Me, Myself, and Her

Chapter Sixty-Four

Chapter Sixty-Four: I Can See You

It felt like it had been hours since Nancy first parked and they all started their journey to Skull Rock. And those hours had been full of bickering between Steve and Dustin, arguing about which way was the right way.

Dustin had the map and the compass, and was trying to lead. After certain point, though, Steve tried taking over, insisting they were going the wrong direction.

It got to a point where Annie had turned her music up, effectively drowning their arguing out completely. She honestly trusted Steve the most with knowing where to go, considering he had come out here a lot.

When it came to Dustin, he only had his map and failing compass to guide him. Clearly, it wasn't working.

Beside her, Max kept looking over at Annie to try and figure out what she was thinking. Every time she came up with a blank. The only thing she figured out was that the arguing up ahead was annoying, and that's only because Annie turned up her music.

"Hey," Max tried, using her elbow to nudge Annie's arm. The brunette looked over to her and turned her music down some before removing one of her headphones.

"What's up?" she asked, trying to sound light and airy, but it came off forced and strained.

Max shrugged. "Just... just checking in. You're not much of a quiet person, so I feel like something's wrong whenever you are. Besides the obvious," Max ranted.

It made one of the corners of Annie's mouth turn up slightly. "I appreciate your concern. However... I don't think there's a good way to describe how I feel right now. Vecna is always weighing down on my mind, knowing he's lurking always. Right now... I think I feel bad for Eddie. I don't wanna see his face when we tell him..."

"What, that his name's been released to the public as suspect number one for three murders? Yeah, no, I don't wanna tell him, either. But... he has to know, right?" Max asked. She almost doubted the plan.

Why tell him? It's only going to break his heart.

That's when Annie's voice of reason came into play. "Well, I mean, he's gotta know. Especially if people start a sort of witch hunt on him. Which they will, we heard what Lucas said about Jason."

Max nodded along. "Yeah, I guess... I just hope this doesn't completely break him," she said.

What she didn't say out loud is, "Because I saw how this has broken you."

Finally, Steve had enough and started to lead the group in a whole new direction. "Okay, so apparently we're going this way now," Max said. "I swear to god, if they get us lost..."

Lucas, who had fallen back to walk with the girls, didn't answer. Annie looked over at him and noticed he was staring at the ground. "Hey," Annie said softly, removing her headphones completely. "You okay?"

"Uh- yeah. I'm fine, just... thinking about Patrick, you know?" he asked.

Annie nodded, thinking about when Max broke the news about Chrissy. How her best friends were killed last summer and have been haunting her since. "Yeah."

"I mean... it's- it's like, why him? But then, I remember this one day, he... he came to practice with a black eye. He said he fell, but he was clearly lying," Lucas ranted. Annie followed along, looking at the pinecone in his hand every now and then. She had no idea why he had that.

"It's like..." Lucas continued, "everyone Vecna targets has something in their life. Something that's-"

"Hurting them? Haunting them?" Annie offered.