𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐒 • Robin Buckley

XXVI: THE CREEL HOUSE

After successfully saving Max using music, like Robin had suggested, they all went back to the Wheeler house again. They were abruptly woken up in the morning by Nancy, who'd made yet another discovery.

The puzzle pieces were slowly fitting together, and the thing Max had saw when under Vecna's curse was Victor Creel's house: the place where it all started.

"What exactly are we supposed to be looking for in this shithole?" Steve asked.

"We're not sure," Nancy answered, "We just know this house is important to Vecna."

"Because Max saw it in Vecna's red soup mind world?"

"Basically."

"Great."

"Maybe it holds a clue to where Vecna is. Why he's back. Why he killed the Creels. And how to stop him if he comes back for Max or Claudia."

"We don't think he's in here, do we?" Lucas asked.

"Guess we'll find out," Max said.

Steve and Nancy threw down the large wooden plank that had previously been blocking the door, which was locked. "Should we knock, see if anybody's home?" Steve suggested.

"No need," Robin said, holding up a brick, "I found a key."

Steve threw the brick into the hosue, then opened the door from the inside. Lucas tried his luck with the lamp, but it wouldn't turn on. "Looks like someone forgot to pay their electric bill," he said.
Dustin shone his torch.

"Where's everyone get those?" Steve asked.

"Do you need to be told everything?" Dustin asked, "You're not a child."

"Thank you."

Dustin took off his backpack, handing it to Steve. "Back pocket."

Nancy, Claudia and Robin all went off, searching in one of the rooms. "They just left everything," Nancy said.

"I guess a triple homicide isn't good for resale value," Robin said.

"Hey guys?" Max said, shining her torch on a large grandfather clock, "You all see that, right?"

"Yeah," everyone said.

"That's the clock," Claudia said, "From the visions."

Max nodded. "I mean, it's... just a clock," Robin said, "Right?" She wiped dust from the glass. "Like a normal old clock."

"Why is this wizard obsessed with clock?" Steve asked, "Maybe he's, like, a clockmaker or something?"

"I think you cracked the case, Steve," Dustin said sarcastically.

"All I know is," Nancy said, "The answers are here, somewhere. Okay, everyone stay in groups of two, or three. Robin, Claudia, upstairs."

All they managed to find for a while was spiders, and a bunch of cobwebs in Steve's hair, which made Claudia want to throw up. She didn't mind spiders, but cobwebs grossed her out.

What they did find after a while, after being called down the stairs by Max, was that the lights flickered, despite the fact that there was (presumably) no electricity in the house.

"It's like the Christmas lights," Nancy said.

"The Christmas lights?" Robin asked.

"Yeah, when Will was in the Upside Down, the lights... came to life."

"Vecna's here," Lucas said, "In this house. Just on the other side."

The lights stopped flickering. "I think he just left the room," Claudia said.