After the ceremony, I changed out of Mrs. Wheeler's dress, and into a pair of jeans and a bright, multi-colored sweater. Steve lost the tie and the blazer, and we all piled in the car to head to Eddie's. Nancy was driving while Robin sat in the passenger's seat, Max and Lucas were sitting in the back row, and Steve, Dustin and I were all sitting in the trunk, with me sitting in between Steve's legs with my back against his chest.
"Not to be a wimp, but can I maybe just sit in the car for this visit, 'cause this is gonna totally and royally suck." Robin questioned.
"It'll be fine." Nancy told her.
"I just can't stand to see those dull eyes of Eddie's break again. I really, really can't."
"At least he can drink himself into feeling better." Steve pointed out through a mouthful of pringles, holding up the six-pack we'd bought him.
"That's what my Mom does." Max mumbled.
"Why don't we just give it a trial run?" Robin suggested. " 'Hey Eddie, good news first this time. We got you some Dustin-approved junk food and that six-pack you requested, and Steve and Riley got married this morning. Oh yeah, and we found Vecna, only the bad news is that he's in that other, darker, much scarier dimension, that we told you about and the gate's closed, so we have no way of getting to him, like he's entirely shut off to us, so basically, you're screwed. And no, no, I know, you were already screwed, but now you're doubly, triply, screwed.' "
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, wait, maybe we don't put it like that." Lucas told her.
' We're one step closer to finding Vecna'," Nancy stated, "That's what we say, that's what's important."
"See Robin," Steve said, reaching around me to hand me a chip, "A positive spin can make all the difference."
"Uh huh."
"But wait," I said, suddenly remembering something, "The Demogorgon could travel between our world and the Upside Down as it pleased, right? It could just create a gate, wherever it wanted."
"Yeah, so?" Lucas asked, looking at me over his shoulder.
"So...whose to say taht Vecna isn't doing the same thing," I suggested, "Like...whose to say that he isn't opening gates in order to get access to his victims. I mean yeah, its mental, but he's got to have some connection to them somehow right?"
"Oh crap."
My theory was cut off and forgotten as Nancy slowed to a stop in front of Reefer Rick's house, to find that the place as flooded with cops and reporters being held back by a barricade. We all rushed to climb out of the car.
"Come on, this way." Nancy said, leading us behind one of the news vans so that we could get a closer look at what Powell was telling the media.
"As many of you know by now, the Roane County line received a call a little after midnight reporting a homicide here on the lake."
"Water." Steve whispered over my shoulder.
"Why the heck didn't we hear that on the scanner?" I questioned.
"Officer Callaghan here, and myself arrived first on the scene, we made our way to the shore of Lover's Lake about ten yards from that house you see behind me. It was there that we found the Victim, and Eighteen-year-old senior from Hawkins High, Patrick McKinney. There was an eyewitness, and we have also identified a person of interest, Eddie Munson. We encourage anyone with information to please come forward."
"Oh man. This is not good, this really not good." Steve pointed out.
"You've got a lot of questions and I'm going to answer as many as I can. Two o'clock at town hall, where anyone from the Hawkins community is welcome. But right now, I've got some work to do and I appreciate your understanding."
"Dustin, can you hear me? Riley?"
Dustin pulled his radio out of his backpack, moving further behind the van as he yanked the antenna up.
"Eddie, Holy crap, are you ok?" He asked.
"Nah man, pretty...pretty gosh dang far from ok."
"Where is he?" Robin asked.
"Where are you?"
"Skull Rock. Do you know it?"
"Uh yeah, that's near Cornwallis and-"
"Garrett, yeah I know. I know where that is." Steve stated, rushing back towards the car. We all wasted no time following after him.
"Hold tight. We're coming. We're coming!"
I paused, taking the radio from him and holding it up to my mouth.
"Hey Eddie? Hey buddy." I greeted as I climbed into the station wagon.
"Hey, Riley."
"Look, I am so sorry we didn't get to you sooner, but we are going to figure out a way to fix this, ok? We're a team now, so you are not alone in this, ok? Just hang on."
"Yeah, yeah ok. Thanks, Riley."
"No problem. We're on our way."
~~~
"Dude, I'm telling you, you're taking us the wrong way."
"Its north," Dustin argued, "I'm positive, I checked the map."
"You do realize that Skull Rock is like a super popular make-out spot." Steve told him.
"Yeah. So?"
"Yeah, well, it wasn't popular until I made it popular, alright? I practically invented it." I raised my eyebrows, turning to look at him.
"Did you now?" I asked. He glanced at me swallowing nervously.
"Um...well yeah, but uh...that was high school Steve, not...that was before, I'm a married man now." I nodded.
"Right, yeah. Good save, HAIRington." I said dryly. Steve just winced, slowly backing away and beginning to walk in a separate direction from where Dustin was going.
"Steve?" He called. "Where are you going? Steve!"
"Stop whining. Let's go, Come on, Trust me!" Steve called. Dustin groaned in frustration but followed him anyway. I chuckled, shaking my head and taking a few steps back to fall in beside Nancy and Robin.
"Ugh, oh my gosh, they're so adorable I just wanna squeeze 'em, you know?" Robin said, looking back at Max and Lucas. "If I'm permitted to see a silver lining in this end-of-the-world doom and gloom, it would be the rekindling of old flames that frankly never should've been snuffed out." Nancy shot her a look. "I didn't mean that as a hint or anything."
"Right."
"Wait, why would that be a hint?" I asked. "What are you 'not' hinting at?"
"I mean, I'm not," She clarified, "But even if I did mean it as a hint, would that be so terrible? To wish happiness for my friends?"
"You think I'm not happy?" Nancy questioned skeptically.
"I-I'm sure you are, its just...the other day in the library, I mentioned Jonathan and you sort of...flinched or winced or something like-"
"I didn't flinch or wince." Nancy denied.
"Ok."
"Jonathan and I are fine."
"Got it."
"We're good."
"Right."
"Nance..." I put a hand on her arm, "Is something going on with you and Jonathan?" She sighed.
"Its just...he was supposed to be here for the break and then he backed out at the last minute for some vague, mumbly, Jonathan reason. And to be honest I'm not even that surprised because I've been feeling him pulling away lately, and I don't know if its because we're 2,000 miles away or if he met someone new, or what and now I can't find out why because apparently he's blown up his family's house phone or something, so yeah, if the mention of his name caused a slight muscle spasm on my face, that's...probably why."
"Seems like a perfectly reasonable reason to flinch, wince, or something." Robin told her. She smiled and I rubbed a hand down her arm, which much to my surprise, caused a vision to pop into my head.
It was Jonathan and some guy with super long hair hitting golf balls off of a hill towards a bunch of old cars.
"What's that?" The long haired guy asked, taking an envelope from Jonathan.
"Its my acceptance letter...to Lenora Community." Jonathan told him.
"That's where I'm going."
"I know."
"But you're going to Emmerson with Nancy."
"No...I'm not. She just...doesn't know it yet."
The vision ended and I cringed, hating that I had the information that I now had.
"You said, 'the happiness of your friends'," Nancy continued, "so does that make us friends? As in, officially?"
"Uh yeah. I mean, right?" Robin asked.
"Right." Nancy said, smiling brightly at her. I wanted to smile too, but now my head was swimming with the vision that I'd just had.
"Uh, Riles?" Robin asked. "You got all quiet and your nose is bleeding. That isn't usually a good sign."
"Did you see something?" Nancy asked. I swallowed, digging tissues out of my jeans pocket.
"Uh...yeah...yeah I did." I said, wiping the blood away. "But I'm not entirely sure you want to know what it was."
"What?" She questioned. "Why wouldn't I want to know?"
I bit my lip, shooting her an apologetic look.
"It uh...its about Jonathan."
"You saw him?" She asked. I nodded. "Well uh...what-"
"Um-" Robin interrupted, "I don't want to like...overstep my bounds or whatever, but isn't it like...a total invasion of privacy if Riley tells you something that she wasn't even supposed to know?"
"No, yeah...yeah, you're right. I shouldn't. If Jonathan has something to tell me, he needs to tell me himself." Nancy agreed. I nodded. "But you said I didn't want to know so...I take it that means its bad?"
"Maybe we shouldn't...talk about it," I said uncomfortably, "I'm sorry Nance-"
"No! No its ok. Its not your fault you have superpowers." She said, smiling at me. "But enough of my relationship drama...Riley, you're married. That's crazy."
"Yeah, how do you feel?" Robin asked. I shrugged.
"I feel happy and terrified all at the same time," I admitted, "I obviously wanted to marry Steve, there's no doubt about that, its just...I don't know, now it almost feels like...I have even more to lose."
"Bada bing, bada boom!" I heard Steve shout in front of us, "There she is, Henderson! Skull Rock! In your face, man. IN your stupid, cocky little face."
We pushed through the bushes, following them into the clearing to see a giant rock that looked like a face.
"It doesn't make sense." Dustin said.
"Yeah yeah," Steve made a talking mouth with his hand, "Even when its staring you right in the face, you can't admit it. You just can't admit that you're wrong, you little butthead."
"I concur," We turned around just in time to see Eddie jump off of a boulder behind us, "You, Dustin Henderson, are a...total butthead.
"Geez, I thought you were a goner." Dustin said, rushing up to hug him.
"Me too, man. Me too." Eddie said. I glanced at Steve as he pushed his hair back out of his eyes.
"You're making the face." I pointed out, so only he could hear me.
"What face?" He asked, putting his hands on his hips and turning his head to look at me.
"You're Christopher Platten face," I explained, "Steve...are you jealous that Dustin has another, older male friend?"
"What? No, of course not!"
"You said that about Christopher too."
"Oh shut up."
"Nope. Sorry, I won't shut up, and you're going to have to listen to me for the rest of our lives, as long as we both shall live." He shot me a look, fighting the urge to smile at my goofy grin. I put a hand on his shoulder, kissing him on the cheek before walking over to Eddie.
"Eddie, I am so, so sorry." I stood on my toes, wrapping my arms around his neck and he wrapped his around my waist, hugging me back.
"Its cool. I'm ok, its all good." He said as I pulled away from him.
"Hopefully this will make up for it," I said, gesturing to the grocery bag in Nancy's arms, "We got the goods."
"Oh, God bless you, Hopper." He said, folding his hands together and shaking them towards me.
"Hopper-Harrington, actually." I corrected. He raised his eyebrows and Steve turned to look at me in surprise.
"I thought you were sticking with Hopper?" He asked. I shrugged.
"I wanted a piece of you too." I said simply. He smiled, wrapping an arm around my waist.
"Hold on, wait a minute," Eddie said pointing at us, "You two are married now?"
"As of Eight o'clock this morning we are." I told him. "Kind of an impromptu, 'let's get hitched in case we all die' kind of thing." His face fell. "Not that we're all gonna die! Obviously, I would have no way of knowing that."
"Why don't you just tell us what happened." Nancy interrupted, saving me from myself.
~~~
Eddie crouched beneath the rock, eating the snacks we brought for him as he told us the whole story.
"When I got to the shore, I tried calling you guys but uh...my walkie was busted, man. Drenched, so uh, I did the thing that I do now, apparently...I ran."
"What choice did you have?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. "Sometimes running is your only option for your survival, there's nothing wrong with that."
"Do you know what time this was? The attack?" Nancy questioned.
"Yeah, no, I-I know exactly what time it was , because my walkie wasn't the only thing that got soaked." He pulled his watch off of his wrist, holding it up before tossing it to Nancy.
"Let me guess, it was...9:27?" I asked, putting my hands on my hips. Nancy nodded.
"9:27."
"Same time our flashlights went kablooey." Robin added.
"And the same time as my vision of Patrick."
"Which means what exactly?" Steve inquired.
"That that surge of energy was Vecna attacking Patrick."
"Well, we're one step closer, we know how Vecna attacks." Robin suggested.
"And where he attacks from." Lucas threw in.
"So now we just need to sneak into his lair in the Upside Down and drive a stake through his heart." Max concluded.
"If he has a heart."
"A stake?" Steve asked. "Is he a vamp...is he a vampire?"
"It was a metaphor."
"A bullet should work on him, right?" Eddie asked.
"Not necessarily, bullets didn't work on the Demogorgon," I stated, "But fire has been helpful in the past."
"I say we chop his head off." Lucas theorized.
"Yeah, I'd say all of the above, but we can't do any of that until we find a way into the Upside Down." Nancy pointed out.
"We need El to get her powers back."
"Everything was way easier," Steve agreed, "We had this girl, Riley's sister, she had superpowers."
"Superpowers. Yeah, you mentioned her," Eddie told him, "And its just some kind of freaky coincidence that you're her sister and now you have superpowers?"
"Yes, actually, we're not related by blood." I told him.
"Hey uh, Henderson's not uh...cursed, is he?"
It was only at this moment that I noticed Dustin, who had been pacing around behind us with his eyes locked on the compass in his hand.
"Cursed, no, no he's fine," Steve assured him, "Mental? Absolutely."
"BOOM!" Dustin screamed suddenly, turning around to face us, pointing a finger at Steve, "Bada...bada...boom. I was right. Skull Rock was North."
"Seriously? You're serious?" Steve replied.
"Mm-hmm."
"This is Skull Rock," He argued, "You're totally, absolutely, 100% wrong. Right now!"
"Yes," Dustin said, "And no."
"Oh my gosh."
"This compass was working correctly when we left the Wheelers. Correct when we got in the car on Curly. But it started to slip the further East we went, now its way off. When I was leading us here, I wasn't wrong. The compass was."
"So you're using faulty equipment, you're still wrong." Steve told him. I put a hand on his arm.
"I don't think this is about who's right and who's wrong," I told him. "Its about the compass."
"Yes, Lucas, Do you remember what can affect a compass?" Dustin asked, pointing at his friend.
"An electromagnetic field." Dustin held his arms out to the sides.
"Yep."
"I'm sorry, I must've skipped that class?" Robin said.
"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." Lucas finished.
"But we're nowhere near the lab." Nancy pointed out.
"But what if, somehow, there's another gate. A gate that we don't know about," He continued, "It'd have to be smaller. Way less powerful."
"Snack-sized gate." Robin said.
"How? Why?" Steve asked.
"Need I repeat my Demogorgon theory?" I questioned. "The Demogorgon could open small gates anywhere it wanted. Its how Will was taken, its how I was taken and its how I escaped, so would it really be so crazy to think that Vecna can open gates too?"
"I hope he can," Dustin agreed, "Because then we'd have a way to get to him, and a shot at freeing Max from this curse."
He turned, starting to walk away from us.
"Where are you going?" Steve called. "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! Eddie's still a wanted man, we can't just go for a hike in the woods."
"This little steel capsule might be the key to saving both Max and Eddie," He pointed out, "What say you, Eddie the Banished?"
"I say you're asking me to follow you into Mordor, which, if I'm totally straight with you, I think its a really bad idea." Steve nodded in agreement. "But uh...the Shire...the Shire is burning." Dustin started bouncing up and down excitedly. "So Mordor it is."
"Ok...as inspiring and dorky as that was," I agreed, turning to face them, "I want to test my theory first. It might save us the hiking and decrease our risk of encountering...the Ring-Wraiths or the Orcs or whatever nerdy parallel you want to use for the police."
"You're a dork too." Eddie pointed out. I sighed.
"It is a cross a have to bear," I replied, "But I stand by what I said in the car. If Vecna is attacking people from the upside down, he has to have some sort of connection to them, so I think, the gate that we're looking for is going to be located at Lover's Lake, because that's where Patrick died. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong."
Everyone simply shrugged before heading off back towards the car.
"What is Mordor?" Steve asked as Eddie ran back to grab his belongings. "Get your stuff dude, let's go."
"Its a Lord of the Rings reference, I'll explain it to you later." I said, putting a hand on his back.