Stay or Go

Chapter 65

It's the next day and we are driving down a country road, we decided the best thing for us to do it come up with a game plan now that we know where Vecna lives. "Not to be a wimp but can I sit in the car?" Robin asks "Cause this is gonna totally and royally suck." Nancy, who is in the drivers seat shakes her head "It'll be fine." She assures her. The two girls are sitting in the front, while Max and Lucas are sitting in the middle and Dustin, Steve and I are in the back. "I can't stand to see those doe eyes of Eddie's break again." Robin insists "I really, really can't." The three of us in the back are stuffing our faces with chips as Steve holds up the six pack that he requested "At least he can drink himself into feeling better." 

Max shoots back with "That's what my mum does." And Robin swiftly changes the subject from Max's disappear "Why don't we give it a trial run? 'Hey Eddie. Uh good news first this time. We got you some Dustin-approved junk food and that six pack you requested. Oh yeah, and we fund Vecna. Only the bad news is that he's in that other, darker, much scarier dimension, that we told you about and the gate's closed so we have no way of getting rid of him. He's entirely shut off to us, so basically you're screwed. And no, I know you were already screwed, but now you're doubly, triply screwed.'" I frown and wipe my hands on my pants legs. "Wait, maybe we don't put it like that." I suggest and Nancy offers a new way to break the news "We're one step closer to finding Vecna. That's what we say. That's what's important." 

Steve starts attacking Dustin with a pringle and I smile "See, Robin? Positive spin can make all the difference." He muses and Nancy starts to slow the car down "Oh, shit." She says which causes all of us to turn our attention to what is in front of us. There is a large crowd as well as police cars and a news van. We all climb out of the car and Nancy says "Come on, this way." And we follow her away from the crowd. We come round to the other side of the news van just as the new sheriff, who took over from Hopper, is reporting what they have found "Reporting a homicide here on the lake. Officer Callahan here and myself arrived first on the scene. We made our way to the shore of Lover's Lake, about ten yards from that house you see behind me. It was there that we found the victim, an 18 year old senior from Hawkins High, Patrick McKinney."

Lucas looks distraught as the officer keeps talking "His limbs, his body, it was disfigured and there was an eyewitness on the scene. We have also identified a person of interest, Eddie Munson. We encourage anyone with information to please come forward." Saints, I can't believe they think a human is capable of this kind of murder, that a human has the power to break limbs and rip out eyes like that. "This is not good." Steve says "This is really not good." the Sheriff continues to speak and we all stand in silence. "You've got a lot of questions and I'm going to answer as many as I can." He says "two o'clock at town hall, where anybody from the Hawkins community is welcome. But right now, I've got some work to do and I appreciate your understanding."  I snort and roll my eyes, work on hunting the wrong guy. 

Just then our radio crackles and a familiar voice speaks through it "Dustin, can you hear me? Wheeler?" Dustin scrambles for the radio and raises it to his mouth "Eddie, holy shit." He whispers into it as we move away from the van "Are you okay?" We wait for several moments, trying not to stand out too much. "Nah man. Pretty... Pretty goddamn far from okay." Is Eddie's response and Dustin shoots back "Where are you?" Because the sooner we can get to him the better. "Skull rock. Do you know it?" We hear back, Dustin looks over at me confused but I nod my head, knowing where it is "Uh, yeah." Dustin responds "That's near Cornwallis and.." I finish that "Garrett, yeah I know where that is." And we race back for the car.