"I printed out a few copies for you guys..." Nancy waved some papers in the air, holding open the basement door for us all. "It's a new article about Victor Creel."
"Who's Victor Creel?" I muttered, leaving my backpack near the familiar couch. They'd taken down the wall separating the two areas, so now it was just a large room with the staircase in the center.
"As in the Creel house?" Dustin asked.
"The Creel house?" Steve frowned. "I haven't heard about that in ages."
"What's the Creel house?" I continued.
"It's this super old house near the edge of town, right where this guy, Victor Creel, supposedly killed his family," Dustin explained. "He stole their eyeballs."
"That's wrong." Nancy handed him the paper.
"This is just a theory though, I could be right." He said.
"Trust me tiny Henderson, I've done enough reading today to know that their eyeballs were never actually missing." Robin crouched next to him, smiling. "They just rolled right in the back of their heads."
I cringed, glancing at Max. She was standing at the bottom of the stairs, still pale.
"Vengeful demon killed family?" Lucas read. "What does this have to do with anything going on now?"
"You're still so far behind it's sad." Robin smiled, handing him a piece of paper. "Basically, there's this Vecna guy, who's killing everyone."
"Robin," Steve warned, nodding to Max.
"Oh." She looked down. "Sorry."
"It's okay," Max muttered. "Nancy, do you have envelopes and paper?"
She frowned. "Yeah. I'll go get them."
Max had found a seat at the desk in the corner of the room, the scratching of her pen slowly getting louder as she got more frustrated.
"Okay, be honest." Steve began. "Uh, do you guys understand any of this?"
"No-"
"Pretty straightforward." Dustin cut me off.
"Oh, straightforward, really?" Steve rolled his eyes.
"Well what's confusing to you?" He continued. "So far anyone Vecna has cursed has died, except for this old Victor Creel dude Nancy found. He's the only known survivor, if anyone knows how to beat this curse it's him!"
"Yeah, that's assuming that he was cursed, Henderson, which we don't even know." Steve rubbed his temple, glaring at the page in his hand. "How can Vecna existed back in the 50s, it doesn't make sense."
"Yeah, and even if he did, how did he get into our world?" I asked. "There wasn't a gate, was there?"
"Maybe it just didn't make the papers? And as far as we know Eleven didn't create the upside-down," Dustin said. "She opened a gate to it. The upside-down has probably been around for thousands of years. Millions, even. I wouldn't be surprised if it pre-dated the dinosaurs."
"Dinosaurs?" I frowned.
"Yeah, what're we even getting into-"
"Hey, hey." Lucas interrupted, pointing at me. "If a gate didn't exist in the 50s, like Daisy said, then how did Vecna get through?"
"Oh, and how is he getting through now?" Steve pointed out.
"And how then?" I asked.
"And why now?" Lucas added.
"And why then? Just pops out in the 50s, kills one family, and he's like, yeah, I'm good, and then poof he just disappears, he's gone?" Steve muttered. "Only to return thirty years later to start killing some random teens? Nah, I don't buy it." He sighed. "Straightforward my ass. You know, honestly Henderson, a little humility every now and then wouldn't kill you."
"Sorry."
Steve sat in the armchair across from me, where I'd been sitting in an identical one, with my feet and back on either armpiece.
I glanced at Max, her head resting in her left hand, while she wrote with her right.
"Any idea what she's writing?" Dustin sighed.
Lucas shrugged.
"Did she sleep?" He added.
"No," I answered, checking my watch. We'd been awake, Max and I, since we got here. She didn't sleep, so I stayed awake to make sure she didn't die while everyone else slept. I don't think she noticed me.
Every so often I would nod off, and wake to her sniffling, or sobbing quietly, having to drop the pen while she cried. Sometimes she'd start randomly scribbling, the pen scratching being the only sound, other than her frustrated panting as she threw yet another crumpled piece of paper in the trash.
"I mean, would you?" Lucas asked, continuing the conversation.
The door above opened with a loud squeak, and Nancy's heels clattered down the stairs. She smiled, handing Steve and Dustin a folder each, Robin close behind.
"We have a plan." She said.
Steve scanned the opened folder as I leaned over to try and see it.
"Thanks to Nancy's newspaper minions, we are now rockstar psychology students at the University of Notre Dame," Robin explained.
"I'm now Ruth," Nancy said.
"And I'm Rose."
"Ruth?" Steve asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Nice GPA," Dustin muttered.
"Thanks." Nancy smiled.
"Can I see?" I waved a hand to Steve, who had the folder closed in one hand. He shook his head.
"So we called Penhurst Asylum, told them we'd like to speak to Victor Creel. For a thesis we're co-writing on paranoid schizophrenics." Nancy started.
"To which, they said no," Robin added.
"But, we got a three o'clock with the director." Nancy smiled.
"Now all we have to do is charm him and convince him to let us talk to Victor." Robin finished her sentence.
"And then maybe we can rid Max of this curse." Nancy completed.
"Yeah, about that, we've been doing our Victor Creel homework, and we got some questions," Steve said.
Lucas finally handed me Nancy's fake resume, adding to Steve's comment. "Lots of questions."
"So do we. Hopefully, Victor has the answers."
"Wait wait wait..." Steve scoffed. "Wh-where's mine?"