With a jolt, the car arrived at its destination, right in the place where Eddie Munson had been staying or at least hiding from the world due to being a suspect for the murders that had been happening all over Hawkins. At first, rolling down the winding road it seemed perfectly normal, the street was quiet as usual and no one was about but that was all too good to be true, as when they arrived there were people crowded around in heaps and police tape everywhere, not to mention the noise of the sirens going off around the nearby lake.
At first, they all got out of the car with confused looks on their faces. What had been going on.? Had there been another death? Was Eddie in danger? The last one was thought of primarily by Dustin but it was still a possibility to everyone, considering that Jason and his gang of thugs were looking for his every move to catch him and give him what they thought he deserved. However, upon listening in on the live news report that was airing at the exact time they were standing there, they suddenly became alarmed with their answer.
The reporters stood in front of an officer who began speaking about the incident, "We received the call a little after midnight reporting a homicide out here on the lake."
Robin and Lucas just looked at each other. It was clear everyone knew what had actually happened was. It was no lie that it was a homicide but what people didn't know was that it wasn't a person at all, in fact, this seemed to be the same case as the past murders. First Chrissy Cunningham, Nancy's dear friend Fred, then almost Max and now one of course a new face who they weren't so sure about yet.
Nellie looked out to the lake, her ears suddenly becoming overwhelmed by the sound of chimes. A little like the chimes of an old grandfather clock, except it, had started to get louder and louder and louder. She almost felt as if something was pulling her towards them and away from the group until suddenly the chimes stopped and a faint whisper could be heard.
"Nellie..." someone whispered. "Nellie Brown..." there it was again.
However, it seemed to go all quiet again when Nancy spoke. "Hey, are you alright?" She asked, noticing the look on Nellie's Face. She looked as if she'd seen a ghost.
She turned to her and smiled faintly. "I'm fine just thinking. Hey didn't they just mention who they think did this?" she said, quick to change the subject.
Everyone turned their attention back to the officer who continued speaking on the matter. " Officer Callahan 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 and it was there we found the Victim an 18-year-old senior from Hawkins High, Patrick McKinney with his limbs and his body disfigured." He explained.
"We have also identified a person of interest. Eddie Munson. We encourage anyone with information to please come forward." He added.
Steve looked at them all with wide eyes, "Oh man. This is not good, really not good." he told them, Nancy shaking her head in agreement.
As the officer's interview came to a close and he started to walk off, suddenly Dustin's radio started playing with a panicked voice on the other side, the same voice belonging to Eddie. Quickly Dustin answered the call and moved out of the way from where everyone was standing because he knew full well if anyone heard Eddie on the other side and knew they were part of the whole scheme of keeping him hidden they'd be in serious trouble.
Eddie spoke through the radio, "Dustin, Can you hear me? Wheeler?"
"Eddie. Holy shit are you okay?" He asked him, looking around at the scene in front of them.
Eddie on the other side of the radio shook his head and put one hand to his face, "Nah, man. Pretty... Pretty goddamn far from okay. I'm at skull rock do you know it?"
Steve listened to what he said and then started to race off. "Come on I know where it is!" he said, leading everyone down the path and through the woods.
Skull rock was a place where until this day most teenagers went to smoke and do things they shouldn't be doing. Steve had gone there a lot of times, in fact, he'd been the one who had actually made it popular believe it or not. Luckily for Eddie however no one seemed to go there anymore, not since this whole murder massacre anyway and so he wouldn't be found as of now. They would have to keep moving though if he wanted to remain that way because it was clearer that Jason's group were still looking for him to avenge for Chrissy's death even though Jason had seen with his own eyes what had happened and that it wasn't even Eddie at all.
Nellie walked along the woodland area with Steve whilst Dustin held back with Max and Lucas probably discussing plans and other things. Steve didn't mind though, in fact, Nellie had grown on him the past few days and he had realised that for this whole thing to end she was needed because without Eleven what power did they even have? Sure they had Dustin who was the brains, Nancy who was all about tactics and skills, Robin who could brighten the mood no matter the situation, and Max who now had interacted with Vecna so knew somewhat about him and himself the profound babysitter. Apart from that, they didn't have much and in reality, he had no idea what his skill was. He felt helpless most of the time, as if he couldn't do anything. So yeah he could admit Nellie was needed far more than he'd expected.
Nellie turned to him, "So Steve Harrington. Tell me about yourself for real this time."
Steve raised his brow, "well what do you want to know?" He asked, whilst still leading everyone to skull rock.
"Hmm, I don't know. I'm not good with this whole human interaction thing it's been a while." She said with a small laugh. "Just tell me anything. I mean from what I've heard you need to learn how to interact with people more. What's this? Your like 8th time being rejected at your workplace by girls?" She teased.
Steve rolled his eyes and looked behind at Robin who just smiled at him. "Robin?" He questioned, receiving a shrug from Nellie.
"Well, I'll tell you a few things I guess. I used to work at Scoops Ahoy because my dad made me get a job there, which I'm not mad about because I met Robin but then our job was cut short by some spider monster and a mall fire." He explained. "Ever since though, we work nearly everywhere together. We tried to get a job at the arcade but that sort of didn't go down well and so we got a job at Family video."
Nellie listened and smiled at what he was saying, "you and Robin are good friends then? I had that once but then I moved here."
Steve turned to her, "I suppose we're alike in some ways then." He said and looked over to Nancy. "Anyway here we are. Skull rock!" he said, walking in front of it and grinning. "Told you I'd find it Dustin, you little Butthead."
Suddenly out of nowhere someone jumped out from behind them and was half smiling, "I conquer. You, Dustin Henderson, are a... total butthead." He said, taking a deep sigh before looking towards Nellie who just gave him a small smile.
Everyone sat around the rock on the logs and looked at Eddie who was going through the bag and drinking whatever it was he could find. After not being able to get a decent meal in 48 hours due to no food order and having to run from the house he'd been using for the past week and a half.
Eddie sighed, "the walkie got drenched Man. So uh, I did the thing thing that I do now, apparently." He said, with a sarcastic laugh in disbelief. "I ran."
Nellie looked at him and then turned to Nancy, "Hey if we can figure out what time this is maybe we can figure out whether this happened the same time our torches started going Kablooey."
Eddie threw the watch to her, "luckily for you, my friend, my walkie wasn't the only thing that got soaked. The exact time is frozen on there."
"9:27" Nellie announced. "The exact same time right?"
Steve just furrowed his brows and looked for the logic in knowing the time, "And what does that mean exactly?."
"That the surge of energy was Vecna attacking Patrick," Nancy told him. "This gives us more hope because at least we now know how Vecna attacks and where he attacks from."
Max took off her headphones and placed them around her neck, "so now we just need to sneak into his lair in the Upside Down and drive a stake through his heart."
"If he even has a heart.." Nellie and Robin both spoke at the same exact time and laughed at each other a little.
Steve's eyes widened, "wait what a stake? Is he like a vamp-" he paused. "Is he a vampire!?"
Max rolled her eyes, "it was a metaphor Steve! A metaphor!"
"Okay okay, look I say we can use a bullet, chop his head off. All of that but we can't until we find a way into the upside down." Nancy said.
Steve sighed, "Yeah if only we still had eleven with us. It was way easier to have someone around who had powers." He said, getting a funny look from everyone.
Nellie just shook her head, "I'm not even gonna comment on that."
"You do realise Steve that Nellie is the same as Eleven in many ways right? She has powers too?" Robin said, staring at him in disbelief and trying not to laugh at him at the same time.
Eddie's eyes widened and he turned to the brunette, "hang on a minute. Do you have powers? That's sick man. Why didn't anyone tell me?"
"We've just arrived dude cut us some slack I mean it's the least on our mind," Lucas said, getting a nudge from Dustin. "Hey what was that for?"
Nancy stopped them all, "okay stop. Look we need to be serious here. Our lives could be on the line and you are all just messing around as if this is some fantasy book." she spoke in a very serious tone which shut everyone up.
Nellie nodded in agreement, "Nancy's right the last thing we want is for..." she paused not wanting to say the name. "Is for Vecna to take anyone else you have no idea what he's-"
"BOOM! Bada Bada boom!" Dustin shouted with his voice echoing through the area, startling almost everyone around him. "Skull rock was north! I was right!"
Suddenly Steve and Dustin began to bicker, explaining their sides of things as they both battled for the spot of being right. However, next came one of Dustin's many explanations. He began to explain how he'd used a compass to lead everyone there and how the compass was right, to begin with until some electromagnetic field affected the compass and stopped it from functioning. From then he had realised that some electromagnetic force must have deflected the needle towards some power, so either that had to mean that there was some big magnet around there or a gate and due to the circumstance they were in, he had realised it most definitely was another gate.
He then started to walk off but was stopped by Steve who started to go on about how Eddie was still a wanted man and so going for a hike through some woods would be very dangerous and a place where he could easily be recognised if seen by the wrong people. Then again of course as always Dustin persuaded everyone that doing this would help them free max and potentially Eddie and so they all set out through the woods to find some portal even though they had no idea where it was at all.