Notes:

Here we have "The Monster And The Superhero."

It's funny because while this is my least favorite episode, I had a blast writing this chapter.

Hopefully you like it too :)

They'd slept at Steve's house that night, though Eddie stayed in the boathouse.

Robin had clothing at Steve's house already, so they didn't have to get her some, plus Dustin and Max had brought their own.

Max was convinced Robin and Steve were dating, even if they swore they weren't. However, Steve clearly still had feelings for Nancy, so there was a possibility they were telling the truth.

Steve left to get food from the store that morning, eventually returning around noon. Lord knows why he took his sweet time.

"Everyone ready to go?"

The three of them nodded, and they hopped into his BMW.

It was a relatively quiet ride besides the occasional chatter.

When they arrived at the boathouse, they accidentally startled Eddie. Max noticed how he got easily scared. She didn't judge him, though. He'd gone through a lot of trauma these past few days.

"Delivery service," Dustin said, grinning. Steve waved.

Exhaling, Eddie grabbed the bags out of the younger teen's hands. Digging into it, he found a box of honeycombs—his favorite.

Residing back on the suspended boat, the others crowded around him as he ate.

"So we got, uh, some good news and some bad news. How do you prefer it?"

"Bad news first, always," Eddie said with his mouth stuffed.

"All right. Bad news. We tapped into the Hawkins PD dispatch with our Cerebro, and they're definitely looking for you. Also, they're, uh, pretty convinced you killed Chrissy."

"Like, 100% kind of convinced," Max commented.

"And the good news?"

"Your name hasn't gone public yet," Robin said, "But if we found out about you, it's a matter of time before others do. And once that gets out, everyone and their shallow-minded mother is gonna be gunning for you."

"Hunt the freak, right?" Eddie replied bitterly.

She nodded. "Exactly."

"Shit…"

"So, before that happens," Dustin said, stepping in, "we find Vecna, kill him, and prove your innocence."

"That's all, Dustin? That's all?"

"Yeah, no, that's pretty much it."

That's definitely oversimplifying things, but Dustin was right.

"Listen, Eddie, I know everything Dustin is saying sounds totally delusional, but we've actually been through this before," Robin assured him. "I mean, they have a… a few times, and… and I have once. Mine was more human-flesh-based, theirs was more smoke-related," she rambled, "but bottom line is, collectively, I really feel we got this."

"We usually rely on this girl who has superpowers," Steve explained. "But, uh, those went bye-bye, so…"

"So we're technically in more of the kinda-"

"Kinda…"

"… brainstorming phase," Max cut in.

Steve snapped his fingers. "Brainstorming phase," he confirmed.

"There… There's nothing to worry about," Dustin added, and Steve scoffed.

Eddie looked at them incredulously.

Suddenly, sirens wailed in the distance.

"Shit…"

"Tarp," Robin repeated quickly.

Throwing it over Eddie, they ran to the window and watched a group of police cars and ambulances speed down the road.

As they disappeared, Steve spun to face Dustin. "Turn the radio to the police channel."

Fiddling with his radio, he changed it to the correct channel and listened.

"Who's body did you find?"

"Fred Benson's."

"Anyone witness this?"

"Not that we know of, though he was with someone a little before. Say's her name is Nancy Wheeler."

The group paused, staring at one another with concern.

"Nancy?"

Listening back in, they figured out it was the road next to the trailer park and high-tailed it to the road.

When they arrived, Max instantly saw Nancy speaking to the police.

As they stepped out of the car, Nancy caught a glimpse and waved to Steve. She looked… relieved.

It took a while for her to finish questioning, but they waited the whole time. Finally, once it was over, Nancy strode to their car and glanced at her feet.

"You okay?" Steve asked. She merely nodded.

"Let's go somewhere more private to talk," Nancy told them.

There's a table outside in the trailer park," Max replied.

Nancy nodded. "That should work…."

Getting back into the car, they managed to squeeze everyone in. Nobody spoke until they arrived at the bench.

"We think the upside-down in back…." Max said, jumping straight to the point.

"I'm not exactly surprised…" she whispered.

Max quickly explained everything: Chrissy's death, Eddie's innocence, Vecna.

"You're saying that this thing that killed Fred and Chrissy -it's from the Upside Down?"

"If the shoe fits," Steve said.

Dustin fixed his eyes on Nancy. "Our working theory is that he attacks with a spell or a curse. Now, whether or not he's doing the bidding of the Mind Flayer or just loves killing teens, we don't know."

"All we know is this is something different," Max commented. She gazed around at her friend. "Something new."

"It doesn't make sense," Nancy uttered.

"It's only a theory," Dustin replied.

She shook her head. "No, Fred and Chrissy don't make sense. I mean, why them?"

Dustin shrugged. "Maybe they were just in the wrong place. They were both at the game."

"And near the trailer park," Max added.

"We're at the trailer park," Steve said uneasily. "Uh, should we maybe not be here?"

"There is something about this place. Fred started acting weird the second we got here."

Robin stared in confusion. "Acting weird as in…?"

"Scared, on edge, upset."

"Max said Chrissy was upset too," Dustin pointed out.

Max shook her head. "Yeah, but not here. She was crying in the bathroom at school." Max remembered the vomiting, the soft crying, the way Chrissy told her to leave her alone.

"Serial killers stalk their prey before they strike, right," Robin questioned. "So, maybe Fred and Chrissy saw this Vecman-"

" Vecna," Dustin corrected, annoyed.

Steve looked unnerved. Max could tell he was nervous. But could she blame him? "Dunno about you guys, but if I saw some freaky wizard monster, I would mention it to someone," he said.

"Maybe they did…." Max thought back to seeing Chrissy leaving Ms. Kelly's office. She had seemed… scared. Not only that, but self-conscious. "I saw Chrissy leaving Ms. Kelley's office. If you saw a monster, you… you wouldn't go to the police. They'd never believe you. But you might go to your-"

"Shrink…" Robin finished her sentence.

Dustin stood up. "Come on, we need to find Ms. Kelly."

As they headed to the car, Max saw Nancy head to her own.

"Whoa, whoa, Nance. Nance!" Steve called. "Where are you going?"

"Oh, there's just something I wanna check on first."

"Something you wanna share with us?" he asked.

"I don't wanna waste your time. It's a real shot in the dark."

"Yeah, okay. Are you out of your mind? Flying solo with Vecna on the loose? No, it's too dangerous. You need… You need someone to… Here. I'll stick with Nance."

"Take the car, check out the shrink."

He threw his keys to Robin.

"Don't think you want me driving your car."

"Why?"

"I don't you have a license?"

"I'm poor," Robin responded.

"I can drive," Max volunteered.

"No, never again. Please, Anybody but you. No." Steve said, shutting her down pretty quickly.

Dustin gave him a face that said, 'I could do it….'

"No chance."

"Come on!"

"No."

"All right, okay. This is stupid. Us ladies will stick together," Robin interrupted. "Unless you think we need you to protect us."

Defeated, Steve sighed. "Be careful."

As they walked away, Steve gazed longly at Nancy.

"Just gonna stand there and gawk?"

"Shut up."

Dustin gestured at the car. "Why don't we go? Okay?"

"Shut up and get in the car. Wipe your feet."

Max laughed a bit when Dustin proceeded to wipe it on the inside.

"On the outside, not the inside!" As he revved up the engine, Steve muttered, "Always the babysitter. Always the goddamn babysitter!"

Driving away, Steve asked for the address. "332 Royal Lane."

As they drove across town, Max turned on her headphones, getting lost in a world of sound.

Eventually, they stopped in front of the house, and Max opened the door to the car.

"Just… wait here, okay?"

The boys nodded, and she shut the door.

Ringing the doorbell, Max waited a few seconds until Ms. Kelly pulled the front door open.

"Max. Hi."

Max waved. "Hi. I'm so sorry to bother you over break, but… do you have a minute to talk?"

"Um, yeah, of course. Of course."

Following her counselor inside, Max sat on her chair.

"So, what did you want to discuss?"

Max swallowed. "It's just, with everything that's happening, with all the murders, it's… it's making everything worse again…."

Ms. Kelly nodded. Max hated her sympathetic expression. "You've experienced trauma, Max, and when you keep your feelings, your pain, bottled up the way you do, it doesn't take much to trigger them again. So now, when it rains, it storms."

"Yeah, I know…."

"Do you think you're ready to talk more about that night?"

Max surfaced the unwanted memory of how she screamed for Billy. How he died.

"I live next door to where it happened," she said, changing the subject.

"I'm sorry?"

"To where Chrissy was murdered. The cops asked me a bunch of questions," Max lied. She'd left before they could ask her anything. "Did they talk to you? I mean, I know you were seeing Chrissy."

Ms. Kelly looked down. "Max, you know I can't talk about Chrissy or any other student."

"Yeah, but, I mean, what if there was a serial killer on the loose in my neighborhood?" Max pointed out. "Did Chrissy mention anything? Anything about who might have done this?"

"Max, I'm… I'm sorry, I… I really can't discuss this," she sighed. "You wouldn't want me talking to any other students about you, right?"

"If I were dead and it would help catch the killer, then yeah, I most definitely would."

"Well, let's leave that up to the police, shall we?"

"Yeah, you're right. The police totally have this under control." Max replied bitterly. "Can I use the bathroom?"

"Sure. Up the stairs, to the left."

"Thanks."

Max knew what she had to do.

Searching for the office keys, something caught the corner of her eye.

Bingo.

She grabbed the keys and hurried out of the house and into the BMW.

"What'd she say," Dustin said.

"Nothing, just drive," she responded frantically. "Steve, drive!"

"Okay."

"Once they were a safe distance away, Max explained what she'd done.

" You stole her keys ?" Steve replied dumbfoundedly.

"You want information or not?"

He could argue.

By the time they arrived at the school, it was night.

Max was thankful that the key also opened the doors. She didn't want to go through the work of breaking a door.

"This way," she said, leading them.

Suddenly, a voice came out of the walkie.

" -Dustin, do you copy? "

"Yeah, I copy."

"So, Nancy's a genius. Vecna's first victims date back all the way to 1959. Her shot in the dark was a bull's-eye. "

"Okay, that's totally bonkers, but I can't really talk right now."

"What are you doing? "

Dustin and Steve shared a look. "Breaking and entering school to retrieve confidential and extremely personal files."

Static, and then, " Can you repeat that? "

"Just get your ass over here, stat. We'll explain everything."

Unlocking the office, the three crept inside. Max glanced around, trying to find potential places that student files may be. Suddenly, she spotted a cabinet.

"It's like a mini-Watergate or something," Dustin commented, shining his flashlight around. "Hawkinsgate…" he said as she opened the drawer.

"Didn't those guys get caught?" Steve asked.

"Holy shit," Max whispered as she found their files.

"You found it?" Steve said, walking over to her.

"Yeah, and not just Chrissy's file. Fred was seeing Ms. Kelley too."

Clearing Ms. Kelly's desk to make enough room for herself, Max sat down and opened the files. The first one was Chrissy's.

Max's heart thumped. Oh my god…

All her symptoms…. Max had been experiencing the past week.

"Can I see Fred's file?"

"Yeah," Steve nodded. Sliding it over, she read over his symptoms. They were identical.

Severe headaches…

Max thought back to how the Benadryl calmed her and battled her non-stop headaches.

"Max, I know something is wrong, " she remembered Lucas telling her.

Next on the list…

Nosebleeds.

In class, she'd had a bad nosebleed, the blood dripping onto her paper as she winced. Mike had looked at her, asking if she was alright.

Constant nightmares…

She thought about her own.

"Billy! " she screamed before she abruptly woke up.

Max was reminded of what Ms. Kelly had said to her earlier.

" Max, what you've been through… it's a lot for anyone… and it's okay to not be okay…."

Max vaguely heard Dustin ask her a question.

"Max? What is it?"

The voices around her became muffled.

" Max! Max! " Dustin called.

Suddenly, a deep growl spoke somewhere behind her. " Max… "

Time seemed to freeze, and Dustin stopped talking. Instead, the boys stopped moving as if they were stuck.

Max felt compelled to follow the person who had called to her.

Walking out of the office and into the hallway, a clock chimed down the hall. What was going on?

As she slowly crept forward, a ticking sound became louder.

When a new hallway appeared to her right, she rounded the corner and saw a grandfather clock stuck inside the wall. How? Well, she didn't know. But still, she neared it.

It rang a second time. And once she was halfway there, it chimed again.

And then…

It chimed one last time.

Her vision instantly turned black, and the first she heard were voices.

"Max! Max, wake up!"

As her vision abruptly returned, Max gasped and jumped backward. She flicked her eyes around the dark room and was met with Steve and Dustin's concerned expressions.

"You okay?" Steve asked.

Slightly dazed, she responded with no answer. "What happened?"

"I- you were… you weren't responding to us for about a minute. Like you were absent."

"Was I asleep?"

Dustin shook his head. "I don't think so… I mean, your eyes were open..."

Max had a gnawing feeling deep in her stomach.

She knew. She knew exactly what was happening.

"I... saw something..."