BAD TIMES • STEVE HARRINGTON

23. we're done, we're over

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chapter twenty-three

DIANA COULDN'T FIGURE OUT his next target. Every time she grew close to a name, every time her empty list had a chance to grow, he—Vecna for lack of better knowledge— changed his mind. He'd killed Chrissy Cunningham and Fred Benson, a fact that had become clear when the sun came up and police sirens followed, and now he was searching for another.

Diana just didn't know what exactly he was looking for, and she didn't know what was so special about Max's and Eddie's trailer park. Both Chrissy and Fred had been brutally murdered there and the police were blaming Eddie. As if the boy was capable of Vecna's otherworldly precision. She'd watched him scarf down corn flakes and shake with fear mere hours ago.

He wasn't a killer, but some part of her wished he had been the culprit, if only for an easier solution.

Diana shivered and adjusted herself on the picnic table bench. The trailer park was vacant of police and it's inhabitants were quiet. The sun shone brightly on her skin, and she relished in the sensation.

Steve hadn't looked at her in hours, even now when she was seated right next to him. His body was angled slightly toward Dustin's and his eyes were on Nancy—who was only there because she'd been investigating Chrissy's death with Fred right before he'd died. The brunette sat across from them, between Robin and Max, and she looked spooked as she tried to understand what they'd learned.

"Diana?" Nancy questioned after a long pause in the explanation, which actually wasn't a pause at all. The conversation had finished, and she hadn't even noticed. She hummed in question. "You really have nothing to add?"

Diana cleared her throat. "I do, thank you." She dug her nails into her jeans and thought for a moment, remembering the points that had been made. "Ok. Number one: there's a very easy explanation of what Vecna is." Her voice lowers a bit. "He's psychic. Telekinesis, mind reading, the works. Number two: he doesn't believe the Mind Flayer is even worth talking about, so there's no way in hell that thing is running the damn show. And number three: he is very much human and very much in the Upside Down."

"Why didn't you say anything at the shed?" Dustin asked accusingly.

"I wanted to get it all in one go, for Nancy, but we'll have to explain it a few more times before this is over anyway."

"Wait—" Steve began, drawing their attention. "He's like you?"

Diana sighed. "In some ways. He doesn't look into the future, though, he wouldn't be asking me to stop watching him if he did. He's more powerful than me and even Eleven."

"But why did he choose Fred and Chrissy? It doesn't make sense," Nancy let out quietly. "I mean, why them?"

Dustin squinted in thought. "Maybe they were just in the wrong place? They were both at the game."

"And near the trailer park," Max added.

A beat of silence.

Steve spoke up first. "We're at the trailer park." They all looked around at the eerily quiet area. "Uh, should we maybe not be here?"

"There is something about this place," Nancy said thoughtfully. "Fred started acting weird the second we got here."

Diana frowned, taking in her surrounding for the first time and breathing in the crisp air. "The veil between this world and the Upside Down feels... It feels like it did at the mall."