"I swear, if I'm dying tonight because of you, I'm gonna haunt your ass so hard, Harrington!"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah! I'm gonna go full Poltergeist and shit!"
"Then bring it, Graveswood."
"Challenge accepted."
***
In which after years of suppressing their...
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Chapter One-Hundred-And-Forty-Seven: Another Gate
(The Dive, Pt. 2)
***
"When I got to the shore, I tried calling you guys, but, uh... my walkie was busted, man. Drenched," Eddie said, pausing to take a sip of water from the bottle Dustin had given him earlier, as he'd finished recounting what had happened last night.
In front of him, next to Steve, Rowan had listened, arms crossed and lips pressed thin from the moment she heard what had happened to her best friend. In the beginning, it was all she could do to contain her rage, that Jason had found Eddie and had pursued him. She wanted to punch him again. If Vecna hadn't attacked... Rowan didn't want to think about what could have happened to Eddie if the attack hadn't happened.
And that was the other thing. The attack. Because while she was seething with fury at the basketball team and their crusade against Eddie, Patrick was still a person. Sure, he sneered at those deemed losers and freaks, but he was still a teenager, and he hadn't deserved to die like that. And Rowan couldn't imagine the trauma Eddie had of seeing not just Chrissy die so brutally like that, but Patrick too.
"So, uh, I did the thing that I do now, apparently. I ran," Eddie finished off, chuckling bitterly.
"Yeah, and that's a good thing. You got away before the cops came, or if Vecna attacked again," Leo reminded him, and Rowan nodded in agreement.
"Leo's right. It's not cowardly to run if it saves your life," Rowan pointed out quietly.
Eddie didn't look like he believed them, but he didn't argue, only saying, "Noted. I'll remember that next time I have to run again."
Rowan frowned. Maybe, when this was over, she and Eddie should have a talk about his supposed cowardice when running so far had saved Eddie's life.
"Do you know what time this was? The attack?" Nancy questioned.
"Yeah, no. I know exactly what time it was," Eddie answered as he pulled his watch off. "My walkie wasn't the only thing that got soaked."
He threw it to Nancy, who looked at the numbers frozen on the screen and read out, "9:27."
"Same time our flashlights went kablooey," Robin said, confirming what they already knew.
"Which means what, exactly?" Steve asked.
"That that surge of energy was Vecna attacking Patrick," Nancy answered.
Rowan looked at Alistair, who'd been quiet. That meant that gasp he had was him feeling Patrick die, too. Cami rested her hand on Alistair's shoulder, giving silent support.
"Well, we're one step closer. We know how Vecna attacks," Robin said.
"And where he attacks from," Lucas added, the double meaning of both the Creel House's attic and the Upside Down not lost on the seasoned monster fighters.
