"WHO THE HELL IS VECNA?"
Delilah was supposed to fly over to California with Mike that morning but her headaches had been worse than usual, and her nose had been bleeding, so she arranged to fly over a day or two later when it had calmed down.
She didn't really know where else to go so she went to Max's house, she was the only person that truly understood.
Delilah woke up to Max gasping next to her.
"Shit. Are you okay?" She asked the girl.
"Yeah.. Yeah. Just nightmares" Max paused "You know how it is".
Del nodded sadly "Yeah, hey can i get some water, I need to take my pills for my head".
The two girls stood in the kitchen, when they heard police sirens and dogs barking in the distance. They looked outside to check it out.
"Looks like that Munson boy's up to no good again" Max's mom crossed her arms.
Delilah and Max shared a look before wandering off for a better view, they saw a body on the floor of Eddie's home.
A police officer tapped on Del's shoulder making her flinch "You can't be out here. Get back inside. Back inside".
"I think that was Chrissy Cunningham" Max told Delilah.
"Why would Chrissy Cunningham be in Eddie Munson's trailer?" Del asked.
"I saw them, yesterday. Before you came over" She explained, her face crumpled.
Max and Del knocked on Dustin's door and he looked extremely confused when he opened it to the two girls.
"Chrissy Cunningham? You're sure it was Chrissy?" Dustin paced.
"It did look like a cheerleader outfit" Delilah told him.
"Same thing she was in when I saw her with Eddie" Max added.
"Did you tell all this to the cops?" He asked.
"No, but I... I can't be the only one who saw them together. They stood out" Max shrugged.
"Eddie the freak with Chrissy the cheerleader?" Dustin asked.
"Exactly. You know, his name's not in the news yet or anything, but I guarantee you Eddie is suspect one now" She continued.
"That's crazy. Eddie didn't do this. No way. No way" He shook his head. "You don't know him like I do, Max. Okay? When we got to high school, Lucas made all his sports friends. Mike and me? I mean, no one was nice to us. No one except Eddie".
"Okay. Well, they said the same shit about Ted Bundy. Yeah, he's a super nice guy, but then he's murdering women on the weekend" Max frowned.
"So you're saying Eddie is like Ted Bundy?" Dustin asked her.
"We can't make assumptions" Delilah shrugged "I mean we all know weird shit happens in this town, he may be weird but that doesn't exactly make him a killer".
"But it doesn't look good for Eddie" Max nodded.
"Why haven't you told the cops this?" Dustin sighed.
"I... I don't know" Max stuttered.
"You don't know?" He asked her.
"After I saw Eddie and Chrissy go in the trailer... something else happened".
Max explained how she saw Eddie running into his van and driving away rapidly.
"Nothing that weird or anything. I mean... Eddie always drives like a maniac, and the power goes off
at my place all the time. It's a piece of shit. But This morning, I started to think back, and... I don't know.
The look on his face. He was scared, Dustin. Really scared. Maybe he was scared because, he just
killed someone, or maybe because..."
"Something else killed her" Delilah looked at Max and Dustin.
"But that's impossible. Right?" Max asked.
"I don't know. It should be. Only one person knows
what actually happened" Dustin sighed.
"Eddie" The three said at the same time.
"Have you talked to anyone else?" Dustin asked.
"No. We can't find Lucas or Nancy, and Mike's in..." Delilah explained.
"California. shit, shit, shit" Dustin panicked.
"Where you going?" Mrs Henderson asked as they all hurried through the door.
"To see a friend" He smiled.
"You heard the news. It's not safe" She frowned.
"We'll be careful. Thanks. Love you. Bye" Dustin spoke quickly slamming the door.
Delilah, Max and Dustin opened the door of the family video, where Steve and Robin worked.
"Hey, Steve" Dustin asked.
"You see this?" Steve spoke.
"How many phones do you have?" Dustin asked him but Steve carried on talking.
"Someone was murdered" He spoke.
"How many phones do you have?" Delilah snapped.
"Two. Why?" Steve raised an eyebrow.
"Technically three, if you count Keith's" Robin added.
Dustin looked at Del and Max who nodded "Yeah, three works".
"What are you doing?" Steve asked as Dustin threw a duffel over the counter.
"My pile" Robin shouted as he continued to leap over the counter himself.
"No, no, no! My tapes! Dude. What are you doing, man?" Steve asked angrily.
"Setting up base of operations here" He explained as he typed on a computer.
"Base of operations?" Robin asked in confusion.
"I need it" Dustin protested as Steve tried to push him away from the computer.
"For what?" Steve asked bitterly.
"Eddie's friends' phone numbers" He explained.
"Your new best friend you think is cooler because he plays your nerdy game?" Steve frowned.
"Yes. I never said that" Dustin rolled his eyes.
"Seriously, you guys, maybe on a Monday you can play around like toddlers, but it's Saturday. It's our busiest day" Robin complained as she re stacked the tapes.
"Robin, I empathize, but this cannot wait" Delilah shrugged.
"Calling Eddie's friends is an emergency?" She asked as Steve pinched his nose bridge.
"Want me to strangle him or you want to?" Steve asked Robin.
"We could take turns" she smiled.
"Can you fill them in while I do this?" Dustin turned to the two girls.
"Fill us in on what?" Robin asked.
Delilah sighed "How long do you have?".
Del held the phone up to her ear "Have you seen or heard from Eddie recently? Eddie Munson" She paused "Okay. Sorry to bother you" as she crossed another name off the list.
"Reefer Rick? No. Does this Reefer Rick have a
last name?" Max also spoke on the phone.
"Hey, guys, I might have a lead. Apparently, Eddie gets drugs from some guy named Reefer Rick,
and sometimes Eddie crashes there" Max turned to them.
"Sounds promising. Where does Reefer Rick live?" Robin asked.
"See, that's the thing. No one knows. He's more of a... a legend than someone that people actually know" Max sighed.
"What about a last name?" Delilah asked.
"I don't know that either" she told them.
"Bet the cops know the last name" Steve spoke up "I mean, listen, if this Reefer Rick is actually a drug dealer, I guarantee you he's been busted at some point. Means he's in the system".
"The cops? Really, Steve? That's your suggestion?" Del rolled her eyes.
"I think they should be filled in on what we know, what's going on" he shrugged.
"You think Eddie's guilty, don't you?" Dustin crossed his arms.
"Whoa. I believe in innocent until proven guilty, all that constitutional shit. I just, you know, don't think we can rule it out" he put his hands up defensively.
"That's precisely what we're trying to do here, Steve" Max frowned.
"And maybe we'd have a little bit more luck if you spent less time trying to find a girlfriend and more time trying to find Eddie" Dustin shouted.
"Somebody has to attend to the customers" Steve defended.
"Especially if they're babes, right?" Robin winked.
"Hey, not fair. Okay? I attend to all customers
equally, babes and non-babes alike. We've got a very big selection in here. It can be super overwhelming for people" he shrugged.
"Yeah, it can be" Robin smiled as she walked over to the computer and started typing.
"What are you doing?" Max asked her.
"Maybe we don't need a last name. Twelve Ricks have accounts here" She told them as she looked into the store data.
"Lot of Ricks" Del nodded.
"So, let's narrow it down. Rick Alderman's latest rentals are Annie and Dumbo. Chances our drug dealer has a family?" Robin asked.
"Not likely" Max smirked.
"All right. Rick Conroy. Sixteen Candles, Teen
Wolf, Romancing the Stone"
"No" they all agreed.
"Okay. Rick Joiner. Mask, Footloose, and Grease" She read out.
"Nah" they agreed again.
"Rick Kimbrough. The Blue Lagoon and Splash" she read out making them all laugh.
"Definitely not" Robin giggled.
"Okay. Rick Lipton. Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
Cheech & Chong's Next Movie. Cheech & Chong's Nice Dreams. Cheech & Chong's Up in Smoke" She smirked.
"Bingo" Dustin laughed.
"Lipton?" Max asked reading the address.
"Spelled like the tea. Holland Road" Robin nodded.
"That's out by Lovers Lake. Middle of nowhere" Max agreed.
"It's a perfect place to hide" Delilah smiled.
They left the shop and went out to find Eddie Munson.
Dustin rung the doorbell multiple times but no one answered.
"Okay. Well, that's settled. I guess he's not here" Steve shrugged.
"Eddie! It's Dustin!" He shouted "Look, we just wanna talk, okay? No cops, I swear. We just wanna help. Eddie!".
"Rick" Dustin banged on the door "Reefer Rick!".
"Don't scream that" Steve scolded.
Delilah wandered to the back of the house, shining her flashlight out in-front of her. "Hey, guys?" She got everyone's attention as she saw what looked like a boathouse.
They all shone their flashlights around before actually opening the door.
"Hello? Is anyone home?" Robin peeked her head around the door.
"What a dump" Steve commented before grabbing an oar.
"What are you doing?" Delilah asked him.
"He might be in here" Steve poked at the boat that had a tarp covering it with the oar.
"So take the tarp off" Dustin scowled.
"If you're so brave, you take the tarp off" Steve whisper shouted back at him.
"Hey, look over here. Someone was here" Max told them all.
"Maybe he heard us. Got spooked and ran" Robin sighed.
"Don't worry. Steve will get him with his oar" Delilah rolled her eyes.
"I know you think you're being funny, Del. But considering everyone in this room has nearly died a hundred times, personally, I don't find
it funny in the slight..." Steve was interrupted.
Eddie jumped up from behind the tar and started screaming and running like a headless chicken.
"Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!" Steve screamed as Eddie backed him up into the wall.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Eddie! Eddie! Stop! Eddie! Eddie" Dustin yelled "It's me. It's Dustin. This is Steve. He's not gonna hurt you, right, Steve?" Dustin yelled.
"Right. Yeah" Steve agreed in fear.
"Steve, why don't you drop the oar?" Dustin suggested making Steve let the oar go.
"He's cool. He's cool" Dustin panicked as Eddie didn't stop.
"I'm cool, man. I'm cool" Steve agreed.
"What are you doing here?" Eddie asked.
"We're looking for you" Dustin told him.
"We're here to help" Del agreed.
"Eddie, these are my friends. You know Robin, from band. And you've met Del, Mike's girlfriend. This is my friend Max. The one who never wants to play D&D" Dustin introduced.
"We're on your side" Delilah agreed.
"I swear on my mother. Right, guys?" Dustin asked.
"Yes. Yes. We swear" Max agreed.
"On Dustin's mother" Robin added.
"Yeah, Dustin's... Dustin's mother" Steve nodded and Eddie let him go.
Eddie sunk down against the wall, tears forming in his eyes, a lot different to the over confident, loud man that the girl had met before.
Delilah didn't really like Eddie when she first met him, he was rude and he was too much but she began to feel bad for him.
"Eddie... We just want to talk. We want to know what happened" she spoke to him softly.
"You won't believe me" he sniffed.
"Try us" Max spoke.
Delilah agreed "We've seen crazier shit than you could ever imagine".
"Her body just, like, lifted up into the air and, uh...
And she just, like, hung there. In the air. And her bones... Uh, she..." Eddie whimpered "Her bones started to snap. Her eyes, man. It... It was like there was something, like, inside her head, pulling.
Eddie paused for a moment as though he was reliving it, something Delilah was all too familiar with so she nodded at him to keep going.
"I... I didn't know what to do, so I... I ran away. I left her there. You all think I'm crazy, right?" He scoffed.
"No. We don't think you're crazy" Dustin spoke.
"Don't bullshit me, man! I know how this sounds" Eddie grew irritated.
"We're not bullshitting you" Max agreed.
"We believe you" Del nodded.
"Look, what I'm about to tell you might be a little... difficult to take" Dustin explained.
"Okay" Eddie nodded.
"You know how people say Hawkins is... cursed? They're not way off. There's another world. A world hidden beneath Hawkins. Sometimes it bleeds into ours" Dustin continued.
"Like ghosts and shit?" Eddie asked.
"There are some things worse than ghosts" Max sighed.
"These monsters from this other world... we thought they were gone" Dustin gulped.
"But they've come back before. That's why we needed to find you" Delilah carried on.
"If they're back again, we need to know" Max agreed.
"That night, did you see anything? Dark particles, maybe?" Robin asked Eddie.
"It would almost look like dust, swirling dust" Del nodded.
"No, man, there was nothing you could see or, uh...
or touch" Eddie told them "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" Dustin suggested.
"A curse" Eddie agreed.
"Vecna's curse" Dustin nodded.
"Who the hell is Vecna?" Delilah asked.
"An undead creature of great power" Dustin told her.
"A spell caster" Eddie continued.
"A dark wizard"