⁴𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐃, 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐨𝐧 ✔

013-follow me to death

IT WAS NIGHTFALL BEFORE ANY MORE WEIRD ACTIVITY HAPPENED WITH THE COMPASS. 

Carla's legs were sick of walking as she trudged along, eyes darting between the people ahead of her and the ground to make sure she wasn't going to stumble on some random stick. 

For hours, Dustin had led the group through the forest, weaving in and out of bushes and trees in an attempt to get his compass acting wonky. For the last few hours, little has happened—there's been some false alarms in which the Henderson started screaming in glee only to realize he was wrong, but otherwise it's been a bunch of useless walking.

 For being a gate to an inter-dimensional world, this gate certainly wasn't easy to spot out.

There's only one flashlight being used by Steve, the rest of the group trying their best to navigate the forest in pitch black. It doesn't help that a few moments ago, Dustin started sprinting in a random direction, adamant that he was fully right this time—which he'd claimed the other three false alarm—leaving the rest of them to try and navigate the woods in the dark to catch up.

Carla jogs after the Henderson, hoping that they're finally right. If not, it's too late to really keep continuing—Karen was certainly growing worried that none of the kids had returned, let alone her own two girls. And if they had to return home, that meant another day was wasted. Another day that could have been spent trying to get Max's life being saved. 

"Something's happening!" Dustin announces, voice a mixture of glee and curiosity. 

"Dustin? Can you slow down?" Eddie bellows, first in line behind the boy. "Dustin?"

Carla sighs as they enter a clearing, "God, that kid is going to be the death of me."

"Tell me about it." Steve replies, shining the flashlight outwards. Dustin's been a pain in the ass  to him the past few days. 

The Henderson leads them all into a small clearing, turning his head back to state, "I think we're getting close."

Eddie lurches forward, grabbing a hold of the curly haired boy before he can step into Lover's Lake. He presses a firm hand against the boy's chest, stopping him. "Watch your step, big guy."

Carla halts in her steps, clumping beside Eddie and Dustin. She eyes up the terrain to recognize it as Lover's Lake. Of course Dustin's fucked up compass had led them here—the place where Vecna had killed Patrick less than twenty-four hours ago. Great.

"Oh, man." Steve groans as he recognizes the lake. He shines the flashlight over it. "You've got to be shitting me."

"Yeah," Eddie comments, eyeing up the place which he'd been the prior night. "I thought these woods were familiar."

Robin rasps, "Lover's Lake." 

"This is confounding." Dustin breathes.

"Unless we somehow missed a gate in the middle of the woods, the gate is down there." the Wheeler jabs a finger to the dark waters ahead, looking rather displeased. How were they supposed to find an underwater gate? 

Max's brows furrow, "There's a gate in Lover's Lake?"

"Whenever the Demogorgan attacked, it always left an opening." Nancy recalls their first fight with the creature at the Byers home, picturing the slimy tear it left in its wake. "Maybe Vecna's the same way."

Steve replies, "Yeah, only one way to find out."

Eddie headed down for the shoreline where Reefer Rick's boat was hidden from the earlier night, ripping the tarp off. From there, him and Steve took initiative and  worked together to push the item into the water so they could use it.