032 | the nina project

Tuesday, 25th March 1986

NANCY WALKED UPSTAIRS, PASSING walked upstairs, passing the group. They were all asleep in the basement, Bea and Steve cuddled together as he snored into her hair.

She felt a pang of jealousy as she saw the two together in such harmony, maybe she did miss that feeling with Steve.

Bea lay in between his legs, her back pressed up against his chest and his head resting against her head. Dustin had - like he always does - taken a picture and slipped it into Steves jacket.

A few minutes later, Dustin came running down, shaking the couple awake. They opened their eyes, looking up at him confused for having awoken them from their sleep.Β 

"Max had this drawing of the Creel house from her nightmares, we're going," Dustin explained.

He looked at the two, Bea still rubbing her eyes, "Can I brush my teeth first?" She asked, tolting her head to the side.

"Yeah, sure, we leave in five minutes," Dustin said before walking back upstairs to the others.

Steve groaned, tightening his grip on her waist, "Why can't we just have a normal life? Why do we have to do all this scooby doo shit constantly?" He asked, pressing a kiss to her neck.

She giggled, "Come on Steve, we defeat Vecna and we go back to being two ordinary adults," she said, managing to get up.

"That's what we said after El disappeared, and then when we defeated the mindflayer, and then when Billy died," he said, flailing his arms around as he stood up.

"Shut up Steve, stop being so overdramatic," Bea said, hiding rhe smile on her face as he walked over, placing his hands on her hips.

"Oh you love it," he said with a smirk before leaning in, passionately kissing her despite the fact they'd just both woken up.

"You two are disgusting, get ready, we leave in 3 minutes," Dustin called from the top of the stairs.

Steve groaned again, watching with a smile as Bea skipped off to the bathroom. God, he was totally in love with her.

Later on, they stepped out of the cramped car, looking out at Creel House. Bea took a deep breath as she looked at the spooky settlement that might have been Vecnas origins.

"What exactly are we supposed to be looking for in this shithole?" Steve asked as he pulled the board off of the door.

"We don't know, we just know that it's important to Vecna," Nancy explained, looking at the door, "It's locked,"

Robin grabbed a brick, "I found a key," she said before throwing it through the window, reaching through to open the door.

They walked in an instant Bea felt unsettled, and nervous about what this house would hold. They hadn't thought about what would happen if they encountered Vecna.

"It's a nice house, maybe we should buy it," Bea joked, not looking at the blush that spread over Steve's face.

"Hey guys, you all see that right?" Max said, calling them all over to look at the clock, they nodded, "This is the clock that I saw,"

"It's just a clock, right," Robin said, walking over and wiping her hand over the front, getting rid of the dust.

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

Simultaneously, Bea and Dustin looked at Steve, confused looks on their faces at his weird logic.

"We should split up," Nancy suggested. Her and Robin went upstairs and Lucas and Max left. Before Bea could follow after - not wanting to leave Max - Steve grabbed her arm.Β 

"I know you can protect yourself, I just would feel better if you're with me," he said, trying to reason with her.

She smiled, liking that he was looking our for her, "Whatever Steve," she said, linking her arm with his.

Dustin faked a gag as he looked at the two, following them up the staircase. He loved his sister and was glad that she had found someone like Steve, even if they had their petty fights.

They looked around the room upstairs, shining their flashlights on the room but nothing really stood out.

"Can you like, clarify what sort of clues we're supposed to be looking for here?" Steve asked as he looked around.

"The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes," Dustin said in a British accent before turning to Steve, "It's Sherlock Holmes,"

"That's great, really helpful," Steve said, walking over to a grate in the corner of the room whilst Bea looked up the fireplace.

He reached down into it, grabbing a glass jar and looking at the spiders in it. Then he felt one climbing up his shoulder and dropped the glass, flicking it off of him.

Bea leaped up, startled by her boyfriend's sudden movement, "What the hell, whats wrong?" She asked, grabbing his shoulders.

"There was a spider, it was a black widow," he stated before pulling her out of the room, closing the door.

She chucked and he asked her what was wrong, "You've got cobwebs in your hair Stevie," she said, leaning up on her tip toes to pull it from his hair.

"Maybe once this is all over we'll get to go on that road trip we want to take," he said, smiling at her close proximity as he placed a hand on her waist.

"Ooh, if there's a spider in your hair you won't know till all of its babies spill out," Robin said with a chuckle as her and Nancy passed them in the hallway.

"Come on Robin! Seriously, not cool," he said, groaning as she had interrupted his alone time and was making fun of his hair.

"Lets keep looking around," she said, grabbing Steves hand as he still cursed Robin, the girl laughing in the other room.

"Hey guys! You might want to take a look at this," Max called out and they followed her to the entrance again where the lights in the chandelier were flickering.

"It's like the Christmas light," Nancy muttered and Bea nodded.

"The Christmas lights?" Robin questioned.

Nancy leaned in towards Robin, "Yeah, when Will was in the upside down the lights would come to life, which means Vecnas here, but on the other side" she explained

Then the lights turned off, "He's left. Do you think he heard us?" Bea questioned, everyone thinking the same thing.

She reached down, grasping Steves hand in hers as Max put her headphones on, "Everyone turn off your flashlights, spread out,"

"We're not gonna be able to see if we turn off out flash-" Steve began but stopped when he realised everyone was ignoring him and splitting up anyway, he stopped.

Bea chuckled, keeping her hold on his hand as she dragged him away, "Turn it off Steve," she said and they walked around, hoping that their lights wouldn't turn on.

"I got him!" Robin yelled and they all ran to her and suddenly it became a path, Steve and Bea following the light through whilst the others trailed behind.

Then it turned off. Max spotted the lights on behind the door and they followed her through and uo the stairs into the attic where the lights where pulsing.

"Guys, what if he's leading us into a trap?" Dustin asked but everyone ignored him so he sighed, climbing up the stairs with the rest of them.

They all crowded around the lightbulj in the middle of the room, forming a circle around it. All of their lights turned on, as if he was all around the room.

"Okay, what's happening?" Steve asked, more of a rhetorical question that a genuine one.

They all sort of stood there, unsure of what was going on but clearly Vecna wasn't moving and he was standing where rhey were, just on the other side of things doing god knows what.

All of a sudden, all of the lights went out, cracking and breaking the glass. Everyone yelped, jumping back from the sight where the lights had just exploded.

"What the hell just happened?" Bea asked, looking around the group in confusion.

"I don't know, but whatever it was, it wasn't good,"

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