end zone | STEVE HARRINGTON

thirty-seven

C H A P T E R T H I R T Y - S E V E N

season 4 episode 2

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THEY HAD ARRIVED OUTSIDE OF RICK LIPTON'S HOUSE. Dustin had started to ring his doorbell, but so far there was no movement or sounds from anyone, they held their flashlights out for Dustin to be able to see. The place seemed to be abandoned and Anastasia was loosing hope that Eddie and Delilah were there at all, her foot tapped against the hard ground, as she watched Dustin rapidly ring the doorbell.

"Okay. Well, that's settled. I guess he's not here." Steve concluded.

Dustin tapped against the glass, his hard knuckled emitting a loud noise. "Eddie! Delilah! It's Dustin!"

"Great." Steve muttered.

Dustin ignored him, continuing to call out to them. "Look, we just wanna talk, okay? No cops, I swear. We just wanna help. Eddie! Delilah! Rick! Reefer Rick!"

"Don't scream that." Steve warned him, Anna wandered off with Max and Robin, as they shined their flashlights through the window still not being able to hear anything as Anna walked off with Max, while Steve and Dustin continued to bicker at Dustin's loud shouting.

"Hey, guys!" Max called back to them, they went over to her, spotting in the distance another additional part of Reefer Rick's home. They cautiously walked over, peering inside with their flashlights as they opened the door, Robin called out a "Hello." to anyone that was inside but got no response. "Is anyone home?"

The rest followed inside, cringing at the creaky floorboards. "What a dump." Steve said, furrowing his brows at the messiness of the boat house. Anastasia stuck to him, not wanting to be apart as he picked up a wooden paddle, he went over to the boat which was covered in tarp, hitting it which got the attention of the others.

"What are you doing?" Dustin asked, "What are you doing?"

"They might be in here." Steve explained, continuing to hit the tarp.

Dustin said with exasperation, "So take the tarp off."

"If you're so brave, you take the tarp off." Steve harshly responded, pointing at the blue tarp. Steve continued to hit it.

Dustin carried on from Robin's sentence. "Don't worry. Steve will get him with his oar."

"I know you think you're being funny, Henderson, but considering everyone in this room has nearly died a hundred times, personally, I don't find it funny in the slight---" They all jumped as someone leaped from the tarp, grabbing onto Steve who yelled, "Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!"

Anna went forward, to remove Eddie from Steve but Dustin stopped her. The boy held broken piece of glass to Steve's neck, refusing to look anywhere but at Steve. Dustin took a few steps towards them. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, Eddie! Eddie! Stop! Eddie! Eddie! It's me. It's Dustin. This is Steve. He's not gonna hurt you, right, Steve?"

"Right. Yeah." Steve whispered, he tilted his neck up so it didn't come in contact with the sharp glass.

"Steve, why don't you drop the oar?" Dustin advised, Steve followed his instructions, dropping it as Eddie pushed the glass further against him. "He's cool. He's cool."

"I'm cool, man. I'm cool." Steve assured Eddie in fear.

"What are you doing here?" Eddie asked, his voice was quiet and filled with fear.

"We're looking for you and Delilah." Dustin explained, just as a girl appeared from the tarp. Everyone glanced over at her, seeing her disheveled state, her hair was messy and she had streaks of tears down her cheeks, the girl stood behind Eddie, not looking at anyone else.

Max glanced at her. "We're here to help."

"Eddie. Delilah. These are my friends." Dustin introduced them. "You know Robin, from band." Robin pretended to play an instrument with her fingers. "This is my friend Max. The one who never wants to play D&D." The ginger girl waved shyly. "Eddie. We're on your side. I swear on my mother. Right, guys?"

Eddie turned back to Steve, "Yes. Yes. We swear. On Dustin's mother."

The tension built as Eddie stared at Steve, sweat rolling down his face until he let go, walking away as Delilah followed him. The two of them crouched down onto the ground, with Delilah staring at the floor, away from everyone else. Steve let out a grunt, rushing to Anastasia who held him in her arms, sending daggers to Eddie who was facing away from the group, but still sat close by to Delilah. She checked on Steve's neck while Dustin kneeled in the middle of Eddie and Delilah.

"Eddie....Delilah...." He said with sorrow in his voice, "We just want to talk." He brought his hands forward, reaching out to them as they flinched away, Anna and the rest immediately feeling bad for the traumatized teens. "Okay?"

Robin knelt down beside him. "We want to know what happened."

Eddie sniffed, turning to Robin as Delilah didn't even bother in getting rid of the tears that were flowing down her cheeks. "You won't believe us."

Max then said. "Try us."

Delilah grabbed onto Eddie's hand, Anna took notice immediately. The younger girl seemed to only be trusting Eddie so far, who took the lead in explaining. "Her body, just, like, lifted up into the air and, uh....And she just, like, hung there. In the air. And her bones.....Uh, she.....Her bones started to snap. Her eyes, man. It....It was like there was something, like, inside her head, pulling. I...I mean we didn't know what to do, so we.....we ran away. I left her there." He stared at the group, scoffing as he turned his head away. "You all think we're crazy, right?"

"No. We don't think you're crazy." Dustin tried to reassure him.

"Don't bullshit me, man! We both know how this sounds!" Eddie yelled.

"We're not bullshitting you." Max announced.

"We believe you." Anastasia smiled gently at them.

They exhaled, with Dustin sighing. "Look, what I'm about to tell you two you might a little....difficult to take."

"Okay." Eddie stuttered, Delilah still hadn't spoken but none of them blamed her for it, she had just seen her best friend die in front of her.

"You know how people say Hawkins is....cursed? They're not way off." Dustin started to explain. "There's another world. A world hidden beneath Hawkins. Sometimes it bleeds into ours."

"Like ghosts and shit?" Eddie asked, trying to wrap his head around the new knowledge.

Max stared down at the ground. "There are some things worst that ghosts."

Dustin continued on for her. "These monsters from this other world....we thought they were gone. But they've come back before. That's why we needed to find the two of you."

"If they're back again, we need to know." Anastasia brought their attention to her.

"That night, did you see anything?" Robin asked, "Dark particles, maybe?"

Delilah and Eddie shook their heads, recalling the event of the previous night. Dustin added on, "It would have looked like dust, swirling dust."

"No, man, there was nothing you could see or, uh....or touch." Eddie explained.

Delilah took a deep breath before saying. "You know, we tried to wake her, Dustin. She--She couldn't move. It was like she....she was in a trance or something."

"Or under a spell." Dustin said.

"A curse." Eddie realized.

Dustin gasped. "Vecna's curse."

"Who's Vecna?" Steve asked for the sake of everyone else in the room.

"An undead creature of great power." Dustin said, his eyes were thinking of the creature.

Eddie added on. "A spell caster."

"A dark wizard." Dustin finished.

Anastasia's eyes widened and she wasn't the only one. How could it be that they had fought Demogorgon's and Mind Flayers and now they suddenly had to deal with a dark wizard called Vecna, something - or someone - that had been killing so many people. She had never heard of it before, and knew that this was going to be their hardest battle they had every had.