Together, until the end | Eddie Munson

The plan

"NANCY STAY WITH ME! STAY WITH ME" Steve continues undaunted to shake the young woman "Do something up there. Hurry up!"

Everyone trembles and breathes heavily rushing to Eddie's room in search of tapes.

"Steve says you have to hurry!" Erica runs in Eddie's room where everyone is looking for music that Nancy might like. Which is very difficult because Eddie only listen to metal music.

"Oh really!" Vivien replies searching through the tapes
"We can't find anything here!" and Max
"Seriously! What is this?!" Robin yells
"Tell me what we're looking for!" Eddie asks her
"Madonna, Blondie, Bowie, Beatles? Music! We need music!"
Eddie snatches the tape out of her hand and yells "THIS IS MUSIC!"

But luckily Nancy wakes up, breathless and collapses on the ground in Steve's arms "Hey, hey...it's okay. Everything is okay. It's me..." the boy reassures her as he crosses the portal with all the strength left

After calming down, Vivien, Eddie, Steve, Nancy, Lucas, Max, and Dustin all walk into Max's trailer and sit on the couch. On alert and worried about what happened before. Vivi sits next to Eddie and gives him a sad smile.
The girl tried to phone her mother Joyce but no one answered.

"He showed me things that...didn't happened. The most atrocious things. I saw a dark cloud spreading over Hawkins." She takes a short break sighing heavily "The city on fire. Dead soldiers. And this...this huge creature with...the frightened mouth and it wasn't alone. There were so many monsters. An army. And they were walking into Hawkins, into our neighborhoods, into our homes, and then...she showed me my mom and Holly, Mike and they...were all..." she doesn't finish the sentence that a tear falls slowly on her face

"Okay but...he's trying to scare you, Nance. No? I mean, it's not real." Steve tries to calm her down
"Not yet. But there was something else. He showed me portals. Four portals that opened onto Hawkins and...they looked like Eddie's house, but they kept widening. And that was not the Hawkins of the upside down. That was our Hawkins. Our home..." the girl continues as she tries to contain the sobs

"Four chimes. Vecna's watch. It always rings four times." Maxine adds with her arms crossed to her chest
"I heard them too..." Nancy responds meeting Max's gaze
"He told us what his plan was from the beginning. Four kills...four portals," Vivien interrupted, keeping her eyes down
"If that's true, he only has one murder left," Dustin supposes
"Oh Jesus Christ.... Jesus Christ!" Eddie brings his hands to his face in desperation and the girl carries her head on his shoulder as soon as he notices how scared he is.

"Call back." Steve says to Vivien pointing at the phone, she leaves Eddie's shoulder and approaches the phone
"Nothing?"
"No...a couple of rings and then gives busy."
"How is that possible?"
"I told you, Joyce works in telemarketing she is always on the phone" Dustin replays
"Okay, but since when busy? Three days? My mom never does that...something is wrong." Vivien lies annoyed on the sofa with her face in her hands. Eddie realizes and gently puts a hand on her shoulder, bringing her closer to himself.

"Whatever happens to Lenora is connected to this. I'm sure of it. But Vecna can't hurt, not  if he's dead..." Nancy continues and turns suddenly towards the boys "Let's go back there..."
"What? No."
"Nope, nope."Steve and Eddie respond to injection
"I agree with Nancy" Vivien interrupts getting up
"Hey, think about it. We barely made it out of there."
"Because we were unprepared. We must be armed with weapons and precautions. We will cross the portal and kill him"
"Or will he kill us?"
"Steve...this has to stop. I can't do this anymore, I'm sick of it."

"It's for a good reason," Robin also says, "We were wrong about Vecna, Henry, one. Sorry, how do we call him now?"
"One"
"Vecna"
"Henry"
"Now we understand one thing about Vecna/Henry/Uno. It's a number, like Eleven, but in the insane, male and homicidal version. But the point is he's super powerful. He can kill you with a snap of your fingers. It doesn't play neatly."

"Then we play dirty, it's like Eleven. But this gives us an advantage" Dustin interrupts her
"We have to know El's strengths and her weaknesses."
"Weaknesses?" Erica asks him shocked
"When El goes into people's heads she falls into a kind of trance. It will be the same for Vecna"
"It would explain what he was doing in that loft" Lucas supposes
"Exactly. When he'll attacks again
I bet he'll do it from that loft with his defenseless body!"

"Defenseless? And the army of bats?" Steve asks him pointing at the still fresh wounds on his neck
"True, we will have to find a way to distract and overcome them"
"Um, and how exactly do we do it?" Eddie asks and stand up
"No idea," the boy replies and then he sits down again "But once knocked out it will be a piece of cake."
"But we don't know when it will attack again, or who will be the next victim!" Robin continues

"Yes, I do. I still feel it. I'm still branded, cursed. I turn off Kate Bush and draw him to me..."
"Max...you can't so you'll get yourself killed" Vivien approaches her friend putting a hand on her shoulder
"I survived once, I'll survive again. I just have to keep him occupied while I enter in the loft. And then you're gonna blow him up, impale him...I don't care how you'll kill that asshole. But whatever you'll do...don't miss him."
"Max, I want you to promise me you'll be careful and...and you too, Lucas, please."
"We will be. We promise" Lucas responds crossing Max's almost absent gaze

As they speak Vivien cross Eddie's gaze, he's scared, worried, and his eyes are shiny as if he's about to cry
"Maxie, can I go to the other room just one minute?" Maxine nods, Vivien takes Eddie by his hand, takes him to Max's room and closes the door behind her.

"Eds, is everything okay?" Vivien asks him while they sit down on the bed. He doesn't answer for a couple of seconds but takes her in his arms and puts his head in the crock of her neck and starts sobbing.
The girl didn't know what to do, so she keeps rubbing his back and caressing his hair.
After a while she feels Eddie tear himself away from her arms with his face covered in tears, Vivi places her hands on his cheeks and wipes away the tears with her thumbs while those beautiful puppy eyes look at her.
"So Eddie the banished, do you feel better now?"
"...thank you" he whispers while Vivi gives him a kiss on the cheek
"I think I know where to get weapons."