"No, it's this way!" Dustin yelled at Steve. They were arguing about where Skull Rock was. They were both certain it was in the opposite direction from the other.
"Dude, I basically invented Skull Rock," Steve bragged. "I think I'd know where it is." The rest of the group were pretty convinced by this and began following Steve. A few minutes passed by and they arrived at Skull Rock. "Ha! Told you!"
"Wait, where's Eddie?" Veronica started frantically looking around.
"It's about damn time," Eddie jumped off of a rock to level with the group. Veronica didn't know what came over her, but the feeling of relief was so intense that she ran and embraced him in a tight hug. Eddie leaned into her ear, still in the embrace, and whispered, "Hey, I'm alright." Veronica nodded and held the hug a little bit longer.
When she pulled away Nancy began to speak. "What's with all the cop cars?" Eddie nodded slowly and leaned against a rock with a saddened look on his face.
"The jock bastards found me," he started. "I got the boat into the water but they can swim surprisingly fucking quick. It was Chrissy's boyfriend and some other dude. They were gaining on me when all of a sudden the other dude got yanked into the water. Chrissy's boyfriend was yelling for him to keep going, but he didn't come back up. That is until he shot up into the air. The exact same thing happened to him as Chrissy, man. Legs and arms broke, jaw dislocated and his eyes were sucked into the back of his fucking head. I fell back into the war and swam to shore. Been here since."
The group was silent. Nancy broke it, "What time did this happen at, Eddie?"
He held his wrist up and took off his watch, "Stopped when I fell into the water."
Nancy held the watch up to look at. "9:27." She looked at the rest of the group to confirm what she'd been thinking.
"That's when we saw the surge of electricity in the Creel house," Max spoke. "Which means Vecna was in the attic of the Creel house in the upside down when it happened."
"He doesn't even need to be there," Veronica scoffed in disbelief. "How the fuck are we going to beat this thing, guys?" Nobody had an answer to give her. Dustin was staring at his compass with furrowed brows.
"Why was my compass giving me the wrong directions?" He inquired. A look of realisation hit him. "We've seen this before! When a stronger electromagnetic pull is in the area the compass goes nuts!"
Robin raised a brow, "Sorry, I must have missed this class."
"There's a gate nearby."
≈≈≈
They had concluded that a gate opened up at each murder scene. This meant that they started heading back to Lovers' Lake. Dustin's theory looked solid when the compass started going nuts by the lake.
"So, are we taking the boat out?" Robin asked. Steve nodded and fetched the boat. Nancy climbed in, followed by Steve and Robin. Eddie gestured for Veronica to get on.
"You first," he smiled. She used his hand as an anchor to get on the boat and kept holding onto it so that he could get in steadily too. Dustin began to climb in when Nancy interrupted.
"Absolutely not, you three keep watch," she said sternly. The three of them groaned.
"That's not fair!" Dustin whined. "It's my theory!" He looked at Robin and Veronica for some back up. Veronica shrugged and Robin told him that Nancy's in charge, much to his dismay.
The five rowed out to the middle to where Eddie said the murder happened. Steve began taking off his shoes and socks.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Nancy asked.
He took off his shirt and said, "If you know anyone else on this boat who was a co-captain on the swim team do tell." Veronica looked back at shore and saw Max intently staring at Steve with the binoculars and laughed to herself. Eddie looked puzzled and Veronica pointed to show him what she was laughing at.
"Alright, here goes nothing!" Steve dove into the water. The group was silent for a bit, but Nancy was very on edge. Her leg was bouncing up and down and she couldn't keep her hands still.
"He's taking too long," she said, worried. "What's taking so long?" Robin placed a hand on her shoulder hoping to calm her down. Veronica was sat next to Eddie. The boat was small and they were very close together. Their legs were basically on top of each other's. He looked beautiful in the moonlight. Veronica knew she was staring but she just couldn't seem to take her eyes off of him. She thought back to the days at Rick's place and the cute snarky remarks and how she always seemed to instinctively smile when he did. How he always made sure she ate before he did, shared his cigarettes, and how he fell asleep in her arms. A feeling was growing in her chest that was becoming overwhelming.
Eddie looked equally as anxious as Nancy. He placed a hand on Veronica's knee for comfort and said, "Can someone please say something to cheer me up?"
Veronica leaned into his ear, and whispered gently, "When this is over I'm going to jump your bones."
Eddie's face went red.
