"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-Thirty-Six: Good News And Bad News
(The Monster And The Superhero)
***
When Rowan woke up the next morning, a newfound sense of purpose was driving her.
The grief was still there, lurking in her bloodstream, aching in her bones and beating inside her heart, but it was dulled now from the cataclysmic agony she'd felt yesterday, tempered by the burning sense of revenge she held and that purpose—a purpose to find Vecna and stop him before anyone else was killed, to prove Eddie's innocence. To actually finally win.
Maybe that was compartmentalising, but if it got her the chance to cave in Vecna's skull or decapitate him with her sword, then Rowan didn't fucking care if it was compartmentalising or the sense of purpose.
And that purpose, especially the purpose of proving her best friend hadn't murdered her other best friend, was what drove Rowan out of bed and hurry through her usual routine of getting ready—inhaling cereal, brushing her teeth, showering and washing her hair quickly, and getting changed in a pair of acid wash blue jeans, her Docs, an AC/DC shirt, leather jacket and fingerless gloves. Once she was done, Rowan headed back to the main space, found a plastic bag amid the cosy clutter, opened the doors of the cupboard and pantry, and began putting in as much non-perishable food as she could—cans of fruit, beans, tomatoes, and spaghetti, jerky, crackers, a couple boxes of cereal. With food done, Rowan migrated to the bathroom and ransacked it of the spare toothbrush and toothpaste Eddie used if he crashed at her place, a canister of deodorant Rowan was certain Alistair wouldn't miss, and a bottle of shampoo.
She'd just finished putting everything in there when her brother woke up and shambled to the bathroom, only to freeze at seeing her there.
The siblings stared down at each other, before Alistair asked, "Why are you robbing our bathroom?"
Rowan lifted her bag. "This is for Eddie."
"Again, why?"
"Because, he's probably gonna be hiding at that shithole for a few days until we find this Vecna and prove he murdered Chrissy instead of Eddie and I gleefully go full Carrie White on the bastard, so he's gonna need all of this," Rowan explained.
"Oh," Alistair said. "That makes sense."
Rowan frowned as she straightened up. "You okay, squirt?"
"I'm fine. Just had a bad night," Alistair replied, shrugging. He looked down and requested, "Uh, I also have a headache, so can I squeeze in and get some Tylenol?"
"Yeah, of course," Rowan said as she got out of the bathroom. "I was done in there anyway."
"Thanks," Alistair muttered as he took her spot, opening up the door of the tiny cabinet and pulling the large Tylenol bottle out—between Rowan's monthly period cramps, the headaches Alistair got from a lack of or infrequent sleep that had Rowan silently diagnose her brother as an insomniac, Aunt Aco's occasional hangover and just general pains and headaches, the bottle had to be as large as possible to accommodate, and even then it was usually half-empty by the end of the month. Fortunately, there was some left as Alistair took two tablets out and dry-swallowed them before washing them down with a handful of water.
