OUTCASTS • Eddie Munson

Theories and Speculation

Ellie began to recite her story in great detail, starting with the visions that at first she thought were just a combination of sleep deprivation and smoking too much weed. She then followed on to tell them about her constant headaches and her nightmares, and how her nose would bleed at random intervals, leading her to believe that she was dying from some horrible illness. And as the boys stared at her with looks of puzzlement and shock, she told them about how Vecna had come to her in this other world and tried to kill her, but she escaped.

Dustin's face contorted into multiple different expressions, seemingly flicking back and forth between confusion, surprise and horror. The boy who sat next to him on the other hand was giving her a rather twisted look, his opinion of her was distorted due to the fact that he'd heard Jason call her every name under the sun after the pep-rally, and for days afterwards.

Steve was standing behind Ellie, he wasn't sure she even knew he was there, but when she finished her story, he came to sit down in the armchair next to her, refusing to be the first to break the silence.

"I'm sorry." Ellie told them, not wanting to look up from the slightly discoloured spot on the floor that she'd fixated her eyesight upon in order to tell this story. She could feel their eyes on her though, the sound of their breathing and Max's pen scribbling away on the paper in front of her were the only sounds that could be heard.

"Why?" Dustin asked, his tone of voice still cautious and careful.

"Why, what?"

"Why are you sorry?"

"I should've told you sooner." She responded.

"Why didn't you?" the boy beside him asked, a sneer lurking behind his words. Ellie didn't even need to look up to be able to hear that.

"When Eddie told us what happened with Chrissy, it made me realise just how close to dying I was. All I could think about was being found cold, and lifeless, my bones snapped to the point of which I'm near enough unrecognisable. And then all that ran through my mind was how no one would even notice, or care that I was gone. It hit me like a brick wall, and I just shut down. It was only when I got home that night that I sort of made peace with it. I told myself that I would help you guys, or die trying." Her eyes still remained fixed on the floor, "I was going to tell you all yesterday morning after we'd spoken to Eddie, but then all the cops went past and... well, here I am." She finished.

"Well shit." Dustin said.

Ellie finally looked up, making direct eye contact with Dustin, his lips slowly turning into a smile as he looked at her.

"What?" She asked.

"Don't you know what this means?" He exclaimed, turning to both Steve and the other boy.

"No, what?" Steve asked.

Dustin didn't respond, simply giving Steve a glance that indicated he should know.

"What?" Steve asked again, clueless. He turned to look at Ellie, who was looking at Dustin quizzically. Something clicked in his head. "Oh!"

"Yeah!" Dustin confirmed.

"What's going on?" The other boy asked.

"Victor Creel isn't the only survivor anymore." Dustin told him.

"Yeah but she doesn't even know how she got away." He replied.

"I ran towards a portal in the sky." Ellie sarcastically smiled at the air. She'd left the part out about the music, hoping that the boys would be able to give her an actual answer as to how she escaped.

"Lucas, don't you see?" Dustin told him, "we know now that Vecna's curse can be broken!"

Lucas. Ellie told herself, making a mental note of his name due to the fact that she hadn't bothered asking him for it.

"Yeah but we don't know how!" He exclaimed, his arms coming up in frustration as he almost shouted at Dustin.

Ellie sighed lightly. She would tell them about how her favourite song seemingly dragged her out at some point. But for now, it was her only theory, and she felt as though the smart thing to do would be to talk through her experience without it, in the hopes that the boys came up with other theories, just in case hers turned out to be wrong.

Dustin responded to Lucas's statement by slamming himself back into the couch, huffing loudly.

"I really am sorry I didn't tell you about this sooner." Ellie told them, not addressing anyone in particular.

"Don't worry about that, you've told us now, and that's what matters." Steve told her, "right, Lucas?"

Lucas responded by giving him an overwhelmingly sarcastic smile, still refusing to make eye contact with the girl who Jason had told him to stay far away from.

Ellie nodded her head at Steve in a form of thanking him.

"So." Dustin began. "Tell us what you saw again."

Ellie looked at him as she spoke this time, "So after I ran out of my house in this... upside down - or whatever it was you called it earlier - the world was sort of laid out the same as it is here, and then all of a sudden it wasn't. It's like he could manipulate the surroundings or something. But it was like some kind of wasteland, there were dead trees dotted around, weird living vines everywhere, and what looked like a half destroyed house in the middle of it all."

Dustin pondered for a second, trying to picture it in his head.

"And what went through your mind as he reached you?"

"Like, everything? Or just the basics?" She asked.

"Both."

"Well I mean the first and foremost thought I had was that I was absolutely terrified for my life. I've never felt my survival instinct kick in so strong." She told him, "but if we're going into deep specifics, my train of thought was all over the place. He told me I wasn't able to escape, so naturally all I wanted was to prove him wrong even though I thought it was hopeless." She half chuckled thinking about how certain her words had sounded as she told Vecna "watch me" after he told her she couldn't leave. "And if we're going really deep, I was thinking about my mom." She paused for a second, gathering her thoughts in her mind as she tried to form sentences in her head.

"I thought I was going to die, and all I thought about was how my mom had tried to call me before she died, and how helpless she must've felt when I didn't come to her aid. I started spiralling into that, it must've been only mere seconds but I suddenly came to the conclusion that I wasn't her lifeline, and that she didn't end her life because of an argument with me, she ended her life because she was unhappy, and in her final moments, she called the place she knew I'd be. Even if she didn't get to speak to me, she let me know that she was thinking of me before she went. I tried to resolve myself of my guilt before Vecna killed me." She told Dustin. For the first time putting words to the thoughts that ran through her mind as Vecna was reaching his arm towards her in the Upside Down.

"Now that's interesting." Dustin responded.

She glanced towards Steve who was watching her as she spoke. Her gave her a small comforting smile in reassurance.

Ellie looked back to the floor, she was about to mention to them about the music that had played, when another voice broke the silence.

"I can feel you staring at me, Lucas."