𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗜 𝗪𝗔𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗗 ━━━━ 𝒎𝒂𝒙 𝒎𝒂𝒚𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒍𝒅

𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙮 𝙤𝙣𝙚

[𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗗𝗘 𝗦𝗜𝗫: 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗜𝗩𝗘]

THE NEXT DAY EVERYONE WAS IN NEW clothes and were in the car.

"not to be a wimp, but can i sit in the car for this visit? 'cause this is gonna totally and royally suck." robin asked nancy as she drove. "it'll be fine," nancy assured the buckley teen.

"i can't stand to see those dull eyes of eddie's break again. i really, really can't."

"at least he can drink himself into feeling better," steve mentioned, showing robin the beer as him and dustin eat some snacks in the back. "give me some more," sage said, her voice raspy, looking back at the two teens, reaching her hand out.

"that's what my mom does," max says as dustin gives sage more chips. the brunette smiles softly then turns back around, eating the chips as she feels max's hand on her thigh. "why don't we just give it a trial?" robin questioned.

"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, that we told you about and the gate's closed so we have no way of getting to him because sage is losing her powers and getting weaker by the minute. he's entirely shut off to us, so basically you're screwed. and, no, i know you were already screwed but now you're doubly, triply screwed." lucas quickly stops robin's rambling.

"wait. maybe we don't put it like that."

" "we're one step closer to finding vecna." " nancy says. "that's what we say. that's what's important."

"see, robin? positive spin can make all the difference." steve comments. "uh-huh,"

"oh shit,"

everyone looks over to see police and people at reefer ricks house.

nancy parks the car and all the teens get out to see the situation going on. sage wraps her arm around max's waist, holding her close as she stares before nancy speaks up.

"come on, this way," nancy says, walking behind the news van. all the teens follow the eldest wheeler teen, gathering around as they listen to what chief powell is saying.

"a little after midnight . . . reporting a homicide out here on the lake," powell informs before lucas looks over at sage. "officer callahan here and myself arrived first on the scene. we made our way to the shore of lover's lake, about ten yards from that house you see behind me. it was there we found the victim, an 18-year-old senior from hawkins high, patrick mckinney."