Helter Skelter - Motley Crue

Beck hissed and slapped the EMT's hand away from her face, closing her eyes and snapping, "Don't shine a light in my eyes! Haven't you ever met an albino before?"

"No I haven't," he replied coolly, pulling up her eyelid to examine her pupils. "And I'm trying to see if you're concussed."

"Doubt that little bitch can hit that hard," she grumbled but the EMT ignored her so she followed his finger with her eyes as instructed.

She was handed a Hawkins police sweatshirt and sweatpants and told she could change so she miserably trudged to Rick's house.

"Where's she going?" Jason shouted from where he was being examined by a different EMT.

"Why?" she shouted back. "You want to hit me again?"

"I'm going to need stitches, you psychotic bitch!"

"You'll need a new hand you don't stay the fuck away from me and my boyfriend!" she screamed back.

The new police chief shouted them both down and said that Beck needed to change and get inside for questioning.

"Why is she being questioned?" Jason squealed in fury, but the police chief stared him down coolly and then left without comment. Beck followed only after she flipped off Jason.

She changed and threw her clothes in Rick's washing machine while the other nerdy cop tried to tell her she shouldn't and she was ready to light into him about how stupid he was being when the chief intervened.

"For the love of God, Callahan," he sighed, "let her wash her clothes and get her in here."

"I'm Chief Powell and this is Officer Callahan," the police chief said once Beck had slumped down in front of him, his voice calm and stable. "I want you to explain to me why you were at an empty house on Lover's Lake tonight."

"Maybe I felt like a scenic drive."

"With a car full of food?" Callahan asked.

"I have to do my own grocery shopping. In case you forgot, I'm legally independent so nobody brings me groceries."

"And you just ended up here with some guys from the basketball team? After an altercation with them at the school assembly yesterday?"

"They were tailing me," she said honestly. "When I stopped the van, they saw Eddie on the lake and drug me down to the water. Jason threatened to kill me so I bit him and he hit me in the face."

"How did you end up - after this scenic drive where you were being tailed - at the exact location where Eddie Munson seems to have been hiding?" Powell asked, leaning toward her.

"Guess I'm just unlucky."

"Unlucky?" Callahan asked, looking lost.

"You think leading half the basketball team here and getting punched in the face and half drowned so that they could attack my boyfriend is lucky?" she snarled.

"Eddie Munson is your boyfriend?" Callahan asked, missing the eyeroll she gave him as he took notes.

"Your boyfriend who is currently on the run from the police?" Chief Powell added.

"Is that something I should know?"

"We know you were at the trailer park yesterday."

"I was checking on Wayne. He's like family and I wanted to be with him."

"And it never occurred to you that Eddie might be responsible for the dead girl Wayne found in there?"

"Ne-ver once," Beck said, over-enunciating each word. "And in case anyone here forgot, I'm the one who called 911."

"Which gives you a stable location for a police timeline and protection if those boys wanted to strike at you again," Chief Powell noted and Beck knew she was blushing at being read so easily.

"What should stop us from holding you on charges of aiding someone hiding from the police?" Callahan interjected and Beck couldn't help but laugh.

"The wrath of Judith Knight for one," she said. "My mom hates me more than anyone right now and she still would never allow one of her blood to sit in a holding cell. You would truly regret that given that your 'evidence' is my location and some groceries that I bought for myself."

"Who killed that boy?" Chief Powell said, suddenly shifting the conversation.

"I don't know but it wasn't Eddie. He was on the lake in Rick's boat when Patrick… died. It couldn't have been him."

"Then who could it have been?"

Beck felt sick. There was no way she could tell them what she knew because it would kill her credibility as a witness if Eddie ended up on trial. "I don't know. It was dark and… I could just hear and see his bones breaking. The only other person out there was Jason."

"Do you think Eddie could have started the boat motor? Maybe those boys got too close and he accidentally caught Patrick in the propellers?"

"Absolutely not," she snarled through gritted teeth. "He was trying to start the motor when they started attacking me and he couldn't. He was standing up in the boat holding one oar when Patrick… died."

The chief eyed her and then sat back. "We'll need you to stay here until we've processed everyone else. Might need you to answer a few more questions."

"So I just go sit by myself with the guys who threatened to kill me?" Beck asked incredulously.

"No," Powell said calmly. "Callahan will keep an eye on you."

She rolled her eyes and threw up her hands, huffing, "Well who would dare with such an intimidating man standing in their way?"

Callahan blustered but followed her out of the bedroom and parked himself in Rick's living room as Beck moved her clothes to the dryer.

Beck sank to the floor and rested her head on her knees, wrapping her arms around herself. She wanted nothing more than to start crying but she would not let any of these people see her tears. Now she had no idea where Eddie was or if he would be safe and her face hurt and she was in police custody. And she was so incredibly tired.

Beck woke up laying on the floor facing a dryer and as she sat up a coat slid off of her. She scrubbed at her eyes, remembering why she was in a house that stank like weed and why she was on the floor. The white noise of the dryer and its warmth had lulled her to sleep as the basketball players were questioned one by one.

She looked at the coat that had been draped over her and saw the name Callahan glint back up at her from a pin on the lapel. She looked over at the officer, genuinely surprised, and when she caught his eye he blushed and took the coat as she held it out to him.

"Thanks," she said awkwardly.

He nodded, not telling her how small and frail she had looked sleeping on the floor. Asleep, it was clear how vulnerable she was and why she was so fast to pull out her claws when she felt cornered.

Beck scanned the living room, the other basketball players clearly asleep, and realized that Jason was sitting at the dining room table talking to Chief Powell.

"Where was Eddie when you saw this?" Powell asked and Beck's skin went cold.

"In the lake, like I said," Jason said, still shivering with shock.

"Right but then who lifted Patrick out of the water?" Callahan asked, leaning against the wall by Jason.

Jason stared like he could not believe what he was hearing.

"You're not listening to me. Why aren't you listening to me?" he asked, starting to sound hysterical. "Eddie he's… he's the vessel."

The two cops had forgotten Beck was there so she remained completely still, wanting to hear as much of this as she could.

"He's a vessel for Satan! He's made a pact with the Devil. Now he has his powers," Jason explained when no one spoke.

The officers looked at each other in complete disbelief so Beck remained silent even though she wanted to scream, to rake her nails across Jason's face for even suggesting such a thing.

Jason also noted the looks they gave one another and said, "You don't believe me."

"We're just processing all of this okay?" Powell tried to placate him.

Jason looked like he was going to start crying and said, "How do you expect to stop the Devil if you don't believe he's real?"

A light flashed in the window and Beck moved the curtains to watch the horde of cops that were now combing the lakeshore and the waters.

"Please stay safe," she whispered, hoping her words would carry to Eddie wherever he was.

At that exact moment, Eddie really wished there was a better option for drying his clothes than sitting in a construction site in only his boxers while he waited for his clothes to air dry.

He also wished he hadn't freaked out and busted his knuckles punching the beam he was leaning on but he had been so angry and upset about Jason trying to kill Beck that he had snapped and needed something to vent his fury on.

He needed a new radio and he was pretty certain that if he was able to lay low until the workers came back in a few hours he might be able to pick one up.

"You cannot do this!" Beck screamed, tears running down her face as she followed Powell outside, now back in her own clothes and Eddie's band shirt.

"You do not get to tell me what I can and cannot do," Chief Powell snapped at her, finally losing his patience. "People need answers."

"You don't have any fucking evidence!"

"No evidence?" he hissed. "Eddie is the only person who can be clearly tied to two of these deaths. If we don't investigate him we are not doing our jobs."

"There is a difference between investigating someone and naming him your prime suspect!" Beck grabbed on to Powell's wrist, hoping to slow him down before he went over to the waiting reporters. "Please don't!"

He looked at her for a long moment and then pulled his arm from her grasp.

"If you interfere, we will arrest you and I don't care who your mother is," he murmured.

Beck felt like she had been slapped and she hurried off to stand behind the small crowd that waited for the police chief's announcement.

"Beck!" someone called.

She spun around to see Nancy Wheeler and Max and Dustin with two other high schoolers she recognized. They gestured her over to where they were hiding behind a news van so she hurried over to them.

"We were so worried about you!" Max said, eyes locked on Beck's split lip and the dark circles under her eyes. "Where's Eddie?"

"I don't know," Beck said. And all the effort she had put into holding it together through the night broke and she began to cry.

Robin pulled her into a bear hug and Beck didn't care that she had no idea why Robin was even here. She just leaned into the hug and cried.

Dustin rubbed her back in a surprising moment of affection and asked, "What happened?"

Beck took a few deep breaths, swiping at her eyes with the cuffs of her denim jacket, and gave a summarized version of how she had located Eddie, how Jason had followed and attacked her, and how Patrick had died.

Steve started to ask something but behind them Chief Powell settled the crowd so the teens all fell silent. They all listened in horror as the police chief named Eddie as their main person of interest and announced that there would be a town hall that evening at six.

Dustin whipped his hand back from Beck's back as his radio squawked and they all heard Eddie calling for someone to answer. Robin beamed at Beck, clearly as delighted to hear from him as Beck was herself, and Beck was instantly ride or die for this girl.

Dustin had asked Eddie if he was okay and Beck hung on every word that crackled back from the radio.

"Nah man, pretty goddamn far from okay."

"Where are you?"

"Skull Rock. You know it?"

"Steve knows where it is. We'll be there."

"Where is Beck? She was at Rick's and-"

"Eddie? I'm with Dustin and Max," Beck said, pulling the radio out of Dustin's hands as she squeezed into Nancy's station wagon.

Eddie pumped his fists into the air from where he crouched below the rock and he was so relieved he wanted to dissolve into a thousand particles.

"I'll see you soon, love," Beck's voice said through static and then she was gone again.

"Okay," Beck said once they had pulled away from Lover's Lake. "What the actual fuck is going on and why do you all know about it?"

Dustin leaned his elbows over her seat from the hatchback and explained what the Upside Down was and several monsters they had encountered from this place.

"Okay so demogorgons are these plant things and that's why you lost your shit at the haunted house?"

Dustin blushed and before he could start motor mouthing about how he didn't lose his shit, Max cut him off. "Yes. We didn't expect to see something that looked so much like one."

"And the Mind Flayer is their hive mind. But now there's something else? And that's what's killing these kids?"

"Yes, and… Beck…"

Beck knew from Max's tone that she would not like whatever came next.

"He seems to be targeting kids who… have had terrible things happen to them. All his victims were meeting with Ms. Keeley."

"But that doesn't mean you're going to die!" Lucas jumped in. "We were able to save Max!"

"Jesus!" Beck exclaimed. "Max?! Are you okay?"

"I mean," Max said, "no but I'm still here."

Beck caught her hand and squeezed hard, feeling Max squeeze back just as hard, before returning her attention to her own possible death.

"How do you know I might not die?" she asked and Robin now leaned forward from the hatchback to answer.

"Everyone had headaches, nightmares, and nosebleeds before they were… taken by Vecna."

"One out of three then," Beck sighed, feeling slightly better. "And that could just be because today is sunny."

Steve parked the station wagon and turned around to face her. "Might want to figure out what your favorite song is. Just in case."

"Okay, what?!" Beck asked, following them into the woods as Dustin took the lead and Lucas began to explain.