-your outfit-

 It was the next morning and Nancy drove us to Eddie so we could bring him the food that he requested yesterday. Steve and I were sitting at the back, eating Pringles as we listened to Robin talk.

"Not to be a wimp, but can I sit in the car? 'Cause, this is gonna totally and royally suck." Robin complained.

"It'll be fine," Nancy reassured.

"I can't stand to see those dull eyes of Eddie's break again. I really, really, can't," Robin said.

"At least he can drink himself into feeling better." Steve joked as he held up a six-pack.

"That's what my mom does." Max piped up.

"Why don't we give it a trial?" Robin began. "Hey, Eddie. Uh, good news first this time. We got you some Dustin-approved junk food and that six-pack you requested. Oh, yeah and we found Vecna. The bad news is that he's in the other, darker, much scarier dimension that we told you about, and the gate's closed, so we have no way of getting to him. He's entirely shut off to us, so basically you're screwed. And, no, I know you were already screwed, but now you're doubly, triply screwed."

"Maybe we don't put it like that." Lucas piped up.

"We're just going to say that we're one step closer to finding Vecna," I said before showing another pringles in my mouth. "That's it."

"See, Robin?" Steve spoke up as he held up the chip in his hand. "Positive spin can make all the difference."

"Uh-huh." Robin sighed before resting her head on her hand.

"Oh shit." I heard Nancy say.

I looked through the window to see what was happening. The people were gathered outside Rick's place along with the cops. We parked behind one of the cars. 

I stepped out of the car when I heard my dad telling the crowd to step back.

"This way," Nancy said as she closed the door. 

I ignored her as I made my way over to dad. "Dad?" I exclaimed as I made my way through the crowd.

"Y/n? What are you doing here?" Dad asked.

"I was just going out with Steve and the others," I explained. "What happened here?"

"Homicide." Dad's answer was short as he didn't want to tell anything else.

"Jesus." I sighed before looking at the ground. "Who was it?"

"Patrick Mckinney." He answered. "Look Y/n, I can't tell you anything right now since I am in the middle of a job right now, but just promise to be safe, and keep an eye out for Eddie Munson."

"I promise dad."

"Great, now get back to Steve, we'll talk about this later."

I nodded before making my way over to the others who were hiding behind a vehicle.

"Y/n, where were you?" Steve asked me.

"I saw my dad so I went to see what happened," I explained.

Before Steve could say anything else a voice could be heard coming through the radio. "Dustin, can you hear me? L/n?"

"Eddie. Holy shit." Dustin said. "Are you okay?"

"Nah, man. Pretty...Pretty goddamn far from okay."

"Where is he?" Robin asked.

"Where are you?" Dustin repeated the question.

"Skull Rock. Do you know it?"

"Uh, yeah," Dustin answered. "That's near Cornwallis and--"

"Garett, yeah." Steve piped up. "I know where that is."

***

We walked through the woods for what seemed like forever, trying to find Skull Rock.

"Dude, I'm telling you, you're taking us the wrong way," Steve said to Dustin who was leading the way.

"It's north. I'm positive." Dustin answered. "I checked the map."

"You do realize Skull Rock, it's a super popular make-out spot?" Steve asked.

"Yeah. So?"

"Yeah, well, it wasn't popular until I made it popular."

"Really didn't need to know that Steve." I sighed as I continued to walk behind the two boys.

"The point is we're heading in the wrong direction," Steve said before heading to the other direction.

"Steve," Dustin called. "Where are you going? Steve!"

"Stop whining. Let's go. Trust me."

Dustin looked at me in disbelief, waiting for me to say something.

"Don't look at me like that," I answered before rushing over to Steve who waited for me.

"I can't believe that Dustin trusts the compass more than me," Steve complained.

"I can't believe that either." I joked, remembering all the times when he almost got us lost. "Hey, how come you've never taken me to Skull Rock?"

Steve stopped in his track as he looked at me. "Do I really need to answer that?"

"Yeah." I nodded.

Steve sighed as he began to walk again. "I thought it was pretty obvious that you aren't like the other girls I've been with. I mean, come on...Skull Rock? I can take you to better places than some popular making-out spot."

"Your house for example?"

"Yeah, sure, my house." Steve nodded as we continued to walk through the woods.

"Next time you're taking me to Skull Rock."

"If you insist." Steve smiled at me and I returned the smile as well.

"Hey, you lovebirds we're here." I heard Dustin say from behind us.

"Oh, boom!" Steve exclaimed as he made his way through the bush. "Bada bing, bada boom. There she is Henderson. Skull Rock. In your face, man. In your stupid, cocky little face."

"Doesn't make sense," Dustin said as he looked down at his compass.

"Yeah, yeah. Even with it staring you in the face, you can't admit it. Can't admit you're wrong, you butthead." Steve bragged.

I grabbed Steve's hand when I heard a loud thud noise coming from behind me. I turned around only to see Eddie standing there.

"I concur. You Dustin Henderson, are a...total butthead." Eddie said as he smiled at the boy in front of him.

"Jesus, we thought you were a goner," Dustin said as he pulled Eddie into a hug.

My eyes shifted to Steve who was running his hand through his hair as he continued to watch the boys hugging. "Jealous?" I teased.

"Who? Me?" Steve chuckled. "No, I'm not jealous. Come on, who do you think I am?"

"Don't know, seemed like jealousy to me," I whispered, not wanting Eddie and Dustin to hear our conversation.

The others soon made their way over to us. Dustin grabbed the water from his backpack since Eddie has complained about how thirsty he was. Eddie crouched down and began to drink the water as we waited for him to start explaining what happened.

"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 know, apparently. I ran." Eddie chuckled as he looked at the group in front of him.

"Do you know what time it was?" Nancy asked. "The attack?"

"Yeah, no, I...I know exactly what time it was." Eddie answered as he began to take off his watch. "My walkie wasn't the only thing that got soaked." He threw the watch to Nancy who caught it.

"9:27." Nancy read.

"Same time our flashlight went kablooey." Robin piped up.

"Which means what, exactly?" Steve asked.

"That the surge of energy was Vecna attacking Patrick," Nancy explained.

"Well, we're one step closer," Robin said before putting her hands in her pockets. "We know how Vecna attacks.

"And where he attacks from," Lucas added.

"So now we just need to sneak into his lair in the Upside Down and drive a stake through his heart." Max crossed her arms as she looked at us.

"If he has a heart," Robin said.

"A stake?" Steve piped up. "Is he like a vamp? Is he a vampire?"

"Yes, and he's going to drink your blood in your sleep Steve." I joked.

"A bullet should work on him, right?" Eddie asked.

"I say we chop his head off," Lucas suggested.

"I say we burn him," I added.

"All of the above, but we can't do any of that 'till we find a way into the Upside Down" Nancy said.

"We need El to get her powers back." Max piped up.

"Everything was way easier." Steve crossed his arms. "We had this girl. She had superpowers."

"Superpowers," Eddie said. "Yeah, you mentioned her. Hey, uh, Henderson's not, uh, cursed, is he?"

Our eyes shifted to Dustin who was walking around back and forth.

"He's fine," I answered.

"Mental? Absolutely." Steve added.

"Boom!" Dustin shouted making me jump. "Bada...bada...boom." He pointed at Steve as he began to walk closer to us. "I was right. Skull Rock was north."

Steve rolled his eyes before looking at the curly-haired boy. "Seriously? You're serious?"

"Mm-hmm." Dustin nodded.

"This is Skull Rock. Okay?" Steve snapped.

"Mm-hmm."

"You're totally, absolutely, 100% wrong. Right now."

"Yes. And no." Dustin said.

"Oh my God." Steve sighed in frustration before placing his hands on his face.

"This worked correctly when we left the Wheelers'" Dustin held up a compass. "Correct when we got in the car on Curly. But it started to slip the further east we went. Now it's way off." He explained. "When I was leading us here, I wasn't wrong. The compass was."

"But the compass never lies." I piped up.

"Yes, but do you remember what can affect a compass?" Dustin asked.

"An electromagnetic field," I answered.

"Yep," Dustin nodded.

"Sorry," Robin spoke up. "I must've skipped that class."

"In the presence of a stronger electromagnetic field, the needle will deflect towards that power," Dustin explained. "So either there's some super big magnet around here, or..."

"A gate." I finished the sentence.

"But we're nowhere near the lab," Nancy said.

"But what if somehow, there's another gate? A gate that we don't know about. It had to be smaller. Way less powerful."

"Snack-size gate." Robin piped up.

"How? Why?" Steve questioned.

"No idea." Dustin shook his head. "All I know is that something is causing this disturbance, and the last time we've seen anything like that, it was a gate."

"I really hope it's the gate because that way we'll have a way to Vecna," I spoke up.

"And a shot at freeing Max from this curse," Dustin added before walking away from the group.

"Where are you going?" Steve asked making the boy stop. "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Eddie's still a wanted man. We can't just go hike in the woods."

"This little steel capsule might be the key to saving both Max and Eddie," Dustin argued. "What say you, Eddie the Banished?"

Our eyes focused on Eddie who scratched his neck as we waited for him to answer back.

"I say you're asking me to follow you into Mordor, which, if I'm totally straight with you, I think it's a really bad idea. But, uh, the Shire...the Shire is burning."

Our eyes shifted back to Dustin who was jumping up and down in excitement.

"So Mordor it is."