ACE OF HEARTS
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE: WHO THE HELL
IS VICTOR CREEL?
WHILE STEVE HARRINGTON AND THE OTHERS spent the entirety of last night dealing with Cassie Harrington and Vecna's Curse, Nancy Wheeler and Robin Buckley were doing extensive research at the Hawkins Public Library. After spending hours upon hours of searching through public records, newspapers, and other miscellaneous files, the two girls came across a specific piece of information that might connect to the origin of Vecna's Curse. Also during this time, Lucas Sinclair abruptly returned with some other news about Jason Carver, who was now on the hunt for Dustin Henderson. The reason being, Dustin knew where to find Eddie Munson. According to Lucas, Jason Carver was one hundred percent convinced that Eddie Munson killed Chrissy Cunningham, and he would not stop until he found him.
For these reasons, and many more, Steve Harrington and the rest of the group returned to Mike Wheeler's house at the early hour of 9:30 AM, abruptly waking the two teenagers up from their peaceful sleep without warning. The several frantic knocks on Mike Wheeler's bedroom door caused Cassie Harrington to nearly jump out of her skin, feeling every bone in her body tense up as she whipped her head towards the sound. Neither Mike nor Cassie were expecting anyone to call for them this early.
Turning to the boy beside her, Cassie worriedly asked, "What's going on?"
Mike shook his head, "I don't know."
Pushing himself out of the bed, Mike Wheeler carefully walked toward the door. As he approached the handle, he soon turned back to Cassie and placing a finger over his lips, signaling her to stay quiet.
"Who is it?" Mike loudly asked.
"Mike, open the goddamn door," the unmistakable voice of Dustin Henderson called from the other side.
Pulling open the door, Mike Wheeler was met with the familiar face of his friend, along with several others standing just behind him. Rolling his eyes, Mike turned his back to the boy and returned into his room, "You've gotta be kidding me."
"Alright, move your butts let's go," Steve Harrington's booming voice rang through their ears, earning several groans in annoyance from Mike and Cassie.
"Jesus, Steve," Cassie whined, shoving her face back into the pillow. "What the hell are you guys doing here? It's so early."
"We have a lot of new info about this curse thing," Steve explained. "You're going to want to hear this."
"Why couldn't you come at a more reasonable hour then?" Mike Wheeler tiredly asked, taking a seat back down on his bed. "You know, not at nine in the morning?"
"Because we don't have a ton of time," Lucas Sinclair spoke up, taking the two completely off guard.
"Oh shit," Mike Wheeler called, rubbing his eyes and focusing them on the boy standing in his doorway. "Lucas?"
"Hey, dude," Lucas replied to the boy, awkwardly waving. "I just got back last night."
"Speaking of which, looks like you two had a fun night," Dustin Henderson joked, pointing to Mike's disheveled hair. "Nice bed head, Mike."
Rolling his eyes, Steve Harrington nearly gagged at the sentence, "Please tell me you didn't bone my sister, Wheeler."
"No, no, no," Mike nervously replied, shaking his head.
"He wishes," Cassie remarked, earning a chuckle Dustin and Max.
"Okay, whatever, get up and get dressed," Steve ordered, pointing his finger at the two of them. "Lucas is right, we don't have much time to waste."
"Yeah, you heard the babysitter, get up at get dressed!" Dustin Henderson mimicked, humorously marching out of the room just before Steve Harrington could muster out a comeback.
"Dustin I swear to god-" Steve's voice echoed through the hallway, following the boy out of the room with Max and Lucas trailing behind him.
It took about five minutes for Cassie Harrington to fully wake herself up, but once she did, she reluctantly got ready in a sluggish, half-asleep manner. After brushing her teeth with one of the spare toothbrushes, Cassie Harrington took a step out of the bathroom and prepared to head downstairs to meet the others. But, just before she was able to take another step, the girl stopped when she felt a sudden pain move through her chest. Ever since she got out of bed, the girl had been experiencing several painful sensations that would come and go in waves.
At the feeling, Cassie Harrington cursed to herself. The girl had so naively thought that when she escaped Vecna's Curse, all of her pain would be over. But she was wrong.
It was still with her.
"Hey, everything okay?" Mike asked the girl, taking a step out of the bathroom and moving beside her.
"Yeah, yeah," Cassie brushed off, waving her hand. "I'm fine."
"Are you sure?" Mike asked once more.
"I told you, I'm fine," Cassie assured him, taking a deep breath and shaking off the pain. "Let's go downstairs, we cant keep them waiting."
After making their way down to the basement, the two teenagers quickly noticed the group hovering around the center table, and it was clear why. Scattered around that table were printed newspapers, public records, and many other files that all connected to a murder in the 1950s. According to the headlines, this murder involved a father who gruesomely killed his entire family, including his wife and two young kids.
"Okay, be honest..." Steve Harrington trailed off, his eyes scanning over the old newspaper. "You guys understand any of this?"
Lucas Sinclair shook his head, "No."
"None of this is registering in my brain right now," Cassie admitted, rubbing her eyes. "You gotta give me a minute, I just woke up."
"Come on, you guys," Dustin shrugged. "I think it's pretty straightforward."
"Oh, straightforward, really?" Steve scoffed.
"So far, everyone Vecna has cursed has died, all except for Cassie..." Mike Wheeler explained, rubbing his temple. "I think we have reason to believe that music had something to do with her survival."
"You mean Everybody Wants to Rule the Word by Tears for Fears saved my sisters life?" Steve spoke, his tone notably sarcastic. "Is that really what you're telling me?"
Mike shrugged, "It is her favorite song..."
"That doesn't make any sense," Lucas Sinclair cut in, shaking his head. "It can't be as simple as that."
"Well, something must've opened up that portal, and it wasn't me," Cassie spoke up, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Portal?" Steve asked, looking at his sister in utter confusion. "What portal?"
"It was like this beam of light, or something..." Cassie trailed off, her mind whirring in thought. "It just opened up out of nowhere, just before I was about to...you know...die. I could see you guys inside of it, screaming and shouting at me to wake up."
"What else did you see?" Dustin asked the girl.
"It wasn't so much about what I saw, but more about what I heard," Cassie explained, cautiously looking up at the group. "The music, it was echoing inside my head. It sounded as if the song was playing from a different room, but still loud enough that I could hear it clearly. I think that's what opened the portal..."
"Even if that were true, how are we supposed to know for sure?" Steve Harrington questioned the group. "I mean, if Cassie is the only person who has survived this curse-"
"Except, she isn't..." Dustin Henderson intervened, pointing down to the newspaper on the table. "Cassie isn't the only person who's survived Vecna's Curse. Look, right here, this old Victor Creel dude did, too."
"Who the hell is Victor Creel?" Cassie asked, unfamiliar with the strange name.
"Some old dude that Nancy and Robin discovered at the library last night," Dustin explained. "If anyone knows how to prove your music-rescue-theory correctly, Cassie, it's him."
Shaking his head, Steve replied, "That's assuming he was cursed, which we don't even know. How can Vecna have existed in the 50s? It doesn't make sense."
"As far as we know, Eleven didn't create the Upside Down, she opened a gate to it," Dustin replied, folding his hands together as he explained further. "The Upside Down has probably been around for thousands of years. Millions. I wouldn't be surprised if it predated the dinosaurs."
"Dinosaurs?" Steve asked, completely taken aback. "Woah, what are we-"
"But if a gate didn't exist in the 50s, how did Vecna get through?" Lucas asked, raising a series of questions from the group.
"How's he getting through now?"
"And why now?"
"And why then?" Steve finished, waving his arms in the air. "Just pops out in the '50s, kills one family, and he's like, 'I'm good.' And poof, he just disappears only to return 30 years later and start killing random teens? No, I don't buy it."
Lucas Sinclair agreed, "Steve's right, Dustin, this is all super confusing."
"Straightforward, my ass," Steve Harrington scoffed, shaking his head. "Honestly, Henderson, a little humility now and then, it wouldn't hurt you."
Tilting his head low, Dustin replied, "Sorry."
The sound of the basement door opening followed by footsteps descending the staircase quickly caught the group's attention. Turning to meet the source, the group immediately recognized Nancy Wheeler and Robin Buckley advance towards them in a hurry.
"Okay, so..." Robin trailed off, taking a deep breath before starting. "We have a plan. Thanks to Nancy's minions, we are now rock-star psychology students at the University of Notre Dame. I'm now Rose."
Nancy smiled, "And I'm Ruth."
"We called Pennhurst Asylum, told them we'd like to speak with Creel for a thesis we're co-writing on paranoid schizophrenics, to which they said no. But, we landed a three o'clock with the director. Now all we have to do is charm him and convince him to let us talk to Victor."
"Then, maybe, we can find out if you guys are right about what rescued Cassie from this curse," Nancy Wheeler finished.
"Listen, about that..." Steve began, stressfully running a hand over his face. "We've been doing our Victor Creel homework, and, uh...we got some questions."
"Thats an understatement," Cassie admitted, sitting up. "We have a lot of questions."
"So do we," Nancy replied, handing Robin a file. "Hopefully, Victor has the answers."
"Wait, wait, wait a second," Steve called, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "Where's mine?"
"Look, Steve, your sister just went through a traumatic experience," Nancy explained to the boy, gesturing to his sister on the couch. "So, Robin and I decided that it would be best if you stayed here with her and the others. To, you know...comfort them."
"Nancy, you're outta your mind if you think I'm babysitting again," Steve replied, tightly folding his arms over his chest as he shook his head. "Cassie is safe here, she has Mike and Max and..."
Steve trailed off, looking at the other two boys seated on the couch, "Well, Dustin and Lucas are here too...I guess."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Dustin asked the boy, scoffing in offense. "Hey! What's that mean!"
Ignoring the boy, Steve Harrington raced after Nancy and Robin as they quickly moved up the stairs and exited through the basement door. Once the three disappeared from their sight, Cassie's friends turned to her and studied her appearance.
"You okay?" Mike asked, slightly concerned when noticing Cassie's nervous stature.
Cassie Harrington nodded her head before moving to lean her head on Mike's shoulder. Although she presented herself in a way that fed into the illusion she was okay, in reality, she was quite the opposite. In truth, the girl was scared. Sure, she had survived Vecna's Curse last night, but that didn't mean he would simply go away and leave her be. No, Cassie Harrington knew, deep down, that the monster was not finished with her yet.
"We're gonna figure this out, Cassie," Dustin Henderson assured the girl, noticing her discomfort. "Don't worry, we will."