Call it quits |Eddie Munson|

TWENTY-THREE

At Victor Creels house, Max, Lucas and Erica walked through the house. They had taken off their shoes to not let Vecna know they were there.

Max walked through the attic of the house as she held the lantern in front go her, through her headphones, Kate Bush blasted. A story beneath her, Lucas searched the rooms with his lantern, and beneath him Erica searched the grounds.

Erica entered the living room, when her lantern began to shine brighter than before. The bright light lit up the room as Erica squinted her eyes, she quickly sat down her lantern and went to find her brother. Lucas was still searching rooms when Erica found him, she took out her note book and wrote down, 'found Vecna', and showed it to her brother.

The three were gathered around the bright lantern downstairs and watched it glow. Max slowly creeped forward, as she approached she watched as her own lantern followed the same pattern and light up bright.

She anxiously looked back at her friends, Erica took out her notebook again and wrote something down. Lucas watched as he little sister showed him the book, 'Phase one?', it said. Lucas swallowed and nodded slowly before Erica turned around and softly ran out of the house.

Erica ran out the door, down the steps of the porch and over the street. It was dark outside as she ran over the grass to the middle of the field. On the other side of the street was a playground, in the middle stood a climbing frame in the shape of a rocket ship. She panted as she ran towards it and climbed in.

_

Over at the trailer park, Eddie and Dustin were securing the premises. They took large plates of metal, they had found somewhere around the park, and drilled them to the sides of Eddie's trailer making sure to cover the windows. They spun barbed wire and some wired fencing around the door, they added some extra layers of protection here and there and with a final ladder to the side of the house, it was done.

Eddie and Dustin took a few steps back as they admired their work. The trailer now looked more like a fort, it was defended on all sided and with the storm swirling above, flashing red through the dark sky, it looked really quite cool.

"Not bad." Eddie sighed.

"Not bad at all." Dustin agreed.

The two looked at each other and chuckled a little, after months of playing D&D they were now living out the dream. It felt like a dream, but was it what they had hoped for? Not exactly.

"Now for the fun part." Eddie smiled as he and Dustin walked back to the trailer.

They entered the trailer and walked to Eddie's room. Eddie went in first and immediately sighed as he walked over to his guitar that hung by the mirror.

"Jesus Chr..." He sighed shocked.

Dustin chuckled lightly as Eddie walked over to the guitar.

"It's like... she was destined for an alternate detention." Eddie said. "What do you say, Henderson?" He took the guitar off the hook. "Are you ready for the most metal concert in the history of the world?"

"That a rhetorical question?" Dustin chuckled.

Eddie smiled at him as he hung the guitar over his shoulder. "Let's do it."

_

Somewhere in the forest near the trailer park walked Robin, Nancy, Steve and Julia. They shone their flashlights in front of them as they walked in a row. It was dark, creepy and not exactly warm. In the distance unknown creatures screeched as thunder from the storm above rumbled through the night.