The Girl With the Red Hair

XIV. The Grandfather Clock

The next day, the same group had returned to Reefer Rick's boathouse to give Eddie food. Benny couldn't tell if it was unintentional or not, but Max was wearing a light blue zip up jacket that was very similar to the one that he'd given her last year after the mall fire.

   Dustin threw the door to the boathouse open and stepped inside, "Delivery service."

  "Jesus!" Eddie yelped in surprise. The four behind Dustin stepped in after him and gave him a sheepish look for scaring him. Eddie took the bags of food and sat down in the boat in the middle of the room. Max took a seat on a stool and Benny leaned on the pillar next to her. Robin leaned on the wall and Steve leaned on the other pillar.

   Dustin took the stool across from Max, "So we got, uh, some good news and some bad news. How do you prefer?"

   Eddie shoved chips into his mouth and spoke with his mouth still full, "Bad news first, always."

   "All right. Bad news. 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, 100% kind of convinced," Max added.

  "And.. the good news?" Eddie bit his lip expectantly, hoping the good news would outweigh the bad news.

   "Your name hasn't gone public yet. 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," Robin honestly replied.

   "Hunt the freak, right?" Eddie looked down.

"Exactly."

  "Shit."

   "So, before that happens, we need to find Vecna, kill him, and prove your innocence," Dustin cut in before Eddie could lose hope.

  "That's all, Dustin? That's all?" Eddie mocked.

  "Yeah, no, that's pretty much it," Dustin obliviously nodded, not hearing the sarcasm.

"Listen, Eddie, 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- 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 like we got this," Robin rambled.

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

   "So we're technically in- in more of the-" Benny motioned with his hands.

"Kinda.."

"Brainstorming phase," Max nodded at Benny.

  "Brainstorming," Steve pointed at her with a snap of his fingers.

   "There's- there's nothing to worry about," Dustin assured Eddie and Steve scoffed. Dustin and Eddie gave him a look, but they didn't say anything, because of the sirens in the distance.

  "Shit."

  "Tarp. Tarp," Robin pointed to the tarp in the boat. Eddie ducked down and covered himself with the tarp while everyone else stood up to look out of the window. A line of ambulances and police cars were driving down the road with their sirens going off.

—
    The second victim of Vecna was Fred Benson, Nancy's best friend.

  The group left Eddie in the boathouse so that they could talk to Nancy at the trailer park. Nancy was initially at the scene of Fred's murder, but then Dustin had asked her to talk somewhere with a little more privacy.