𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞 // 𝐞𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐞 𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

15

We quickly realized that the only thing that could help us now was the little silver object that Dustin hold in the palm of his hand. It was the key to saving max, and the key to saving Eddie.

"What say you, Eddie the Banished?" Dustin asked twirling the compass in his fingers. Eddie looks down trying to decide which route would be best.
"I say you're asking me to follow you into Mordor," he stands up off the rock and begins to pace, "which, if I'm totally straight with you, I think is a really bad idea."
I watched as the older kids looked in between each other.
"But, uh, the Shire...the Shire is burning." He continued, "So Mordor it is."
"What is Mordor?" Robin leaned in to whisper to Steve. Steve just turned around and gave her an annoyed glance and she backed away.

✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down." Robin shouted at Nancy, Steve, and Dustin, who were practically running through the woods. Me, Eddie, Max, and Robin were following further behind. "Slow down, guys." She shouted again.

They walk through a clearing of trees and we couldn't hear their footsteps. Dustin looks down in awe. He stops walking and takes the time to watch the compass's activity. "Wait, wait, wait. They're stopping." Robin mutters to me. "What are they stopping for?" We walk up through the clearing of the trees to be right at the edge of Lovers lake.

"Guys, what's going on?" Robin says waiting on a response.
"Come on, talk to me." Once again there is no response from either of them. She huffs and walks up behind them and peers over their shoulder.
"Uh, Dustin, your compass has gone from wonky to wonky with a capital aah!"

"There has to be a gate in lovers lake.." Dustin says, then looking out to the wide expansion of water in front of him. I watched as everybody began to connect the dots.
"...where Patrick died." I said looking at Eddie, who looks down at me.
"We have to go check it out." Nancy said turning around to look at us, "Eddie, where is that boat?"

✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧

We finally found the boat after walking along the edge of the water for what felt like forever. The boat was small but big enough to carry just a few people safely. We look in between each other and before anyone can argue, Nancy speaks up.
"Okay Steve, Robin, y/n... let's go." She grabs the edge of the boat and carefully pushes it back into the water.
"Um, not fair." Dustin says, holding his compass out. Showing that he was the one who found it. "I should be going." He folded his arms.
"There's no way in hell I would let you step a foot on that boat, Henderson." Eddie said giving him a stern glare and Dustin quickly backed down.

Steve and Eddie both walk up to the edge of the water. Eddie steadies the boat and Steve and Eddie takes Nancy's hands and helps her into the boat. Robin walks up and they do the same for her. I follow right behind them and Eddie and Steve take my hands. I watched as Eddie admired my hand in his and I started to blush.

I quickly took my seat in the floor between Nancy and Robin and I watched as Eddie steadied the boat for Steve to get on. After Steve was on, we all quickly turned to look at the people on shore. Max gave me a hopeful wave and I smiled back at her.
"So, why am I not going?" Eddie said squatting down to the front of the boat, getting ready to push us out into the lake.

"Um, there might not be enough room." Steve said looking around the boat.
Edddie turns away from the boat. "Oh okay." He mutters before pushing the boat amd jumping into the only available spot. It began to rock back and forth really hard and float into the middle of the lake.

"Come on Eddie!" Steve said angered by the aggressive rocking.
"Sorry guys, I wasn't gonna let y'all go without me." Eddie said sitting down in the back of the boat. Nancy rolled her eyes.
"Okay, let's just go check this thing out." She said handing Steve an oar.

We get to the middle of the water, and I watch as everybody leans over the edge to check it out. We couldn't see anything from the surface. Before anyone could speak steve began to pull at his shirt. "Steve, what are you doing?" Robin asks looking at him grossed out.
"Somebody's gotta go down and check this out." He shrugged and threw his shirt at eddie landing it over his face. "Unless one of you three can top being a Hawkins High swim co-captain." Everyone let out a groan and Steve gave us a disappointed look.
"and a certified lifeguard for three years, then... It's gotta be me. No complaints, all right?" He looks back at us to make sure nobody objects.
"Hey, I'm not complaining." Eddie says raising his hands, "I do not wanna go down there."
Steve begins to ready himself to go into the water when Nancy stops him.
"Steve?" He turns to look at her and she gives him a soft smile, "Be careful."
Steve gives her a reassuring nod then turns around and dives into the water.

We sit there for a second beginning to look at each other. We were all anxious for Steve to come back to the surface.
30 seconds. 40 seconds. 50 seconds.
I watched as worried looks broke out on everybody's faces.

"Where we at, Wheeler?" Robin asks looking at her worried.
"Closing in on a minute." She announces looking at her watch.
"Come on, Steve. Come on." Robin starts to clap her hands to herself.
Eddie goes to look over the edge when the water bubbles up and Steve breaks the surface. "Oh Christ!" Eddie says stumbling back into his seat.
Between ragged breaths Steve mutters out, "I found it."

"You found it?" Robin says excited.
"I found it. Yeah. I found it." He repeats still breathing heavily.
"Dustin, you are a goddamn Einstein." Eddie takes the walkie and tells Dustin at the shore.
"It's more a snack-size gate than the mama gate, but still, it's pretty damn bi-"
Steve's body is suddenly ripped under the water and I watched as everyone's eyes went wide. "Steve!" Everyone yelled at the same time.
"God damn it! Shit!" Eddie says standing up and looking back into the water.
We are all freaking out when I watch Nancy start taking off her jacket.
"Wait, wait, wait." Eddie taps on her making her turn.
"You're not going in there, are you?" He questions.
"Just wait here." Before anyone could stop her she dives off the boat and began to swim deeper into the water.

"No, Nancy!" Eddie puts his hands on his head. "Goddamn it!"
Me and Eddie look at each other in confusion and we begin to hear Robin scrambling around, we turn to see her taking her jacket off too.
"No. no, no, no, no, no." Eddie stomps his foot, "What are you doing? She said wait."

"Yeah, I heard her." She says looking at Eddie like he's crazy. I look at Eddie and he looks back at me, just as Robin begins to ready herself to jump in after them.
"Don't you go. Don't you..." before he can finish what he's saying we watch as Robin disappears under the water.

"Goddamn it." Eddie throws his hands up, "Son of a bitch!" I begin to take off my own jacket when he looks back at me. "Not you too.." he says looking worried.
"Eddie.." I say to him, beginning to mentally prepare myself to go after the three.
"Oh, this is so stupid." Eddie said holding his forehead. "This is so stupid."

I watch as he begins to take off his own jacket, "This is so stupid. Shit! Shit! Shit!" He says walking towards the edge of the boat. He takes my hand in his and looks at me.
"You ready?" he says looking over at me.
"Ready as I'll ever be." I said smiling at him and we stepped off the edge of the boat, into the water below us.