The group had left Eddie in the boathouse to get him some food, returning the next morning only to scare the absolute crap out of him.

He was standing near the window, holding the same glass shard to protect himself before he realized that it was only them. "Delivery service," Dustin smiled, holding up some bags.

Eddie let out a breath, dropping his hand that was wrapped around the broken glass. "We didn't scare you, did we?" Chris asked, noticing the boy's tense frame.

"Oh, no, definitely not. Definitely didn't just shit my pants," he replied sarcastically and Carmen let out a laugh before she grabbed the bags from Dustin's hands, walking over to give them to Eddie. He took them hesitantly from her, slowly looking inside.

"They're not poisoned, if that's what you're thinking," she spoke up, raising her eyebrows.

"No, no, it's not that. It's just..." he trailed off, shaking his head. "Thank you," he finally said, nodding.

Carmen gave him a genuine smile, "You're welcome." Chris watched the two, resisting to urge to slam his head against the wall. Beverly, however, arched a brow at the interaction, glancing over at Alicia, who was wearing the same expression. They always knew when Carmen was eyeing a guy up.

Eddie sat down and began to basically rip open the bags, realizing how hungry he truly was. He opened up the cereal and began chomping on it, opening up a drink as well and downing it.

"So we got, uh, some good news and some bad news. How do you prefer it?" Dustin said after a moment.

"Bad news first, always," Eddie replied with his mouth full, making Alicia resist the urge to roll her eyes since she hated when people did that.

"All right. Bad news. We tapped into the Hawkins PD dispatch with our Cerebro, and they're definitely looking for you. Also, they're, uh, pretty convinced you killed Chrissy," Dustin told him and Eddie's face fell.

"Like, 100% kind of convinced," Max said slowly, her arms crossed.

"And the good news?" Eddie asked.

"Your name hasn't gone public yet, fortunately," Beverly said, shrugging a bit since even though it was good news, it was small compared to the bad news.

"But if we found out about you, it's only a matter of time before others do, too. And once that gets out, everyone and their shallow-minded mother is gonna be gunning for you," Robin explained.

"Hunt the freak, right?" Eddie voiced, glancing up at Robin.

"Exactly," she said, looking down.

"Shit," Eddie breathed out.

"So, before that happens, we need to find Vecna, kill him, and prove your innocence," Dustin listed quickly.

"That's all, Dustin? That's all?" Eddie said sardonically, giving the younger boy a look.

"Yeah, no, that's pretty much it," Dustin confirmed and Eddie looked away, his jaw clenching.

"Listen, Eddie, I know everything Dustin is saying sounds totally delusional, but we've actually been through this kind of thing before. I mean, they have a-a few times, and — and I have once," Robin continued.

"Yeah, me too," Carmen said, raising her hand a bit.

Robin nodded. "Ours was more human-flesh-based, and theirs was more smoke-related, but bottom line is, collectively, I really feel like we got this."

"Yeah, see, we usually rely on this girl who has super powers," Steve began.

"Her name's Eleven," Chris added and Steve nodded, making Eddie's brows furrow even more than they already were as he listened.

"But, uh, those went bye-bye, so, uh..." Steve trailed off.

"So, we're technically in — in — in more of the..."

"Kinda..."

"Brainstorming phase," Max came up with.

"Brainstorming," Steve snapped his fingers at the redhead.

"There — There's nothing to worry about," Dustin spluttered and Steve forced a laugh, nodding in agreement.

Then, they all began to hear sirens getting near them. All of their eyes widened and Robin quickly pointed at the tarp and said, "Tarp. Tarp!"

Chris quickly reached over and pulled the tarp over Eddie's body, standing near the covered boat while the others investigated near the windows to see where the police cars were going.

They watched as they passed, along with an ambulance. They released their breaths in relief, looking back over at Chris with a hidden Eddie. "They're gone," Alicia told them.

Chris furrowed his brows before he lifted the tarp, revealing Eddie. "They're gone?" Eddie repeated in confusion.

"I guess," Chris said, not knowing why.

"Maybe something else Vecna-related happened," Beverly spoke, her eyes darkening a bit.

"No, don't say that," Steve told her, grabbing her hand. "I'm sure everything is fine," he assured her, although he wasn't sure if he believed it himself. He just wanted to comfort his girlfriend, who seemed to be the most spooked by everything, apart from Eddie.

"Well, we won't know unless we follow them, right?" Alice pointed out, tilting her head. "Maybe they'll lead us somewhere with more evidence."

Robin pointed at her, nodding. "Yeah, she's right. If something did happen, which I hope didn't, maybe we can gather some more information that'll help us take this Vecna down." Robin looked over at Alicia. "Nice thinking," she complimented and Alicia smiled, hoping that the Buckley girl wouldn't see the blush making its way up to her cheeks. Her eyes than traveled over to Carmen, who was smirking, and Alicia quickly gave her a look to stop.

"Wait, so you guys are just gonna leave again?" Eddie questioned once the majority of them started to head towards the door. "I mean, what about me? What if someone finds me?"

"Yeah, you have a point," Dustin slowly said before he rushed over to his backpack that he had almost forgotten on the other side of the room, making everyone give him a weird look before he came back. "Here." Dustin handed Eddie a walkie talkie, which made his eyebrows raise. "If there's a problem, contact us using this."

Eddie hummed, looking down at the walkie talkie in disbelief before he placed it down on the table. "Shouldn't someone stay here with him, too? You know, to keep a lookout and to drive anyone away," Carmen brought up, shrugging nonchalantly.

Chris immediately nodded. "Yes, that's — that's a great idea, Carmen!" he exclaimed, making everyone give him a look since the two usually weren't ever that nice to each other. "I can do it."

"Uh, I was actually thinking I could stay," Carmen told him, placing her hands on her hips. "You know, since most of you are way more experienced at this shit than I am. And I'm, like, the best sweet talker here, so I could easily make someone go away."

Chris swallowed hard, fighting the urge to snap. "Yeah, but Eddie and I are friends, so he'd feel a little more comfortable with me. Isn't that right, Eddie?" Chris looked over at Eddie, awaiting his answer. Robin bit the inside of her cheek, narrowing her eyes slightly at the Wheeler boy suspiciously.

Eddie clicked his tongue, shoving his hands in his back pockets and shrugging. "Well, I don't think it, uh, really matters honestly," Eddie replied awkwardly, causing Carmen to shove down a laugh at the way Chris's eye twitched at that answer. Although, she didn't really know why he seemed so irked; maybe it was just because he hated her and didn't want her to achieve her goals of potentially hooking up with Eddie Munson.

"Yeah, and Carmen's right anyway," Max spoke up. "You are more experienced than she is, and you're friends with Eddie, so that might make people suspicious if they see you here. If you're with us, at least, it might be a little less suspicious since some of us aren't technically friends with Eddie. Sorry, Eddie."

"Not offended," Eddie said, pulling his hands out of his pockets and holding them up.

"Yeah, and I've seen Carmen work her magic. She can get anyone to do anything," Beverly vouched for her friend and Alicia nodded, thinking back to Dylan last summer.

"But — but I-I..." Chris stammered, struggling to come up with an argument.

"It's okay, Chris," Carmen began, walking up to him and slinging her arm around his shoulders tauntingly, although she had to reach up pretty high since he was tall. "I'll protect your BFF, don't worry," she teased and Chris shrugged her arm off of him, grimacing at the girl's touch. She laughed before she looked at the group. "I think you guys should head on out now, though, so you don't waste any time."

"Yeah, come on guys," Steve urged and they all followed him out door, leaving the Flores girl and the Munson boy in the boathouse.

✦ ✧ ✦

"So, you're saying that this thing that killed Fred and Chrissy, it's from the Upside Down?" Nancy asked once the group finished explaining their suspicion to her.

When they had followed the sirens to the trailer park, they had seen Nancy being questioned by the police, so once that was done, they immediately met up with her and found a table to sit at. Her journalist friend had been the one who had died and from the way she described, the clear suspect seemed to be Vecna.

"If the shoe fits," Steve said with a slight shrug.

"Our working theory is that he attacks with a spell or a...curse. Now, whether or not he's doing the bidding of the Mind Flayer, or just loves killing teens, we don't know," Dustin told her.

"All we know is this is something different. Something new," Max spoke.

Nancy shook her head. "It doesn't make sense."

"It's only a theory," Dustin told her and Chris nodded.

"No, Fred and Chrissy don't make sense. I mean, why them?" Nancy asked, knitting her brows together.

"Maybe they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But they were both at the game together," Alicia guessed.

"And near the trailer park," Max added.

"We're at the trailer park," Steve pointed out slowly and Beverly's stomach dropped. "Uhhh, should we maybe not be here?"

"There is something about this place. Fred started acting weird the second we got here," Nancy revealed.

"Acting weird as in...?" Robin trailed off.

"Scared, on edge, upset," Nancy listed.

"Max said Chrissy was upset, too," Dustin said.

"Yeah, but not here. She was crying in the bathroom at school," Max said.

"Serial killers stalk their prey before they strike, right? So, maybe Fred and Chrissy saw this Vecman—"

"Vecna," Dustin and Chris quickly corrected Robin. Robin softly nudged Chris, playfully rolling her eyes at him which made him smile a bit. Nancy noticed the interaction, furrowing her brows a bit.

"Dunno about you guys, but if I saw some freaky wizard monster, I would mention it to someone," Steve voiced.

"Maybe they did. I saw Chrissy leaving Ms. Kelley's office," Max told them.

"The counselor?" Beverly asked and Max nodded, making the Crawford girl think back to her occasional counselor meetings when she was back in high school. It mostly consisted of the girl letting off of steam about things her mother did, but she did attend them nonetheless.

"If you saw a monster, you — you wouldn't go to the police. They'd never believe you. But you might go to your—"

"Your shrink," Robin interjected and Max nodded.

The group then got up from their seats, making their way over to the cars so they could get out of the eerie place and do some more investigating. "Whoa, whoa Nance. Nancy! Nancy, where are you going?" Chris called out once he saw his sister veering off to go to her own car. "Where you going?

"Um...there's just something I wanna check on first," she said as she pointed at her car.

"Something you maybe wanna share with the rest of us?" Dustin queried.

"I don't wanna waste your time. It's a real shot in the dark," Nancy replied.

"Yeah, okay. Are you out of your mind? Flying solo with Vecna on the loose? No, it's too dangerous. You need someone to be with you," Chris said to his sister. "Here," he tossed his keys to Robin, "I'll go with Nance. You take my car while Steve takes his, and check out the shrink."

"I don't think you want me driving your car," Robin told him.

"Why?"

"I don't have a license," Robin revealed.

"Why don't you have a license?" he asked.

"I'm poor," she shrugged.

"I can drive," Max spoke up.

"No, no! Never again. Please, anybody but you. No," Steve immediately said after the redhead said that, not wanting to relive what happened last time. Dustin slowly started to shrug. "Yeah, no chance, buddy."

"Come on," Dustin pleaded.

"No. How about Alicia?" Steve suggested since he wanted to stick with Beverly.

"Have you forgotten that I cannot drive either?" she said to him, raising her eyebrows.

"Shit," Steve breathed out.

"Why the hell can't anyone drive?" Chris complained.

"All right, okay. This is stupid," Robin quickly said before she grabbed the other walkie talkie from Dustin's backpack. "Us ladies will stick together," she handed the keys back to Chris and nodded for Alicia and Beverly to follow her, "and you boys, apart from Max, will stick together. Unless, you men think we need you to protect us."

"Actually, I'd rather stay back with everyone. Can't be leaving the men in charge, can we?" Beverly voiced, although that wasn't the real reason why. She just felt safe being with Steve and didn't want to be separated with him just in case something happened. It wasn't like she needed a man to protect her but...this whole thing had messed up her whole entire headspace and she needed someone who was going to help balance that out. And person was Steve.

"Alright, yeah, you got a point," the Buckley girl agreed, and Chris and Steve both scoffed. "Okay, just Nancy and Alli then. Come on," she said to the girls while the Sinclair girl practically folded at the nickname even though she was used to being called that by everyone else.

"Be careful!" Chris shouted after them, slightly pissed off. First, he didn't get his choice with staying with Eddie and now, his sister was off with two girls that couldn't even drive. Great.

"Are you just gonna stand there and gawk?" Dustin teased Chris since the younger boy still thought he had a crush on Robin, not knowing what had actually happened back in the mall bathroom last summer.

"Shut up, would you?" Chris said to Dustin, sighing in annoyance. "Just get in the car with me while the others can go in Steve's car, 'kay?"

"Fine, fine," Dustin held his hands up, sharing an amused glance with Max.

Chris hopped in his car and Dustin got into the passenger seat while Steve, Beverly, and Max got into Steve's car.

"Why are we always the babysitters?" Steve asked Beverly, looking over at her in the passenger's seat.

She sighed, "Beats me."

authors note
honestly writing chris's
jealousy scenes r so funny
to write for some reason. like
he can be annoying but he's like
funny at the same time, you know?
anyway, i hope you enjoyed this chapter!