"Hey, you remember what I said last year, right? We're Zombie Boy and Ghost Boy. I'm not ever gonna leave you."
"Promise?"
"One hundred percent."
***
In which Alistair fights the monster that possessed his friend alongside his friends, while trying...
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Chapter Fifty: Finding Eddie
(Vecna's Curse, Pt. 3)
***
It didn't take them that long to bike to Family Video.
Once they arrived at the video store, they parked their bikes in the rack and hopped off as quickly as possible, racing to the door as Dustin slammed it open, catching the attention of Steve, Robin and Valerie, who'd been watching the TV—where the news of Chrissy's murder was playing on it. Alistair tried to ignore it as Dustin said, "Hey, Steve."
"You guys see this?" his sister's boyfriend asked as he gestured to the TV as they walked up to the counter, Dustin ignoring the question as he asked his own, "How many phones do you have?"
"You're joking, right?" Valerie said, blinking in disbelief.
"Yeah, someone was murdered," Steve agreed.
"How many phones do you have?" Dustin demanded again, and the three older teens finally registered Dustin wasn't joking with the urgency in his voice—maybe also guessing that by the looks on his, Alistair's, Max's and Cami's faces. Probably a mix of both.
"Uh, three. Why?" Steve answered.
"Technically four if you count Keith's in the back," Robin helpfully informed.
"Why do you guys need to know how many phones we have, anyway?" Valerie questioned, arms crossed.
The four younger teens ignored the question as they turned to each other and Alistair asked, "Four should be enough, right?"
"Yeah, four works," Max affirmed.
"One for each of us," Cami pointed out.
With that matter settled, Dustin put his bag off, ready to throw it across the counter, which Steve noticed, as he asked, "What are you doing? What are you—"
Dustin's bag being thrown across counter and scattering the pile of VHS's on top drowned out what Steve was going to say.
"My pile!" Robin cried out as Valerie whirled and yelled out, "Dustin you pendejo what the fuck are you doing!?"
"No, no, no, my tapes!" Steve yelled, but Dustin was deaf to the cries as now he threw himself across the counter and got on the stool in front of the computer, Alistair deciding to follow and swing himself across, Cami right behind him—Max, meanwhile, walked around to get in the usual way. "Dude! What are you doing, man?"
"Setting up a base of operations," Dustin answered as he did just that, as Alistair saw him looking up all the phone numbers belonging to Eddie's friends and former members of Hellfire. An idea sparked in Alistair's head and he grabbed a whiteboard the same time Cami grabbed a marker, the both of them handing the objects to Dustin, who gave them a nod of thanks as he searched up the numbers.
