Season of the Witch

Chapter 6- Hunt the Freaks

   Last night we slept in opposite corners. But I woke up this morning to Eddie shaking me and loud bangs.

     "Eddie what's wrong?"

  "I don't know but someone's out there." I stood up and we crept over to the window int he front corner of the shed. We didn't see anyone or anything outside. The door busted open.

      "Shit" Eddie yelled.

"Jesus Christ" I responded.

     "Delivery service." Dustin, Max, Robin, and Steve busted in again.

"You scared the shit out of me...us I mean." I smiled awkwardly. They handed us our groceries and we all sat down.

    "Ok we have good news and bad news, how do you prefer it?"

          "Bad news first always." Eddie answered while shoving cereal into his mouth and downing some chocolate milk.

  "All right bad news, we tapped into the Hawkins PD dispatch with our Cerebro, and they're definitely looking for you two. They're also pretty convinced you two killed Chrissy."

      "How did they know Heather was even there?"

"Well when two people that have been together a lot go missing at the same time and there's a murder involved, you know they have their conclusions." Max started.

   "And Heather left her bag at your house, plus Jason told the police all about how you guys like you know ran away with each other all the time."

         "Fucking weasel. Oh I fucking hate him. I'm going to fucking kill him and then I'll actually have a reason to run."

   "Hey calm down." Eddie laid his hand on my shoulder.

           "Listen, we're going to go study up and try and figure this out." About that time Nancy came in on the Cerebro.

   "Guys Fred is dead, and I think I have a lead about Eddie? Also I have pictures of Fred's body, it's just like Chrissy's. Where are you guys?" I glanced over at Eddie worriedly.

    "Hey it's ok." He whispered to me.

"We're at Reefer Rick's, come here now."

     "On my way." A few minutes later Nancy busted into the shed.

"What the hell?"

      "Nancy let us explain" Steve told her. They explained the whole situation.

"Ok I didn't think anyone could do that to someone but who knows."

    "Guys I'm telling you it was like she was under a spell." Eddie began.

       "Or a curse." I added.

"Holy shit. Vecna's curse."

     "What? Who's Vecna?" I asked Dustin.

"An undead creature of great power, a spellcaster, a dark wizard."

    "No way you guys think this is some D&D shit."

"Hey demogorgans, demodogs, the mind flayer, vecna? This is definitely D&D related. We had a Vecna campaign where Vecna was alive, and now he's here? There's no way it's not him."

    "So what do we do about it then Dustin?" Eddie asked him.

"We find Vecna, kill him, and prove your innocence."

   "That's all, Dustin? That's all?"

"Yeah, no, that's pretty much it."

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

     "Shit you guys weren't making that demogorgan shit up huh?"

"Nope, but we need to finish brainstorming and getting into the action phase." We all agreed.

   "Ok we will be back tomorrow, until then take this Cerebro and if you need anything call us." We nodded and they all left.

      "Listen Heather I'm so sorry about what happened last night I shouldn't have said that there was just a lot going on and I just.."

  "It's ok I understand. No hard feelings?"

      "No hard feelings." About that time a truck pulled up. I ran over to the window.

"Shit it's Jason and his friends." I whispered.

      "Ok keep watch let me get the boat in the water and then we'll go." I stood at the window as Eddie pulled the boat into the lake.

    "Ok come on hurry." He handed me an oar and we both started paddling to the opposite shore. Shortly Jason realized we were on the boat.

    "HEY GET BACK HERE FREAK!" Jason screamed, as he and Patrick jumped in and started swimming towards us, but the same thing that happened to Chrissy happened to him.

      "Shit go Eddie go." We kept paddling as fast as we could. When we reached the shore we dragged the boat up to the trees to hide it.

    "Come on let's go sit at the rock." We sat down and both fell asleep.

    The next morning we woke up to Dustin.

"Hey you guys there? Hello this is Dustin."

    "Hey man we're here."

"You good?"

    "No.. No pretty far from it."

"Where are you guys?"

      "Skull Rock."

"Why are you out of hiding?"

     "Jason."

"Shit ok we'll be there soon. Just stay there." Eddie put his arm around me and I leaned into his chest. We waited and eventually the whole group showed up.

    "Okay so explain what happened with Jason." Robin told us.

        "He showed up and barged in, and we hopped in the boat. Jason and Patrick swam after us and the same thing that happened to Chrissy happened to Patrick."

    "Ok so we think there's a portal to the Upside Down where Fred died and where Chrissy died. We are going to have to go into the Upside Down to get to Vecna. That means we need a plan. And a good one." Dustin informed us.

      "Wait Eddie, Heather, where did you say Patrick died?"

  "In the lake."

        "Ok so what if there's a portal there? Like a watergate."

"You're right, there might be."

     "So me, Nancy, Steve, Eddie, and Heather will go investigate, and you, Max and Lucas will stay as a lookout." Robin told Dustin.

   "Okay but you can't do that during the day, we'll get caught."

        "Then we wait until dark." I recommended. We all agreed and sat and waited until dark. When it was dark the time had finally came. We dragged the boat into the lake and the five of us piled in.
"Ok no one do anything stupid. We're just gonna go check it out and then we'll decide what to do." Robin explained. We paddled to about the spot where everything had happened. Steve started taking his shirt off and I couldn't help but glance over. Eddie got really quiet after that and I really hoped he wasn't mad, but we weren't dating so there shouldn't be any hard feelings.
"Steve what are you doing?" Nancy asked him.
"Judging my the fact that I was the Hawkins Swim Team Co Captain I think I'm pretty fit for this job."
"I'm the current captain so I should go too."
"Deal" Steve looked at me eagerly. Eddie wrapped our flashlight up in a bag and Steve dove in. I began to follow.
"Heather wait. Be careful. I can't lose you." I smiled back at Eddie and jumped in. We swam down and there was a ginormous glowing light on the bottom of the lake. We decided to swim back up to inform them.
"Well there is definitely a gate down there." Steve sank down in the water and then came back up. He looked confused. Then something pulled both of us down.