𝐒𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐒 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐓, e.m.

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CHAPTER SIX | SKULL ROCK
Briar sat against Skull Rock, Eddie's head resting in her lap, her hand in his hair while the other was intertwined with his. The two looked at each other, talking and trying to get their minds off of what they had just seen.

"What's your favorite song?" Eddie had to think for a minute, shrugging his shoulders.

"Anything by Metallica or Zepplin. Anything with a good guitar riff. What's yours?"

"Smells like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. Always has been my favorite, always will. Although, I really like that new song, Master of Puppets." Eddie chuckled, making Briar look down at him, her brows furrowed in confusion.

"Didn't think you'd be into Nirvana, or even Metallica." Briar asked why he assumed she wouldn't be, only to get a shrug in response.

"There are a lot of things you don't know." The Munson boy asked her, like what, as he looked into her brown eyes. "I play the drums. I love daffodils. I hate roses. I love scary movies and the color green. And what else, oh, I actually don't like shopping, I just say I do to make my mom happy because she likes to." Eddie sat up, keeping his hand intertwined with the girls as he looked at her, asking why she didn't like roses. "They're just cliche."

..........

"You, Dustin Henderson, are a total butthead." Dustin and Steve snapped their heads to see Eddie and Briar, standing side by side with smirks on their faces.

"Eddie, we thought you guys were goners." While Dustin walked up to Eddie, hugging him, Steve walked up to Briar, pulling her into his embrace.

"Don't scare me like that again, you asshole."

"No promises, Harrington." The two pulled apart, as Lucas ran up to his older sister, pulling her into his embrace, making her laugh.

"Hey, kiddo." The two began walking over to Dustin and Eddie, the girl walking over to stand by the Munson boy as Nancy, Robin, Steve, and Max walked over. The three girls could see how close Briar and Eddie were as they smirked at the Sinclair girl. Robin pulled the girl over, away from the boy, smiling.

"Tell us everything."

...........

"When we got to shore, I tried to call you guys, and then Bowie tried, but, uh, the walkie was busted, man." The six watched as Eddie took sip after sip of water from the canteen, trying to tell them what had happened. "Drenched, so, uh, I did the thing that I do now, apparently. I ran." Briar gave him a reassuring smile as Nancy began to speak.

"Do you know what time this was? The attack?" Briar and Eddie looked at each other, before Eddie's eyes widened, remembering that he had his watch on and it stopped working when the two fell into the water.

"Yeah, no. I know exactly what time it was. My walkie wasn't the only thing that got soaked." The other six watched as Eddie tossed his watch to Nancy, who checked it to see the time, nine twenty seven.

"The same time our flashlights went kablooey." Steve questioned the girls, asking what it meant exactly.

"That that surge of energy was Vecna attacking Patrick." Briar was barely listening to the group anymore, keeping her eyes in the Henderson boy as he walked around.

"Well, we're one step closer. We know how Vecna attacks."

"And where he attacks from." Briar nodded in agreement, before speaking up with a suggestion.

"We just need to sneak into his lair in the Upside Down and drive a stake through his heart." Eddie and Dustin both pointed to the girl in agreement, nodding their heads, while Steve looked at her in confusion.

"A stake? Is he like a vamp- is he a vampire?" Briar chuckled, telling the boy it was a metaphor as Eddie spoke up.

"A bullet should work on him, right?"

"I say we chop his head off." Briar quickly nodded her head in agreement with her younger brother.

"Yeah, I'd say all of the above, but we can't do any of that until we find a way into the upside down." Briars attention had been caught by Dustin again, the Sinclair girl watching as he walked around.

"Dustin, you good, kid? You aren't gonna float into the air? Your bones don't feel like snapping, right?" Instead of giving the girl a real answer, Dustin just suddenly turned around, shouting.

"Boom!" The other six quickly turned their heads to the boy. "Bada bada boom. I was right. Skull Rock was north."

"Seriously? You're serious?" The group watched as Dustin nodded his head. "This is Skull Rock. Okay? You're totally, absolutely, one hunter percent wrong. Right now."

"Yes. And no. This compass worked correctly when we left the Wheelers. It was correct when we got in the car on Curly, but it started to slip the further east we went. Now, it's way off. When I was leading us here, I wasn't wrong. The compass was."

"So you're using faulty equipment." Before Steve could finish, Briar finished his point for him.

"You're still wrong."

"Except, it isn't faulty. Lucas, do you remember what can affect a compass?" Lucas nodded his head, telling the Henderson boy it was an electromagnetic field. Everyone but Dustin and Lucas looked at each other in confusion, Eddie looking at Briar as she shrugged her shoulders. "In the presence of a stronger electromagnetic field, the needle will deflect towards that power. So either, there's some super big magnet around here, or-" Briar had finally pieces it all together, so she stood up straighter, cutting the boy off.

"There's a gate."

"Bingo."

APOLLO SPEAKS
Not much happens this chapter.
just a tiny bodie moment

and just pretend Smells Like Teen Spirit
came out earlier than 1991. I forgot to
add an A/N when writing the chapter
about it