[𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗗𝗘 𝗦𝗜𝗫: 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗜𝗩𝗘]

THE NEXT DAY EVERYONE WAS IN NEW clothes and were in the car.

"not to be a wimp, but can i sit in the car for this visit? 'cause this is gonna totally and royally suck." robin asked nancy as she drove. "it'll be fine," nancy assured the buckley teen.

"i can't stand to see those dull eyes of eddie's break again. i really, really can't."

"at least he can drink himself into feeling better," steve mentioned, showing robin the beer as him and dustin eat some snacks in the back. "give me some more," sage said, her voice raspy, looking back at the two teens, reaching her hand out.

"that's what my mom does," max says as dustin gives sage more chips. the brunette smiles softly then turns back around, eating the chips as she feels max's hand on her thigh. "why don't we just give it a trial?" robin questioned.

"hey, eddie. uh, good news first this time. we got you some dustin-approved junk food and the six-pack you requested. oh yeah, and we found vecna. only the bad news is that he's in that other darker, much scarier dimension, that we told you about and the gate's closed so we have no way of getting to him because sage is losing her powers and getting weaker by the minute. 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." lucas quickly stops robin's rambling.

"wait. maybe we don't put it like that."

" "we're one step closer to finding vecna." " nancy says. "that's what we say. that's what's important."

"see, robin? positive spin can make all the difference." steve comments. "uh-huh,"

"oh shit,"

everyone looks over to see police and people at reefer ricks house.

nancy parks the car and all the teens get out to see the situation going on. sage wraps her arm around max's waist, holding her close as she stares before nancy speaks up.

"come on, this way," nancy says, walking behind the news van. all the teens follow the eldest wheeler teen, gathering around as they listen to what chief powell is saying.

"a little after midnight . . . reporting a homicide out here on the lake," powell informs before lucas looks over at sage. "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. it was there we found the victim, an 18-year-old senior from hawkins high, patrick mckinney."

sage gulps, squeezing max's waist as the memories of patrick dying flash through her mind.

"his limbs . . . his body, it was disfigured . . ."

max notices her girlfriends discomfort and rubs her back gently.

"there was an eyewitness on the scene . . ."

everyone glanced at each other at the statement.

"we have also identified a person of interest. eddie munson. we encourage anyone with information to please come forward."

"oh man," steve whispers. "this is not good. this is really not good."

"dustin, can you hear me? wheeler?"

dustin takes off his backpack at the sound of eddie's voice coming from the walkie. dustin takes the walkie and replies to him.

"eddie. holy shit. are you okay?" dustin asked.

"nah, man. pretty . . . pretty goddamn far from okay." eddie replied. "where is he?" robin asked.

"where are you?" dustin questioned. "skull rock. do you know it?" eddie replied.

"uh, yeah. that's near cornwallis and —"

"garrett, yeah. i know where that is." steve cuts off dustin before heading to the car. "hang tight. we're coming." dustin informs eddie as he follow the group. "we're coming."

   THE SEVEN TEENS WALKED THROUGH the forest together to find eddie at skull rock.

"dude, i'm telling you, you're taking us the wrong way," steve informs dustin, who was holding a map and guiding the teens. "it's north. i'm positive. i checked the map." dustin replies, looking down at the compass he's holding.

"you do realize skull rock, it's, like, a super popular make-out spot?" steve mentioned.

"yeah. so?"

"yeah, well, it wasn't popular until i made it popular," steve told the younger teen. "all right? i practically invented it. we're heading the wrong direction." the harrington teen turned away from the henderson teen, walking away.

"steve," dustin called out. "where are you going? steve!"

"stop whining. let's go. trust me." steve says, motioning dustin to follow him. "steve!" dustin whined as he followed him.

behind them, max, sage, and lucas were walking together.

"okay, so apparently we're going this way now?" max spoke up. "i swear to god, if they get us lost . . ." sage chuckled softly at her girlfriend before turning her head to lucas.

the wheeler twin noticed how quiet he was, his head hung low.

"hey," sage said, reaching over and tapping his shoulder as she was on max's right. "you okay?"

lucas glanced at sage before looking back at the ground. "uh, yeah," he replied. "i'm fine. just . . . thinking about patrick. you know?"

"yeah," sage said. "i mean, it's . . . it's like, why him?" lucas told her. "but then, i remember this one day, he . . . he came to practice with a black eye. he said he fell, but clearly he was lying."

the brunette girl stared at lucas, slowly coming to a stop with the sinclair teen.

"it's like everyone vecna targets has something in there life. something that's —"

"hurting them," max speaks up, turning her head to look at lucas. "haunting them,"

"yeah," lucas agrees. "i . . . i just didn't really know patrick, so it was easy to just look the other way, i guess," he continues on. "but i did know you. and i'm sorry i wasn't there."

"it's not your fault," max assures him. "no," lucas told her. "i disappeared," the red-head added.

"no, no, you didn't," lucas stops her. "i just didn't look hard enough. okay? but i see you now. i see you."

sage stands there next to max, rocking back and forth on the heels of her feet, staring down at the floor before slowly letting a smile come to her face. lucas' and max's friendship was slowly piecing back together.

"oh my god, they're so adorable. i just wanna squeeze 'em, you know?" robin says from afar, looking at nancy with a smile. "if i'm permitted to see a silver lining in this end-of-the-world doom and gloom, it would be the rekindling old flames that never should've been snuffed out,"

nancy looks over at robin in questioning.

"i didn't mean that as a hint or anything," robin clarified. "right," nancy said, holding the bag of goods to her chest. "but if i did mean it as a hint, would that be so terrible? to wish for happiness for my friends?" robin questioned.

nancy scoffs. "you think i'm not happy?" she asks the buckley teen. "i . . . i'm sure you are. it's just, the other day, i mentioned jonathan and you sort of flinched or winced or something like —"

"i didn't flinch or wince,"

"okay,"

"jonathan and i are fine,"

"got it,"

"we're good,"

"right,"

nancy stared at robin before explaining, continuing to walk.

"it's just . . ." the eldest wheeler teen sighs. "he was supposed to be here for the break, and then he backed out at the last minute for some vague, mumbly jonathan reason, and to be honest, i'm not even that surprised because i've been feeling him pulling away lately. and i don't know if it's because we're 2,000 miles away or if he met someone new or what. and now i can't find out why because apparently he's blown up his family's house phone or something. so, yeah, if . . . if the mention of his name cause a slight muscle spasm on my face, that's probably why," nancy looked at robin when she finished.

"seems like a perfectly reasonable reason to flinch, wince, or something," robin told the wheeler teen causing nancy to smile softly. "you said, "the happiness of your friends." so does that make us friends?" nancy asked. "as in, officially?" her head turned to robin.

"uh, yeah. i . . . i mean, right?"

"right,"

"oh, boom," steve exclaimed as he walked through bushes. "bada bing, bada boom. there she is henderson. skull rock." the harrington teen walked out from the bushes and towards skull rock. "in your face, man. in your stupid, cocky little face,"

dustin looked at his compass then at the big rock.

"doesn't make sense,"

"yeah, yeah. even with it staring you right in the face, you can't admit it. you just can't admit that you're wrong, you little butthead."

"i concur," eddie says as he steps down from a rock causing the two teen to turn to look at the adult. "you, dustin henderson, are a . . . total butthead,"

the henderson teen walks towards eddie. "jesus, we thought you were a goner," dustin captures eddie in a hug. "yeah, me too, man," the munson adult replies, wrapping his arms around dustin, patting his back before pulling away. "me too,"

the rest of the teens appear from forest.

"he's alive," sage said as she moves hair out of her pale face. "i'm al . . . ive. jesus, you look dead." eddie replied to the wheeler twin. "wow, thanks," the brunette smiled sarcastically at the munson adult before walking over and hugging him.

the munson adult chuckles and gives sage a hug back, patting the back of her head then releasing her. sage steps back, accidentally bumping back into max's chest.

"sorry," sage mumbles and goes to stand next to her girlfriend, but max wraps her arms around the wheeler twin's waist. "do not apologize," max said, placing her chin on sage's shoulder.

the brunette smiles softly as nancy hands eddie his six pack, and food. eddie takes the bag and sits down, beginning to explain what happened. everyone listened carefully.

"when i got to shore, i tried calling you guys, but, uh . . ." the munson adult takes a quick sip of his drink. "my walkie was busted, man. drenched. so, uh, i did my thing that i do now, apparently." he smiles at the group, putting his drink down. "i ran," eddie chuckles at the teens.

"do you know what time this was? the attack?" nancy asks. "yeah, no, i . . . i know exactly what time it was," eddie replied, taking off his watch with ease. "my walkie wasn't the only thing that got soaked," the munson adult tosses his broken watch at nancy, who catches it.

"9:27," nancy declares. "same time our flashlights went kablooey," robin added.

"and the same time i almost died," sage added in, holding max's hands that were over her stomach, slightly rocking side to side. "which means what, exactly?" steve questions.

"that that surge of energy was vecna attacking patrick, and taking more of sage's powers," nancy explains to steve. "well, we're one step closer," robin says. "we know how vecna attacks,"

"and where he attacks from," lucas adds in. "so now we just need to sneak into his lair in the upside down and drive a stake through his heart," max says, chin still on sage's shoulder.

"if he even has a heart," sage says with a scoff. "a stake? is he like a vamp? is he a vampire?" steve asks. "it was a metaphor," max clarifies.

"steve, your last brain cell is on the verge of disappearing," sage tells the harrington teen making him glare at her. "a bullet should work on him, right?" eddie questions.

"i say we chop off his head," lucas says. "yeah, i say all of the above, but we can't do any of that 'til we find a way into the upside down." nancy informs the teens.

"we need el to get her powers back and help sage, because she won't be able to do much with whatever she has left," max mentions. "everything was way easier. we had this other girl. she had superpowers." steve says, mainly to eddie. "superpowers. yeah, you mentioned her." eddie tells the harrington teen.

"hey, uh, henderson's not, uh, cursed, is he?"

max and sage turn to look at dustin to see he staring at a direction.

"cursed? no, no. he's fine." steve assures. "mental? absolutely."

"boom!" dustin shouts, his voice echoing causing everyone to turn to him. "bada . . . bada . . . boom," the henderson teen points at steve. "i was right. skull rock was north."

"seriously? you're serious?" steve questioned. "mm-hmm," dustin hummed, nodding. "this is skull rock. okay?"

"here we go," sage whispered, rolling her eyes.

"mm-hmm,"

"okay? you're totally, absolutely, 100% wrong. right now." steve told dustin. "yes," dustin replied, leaning forward. "and no,"

"oh my god," steve mumbles, dragging his hands over his face. "this compass worked correctly when we left the wheelers'," dustin informed the teen. "it was correct when we got in the car on curly. but it stared to slip the further east we went. now it's way off." the henderson teen continues on. "when i was leading us here, i wasn't wrong. the compass was."

"so you're using faulty equipment. you're still wrong." steve told dustin. "except it isn't faulty," dustin corrects. "lucas, sage, you remember what can affect a compass?"

sage and lucas look over, realizing smacking them across the face.

"an electromagnetic field," the two teens answered in unison. "yep," dustin said and turned back to steve.

"i'm sorry. i must've skipped that class." robin tells the teen. "in the presence of a stronger electromagnetic field, the needle will deflect towards that power," dustin explained to her. "so either there's some super big magnet around here, or . . ."

"there's a gate," sage finished off and dustin smiled at her, pointing at the teen. "but we're nowhere near the lab," nancy mentions.

"but what if, somehow, there's another gate? a gate we don't know about. it'd have to be smaller. way less powerful." dustin explains. "snack-size gate," robin tells him. "how? why?" steve asked.

"no idea. all i know is that something is causing this disturbance, and the last time we've seen anything like it, it was a gate. and i hope it is because then we'd have a way to vecna." dustin replies. "and a shot at freeing max from this curse and freeing sage from losing her abilities," the henderson turns, beginning to walk away but steve speaks up, stopping him.

"where are you going? hey, hey, hey. eddie's still a wanted man. we can't just go hike in the woods." steve mentions, motioning to the munson adult. "this little steel capsule might be the key to saving, max, sage, and eddie," dustin informs, showing his compass.

"what say you, eddie the banished?" the henderson teen asks the munson adult. everyone turns to eddie. "i say you're asking me to follow you into mordor, which, if i'm totally straight with you, i think is a really bad idea," eddie replies to the teen. "but, uh, the shire . . . the shire is burning,"

dustin smiles at eddie and bounces up and down on his feet happily. the munson adult stands up, getting off of the rock he was sitting on.

"so mordor it is,"

eddie walks past nancy as the teens begin to follow the munson adult, and dustin.

"what is mordor?" steve asks himself in a whisper, following his friends before seeing eddie running back to get his stuff. "get your stuff, dude. let's go."

AUTHORS NOTE //

sorry i haven't updated for the past three days. i apologize!

and for the people who gave me my birthday wishes yesterday, thank you, i appreciate it !!

bee <3