-Billy Hargrove POV-
We drove out to Lovers Lake.
Trish and I often came here for a picknick. It was one of her favourite places to draw...
Dustin kept ringing the bell, but no one answered.
"Okay, well that's settled" said Steve. "I guess he's not here"
"Eddie!" yelled Dustin. "It's Dustin!"
"Great" sighed Steve.
"Look, we just wanna talk, okay?" shouted Dustin. "No cops, I swear. We just wanna help. Eddie!"
I followed Max, she had seen something.
"Hey, guys?" she shouted, she was looking at the boat house, there was light.
Robin opened the door and went in first.
"Hello?" she asked. "Is anyone home?"
We all went inside with our flashlights.
"What a dump" said Steve.
"For once we agree" I said.
He began poking around to see if he was under a tarp...
"Hey, look here" said Max and I went to her, she found some trash.
"Someone was here" I said.
"Maybe he heard us, got spooked and ran" said Robin.
"Don't worry" said Dustin. "Steve will get him with his oar"
"I know you think you're being funny, Henderson, but considering everyone in this room has nearly died a hundred times" said Steve. "Personally, I don't find it funny in the slight..."
Suddenly a guy came out under the tarp with a broken bottle and held it against Steve's neck.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" shouted Dustin. "Eddie! Eddie! Stop! Eddie! Eddie!"
Eddie finally looked at Dustin.
"It's me" said Dustin. "It's Dustin. This is Steve. He's not gonna hurt you, right, Steve?"
"Right, yeah" whispered Steve.
"Steve, why don't you drop the oar?" asked Dustin and Steve listened, only Eddie's grip on Harrington was tighter now. "He's cool! He's cool"
"I'm cool, man. I'm cool" said Steve.
"In your dreams, Harrington" I snorted.
"Not the time, Billy" whispered Max.
"What are you doing here?" asked Eddie.
"We're looking for you" said Dustin.
"We're here to help" said Robin.
"Eddie, these are my friends" said Dustin. "You know Robin, from band. This is my friend, Max, the one who never wants to play D&D. And you probably know Billy, he's Trisha's boyfriend"
"Trisha?" said Eddie, I saw sadness in his eyes.
"Eddie" said Dustin. "We're on your side. I swear on my mother. Right, guys?"
"Yes. Yes, we swear" said Max.
"On Dustin's mother" said Robin.
"Yeah, Dustin's... Dustin's mother" said Steve and Eddie looked at me.
"I swear, on Trisha's name" I whispered and he dropped the bottle.
Eddie sat down.
"Eddie" said Dustin and kneeled to his level. "We just want to talk"
Eddie was still in shock...
"We want to know what happened" said Robin.
"You won't believe me" he cried.
"Try us" said Max.
~
"Her body just like... lifted up into the air and..." said Eddie. "And she just, like, hung there... in the air. And her bones... uh, she... her bones started to snap. Her eyes, man... it was like there was something, like, inside her head, pulling. I... I didn't know what to do, so I... I ran away. I heard someone... someone screaming at me to run away. I left her there. You all think I'm crazy, right?"
"No, we don't think you're crazy" said Dustin.
"Don't bullshit me, man!" yelled Eddie. "I know how this sounds"
"We're not bullshitting you" I said.
"We believe you" said Robin.
"Look" said Dustin. "What I'm about to tell you might be a little... difficult to take"
"Okay..." said Eddie.
"You know how people say Hawkins is... cursed?" asked Dustin. "They're not way off. There's another world. A world hidden beneath Hawkins. Sometimes it bleeds into ours"
"Like ghosts and shit?" asked Eddie.
"There are some things worse than ghosts" said Max.
"These monsters from this other world... we thought they were gone" said Dustin. "But they've come back before. And that's why we needed to find you"
"If they're back again, we need to know" said Max.
"That night, did you see anything?" asked Robin.
"Dark particles maybe?" I asked, but he just shook his head.
"They would almost look like dust, swirling dust" said Dustin.
"No, man, there was nothing you could see or, uh... touch" said Eddie. "You know, I tried to wake her, man. She couldn't move. It was like she... she was in a trance or something"
"Or under a spell" said Dustin.
"A curse" said Eddie.
"Vecna's curse" said Dustin.
"Who's Vecna?" asked Steve.
"An undead creature of great power" said Dustin.
"A spell caster" said Eddie.
"A dark wizard" said Dustin.
"You said you heard a voice" I said and he looked at me.
"It... it wasn't so clear" he said. "But, it sounded like a girl..."
"Chrissy?" asked Max and he shook his head.
"No" he said. "It's impossible, because she's dead. But it sounded... it sounded a little like... Trisha"
"Billy!" said Max, I went outside and hit the wall. "It was probably his imagination. We saw her..."
"Don't you think I know that!" I yelled at her. "Trish saved me and then I saw her get eaten by that monster! She's dead! I know that!"
Max put her hand on my shoulder and I looked at her.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled at you" I said.
"It's okay" she said. "I miss her too"
"I'm empty, Max" I cried and fell on my knees. "I feel so empty. Some part of me wants him to be right. But... that... that would mean she was in that hell, for all this time... and... I don't know what's worse"
"We don't know" she said and looked down. "It's..."
"If you say it's your fault one more time, I swear I will hit you" I said and she chuckled. "It should have been me. Not her"
"Don't say that" she began to cry.
"It's the truth, Max" I said.
~
The next morning we brought some food to Eddie.
"So, we got uh, some good news and some bad news" said Dustin. "How do you prefer it?"
"Bad news first, always" said Eddie.
"All right, bad news" said Dustin. "We tapped into the Hawkins PD dispatch with our Cerebro, and they're definitely looking for you. Also, they're, uh, pretty convinced you killed Chrissy"
"Like, 100% kind of convinced" said Max.
"And the good news?" asked Eddie.
"Your name hasn't gone public yet" said Robin. "But if we found out about you, it's a matter of time before others do too. And once that gets out, everyone and their shallow-minded mother is gonna be gunning for you"
"Hunt the freak, right?" he said.
"Exactly" she said.
"Shit" he said.
"So, before that happens, we need to find Vecna, kill him, and probe your innocence" said Dustin.
"That's all, Dustin?" said Eddie. "That's all?"
"Yeah, no, that's pretty much it" said Dustin.
"Listen, Eddie, I know everything Dustin is saying sounds totally delusional, but we've actually been through this before" said Robin. "I mean, they have a... a few times, and I have once. Mine was more human-flesh-based"
"Don't remind me" I sighed.
"And theirs was more smoke-related" she continued. "But bottom line is, collectively, I really feel we got this"
"Yeah, you see, usually we rely on this girl who has superpowers, along with Trisha, who also had superpowers" said Steve. "But the girl's powers went bye-bye, so..."
"So, we're technically in more of the..." said Robin.
"Brainstorming phase" said Max.
"There... there's nothing to worry about" stuttered Dustin.
"Trisha Henderson had superpowers?" said Eddie.
But before anyone could answer, we heard sirens...
"Tarp, tarp!" said Robin and Eddie hid under the tarp.
I looked outside, but the police cars were just passing us...
~
We went to see what it was all about.
There was a crime scene, another murder...
We saw Nancy Wheeler talk to the police...
We went to the picknick table behind our house to talk.
"So you're saying that this thing that killed Fred and Chrissy, it's from the Upside Down?" asked Nancy.
"If the shoe fits" said Steve.
"Our working theory is that he attacks with a spell or a curse" said Dustin. "Now, whether or not he's doing the bidding of the Mind Flayer or just loves killing teens and pretends to use the voice of my sister, we don't know"
"All we know is, this is something different" said Max. "Something new"
"Doesn't make sense" said Nancy.
"It's only a theory" said Dustin.
"No, Fred and Chrissy don't make sense" she said. "I mean, why them?"
"Maybe they were just in the wrong place" said Dustin. "They were both at the game"
"And near the trailer park" said Max.
"We're at the trailer park" said Steve. "Uh, should we maybe not be here?"
"There is something about this place" said Nancy. "Fred started acting weird the second we got here"
"Acting weird as in...?" asked Robin.
"Scared, on edge, upset" said Nancy.
"Max said Chrissy was upset too" said Dustin.
"Yeah, but not here" said Max. "She was crying in the bathroom at school"
"Serial killers stalk their prey before they strike, right?" asked Robin. "So maybe Fred and Chrissy saw this Vecman..."
"Vecna" corrected Dustin.
"Dunno about you, but if I saw some freaky wizard monster, I would mention it to someone" said Steve.
"Maybe they did" said Max. "I saw Chrissy leaving Ms. Kelly's office. If you saw a monster, you... you wouldn't go to the police. They'd never believe you. But you might go to your..."
"Your shrink" I said. "Let's pay her a visit then"
~
We split up, Robin and Nancy went to follow up on a lead, while Steve, me and the kids went to see Ms. Kelly.
Max went in alone...
But after a few minutes, she came back out and directly into the car.
"What'd she say?" asked Dustin.
"Nothing, just drive" said Max.
"Nothing?" asked Steve.
"Steve, drive!" shouted Max.
"Okay!" he said and drove off fast.
"Dustin, do you copy?" Sinclair's voice came out of the walkie.
"Lucas? Where the hell have you been?" asked Dustin.
"Just listen" said Sinclair. "Are you guys looking for Eddie?"
"Yeah and we found him, no thanks to you" said Dustin.
"You found him?" Lucas sounded relieved.
"A boathouse on Coal Mill Road" said Dustin. "Don't worry, he's safe"
"You guys know he killed Chrissy, right?" said Lucas.
"That's bullshit" said Dustin. "Eddie tried to save Chrissy"
"Then why do all the cops say he did it?" asked Lucas.
Max took over the walkie.
"Lucas, you're so behind it's ridiculous, okay?" she said. "Just meet us at school. We'll explain later"
"I... I can't" he said. "I think some real bad shit's about to go down"
"Sinclair, what are you talking about?" I asked. "What bad shit?"
But he never answered...
Author note:
Hi guys!
Sorry for the late chapter. Something terrible happened to me and I have had trouble dealing with it mentally.
I'm slowly getting better, but I haven't had much inspiration to write lately.
I have a few chapters written out in advance, so I'll post another one next week.
I hope to find inspiration again soon, because I love writing. And I do not want to let what happened to me get in the way of that.
-Amara