WILDFIRE ↝ E. MUNSON

[14]

"You're sure you'll be okay here without me?" Lily asked Max hesitantly as she leaned back against Steve's car.

Max nodded, gesturing to the headphones that rested around her neck. "I'll have Kate Bush with me at all times, and everyone's taking shifts to watch me. You have a job to do, don't worry about me, okay?"

"I always worry about you," she said, pulling Max into a hug, which her sister returned as she looked over at Nancy. "You guys will call me on the walkie if anything happens, right?"

"Promise," Nancy agreed, and Lily nodded, finally letting Max loose from the hug as she got into the passenger seat of Steve's car, where he already waited with Debbie and Sarah in the backseat.

Lily leaned back in her seat as they left the Wheeler house, following the road to Lover's Lake that she'd grown accustomed to over the past few days. They had yet to hear anything from Eddie and Nick since the others had come to pick her up from the boathouse the night before, and while Lily had always considered no news to be good news, she could only hope that they were okay.

"So what was he like?" Lily finally asked, breaking the silence that had befallen the car as she turned to look back at Debbie and Sarah. "Victor Creel?"

"Terrifying," Sarah said simply as she stared out the window.

"It's horrible what happened to him." Debbie said. "Vecna got his entire family, and he would've been killed too if it hadn't been for the music playing. He was sent straight to Pennhurst."

"He took his own eyes out." Sarah explained. "Said he was trying to join his family, but the doctors there patched him up. I'm going to see that in my nightmares tonight, I swear."

"Speaking of nightmares," Debbie said softly, her eyes moving back to Lily. "You haven't had any signs of the curse, have you? I mean, you and Max have been through the same kinda things, I don't think it's a stretch to say that you should be careful too."

Lily shook her head. "No, Dustin made sure of that this morning. The nightmares have been happening for a while, but aside from that, nothing new."

"Well, if you're a similar target to Max, then we can't rule it out." Steve pointed out. "We don't know how this asshole picks his victims, but our next plan should be to make sure you've got eyes on you at all times, too, in case something goes south."

"I'll be fine," Lily insisted. "I'll be with Eddie. If anything new starts happening, I'll be sure to call you guys right away."

As Reefer Rick's house finally came into view, pitch dark except for the streetlamp that illuminated the road, Steve pulled into the gravel driveway, bringing the car to a halt. The boathouse sat quietly on the edge of the water, and Lily got out of the car, following the others down the hill with her flashlight held tightly in her hand. She pushed open the door with a creak, though where she expected to see Eddie and Nick only sat the boats, still filled with life jackets as they had been the night before.

"Guys?" Lily called out, but was only met with silence in return. "It's us, you can come out." she continued, moving the flashlight beam around, but the room was empty.

"I don't think they're here," Steve said, moving his own flashlight around in an attempt to find them.

"Yeah, no shit, Sherlock." Sarah scoffed, stepping further into the boathouse.

"But if they aren't here, where are they?" Debbie asked. "You guys don't think Jason and the others found them, do you?"

An uneasy silence settled between them as Lily surveyed the scene in front of them. The boathouse looked untouched, except for a few extra food wrappers she assumed Nick had brought for Eddie last night when the two girls had swapped places. If Jason, Patrick, and the others had taken Eddie, there were no obvious signs of a struggle, which didn't seem like Eddie or Nick.