Robin and Nancy ran into the school. They meet Lyn, Steve, Dustin, and Max in the hallway. "What happened?" Robin asked out of breath.
"Max is connected to Vecna too. He gave her a vision and she is leading us to it." Dustin explained while they followed the redhead.
"She saw a Grandfather's clock. I have heard one in my visions." Lyn rubs her arms, having chills from the thought that someone saw every part of herself that she tried to hide.
Max leads them to a dead end and flashes her light on the wall. "It was here. Right here."
"A grandfather clock?" Nancy asked.
"It was so real?" She stares at the wall. "And then, when I got closer, suddenly I just… I woke up."
"It was just like Lyn on the road. She was in a trance or something. Exactly what Eddie said happened to Chrissy." Dustin feared that his friend and sister were next on Vecna's list.
"That's not even the bad part." Max turns around to walk to the guidance counselor's office.
"Max, don't just leave us on a cliffhanger," Dustin whines as they follow her.
She opens the folder to flip through the pages. "Fred and Chrissy, they went to Miss Kelley for help. They were both having headaches, bad headaches that wouldn't go away." Robin pulled the papers closer so she could read them. "Then, the nightmares… trouble sleeping. They'd wake up in cold sweats. Then they started seeing things, bad things from their past. These visions just kept getting worse and worse until eventually, everything ended."
"Vecna's curse." Robin looks up at her.
"Chrissy's headache started a week ago. Fred's six days ago. I've been having them for five days." Max tears up.
"How many days has it been for you?" Nancy asked Lyn.
"It's been four days," Steve answered for her when she didn't. She was staring at the folder, seeing the patterns so clearly.
"I don't know how long I have. All I know is that Fred and Chrissy, they both died less than 24 hours after their first vision. And I just saw that goddamn clock, so… looks like I'm going to die tomorrow." She had so much she wanted to make right before then.
"If yesterday counted as a vision, then that would mean I'm dying today." Lyn let out a bitter laugh. The sound of a door opening put them on edge. "Shit, what if it's those assholes? What if they saw your car and came to find me?" She didn't need to deal with stupid jocks.
"Stay, I'll look." Steve grabs a tall floor lamp before heading out.
"He will use any tall thing as a weapon." Lyn follows him out with everyone.
They let out a scream when someone ran around the corner. "It's me. It's me." Lucas put up his hands, not wanting Steve to hit him.
"Lucas?" Lyn let out a breath of relief.
"Yes, it's me." He pants.
"What is wrong with you, Sinclair?" Steve yelled.
"I'm sorry." He didn't mean to scare them.
"I could've taken you out with this lamp." He shook it.
"I'm sorry, guys. I was biking for eight miles. Give me a second…shit." He put up his pointer finger. "I got a code red."
"Shit, you got one. We have one." Lyn felt like she couldn't catch a break.
"I've been with Jason, Patrick, and Andy. They have gone off the rails. They're trying to catch Eddie and they think Lyn knows where he is." He turned to her. "You're in terrible danger."
"Well, tell Jason to get in line because Vecna is trying to kill me and Max." She wasn't going to let a couple of jocks scare her when she had some Demon after her.
"What?" Lucas looks past her to stare at Max.
They moved to the Wheeler's basement. "Didn't think I was going to be here this summer." Lyn sat next to Max on the desk.
"Are you not scared?" Max felt like she was on the verge of sobbing since she connected the dots. Lyn appears to have been told that they run out of shrimp and she has to settle for chicken in her pasta at Enzo's.
"Death doesn't scare me. Since the first time I recognized how dangerous the world underneath our feet was, I have accepted that I am going to die young. The only thing that worries me is that Dustin is going to have to take care of our mom." She glanced at her brother who was reading the article that Robin and Nancy found.
"What's wrong with your mom?" Max could tell something wasn't all right in the head with the woman but she didn't seem harmful.
"She lives in a delusion that she still has a wealthy husband. She doesn't realize that she is living on a budget. I have to go grocery shopping with her. I had to cut up her credit cards when she max them out. I have to give her an allowance every week. Then there are the breakdowns she gets over the slightest bump in the road." She sighs. "It's not that much trouble but I don't want Dustin to be weighed down by that. A child shouldn't have to take care of their parents until they are grown."
"Well, you might not have to worry about that. I mean you aren't dead yet." She could see her mask cracking.
"If you believe there's a chance then why are you writing goodbye letters?" She looks at all the piles of paper surrounding Max.
"These are just precautions. If I die, I want everyone to know how much they mean to me." She went back to writing.
Lyn grabbed a paper and wrote, Dear, Steve on the first line.
She stayed up all night writing. She finished her letters to Steve, Dustin, Lucas, Nancy, El, Jonathan, and Mike. She was signing off her letter to Will. She grabbed another piece of paper. She stared at it. It was supposed to be her mother's letter. She wanted to write if I'm dead it's because of you, so get your shit together for Dustin. But, what good would that do?
"Lyn, come on, we have a plan," Nancy yelled as she went down the stairs. She got up to join the others in the sitting area.
"Thanks to Nancy's newspaper minions, we are now rockstar psychology students at the University of Notre Dame," Robin told them.
"I'm Ruth," Nancy told them.
"I'm Rose and you are Mabel." She pointed at Lyn.
"Mabel?" She wondered if that was what she looked like to them.
"You got a nice GPA," Dustin told her.
"So, we called Pennhurst Asylum, told them we'd like to speak to Creel for a thesis paper, we are writing on paranoid schizophrenics." Nancy had tried to go right for the source.
"To which they said no." Robin was annoyed with that.
"Of course." Lyn didn't think they would let students talk to someone who committed such a horrible crime.
"But, we landed a meeting at three o'clock with the director," Nancy told them.
"Now, all we have to do is charm him and convince him to let us talk to Victor," Robin said.
"And maybe we can rid Max and Lyn of this curse." She looks at the teen writing her letters.
"Hey, is this my paper on Cults?" She had written it for her psychology 101 final.
"Yeah, you gave it to me to read and I kept a copy." She reminds her how she got it.
"You think it's good enough to convince them that we are advanced enough for real field work." She thought it might be obvious that it was a paper for a beginner class.
"I do." She nods.
"We've been doing our Victor Creed homework and we have questions." Steve looks at the two Creed experts.
"Lots of questions." Lucas was wondering if there was a connection.
"So do we, hopefully, Victor has the answers." Nancy was sure about this.
"Wait for a second, where is mine?" Steve closes the folder.
"You guys are out of your mind if you think I'm going to babysit again." He follows Nancy and Lyn into Nancy's room.
"First of all, they are not babies anymore. And Max is in real danger. She needs people around her." Nancy was tired of his arguing.
"I know but why me?" He points to himself.
"If you want to be Mabel, you can." Lyn looks at the clothes that Nancy picks up from her house. It was a blue blazer and skirt set with a white blouse.
"What about Lyn? What if something happens to her there?" He pointed at his girlfriend.
"Robin and I won't let that happen." She promised.
"Steve, I won't be able to focus if I don't know that the teens aren't protected. The papers are already filled out. The University is expecting three females, so can you roll with it." Lyn got up to hug him.
"This is manipulation." He sighs but hugs her back.
"Oh my god, you have a Tom Cruise poster." Robin came in and gushed over the first thing she saw. "You have a Tom Cruise poster." She smiled when she realized the meaning.
"That's old." Nancy looks through her closet. Robin laughed as she looked through Nancy's nightstand. "Can you please not touch anything?"
"She's not listening." Lyn watches her opening drawers.
Robin opens up a jewelry box and gasps. "There's a little ballerina in here."
"She's going to in a second because we're going to do a makeover." She pulled out a pink blouse and a long skirt.
"Please tell me you're joking." Robin stared in horror.
"We have to convince this guy that we are true academic scholars." She nodded to Lyn when Robin tried to run for the door.
She grabs her and pulls her towards Nancy. "Come on, Robin. We have to save Max."
"I can't breathe in this thing. I'm itchy, I'm itchy all over." Robin complains as they walk toward the building that houses the mentally ill.
"Robin, you have been complaining since you put it on. I speak for Nancy and myself when I say shut up. You have to look the part. Do you think this man who wears a suit to work is going to take you seriously wearing jeans and a t-shirt?" Lyn was tired of repeating herself.
"The bra I'm wearing is pinching my boobs." She grabbed at the wire.
"No more talking if it's going to be complaints and none of your long rants. I don't want to have to leave you here." She hisses.
"Yes, let us do the talking if that's possible." Nancy whispers.
"It's not only possible, but it's also inevitable because shortly I'll be dead from strangulation." She pointed at the button-up blouse that had a high collar.
"Promise." Lyn side eyes her.
"3.9 GPAs." The Director looks over their folders. "This is an impressive essay, Mabel." He looks at Lyn.
It took her a second to remember that it was her. "Thank you."
"And this is a recommendation from Professor Brantley." Nancy hands it to him.
"Yeah, I know Larry. Quite well actually. You know what they say, those you can't do, teach." He smiled. The girls let out a nervous laugh.
"Yes, yes, that's actually why we are here. We can only learn so much in the classroom." Nancy nods.
He hummed before responding. "I'm sympathetic to your struggle, truly. But, there is a protocol for visiting a patient like Victor. You put in a request and then undergo a screening process, at which point the board makes their decision." He pushes his folder over to them. "I can see you're disappointed."
"Yes, we got our hopes up that we could prove ourselves to you when they said we could speak to the director." Lyn was resisting the urge to rub her temples as her head was pounding. It was aching on another level since she stepped foot in the building.
"I know, I'm sorry, but I can give you a tour of the place. Perhaps you can speak to some of our patience in a lower security wing." He offers.
"We would love that but our thesis is due next month." She clicks her tongue.
"And you're out of time. Whose fault is that?" He got snippy.
"Our apologies." Nancy was going to play into his ego.
"Don't apologize, Ruth, screw that." Robin snaps. The girl looked at her wondering what she was doing. "The fact of the matter is we did put in a request months ago, and we were denied. And then we reapplied and we're denied again. And, coming here was our last ditch effort to save our thesis. I don't like to make assumptions but you read Mabel's paper and that was just from reading articles. Can you imagine how she could psychoanalyze if she talked to a real patient? So, tell me why were we denied? I really can't breathe in this thing." She pulled on her collar.
"Well, then go outside and get some air." Nancy didn't think calling the man's workplace sexist would work in their favor.
"Maybe I should, Ruth." She stood up. "Because I'm starting to think this whole thing was a colossal mistake. I'm breaking out in a rash. My boobs hurt." She squeezes them before turning to the doctor. "I'll tell you the truth, Anthony. May I call you Anthony." She went on before he could answer. "These aren't my clothes. I borrowed them because I wanted you to take us seriously. Because no one takes girls seriously in this field. They just don't. We don't look the part or whatever. But can I tell you a story?" He glanced over at the ladies, who shot him a look that said they were on her side. "In 1978, I was at a summer camp, and my counselor Drew told me and everyone in Cabin C the true story of the Victor Creel Massacre. And little Petey McHew, You know Petey, right Ruth?" She turns to Nancy.
"Of course." She nods.
"Little Petey started sobbing right there on the spot. Full-on hyperventilating, and all the other campers couldn't sleep for weeks. I couldn't sleep either but not because I was scared, because I was obsessed with the question: what would drive a human being to commit such an unimaginable act? Other kids wanted to be astronauts, basketball players, and rock stars, but I wanted to be you. I wanted to be you. So forgive me if now I'll try anything in my power, including wearing this ridiculous outfit, if I might get the chance to speak to the man that ignited my passion and learn a little bit more about how his twisted, but let's face it, the fascinating mind works. So yes, we don't have the official paperwork, but don't tell me that crybaby Petey McHew wouldn't have gotten an audience with Victor in moments if he asked politely because we both know he would…. So ten minutes with Victor is all we ask."
He got up and Lyn was sure he would get security to kick them out. "Come on, ladies, you got a man to talk to." He led them out. They got up to follow him. "I'll be back in 30." He told his security.
"These are our gardens, beautiful aren't they?" He pretends to give them a tour, so he wouldn't get in trouble with his higher-ups. "We allow them two hours of outside a day."
"Can't they just escape?" Nancy asks.
"They could, but the vast majority choose to be here. They like it here." He told them.
"The outside world can be scary for some. They need daily structure." She thought of her mother, who repeated the same routine every day. If it ventures off, from what she plans she'd have a panic attack.
"Yes, you understand." He smiles. He led them into another building. "This is one of our more popular areas. The listening room. We have found that music has a particularly calming effect on the broken mind." He picked up a toy car to put in his pocket. "The right song, particularly one that holds some personal meaning can prove a salient stimulus. But some are beyond a cure." He led them through the room. Lyn was careful to not bump into anyone.
They were making their way down to the criminal ward. "Dr. Hatch, do you think it might be possible for us to speak to Victor alone?" Nancy asked.
"Alone?" He turned to them.
"It's just that we want him to be able to speak freely. He'll be more likely to open up with us because he won't feel like he's being analyzed." Lyn knew the man in there, especially if he was innocent, was tired of talking to people who knew nothing of the other world.
"Yes, why not, you caught me in a rebellious mood." He smiled. "Keep a close eye on them." He told the guard before walking up the stairs.
"Thank you." The young ladies called to him.
The guard opens up the door and unlocks the gate. "Do not startle him. Do not touch him. Do not pass him anything. Stand five feet away from the bars at all times. Is that clear?" He led them past cells that had people pacing and talking to themselves. He took out a baton to rattle it along the bars on the cell. "Victor, today's your lucky day. You got visitors." He turned his head to run his eyes along them. "Really pretty ones." Victor scratches his nails along the metal desk. "Must be in one of his moods. Have fun." He went back to his post.
"Victor?" Nancy called him. "My name is Nancy. Nancy Wheeler. And this is…" She felt no need to lie to him.
"Robin Buckley." She told him.
"And I'm Rosalyn Henderson." Lyn introduces herself.
"We have some questions," Nancy told them.
"I don't talk to reports. Hatch knows that." He stopped scratching to tell us.
"We are not reporters. We are here because we believe you." She stepped closer to the bars. "And we need your help."
"Whatever killed your family, we think it's back," Robin told him. He turns around in his seat. The girl jumped back at the sight of his eyes swollen and pus going out of them.
"We believe you because I'm the next victim along with a young friend of mine. It started with these horrible headaches that make me feel like my whole head is throbbing. I can't sleep because of it, but when I do eventually pass out, I get horrible nightmares of my darkest secrets, things I never told anyone. Some I never even thought of in a long time like me bringing in a wild animal thinking I could make it a pet and it killed my mom's cat. I lied to her that it ran away so she cried for days thinking that it hated her. But, recently I've been getting visions while I'm awake. It's like I don't know anymore if I'm dreaming or awake." Lyn spills her guts.
"It looks like she is in a trance," Robin adds.
"Victor, does any of that sound familiar?" Nancy asked.
"Please, Victor. I can't die yet. I have to support my mom and brother. I can't let this get to them either. You should understand more than anyone what it's like to want to protect your family." She begs.
"We need to know how you survive that night," Robin told him.
He let out a bitter laugh. "Survive. Did I survive that night? Did I? No, I assure you, I am still very much in hell." He stood up to walk to the bars. "But, I do want to save another family from suffering like mine…. I had been back from the war some 14 years ago. Her great uncle died, leaving us a small fortune. Enough to buy a new home, a new life. It was a magnificent home. Alice said it looked like something from a fairytale." He went on to describe the house in detail.
"Alice, was your daughter?" Nancy asked.
"Yes, why is your dad not with you?" He asked Lyn.
"He left us to start another family. We had to move out of our fairy tale house to a... It's a nice house but it's not the same." The way he describes Alice running around the house in excitement feeling like a princess reminds her of when her dad got his big promotion. He bought a big house and she ran through it in the same manner.
"That's a shame a man should stay with his family…. Where was I… my boy, Henry was a sensitive child, and I could see he felt something was wrong. We had one month of peace in that house. And then it began. Dead animals, mutilated, and tortured, began to appear next to our house. Rabbit, squirrels, chickens, even dogs. The police chief blamed the attacks on a wild cat. But, this was no wild cat. This was evil and it was neither human nor animal. This was a spawn of Satan." He took a step closer to the bars with each word in the last sentence. "The demon was closer than I realized. My family began to have encounters conjured by this demon. Nightmares, waking walking nightmares." He told them of his wife seeing black widows coming out of the drain. "This Demon seems to take pleasure in tormenting us, even poor innocent Alice. She used to wake up screaming. It wasn't long before I had encounters of my own. Personal ones like yours." He looks in Lyn's direction. She assumed he was able to tell where she was standing from her voice. He turned his back to the bars and leaned against them. "I suppose all evil must have a home. And though I had no rational explanation for it, I could sense this demon, always close. Especially in the attic."
"Like you're a deer that is being stalked by a predator but the grass is too tall for you to know where." Lyn had been feeling like something was watching, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
"Yes, and I became convinced that it was hiding, nesting, somewhere within the shadows of our home. It curses our town. It had cursed our home. It has cursed us." He went on to tell them about how one night at dinner the radio turned on by itself. "When I turned it off, it happened. It took Virginia first." Lyn placed her hand over her heart as she thought of having to watch Steve die like that. Victor sat on the bed. "I tried to get the children out, to save them. I did everything I could to break the door down. But when it was given I was back in France, back in the war. It was a memory. I had thought German soldiers were inside. I ordered a shelling, I was wrong." He put his hands over his ears as he rocked. "This demon, it was taunting me, I was sure it would take me just as he had taken my Virginia. But, then I heard another voice, singing. At first, I believed it was an angel and I followed her only to find myself in a nightmare far worse. While I was away the demon took my children. Alice was mutilated. I thought Henry would make it since he didn't appear hurt, just unconscious. But, he fell into a coma shortly after that. A week later, he died…. " He put his fists over his eyes. Lyn wondered why Henry didn't get haunted or hurt. If he was the sensitive one, shouldn't he have been the easiest to get to? "I tried to join them. I tried. Hatch stops the bleeding. He wouldn't let me join them." He lied down to rock himself.
"The Angel you followed, who was she?" Nancy asked.
He hums the song, A Little Dream of Me. "The radio," Lyn whispered.
The door opened for Hatch to come through. "Is he everything you hoped he would be?" He yelled.
"Does he seem mad?" She tilts her head.
"I just had a very interesting conversation with Professor Brantley. Perhaps we should discuss it in my office while we wait for the police." He marched over to them with guards behind him.
"You're not listening, our friends are in danger." Nancy tried to explain it to him, but the man of science was hearing none of it.
"Do you expect me to believe anything you say?" He rushed them through the listening room. Lyn wished that Vecna would take her right now, so at least then her death would have some type of justice.
"It's the truth!" She yelled.
"You are free to tell your sob story to the police." He hated them for tricking him. For making him look like a fool to his colleague.
"Don't waste your breath, Nancy. Despite his profession being called unbelieve and ridiculous by men of physical science, he can not open his mind to the world being more than he knows." Lyn glares at the man whose pride was hurt. A man with a hurt ego was dangerous. He kept walking like he didn't hear a word she said, which let her know she struck a nerve.
"Move along." The guard pushes Robin when she stops to look at the patient listening to music.
"Don't touch me." She didn't want the pervert to touch her.
They walk out of the building and through the field. Robin got close to her friends to whisper. "Victor made a specific mention of music. He said music was playing."
"The radio turned on and he said he followed the singing." Lyn found that detail interesting too.
"When Nancy asked about Angel, he started to hum." She hummed the tone herself.
"Dream a little dream of me." Lyn knew the song. It was one her mother liked to hum.
"Ella Fitzgerald. The voice of an angel." Nancy nods.
"Hatch said that music can reach parts of the brain that words can't. So maybe that is the key, the lifeline." Robin taps her head.
"A lifeline back to reality." Nancy was happy she brought Robin along.
"It's worth a shot," Lyn said, seeing that they didn't have anything else.
Nancy looks over her shoulder. "I think we can beat them."
"What?" Robin tilts her head.
"To the car." She whispers.
"Oh yeah, one's elderly and the other is terribly out of shape." Lyn agrees.
"I'm warning you two, I have terrible coordination. It took me six months longer to walk than other babies." Robin didn't like this plan.
"Robin, you are in the marching band. You march around while playing an instrument." She pointed out that she was coordinated.
"Follow my lead." Nancy took off running. Lyn grabs Robin's hand to be right by Nancy's side. "Hey! Get back here!" A guard yelled.
They kicked off their heels to speed up. "Hey, Cinderella, you dropped your shoes." A patient yelled after them. They hopped down a wall to run through the entrance to the Wheel's car.
Robin jumped into the passenger seat while Lyn threw herself in the back. Nancy peeled out of there so fast that she clipped someone's side mirror. Lyn hoped it was Hatch's car. "Red Code! Nancy? Robin? Rosalyn? Code Red! Vecna is trying to take Max!" Dustin's voice came from the walkie.
She grabbed the radio. "Play her favorite song."
"What?" He shouted.
"I can't explain the whole thing but music can trigger a part of the brain that Vecna can't. So, if you play her favorite song then it'll bring her back to reality." She explained it as fast as she could.
"How are we supposed to know her favorite song?" He asked.
"Kate Bush. Album, Hounds of Love. Side one, track one. Running up that Hill." She screams to the walkie. "Hurry, Dustin."
It was silent in the car as they waited to hear back from them. "It worked. It worked." Dustin cried tears of joy.
"Oh, thank god, that's great." Lyn smiled.
"We are going to buy a cassette of Lyn's favorite song and we'll see you soon." Robin took the walkie to tell them.
"So, what's your favorite song?" Nancy asked.
"Tina Turner's We don't need another hero. I have a copy in my car." She told them.
"Maybe we shouldn't swing by your house since the jocks are looking for you." She drove to the music store. Lyn lay low in the car while the girls went to get the soundtrack to Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.