Lily had just managed to lean her head back against the rock, her eyelids fluttering shut when a twig snapped in the distance. Her eyes shot back open as she quickly looked at Eddie, a panicked look crossing his eyes before his head turned in the direction of the sound.

"Someone's here," he whispered as a second branch snapped, crawling out from under the rock formation to hide on the other side from where the sound was coming from, and motioning for her to follow him.

The two crawled behind the line of boulders surrounding Skull Rock, trying to keep as much distance between them and the pairs of footsteps that were now growing louder as they marched through the woods. Eddie and Lily continued around the boulders, silently praying that their friends had finally found them but preparing for the worst if it was an unwelcome party.

"Oh, boom!" a familiar voice exclaimed, accompanied by the sounds of more fumbling through the underbrush, and Lily sighed in relief at the realization that the voice belonged to Steve. "Bada bing, bada boom, in your face, Henderson, Skull Rock!"

Lily glanced over at Eddie to see him about to pass out from the relief that he was safe, that they had been found, as more footsteps reached the clearing.

"In your face, man," Steve continued. "In your stupid, cocky little face."

"It doesn't make sense," Dustin said, and she could see the corners of Eddie's mouth turn up into a relieved smile at his friend's voice.

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

Eddie finally found his footing, climbing up over the rock they'd been hiding behind and leaping down to the ground. Lily followed suit, landing behind Eddie as Dustin and Steve turned around, jumping slightly at their sudden movements.

"I concur," Eddie agreed. "You, Dustin Henderson, are a total butthead."

"Jesus, we thought you were goners," Dustin said, stepping forward to pull Eddie into a hug, and Lily looked over to see the rest of the group behind them.

Steve and Dustin were followed closely by Nancy, Robin, Debbie, Sarah, and Nick, who rushed after Dustin to give her brother a hug. Bringing up the rear of the group were Lucas and Max, and as the younger Mayfield's eyes met that of her older sister, she ran forward, tightly throwing her arms around Lily.

"Are you alright?" Max asked, her face buried in Lily's shoulder as Lily hugged her back tightly.

Lily nodded. "I'm okay," she said, though she wasn't quite sure if she was trying to assure her sister or herself.

When Max finally stepped out of Lily's arms, Lily was then greeted by Nick, who, to her surprise, gave her a quick hug. "We're so glad you guys are safe." Nick said, and Lily nodded back in understanding before she was then hugged by Sarah and Debbie.

"Thought you might be hungry," Debbie said, holding out a sandwich and a canister of water, and she took them eagerly.

"Thank you," she said, looking over to see Eddie crouching down by the rock formation with a sandwich and water bottle of his own, along with a bottle of beer from his much requested six pack as a bag of groceries lay on the ground next to him.

Lily took a seat next to Eddie as she unwrapped her sandwich, the rest of the group settling in around them, though they stayed on their feet. She took a bite of the ham and cheese, her stomach growling in response as the last thing she'd eaten was the PopTart she'd found in her purse back at the boathouse.

"We went to bring you guys your groceries, but when we got to Rick's, the place was swarming with cops." Robin explained.

"They uh..." Max trailed off nervously, her eyes landing on her sister. "They said it was Patrick's body they found there last night." as she spoke, Lily could feel everyone's eyes moving in her direction, and she glanced down briefly for a moment before she looked back up at Max, nodding.

"Yeah," Lily confirmed, though her voice came out barely more than a squeak. "Yeah, it was Patrick."

"And there's one other thing." Nancy said, Lily's eyes moving back in her direction as she watched Lily and Eddie with a stone faced expression. "They released Eddie's name to the public on the news this morning as the prime suspect in the case. Not only that, but Jason must've told Powell that Lily was on the boat last night, and when they were searching the boathouse, they found your purse and your cardigan. They've named you as a hostage, said Eddie's been keeping you and that you might be in danger."

"What?" Lily asked, the few bites she'd taken of her sandwich now feeling like lead as she wrapped up the rest of it, setting it down next to her as she looked over at Eddie. Eddie stared back at her, his eyes now glassed over with hurt as he processed Nancy's words. "That's bullshit, Eddie's not the one endangering me."

"We know that," Nancy assured her. "But they don't know that yet."

"Except now, if anybody finds you it's game over, because they know you've been spotted with Eddie." Nick added. "So we have to make sure that nobody finds either of you."

"What happened last night?" Lucas asked.

"We were in the boathouse yesterday when Jason's Jeep pulled into Rick's driveway." Lily explained, pulling her knees up to her chest. "Somehow he found out that someone was at Rick's house, so he, Patrick, and Andy decided to come investigate. Jason had a crowbar, and the others had baseball bats for if they found Eddie. We hid while they searched the house, and once it got dark, we tried to escape in the boat. That's when Jason and Patrick found us, and while they were coming after us, suddenly Patrick started looking around, as if he were seeing something."

"Or hearing something," Max spoke up. "It happened to me, too. That clock Vecna showed me in my hallucinations, chiming."

Lily nodded. "Suddenly, he disappeared under water, and Jason couldn't find him. The next thing I knew, he was flying into the air, like Max did back at the cemetery. While we were watching it happen, the boat got off balance and capsized, and we fell in. When I got back up to the surface, he was already-" her voice cut off in a slight whimper. "He was already gone."

Lucas's eyes shut tightly as she spoke, the rest of the group watching them with solemn expressions.

"We got the boat back up, and got away from Jason." Eddie continued. "Y'know, did the thing that I do now, apparently. We ran." he chuckled humorlessly. "When we got here, I wanted to try calling you guys, but then I realized the walkie was still in the lake. Not that it would've done any good after taking a swim, anyways."

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

"Yeah, no, I know exactly what time it was." Eddie assured her, reaching up to unfasten the watch from around his wrist. "My walkie wasn't the only thing that got soaked." he said, holding the watch up before tossing it to her.

Nancy swiftly caught the watch, studying the numbers frozen on the face. "9:27," she read aloud.

"Same time our flashlights went kablooey." Robin said.

"Which means what, exactly?" Steve asked, his eyebrows pinching together in confusion.

"That that surge of energy was Vecna attacking Patrick." Nancy explained.

"Well, we're one step closer." Robin offered. "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." Robin scoffed.

"A stake? Is he like a vamp- is he a vampire?" Steve asked, his eyes widening slightly.

"It was a metaphor." Max sighed.

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

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

"Yeah, I'd say all of the above, but we can't do any of that until we find a way to get into the Upside Down." Nancy pointed out.

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

"Yeah, everything was way easier." Steve agreed, before looking back over at Eddie. "We had this girl, she had superpowers-"

"Superpowers, yeah, you mentioned her." Eddie said, his eyes moving away from Steve to where Dustin was pacing around behind them. "Hey, uh, Henderson's not uh, cursed, is he?"

At Eddie's words, Lily's eyes fell on where Dustin continued pacing. He looked deep in thought, studying the compass in his hands before looking off at something in the distance, not unlike the way Max had sometimes stared off in the distance that day before they'd gone to the cemetery, or how Patrick looked around the night before just before he'd been pulled under the water, and Lily's blood ran cold at the possibility that he, too, might have been cursed.

"Cursed?" Steve asked. "No, no, no, he's fine. Mental?" he scoffed. "Absolutely."

"Absolutely." Nick agreed.

"Boom!" Dustin shouted suddenly, causing the others to jump slightly before turning to face where he stood with a victorious grin on his face. "Bada, bada, boom." he whispered, stepping closer to them while pointing an accusatory finger at Steve. "I was right. Skull Rock was north."

"Seriously?" Steve asked, his eyes widening. "You're serious?"

"Mm-hmm," Dustin hummed in response.

"This is Skull Rock!" Steve exclaimed, gesturing up to the formation above where Eddie and Lily still sat. "Okay?" he asked, and Dustin nodded in response. "You're totally, absolutely, one hundred percent wrong. Right now!"

"Yes," Dustin agreed, "and no."

"What?" Sarah asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"This compass worked correctly when we left the Wheelers'." Dustin explained. "It was correct when we got in the car on Kerley, 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." he said, holding up the small device in his hand.

"So you're using faulty equipment." Steve deduced. "Dude, you're still wrong."

"Except it isn't faulty." Dustin pointed out, turning back to where Lucas and Max were standing. "Lucas, do you remember what can affect a compass?"

Lucas's eyes widened as he put together Dustin's words. "An electromagnetic field," he said.

"Yep," Dustin confirmed proudly, turning back to the older teenagers with a knowing grin.

"I'm sorry, I must've skipped that class?" Robin asked, looking at Dustin as if he'd sprouted a second head.

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

"There's a gate." Lucas concluded.

"But we're nowhere near the lab." Nancy pointed out.

"But what if, somehow, there's another gate?" Dustin asked. "A gate that we don't know about. It'd have to be smaller, way less powerful."

"A snack sized gate." Robin suggested.

"How?" Steve asked.

"And why?" Debbie added.

"No idea," Dustin admitted. "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." As he finished speaking, Dustin turned away from the group, starting a trek away from Skull Rock.

"Where are you going?" Steve asked as Dustin began to walk away. "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!" he called out, stopping the younger boy in his tracks. "Eddie and Lily are still wanted, we can't just go for a hike in the woods!"

"This little steel capsule might be the key to saving Max, Lily, and Eddie." Dustin pointed out, holding up the compass as he looked over at Eddie. "What say you, Eddie the Banished?"

Everyone's eyes moved back over to Eddie, who now studied the ground in front of him, deep in thought.

"I say you're asking me to follow you into Mordor." Eddie said cryptically, his eyes looking back up in Dustin's direction. "Which, if I'm totally straight with you, I think is a really bad idea." As Eddie spoke, his eyes moved up towards the sky. "But uh, the Shire... the Shire is burning," he mused, and Dustin began to jump up and down excitedly as Eddie pulled himself up to his feet and gave him a smile.

"So Mordor it is."