Wednesday, 26th March 1986

THEY WERE DRIVING IN NANCYS CAR, Robin and Nancy in the front, Max, Lucas and Dustin in the middle and Bea and Steve in the back which technically weren't seats but they needed something that accommodated the group.

"I can stand to see poor Eddie's soul get crushed again," Robin said, her head in her hands, "What do we say? Hey, we got you junk food and we found Vecna bur he's entirely shut off to us so you're screwed,"

"Maybe we don't put it like that," Lucas suggested, cutting in.

"We're one step closer to finding Vecna," Nancy suggested, "That's what we'll say, that's what's important,"

"See Robin, more positive spin makes all the difference," Steve said as he held out the pringle can to Bea who smiled, grabbing a pringle.

"Yeah, but I can't lie to Eddie, he must be scared, he has to know the truth at some point," Bea stated before eating the pringle.

"Oh shit," Nancy said as they pulled up to Reefer Rick's.

They all saw the police crowding around the area, clearly something had happened last night. There was a crowd building and they all stepped out, hiding behind

"Officer Calahan and myself came ro the scene and we found a victim, Patrick McKinney. His limbs and body was disfigured and our main suspect is Eddie Munson. We encourage anyone with information to come forward," Powell explained.

"Dustin, Bea, Wheeler? Can you hear me?" They heard Eddie's voice over the radio.

Bea grabbed the walkie talkie, "Shit. Eddie, are you okay?" She asked, the group gathering around.

"Nah, no. I'm pretty God damn far from okay. I'm at skull Rock do you know it?" He explained.

"Yeah," Bea and Steve said at the same time, looking at one another.

"Hold tight, we're coming," Dustin said and they all began running through the woods, following Steves lead.

Although the whole way there, Steve and Dustin bickered over the way there. Dustin was sure his compass was leading him the right way and Steve said he knew the path off by heart.

"You do realise Skull rock is a super popular make out spot?" Steve asked.

Dustin scrunched his face up, "I don't want to think about you and my sister making out in the woods Steve," he said.

"It's only popular because I made it popular," Steve explained.

"Stop talking about having sex with other girls but my sister. That grosses me out enough," Dustin said, faking shivers.

Steve high fived Bea when they got the skull rock, his arm wrapped around her waist, "Cant admit that you're wrong Henderson, you butthead,"

"I concur, you Dustin Henderson are a total butthead," Eddie said as he jumped down from a rock behind them.

Dustin ran up to him, pulling him in for a hug, "We thought you were a goner," he said.

Bea placed a hand on his shoulder, a warm smile on her face, "What happened?" She asked.

He explained what had happened, all about Jason and the others hunting him down and what had happened happened Patrick, how it was just like Chrissy.

"When I got the the shore I tried calling you guys but uh, my walkie was busted. So I did the thing that I do now, I ran," he said with a nervous laugh.

"What time was it? When it happened?" Bea asked, thinking back to last night.

Eddie took off his watch, throwing it at Bea as he explained that was drenched too. She read it out. 9:27.

"The same time that our flashlights when kablooey," Robin said, the group nodding their heads in agreement.

"It means that the surge of energy was Vecna attacking Patrick," Bea said before she threw the watch back to Eddie.

"Now we know where he attacks from," Max stated, "So now all we need to do us just sneak into his lair in the upside down and drive a stake through his heart,"

"A stake? Is he? Is he like a vampire?" Steve questioned.

"It was a metaphor," Max stated.

Bea smiled at the two, "We need to find a way into the upside down," she said, like it wasn't an incredibly hard thing to do.

"Hey uh, Bea, your brothers nor cursed or anything is he? Cause he's being weird back there," He said and they all turned to see Dustin pace back and forth.

"Boom!" Dustin yelled out, "I was right, skull rock was North,"

"Seriously! You totally absolutely 100% wrong. I've made our with your sister enough times here to know where it is!" Steve announced, raising his voice as the two began arguing. 

"This compass worked correctly when we left the Wheelers this morning. It was correct when we got to Curly but began to slip the further east we went and now its way off," he explained before turning to Lucas, "Do you remember what can effect a compass?"

"An electromagnetic field," lucas and Bea said at the same time, the rest of the group looking confused.

"In the presence of a stronger electrical field, the needle needle deflect towards that power so either there's some super big magnet around here or there's another gate," he explained.

"But we're nowhere near the lab," Nancy stated.

"But what if, somehow, there's another gate," Dustin suggested, "A gate we don't know about. Something is causing this disturbance and last time it was a gate,"

"Where are you going?" Steve asked when Dustin began walking away, "Eddie's still a wanted man, we can't just go for a hike in the woods,"

"This little steel capsule could save both Max and Eddie, what say you Eddie the banished?" Dustin asked and everyone turned to him.

"I say you're asking me to follow you into Mordor which I think is a really bad idea. But uh, the shire, the shire is burning," Eddie said, standing up, "So Mordor it is,"

"What is Mordor?" Steve asked, watching as the group began to walk away.

"It's from lord of the rings," Bea said before beginning to walk off, following Dustin and his compass away.

It was dark when they had made it to lovers lake. They stopped, realising that there was a gate somewhere in lovers lake.

"Whenever the Demogorgan attacked, it always left an opening, maybe its the same here," Nancy suggested.

"Yeah, only one way to find out," Eddie said as he uncovered the boat. The five got on, leaving Max, Dustin and Lucas behind.

"You stay here Dustin, keep an eye our for Max," she said.

He scoffed, "You stay here! It's my god damn theory," He said, clearly offended.

"You heard Bea, give us the compass and you protect the others," Steve said.

Dustin handed the compass to his sister before he walked off into the woods, the others beginning to row into the middle of the woods.

"Stop, stop, stop," Bea said when rhe compass began to go crazy and rhey stopped the boat.

"What's going on?" Dustin asked into the walkie talkie when he noticed that the boat had stopped.

"Uh, your compass has gone from wonky to wonky with a capital ahh," Robin said into the comms.

"Steve, what are you doing?" Bea asked when she noticed her boyfriend was taking off his socks and shoes.

"Somebody's gotta go down there and check this out. Unless any of you were co-captains of the swim team and a certified lifeguard for 3 years, then it's gotta be me," he said, lifting his shirt over his head and throwing it into the boat.

Bea's eyes went wide as she looked at her boyfriend, her cheeks going bright red as the most crude thoughts filled her head.

"Eyes are up here baby," he joked as he turned around and looked at the group, the girl going bright red.

"Uh," Lucas said on the shoreline as he looked through the binoculars at the group, "When did Steve get so hair?"

"Right," Dustin said, "I keep telling him to tame it but he says that Bea digs it," Dustin shivered at the idea, "He just walks around my house topless like that sometimes,"

"Let me see," Max said, grabbing the binoculars off of Lucas and looking at it.

"You be careful okay," she said and he nodded, winking at her before diving in.

"You two can be so disgusting," Robin said, a smile on her face as she looked at her best friend.

Around fourty seconds later his head popped back up and Bea rushed over, leaning against the side as she placed a hand over his. She was terrified that he wasn't going to make it back.

"How was it?" She asked, curious as to what the gate looked like.

"It was pretty wild, more like a snack sized gate but it was pretty damn big-" he started but he was pulled back down again.

She let out a yelp, hand covering her mouth as she looked down into the murky water, unable to see beneath.

She began hyperventilating, calling his name. Bea looked back at the others, realising what she had to do, "If I'm not back in a minute, you guys leave without me," she stated.

She pulled off her jacket before diving in, swimming down into the gate without any hesitation. She wasn't going to let anything happen to him.

When she got to the gate, she stuck he hand in before being pulled completely in, falling to the ground. She spluttered out water as she sat up and she looked around, realising she was in the upside down.

Bea had only been there once before and that was only for a short period of time. She could feel the same eerie chill as before and she had to stay calm as she looked around for Steve.

1845 words