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THE CREEL HOUSE WAS AS MACABRE as Amara recalled it to be. Its beauty had withered in the three decades since it had been vacated for good, teal blue bricks faded and ensnared by ivy reminiscent of the vines from the Upside Down. Amara didn't want to step foot inside any more than her friends did, but if Max had seen it in her trance then it had to hold some clues to how to vanquish Vecna. And so there they stood in the overgrown front lawn after dropping Shaelynn off at the church for Chrissy's funeral (and delivering Eddie more food, not that Dustin or Amara would let them forget), ready for anything.
"Yeah, that's not creepy," Steve remarked, gripping Amara's hand tighter for good measure.
As they approached the boarded-up front door Dustin handed them each a hammer to extract the nails from the wood, and Amara idly wondered how his backpack wasn't collapsing under the weight of everything useful he always seemed to have at his disposal. She and Steve got to work, coughing every time a puff of dust escaped from between the cracks, which was often.
"What exactly are we supposed to be looking for in this shithole?" Steve inquired of Nancy, who was their unofficial leader. He yanked yet another nail free, bracing one hand against the wood to hold it in place.
"We're not sure," Nancy admitted, folding her arms over her torso as she waited for him and Amara to finish. "We just know this house is important to Vecna."
"Because Max saw it in Vecna's red soup mind world?"
"That's one way of putting it," Amara managed a grin, removing the last of the nails on her side. "If Dustin's theory is true that Max ended up in Vecna's mind, maybe it holds some personal meaning to him or something. Every villain needs a secret lair."
"Maybe it holds a clue to where Vecna is," Dustin piggybacked off of Amara's implication of Vecna's whereabouts. "Why he's back, why he killed the Creels, and how to stop him before he comes back for Max."
"We don't think he's in here, right?" Lucas brought up warily before Steve and Amara could release the board. It was an equation Amara hadn't considered, assuming that Vecna resided somewhere in the Upside Down that was out of reach to them. They all pivoted to face Max, silently agreeing to let her have the final consensus of whether to stay or go.
"Guess we'll find out," Max gave them the go-ahead despite her own trepidation.
With a nod, Amara and Steve moved aside to let the wooden door fall to the ground with a thud, sending a cascade of leaves and dust into their faces. The front door that was revealed in its absence matched the description of the floating door Max claimed to have seen – like much of the house's exterior, the stained glass window gave off the impression of having once been a lovely greeting for any neighbors who dropped by, only to rust from a lack of sunlight or maintenance until it was barely recognizable. Amara couldn't even begin to imagine how Max was feeling right now.
