𝐒𝐞𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐀𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝘌. 𝘔𝘶𝘯𝘴𝘰𝘯

𝐑𝐮𝐭𝐡, 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐥

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The teen girls ran into the high school and quickly found Max, Dustin and Steve. "It was here. Right here." 

"A grandfather clock?" Cassie asked. 

"It was so real." Max muttered. "And then, when I got closer, suddenly I just... I woke up."

"It was like she was in a trance or something. Exactly what Eddie said happened to Chrissy."

"That's not even the bad part." Max said as she turned to the group. "Fred and Chrissy, they both came to Miss Kelley for help. Uh, they both were having headaches, bad headaches that wouldn't go away. And then... Then the nightmares. Trouble sleeping. They'd wake up in a cold sweat. Then they started seeing things. Bad things. From their pasts. These visions, they just... They kept on getting worse and worse, until eventually... Everything ended."

Cassie's mind went back to her sketches that she constantly drew. There was a grandfather clock in each one. After a long debate with herself she chose to keep her drawings to herself. It could be just a coincidence, right?

"I'm going to die in 24 hours." Max stated. Cassie held her hand in silence. 

A loud bang in the distance broke their silence. "Stay here." Steve said as he left, grabbing the lamp. Everyone followed anyway. The footsteps approached rapidly. Steve began to swing and the voice screamed along with everyone else. "It's me!"

"Lucas?" Nancy asked. 

"It's me."

"Jesus, what's wrong with you, Sinclair?" Steve huffed. 

"I'm sorry." Lucas managed to get out his words. 

"I could've taken you out with this lamp!" 

"Really Steve, really?" Cassie judged.

"Sorry, guys. Sorry. I was... I was biking for eight miles. Give me a second. Shit." Lucas panted.  "We've got a code red."

"What?"

"Dustin." Lucas walked towards him. "I've been with Jason, Patrick, and Andy, and they've gone totally off the rails. They're trying to capture Eddie, and they think you know where he is. You're in terrible danger."

"All right. Yeah, that definitely sucks, but we've got bigger problems than Jason now." Everyone looked at Max who was under Cassie's arm.  

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They had gone back to Nancy's basement where Cassie, Steve, Lucas and Dustin were reading the article. "Okay, be honest. Uh... You guys understand any of this?"

"No." Lucas sighed placing the paper died. 

"Pretty straightforward." Dustin shrugged. 

"Oh, straightforward, really?" Steve asked.

"What's confusing to you? So far, everyone Vecna has cursed has died, except for this old Victor Creel dude Nancy found. He's the only known survivor. If anyone knows how to beat this curse, it's him." Dustin said.

"That with the assumption that he was curse. Maybe Vecna only curses mothers and children.

"How can Vecna have existed in the '50s? It doesn't make sense." Steve rubbed his head. 

"Eleven didn't create the Upside Down. She opened a gate to it. The Upside Down has probably been around for thousands of years. Millions. I wouldn't be surprised if it predated the dinosaurs." Cassie threw the paper down. 

"Dinosaurs? What are we..." Steve sighed in confusion. 

"Okay. But if a gate didn't exist in the '50s, how did Vecna get through?" Lucas spoke. 

"How's he getting through now?" 

"And why now?" Cassie said as she ran her hands threw her hair. 

"And why then? Just pops out in the '50s, kills one family, and he's like, 'I'm good.' And poof, he just disappears. Just... gone? Only to return 30 years later and start killing random teens? No, I don't buy it." Steve sighed before looking back the paper. "Straightforward, my ass." he flopped into the chair. "Honestly, Henderson, a little humility now and then, it wouldn't hurt you."

"Sorry." 

"Any idea what she's writing?" the group turned to looking Max who was at the little desk under the stairs. "Did she sleep?"

"I mean, would you?" Lucas asked. 

Much like Max, Cassie was trying to avoid sleep. She didn't want people knowing she sleepwalks. Be labelled as a freak? She would rather die. 

Nancy and Robin both came running down the stairs. "Okay, so we have a plan." Nancy announced. 

"Thanks to Nancy's minions, we are now rock-star psychology students at the University of Notre Dame."

"I'm now Ruth."

"And I'm Rose. Cassie is Rachel."

"Ruth?" Steve judged.

"Nice GPA." Dustin commented. 

"Thanks. So we called Pennhurst Asylum, told them we'd like to speak with Creel for a thesis we're co-writing on paranoid schizophrenics... To which they said no. But we landed a three o'clock with the director. Now all we have to do is charm him and convince him to let us talk to Victor. Then maybe we can rid Max of this curse." Nancy explained and Cassie couldn't lie she liked the sound of the plan. 

"About that. We've been doing our Victor Creel homework, and, uh we got some questions. Lots of questions."

"So do we. Hopefully, Victor has the answers." Nancy said firmly. 

"Wait... Wait... Wait a second. Uh... Where's mine?" Steve, Cassie and Robin followed Nancy into her room. 

"Nancy, you're outta your mind if you think I'm babysitting again."

"First, they're not babies anymore. And Max is in real danger. She needs people around her."

"I know. But why me?"

"Oh my God, you have a Tom Cruise poster." Robin exclaimed as she looked at the girl's room. "You have a Tom Cruise poster."

"That's old. It's just... " Robin laughs. "Can you please not touch anything?" 

Cassie flopped on her bed as she realised Nancy still had her picture that Johnathan took of the two of them at Christmas. She held the picture with a small genuine smile. 

"I can't do anything here, Nance. Maybe I can be helpful with this asylum director dude. I don't know. I could turn on my... my charm."

"Not the charm we need." Nancy looked the boy up and down. 

"Ouch."

"No, I just..." Nancy sighed. "I did a little digging last night, and it turns out this Dr. Hatch is a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a Harvard visiting schola"r, okay? This is a lifelong student of the world. If we're gonna win him over, we're gonna have to convince him we are too. That, like him we are true academic scholars."

"Holy shit. There's a little ballerina in here." Robin whispered at Cassie who just glanced at the girl. 

"Academic scholar? She's giving you an academic scholar vibe?"

"Yeah. No, but she will." Nancy held out a set of frilly clothes.  

"Oh, please, tell me you're joking." Robin outwardly shook her head.

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