The Monsters Within // Eddie Munson

viii. Skull Rock

Katherine and Max sat at the Wheeler's dining room table coloring alongside young Holly. Katherine helped Max shade and color what they saw while Vecna had Max in the Upside Down.

Nancy bolted up the stairs, Dustin closely behind as they looked for the two girls. "Hey." Nancy breathed in relief seeing the two girls at the table. "Hey." Max replied, not looking away from her drawing of a glass pane with a colored rose in the middle. "You okay?" Nancy asked the girl with a sad expression.

"Just couldn't sleep." Max responded blandly, "People kept blasting music in my ears, for some reason. But Holly let us borrow some of her crayons."

"We've been having fun right, Holly?" Katherine asked the young girl who excitedly nodded her head. Nancy smiled back and looked at the black and red drawings that were scattered in front of them. "Is this what you guys saw last night?"

"It's supposed to be." Katherine sighed, showing her a few more pages. "I thought it'd be easier to draw it out than to explain it, but not so much." Max told the girl, "It was like they were on display."

"And there was this red fog everywhere," Katherine added, "It was like a dream." Max shook her head, "A nightmare." "You think Vecna's just trying to scare you?" Nancy asked the girl.

"With Billy? Yeah. But when I made it here I dunno, something was different." Max rubbed her head as she played with the papers that covered the table, "He seemed surprised, almost. Like he didn't want me there."

"Especially when I got there." Katherine glanced at Nancy, "He didn't even know how I got there, like in the Upside Down, not just there specifically."

"Maybe you two infiltrated his mind. He invaded your mind, right? Is it that big a leap to suggest you somehow wound up in his? Like Freddie Krueger's boiler room." Dustin said out loud as she rounded the corner with a pancake in his hand.

"Freddie Krueger?" Holly asked, looking up from her princess drawing. "He's a super burned-up dude with razors for fingers. And he kills you in your dreams." Dustin explained throwing his hand up pretending to have Freddie Krueger fingers. 

"Seriously?" Nancy complained as Holly looked up at the group with horrified eyes. "Sorry. It's a movie. It's not real." Dustin apologized to the young girl, but her eyes stayed wide.

"Just think about it. What if you somehow unlocked a backdoor to Vecna's world? Like, maybe the answer we're looking for is somewhere in this incredibly vague drawing." Dustin tried to explain to the girls, who all just gave a blank look in return.

"God, we need Will." Katherine threw her head back, thinking about her younger brother. "No shit." Max agreed, crossing her arms in front of her.

"I tried them again this morning, and it's the same busy signal." Katherine told the group, nervously playing with her necklace. She hoped her family was okay but knowing their luck something was seriously wrong. It had been two days since they had heard from the Byers or Mike, and for Katherine that was a long time. Her and her brothers always talked. Always.

"Is this a window?" Nancy asked, Max nodded in response. "Stained glass with roses." "Yeah. See? I'm not so terrible after all." Max grinned at Katherine. "Yeah, well, it helps that I've seen it before." Nancy told them, making everyone snap their heads towards her, "It's pieces of a house. Not just any house."

Nancy gently picked up the papers and started arranging them, everyone crowded behind her. "It's Victor Creel's house." She said as she took a step away from the table, letting them see the pieces Katherine and Max had drawn fit perfectly together forming a house.

The group got ready to head to the abandoned Creel house when Nancy stopped her, "Can you get to Rick's and update Eddie. We will be there after the house to give him groceries." Katherine shook her head, "Absolutely not. I am not leaving Max."