Escape ~ S.Harrington

63} Meeting Victor Creel

"Okay, be honest," Steve was grumbling while looking over a copy of The Weakly Watcher that the girls had made when doing their investigating, "Uh... You guys understand any of this?"
"No," Lucas agreed.
"It's pretty straightforward," Dustin argued.

Everyone had gathered in the Wheeler's basement to create a plan.
"Oh, straightforward, really?" Steve mocked.
"Well, what's confusing to you?" Dustin asked, "So far, everyone Vecna has cursed has died, except for this old Victor Creel dude Nancy found. He's the only known survivor. If anyone knows how to beat this curse, it's him."
"That's assuming he was cursed, Henderson, which we don't even know. How can Vecna have existed in the '50s? It doesn't make sense."
"As far as we know, Eleven didn't create the Upside Down. She opened a gate to it. The Upside Down has probably been around for thousands of years. Millions. I wouldn't be surprised if it predated the dinosaurs."
"Dinosaurs? What are we-"

"Okay," Lucas cut Steve and Dustin's bickering off, "But if a gate didn't exist in the '50s, how did Vecna get through?"
"Oh, and how's he getting through now?" Steve pointed.
"And why now?" Lucas added.
"And why then? Just pops out in the '50s, kills one family, and he's like, 'I'm good.' And poof, he just disappears. Just... gone? Only to return 30 years later and start killing random teens? No, I don't buy it. Straightforward, my ass. You know, honestly, Henderson, a little humility now and then, it wouldn't hurt you."
"Sorry," Dustin mumbled.

Dustin looked around Steve and saw Max writing a bunch of stuff down in the corner.
"Any idea what she's writing?" Dustin asked; everybody else turned to look at her, "Did she sleep?"
"I mean, would you?" Lucas asked Dustin.
Before any more talk could happen, Nancy came running down the basement stairs with Robin and Alice behind her.
"Okay..." Nancy looked between Robin and Alice, "We have a plan."
They all gathered around on the couches and chairs while the girls explained their findings.

"Thanks to Nancy's newspaper minions," Robin started, "we are now rock-star psychology students at the University of Notre Dame."
"I'm now Ruth," Nancy told them.
"I'm Rose," Robin said.
"And I'm Rachel," Alice smiled.
"All R's? Really?" Steve gave them a concerned glance, which Nancy just shrugged to.
Dustin was looking over the sheet that they had printed out, "Nice GPA."
"Thanks," Nancy smiled, "So we called Pennhurst  Asylum, told them we'd like to speak with Victor Creel for a thesis we're co-writing on paranoid schizophrenics-"
"Which they said no to," Alice added.
"But," Nancy continued, "we landed a three o'clock with the director."

"Now all we have to do is charm him and convince him to let us talk to Victor," Robin explained.
"Then maybe we can rid Max of her curse," Alice looked hopeful.
Max was still in the corner writing away.
"Yeah, about that," Steve interjected, "we've been doing our Victor Creel homework, and, uh... we got some questions."
"Lots of questions," Lucas emphasized.
"So do we," Nancy said, "Hopefully, Victor has the answers."
"Wait... wait... wait a second," Steve looked concerned, "uh, where's mine?"
Nancy gave him a wary glance and ran upstairs, Steve on her tail.

"Nancy, you are out of your mind if you think I'm babysitting again."
"Okay, first of all, they're not babies anymore. And Max is in real danger. She needs people around her."
"I know. But why is it always me?"
"It's always you Steve because of Jenna," Alice piped out of nowhere along with Robin. "She roped you into the babysitting business, and now you're stuck, Mama Steve."
"Don't call me that!"
"Oh my god, you have a Tom Cruise poster!" Robin freaked out upon entering Nancy's room, "You have a Tom Cruise poster."
"That's old," Nancy sighed.
Robin started to mess and dig through some of Nancy's stuff.
"Can you please not touch anything?" Nancy was at the end of her line.
"I can't do anything here, Nance," Steve continued his useless rant, "Maybe I can be helpful with this asylum director dude. I don't know. I could turn on my... my charm."
"We don't need that kind of charm," Alice said while sprawling out on Nancy's bed.
"Ouch."