CHAPTER NINE
↳ bedtime horror stories

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Seven year old Lauren Fisher couldn't help feel anxious as she sat in the small chair in front of a woman in a blue dress. She didn't know this woman's name, not that the seven year old cared. In fact, all she cared about was colouring in the Barbie on the paper in front of her.

"Okay, Lauren," the woman was sat on the chair, one leg crossed over the other with her hands clasped together in her lap. Lauren looked up from the drawing and mindlessly stared at the woman. She was a rather freckly person with a large nose and a lot of lipstick on. Lauren wondered when she would be going home and seeing her mum. She hadn't seen her mum in ages. "I want you to tell me those bedtime stories your father liked to tell you."

Lauren slouched in the chair, finding the crayons she had been given more interesting. "Bad stuff." She simply whispered, not wanting to elaborate further. Why would she? This was stuff that was personal to her and literally messed the poor kid up. Why on earth was this random woman questioning her so deeply about these things? Lauren was absolutely confused.

The lady nodded. "Can you be more specific?"

Lauren could. Really, she could vividly remember every detail of what her father would tell her whenever she was alone with him. He wasn't nice whatsoever, always wanting to scare her with whatever he imagined. He'd only tell her these stories when she was about to go to sleep. He'd sit on the side of her bed, reciting these terrifying stories and leaving her alone in her bedroom with the door locked and light turned off. She was too short to reach the light switch herself so she spent the night crying loudly in her room while her father went out.

"No." Lauren whispered, moving to pick another crayon from the box. "I don't want to."

"And why's that, Lauren?"

Lauren looked down, her frown becoming more evident on her face. "It's scary."

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"I'm sorry, but Victor Creel?" Laurie had asked Nancy the moment she had explained to both her and Robin exactly what they were going to be looking for.

"Yeah, like I said, It's a shot in the dark." Nancy immediately replied and Laurie wondered if she was always this uptight about stuff. Nancy quickly thinking this in moments after an exchange with Eddie's uncle was actually pretty smart. Especially, in regards to proving that Eddie hadn't murdered Chrissy. This wasn't some shot in the dark, it was more a shot in the horizon.

Laurie shook her head. "No, I'm not saying you're exactly wrong, just those murders were the literal trauma point of my childhood."

Robin turned and faced Laurie as the trio were walking towards the library. "What do you mean?"

Laurie deadpanned. "I had a psychologically abusive father who was a true crime horror junkie, things like Victor Creel were his obsession." She exhaled heavily, pinching the bridge between her nose and jittering her shoulders up and down slightly from nerves. "So your theory is that Victor Creel escaped his psychiatric hospital, came back here and is now murdering teenagers as a new hobby?"

Nancy hummed. "Maybe?" Nancy exhaled, looking at Laurie. "It's just a theory."

Robin further questioned. "So help me get this straight: Eddie's uncle, Wayne, thinks that Victor Creel escaped from Pennhurst Asylum and that he's the one running around committing these murders?"

"That's literally what I just said." Laurie monotonously replied, squinting slightly.

"I just need a second round of reassurance." Robin defended herself, her voice going higher than usual. "So, that's why we're doing this?"

Nancy nodded. "Pretty much."

"But Victor committed the eyeball murders, like, way back in the '50s."

"1959 actually." Laurie corrected. Robin turned and looked at her. "Sorry."

"You apologise a lot." Robin muttered, giving a slight glare to the blonde. "You should really stop it."

Laurie nodded. "It's more of a force of habit." She gave an awkward laugh. "But, yeah, they did happen in the late 50s."

"So, that means these murders predate Eleven in the Upside Down by about 30 years?"

Nancy gave a forced smile to Robin and her rambling. "Yep."

"Which makes spooky Victor Creel like 70 years old." The girl further rambled, adding more onto what they already knew. She plopped her arm onto the desk, leaning onto it.

"Yep." Nancy gave a short smile, ringing the bell in hopes that someone would be able to direct them to the archives.

Robin continued rambling, continuing to lean her chin on the palm of her hand. "So, he's a grandpa murderer who can turn invisible and lift people into the air."

Laurie frowned. "Why would a seventy year old man, proclaimed medically insane, come back to Hawkins undetected and then start committing murders on random teenagers though?" Laurie responded, tilting her head in confusion. "You'd think he would've been caught by now."

Nancy sighed. "It doesn't make sense. I know." She looked at both girls with an exhale and a clearly hopeless look on her face. "That's why I said it was a shot in the dark. "

"I know. I just thought that by "shot in the dark," you were being modest or hiding something super solid up your sleeve-" Nancy rung the bell two more times, a pressed smile still on her face with evident restrain. "that you were gonna wow us with later. But this is really, truly a shot in the dark. Like, we are snipers with blindfolds on who've been spun around 50 times."

"Why 50 times?"

Robin shrugged. "It's a nice number."

Laurie nodded. "Fair." The moment Nancy finished ringing the bell herself, Laurie simply couldn't help herself and reached over, dinging it again, though flinching when the librarian came through to the front desk.

"Coming!" She yelled with a light tone. Laurie simply smiled awkwardly, placing her hands on the front desk.

"Hi. Sorry, we're in a bit of a rush." Nancy gave the woman a smile. "Could we get the keys to the basement archives?"

"Of course. Give me one sec."

Laurie hummed in understanding. "Thank you." She turned and saw Nancy and Robin both looking at her. "What? Manners go a long way."

The three stood in awkward silence before Robin began her rant once more. Not that Laurie minded, she found Robin's rants extremely nice and loved how her voice sounded.

"Did I come off mean or condescending?" She asked them, more specifically to Nancy than anything. Laurie couldn't help but feel like the Wheeler woman wanted to be doing this on her own. She seemed highly independent and, from what she had noticed, just didn't appreciate the distracting energy of the pair on her hands.

"No." Nancy shook her head at Robin's question.

"-Right. Sorry. It's just, you seem annoyed. You don't know me well. I don't really have a filter or a strong grasp of social cues. Okay? If I say something that upsets you, just know that I know it's a flaw. Believe me, my mother reminds me daily."

Laurie shook her head at Robin. "That's sad, your constant rambling and interruptions are cute." She could've scolded herself for blurting that out, averting her eyes away from Robin's.

Robin gave her a wide eyed glance. "You really think?"

Laurie chuckled. "I know."

Robin looked extremely bashfully, shaking her head slightly with a beam. "Thanks."

Before Laurie could reply, the librarian returned with the keys, handing them to Nancy. She gave the three a nod. "All right, ladies. Here you go. Have fun."

"Yep. We'll try." Nancy took the keys off her.

Laurie gave a wave. "Thank you!" She noticed both girls once again looking at her. "Like I told you, it'll help us go far."

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Robin and Laurie were both busy looking over old newspaper articles that dated back to 1959, just following the murders that took place in the Creel House.

"Hey, Laur?" Robin had asked the blonde, while still staring at the newspaper articles.

"What?"

"Why did your dad like, I don't know, tell you about these murders?" Robin questioned rather hesitantly. "Like, it's not my business I know but It's just, I don't get why your dad would tell his child that. Didn't you only move to Hawkins when you were like seven? So, like why would your dad be so fascinated with Victor Creel?"

Laurie shrugged. "He's an asshole, that's why." She nervously rubbed her hands on her jeans, her shoulders moving up and down. "I guess it's his way of hurting my mum. He never liked her so he tried taking me away from her and damaging me."

"What?"

Laurie hummed. "There was a massive divorce distribute that resulted in me being put in permanent custody with him until I was seven. Happened when I was two and a half years old."

"Is that why you moved here?"

Laurie nodded. "My dad has zero contact with me because when I was six, I was in primary school and decided to tell a teacher how my dad hurt me. CPS were called and I was placed in foster care." She squinted slightly, reading the article a bit more. "The Victor Creel stuff fucked me up a lot, okay? It was like my bedtime horror story. He'd tuck me in tight, tell me in disgusting detail how Victor Creel gouged his daughter's eye balls out in a fit of pure unadulterated rage, tell me he wants to do that to me and turn the lights off and lock me in my room. It's one of the few things about my childhood that fully stuck in my head."

Robin didn't say anything for a moment. Then she did. "I'm sorry."

Laurie shook her head. "You shouldn't apologise." She softly whispered. "If anything, the more we know about Victor Creel the better. So... yeah." She awkwardly laughed. "I still don't fully understand why we are looking into him when we should be looking more into Vecna."

Robin turned and faced Laurie, shrugging while scrunching her nose at her slightly. "Me neither."

Laurie tilted her head slightly before speaking, "hey Nance, anything?"

Nancy replied, "nothing new."

"Yep, same here." Robin responded, popping the 'p' in yep. "Victor seemed like a normal guy. Dead family, missing eyes, took a plea deal, sent to Pennhurst. Blah, blah, blah, blah."

Laurie chuckled. "Rob, that ain't normal."

"Sarcasm, Laur, sarcasm." Robin gave the girl a look, looking up at the blonde. "Did you just call me 'Rob'?"

Laurie slapped her slightly. "Maybe, or maybe you're just hearing things."

"I'm still very confused." Robin blurted out. She continued. What are we looking for exactly?" She asked this question more specifically towards Nancy than anyone else. "Nance?" The girl ignored her and so Robin knocked a few times. In response, Nancy tilted her head out to the side, looking at both Robin and Laurie (Laurie was now looking over Robin's head). "Any mention of dark wizards or alternate dimensions? Things in that vein?"

Nancy looked exasperated. "I don't know. Okay? It's starting to seem like this was just a big waste of time." Nancy stood up, clearly annoyed at the two. Laurie didn't blame her. She wasn't as smart as Nancy so she couldn't even imagine how frustrated the girl was. People often got frustrated at Laurie for not being as smart as them. She didn't at all blame them and so she didn't blame Nancy. "You're obviously bored and Laurie, no offence, but you just don't seem interested. Why don't you call Steve? I'm sure he'll pick you up and Laurie can hitch a ride."

Laurie exhaled softly, her face dimming and a wince on her face. She continued to listen to Nancy's rambling. "And I mean, I'm not really in danger here, so..."

The two girls followed Nancy, Robin wanting to establish a few things to the Wheeler.

"You do know that Steve and I are, like, totally not a thing, right?"

"What?" Nancy turned and gave Robin a very confused look.

Robin began elaborating. "So, I figure you and Jonathan are still going strong 'cause you guys aregoing to college together. You're one of those unstoppable power couples, but I... I just... I wanted to make sure that you knew that Steve and I are just friends. Like, platonic with a capital P." Nancy blinked a few times, looking at her. "Just in case that's adding any tension between us."

"It wasn't." Nancy gave a tight smile.

Meanwhile, Laurie was studying Nancy's face before speaking, "you and Jonathan are having relationship issues, aren't you?"

Nancy immediately declined the question. "No, we aren't. Why are you insinuating--"

Laurie interrupted her. "Listen, just because I'm academically a failure doesn't mean I'm a social one as well."

"No one said you were a failure."

"No offense but you implied it just now." Laurie sighed. "You got annoyed with the fact I haven't really immense myself in this entire thing and, I am gonna be honest, I don't wanna. Because, this reminds me of every ounce of my few years with my father which wasn't exactly my best time ever. I am sorry if it sounds like I'm being a total bitch because I don't wanna seem like one but I am very aware of my lack of academics and I don't care. But, don't treat me as if I didn't see the way you winced when Rob mentioned Jonathan. I did it too whenever someone talked about Chrissy--" Laurie hesitated before furthering her point with a frantic explanation. "About Chrissy and her relationship with Jason."

Before Nancy could even respond, Robin spoke, sounding completely shocked and honestly, happy, "holy shit. The Weekly Watcher. I can't believe they have this."

Nancy frowned. "Don't they write about, like, Bigfoot and UFOs?"

"First, UFOs are absolutely real. Bigfoot I'm still on the fence about." Robin smiled when she saw Laurie give a light laugh. "But may I remind you we are looking for information on dark wizards? If someone's gonna write about that, it's gonna be these weirdos."

Nancy quirked an eyebrow at the girl, holding the tape in her hands.

It was definitely a good idea.

The three girls all loomed over the machine, listening to the whirring sound as it processed the tape, showing old newspapers.

"Elvis cloned by aliens." Nancy looked up at Robin, giving an almost sarcastic smile to the girl.

She shrugged, giving a lopsided grin. "You never know."

Nancy walked away, while Laurie loomed over Robin as curious as can be. She looked over at the articles, simply bewildered. "If I had known about these sooner, I definitely would read."

"You like conspiracies?" Robin gave her a look. "You, Laurie 'Miss Cheerleader' Fisher, like conspiracies and total nonsense?"

"You're acting like it's completely impossible." Laurie averted her eyes away from Robin's, reading the next article's title. "Moon landing is a hoax? The only conspiracy I will forever downplay."

Robin chuckled. "Thought you liked conspiracies?"

"I do, just not ones that discredit the moon landing."

Robin laughed one more time before stopping on an article. Bingo, Laurie thought, reading the title. Robin read it out in a mock voice. "Victor Creel claims vengeful demon killed family. The murder that shocked a small community."

"Ha, ha. That's very funny."

Laurie turned to look over her shoulder towards Nancy. "She's not joking."

"Yeah, I'm not. Get over here." Nancy came over and stood by the pair as Robin read out a segment from the article. "According to several insiders, Victor believed his house was hauntedby an ancient demon. Victor allegedly hired a priest to exorcise the demon from his home." Robin stopped reading, adding her own input. "Pretty novel for the '50s.Exorcist wasn't out yet."

"Keep... Keep going."

"Okay, so Victor claimedthis exorcism failed, but it angered this demon, which then murdered his family,removing their eyes. Victor believed he was sparedas a punishment." Robin stopped reading, looking at the pair.

"That's pretty convenient for Victor." Nancy commented rather dryly.

"Yeah, or super inconvenient." Robin challenged, looking at them both as she explained in detail. "Victor was declared legally insane by the court, right? What if this is why? It sounds insane. Just didn't go public because--"

"The plea bargain. The records were sealed."

Laurie added on. "That exact detail, the eyes being gone, is what happened to Chrissy and Fred, right? Just like Victor claimed?" She sighed. "I always did think that the gouging of the eyes wasn't something any human could possibly do. Chrissy, according to Eddie, went completely immobile. Possession, so like demons and shit."

Robin nodded at Laurie. "What if a demon did invade Victor's home? It's just, this demon wasn't any old demon."

Nancy swallowed, . "It was Vecna."

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we stan these fruity three ladies !!!

they slay

polyamory ????????

ANYWAYS THANKS FREYA FOR THE MONEY

CHEERS