"i've been having a hard time adjusting. i had the shiniest wheels now they're rusting."

★・・・・・・★

Amber walked into Family Video, just missing the end of Robin and Steve's conversation.

Normally on Saturdays, Amber would work from 10 to 5. Amber mostly thought that Keith hired her because he felt bad because of her sister. Sometimes she just wouldn't come in and Steve and Robin understood that because Amber's had such a hard year. Surprisingly, she had come in today.

"Oh, hey, Amber," Robin said as she saw the younger girl walk in.

"Hey, Robin," she smiled lightly.

"Can you tell Steve that Julie Christie is so hot in Doctor Zhivago?"

"Let me think. No," she said to the older girl as she turned the TV on and it immediately went to the news.

"We're in Forest Hills trailer park in east Roane County," the news reporter said.

"Wait, Forest Hills trailer park?" Steve said. "Isn't that where Max lives?"

"Don't know," Amber said quickly. "Don't care."

"We don't have a lot of details now, but we can confirm that the body of a Hawkins High student was discovered early this morning. Police have not released the victim's name..."

"Holy shit."

"...although we are told they're currently in the process of notifying the family."

-

"Hey, Steve," Dustin said as he and Max walked in.

"You guys see this?" Steve asked the two.

"How many phones do you have?" Dustin asked.

"Someone was murdered," Steve stated the obvious.

"How many phones do you have?" Dustin asked again.

"Two. Why?" he responded.

"Technically three, if you count Keith's in the back," Robin said

"Yeah, three works," Max said as she tried to avoid eye contact with Amber.

"What are you doing?" Steve asked as Dustin threw his bag over the counter. "Whoa! What are you—" And then Dustin jumped over the counter.

"My pile!" Robin exclaimed.

"Jesus Christ, Dustin!" Amber spoke.

"No, no, no! My tapes!" Steve groaned. "Dude. What are you doing, man?

"Setting up base of operations here," he spoke.

"Base of operations?" Amber questioned.

"Stop," Steve tried. "Get off."

"I need it," Dustin said.
"For what?"

"Eddie's friends' phone numbers."

"Oh, Eddie. Your new best friend you think is cooler than me because he plays your nerdy game?"

"Yes," he said but then backtracked. "I never said that."

"Seriously, you guys, maybe on a Monday you can play around in here like toddlers, but it's Saturday," Robin scolded them. "It's our busiest day."

"Or maybe don't do this at all," Amber commented.

"All right, look, Robin, Amber, I empathize, but this cannot wait until Monday."

"Good God," Amber sighed.

"Calling Eddie's friends is an emergency?"
"Correct!"

"Want me to strangle him or you guys want to?" Steve asked Robin and Amber.

"We could take turns," Robin suggested.

"Can you fill them in while I do this?"Dustin instructed Max.

"Fill us in on what?"

"I saw the body," Max spoke. "It was Chrissy Cunningham. And before you ask, I know it was her. I saw her go in Eddie's trailer last night. She was in her cheerleader outfit. The same thing she was in when I saw her with Eddie. But, that isn't the point. The point is, after I saw Eddie and Chrissy go in the trailer... something else happened. My lights started flickering and I heard Eddie scream, so I went to go see what was happening. He got in his car and drove away. Nothing that weird or anything. I mean... Eddie always drives like a maniac, and the power goes off at my place all the time. It's a piece of shit. But this morning, I started to think back, and... I don't know. The look on his face. He was scared. Really scared. Maybe he was scared because, you know, he... he just killed someone, or maybe..."

"Something else killed her," Amber spoke up. Max looked right at her, not getting anything in return. Just Amber looking at the floor. "We aren't doing this again. We've dealt with it for the past three years. I refuse to do it again."

"No, Amber," Dustin said. "We need to do this. If there is another monster thing, we're the only ones who know how to deal with it."

"Or maybe, just maybe, Eddie 'the freak' Munson actually killed Chrissy Cunningham," Amber spat.

"Amber, I get that you don't want to do this. Don't help. Let us do this," Max said. It was then, for the first time in months, Amber and Max held eye contact.

"Whatever," she scoffed.

Dustin, Max, and Robin started calling people as Steve was helping customers and Amber sat there, doing absolutely nothing.

"Hey, guys, I might have a lead," Max said as she hung up the phone after some time.

"Seriously?" Dustin smiled.

"Yeah," she nodded. "Apparently, Eddie gets drugs from some guy named Reefer Rick, and sometimes Eddie crashes at his place."

Shit. Amber knew Reefer Rick all too well.

"That sounds promising," Robin spoke. "Where does this Reefer Rick guy live?"

"See, that's the thing. No one knows. He's more of a... a legend than someone that people actually know."

"Well, what about a last name?"

"I don't know that either."

"Bet the cops know the last name," Steve spoke up.
"What?"

"Cops," Amber said. "Okay, listen, if this Reefer Rick is an actual drug dealer, I bet he's been busted at some point. Means he is in the system."

"The cops? Really, Amber? That's your suggestion after sitting there and doing absolutely nothing this whole time?"

"I just think that they should be filled in on what we know, what's going on," she shrugged.

"You think Eddie's guilty, don't you?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. I actually know Eddie. Kristen was friends with him. But that doesn't mean that we can't tell the cops what we know. I just... I don't think we can rule it out."

"That's precisely what we're trying to do here, Amber," Max rolled her eyes.

"And maybe we'd have a little bit more luck if Steve spent less time trying to find a girlfriend, and if you stopped moping because we are doing this shit. If you guys spent more time trying to find Eddie, we would be faster!"

"Somebody has to attend to customers," Steve said.

"Especially if they're babes, right?" Robin winked at the older boy.

"Hey, not fair. Okay? I attend to all the customers equally, babes and non-babes alike. We've got a very big selection in here. It can be very overwhelming for people."

There was a moment of silence before Amber decided to speak up.

"You said Reefer Rick?" she asked Max as she looked at the floor.

"Yeah," Max lightly nodded.

"Rick Lipton. Spelled like the tea. He lives on Holland Road."

"How... How do you know that?" Dustin asked as Robin immediately knew, trying to stop herself from giggling.

"I buy from him some—" she realized that she slipped up. "Shit."

"Okay, we'll talk about this later," Robin swallowed a giggle. "Holland Road is by Lovers Lake. Middle of nowhere."

"It's a perfect place to hide."

They all started going to Steve's car while Dustin grabbed Amber's arm to pull her back.

"Amber. What is going on? You know a drug dealer? What drugs are you doing? Cocaine? Meth? What..."

"It's just cigarettes and occasionally weed. Nothing else. It's not like I'm taking terrible hallucinogens."

"Amber, we've given you time. Almost seven months. Why won't you talk to us?"

"It... It's a lot. It's too much to say all at once."

"Amber, we know about the 016 tattoo," Max said as she came into the store. "Lucas saw it and told us. We kind of have an idea."

"You don't. I promise you."

"Uh, guys, can we go so I can lock up the store?" Robin said. They all left and she locked the store. Onto Reefer Rick's house.

-

They eventually got to Reefer Rick's house. It was mostly empty. It didn't look like anyone lived there. Dustin tried ringing the doorbell multiple times, but no one answered.

"Okay. Well, that's settled. I guess he's not here."

"Eddie! It's Dustin!"

"Great," Steve sighed.

"Look, we just wanna talk, okay? No cops, I swear. We just wanna help. Eddie! Rick! Reefer Rick!"

"Don't scream that."
"Rick!"

"Stop that. He's not there."
"Reefer Rick!"
"Just..."

"He could just be really high. Is that a foot?"

"Hey, guys?" Max announced.

Boathouse.

"Hello?" Robin announced as she went in first, the others following behind. "Is anyone home?"

"What a dump," Steve commented. He saw a boat and an oar. He started poking the tarp that was on the boat with the oar.

"What are you doing?" Dustin asked. "What are you doing?"

"He might be in here."

"So take the tarp off."

"If you're so brave, you take the tarp off."

"Hey, look over here," Max said to Robin and Amber. "Someone was here."

"Maybe he heard us," Robin suggested. "Got spooked and ran."

"Don't worry," Dustin sarcastically said. "Steve will get him with his oar."

"I know you think you're being funny, Henderson, but considering the fact everyone in this room has nearly died about a hundred times, personally, I don't find it funny in the slightest—"

Eddie jumped out from under the tarp, going straight for Steve. He had a broken bottle and held it up to his neck.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Eddie! Eddie! Stop!" Dustin shouted. "It's me. It's Dustin. This is Steve. He's not gonna hurt you, right, Steve?"

"Right. Yeah."

"Steve, why don't you drop the oar?" Dustin told him more than asking him. "He's cool. He's cool."

"I'm cool, man. I'm cool."

"What are you doing here?" Eddie asked.

"We're looking for you."
"We're here to help."

"Eddie, these are my friends. You know Robin, from band. You know Amber, Kristen's little sister. This is my friend Max. The one who never wants to play D&D. Eddie. We're on your side. I swear on my mother. Right, guys?"

"Yes. Yes. We swear."
"Yeah."

"On Dustin's mother."
"Yeah, Dustin's... Dustin's mother."

Eddie eventually let Steve go and sat down.

"Eddie... We just want to talk. Okay," Dustin said as Eddie flinched.

"We want to know what happened," Robin said as she knelt beside him.

"You won't believe me," his voice shook.
"Try us."

"Her body, just, like... lifted up into the air and, uh... And she just like hung there. In the air. And her bones... uh, she... Her bones started to snap. Her eyes, man. It... It was like there was something, like, inside her head, pulling. I... I didn't know what to do, so I... I ran away. I left her there. You all think I'm crazy, right?"

"No. We don't think you're crazy," Dustin said.

"Don't bullshit me, man!" he exclaimed. "I know how this sounds."

"We're not bullshitting you," Max reassured him.

"We believe you," Robin spoke softly.

"Look, what we're about to tell you might be a little... difficult to take," Amber spoke softly.

"Okay," he sighed.

"You know how people say Hawkins is... cursed? They're not way off. There's another world. A world hidden beneath Hawkins. Sometimes it bleeds into ours."

"Likes ghosts and shit?" he asked.

"There are some things worse than ghosts," Max said.

"These monsters from this other world... we thought they were gone. But they've come back before. That's why we needed to find you," Dustin spoke for Amber.

"If they're back again, we need to know," Amber said, looking from Eddie to her hands.

"That night, did you see anything?" Dustin asked.

"Dark particles, maybe?" Max asked as Eddie shook his head no.

"They would almost look like dust, swirling dust."

"No, man, there was nothing you could see or, uh... or touch. You know, I tried to wake her, man. She couldn't move. It was like she... she was in a trance or something."

"Or under a spell."
"A curse."
"Vecna's curse."

"Who's Vecna?"

"An undead creature of great power."
"A spell caster."

"A dark wizard."