Another side

Chapter 18

I wake up early the next morning and I know that the cab will be here in about an hour to drive us to the airport. I kick Billy before getting ready and he groans as he realises he's got to get up. I chuckle. Mum hates when he sleeps over so we keep the door open. Right now the door is closed cause we have to change. Suddenly the door opens and Mum walks in. Billy is half dressed and I'm packing  last minute items into our bags. 

She turns around. "Sorry, I just thought we agreed to have the door open if you're in here together." I chuckle. "Sorry, mum." Billy finishes and she walks back in. "Are you guys ready?" "Yeah," I say as I pack the last thing in. "Emotionally as well." I look at her then I shake my head. "Probably not but oh well." Eleven, Jonathan, and Will are downstairs when we get there. I hug each of them.

"You guys better behave. No supernatural activities for any of you." I hug Jonathan again and whisper in his ear. "Don't smoke too much pot." He lets out a cough before letting me go. We hear a beep outside and our cab is here. I hug Mum and she kisses my cheek. She hugs Billy as well. "Have fun, you two. Say hi to everyone." I nod.  We go to the cab and we're driven to the airport.

We do everything we need to do and finally we take off and set off to Hawkins. I'm asleep for basically the whole plane ride and Billy wakes me up when we're landing. When we get off the plane we collect our luggage before being picked up by the Wheelers who I will be staying with. Billy is staying with Max and her mum but apparently something has gone down at the trailer park so we can't go there right now. 

When we get to the Wheeler's house Billy grabs Nancy's old bike and I ride on the back and we go to Steve and Robin's current place of occupation which is the Video Store. When we get there Dustin and Max are there as well and they haven't noticed us because they're too busy talking on phones and Steve is talking to a customer. 

"Wow, I expected more of a welcome party." Robin looks up and almost drops the phone. She beckons me over and I go around the counter hugging her tight. She hangs up her phone call before wrapping her arms around me. I smile. "I missed you." She chuckles. "Yeah, yeah. I missed you too." They hang up their calls and Billy hugs Max. He whispers something in her ear but I don't hear it.

Steve hugs me tight and I hug Max then I move on to Dustin. "So what were you guys doing in here? Seemed really serious." The mood changes and I look at them concerned as I realise that I have stumbled into something pretty serious. They explain to us what's happening and Max looks at us. "I might have a lead." Of course, the second we get back into Hawkins we're trying to contact someone who's been suspected of murder.

Suddenly I'm reminded of the reason we left this town. "Apparently, Eddie gets his drugs from some guy named Reefer Rick, and sometimes he crashes there." Robin moves forward. "That sounds promising. Where does this Reefer Rick guy live?" "See, that's the thing. No one knows. He's more of a legend than someone people actually know." Dustin looks at her. "But what about a last name?" "They don't know that either." "Bet the cops know the last name." We all look at Steve. "What?" "The cops. If this Reefer Rick guy is a drug dealer, he's probably been busted at some point. Means he's in the system."

Dustin glares at him. "The cops? That's your good idea? You believe Eddie did it, don't you?" He puts his hands up defence. "Hey, I believe in 'innocent until proven guilty' and all that shit. I just don't think we should rule it out." "That's precisely what we're trying to do. Rule it out," Max says. Dustin glares at him. "And maybe we would have more luck if you spent less time trying to find a girlfriend and more time trying to find Eddie." I have no idea who this Eddie kid is but if Dustin is so sure that he's innocent then I think we've gotta believe him. He's right a lot of the time. 

Steve starts defending himself and somewhere in that defence Robin gets an idea. She goes up to the laptop and types out Rick in their system and 12 of them have accounts here. We start narrowing it down by checking the videos they buy from the store until we narrow it down to Rick Lipton. We get his address before driving there to look for Eddie. Sitting in the back of that car brings back memories of being chased by a gigantic monster while Dustin and his girlfriend had a musical session. 

When we get there it's dark outside. Dustin rings the doorbell a million times then restorts to knocking and yelling. I'm glad this place is in the middle of nowhere or else we'd get this Eddie guy fucking arrested. Max starts walking away and Billy and I follow after her just to make sure she stays safe. That's when we see it. A boathouse and a perfect place to hide. Well it's more like a shed.  

We go towards it and open the door silently. We look around for Eddie or any sign of a person. Steve grabs an oar then starts stabbing a tarp. He continously stabs it and we look for signs of life. We find it and we realise he probably got spooked and ran. Dustin makes fun of Steve for poking at the tarp instead of opening it. Steve is about to counter him when suddenly something jumps out of the tarp and grabs Steve and pins him against the wall.

It must be Eddie and he's got a broken bottle held against my best friend's throat. Dustin yells. "Eddie! Stop. Eddie. It's me, it's Dustin. This is Steve. He's not gonna hurt you. Right, Steve?" Steve looks at him. "Right. Yeah." "Steve why don't you drop the oar?" Steve does what Dustin tells him and drops it. Eddie brings the bottle closer. We panic. "He's cool. He's cool." "What are you doing here?" "We're looking for you." I nod. "We're here to help." He looks at me confused but I'm just trying to keep Steve alive. Dustin continues. 

"Eddie, these are my friends. You know Robin, from band. This is my friend Max. The one who never wants to play D&D. This is Jessica Byers, you might know her, you might not. She moved away last year but she also wants to help." I nod. "That's Billy Hargrove, he's Max's stepbrother." "We had Maths together last year." Dustin nods. Eddie, we're on your side. I swear on my mother, right guys?" We all nod. "Yeah, we swear on Dustin's mother."

Finally Eddie lets Steve go and we sigh in relief. I go and check up on Steve along with Robin. I lift up his head and examine his neck but it doesn't seem injured. Dustin goes up to Eddie as he sits down. "Eddie? We just want to talk." Robin bends down beside Dustin. "We wanna know what happened." He sniffles. "You won't believe me." Max looks at him. "Try us." He starts explaining and he's getting to the end of his explanation. "Her body just, like, lifted up into the air and uh.... she just, like, hung there, in the air. And her bones...uh...."

He takes in a deep breath and we sit there waiting patiently for him to continue. "Her bones started to snap. Her eyes man. It was....it was like there was something, like, inside her head pulling. I... I didn't know what to do. So I...I ran away. I left her there. You all think I'm crazy, right?" Dustin shakes his head. "No, we don't." "Look don't bullshit me, man! I know how this sounds." I step in. "We're not bullshitting you. We believe you."

Dustin nods. "Look, what I'm about to tell you might be a little...difficult to take." "Ok." "You know how people say Hawkins is cursed. Well they're not way off. There's another world. A world hidden beneath Hawkins. Sometimes it bleeds into ours." "Like ghosts and shit?" I look at him. "There's some things worse than ghosts." Dustin contines. "These monsters, from this other world, we thought they were gone, but they've come back before and that's why we needed to find you."

I nod. "If they're back again, we need to know. That night, did you see anything? Dark particles, maybe?" He shakes his head. Dustin questions further. "It would almost look like dust. Swirling dust." Eddie shakes his head again. "No man. There was nothing you could see or touch. You know I tried to wake her, man. She couldn't move. It was like she was in a trance or something." Dustin perks up. "Or under a spell." "A curse." "Vecna's curse." Yet another D&D reference, I don't understand. I wish Will were here. "Who's Vecna?" "An undead creature of great power." "A spell caster." "A dark wizard." Of course when I come back there's a fucking evil wizard going around killing people. Just my luck.