" - and if I had just stayed with him, maybe - "

It had been the same thing for the past half hour.

The entire Party - minus Jonathan, Lucas and the parents - had been sat in Nora's living room trying to comfort a crying Nancy. Her assistant Fred had gone missing while she was speaking to Eddie's Uncle the night before and had been found dead this morning, in the middle of the road with his bones snapped and twisted and his eyes gouged out, just like Chrissy had been. After giving her statement, Hopper had driven her over to Nora's house, who had then contacted the rest of the Party.

Nancy had been sobbing non stop since before they had even arrived, and though Max sympathised, she thought that maybe this reaction was a bit much. It wasn't like it had happened to her. It wasn't like she had watched it happen, unlike Eddie. She didn't even like the guy! Almost every girls night, Nancy was complaining about her creepy assistant that kept making advances towards her and disparaging Jonathan in an effort to convince her to leave him.

But of course, Max didn't say any of this, instead sitting on one of the sofas and watching silently as Steve and Will patted her back and told her there was nothing she could have done, if Eddie's rendition of Friday's events were to be believed.

Speak of the Devil, Eddie came stumbling down the stairs, dressed in the same clothes as the day before and probably the day before that too, rubbing his eyes and staring at the crowd in Nora's living room in confusion.

"Vecna got her assistant." Max mouthed.

The young man paled and gulped loudly, dropping his hand from his face and taking a step back.

"I'm gonna - uh - go shower." He mumbled, turning away and bounding back up the stairs, much more alert than he had been a moment ago.

Yes, unlike Nancy, Eddie's reaction was perfectly understandable Max thought. She herself had had a massive freak out when this whole Upside Down thing came to light, and she had actually had a full explanation form Lucas before anything actually happened. Eddie didn't have that luxury. He had seen something inexplicable and definitely nightmare inducing happen and now had to hide from the police since it had happened at his house. He may not have known or particularly liked Chrissy Cunningham, but watching anyone die like that would mess someone up.

"Max?" The girl turned her attention back to Nora who was crouching in front of Nancy. "Could you grab some clothes from my closet and put them on the bed in the spare room for Eddie please? Some of my oversized stuff should fit him."

Surprised that the older woman had noticed Eddie's entrance and hasty exit, the redhead leapt from the couch and ran upstairs to Nora's bedroom.

Max honestly loved Nora's style. Baggy high waisted jeans paired with either an oversized graphic t-shirt tucked into her trousers or a smaller (and tighter) shirt paired with a large flannel on top. Smiling as she thought of chef's kissing at the sight of the closet contents, the girl began rifling through it for items that might suit the man, eventually deciding on a Guns & Roses shirt and a grey flannel, some shorts that Nora used as pyjamas - she doubted Eddie had brought spare underwear and these would do better than girls panties - and an old pair of jeans that used to be Hopper's.

Once the clothes were neatly placed on Eddie's bed, Max made her way back downstairs and retook her seat, happy to find that the tears had stopped - she had nothing against crying but really, over half an hour for a guy she didn't even like was taking it a bit far - and that Nancy was now clutching a steaming cup of coffee in her hands.

"Why can't I have any?" Dustin demanded.

"Because you're like nine and already overexcited enough as it is." Steve responded, winking at Will and Mike when they grinned.

"Leave the joking to us kids old man, you're not funny." The boy retorted. "Man why do I even come here if we have the same rules than at home?"

"I thought it was to bask in the light of my company." Nora said, collapsing onto the sofa next to Max and giving her a quick grin.

"Urgh! You know I love you Nora but come on! Tell him I can have coffee!"

"Daddy said no, children."

"Daddy?"

As one, the occupants of the room swivelled to look at Eddie at the bottom of the stairs, standing in Nora's clothes with wet hair and a raised eyebrow aimed straight at the young woman.

"Don't make it weird, man." Nora responded, scrunching up her face in disgust, though Max noticed she had a satisfied glint in her eyes as her eyes roved up and down the man's body. "Steve and Jonathan are the Dads and Nancy and I are the Moms. That's just how it is."

"Hey what about me?" Robin complained.

"You're the oldest child."

Max squealed as Nora tackled her to the sofa, dodging the wet towel that Robin had thrown.

"Where is this Jonathan guy anyway?" Eddie asked as he took a seat on the floor beside the sofa and leant against the arm.

"Away for work." Nancy replied, her voice scratchy from the crying. "And Joyce is with Hopper investigating."

"Oh my God, guys, don't you think Hopper and Ms Byers make a great couple?"

"Ew, gross man!" Will cried, shooting a dirty look Dustin's way as El giggled. "Mom's with Bob!"

"Uh yeah, and where is Bob? Back in Maine!"

"He's visiting family!"

"Guys, Guys!" Steve cried, raising his hands to get everyone's attention. "Can we focus please? He have another dead body. That's two victims in two days! We need to figure this shit out!"

"How?" Mike demanded, throwing his hands up in the air. "We still don't know anything about how Vecna chooses his victims!"

"And Mom and Hopper were very clear in that they didn't want us involved past hiding Eddie." Will added, only to be ignored.

"Well yeah, but Nancy knew Fred way better than any of us knew Chrissy." Nora pointed out while sending an apologetic smile to the woman in question as she clutched her mug tighter. "Is there anything you can think of that may have connected him to Vecna?" She asked. "Any recent changes in behaviour? Did he say or do anything weird?"

There was silence as Nancy thought, never taking her eyes away from her half empty cup of coffee, and everyone leant forward in anticipation of her answer.

"He was... He was acting weird, I guess."

"Weird how?"

"Well as soon as we got to the trailer park he began spacing out. And he was... upset maybe? Scared? I don't know. He was sweating and he'd jump at the slightest noise. And he looked like he was about to cry the whole time."

Nancy's voice began quivering and Max just knew that she was thinking about all the horrible things she had said about him during girls nights. Frantically wracking her brain, Max searched for any connection between what the woman had said and what they knew about Chrissy.

"Chrissy was seeing the counsellor!" She blurted, just as tears began pooling in Nancy's eyes. Everyone's eyes turned to her and she balked for a moment at being the centre of attention. "I saw her coming out of Ms Kelly's office. She was upset and crying, and Eddie, didn't you say she looked scared when you met her in the woods?"

Eddie nodded, frowning slightly as he tried to remember.

"Yeah, yeah she was. She screamed when I put my hand on her shoulder to get her attention, and she didn't even notice me get close. And I mean, I wasn't trying to be quiet at all, I stepped on loads of branches and I was even humming to myself."

"So she was spaced out." Dustin stated and everyone nodded in agreement.

"Maybe... maybe she spoke to Ms Kelly about what was freaking her out so much?"

Everyone paused at that and stared at each other, mulling the idea over in their heads before everyone jumped into action, startling Eddie into tipping over. Everyone spoke at the same time, making plans and dividing teams.

Nora would stay at the house with Eddie and update Hopper, Nancy would go home and get some much needed rest, and everyone else would go with Max to Ms Kelly's house where she would try and needle information about Chrissy out of her. There was one awkward moment after Max explained that she had been seeing the counsellor too where everyone had looked at her with varying degrees of concern, but it was brushed off in light of their mission.

Packing everyone into the car was difficult with them being so many and they couldn't even take Nora's truck because she wouldn't let Max drive it, but they managed and before long Max found herself being let into Ms Kelly's house while the others waited down the street.

"So Max, what is it you'd like to talk about? Has your step-father been difficult since we last spoke?" The woman asked, keeping her tone mild and gentle.

"Um, no." The redhead responded while she twiddled her thumbs in her lap. "It's just - I heard they found another body this morning. And I just - I'm worried."

"About the murders?"

"Yeah, um... you know Chrissy was found in Eddie Munson's trailer, right?"

"No, I didn't know that."

"Yeah, well..." Max's eyes roved around the room, refusing to look at the woman in front of her. "Billy lives right across from him."

"So you're worried about Billy." Ms Kelly's tone sounded more like a statement than a question, but Max nodded anyway.

"Yeah, and... I know Chrissy was seeing you, I saw her coming out of your office on Friday. I was wondering if she ever mentioned anything weird to you? About Eddie I mean."

The woman's face turned disapproving, though she held a slight pitying look in her eyes that the girl hated.

"Max, you know I can't discuss my other patients with you. How would you feel if someone was asking about our private conversations, hmm?"

"If I was dead?" She replied, eyebrows rising on her face. "Go ahead, how would it bother me? And if it helped an investigation? Absolutely."

"The police are investigating this, Max, not you." Ms Kelly gently pointed out. "And there are protocols in place if they approach me about this. Now about Billy, what was your home life like before he -"

"Actually!" The redhead interrupted, already tired of this conversation. She didn't want to talk to the counsellor about Billy, or her step father, and if she could avoid it she would but her teachers had noticed the bruises and pointed her in Ms Kelly's direction when she had refused to tell the police where they came from. "I'm really sorry, I just remembered, my friends are expecting me. I'll see you after Spring Break?"

She was getting nowhere with this, she knew. So it was time for plan B: use El to break into Ms Kelly's office at school and look for the files there. She made her hasty goodbyes and ran out of the house, slamming the door behind her. Once she reached the car, the Party visibly deflated when she shook her head, but Steve resolutely put the car in gear and pulled out of the street, quickly squeezing El's hand in solidarity.

The sun had set by the time they made it to the school and they had to break out the flashlights. It being Sunday and Spring Break, they didn't have to worry about bumping to any teachers or cleaning personnel, and breaking into the office was easy - Max had no clue why they hadn't just done this in the first place rather than waste their time at Ms Kelly's house. El just stared at the door for a moment and it unlocked by itself, just as easily as always.

Sifting through the papers was harder. Ms Kelly was seeing over 50 residents of Hawkins, not all of them students, and finding Chrissy's file involved frantic shuffling and whispered curses.

"Guys, look at this!" Robin cried, holding up a stack of letters triumphantly. "Was Fred's last name Benson?"

"I think so." Mike replied, having heard enough about the man from Nancy. "Why?"

"He was seeing the counsellor lady too!"

"I have Chrissy's!" Max called, and they gathered around the two files, flipping the pages until they reached something that sounded relevant.

And Max's stomach dropped. There were definite connections between the two victims, they had each had the same symptoms: headaches, nosebleeds and nightmares before the hallucinations kicked in. The parallel was daunting, considering Max had begun having those same symptoms - minus the hallucinations - for the past five days.

Just as the connection crossed her mind, the chime of an ancient clock sounded around her.

Eddie had been watching Nora the entire day. Or well, the past four hours since the rest of the Party had left. They first went to the basement where she donned a pair of ridiculous looking glasses that magnified her eyes ("Simply ravishing, darling.") and began the delicate process of carving the finishing touches into a nearly finished sculpture of an angel praying while he had stood behind her with his face pushed right beside hers, practically in the crook of her neck as she softly explained what she was doing.

Then they had gone back upstairs where Eddie had watched TV while she sat propped up on her knees, quietly sketching in a well worn notepad, not noticing his eyes coming back to her every few minutes.

"Can I see?" He had asked, and when she had nodded and smiled welcomingly, he had launched himself onto the sofa beside her with a grin, making her yelp, and leaned in close to get a good look. "This is amazing."

Nora had just shrugged. "It's just a rough sketch."

"Honey," He had said, pulling back to level her with a serious look with a single raised eyebrow. "These are amazing." He repeated. "Trust me, as an artist myself - though focused on different parts of the diverse subject than you - I can recognize talent when I see it. And you, Nora, are one of the most talented sketch artist I've seen. I'd say the most talented woodcrafter too, but you're actually the only one I know so - kind of defeats the purpose."

He grinned at her impishly and saw her blush darken, small dimples appearing on her cheeks as she smiled.

"You're an artist?"

"Indeed I am! Guitarist and songwriter at your service." He tried to bow, but their seated position so close to one another made it slightly awkward and difficult to do, though Nora paid no attention to his jerky movements as she gasped with glee.

"Yeah?" She exclaimed. "I love music!"

The issue was that when he wasn't demanding her attention, she was distracted. Worried. Her leg kept bouncing and she would sometimes stop what she was doing and stare blankly at her page, forgetting he was beside her watching her draw. It reminded him so much of Chrissy's spaced out episodes that he had to butt in.

"Are you ok?"

Nora's head snapped up from the sketchbook in her lap. "Hmm? Oh! Yeah, fine."

Grimacing, the young man put a comforting arm around her shoulder. He had already ignored the warnings with Chrissy, he wasn't about to do the same for Nora. Vecna had claimed one victim per day for the past two days; if the pattern continued then someone else was going to die tonight, and considering the sun had already set, the tightness in his chest wouldn't lessen until he woke up tomorrow morning and found Nora alive and well.

"Are you sure? You're spacing out and you look upset."

"No, no Eddie, it's nothing like that." The woman said, smiling softly at him and bringing a hand up to her shoulder to cover his own. "I'm just worried about Lucas. Dustin wasn't able to reach him last night and we haven't heard from him all day either."

Eddie nodded, his concern fro Nora changing targets and focusing on the kid that he had spent many a night with playing D&D, despite him never giving Hellfire his full attention due to the Party having their own exclusive D&D campaign.

"He'll be alright." He said, trying to convince himself just as much as his companion. "He's a smart kid, and stubborn. He's probably still with Jason, throwing them off my scent."

And boy would he never forget what Lucas was doing for him. It took guts to lead an entire basketball team of guys older than you on, and the way that he had grasped the basics of the situation immediately upon hearing Dustin's message and come up with a plan within moments... Eddie would be grateful for that boy - the whole Party actually, but especially Lucas - until the day he died.

Nora returned to her drawing - some form of snake with cuts down the side that the annotations said would allow the wooden toy to move like the real thing - focussing on putting pencil to paper for a few moments before she let out an explosive sigh and slammed the pencil down.

"No, you know what? It's late, Lucas is probably home. I'm gonna go see him." She announced, rising to her feet and turning back towards him. "Will you be alright by yourself here? I'll be half an hour at most, it depends on what he has to report."

"Yeah, no absolutely. Go."

With a quick grin she was gone, grabbing a jacket on her way out, leaving Eddie alone in her living room.

Looking around for something to pass the time, the man's eyes caught sight of the axes and lance on the wall. Almost every one of them had their own weapon for when things like this happened, she had said. They were fighters, that's how they had survived the last three years, Eddie thought. They fought and they never gave up, and they ensured they had the tools they needed at their disposal. Nancy's guns hidden in her closet, Hopper's service weapon, Steve's bat that he kept in the trunk of his car, and four weapons on the walls of Nora's house, disguised as decorations but ready to be picked up and used whenever needed.

He needed a weapon. He wanted to fight, he didn't want to run anymore. He wanted to survive, and for that he needed a weapon. And he knew exactly where to get one.

Spurred on by the image of himself fighting back hordes of monsters like the Party had described, Eddie picked up his own denim jacket, and left the house.

Lucas had been having a shitty weekend.

It had started with Jason finding out that his girlfriend had been murdered in Eddie's trailer after a heavy night of drinking, at which point he got roped into a hunt for his Dungeon Master in an effort to please the basketball team and have an in with the popular kids. That all came to a stop when Dustin's voice sounded from the talkie in his bag, announcing to everyone in the car that 'shit was going down' and it involved Chrissy's death and the Upside Down.

In that moment, Lucas realized two things: Eddie didn't kill Chrissy, and he had to stop Jason from finding him.

He had quickly sent a coded message back that Steve had thankfully understood before turning his walkie off and stuffing it back in his bag, sending a sheepish look Jason's way. Since then, things had gotten dangerous. When they said 'hunting', they meant hunting. There were weapons in the trunk, metal pokers and baseball bats, and Jason had brass knuckles in his pockets. They had first gone to Gareth's house and caught the remaining members of the Hellfire Club practicing their instruments, and asked them where Eddie was.

When they couldn't give an answer, Jason broke the brass knuckles out.

Lucas didn't blame them for giving Dustin's name. Jason wouldn't have stopped beating them, he would have tortured them until they gave him something. Still, Lucas wished it hadn't been Dustin.

It got more dangerous - for Lucas at least - when the team found him trying to sneak into the garage at Dustin's house where he had been trying to get to cerebro and give the others an update as he had gotten rid of his own walkie immediately after their visit to Gareth's. Jason had given him a suspicious look, probably remembering that he had spoken to Dustin in front of them all just that morning, but Patrick had thankfully given him another bone to chase.

Reefer Rick, Eddie's supplier.

So there he was, in the back of Jason's car on their way to Rick's lake house, an hour after curfew with no way of contacting anyone. His leg was jiggling madly, the back of his shirt was drenched in sweat and his heart was pounding through his chest so hard he was sure the others could hear. He had to keep them distracted, he had to stay with them, make sure they stayed occupied looking in the wrong places. He had to make sure they didn't find Eddie, and give the Party a chance to investigate this shit properly. If this was about the Upside Down, he knew only the Party and Parents could resolve this.

Blowing a heavy breath out in an attempt to calm himself, Lucas followed the others out of the car and into the woods around Rick's house. They stopped on Jason's signal and milled around, waiting to hear the plan.

"Alright." The boy began. "This is a big place. He could be in the house or the shed out back, or anywhere in these woods. We're gonna arm ourselves, and we're gonna split up." Jason looked at each one of them, lingering slightly on Lucas and he tried to hide the fear in his eyes. "When we find him, we don't give him a chance to fight. He's a sicko. You hit, and you hit him good. You call for backup and you knock him out, got it?"

The three nodded and they went their separate ways. Jason went straight for the house, Patrick for the shed behind it and Andy and Lucas split the woods between them. For a moment, he considered running, but Jason was already suspicious of him enough, if he ran then he would be the next name on their list of clues to find Eddie, so he kept going, stepping lightly and keeping his flashlight trained on the ground in front of him, until he came across a familiar van.

It was Eddie's, he would recognise it anywhere after staying at school late on Hellfire D&D nights and seeing it in the parking lot. So Patrick had been on the mark, the Dungeon Master had been hiding here before the Party found him. He trusted that they had taken him away, taken him somewhere safe and inconspicuous like one of their houses, but dread pooled in his stomach when a faint light shone through one of the windows of the van.

Looking around him frantically for any sign of the others, Lucas ran towards the van and climbed through the open door. He tried to stay quiet, he just wanted to warn Eddie to run, but faced with a crazed looking man wielding a spiked mace, he couldn't help but yelp in fear and fall to the ground.

"Lucas?"

"Eddie, what the hell!" The boy cried, trying to keep his voice low even as he spared a glance outside. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I had to grab this." Eddie responded, lifting the mace up.

Scrambling back to his feet, Lucas rushed forwards to grab onto a jacket arm and began pulling.

"No, man, you can't be here! Jason is here, they're gonna find you, you have to go!"

Eddie had allowed him to pull him out of the van and they made it a few steps away when a light shone on them.

"Hey!" Twisting around, they stared in horror as Jason exited the house, furious look on his face as he began building up speed. "I knew it! Sinclair, you traitor!"

"Run!"

Lucas and Eddie bolted into the forest, dropping the flashlight on the ground to make it harder for them to be followed. They ran, looking back to see Jason hot on their heels, his own light trained right on them, not letting them find cover behind the trees. They hadn't even made it a hundred yards when another light appeared in front of them, Andy's shouts joining in with Jason's. Skidding to a halt, they slipped on some leaves before running another way.

"We've got 'em now boys!" They heard as they stopped once more, trapped on the lake shore, the suffocating stench of their fear surrounding them.

"The boat! Get in the boat!" Eddie cried, and the chase was back on.

They each grabbed a paddle and began rowing away from shore, hoping it would be enough to stop the others. To their misfortune, Jason and Patrick both chucked their coats off and jumped right in after them, Andy staying to the beach and cheering them on.

"Row! Row!"

"I'm rowing!"

"Quicker!"

The swimmers were gaining on them fast, and it occurred to Lucas that maybe they should have tried their luck in the forest, because out here Jason wouldn't even have to knock them out. He would just have to hold them under for long enough and that would be it. Something happened, though, to make Patrick stop swimming, Jason following along shortly after, calling after him. It wasn't until the boy got pulled underwater that Lucas grew concerned.

"Wait, wait! Eddie, stop!"

Everything stopped, the mad dashing through the water ceased and the waves began lapping against the boat gently once more, and Lucas, Eddie and Jason stared at the spot where Patrick had disappeared. Only for him to come shooting straight back out, flying up into the air and stopping suddenly. He stayed like that for a moment, simply suspended mid-air, before the first disgusting crack was heard.

His arm snapped at a right angle. Then his leg broke in two distinctive places. Then his other arm. His jaw. And then he fell.

And they screamed.