"What exactly are we supposed to be looking for in this shithole?" Steve questioned, looking back at the group that had formed on the porch of the Creel House. 

From the second that the group pulled up to the Creel House, Maggie Fulmer immediately had a horrible feeling in her stomach, she didn't like this not one bit.  Regardless of how she felt, Maggie had tried her best to outwardly show confidence as she walked up to the plywood that covered the doorway, helping Steve to pull the nails out to reveal the hidden door. 

"To be honest, I don't really know." Maggie returned with a shrug. "I guess anything that looks like a clue."

Nancy nodded. "We just know this house is important to Vecna." 

"Because Max saw it in Vecna's red soup mind world?" Steve questioned, Maggie, giving him a small nod in return.  "Great." 

"Maybe it holds a clue to where Vecna is. Why he's back." Dustin started hopefully. "Why he killed the Creels. And how to stop him before he comes back for Max."

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

Max shrugged.  "Guess we'll find out." 

"Ready?" Steve asked looking over to Maggie who nodded, letting the plywood slam to the ground, before Steve reached over to shake the locked door handle. "It's locked. Should I knock, see if anybody's home?"

"No need." Robin interrupted, holding up a rock. "I found a key." She continued before throwing it through the stained glass window, reaching into the jagged window frame before unlocking the door.  

The group entered, flashlights quickly searching their way through the space when Lucas moved towards a lamp, attempting to flick it on with no return. "Looks like someone forgot to pay their electric bill."

 "Wait, where'd everyone get those?" Steve asked, looking around at the flashlights everyone was holding as they searched the room.

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

"Thank you." Steve returned sarcastically, reaching to grab a flashlight from the pocket in Dustin's backpack. 

"Hey, guys?" Max tentatively asked, gathering everyone's attention onto a grandfather clock that stood beside the stairs. "You all see that, right?" 

 "Yeah. Is this what you saw?" Maggie asked, watching Max carefully. "In your visions?" 

" I mean, it's... just a clock. Right?" Robin attempted to reassure everyone. "Like a normal old clock."

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

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

 "All I know is the answers are here," Nancy said. "Somewhere. Okay, everyone stay in groups of two or three. She ordered before turning to Robin. "Robin, upstairs. Come on."

Nancy and Robin began to head upstairs, Max and Lucas peeling off in another direction which left Maggie with only one option. "Guess I'm with you two." She smiled at Steve and Dustin, following her flashlight's path up the stairs.  

"You heard her. Let's go." Steve said turning to Dustin, excited to have Maggie in the group to mix up the dynamic between him and Dustin.  

The group headed up the stairs, slowly combing their way through the various rooms upstairs, looking for anything that could potentially serve as a clue towards Vecna or the 'Upside Down'. 

"Hey, uh, Henderson? Could you maybe, uh, clarify what sort of clues we're supposed to be looking for here?" Steve said, carefully shining his light up and down on a cobweb-covered bookcase. 

 "The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes." Dustin quoted, a British accent heavy in his words, only to be met with Steve's blank stare. 

"Sherlock Holmes, right?" Maggie interjected, her back turned to the boys as she observed the flaky wallpaper that seemed to peel itself off the wall.

"Exactly, thank you." Dustin returned, turning back to Steve as if it had obviously answered his question.  

"That's great." Steve scoffed. "Thanks. That's great. Really helpful." 

Maggie bit back a grin as she separated from the boys, moving out to cover more ground. She headed into what appeared to have once been a bedroom before the startling sound of breaking glass and screaming drew her back out into the hallway immediately. 

"What?" Maggie asked, looking around the hallway only to find Steve standing in the hallway with his hair covered in cobwebs. "What's wrong?" 

 "There was a spider." Steve panted, frantically brushing at his clothes in a panic.  It's a black widow. Don't go in there." He finished, looking back to Maggie. 

"Okay, I won't." She smiled before grimacing at the number of cobwebs in his hair. "Wait, just..."

 "What? Oh, shit." Steve returned, swivelling in front of the mirror as he tried to fix his hair.

"Stop moving," Maggie instructed, Steve too preoccupied to notice her instruction. "Steve, stand still. I got it." She tried once more, succeeding in getting Steve to stand in place, before moving to begin pulling the cobwebs out of his hair.   

"If there's a spider, you're never gonna find it till it lays eggs and the babies spill out," Robin interjected with a laugh, on her way past with Nancy as they moved to a new room. 

 "What's wrong with you?" Steve asked, shaking his head at his friend. 

"Steve, you're moving again." Maggie returned with a laugh before the pair grew quiet once more. "You know all my friends had a crush on you in middle school." She started, interrupting the silence as Steve perked up at the story she had begun to tell. "I was still in the year lower and I simply didn't get it back then. But trust me, they were obsessed with whatever hair situation you had going on back then. They would probably collectively keel over if I told them that I was pulling cobwebs out of Steve Harrington's hair right now."

"Well you know it was probably one of my biggest selling points back then, still is." He boasted in return, a joking smile present on his face. 

"Maybe Dustin's not the only one who needs a little humility." Maggie joked. "But I'll give you points for it, your hair isn't half bad especially when it doesn't have cobwebs in it." She added, pulling the last cobweb out. "All done."

"It's not half bad?" Steve joked, pretending to be offended before a soft smile crossed his face as he turned around to look back at Maggie. "Thanks. A real lifesaver there, Mags." 

Maggie grinned at her nickname. "Come on, we better get back to this investigation or whatever we are calling it."

"Yeah, yeah," Steve said, blinking himself back to reality.  "The obvious things are not what people observe. Or... Do... Don't observe. Or... Sherlock Holmes." He rambled, slightly flushed at his words.

"It's alright." Maggie smiled, linking her arm with Steve's. "I got what you meant."

Eventually, the group upstairs made their way back downstairs at the shout of Max and Lucas who were the first people to find anything of any importance, with a light fixture constantly flickering. 

"It's like the Christmas lights." Nancy breathed out in realisation. 

"Uh, the Christmas lights? What happened with that?" Maggie questioned, the most unknowledgeable in the room. 

Nancy nodded. "When Will was in the Upside Down, the lights... came to life."

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

The light slowly faded out before disappearing entirely. "I think he just left the room," Robin added.  

"Did he hear us?" Max asked. 

 "Can he see us?" Steve added. 

Maggie scoffed. "Surely that can't be possible, right? Right?" She repeated only to be met with silence as everyone contemplated the same question. 

 "Wait, wait," Nancy interjected. "Everyone, turn off your flashlights and spread out. 

"We're not gonna be able to see if we turn off our flash... lights." Steve protested as everyone began to fan out, watching their flashlights carefully. "Jesus Christ." He muttered, quickly moving to catch up with Maggie. 

"I got him!" Robin shouted, the rest of the group moving to converge on her, her light almost going out immediately. "I... I had him."

Steve's flashlight lit up in response. "Oh, whoa. Oh, I think he's moving. He's moving. He's moving." He repeated moving with the flashlight until it too dimmed. "Shit, I lost him." 

Max shook her head, pointing at the light seeping from beneath a door. "No, you didn't." She said, pushing the door open to reveal the stairs towards an attic. 

 "It's an attic. Of course, it's an attic." Robin muttered before following Max up the stairs. 

 "Hold up, guys," Dustin interjected, attempting to stop the group that was nearing the top of the staircase. "What if he's leading us into a trap? Guys, guys."

Despite his protests Dustin still followed them into the attic, everyone's attention stuck on the middle of the room where a single light bulb flickered continuously as they gathered around it. Electricity buzzed as each of their flashlights joined the light bulb, culminating in a massive ball of electricity and light. 

The ball of light pulsed and grew brighter, until the light bulb shattered sending a wave of energy that blew out every other light in the place until they were in complete darkness once more.