𝐈'𝐋𝐋 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐄 | ᴍᴀx ᴍᴀʏꜰɪᴇʟᴅ x ᴏᴄ

ǝǝɹɥʇ-ʎʇɹoɟ

꧁꧂

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ꜰᴏʀᴛʏ-ᴛʜʀᴇᴇ: ʙʀᴇᴀᴋ ᴍᴇ ᴅᴏᴡɴ

Rushing after Dustin, I called his name, slightly confused on why the boy had chosen now, when it was dark out in the middle of the woods, to run with Eddie.

"DUSTIN, FOR THE LOVE OF WHATEVER GOD THERE IS," I begin. "SLOW DOWN?!" Max didn't let me stop for a breath, though, still tugging me along the 'pathway' that the boy had made for us to follow.

The trek continued before we all found ourselves stopping suddenly. At the side of the lake, with Eddie holding onto Dustin's bag to stop him from falling into it. "Watch your step, big guy." We hear him say.

"Okay, who's swimming?" I ask as we all watched out across the lake.

"Oh, man..." I hear Steve from behind. "You've gotta be shitting me."

"Yeah..." Eddie says. "I thought these woods were familiar."

"Lover's Lake." Robin says, then feeling her nudge me. Oh, if it wasn't for the fact she was closeted-

"This is confounding." Dustin says, now using the big words I hardly understood. Sometimes it was as though you'd need a dictionary on standby to work with him on a school project...

"There's a gate in Lover's Lake?" Max asks after a moment of reflection for the group.

"Whenever the Demogorgon attacked, it always left an opening." Nancy points out to us. "Maybe Vecna is the same way."

"There's only one way to find out, though..." I murmured, then sighing. Of course, my first thought would be me and a few of the others would end up in the lake, freezing cold and getting ready for the fever that we'd catch in the next week, but then Eddie came up with something a little better.

After another small trek along the edge of the lake, we found the boat he'd hidden earlier on before he scouted out Skull Rock. We stared at it for a moment while Steve and Eddie then got to work, moving it along the shore and onto the lake itself. "EASY- I said-" The boy in the yellow sweater looked at Eddie, crouched down next to him. "I said easy, man."

"Yeah, I'm just gonna-" Although Steve offered his hand out to Robin, the girl chose a different way, using the two boy's heads to get across and onto the boat. "Thank you!" She lets out quietly before stepping across.

Eddie followed after the tall girl onto the boat before turning back around and holding a helping hand out for Nancy to take as she then got onto the small rowing boat. It then occurred to me that this was the same boat he fell out of. I don't know why it did, but it then worried me how so many of us were going to fit on such a little thing.

As I went to then step on, Steve stood up in front of me. "What're you trying to do, sink us?" The tall boy asks me, while I raised an eyebrow, glaring up at him. It would be so much easier if I could talk about him having a crush on a lesbian last summer. "No, you guys stay here-"

"Steve," I begin, trying to hold back the urge to knock him into the lake itself. "there is a gate in the middle of Lover's Lake to an ulternate dimension which is the key to me killing Vecna of whom has been haunting and close-to-killing my girl." The words kind of spilled out of me, but I didn't stop. "Please, just let me on the boat so I can get a little bit closer to kicking Vecna's ass."

Steve's eyes darted between me, Max and then glanced over at Nancy, of who shrugged as if to say 'she's made a good point' and that, once again, is why we love Nancy Wheeler here. "Fine..." Steve says after a moment of silence. "But, the rest of you should stay on land." Mother of the year goes to- "Don't want this to sink like the titanic did."