[𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗗𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗘𝗘: 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗢𝗡𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗨𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗢]

THE NEXT DAY STEVE, ROBIN AND THE three younger teens drive out to the location of reefer ricks house again to give eddie his delivery of food and drinks.

sage opens the door causing eddie to jump back.

"jesus!"

the five walk in and sage mumbles an apology as she holds up a bag of candies.

"delivery service," dustin says with a smile, holding up two bags. eddie let's out a sigh, looking over at the group as steve waves.

eddie walks over to sage, looking through the bag she has. the munson adult takes out a bag of candy then grabs some cereal from dustin. the adult takes a seat in the boat as he opens up the box, stuffing the food in his house.

"so we got, uh, some good news and some bad news," dustin speaks up as he sits on a stool. "how do you prefer it?"

"bad news first, always," eddie tells him and sips his drink. "all right. bad news. we tapped into the hawkins pd dispatch with our cerebro, and they're definitely looking for you." dustin says.

"also, they're, uh, pretty convinced you killed chrissy," the henderson teen quickly adds in. "like, 100% kind of convinced," max agrees.

"and the good news?" eddie asks. "your name hasn't gone public yet," robin tells him. "but if we found out about you, it's a matter of time before others do. and once that gets out, everyone and their shallow-minded mother is gonna be gunning for you."

"hunt the freak, right?" eddie says. "exactly," sage mumbles. "shit,"

"so, before that happens, we need to find vecna, kill him, and prove your innocence," dustin explains to the munson adult. "that's all, dustin? that's all?" eddie questions.

"yeah, no, that's pretty much it,"

"listen, eddie, i know everything dustin is saying sounds totally delusional, but we've actually been through this before," robin explains. "i mean, they have a . . . a few times, and . . . and i have once. mine was more human-flesh based, theirs was more smoke-related, but bottom line is, collectively, i really feel we got this."

"yeah, see we usually rely on this other girl who also has superpowers, like sage, and they're partners and shit. but, uh, those went bye-bye so . . ." steve spoke up making sage nod in agreement as eddie looked over at sage.

"so we're technically in more of the —"

"kinda . . ."

"brainstorming phase," max says.

"brainstorming," sage nods and smiles at her girlfriend softly.

"there . . . there's nothing to worry about," dustin splutters out making steve scoff.

the munson adult gives dustin a look before sirens wailing in the distance caught the teens, and eddies, attention.

"shit," steve whispered. "tarp." robin said.

"tarp. tarp," sage repeated as she got up helping eddie throw the blue tarp over his body.

the teenagers headed over to the window to see the situation that was going on. sage rushes over next to max, staring at the police cars and ambulance driving by the house.

"fred," sage whispers.

THE TEENAGERS DRIVE NEAR THE crime scene where they all saw nancy talking to chief powell.

the five step out of the car and sage stands next to max. nancy stares at her sister and friends, a slight smile crawling on her face as she gives them a small wave.

the wheeler twin quickly rushes to her older sister.

"hey, you can't be —"

"i'm her sister," sage cuts off the officer as she wrapped her sister in a tight hug. "hi," nancy whispers with a sniffle as she wraps her sister in a tight hug, rubbing her back.

the officers continued to question nancy about the last time she saw fred as the eldest wheeler teen answered the questions.

once that was all done, the teenagers went back to the trailer park to talk about the situation. the six teens sit around the picnic table.

"so you're saying that this thing that killed fred and chrissy, it's from the upside down?" nancy asked after the teens explained. "if the shoes fits," sage says from between dustin and steve.

"our working theory is that he attacks with a spell or curse," dustin says as nancy glances at her sister. "now, whether or not he's doing the bidding of the mind flayer or just loves killing teens, we don't know,"

"all we know is this is something different," max cuts in. "something new,"

"doesn't make sense." nancy says as she shakes her head. "it's only a theory," sage tells her sister.

"no, fred and chrissy don't make sense. i mean, why them?" nancy asked. "maybe they were just in the wrong place," dustin suggested.

"they were both at the game,"

"and near the trailer park,"

"we're at the trailer park." steve mentions. "uh, should we maybe not be here?" he asks as the teens look around the park.

"there is something about this place. fred started acting weird the second we got here." nancy says.

"acting weird as in . . . ?" robin asks. "scared, on edge, upset," nancy lists. "max said chrissy was upset too," dustin mentions.

"yeah, but not here," max tells him. "she was crying in the bathroom at school,"

"serial killers stalk their prey before they strike, right?" robin points out. "so, maybe fred and chrissy saw this vecman —"

"vecna," sage corrects.

"i don't know about you guys, but if i saw some freaky wizard monster, i would mention it to someone," steve speaks up.

"maybe they did," sage says. "me and max saw chrissy leaving ms. kelley'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," robin says, understanding what sage is saying.

max looks over at the buckley teen and nods.

soon enough, all the teens were walking to the vehicles parked. sage follows max, holding her hand tightly as nancy walks to her car.

"woah, woah, nance. nance!" steve calls out. "nance, where you going?"

"oh, there was something i wanna check on first," nancy replies. "something you maybe wanna share with the rest of us?" dustin asks. "i don't wanna waste your time. it's a real shot in the dark," nancy informs him.

"yeah, okay. are you out of your mind?" steve questions the teen. "flying solo with this vecna creep on the loose? no, it's too dangerous. you need . . . you need someone to . . ."

nancy raises her eyebrows, waiting for steve to finish his sentence.

"here. i'll stick with nance." steve says and tosses robin his car keys. "you guys take the car, check out the shrink,"

"i don't think you want me driving your car," robin points out. "why?" steve asks. "i don't have a license,"

"why don't your have a license?"

"i'm poor,"

"i can drive," max says. "no, never again. please. anybody but you. no." steve immediately rejects.

dustin looks over at the harrington teen and gives him a face with a shrug.

"no chance,"

"come on,"

"no."

"all right, okay. this is stupid." robin cuts in and takes a walkie from dustin's backpack, walking over to steve, and giving him his keys back. "us ladies we stick together."

the buckley teen makes it over to nancy and turns to steve. "unless you think we need you to protect us," steve rolls his eyes and robins laughs.

the buckley teen turns around and begins to walk away, nancy following behind her.

"be careful," steve calls out as they walk.

"you just gonna stand there and gawk?" sage asks as she opens the door. "shut up," steve tells her and goes to the driver seat.

"why don't we go? okay?" dustin suggests. "shut up and get in the car," steve says.

max and sage get in the car, the wheeler twin closing the door.

"wipe your feet," steve tells dustin.

the henderson teen puts his foot inside the car and begins to wipe his feet.

"on the outside, not the inside," steve complains as he gets in the car, dustin following.

sage lets out a small snort as she scoots over, laying her head on max's lap. the red-head reaches over and begins to stroke sage's hair.

"always the babysitter. always the goddamn babysitter!"

"is that a problem, steve?" sage says as the harrington teen glares at the brunette from the mirror. the wheeler teen gives him a grin.

SAGE, MAX, STEVE, AND DUSTIN make it to ms. kelly's house and max steps out of the car, walking to the house.

the wheeler teen watches carefully as the red-head rings the doorbell.

the door opens to reveal ms. kelly.

"max. hi."

"hi. i'm so sorry to bother you over break, but . . . do you have a minute to talk?" max asks. "um, yeah, of course. of course." ms. kelly says and allows max to walk inside the building.

as the red-head walks in, she looks back to the vehicle.

"okay. she's in." steve informs. "i'm missing collarbones, not eyes." dustin replies.

"so, we gonna talk about . . . it?"

"huh? sorry, talk about what?" steve asks. "your temporary insanity earlier today when you basically threw yourself at my sister," sage says, leaning between the middle of the front seats.

"okay, that's not what happened,"

"pretty sure that's what happened,"

"it's was pretty public. there were a lot of witnesses."

"are you guys implying i still have a thing for nance?" steve questions the teens. "no. i'm not implying." sage replies. "i'm stating and i don't like it because she's for johnathan." the wheeler teen pokes his shoulder.

"i'm stating because it relates to your steadfast refusal to date robin, it's pretty much the only logical explanation." dustin says as he watches steve swat sage's hand away.

"that's not the only one," steve says. "and as for nance, i was just trying to protect a friend." when the harrington teen looks over to see dustin and sage's face, he sighs. "a friend, henderson, wheeler. okay?"

"okay," the two teens say.

"i don't wanna find her in the morning with her eyes sucked out of her skull by this vecna creep."

dustin laughs. "you're bright red in the face right now,"

"i'm not. i don't wanna talk about it. i'll punch you so hard you're teeth will fall back out."

sage looks over at steve, "dude,"

"woah," dustin's smile falls. "too far,"

"not cool. sorry." steve apologies. "it's okay," dustin assures him.

the two teens give each other fist bumps as steve reaches his fist out to sage. the wheeler teen gives steve a small smile, giving him a fist bump.

"it's just, with everything that's happening, with all the murders, it's . . . it's making everything worse again," max said to ms. kelly as she sat down on a chair. "you've experienced trauma, max, and when you keep your feelings, your pain, bottled up the way you do, it doesn't take much to trigger them again." ms. kelly explained.

"so now, when it rains, it storms,"

max nodded her head at the woman. "yeah, i know,"

"do you think you're ready to talk more about that night?" the counselor then asked, leaning her elbows on her knees.

max stayed silent, the memory of billy getting killed right in front of her flashing through her mind. the red-head glanced at the teacher and completely ignored her question.

"i live next door to where it happened," max said to the woman. "i'm sorry?" ms. kelly asked.

"to where chrissy was murdered. the cops asked me a bunch of questions. did they talk to you? i mean, i know you were seeing chrissy" the mayfield teen questioned. "max, you know i can't talk about chrissy or any other student." the counselor informed the red-head.

"yeah, but, i mean, what if there was a serial killer on the loose in my neighborhood?" max pointed out. "did chrissy mention anything? anything about who might have done this?"

the woman shakes her head.

"max, i'm . . . i'm sorry, i . . . i really can't discuss this. you wouldn't want me talking to any other students about you, right?"

"if i were dead and it would help catch the killer, then yeah, i most definitely would,"

"well, let's leave that up to the police, shall we?"

max stays silent before speaking up. "yeah, you're right,"

ms. kelly nods at the teen with a kind smile.

"the police totally have this under control. can i use the bathroom?"

"sure. up the stairs, to the left."

"thanks,"

max gets up from the chair and heads up the stairs and just as she was about to enter the hallway, her blue eyes land on a clear glass bowl with keys inside. the mayfield teen turns back to look at the counselor to see her working on a few papers.

the red-head walks over to the glass bowl and reaches inside, grabbing the keys that have the words office labeled on it.

max looks back at the counselor once more before walking through the hallway, and to the front door, leaving the house.

"here she comes. here she comes." steve says as sage reaches over, opening the door for max.

the red-head gets in the car and shuts the door.

"what'd she say?" dustin asks. "nothing, just drive." max tells him.

"nothing?" steve asked.

"steve, drive,"

"okay,"

steve quickly puts the car out of park and drives away from the counselors house.

AUTHORS NOTE //

the duffer brothers are probably giggling at us rn, but when i show up to their house with a bat with nails in 'em . . . they won't be giggling then.

bee <3