𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙧𝙮 𝙥𝙤𝙥! 𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙩𝙤𝙣

SCENE EIGHT. hunt the freak

when eddie woke up, they were gone. it was just him in the hut again. but he couldn't shake off his dream. watching chrissy rise to the roof of the trailer. piper crying his name. he remembered finding the girl laying in blood. and the door slammed open. the same group from last night appearing in the door. and she was there, looking much healthier than she did last night. she wore new clothes, clothes that looked like her own this time. she wore clean, cuffed jeans and a rugby top. and of course, she wore a big bright smile as she slammed the door open.

"delievery service." dustin grinned as they all held up bags. and he grabbed the bags, rummaging through them. crisps, biscuits, cereal. the boy instantly stuffing handfuls of cereal in his mouth.

"so we got, uh, some good news and some bad news. how do you prefer it?" dustin asked as the group found themselves making shift seats. piper is going to sit on the barrel beside steve before quickly shuffling over to the upside down boat near eddie.

"bad news first, always."

"alright, bad news. we tapped into hawkins pd dispatch with our cerebro and they're definitely looking for you. also they're pretty convinced you killed chrissy." he started, piper almost laughed at how quickly his face dropped, if it weren't for the situation.

"like a hundred percent kind of convinced." max added, chewing on her lip. now wishing she had one of those cherry heart lollipops that piper always carried.

"and the good news?" eddie asked, not even sure if he wanted to know. knowing dustin, he could have swapped the news around.

"your name hasn't gone public yet."

"so nobody else knows, but it won't be long until others start to figure it out. and everyone will be after you."

"hunt the freak, right?"

"shit."

"so before that happens, we need to find vecna, kill him and prove your innocence."

"that's all dustin? that's all?"

"yeah, no, that's pretty much it. oh and our dear little piper even offered to give his head to the police for you." and she gave a smile and wave as she curtsied as if she were some actress.

"listen eddie, i know everything dustin is saying sounds totally delusional but we've actually been through this kinda thing before. i mean,they have. a few times. and we have once. we had more human-flesh-mind controlling based, this was more smoke-related but bottom like is, collectively, i really feel we got this."

"yeah we usually rely on this girl who has super powers. but uh those went bye bye when she got messed up in that fleshy thing." steve added, pointing at piper who merely shrugged as eddie threw her a wide eyed shocked look.

"so we're technically in more of the-"

"kinda-"

"brainstorming phase."

"there is nothing to worry about."

"i promise you, there is." and then the sirens could be heard. rushing past the house.

"piper, last night-" robin started but piper ignored her. rushing for the door, steve stormed after her. the rest of the group chasing after the two. soon the car was speeding in the direction of the sirens. 

"fred." was the only thing piper could say, chanting the boy's name. over and over till the car halted to a stop where the police cars were.
and nancy watched the car pull up, watched the girl with the horrified look climb out. and it made sense. nancy let out a sigh before waving to the group, but piper's eyes didn't pull from the tarp covered body in the middle of the road. hearing the police officers whisper a name. fred. and steve looked towards his girl- ex girlfriend.

"you knew." he spoke and she finally turned to look at him. eyes blown wide in fear, she shivered. she knew.

"how did you know-" and the girl dropped to her knees on the side of the road. sick falling onto the grass. and max nudged the boy out of the way. max knew something was going on. she knew piper wouldn't tell her, because she was piper. she had to be strong, always. something was wrong. something was happening.