"haven't i given enough?"

★・・・・・・★

Amber woke up, hearing Nancy pretty much yell at Dustin. She became fully awake as Nancy started shaking her.

"Amber, wake up," she said. "Do you know where Max is?"

"She's right here," she responded, putting her hand on the empty spot on the couch she was sharing with the redhead. "Shit."

Amber, Nancy, and Dustin went upstairs to find Max. They were relieved when they saw her sitting at the kitchen table with Holly.

"Morning, guys," Mrs. Wheeler greeted the teens. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, everything's okay," Nancy replied to her mother as Max looked back at the three.

"I think it's so sweet that you guys are sticking together like this."

"Could try sticking together at a different house for a change," Mr. Wheeler said as Nancy and Amber went over to Max.

Amber sat down next to the Mayfield girl as she took her headphones off.

"Hey," she greeted softly.

"Hey," Amber smiled softly. "You okay?"

"Just couldn't sleep. People kept blasting music in my ears, for some reason," Max said, making Amber slightly chuckle. "But Holly let me borrow some of her crayons. We've been having a fun morning, right, Holly?"

"Mm-hmm," the six-year-old hummed.

"Is this what you saw last night?" Nancy asked as she looked at the drawings.

"I mean, it's supposed to be. I thought it'd be easier to draw it out than to explain it, but... not so much."

"Is that...?" Amber questioned as she saw a quite disturbing drawing.

"It was like they were on display or something," she explained. "And then there was this red fog everywhere. It was like a dream. A nightmare."

"Do you think Vecna's just trying to scare you?"

"With Billy? Yeah. But when I made it here... I dunno, something was different. He seemed surprised, almost. Like he didn't want me there."

"Maybe you infiltrated his mind," Dustin said as he sat down next to Nancy with his pancakes. "He invaded your mind, right? Is it that big of a leap to suggest you somehow wound up in his? Like Freddie Krueger's boiler room."

"Freddie Krueger?" Holly questioned.

"He's a super burned up dude with razors for fingers. And he kills you in your dreams."

"Dustin. Seriously?" Nancy said.

"Sorry. It's a movie. It's not real. Just... think about it. What if you somehow unlocked a back door to Vecna's world? Like, maybe the answer we're looking for is somewhere in this incredibly vague drawing. God, we need Will."

"Yeah, no shit," Max agreed. "But I tried them again this morning, and it's the same busy signal."

Amber grabbed the paper that Dustin was looking at and noticed something familiar. The door with the rose glass.

"Is this a window?" Amber asked.

"Yeah," she replied.

"Stained glass with roses," she said as Nancy scooted closer to what Amber was seeing.

"Yeah. See?" Max smirked at Dustin. "I'm not so terrible after all."

"Yeah, well, it helps that we've seen it before," Amber said as she looked at Nancy. She started folding pieces of paper and connecting them together. She then got a Sharpie and outlined the papers and added windows.

"It's pieces of a house."

"Not just any house," Nancy said as she realized what Amber was doing. "It's Victor Creel's house." She grabbed the paper and started going downstairs.

"Where are you going?" Dustin asked as he had a mouthful of food.

"Waking the others."

"Sorry, fuel for the road," he smiled as he took more pancakes. "Thanks, Mr. Wheeler!"

-

The group had gotten to their destination. Creel House. It was all broken and old. The windows and doors were boarded up.

"Yeah, that's not creepy," Steve sighed.

They went to the porch and Steve found a hammer. He and Nancy ripped the nails from the board that was covering the door.

"What exactly are we supposed to be looking for in this shithole?" he asked.

"We're not sure. We just know this house is important to Vecna."

"Because Max saw it in Vecna's red soup mind world?"

"Basically."
"Great."

"Maybe it holds a clue to where Vecna is. Why he's back. Why he killed the Creels. And how to stop him before he comes back for Max," Dustin spoke.

"We don't think he's in here, do we?" Lucas asked.

"Guess we'll find out," Amber sighed.

The board covering the door finally fell down. Steve tried opening the door but it was locked.

"It's locked. Should I knock, see if anybody's home?" he sarcastically asked.

"No need," Robin spoke. "I found a key," she said, holding a brick up.

Steve took it and threw it through the glass on the door. He reached his hand in and opened the door, letting everyone in. Lucas tried turning on a lamp, but it was no use.

"Looks like someone forgot to pay their electric bill," he joked. Dustin turned his flashlight on, giving everyone a sense of light as everyone else turned theirs on.

"Where'd everyone get those?" Steve asked.

"Do you need to be told everything?" Dustin furrowed his eyebrows. "You're not a child."

"Thank you."

"They just left everything," Nancy observed.

"I guess a triple homicide isn't good for resale value," Robin joked.

"Hey, guys?" Max spoke. Everyone came to where she was, looking at what she was looking at. "You all see that, right?"

"Yeah," they spoke.

"Is this what you saw? In your visions?" Nancy asked as Max nodded her head.

"I mean, it's... just a clock. Right? Like a normal old clock," Robin said as she dragged her hand across the glass, collecting dust on her hand.

"Why is this wizard obsessed with clocks?" Steve asked himself. "Maybe he's, like, a clockmaker or something?"

"I think you cracked the case, Steve," Amber said, slightly getting annoyed with the Harrington boy.

"All I know is the answers are here. Somewhere," Nancy spoke. "Okay, everyone stay in groups of two. Robin, upstairs."

"Come on. Let's go," Max said to Amber as she touched her arm. Lucas was about to go with them, wanting to tag along with someone who is feeling like a sister to him, but Dustin grabbed his arm back.

"Let them have their moment. They obviously have things they need to work out."

Amber could faintly hear Running Up That Hill on Max's headphones. She's been quiet since they got in the house, mostly focusing on the music. The tape ended, making Max turn all her attention to repeating the loop.

"I wish we had a longer loop," Amber frowned.

"Forty six minutes isn't bad. I think there are bigger concerns. Like... What if, by listening to this over and over, I get sick of it, and suddenly it's not my favorite song anymore? Will it still work? Or will Kate Bush, like, lose her magic power or something?"

"Kate Bush? Never."

"You're a Kate Bush fan?"

"Uh, yeah. Now I am."

"Really?"

"Yeah, Mega-fan. She... She saved your life. Besides, we're hot on this creep's trail. We're gonna find Vecna and kill him before he even thinks about messing with you again. All right? In fact, I bet if we hit these suckers in the right combo, we might just open a door to his secret layer," Amber said, right before playing discordant notes. "Voilá."

"You're such a dork," she said, putting on a real smile. "I thought you were, like, one of the cool kids again."

"I'm not cool?" She asked, seeing Max laugh again. "I've really missed that."

"Missed what?"

"Your laugh. You."

"I've missed you, too."

"You know, in that... that place... I thought about you a lot."

"Really?" she found herself asking.

"Yeah. Thinking about you made me keep going," Amber said softly as Max has a solemn look on her face. "When I was there, there were multiple others. They looked like El when we first found her. Their heads were shaved. I got lucky and they didn't shave mine. Mostly because I threw a huge ass fit every time they tried. But... there was this girl. At least, I think they were a girl. She reminded me of you. Her name was..."

Callie.

"Fourteen. She stood up for what was right. Even though it was the wrong thing, she didn't know. She was relentless. I was reminded of you everyday I saw her. But I didn't mind. Because like I said yesterday, I still love you."

"Amber..."

"It's okay, Max. It's okay."

Before Max could say anything back, the loop finished.

"All done. Work your magic, Kate," she smiled.

They heard electricity crack, making the two look over to where it came from.

"I promise I'm gonna stop asking this, but... you're seeing that, right?" Max asked.

"Yeah," Amber nodded.

Max reached out to touch it, but it stopped lighting. Another lamp not far away did the same thing.

"Look."

They walked towards it, looking at each other with concerned looks.

Everyone had regrouped to the middle of the house. There was one light that just kept shining.

"It's like the Christmas lights," Nancy observed.

"The Christmas lights?" Robin asked.

"Yeah, when Will was in the Upside Down, the lights... came to life."

"Vecna's here," Lucas spoke. "In this house. Just on the other side."

"I think he just left the room."

"Did he hear us?"
"Can he see us?"

"Headphones," Lucas reminded Max.

"Wait, wait," Nancy had an idea. "Everyone, turn off your flashlights and spread out."

"We're not gonna be able to see if we turn off your flash... lights," Steve trailed off.

Amber kept a distance but stayed fairly close to Max.

"I got him!" Robin announced. "Got him! I got him. I... I had him."

"Oh, whoa," Steve said as his flashlight started lighting. "Oh, I think he's moving. He's moving. He's moving." They followed Steve wherever he went until it lead to an attic. Fun.

"Shit. I lost him."

"No, you didn't," Max said as she saw more light.

"It's an attic," Robin sighed. "Of course, it's an attic."

"Hold up, guys. What if he's leading us into a trap? Guys, guys. Shit."

They got into the attic, seeing the singular bulb surge with electricity. They all stood around it as their flashlights started lighting.

"Flashlights."
"Okay, what's happening?"

Amber dropped her flashlight as she saw the mist come from her hands again. It went into the bulb as everyone around her looked at her in confusion. She groaned as it slightly started to hurt.

"Amber? You okay?" Nancy asked.

"It hurts," she said very softly.

"Where does it hurt?" Nancy asked again.

"My hands, my head, I don't... it hurts."

Little did she know, on the other side in the Upside Down, her powers has subconsciously gone to the place where they had originally been from.

Vecna had seen this and wanted her powers. Wanted her. He tried taking them but instead started fighting with them as they started attacking him.

He eventually got rid of them, making Amber hurt almost all over her body.

She fell to her knees, her hand going to her head. She was panting as her head was aching.

"Amber! Are you okay?" Max asked as she kneeled down by the brunette.

Everyone else was looking at her as their flashlights broke and the glass shattered. The bulb then shattered, making Amber's head hurt even more.

"The hell?"