quickly started running through the forest as daylight was dimming. Dustin stopped at a clearing of the trees as the compass was going haywire. "Something's happening."
Eddie grabbed Dustin as he almost fell into a pond of water. "Watch your step, big guy." Ryan looked out at the lake noticing that it was Lovers Lake.
"You have got to be kidding me." Ryan looked at Steve before Nancy starting speaking. "Whenever the Demogorgon attacked, it always left an opening. Maybe Vecna's the same way."
"Only one way to find out." Ryan sighed as she started to take her shirt off before Dustin quickly stopped her. "What?"
Dustin pointed at the boat that Eddie uncovered. Ryan slowly let go of the shirt before hopping into the boat. Using Steve and Eddie's head to easily get into the boat. Dustin tried to get on before Eddie pushed him back. "This thing holds three people tops." Ryan smacked Eddie up against his head. "Be nice."
Ryan held out her hand for the compass which Dustin reluctantly placed in her hand. Ryan nodded a thank you at him before Steve pushed the boat into the water and jumping in. Making Dustin even madder. Dustin flipped them off as they ventured out in the lake.
"Slow down." Nancy said as the compass started going haywire once more. It's the gate. Ryan stood up quickly taking her shirt off and shoes before jumping into the water. "Is she crazy?" Steve asked leaning over the side of the boat seeing her swim down. Ryan came up quickly realizing she couldn't see shit. "I need a flashlight." Eddie grabbed the bag from his pocket and wrapped the flashlight around it. Steve took it from him before jumping in as well. "I don't need a babysitter."
Steve ignored her before swimming down with an angered Ryan. "They fight like a brother and sister." Robin said as they swam down to the gate.
The three of them in the boat anxiously waited for the two of them to come up from the water. They started to get nervous as it was taking them awhile and neither of them had come out of the water. Then Steve came up first. "Ryan?" Steve said looking around for Ryan as he was the only one in the water. Seconds later she popped out of the water, letting out a sigh of relief Steve clung onto the side of the boat.
"It's pretty wild. It's more of a snack-size gate then the mother get but still, it's pretty damn big." Steve explained as Ryan got pulled under the water. She fought to stay up and she grabbed the side of the boat for grounding. It was calm. For a few seconds before Steve and Ryan got pulled down.
There was a tentacle like thing attached to both of their ankles as they fought against the water and the 'tentacle'.
Then it happened, Steve and Ryan got pulled into the upside down. Not knowing what to do Nancy dove into the water swimming after. Then Robin went after Nancy. And Eddie, he didn't want to but he knew he had to. So the boat was empty now. They were stuck in the Upside Down. With no way out.
~
wc: 3522
ahhh
this is one of my longest chapters ive
ever written so enjoy and don't be
a ghost reader okay!!