Raymond Park gets an unexpected houseguest. A fugitive, at that.
"I wanna stab Harrington in the throat even more than you do, but how about you lay off of killing under my roof, huh?"
Ray has always found Hawkins creepy. He blames it on his own ima...
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(the dive pt. iii → the massacre at hawkins lab)
｡･:*˚:✧｡ THE LAKE IS quiet, except for the paddles going through water smoothly, the concealed shudders that have too much to do with anything other than the cold.
Raymond sits between Eddie and Steve, lips pursed and arms crossed as he tries not to look over either of the guys' shoulder into the darkness of the water. He's had enough of it for a lifetime. He nods his head to the beat of Master of Puppets because Steve's music taste is ridiculous — this is the only valid song on the entire mixtape and Raymond has decided to replay it over and over again. Sometimes he doesn't even manage to start the song from the beginning, ends up playing it from the second verse, but doesn't mind it. It's better than The Supremes' You Can't Hurry Love.
Nancy is the first one to raise her hands in the air. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down! Slow down, guys."
Ray leans forward over the girl's shoulder to see what she's seeing and he can't help the confusion. The compass is acting out --- the needle is not in one place, not even pointing in the wrong direction, but spinning in circles, so fast it looks like a blur of pale red over the ivory surface and nothing else.
"Fuck," Raymond murmurs just as Steve leans over his shoulder with an amazed, "Woah." Raymond shrugs him off of himself. Nancy does the same to him.
The awkwardness is broken by the crackling of static. Dustin's voice comes through the radio. "Guys, what is it?"
"The fucking twilight zone," Raymond replies.
"What the—?Come on! Talk to me, what's going on?"
"Uh, Dustin, your compass has gone from wonky to wonky with a capital 'aah'!" Robin exclaims and Raymond feels himself smile. He can hear Eddie chuckle and turns around — it's a fucking reflex — to see his wide grin. Something in his chest squeezes, painfully tight, at how it slips off his face when their eyes meet.
Nancy's gasp forces Raymond's attention to the others and he looks up, seeing Steve attempting to stand. "Steve, what are you doing?"
"Somebody's gotta go down and check this out." He narrows his eyes at each of them. "Unless one of you four can top being a Hawkins High swim co-captain and a certified lifeguard for three years, then it's gotta be me. No complaints, all right?"
Raymond salutes and Eddie snorts. "Hey, I'm not complaining." There's a pause and Raymond sees his smile drop as his eyes soak in the darkness before them. "I do not wanna go down there. Not again."
Eddie seems to busy himself with his torch then, testing if it works. No one else has any comment on Steve's declaration, not even a concerned looking Nancy whose worry only seems to falter when Steve takes his shirt off. Her face practically explodes with all shades of red and she looks away. Raymond glances at Robin and she's already smirking.
