Love And Hellfire

Chapter 9: Cabin Fever

Steve stood to pace the room once again during what felt like the longest 40 minutes of his life. That was in fact how long it had taken Dustin to fill Avila in on the events of the last 3 years. And he wasn't even finished yet!
"So you were captured by the Russians...." Avila quoted him directly to Robin. "And drugged?"
"We've been through this a million times now." She whined, rubbing her head, lounging back on the couch. "They gave us truth serum that made us a little.... weird."
"Holy shit Robin!" Avila laughed. "And here's me thinking you had a quiet life here in Hawkins..."
"Yeah well, a quiet life would be perfect right about now." Dustin snapped his fingers in their faces, rudely attempting to regain their attention once more. As he had been explaining what he called 'The Battle of Starcourt' Dustin had resorted to drawing on a large piece paper spread across the wall. He pointed to the doodle of the 'Mindflayer'.
"The Mindflayer used the bodies of those he'd flayed to build his physical form.." Dustin explained. "The only one left was the host who 'recruited' those to be flayed.."
"Flayed?" Avila was confused once again.
Nancy sighed loudly from the kitchen behind, where she was making food for the kids.
"Hey, take it easy on her okay?" Steve pleaded. Nancy continued to bash around pots and pans, frustratingly.
"Flayed is when the Mindflayer would infect your body." Mike explained. "Like when a parasite gets inside, it infects and makes you ill."
Nodding, Dustin approached Avila with another photo. This time, of a boy.
"The host was Billy." Dustin introduced, placing the photograph down on the table.
"Cute." Avila smirked, looking around at the others who's expressions had quickly changed to that of disgust and despair. She feared this was one of her classic 'foot in mouth' moments.
Even Eddie, who had his head in his hands leant over his knees, shook his head at her.
Dustin awkwardly moved the photograph into the growing pile to the left of them. The pile of the dead.
"Another one? Seriously." Avila shouted in disbelief. "Jesus christ."
"He was also Max's brother." El added, clinging softly to Mike by the arm. "He wasn't the best brother, but at the end... he did what mattered."
Mike nodded, showing her that he agreed, and what she was saying was absolutely right. You could tell that El appreciated the reassurance.
Dustin began to pull down the giant diagram of Starcourt, Russians, Flayed etc.
"So that brings us to the current situation..." He continued, pinning up yet another large piece of paper to scribble on. First of all, he stuck a drawing of a monster to it, labelling it 'Vecna'.
"Vecna." Avila read loudly. "Let me guess, he's the one behind all of this."
Nancy clapped sarcastically at her comments.
"Well done!" She chirped. "Get this girl a job at the Hawkins post!"
Sick to death of her attitude, Avila sprung to her feet. Quickly, Robin, Steve and Eddie rushed over, forcing themselves between her and Nancy.
"I'm trying my best!" Avila pleaded, trying to approach her, but being blocked by Eddie. "I'm trying to learn Nancy..."
"Sit back down and do that then!" She demanded. "People have died in this town and all you're doing is making silly little guesses and gushing over monsters and dead boys!"
"Nancy thats enough!" Steve told her. Jonathan quickly interjected, joining Nancy at her side. Avila's first thoughts were; doormat.
"Sit down." Eddie instructed her, signalling to the couch and her seat beside Robin. Glaring at him, Avila eventually gave in.
"As I was trying to say." Dustin carried on, approaching the table with another series of photos. Mouthing the word 'sorry' to him, Dustin simply smiled at Avila and all was forgiven and forgotten. She adored Dustin so much.
"Vecna worked very tactically, something we haven't really experienced before." Dustin laid out 4 photos, all of teenage kids, a similar age to her. She recognised Max immediately. The first photo was of a boy with glasses, a scar to his face, labelled; Fred. The second; Patrick. The third was Max, in which Avila held it up, admiring the Happy face of a young girl. Very different to who she saw in the hospital yesterday. The last picture, situated further away, was of another girl. Strawberry blonde haired, she appeared to be wearing a cheerleaders uniform. It was labelled; Chrissy.
"Vecnas plan it seemed was to use four separate victims to break the barrier between his world and ours." Dustin explained. As he spoke about curses, snapping limbs, gouged eyes, Avila couldn't help but notice how Eddie's body language had changed. The picture of Chrissy was closest to him, but out of nowhere he leant forward and pushed it away. Coming to stand, he suddenly stormed off as Dustin spoke.
Awkwardly, no one spoke at first.
"Is he alright?" Avila asked.
"Yeah, it's just..." Mike spoke firstly. "This is just a tricky subject for Eddie."
Looking to the picture of the girl once again, Avila picked it up. She made her assumptions straight away.
"Was she important to him?" She asked Robin, passing her the photograph of Chrissy.
Sighing deeply, Robin replied "Potentially."
"Shall we take a break, maybe?" Dustin suggested. Clapping his hands overly loud, Steve ran over to grab the control for the TV.
"Finally!" He jumped onto the couch where Eddie had been sitting. "You really do know how to tell a story Henderson, I'll give you that."
As the boys began bickering, Avila wasn't quite finished with the subject at hand.
Robin had made her way into the kitchen, and was preparing food. At first, Avila followed her. As she did, she caught glimpse of Eddie in the back room, sitting upon his bed with his head in his hands.
"What happened to that girl Robin?" Avila pried. "He's not just upset over nothing."
Taking a large mouthful of cereal, Robin was reluctant for the first time to divulge anything.
"He was there when she died." Robin explained. Avilas eyes widened, causing Robin to panic at what she'd said. Quickly, for Eddie's sake, she elaborated.
"He didn't murder her though!" She added. "Vecna had her under his curse, there was no way Eddie could have saved her, but he just..."
"Just what?" Avila couldn't handle the suspense. "What did he do?"
Looking back into the room where Eddie Munson sat in mourning, Robin finished by saying "He ran."
Avila was about to interrogate her cousin further, when Mike suddenly approached her, clutching a wide notebook and pen.
"Avila!" He greeted her, poised to write as though he was interviewing her. "I need to know your favourite song."
"Why on earth do you need to know that?" She chuckled. Peering inside the notebook, she noted the large list Mike had created, titled; Vecna Songs. Within the list was everybody here, including Lucas and Max. Beside their names were song titles, supposedly their favourite songs.
"If Vecna were to ever curse you, we'd need to know your favourite song to save you..." Mike explained. "It worked for Max and my sister, so it's just a precaution! So... favourite song?"
Before she had chance to answer, Robin pipped her to the post.
"Dancing Queen, ABBA." Robin shouted, giggling. "I know you better than you know yourself."
Mike turned to Avila for confirmation, to which she embarrassingly nodded her head.