Me, Myself, and Her

Chapter Sixty-Three

Chapter Sixty-Three: Exile

The next morning, Annie was thrilled to be wearing some new, clean clothes. The things she packed away two days ago really came in handy. Her sweater, no longer tied to the memory of being covered in stuff found in Vecna's weird red world, comforted her.

"Okay, let's get this grocery run and situation update done for Eddie. I'm sure he needs it," Steve announced. They packed into Nancy's car again, same spots as always, and went off to the grocery store.

Annie didn't care to ask how they were getting Eddie his precious six-pack. Her brother had his ways, and they weren't always going to be legal.

They wandered the store, Bonnie Tyler continuously blasting in Annie's ears. As she walked and saw people, she wondered what they thought her life was like. She always wondered what her life looked like to outsiders.

Was she a preppy bitch in their eyes? A spoiled kid who didn't know the real world? Just another shopper who didn't matter in their life? She wished she could know.

Especially when older adults gave her looks for having her headphones on. Even her parents would throw fits over her "not listening" to them. It's not like she ever wanted to listen to them in the first place, though.

Max came around a corner, grabbing Annie's attention right away. She removed one of the headphones. "We're heading out," Max told her.

Annie nodded and placed the headphone back on, then followed Max to the front of the store where they were finishing the checkout process.

At the front, Steve finished paying and looked over to Annie. "I told you not to wander off," he said, more concerned than angry. He'd honestly never be angry at Annie.

She smiled weakly and said, "Sorry, just... enjoyed the walk around, I guess. We're all set?"

He nodded, and the crew left the store to get everything to their hidden murder suspect. The boys were still able to fit inside the back with the groceries and everything, which was good, because Annie didn't intend to give up her spot.

They started driving over to Rick's house, some music playing over the radio. Annie didn't hear it at all, though, only focusing on her own melody.

Max couldn't help but stare at Annie. She was only getting glimpses of the girl she used to know. It was hard not to blame her, but Max couldn't. Every time she started getting annoyed or hurt at Annie's ignoring habits, she reminded herself of the situation.

Bad things kept piling on more and more, of course Annie wasn't going to be her bubbly self.

The thing was, that's exactly what Max needed to help her get through all this. She wasn't inherently positive, that's why she needed Annie. But now the roles were reversed and she was struggling to stay afloat.

Steve from the back looked at his sister. Granted, it was the back of her head, but that's just it. It was her still head. She wasn't excitedly turning to the side to talk to Max, she wasn't leaning her head on Max's shoulder, nor was she bopping along to her music.

She was still and silent. Neither of these things described her. He hated how this was all weighing down on her shoulders. It killed him to not be able to do anything.

And Annie? She felt awful. It was like, she was aware of how different she'd been acting. How horrible it was for everyone else to watch her drift further from herself. But what was she supposed to do about it?

Being on the possible verge of a horrible death every second of every minute? It's not like she could just brush that off and pretend everything was fine and dandy.

On the drive, Annie's music drowned most everything out. She could tell Robin was talking just by the animated way she moved, but not what it was about. What she could hear was Steve mention something about drinking and Max about her mom.

Annie didn't care enough to try and pay attention, either. They were probably talking about Eddie and what to tell him. Congrats, have some beer! But also we have no idea how to get to Vecna to kill him, so looks like you're screwed.

What did get Annie attention was the commotion on the road ahead, right in front of Reefer Rick's house. She slipped her headphones off, but let the music continue to faintly play in her ears.

Nancy pulled up behind the crowd, and everyone jumped out the second the car was parked. "Come on, this way," Nancy said, leading them to the other side of a news van for a clearer, less crowded view.

They watched and listened to the new chief giving his statement.

"As many of you know, the Roane County line received a call a little after midnight... reporting a homicide here on the lake. Officer Callahan here and myself arrived first on the scene. We made our way to the shore of Lover's Lake, about ten yards from that house you see behind me. It was there we found the victim, an 18-year old senior from Hawkins High, Patrick McKinney."

Immediately Annie's eyes were on Lucas. She somewhat knew Patrick from the basketball team. Well, knew is a stretch. She just saw him and knew his name. But Lucas really did know him.

"His limbs... his body, uh, it was disfigured. There was an eye witness on the scene... uh, we have also identified a person of interest. Eddie Munson."

When the chief held up the picture, Annie knew the teen was done for. "Shit..." she whispered.

"We encourage anyone with information to please come forward."

"Oh man," Steve said. "This is not good. This is really not good."

"You've got a lot of questions, and I'm going to answer as many as I can. Two o'clock at Town Hall, where anyone from the Hawkins community is welcome. But right now, I've got some work to do, and I appreciate your understanding."

Chief Powell walked off, ignoring all the reporters' questions that followed him. Annie wondered how stressed he was about all this. New chief, huge killer from another dimension on the loose that somehow framed a kid. It's a bit insane.

Suddenly, Annie could hear Dustin's radio crackling to life. "Dustin, can you hear me? Wheeler? Wheeler?"

Dustin snatched his radio out of his bag and the crew took a few paces away from where they were. "Eddie, holy shit- Are you okay?"

"Nah, man, pretty... pretty goddamn far from okay."

Robin turned to Dustin. "Where is he?"

Dustin clicked his talk button. "Where are you?"

"Skull Rock, uh, d'you know it?"

"Yeah, yeah, that's near, uh, Cornwallis, and uh-"

"Garrett," Steve jumped in. "Yeah, I know where that is." He started back for Nancy's car, everyone following close behind.

"Hold tight! We're coming. We're coming!"

A/n: Here you go! Started writing this on my break yesterday, tried to finish last night but had a massive migraine so I decided to do it this morning. So bam! See y'all tomorrow for the next chapter