TW: Subtle Abuse

They raced out of the Creel house, and everyone returned home. Madison laid on her bed, staring at the ceiling, not able to fall asleep. She heard her mom yelling in the living room.

"Mom... Mom"

Madison ran but noticed that she wasn't in the trailer anymore but in her old house. Madison hears another voice that made her freeze.

"I'M LEAVING YOU AND YOUR TWO USELESS DAUGHTERS!"

"NO, COME BACK"

"YOU CAN'T CHANGE MY MIND SUSAN"

Suddenly Neil locked eyes with her, Madison felt her throat tighten. "You, You're the reason why this family is falling apart."

Madison just stood there, frozen in shock and fear. Her hands are shaking

" Why didn't you save him, why did you let him go to that mall"

She backed away slowly, but Neil kept following her footsteps.

" It's should have been you, It should have been you,

Neil wasn't himself anymore. His voice changed to a low, growly voice, his eyes turned white, and his skin turned a rotten green.

"You Useless Bit-

She was back where she started. In her bed, at the trailer, hyperventilating. Madison put her head on her knees as tears fell out.

—————————————-

The next day

They put the groceries in the back. Nancy is driving, Robin is next to her, Lucas is next to Max, and on the trunk is Dustin, Steve, and Madison,

"Not to be a wimp, but can I sit in the car? Cause, this is going to totally and royally suck." Robin started the conversation.

"It'll be fine."

Robin sighed. "I can't stand to see those dull eyes of Eddie's break again. I really, really can't. "

Steve has his mouth full of food and a six-pack of beer.

"At least he can drink himself into feeling better."

"That's what our mom does," Max mumbled.

Madison let out a sigh and grabbed a Pringle.

"Why don't we give it a trial? 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 found Vecna.Bad news is that he's in that other, darker, much scarier dimension, and the gate's closed, so we have no way of getting to 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."

"Wait. Maybe we don't put it like that."Lucas stopped her

"We're one step closer to finding Vecna. That's what we say. That's what's important."

Steve stuffed a pringle chip in his mouth. "See, Robin? Positive spin can make all the difference."

"Uh-huh."

"Oh shit."

Madison looked at the window, her eyes widened at the sight of reporters and police cars. She put her headphones down. Nancy pressed the brakes, and they get out. There is yellow crime scene tape forming an X.

"As many of you know, the Roane County line received a call a little after midnight reporting a homicide here on the lake. Officer Callahan here and I 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. His limbs, his body, it was disfigured There was an eyewitness on the scene, we got a serial killer on the loose. We have also identified a person of interest. Eddie Munson. We encourage anyone with information - to please come forward."

"Oh man. This is not good. Really not good."

"Dustin, can you hear me? Wheeler?"

Dustin grabs the walkie talkie.

"Are you okay?"

"Nah, man.Pretty goddamn far from okay."

"Where is he?" Robin questioned.

"Where are you?"

Skull Rock. Do you know it?

Uh, yeah. That's near Cornwallis and,

"Garrett, yeah. I know where that is."

Steve walked off and most of the group followed.

"Hold tight. We're coming. We're coming."

—————————————————————————

"Dude, I'm telling you, you're taking us the wrong way."

Steve and Madison went behind Dustin.

"It's north .I'm positive, I checked the map."

"You do realize Skull Rock it's a super popular make-out spot" Steve boasted

Madison gave him a dirty look,They have gone there once and she left the place with a hickey on her neck. But the least Madison wants to hear is these two arguing which way is Skull Rock.

" Yeah so"

"Yeah, well, it wasn't popular until I made it popular. All right? I practically invented it."

Steve grabbed his girlfriend hand and dragged her along. "We're heading in the wrong direction."

"Steve, Maddie, Where are you guys going. STEVE!"

"Stop whining. Let's go. Trust me." He motioned to the young boy to follow.

————————————

Steve goes through leaves, holding onto a branch so Madison can get through. He let go of the branch, which ended up hitting Dustin's face. "Oh, boom! Bada Bing, Bada boom. There she is, Henderson. Skull Rock. In your face, man. In your stupid, cocky little face."

Dustin looked at his compass. "Doesn't make sense."

"Yeah, yeah. Even with it staring you in the face, you can't admit it. Can't admit you're wrong, you butthead."

They heard a thud and turned around. Eddie came out of the shadows. "I concur. You, Dustin Henderson, are a total butthead."

"Jesus, we thought you were a goner."

Dustin embraced him into a hug. Eddie pat his back. " Yeah, me too, man. Me too"

Steve stood there, hands on his hips and eyes narrowed. He's a bit jealous that Dustin has someone else to look up to. The rest of the group caught up to the three.

--------------------------————

"When I got to the shore, I tried calling you guys, but, uh my walkie was busted, man. Drenched. So, uh, I did the thing that I do now, apparently. I ran."

Eddie sat down, knees closed to his arms. Dustin paced back and forth.

"Do you know what time this was," Nancy asked?

"Yeah, no, I ... I know exactly what time it was."

Eddie took off his watch and gave it to Nancy. "My walkie wasn't the only thing that got soaked."

9:27

"Same time our flashlights exploded" Madison spoke up

"What?"

"They went Kablooey"

Steve crossed his arms, his eyebrows are furrowed

"Which means what exactly?"

"That surge of energy was Vecna attacking Patrick." Nancy explained to the group as she threw his watch back. Robin let out a sigh

"Well, we are one step closer, we know how Vecna attacks."

"And where he attacks from," Lucas added.

Max crossed her arms, speaking up now

"Now we just need to sneak into his lair in the Upside Down and drive a stake through his heart."

"If he even has a heart." Madison muttered in response

"A stake, is he like a vamp? Is he a vampire,"

Madison raised her eyebrows at her boyfriends question. Max sensed her sister's annoyance. "It was a metaphor."

"A bullet should work on him,"

"I say we chop his head off,"Lucas added on with Eddie's suggestion.

"All of the above, but we can't do any of that til we find a way into the Upside Down"

"We need El to get her powers back." Max suggested

"Everything was way easier. We had this girl. She had superpowers."

Eddie cut him off. "Superpowers. Yeah, you mentioned her. Hey, uh, Henderson's not, uh, cursed, is he?"

"Cursed? No, no. He's fine. Mental? Absolutely."

"BOOM "

The group turns around just to find Dustin with his hands in the air.Nancy jumped while Steve and Madison weren't even surprised. He walked slowly and pointed at Steve. "Bada-Bada-Boom. I was right, Skull Rock was north."

" SERIOUSLY, YOU'RE SERIOUS." Steve demanded

Madison rolled her eyes, they are seriously still fighting about this.

" Mhhmmm"

He motioned to the rock. "THIS IS SKULL ROCK OK. YOU'RE TOTALLY ABSOLUTELY 100% WRONG"

Madison shook her head, alongside Nancy.

"Yes and no"

Steve put his hands on his face now. "Oh My God."

"This worked correctly when we left the Wheelers'. Correct when we got in the car on Curly. But it started to slip the further east we went. Now it's way off. When I was leading us here, I wasn't wrong. The compass was."

"So, you're using faulty equipment, dude, you're still wrong," Steve argued back.

"Except it isn't faulty." Lucas, do you remember what can affect a compass?

He scratched his head, trying to remember, but it suddenly clicked. "An electromagnetic field."

" Yep."

"I'm sorry, I must have skipped that class." Robin said, eyebrows furrowed with confusion.

"In the presence of a stronger electromagnetic field, the needle will deflect toward that power. So, either there's some super big magnet around here, or"

"There's a gate," Lucas finished his sentence.

"But we're nowhere near the lab,"

"Well, what if somehow there's another gate? A gate that we don't know about, it'd have to be smaller. Way less powerful." Dustin theorized

"Snack-size gate."

"How? Why?" Steve asked.

"No idea. All I know is that something is causing this disturbance, and the last time we've seen anything like it, it was a gate. And I hope it is because then we'd have a way to Vecna. And a shot at freeing Max from this curse."

Dustin makes eye contact with Max. Madison let out a sigh. He began to walk away.

"Where are you going? Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Eddie's still a wanted man. We can't just go hike in the woods." Steve called out.

"This little steel capsule might be the key to saving Max and Eddie, What say you, Eddie the Banished?"

"I say you're asking me to follow you into Mordor, which, if I'm totally straight with you, I think is a really bad idea. But, uh, the Shire, the Shire is burning." Eddie stood up from his spot, hands on his hips. "So, Mordor it is."

"What is Mordor?"

"I don't know,"Madison shrugged in response

"Get your stuff, dude. Let's go."

As she starts to walk. The sky turned dark but it wasn't even night. Madison could hear a loud ringing in her ear. Suddenly she started getting sudden flashbacks to when

She took ibuprofen in the school bathroom, the kitchen and the back of Family Video .

" Maddie?"

" Yeah?"

"Your nose"

Waking up from a terrible nightmare

The night of Starcourt Mall, she could hear her sisters scream echo in her head as The Mindflayer stabbed Billy in the chest.

" You, You're the reason why this family is falling apart."

"Let me go"

"Why didn't you save him, why did you let him go to that mall"

" Why do you care, you never even cared about him"

Neil went ahead and slapped her. The memory's started to overlap,

" It should have been you"

She covered her ears wanting it to stop. The ringing began to quiet down but that didn't make it any better.Madison pulled out her pocket knife.

A chilling voice said her name " Madison."

She turned around, instead of ringing it's a sound of a clock ticking. Madison walked slowly following the noise. She freezes out of fear as her breathing quickens now finding the Grandfather clock from The Creel house ticking right in front of her.

Madison-

"Maddie"

She snapped out of her trance and gasped. She turned around to notice Steve staring at her concerned.

"Are you ok?"

" Yeah, I'm fine, I just- dozed off for a minute."

He wasn't convinced, she looked freaked out, "Something is wrong, isn't it?"

Madison shook her head

" No"

" You know, you been acting unedge since this whole thing started." Steve snapped

" I don't want to talk about it, let's just go"

She sped walked past him, wiping the tear from her eye. Now only is Max cursed, but she is too.

A/N: OH GOD, Madison is officially under Vecna's curse. I wonder what her favorite song is 🤔