The Strangest Things (Dustin Henderson x reader)

Dear Billy

Y/N's POV

"It was here. Right here," Max said to the others as she pointed at the spot on the wall where we saw the clock. 
"A grandfather clock?" asked Nancy (Nancy and Robin were now both here). Both Max and I exchanged looks and nodded. 
"It's chime sounded as if it was breaking down. It was so real," I I said as I continued to point my flashlight at the wall. 
"And then when we got closer we woke up," said Max. 
"And my nose started to bleed again," I chimed in. 
"It seemed like they were in a trance or something," said Dustin. "Exactly what Eddie said happened to Chrissy, except...Y/N's eyes were closed as if she was concentrated," Dustin said. Max and I turned around. 
"That's not even the bad part," said Max. We made it back to Ms. Kelley's office and 
"Fred and Chrissy, they both came to Miss Kelley for help," said Max as she opened the files that were spread on Ms. Kelley's desk. "Uh, they were both having headaches. Bad headaches that wouldn't go away. And then...then the nightmares," Max stuttered. "Trouble sleeping. They'd wake up in a cold sweat. And then they started seeing things. Bad things. And these visions they just kept on getting worse and worse, until eventually...everything ended."
"Vecna's curse," said Robin. Max tensed up. 
"Chrissy's headache started a week ago. Fred's six days ago. I've been having them for five days," Max said. I took Max's hand and caressed the back of her palm with my thumb. "I don't know how long I have. All I know is that, for Fred and Chrissy, they both died twenty-four hours after their first vision. And I just saw that goddamn clock, so...looks like I'm gonna die tomorrow."
I was about to say something but there was a distant clang coming from outside. 
"Stay here," said Steve. He unplugged the lamp that was next to the door and left the room. The rest of us then trailed after him, not listening to what he said at all. We heard another clang, this time louder and closer to us. We then heard running footsteps. Steve held the lamp up defensively and a figure came around the corner. We all yelled and backed off, even the figure in front of us. It was Lucas
"Aah! It's me!" Lucas yelled. 
"Lucas?" asked Nancy. 
"It's me!" Lucas yelled again. 
"Jesus, what's wrong with you, Sinclair!" Steve screamed.
"I'm sorry," Lucas panted. 
"I could've taken you out with this lamp," Steve yelled as he shook the lamp in his hands. 
"Sorry, guys," Lucas continued to pant. "Sorry. I was just biking for eight miles," Lucas struggled. He took a second to catch his breath. "Give me a second. Shit. We've got a code red," Lucas panted. 
"What?" asked Steve. 
"Dustin," Lucas said as he walked over to Dustin. He then noticed me standing next to him. 
"Wait...you're walking?" he asked. 
"Nevermind, that. What were you going to say?" I asked, gesturing to Dustin.
"Right," Lucas said as he approached Dustin. "I've been with Jason, Patrick and Andy, and they've gone totally off the rails," Lucas told him. "They're trying to capture Eddie and they think you know where he is. You're in terrible danger." 
"All right. Yeah, that totally sucks, but we've got bigger problems than Jason now," said Dustin before looking at Max. 
"Who's Jason?" I asked. 
"Chrissy's boyfriend also captain of the basketball team," Dustin replied. 
"Got it," I said giving a thumbs up. 

We went back to Nancy's place to review the articles they found about Victor Creel, who was the first survivor of Vecna's curse. 
"Okay, be honest, uh...you guys understand any of this?" asked Steve as he paced around with one of the articles in his hand. 
"No," said Lucas. 
"It's pretty straight forward," I said. 
"Yeah," Dustin agreed with me. 
"Oh, straightforward, really?" asked Steve. 
"What's confusing to you?" asked Dustin. 
"Yeah, so far everyone Vecna has cursed has died except for this old Victor Creel dude Nancy found. He's the only known survivor," I said, waving the article in my hand. "If anyone knows how to beat this curse, it's him."
"Yeah, that's assuming he was cursed, Byers, which we don't even know. How can Vecna have existed in the 50s? It doesn't make sense," said Steve. 
"As far as we know, Eleven didn't create the Upside Down. She opened a gate to it," Dustin replied. "The Upside Down has probably been around for thousands of years. Millions. I wouldn't be surprised if it predated the dinosaurs--"
"Dinosaurs? What are we--" asked Steve.
"Okay, okay. But, if a gate didn't exist in the 50s, how did Vecna  get through?" asked Lucas. 
"And how is he getting through now?" asked Steve. 
"And why now?" asked Lucas. 
"And why then?" asked Steve. "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 thirty years later and start killing some random teens. No, I don't buy it," Steve exhaled. "Straightforward, my ass. You know, honestly you two--"Steve gestured to Dustin and I "--a little humility now and then, it wouldn't hurt you."
"Sorry," said Dustin. Steve sat down in the chair across from where Dustin and I were sitting. I then thought for a moment and realized something.
"IT," I blurted. Everyone looked to me. 
"Stephan King previewed a Novel called IT that's coming out in September about a beast that disguises itself as a clown to kill children and eat them. One important detail is that every twenty-seven years IT comes back to feed after hibernation...Vecna's last attack was in 1959 and it's 1986. So if we do the math that's--"
"Twenty-seven years," said Dustin. 
"Wait, so are we starting to believe that Vecna is a killer clown?" asked Steve. 
"No, but Stephan King must know about Vecna or has predicted his uprising. And in the book the main characters a group of children that team up to stop him," I explained. 
"Wait so now Stephan King is a profit?" asked Steve. 
"Could be. But that's just theoretical and or could just be coincidental," I explained. "And in the book there's no mention of an alternate universe like the Upside Down, just a secret lair in the sewers under an abandoned house," I explained. 
"How do you know this much about a book that hasn't even come out yet?" asked Steve. 
"Oh, Suzie got me a leaked copy of the book," I replied. 
"Suzie is a genius," said Dustin. 
"So, I got to read the whole book before it even came out," I replied. 
"Okay, so are we just going to base all of this from an unpublished book?" asked Lucas. 
"No, but it's a good way to start. And think about the connections. Vecna kills teens, It kills children. Vecna's last round of attacks were in 1959, which was twenty-seven years ago and It's attacks have a twenty-seven year time gap between feeding and hibernation."
"Are you saying we should try and get in contact with Stephan King?" asked Lucas. 
"No, that would be impossible, even if we tried we wouldn't be able to. So, we're just going to use the book as a reference if we continue to make more connections," I explained. We all paused and looked around. 
"Any idea what she's writing?" asked Dustin as he gestured to Max who was sitting at the desk, writing. Lucas shrugged and Steve looked behind towards Max. 
"Did she sleep?" asked Dustin. 
"I mean, would you?" asked Lucas. Just then, the door opened and footsteps came treading down the stairs. We all looked towards the staircase. It was Nancy and Robin. 
"Okay, so...we have a plan," said Nancy with a smile. Nancy handed Steve a document. 
"Thanks to Nancy's newspaper minions, we are now rock-star psychology students at the University of Notre Dame," Robin explained. 
"I'm now Ruth," said Nancy. 
"And I'm Rose," said Robin. 
"Ruth?" Steve asked with a smirked. Nancy smiled and shrugged. 
"Nice GPA," Dustin said, impressed. 
"Thanks," said Nancy. 
"So we called Pennhurst Asylum, told them we'd like to speak with Victor Creel for a thesis we're co-writing on paranoid schizophrenics--" said Nancy. 
"--To which they said no," Robin interjected. 
"But, we landed a three o'clock with the director," said Nancy. 
"Now all we have to do is charm him and convince him to let us talk to victor," said Robin. 
"And maybe we can rid Max of this curse," said Nancy.
"Yeah, about that," said Steve. "We've been doing our Victor Creel homework, and, uh, we got some questions.
"Lots of questions," said Lucas. 
"So do we," said Nancy. "Hopefully Victor has the answers."
"Wait, wait, wait a second. Uh...where's mine?" asked Steve. Nancy bit her cheek and smirked at Steve. Nancy, Steve, and Robin then went upstairs. 
"Dustin, how would you describe Max in her trance like state?" I asked. 
"Her eyes were grey and she was twitching out," said Dustin. 
"And how did Eddie describe Chrissy's death?" I asked. 
"Same thing except she levitated above the ground and her bones started cracking and shit,"Dustin replied. 
"The deadlights..." I said. 
"What?" asked Dustin and Lucas in unison. 
"In the book, It's true form isn't a clown, his true form is the Deadlights. He uses his Deadlights on his victims to break a person's mind because one look at the Deadlights will make a person go insane due to it not being able to be comprehended by a human mind," I explained. Dustin and Lucas exchanged confused looks. 
"Okay, you completely lost us there," said Dustin. I sighed. 
"In the book, one of the main characters, Beverly becomes a victim of the Deadlights, she floats upwards and her eyes turn grey," I explained. 
"Just like what happened to Chrissy," said Dustin. 
"How many more coincidental things are we going to find from this book you've read?" asked Lucas. 
"I don't know but we better hope we don't find anymore," I said. 
"Why? Does the book get worse?" asked Lucas.
"I--"
"--Looks like I'm stuck being the babysitter...again," said Steve. 
"Surprise, surprise," Dustin said as Steve took a seat. I started to stare off into space because everyone was being quiet. 
"--I know you guys are staring at me," said Max. I snapped my head back to reality. Everone except me started making up lame excuses. 
"How you think your eyes boring into the back of my head is protecting me from Vecna, I don't know," Max said as she stood from the desk and walked towards us. I was the only one looking at her. The guys were trying to hard to act as if they weren't. She had envelopes in her hand. I looked to the guys and then at Max who rolled her eyes. 
"You can look at me now," she said briskly. The guys made relieved comments. Max handed me an envelope. 
"For you," she said. She then handed one to Dustin, Steve and Lucas. 
"Oh, and give these to Mike, El and Will," Max said as she handed me three more envelopes. "If you can ever get a hole of them again."
"Well, I live with El and Will so it won't be a prob--"
"Hey, what are you doing?" Max asked Dustin who started to open his envelope. "No, don't. That's not for now, Don't open it now," Max snapped. 
"Don't...okay," Dustin replied as he sealed the envelope back up. "I'm sorry, what is this?" Dustin asked as he held the envelope up. We all looked up at Max. 
"It's, um...it's a fail-safe," Max replied. "For after. If things don't work out."
"Wait, whoa. Max, things are going to work out," said Lucas. 
"--No," Max interjected, shaking her head. "No, I don't need you to reassure me and tell me it's all gonna work out because people have been telling me that my entire life and and it's almost never true. It's never true. I mean, of course this asshole curses me. Should've seen that one coming."
I looked at Max with sadness in my eyes. Max deserved so much better...
Max looked at the table and saw the intercom. She picked it up and said "If we go to East Hawkins, will this still reach Pennhurst?" asked Max as she picked it up. 
"Of course," said Dustin. 
"Yeah," said Steve. "Wait, why are we talking about East Hawkins?" asked Steve. Max stared at Steve. 
"No. No. No!" Steve said in realization. Max grabbed her backpack and left the basement. We all trailed after her, out of the house.