Nightmares - Lucas Sinclair

The Dive (Part 1)

"What does that mean?" Dustin broke the silence that hung over the group. "You heard someone get killed?"

"I...I don't..." Nikki tried to respond with the sounds of bones cracking and her own heartbeat overshadowing her thoughts. Tears pricked her eyes as the screaming played on repeat in her head. "I can't," her voice broke.

"Nikki, hey," she felt Lucas lightly grab her arm and sit her down on the floor. "Nik, I need you to take a deep breath for me."

"They were chasing someone," Nikki before taking a deep breath. "I heard voices yelling towards another person."

"Were one of those people Patrick?" Lucas asked softly, earning a nod from the girl as she took another breath. "Do you know who they were going after?"

"A guy," Nikki said quietly. "They didn't say his name though."

"Isn't it obvious who they were after?" Nancy spoke up, getting everyone to nod at her.

"Eddie."

***

"Not to be a wimp, but can I sit in the car?" Robin asked from the passenger seat of Nancy's car. "'Cause this is gonna totally and royally suck."

"It'll be fine," Nancy shrugged as she rounded a corner.

"I just can't stand to see those dull eyes of Eddie's break again. I really, really can't."

"At least he can drink himself into feeling better," Steve said through a mouthful of food in the backseat.

"That's what my mom does," Max muttered, getting Nikki to grab her hand and squeeze it lightly.

"Why don't we give it a trial," Robin sat up straighter as she practiced what she was going to say to Eddie. "'Hey, Eddie. Uh, good news first this time. We got you some Dustin-approved junk food and that six-pack you requested. Oh yeah, and we found Vecna. Bad news is that he's in that other, darker, much scarier dimension that we told you about and the gate's closed, so we have no way of getting to him. He's entirely shut off to us, so basically you're screwed. And, no, I know you were already screwed, but now you're doubly, triply screwed.'"

"Can we not do it like that?" Nikki cut her off before she had the chance to continue.

"Yeah, maybe we don't put it like that," Lucas agreed.

"We're one step closer to finding Vecna," Nancy stated. "That's what we say. That's what's important."

"See, Robin?" Steve said, eating another chip. "Positive spin can make all the difference."

"Are you eating all his food?" Nikki asked, watching as both he and Dustin slowed their chewing.

"No."

"Nuh-uh." Both of the boys responded quickly before Dustin shoved the pringles can towards the girl. "Want one?"

Nikki felt herself grow sick just looking at the food. "No, thanks."

"Oh, shit," Nancy gained everyone's attention as she slowed the car down to a stop behind a crowd of people. The group got out off the car, walking quickly to hide behind a news van to see what the cops were saying to the newscasters.

"...reporting a homicide here on the lake," the sheriff said causing Nikki and Lucas to glance at each other. "Officer Callahan here and myself arrived first on the scene. We made our way to the shore of Lover's Lake, about ten yards from that house you see behind me. It was there that we found the victim, an 18-year-old senior from Hawkins High, Patrick McKinney. His limbs, his body, it was disfigured. There was an eyewitness on the scene, which we brought in for questioning. We also identified a person of interest. Eddie Munson. We encourage anyone with information to please come forward."

"Oh, man," Steve muttered, getting the group's attention to land on him. "This is not good. Really not good."

"You've got a lot of questions, and I'm going to answer as many as I can. Two o'clock at town hall, where anyone from the Hawkins community is welcome. But right now, I've got work to do, and I appreciate your understanding."

As the crowd began to ask questions, Nikki turned to look at her friends. "Can we go find Eddie now?"

Before the group had time to answer, static from Dustin's radio caught their attention. Dustin, can you hear me? Wheeler?

Dustin grabbed the radio while the group started to walk away from the crowd. "Eddie. Holy shit. Are you okay?"

Nah, man. Pretty goddamn far from okay.

"Where is he?" Robin asked.

"Where are you?" Dustin repeated into the radio.

Skull Rock. Do you know it?

"Uh, yeah. That's near Cornwallis and-"

"Garrett," Steve finished. "I know where that is."

"Hold tight. We're coming."

***

"Dude, I'm telling you, you're taking us the wrong way," Steve complained for the tenth time as he and Dustin led the way to Skull Rock.

"It's north. I'm positive. I checked the map," Dustin responded looking down at his compass.

"You do realize Skull Rock, it's a super popular make-out spot?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Yeah, well, it wasn't popular until I made it popular," Steve said, making Nikki's eyebrows raise. "All really? I practically invented it."

"You realized your not God, right?" Nikki asked, getting Lucas to laugh and Steve to glare at her.

"We're heading in the wrong direction," Steve signed, splitting away from the direction the group was going.

"Steve," Dustin called after him. "Where are you going? Steve!"

"Stop whining," Steve yelled over his shoulder. "Let's go, trust me."

The group followed Steve as Max spoke up for the first time in a while. "We're going this way now? I swear to God, if they get us lost..."

"We'll be fine, I think," Nikki assured the girl, before turning to Lucas who was quiet through the whole trip. She grabbed his hand, lacing her fingers through his. "Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah," Lucas replied , staring at the ground in front of him. "Just thinking about Patrick. You know?"

"Yeah," Nikki nodded, rubbing her other hand on his arm, hoping to comfort him a little. "I know."

"I mean, it's like, why him? But then, I remember this one day, he came to practice with a black eye. He said he fell, but clearly he was lying," the couple slowed down as Lucas continued to think out loud. "It's like everyone Vecna targets has something in their life. Something that's-"

"Hurting them," Nikki nodded looking back at Max who was now walking with Nancy and Robin. "Haunting them."

"Yeah," Lucas sighed, looking back at Max as well before turning back to Nikki. "I didn't really know Patrick, so it was easy to just look the other way, I guess. But I did know Max. And she was there for me when I was at my lowest with grieving for you. But I wasn't there for her when she was at her lowest, and I didn't even notice when that happened."

Nikki stopped and turned to Lucas with a soft smile on her face. "You know, you shouldn't be saying this to me. Don't get me wrong, I am more than willing to talk to you about this. But you need to talk to Max first. Let here know that you are here for her, even if you weren't back then."

"You sure?" Lucas asked.

Nikki nodded and kissed him on the cheek. "Go talk, I'll go start up some fights between Dustin and Steve."

Lucas laughed before placing a light kiss on her hand and headed toward the redhead as Nikki made a mental note to herself to thank Max later for being there for Lucas when she couldn't be.

Add that to the list of a million things to do.

Authors note

Oh my god, that took way to long to get this chapter out. Sorry about that. Hopefully the next chapter won't take months to update. We'll see!

Love ya!!❤️❤️❤️