cursed (2022)

chapter twenty-one: vecna's curse

I'm in the car with Steve, Robin, and Dustin. We're on the way to Eddie with food and drinks since the cops think he killed Chrissy. I didn't get any sleep last night. I woke up in a sweat because of another nightmare about Billy. My headache went away for a little while, but it came back. I'm starting to think I might be sick, but that's the least of our problems right now.

Dustin swings open the door in a way that could startle someone.

"Jesus! Eddie yells.

"Delivery service," Dustin smiles. Steve waves at him.

Dustin hands him the bag of goods, which he accepts gratefully. I take some more Tylenol. I think Steve noticed I've been taking it an awful lot because he said, "Don't overdose, Mayfield", to which I responded with by telling him he's not funny.

Eddie is digging into his Honey Comb cereal as Dustin prepares to tell him that the cops are out for his ass.

Dustin pulls up a stool, "So, we got, uh, some good news and some bad news. How do you prefer it?"

"Bad news first, always," Eddie says with a mouthful.

"Alright, bad news," Dustin nods. "We tapped into the Hawkins PD dispatch with our Cerebro, and they're definitely looking for you. Also, they're, uh, pretty convinced you killed Chrissy."

"Like, a hundred percent kind of convinced," I add.

"And the good news?" Eddie turns to Dustin.

"Your name hasn't gone public yet," Robin says. "But if we found out about you, it's only a matter of time before others do too, and once that gets out, everyone and their shallow-minded mother is gonna be gunning for you."

In my opinion, that's not really good news if it's going to get bad anyway.

Eddie gives her a scared look, "Hunt the freak, right?"

"Exactly," she nods.

"Shit." Eddie panics.

"So, before that happens, we need to find Vecna, kill him, and prove your innocence." Dustin says.

"That's all, Dustin? That's all?" Eddie says sarcastically. He reminds me of Steve. I'm pretty sure they'd get along if Eddie wasn't a stoner and Dustin wasn't in the picture.

Unable to sense sarcasm when it slaps him in the face, Dustin says, "Yeah, no, that's pretty much it."

"Listen, Eddie," Robin sighs. "I know everything Dustin is saying sounds totally delusional, but we've actually been through this kind of thing before- I mean, they have a few times, and I have once. Mine was more human-flesh-based, and theirs was more smoke-related, but bottom line is, collectively, I really feel like we got this."

I don't!

"Yeah, see, we usually rely on this girl who has super powers but, uh, those went bye-bye, so, uh..." Steve's voice trails off.

"So we're technically in more of the-"

Robin doesn't know what to say, so I help her, "Brainstorming phase."

"Brainstorming," Steve snaps his fingers.

"There's...there's nothing to worry about," Dustin says in an unconvincing manner.

Steve scoffs and agrees. He and Dustin glance at each other before they both look back at Eddie, giving him weak smiles. Before anyone can say anything else, we hear police sirens wailing in the distance. They know he's here.

"Shit!" Steve whispers.

"Tarp," Robin says. "Tarp, tarp!"

Everyone panics and scrambles to stand up while Eddie gets back under the tarp. The rest of us rush to the windows. The police drive right past the shed. They're not here for Eddie, so that means something else happened. There are a lot of police cars following one another, an ambulance too. Someone must've died.