[𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗗𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗘𝗘: 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗢𝗡𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗨𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗢]

"DUSTIN, IT'S LUCAS. DO YOU COPY? dustin." lucas says from the walkie.

"lucas? where the hell have you been?" dustin asks in reply, the walkie close to his face. "just listen. are you guys looking for eddie?" lucas asks. it almost sounded as if he was panicked.

"yeah, we found him, no thanks to you,"

"you found him?"

"he's at boathouse on coal mill road," dustin tells the sinclair teen. "don't worry. he's safe."

"you guys know he killed chrissy, right?" lucas says. "that's bullshit," dustin replies. "eddie tried to save chrissy,"

"then why do all the cops say he did it?" lucas asks before max snatches the walkie from the henderson teen. "lucas, you're so behind it's ridiculous, okay? just meet us at school. we'll explain later." max says to the sinclair teen.

"i . . . i can't. i think some real bad shit's about to go down."

sage then snatches the walkie, "what are you talking about? what bad shit?"

no response.

"lucas? lucas!"

sage scoffed then handed dustin the walkie talkie back. "that's just rude,"

the wheeler teen sits back with a sigh before she lays her head back on max's lap.

NANCY SCROLLS THROUGH THE different kinds of newspapers as robin does the same from the other side.

creel found guilty

the wheeler teen reads over the article as robin mutters the words as she reads her own article.

"anything . . . juicy over there?" robin asks. "nothing new," nancy replies, mentally sighing.

"yep, same here. victor seemed like a normal guy. dead family, missing eyes, took a plea deal, sent to pennhurst. blah, blah, blah, blah."

nancy shakes her head before looking through some more articles.

robin slowly peeks her head to look at nancy. "what are we looking for exactly?"

no answer.

"nance?" robin asks then knocks rhythmically. nancy slowly peeks over at robin. "any mentions of dark wizards or alternate dimensions? things in that vein?" robin asks again.

"i don't know. okay? it's starting to seem like this was just a big waste of time. and you're obviously bored so why don't you call steve? i'm sure he'll pick you up and i mean i'm not really in danger here, so . . ." nancy tells the buckley teen before heading downstairs to the basement.

robin watches her then gets up, heading downstairs to where nancy was.

"you do know that steve and i are, like, totally not a thing, right?" robin informs the wheeler teen.

"what?"

"so, i figured you and johnathan are still going strong 'cause you guys are going to college together, and you're, like, one of those unstoppable power couples, but i . . . i just . . . i wanted to make sure that you knew that steve and i are just friends. like, platonic with a capital p." robin explains to the teenager.

robin sighs when she received a look from nancy. the buckley teen walks over to the far end and opens a cabinet.

"just in case that's adding any tension between us," robin adds in, looking at nancy. "it wasn't," nancy simply replied.

robin gives her an awkward smile before looking down at the cabinet.

"holy shit. the weekly watcher. i can't believe they have this." robin says then shows nancy. "don't they write about, like, bigfoot and ufo's?" nancy asked the buckley teen.

"first, ufo's are absolutely real. bigfoot i'm still on the fence about. but may i remind you we are looking for information on dark wizards? if someone's gonna write about that, it's gonna be these weirdos." robin informs nancy.

nancy gives robin a look before the two girls head back upstairs to look through the articles. robin puts it in then begins to scroll through the different kinds of articles.

elvis cloned by aliens

"ah. "elvis cloned by aliens." " nancy said then looked at robin. "you never know," the brunette told the wheeler teen.

nancy gives robin a slight glare then rolls her eyes as the buckley teen scrolls rapidly through the articles, nancy standing away from robin and the machine.

"victor creel claims vengeful demon killed family. the murder that shocked a small community." robin read out loud in a voice. "ha, ha. that's very funny." nancy said.

"i'm not kidding," robin told her making nancy turn around, walking over to the machine. "get over here,"

"according to several insiders, victor creel believed his house was haunted by an ancient demon. victor allegedly hired a priest to exorcise the demon from his home."

"pretty novel for the '50's. exorcist wasn't even out yet." robin said to nancy. "keep . . . keep going," nancy replied to the brunette and scrolled down more. "okay,"

"victor claimed this exorcism failed, but it angered this demon, which then murdered his family, removing their eyes. victor believed he was spared as punishment."

"that's pretty convenient for victor," nancy commented. "yeah, or super inconvenient." robin said to nancy. "victor was declared legally insane by the court, right? but what if this is why? i mean, it sounds pretty insane. it didn't just go public because —"

"the plea bargain. the records were sealed." nancy said, catching on. "what if a demon did invade victor's home? it's just, this demon wasn't any old demon." robin informed.

"it was vecna,"

"dustin, do you copy?" robin asks in the walkie as her and nancy walk out of the library.

"yeah, i copy," dustin replies. "so, nancy's a genius. vecna's first victims date back all the way to 1959. her shot in the dark was a bull's-eye."

"okay, that's totally bonkers, but i can't really talk right now,"

"wait, what are you doing?"

"breaking and entering in a school to retrieve confidential and extremely personal files,"

"can you repeat that?" robin says. "just get your ass over here, stat. we'll explain everything."

"i thought they were talking to ms. kelly." nancy says. "we leave them alone for two hours," robin sighs then gets in the car.

   MAX OPENS THE DOOR TO MS. KELLY'S office and walks in.

steve, dustin, and sage follow behind her with flashlights in their hands.

"it's like a mini-watergate or something," dustin comments as max opens the file cabinet.

sage walks over to max, completely ignoring the conversation steve and dustin were having.

"holy shit," max said. "you found it?" steve asks, walking over. "yeah, and not just chrissy's file. fred was seeing ms. kelly too."

max walks over to the desk and sits down, sage standing next to her. the wheeler teen watches as the red-head looks through the files and reads off of the papers — fred's file in her hand.

headaches

max furrows her eyebrows. "can i see fred's file?"

sage nods then hands her girlfriend fred's file. max opens it, flipping through the papers.

severe headaches

nose bleeds

nightmares

past trauma

"max, what is it?" dustin asks, noticing she's not moving. "maxine?" sage whispers and gently shakes her. "hey, max?"

the wheeler teen begins to panic and shakes her girlfriend rapidly. "max! max, wake up!"

sage pulls the chair max is sitting on out and turns the chair to face her, cupping max's face gently, and then seeing her eyes. she was staring into nothing.

"maxine, wake up! max, please!"

sage kneels down, gently slapping max's cheek.

"hey, hey, hey! wake up! come on, maxine!"

dustin and steve also shake max, trying to wake her up from her trance.

"max, come on!"

"stop playing games, max!"

"maxine!"

suddenly, max gasps causing the three to jump back at the sudden action. sage lets out a sigh of relief and hugs her girlfriend tightly.

"you won't protect her, sage . . ."

the wheeler teen squeezes her eyes shut at the deep voice in her head, hugging her girlfriend tighter as max wraps her arms around sage.

AUTHORS NOTE //

very short chapter and i apologize! here's a double update !!

bee <3