Darkness had started to loom by the time they reached Reefer Rick's house, the location taking Maggie a little while to find with the setting darkness and considering that she had only been there a couple of times. 

The group had gathered outside the front door, Dustin ringing the doorbell multiple times only to get no response. "Okay. Well, that's settled. I guess he's not here." Steve sighed. 

"Eddie! It's Dustin!" Dustin continued, repeatedly rapping the door with his fist. "Look, we just wanna talk, okay? No cops, I swear. We just wanna help. Eddie!"

"Is he always like this?" Maggie questioned quietly, her head beginning to pound with the persistent knocking. 

"Unfortunately yes." Steve returned, Dustin too invested in knocking to notice the dig sent his way. 

"Rick! Reefer Rick!" 

Maggie followed Robin around to the side of the house, sticking close as they looked in the uncovered windows to see no sign of life. 

"Hey, guys?" Max called, her gaze centred on a shed on the side of the house. 

"Hello?" Robin called, opening the door to the shed hesitantly. "Is anyone home?"

From the second that the door was open, memories came flooding back to Maggie. Laughter. Her sister's geninue smile enhanced by her slightly tipsy state as she swatted playfully at the arms that had encircled her waist, the boy's smile equally wide as he began to tickle the girl in his arms. They were happy and carefree. 

"What a dump," Steve complained, grabbing an oar from the wall, before prodding at a tarp-covered boat that sat in the middle of the room. 

"What are you doing?" Dustin questioned. 

"He might be in here." Steve explained with a shrug, continuously poking the tarp. 

"So take the tarp off."

"If you're so brave, you take the tarp off." Steve retorted. 

"Someone was here," Max concluded, picking up some food wrappers that had been left behind on a table. 

"Maybe he heard us. Got spooked and ran." Robin shrugged. 

"Don't worry. Steve will get him with his oar." Dustin assured. 

"I know you think you're being funny, but considering everyone in this room has nearly died a hundred times, personally, I don't find it funny in the slight..." Steve started, interrupted by Eddie bursting out from the tarp, grabbing and pinning Steve to the wall, a sharp object held dangerously close to Steve's neck. 

"Eddie! Eddie! It's me, it's Dustin." Dustin screamed, holding his arms out carefully. "This is Steve. He's not gonna hurt you, right, Steve?"

"Right. Yeah." Steve returned, his gaze entirely focused on the object in Eddie's hands. 

"Steve, why don't you drop the oar?" Dustin suggested, calmly. The thud as Steve dropped the oar causing Eddie's grip to tighten. 

"He's cool. He's cool." Dustin continued. 

"I'm cool, man. I'm cool." Steve added in agreement. 

"What are you doing here?" Eddie questioned, looking around the room with wide eyes. 

"We're looking for you. We're here to help." Dustin reassured, turning back to the group that had gathered behind him. "Eddie, these are my friends.  You know Robin, from band." Dustin started, Robin intimating her trumpet in response. "This is my friend Max. The one who never wants to play D&D. And I'm assuming you must know Maggie, her being your dead ex's sister and all that."

"Subtle," Maggie muttered under her breath, offering a slight wave in Eddie's direction who seemed quite shocked to find her there.

"Eddie. We're on your side. I swear on my mother. Right, guys?" Dustin continued, ignoring Maggie's comment. 

"Yes. yes. We swear. On Dustin's mother."

"Yeah on Dustin's mother, who I've never met," Maggie added, doing anything to diffuse the building tension. 

Eddie met Maggie's eyesight before dropping Steve, crouching down in a corner, looking utterly defeated. 

"Eddie... We just want to talk." Dustin started, crouching down in front of Eddie. "Okay?"

"We want to know what happened." Robin prompted, crouching down as well. 

"You won't believe me." Eddie sniffed. 

"Try us." Max challenged. 

Maggie joined the group settled around Eddie, offering her hand to squeeze in support against her better judgement. Spurred on by the encouragement of everyone in the room, Eddie began reciting how Chrissy had gone to his trailer for drugs and when he had returned back to the living room, a completely different and terrifying view had greeted him. 

"Her body just, like, lifted up into the air and, uh.."Eddie trailed off. "And she just, like hung there in the air. And her bones... Uh, she.... Her bones started to snap. Her eyes, man. It..It was like there was something, like, inside her head, pulling. I...I didn't know what to do, so I... I ran away. I left her there." Eddie concluded, his eyes meeting with Maggie's again for the last few words. "You all think I'm crazy, right?"

"Yes," Maggie muttered, Steve nudging her shoulder slightly. 

"No, we don't think you're crazy."

"Don't bullshit me, man! I know how this sounds. Even Mags agrees with me." Eddie scoffed, Maggie's old nickname falling off his tongue easily.  

"We're not bullshitting you," Max assured, sending a small look Maggie's way.

"We believe you," Robin added.

"Look, what I'm about to tell you might be a little...difficult to take. The same thing goes for you, Maggie." Dustin started, piquing Maggie's interest once more. 

"Okay." Maggie returned hesitantly. 

"You know how people say Hawkins is...cursed? They're not way off. There's another world. A world hidden beneath Hawkins. Sometimes it bleeds into ours."

"Like ghosts and shit?" Eddie questioned. 

"There are some things worse than ghosts." 

"These monsters from this other world...we thought they were gone. But they've come back before. That's why we needed to find you." Dustin continued.

Max added solemnly. "If they're back again, we need to know." 

"That night, did you see anything?" Robin prompted. 

"Dark particles, maybe?"

"It would almost look like dust, swirling dust." Dustin added. 

"No, man, there was nothing you could see or, uh.. or touch." Eddie returned shaking his head. "You know, I tried to wake her, man. She couldn't move. It was like she...she was in a trance or something."

"Or under a spell." Dustin realised. 

"A curse." Eddie continued. 

"Vecna's curse." 

"Who's Vecna?" Steve questioned with his arms crossed over his chest. 

"An undead creature of great power."

"A spell caster." 

"A dark wizard." Dustin finished, looking around the room with finality. 

"Woah, time out. So you mean to tell me that all of the shitty things that have happened in the last couple of years have all spawned because of this 'hidden' world beneath Hawkins." Maggie scoffed. "How many people know about this?" 

"Not a ton," Steve replied, stepping up to her. "But we've fought this thing multiple times and I'd like to think we kind of know what we are doing.

"It's absolutely insane though." Maggie returned. 

"I get that, I do. But just trust us, we aren't lying to you or to Eddie." Steve replied with sincerity. 

"Okay, then." Maggie breathed, still in disbelief. "Well, if you've fought this thing so many times, what's the plan?"

"That's the thing, we don't exactly have one."