Until Forever Falls Apart (Lumax)

Chapter 16

(Max POV)

"Not to be a wimp, but can I stay in the car cause this is gonna royal suck" Robin stated as we drove to Reefer Ricks house, where Eddie was hiding. "It'll be fine" Nancy said in return keeping her eyes on the road. "I just can't stand to see those dull eyes of Eddie break again, I really really can't"
"At least he can drink himself into feeling better" Steve said from the trunk of the car, "Thats what my mom does" I said sullenly, earning a sympathetic look from Lucas who sat beside me. Zoning out from what ever conversation Robin and Nancy were having a felt a soft touch of something against my hand that laid on the seat. "Hey, you alright?" Lucas said softly moving his hand away from mine, "yeah" I lied giving him a soft smile. To be honest ever since the flickering lights from the house I have felt Vecnas presence in me, as if he is watching my ever move and waiting for his time to strike again.

"And, no, I know you were already screwed, but now you're doubly, triply screwed" Robin ranted. "Wait, maybe we don't put it like that" Lucas said slowly. "We are once step closer to finding Vecna. Thats what we say. Thats what is important" Nancy piped in. Looking out the window again I noticed the speed of the car slowing down and the sound of Nancy cursing as the car came to a complete stop. Looking over to see why she had stopped the view of numerous amounts of people and cops was displayed in front of Reefer Ricks house.

"Reporting a homicide here on the lake, Officer Callahan here and myself arrived first on the scene" homicide? I thought to myself as we watched the throng of police crowd the house and put up yellow tape around the scene. "We've also identified the person of interest, Eddie Munson" the chief said holding up a picture of Eddie. Faint gasps escaped all our lips and a tremulous nature spread through my body. "This is not good, really not good" Steve said earring nods from the majority of us.

"Dustin can you hear me? Wheeler?" a voice said through the static of Dustins walkman. "Eddie? Holy shit are you okay? Dustin responded anxiously. "Nah nah man pretty...pretty godamn far from that" Eddies hush voiced cracked. "Where are you?" Dustin questioned
"Shuck rock, you know it?" he said . "Yeah thats near Cornwallis and-"
"Garret, yeah I know where that is" Steve said cutting off Dustin walking towards the car as the rest of us followed his lead. "Hold tight we are on our way"

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"Ok so I guess we're going this way now" I scoffed as I saw Steve start running in a different direction for what felt the hundredth time. "I swear if they get us lost- -hey you okay?" I said looking up at Lucas and his sorrow filled eyes.
"Uh yeah, i'm fine. Just thinking about Patrick you know?" he opened up. Stopping in my track I looked up at him as if telling him to continue. "I mean its-its like...why him? But then I remember this one day where he came to practice with a black eye. He said he fell but, he clearly lied. It's like. Everyone that Vecna targets, has something in their life. Something thats-" "hurting them. Haunting them" my voice echoed cutting off his. Holding eye contact with him I tried not to let myself falter. "yeah... I didn't really know Patrick, so I guess it was just easy too look the other way. But. I did know you, and Im sorry I wasn't there" his words cut through me.

"its-its not your fault"

"No"

"I disappeared"

    "No, no you didn't" he said leading me to stop protesting and listen to his words. "I just didn't look hard enough, okay? But I see you now. I see you" he said leading to my heart rate increasing and leaving me speechless. "Max. I will always be here for you alright? I no matter how long it takes I will always be here for you" he said resting his hand on my shoulder. In that moment the only thing I wanted was too wrap my arms around him and apologize for everything I've done to him. But, that would only cause me pain in the end.

"Boom!" Steve exclaimed. "Bada bing, bada boom. There she is Henderson! Skull rock! I your face" Steve said continuously boasting about him being right. From the shadows of the rock a figure jumped out causing us all to flinch a little from the sudden scare. Looking more closely at the figure I realized it was Eddie. "I concur Dustin Henderson you are a total butthead" he said with and smug smile. "We thought you were a goner" Dustin exclaimed hugging Eddie in relief. "Yeah me too man"

After we handed Eddie all his snacks and drinks we sat down and he began to tell us all that happened. "When I got to the shore I relied calling you guys but...my walkie is busted. So I uh did the one thing I'm good at and...ran" He explained throwing Nancy his watch. "9:27, same time as our flashlight went crazy " she stated. " Which means what exactly?" robin asked. "That that surge of energy was Vecna attacking Patrick" Nancy explained. "Well we are one step closer to knowing how Vecna attacks" robin said
"And where he attacks" Lucas interjected. "So we need to just sneak into his lair, In the upside down and drive a stake through his heart" I said looking at the ground with my arms crossed in front of me. "If he even has a heart" Robin laughed. "A stake? Is he like a vampire, is he a vampire?" Steve said confused. "It was a metaphor" I huffed

"A bullet should work on him right?"

"I say we cut off his head"

"I'd say all of the above, but we can't do any of that until we find a way into the upside down" Nancy said brining up the rising question on how we would get there. "We need El to get her powers back" I said simply. "Everything was way easier, we had this girl who had like super powers" Steve said to Eddie, "yeah superpowers, you mentioned her. Hey, uh Henderson isn't cursed is he?" Eddie said bringing attention to Dustin pacing back and forth holding his compass In the air. "Cursed? no. Mental? absolutely"

"Boom!" Dustin exclaimed suddenly. "Bada bada boom. I was right! Skull rock was north"

"Seriously Henderson? This is skull rock. You're absolutely 100% wrong" Steve said gesturing to the rock we were all standing at. "Yes... and no" Dustin said walking back over to the group "This compassion worked correctly when we left the wheelers. It was correct when we got in the car on Kerley. But it started to slip the farther east we went. And now, it is way off. When I was leading us here I wasn't wrong, the compass was" He explained. "So what, you're using fault equipment, you're still wrong" Steve argued to Dustin
"Except it isn't faulty. Lucas, remember what can affect a compass?" Dustin said as our attention was now focused toward the boy now standing next to me. "An electromagnetic field" Lucas said with his eyes filling with realization. "Im sorry I must have missed that class" robin said expressing the thoughts all us were thinking. "In the presence of an electromagnetic field the needle will deflect to that greater power so either there's a big magnet around here or-"

"Theres a gate" Lucas exclaimed connecting the dots on Dustins while explanation. "But, we are nowhere near the lab" Nancy said confused. "Yes, but what If somehow there's another gate, A gate we don't know about. It has to be smaller and way less powerful"

"A snack size gate" robin suggested "how? why?" Steve quizzed in his usual confused tone. "No idea, all I know is that something is causing this disturbance, and the last time we saw swathing like this it was a gate. And, honestly, I hope it is because then we'd have a way to Vecna and having a better shot at freeing Max of this curse" dustin said walking away from us and towards the direction of the lake.
"Where are you going? Hey, hey ,hey, hey, Eddie is still a wanted man. We can't just go hike in the woods" Steve protested to Dustin. "This little steel capsule might be the key to saving both Max and Eddie" Dustin spoke holding the compass in the air. "What you say Eddie the banished"

"I say you're asking me to follow you into Mordor. Which if i'm being totally straight with you, I think is a really bad idea. But...uh...The shire is burning. So. Mordor it is"

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Hey guys once again sorry for long update but school is now out for a while so I will hopefully post more

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