Queen of the Freaks // Eddie Munson

Seventeen

A/N- writing style has changed just a small amount since the last update

Max, Lucas, Eddie, Robin, Dustin and I search through Eddie's room for any sort of music Nancy would like.

Erica rushes into the room. "Steve says you need to hurry!" She shouts.

"Yeah? No shit!" Dustin yells. "We're trying. We can't find anything." Max says.

"Seriously? What even is this shit?" Robin asks as she basically turns Eddie's room upside down.

"What are you even looking for?" Eddie asks. "Madonna, Blondie, Bowie, Beatles? Music! We need music!" Robin shouts.

Eddie rips a tape out of Robin's hands. "This! Is! Mussiccc!" He yells.

"We need something Nancy would like, what the hell does Nancy like?!" I ask and look around at everyone.

"How the hell should we know?!" Dustin shouts as he continues to look through the tapes.

Erica runs out of the room. "Guys! Get in here!" She yells. We all follow her into the living room.

"She's up! She's up!" Steve shouts from the hole in the ceiling. We help as much as we can to get Nancy across.

"What the hell happened in there Nance?" Steve asks while leading Nancy to the couch after he had climbed through the portal.

"He showed me..everything." Nancy says. "Everything? What..what do you mean by everything?" Robin asks.

"His entire life. He was a boy once. He's Viktor Creel's son." Nancy explains everything to us.

"So Eleven's fought him before?" I ask. Nancy nods. "This is fucking insane." Dustin says.

"He showed me things that haven't happened yet. The most awful things. I saw.. a dark cloud, spreading over Hawkins. Downtown on fire. Dead soldiers. And this giant creature with... a gaping mouth. And this creature wasn't alone. There were so many monsters. An army. And they were coming into Hawkins. Into our neighborhoods. Our homes. And then.. he showed me my mom. And Holly. Mike. And they..they were all.." Nancy explains.

"Okay, but.. he's just trying to scare you, Nance." Steve says. "Right? I mean.. it's not real." He adds.

"Not yet. But there... there was something else. He showed me gates. Four gates. Spreading across Hawkins. And these gates, they looked like the one outside of Eddie's trailer, but they didn't stop growing. And this wasn't the Upside Down Hawkins. This was our Hawkins.  Our home." Nancy explains.

"Four chimes." I say and look to Max. "Vecna's clock." She says. "It always chimes four times.." She says. "Four exactly." I say.

"I heard them too." Nancy says. "He's been telling us his plan this whole time." I say.

"Four kills.." Lucas says. "Four gates.... End of the world." He adds. We all look uneasy.

"If that's true... he's only one kill away." Dustin says while shaking his head softly.

"Oh Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ." Eddie says as he puts his head into his hands. I put my hand on his knee, trying to comfort him.

"Call the Byers." Steve tells Max. "They haven't been answering for the past three days!" She complains. "Try them again." Steve says.

I lean my head on Eddie's shoulder. "It's busy again." Max says and puts the phone back. "Maybe you punched it wrong. Try again." Steve says.

"I didn't put it in wrong." Max says. "Well, I don't know." Steve says. "I think she knows how to work a phone, Steve." I say. "I'm just saying, she could've typed it in wrong." He says. Max calls again.

"Same shit." She says and slams the phone on the wall. "How is that possible?" Lucas asks. "Joyce has this new telemarketer job. She's always on the phone." I say.

"This phone's been busy for three days now, that's not like Joyce, no way, something's wrong" Max says.

"She's right. It can't be just coincidence. It can't be." Nancy says. "Whatever's happening in Lenora is connected to all of this. I'm sure of it. But Vecna can't hurt them, not if he's dead." She adds.

"We have to go back in there. Back to the Upside Down." Nancy says. I tense up. "Whoa, no no no." Steve says. "Nope." Eddie says.

"What? No. Let's think this through." Steve says. "What is there to think through?" Nancy asks. "We barely made it out of there." Steve says. "Yeah, because we weren't prepared." Nancy says.

"This time we'll get weapons and protection." I run my hand through my hair as Eddie wraps his arm around my shoulder. "We'll go through the gate, we'll find his lair, and we'll kill him." Nancy says.

"Or he'll kill us. The only reason that you survived is because he wanted you to. He's not scared of us." Steve argues.

"And for good reason! We were wrong about Vecna... Henry... One. Sorry, what're we calling him now?" Robin asks.

"One." "Vecna." "One." "Henry."

"Right. We've learned something new about Vecna/Henry/One. He's a number like Eleven, only a sick, evil, male, child-murdering version of her with really bad skin. But my.. my point is, he's super powerful." Robin talks so fast she stutters.

"He could turn us inside out with a snap of his fingers. It's not a fair fight." Robin says. "So then why fight fair?" Dustin asks.

"You're right, he's like Eleven, but that gives us an upper hand. We know Eleven's strengths.." Dustin says. "And her weaknesses." I finish, lifting my head off of Eddie's shoulder. Dustin nods and smiles.

"When El remote-travels, she goes into like this sort of trance-like state. I bet the same is true of Vecna." Dustin says. "That would explain what he was doing in that attic." Lucas says.

"Exactly. When he attacks his next victim, I'll bet you he's back in that attic, physical body defenseless." Dustin says.

"Defenseless? Yeah, What about the army of bats?" Steve asks pointing at the scars on his neck.

"True. We'll have to find a good way past them. Distract them somehow." Dustin says. "And, uh, how do we do that, exactly?" Eddie asks.

"No idea.... But once they're gone, he doesn't stand a chance. It'll be like slaying sleeping Dracula in his coffin." Dustin says.

"That all sounds good in theory, but there is no pattern to Vecna's killing. Atleast, not one that I can decipher. We don't know when he's going to attack next. We don't even know who he's going to attack next." Robin says.

"Yeah, we do. I can still feel him. I'm still marked. Cursed. I ditch Kate Bush, I draw his focus back to me." Max says.

"Max. No. I'll do it." I say. "You aren't in there anymore, Angela. You aren't connected. I can feel it." Max says. "Maybe if I'm in there he'll want me, he has to, I'm not letting you go, Max." I argue.

"I've survived before. I can survive again. This is the only way." Max says. I shake my head. "I just need to keep him busy long enough to that you guys can get into that attic. The you can chop his head off, stab him in the heart, or blow him up with some explosive Dustin cooks up. I honestly don't care how you put that asshole in his grave, just... try not to miss." She says.

We all slowly look around at eachother, knowing this is our only option.