Chapter Sixty-Four: I Can See You

It felt like it had been hours since Nancy first parked and they all started their journey to Skull Rock. And those hours had been full of bickering between Steve and Dustin, arguing about which way was the right way.

Dustin had the map and the compass, and was trying to lead. After certain point, though, Steve tried taking over, insisting they were going the wrong direction.

It got to a point where Annie had turned her music up, effectively drowning their arguing out completely. She honestly trusted Steve the most with knowing where to go, considering he had come out here a lot.

When it came to Dustin, he only had his map and failing compass to guide him. Clearly, it wasn't working.

Beside her, Max kept looking over at Annie to try and figure out what she was thinking. Every time she came up with a blank. The only thing she figured out was that the arguing up ahead was annoying, and that's only because Annie turned up her music.

"Hey," Max tried, using her elbow to nudge Annie's arm. The brunette looked over to her and turned her music down some before removing one of her headphones.

"What's up?" she asked, trying to sound light and airy, but it came off forced and strained.

Max shrugged. "Just... just checking in. You're not much of a quiet person, so I feel like something's wrong whenever you are. Besides the obvious," Max ranted.

It made one of the corners of Annie's mouth turn up slightly. "I appreciate your concern. However... I don't think there's a good way to describe how I feel right now. Vecna is always weighing down on my mind, knowing he's lurking always. Right now... I think I feel bad for Eddie. I don't wanna see his face when we tell him..."

"What, that his name's been released to the public as suspect number one for three murders? Yeah, no, I don't wanna tell him, either. But... he has to know, right?" Max asked. She almost doubted the plan.

Why tell him? It's only going to break his heart.

That's when Annie's voice of reason came into play. "Well, I mean, he's gotta know. Especially if people start a sort of witch hunt on him. Which they will, we heard what Lucas said about Jason."

Max nodded along. "Yeah, I guess... I just hope this doesn't completely break him," she said.

What she didn't say out loud is, "Because I saw how this has broken you."

Finally, Steve had enough and started to lead the group in a whole new direction. "Okay, so apparently we're going this way now," Max said. "I swear to god, if they get us lost..."

Lucas, who had fallen back to walk with the girls, didn't answer. Annie looked over at him and noticed he was staring at the ground. "Hey," Annie said softly, removing her headphones completely. "You okay?"

"Uh- yeah. I'm fine, just... thinking about Patrick, you know?" he asked.

Annie nodded, thinking about when Max broke the news about Chrissy. How her best friends were killed last summer and have been haunting her since. "Yeah."

"I mean... it's- it's like, why him? But then, I remember this one day, he... he came to practice with a black eye. He said he fell, but he was clearly lying," Lucas ranted. Annie followed along, looking at the pinecone in his hand every now and then. She had no idea why he had that.

"It's like..." Lucas continued, "everyone Vecna targets has something in their life. Something that's-"

"Hurting them? Haunting them?" Annie offered.

Max placed a hand on Annie's arm, and Lucas's face fell even more. "Yeah... I- I didn't really know Patrick, so it was easy to just... look the other way, I guess. I did know you. We all do. I know we might not be that close, but I'm sorry I wasn't there..."

Annie didn't even realize their trio had stopped walking. It wasn't until she heard Max take a couple steps in the crunchy leaves that she realized the rest of the group was a ways.

"It's not your fault," Annie tried.

But Lucas shook his head. "No, don't... I didn't try. N-none of us did! Max did, yeah, but you should've had all of us. We're all your friends and we didn't know what to do so we ignored it. And... and I'm sorry."

At first, Annie had no idea what to say. She had no idea Lucas had been beating himself up so much. Maybe it was because of how close they had grown... maybe he felt he should've known there was something wrong. But she could never blame him. He did nothing wrong.

Instead of saying anything, Annie went ahead and pulled Lucas into a hug. He took it, closing his eyes for a second.

Off to the side, Max wondered if what Lucas said was true for her. How she should've seen the signs before they became fatal. She should've known something was wrong with her fucking girlfriend long before Vecna found her.

She looked up at the pair, and saw Lucas looking at her. He could read her thoughts pretty well, as if they were literally written on her face.

The hugging pair pulled apart. Annie wanted to say something, but instead got interrupted by a yell. "Annie! Where did you go?" It was Steve.

"I'm over here! We're coming!" she shouted back.

Then, she looked at Lucas as their trio started walking again. "And Lucas, I promise, it's not your fault. I don't blame you. Honestly, I don't think I can blame anyone. We didn't know what was going on until it was too late."

He smiled and said a quiet, "Thanks."

Max grabbed onto Annie's hand. The girls didn't speak, just held on.

"Oh, boom! Bada bing, bada boom, there she is Henderson! Skull Rock. In your face, man. In your stupid, cocky little face."

They went under a branch and pushed some leaves out of the way, but then there it was. The infamous Skull Rock, every high school kid's makeup spot. A brief thought passed through Annie's mind. About how she and Max were in high school now...

"It doesn't make sense," Dustin complained, looking at his map and his compass.

"Yeah, yeah. Even with it staring you in the face you can't admit it. You just can't admit that you're wrong you little butthead," Steve said.

When Annie was going to make a comment on Steve's insult of choice, a figured jumped down and scared her into silence.

"I concur. You, Dustin Henderson, are a total butthead." Eddie now stood with them, and Annie realized the poor dude hadn't had the chance to change in days. She could never survive that long in the same outfit.

Dustin and Eddie hugged it out, the others coming up with Eddie's snacks and beer.

They all sat around as Eddie ate, drank, and told them what had happened last night. How he had to watch Patrick's limbs snap before he dropped to the water below. How he got back in his boat and hurried to shore on the other side of the lake, getting as far away as he could as fast as he could.

"When I got to shore, I tried calling you guys, but, uh... my walkie was busted, man. Drenched. So, uh, I did the thing I do now, apparently. I ran," he said, a sarcastic laugh finishing his sentence.

"Do you know what time this was? The attack?" Nancy asked.

Eddie nodded and went to his wrist. "Yeah, yeah no I know exactly what time it was. My walkie wasn't the only thing that got soaked."

He took his watch off and tossed it over to Nancy. After catching it, and looked to see what it said. "9:27."

"Same time our flashlights went kablooey," Robin added.

"Which... means what exactly?" Steve asked.

But Annie had it down before Nancy could answer. "That that surge of energy was Vecna attacking Patrick." She tossed the watch back.

"Well," Robin sighed. "We're one step closer. We know how Vecna attacks."

"And where he attacks from," Lucas added.

"So, now we just need to sneak into his lair in the Upside Down and drive a stake through his heart," Max said.

"If he even has a heart."

"A stake? Is he like a vamp- is he a vampire?" Steve asked, way lost.

Max shook her head. "It was a metaphor."

"Uh, a bullet should work on him, right?" Eddie asked.

Lucas shook his head. "I say we chop his head off."

Annie shrugged. "Maybe burn him so we know he'll never come back. Ashes are pretty good proof of death," she said.

"Yeah, I'd say all of the above, but we can't do any of that until we find a way into the Upside Down," Nancy said, and Annie deflated knowing she was right.

"We need El to get her powers back," Max sighed, and she stepped closer to Annie.

Steve agreed, saying, "Yeah, everything was way easier." Then he turned to Eddie and tried to explain who El was. "We had this girl. She had superpowers."

"Superpowers, yeah, you mentioned her," Eddie said, dismissively as he looked over at something moving behind them. "Hey, uh, Henderson's not, uh, cursed, is he?"

There was a moment where Steve and Annie made eye contact, but then Steve looked away as he answered Eddie. "Cursed? No, no, no, he's fine. Mental? Absolutely."

"Boom!"

A/n: chapter! My last day at my current job is in less than a week, which means I'm off to my second year of college in less than two 😳