𝐈 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐘𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐈𝐝𝐢𝐨𝐭 (𝘋𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯)

20: Skull Rock.

┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓
𝐘/𝐧'𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐯
┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛

The car ride to Eddie's hide out was slow and winding. I sat at the window next to Max and Lucas, with Robin as passenger and Steve and Dustin munching on chips in the very back.

"Not to be a wimp, but can I sit in the car for this visit?" Rabin spoke as Nancy drove. "Because this is gonna totally and royally suck."

"It'll be fine." Nancy said with pursed lips. Her and Robin had formed a new friendship through all of this, which I thought was good. Robin needed more friends her age.

"I just can't stand to see those dull eyes of Eddie's break again. I really really can't." Robin said.

Steve held up the six pack we had been prompted to bring and clinked it lightly. "At least he can drink himself into feeling better." He shrugged.

"That's what my mom does." Max muttered.

"Why don't we just give it a trial?" Started Robin. "Hey Eddie? Uh, good news first this time, we got you some Dustin-approved junk food and the six pack you requested. Oh yeah, and we found Vecna. Only the bad news is that he's in that other darker, much scarier dimension we told you about. And the gate's closed so we have no way of getting to him, like, he's entirely shut off to us, so basically you're screwed and, no no, I know you were already screwed but now you're doubly, triply screwed!" She ranted sarcastically.

Nancy shook her head at the girl and Lucas bit his lip. "Wait, wait, wait. Maybe we don't put it like that."

"We're one step closer to finding Vecna." Said Nancy sternly. "That's what we say, that's what's important."

Dustin handed Steve a chip and he inspected it as he spoke. "See Robin? Positive spin can make all the difference."

"Uh huh." Robin rolled her eyes at the boy.

"Oh shit." The whisper left Nancy's mouth as we all looked up, the car rolling in as a group of people gathered, few police officers close by.

Nancy parked the car quickly and ushered us all out. "Come on. This way."

"Nothing to see here. Just step back a bit, 'Kay?" The voices of police spoke.

We hid behind a van as the officers talked. They explained something about a homicide near the lake to the civilians as best as possible. "-The victim, 18 year old Patrick McKinney."

Lucas and Dustin's jaws visibly dropped at the mention of our fellow high school student.

"His limbs... his body was disfigured. There was an eye witness on the scene and we have determined a person of interest to be Eddie Munson. We encourage anyone with any information to please come forward." The officer said.

"Oh man. This is not good." Steve whispered as reporters started to talk over each other. "Really not good."

"Dustin can you hear me?"  The radio line clicked on in Dustin's bag and he grabbed it, startled. "Wheeler?"

We hurried in a group away from the van into a clear spot for conversation.

"Eddie! Holy shit, are you okay?" Dustin spoke into the walkie.

"Nah man. Pretty- pretty goddamn far from okay." Grumbled Eddie.

"Where is he?" Asked Robin.

"Where are you?" Repeated Dustin into the radio.

"Skull Rock. You know it?" Asked Eddie.

"Yeah that's near Cornwallis and-" Started Dustin.

"-Garrett, yeah. I know where that is." Interrupted Steve.

"Hold tight, Eddie. We're coming." Dustin said.

——

The sun became lower in the sky as we walked on for what felt like hours and miles.

"Dude, I'm telling you. You're taking us the wrong way." Steve spoke, annoyed and fanning himself. He looked sweaty in his yellow shirt with his hair slicking to his neck.

"It's North." Dustin stated, holding out his compass and map. "I'm positive. I checked the map. And even if I didn't have a map I could still get there. Me and y/n always go north when we come here."

Steve widened his eyes and blew out, baffled and a bit taken aback before chuckling and ruffling Dustin's hat.

"It's y/n and I, Dust." I shrugged slightly, a pink tinge dusting my cheeks.

"You do realize Skull Rock is like a super popular make-out spot, right?" Steve gave Dustin a knowing look.

"Of course I know that." Dustin looked between Steve and I smugly. "So?"

"Yeah well, it wasn't popular until I made it popular. All right?" Steve earned a long eye roll from Dustin. "I practically invented it. We're heading in the wrong direction."

Steve halted full stop, turning a 180 on his heel and walking in a completely different direction. The group followed suit, uninterested in Steve and Dustin's quarrel.

"Okay, so apparently we're going this way now." Max looked confused, starting up a small hushed conversation with Lucas.

"Steve. Where are you going? Steeeve." Dustin whined at his friend, raising his arms at him.

"Stop whining. Let's go. Trust me." Said Steve.

Dustin groaned and shoved his map into his back pocket, grasping my hand once again as before.

"It's all so weird." I shrugged.

"What is?" Dustin cocked his head slightly at me, interested yet confused.

"This, all of this." I shook my head. "People we know, kids getting killed. This is something different."

"Definitely." Dustin nodded. "But let's try not to think about it for now, let me be happy while I have you." He wrapped his arm around my waist as we walked, snuggled into my side.

"Okay babe. Good idea." I smiled more than I had been lately. Dustin was all I needed to be happy.

"Oh, boom!!" Steve's cocky voice echoed in all our ears whether we liked it or not. "Bada-bing, bada-boom, there she is, Henderson. Skull Rock. In your face, man. In your stupid, cocky little face."

"Oh says you, Steve." I shoved him and he winced, holding his hands up in mock surrender.

"Doesn't make sense..." Muttered Dustin, looking between the compass and our surroundings.

"Yeah, yeah even with it staring you in the face you can't admit it." Steve said smugly. "You just can't admit you're wrong, you little butthead."

"I concur." Dustin sighed.

Eddie fell from the rock behind us, a tumbling mess on the ground with a snarky smile on his face. "You, Dustin Henderson, are a total butthead."

Eddie and Dustin greeted in hug.

"Jesus I thought you were a goner." Said Dustin, pulling out of the hug.

"Yeah me too man, me too." Eddie sighed.

Eddie looked over at Steve and I and a small smile creeped up his face. He nodded his head towards Steve in thanks and we became a group once more.

Word count: 1065