'Belle?' Eddie's voice was hoarse. The others were yelling and he could feel his heart thundering against his chest because this couldn't be happening again. He couldn't see Vecna's Curse play out for a third time. But Belle was just standing to the side, her face as pale as a sheet and eyes locked on the space in front of her. It wasn't the same stillness of the others, not even of Nancy who the others were calling for.

She blinked, her attention suddenly snapping towards the others, to where Mia was trying to rally them into some semblance of order.

'Nancy,' she breathed.

'Belle...'

She pushed off the counter and moved towards the fray, as if she hadn't just been zoned out. As if there was nothing bothering her in the slightest.

'What music do you have?' Robin asked, moving to put her hands on Eddie's shoulders, forcing him to think.

'Nothing she's gonna like,' Eddie said, hurrying back to his room. He felt the presence of the others behind him. 'Shit. It's... I have tapes somewhere.'

He dithered in the doorway for a moment, felt the others pushing passed. Robin moved to the amp, closely followed by Mia. The boys were on the other side of the room. But Eddie couldn't think. Where had Wayne stored his tapes? The records were still in the living room, and he guessed Belle and Erica had stayed behind to look there.

Erica ran back to the room. 'Steve says you need to hurry!'

'Yeah? No shit!' yelled Dustin.

'We're trying. We can't find anything,' said Robin, frustrated. 'Seriously, what is all this shit?'

'What are you even looking for?' asked Eddie frantically.

'Madonna, Blondie, Bowie, Beatles? Music! We need music!' Robin told him.

'This is music!' Eddie defended.

'Maybe she'll come back to turn it off,' teased Mia, hands quickly shuffling through more tapes, discarding them on the bed.

'Very funny, Bard,' complained Eddie.

'Guys!' snapped Belle, pulling all attention towards her. She stood in the doorway, still looking a little sick and yet there was a small smile ghosting her lips. 'She's OK.'

'How?' asked Mia, her voice trembling ever so slightly.

'No idea, but...' Belle shrugged, glanced briefly over her shoulder, and hurried back to the living room.

There was a moment where the room held its breath. And then, everyone was moving. Dustin pushed his way through the door, following close on Erica's heels. Eddie let everyone rush passed, his attention on his room. What would Wayne think when he came back?

For that matter, where was Wayne? He hadn't once thought to check with how his uncle was doing, and for that reason, guilt gnawed away at his insides. He should have asked for news, asked someone to let him know...

Know what, though? Perhaps Wayne thought he'd finally followed in his father's footsteps.

'Eddie?'

Belle's voice was soft, but it was the feeling of her hand on his arm that brought him crashing back to the present. Concern shone brightly behind her eyes, somehow accentuating the blue of them.

'We're heading to Max's,' she said, her hand lingering.

Eddie nodded.

'You OK?' she asked.

He heaved a deep breath. 'I never checked on Wayne,' he admitted heavily. 'I don't even know where he is.'

Belle was quiet for a moment, and he knew she was searching for something reassuring to say. But there was nothing. She didn't know where he was either, and who knew how long this evening was going to last for.

'As soon as I can, I'll find him,' she vowed. 'But hopefully your name'll be cleared by the time this is over.'

Eddie scoffed, a bitterness behind the sound he hadn't quite been expecting. 'You gonna tell the police a supernatural creature did all this?'

'We'll think of something,' she said, enough conviction behind her voice that he almost believed her.

'He showed me things that haven't happened yet,' said Nancy hoarsely. The Mayfield's trailer was different to Eddie's, but somehow even in the growing daylight there was something ominous about it. Mia was just glad to be away from the gate, though. The red pulsing light was too stark a reminder of everything that was happening.

On one side of her, Belle was hugging her knees as if she could make herself small enough to disappear. Beside her, sitting on the floor as they tried to find space for everyone, Robin was sitting far stiller than normal.

'The most awful things,' Nancy continued, 'I saw a dark cloud spreading over Hawkins. Downtown on fire. Dead soldiers. And this… this giant creature with… a gaping mouth. And this creature wasn't alone. There were so many monsters. An army. And they were coming into Hawkins. Into our neighbourhoods. Our homes. And then… he showed me my mom. And Holly. Mike. And they… they were all…' She sniffled.

'OK, but… he's just trying to scare you, Nance,' said Steve. 'Right? I mean… it's not real.'

'Not yet,' Nancy breathed. 'But there… there was something else. He showed me gates. Four gates. Spreading across Hawkins. And these gates, they looked like the one outside of Eddie's trailer, but… They didn't stop growing. And this wasn't the Upside Down Hawkins. This was our Hawkins. Our home.'

'Four chimes,' said Max, from her spot leaning against the wall. 'Vecna's clock. It always chimes four times. Four exactly.'

'I heard them too,' admitted Nancy.

'He's been telling us his plan this whole time,' reasoned Max.

'Four kills,' said Lucas. 'Four gates. End of the world.'

'If that's true… he's only one kill away,' said Dustin.

'Oh Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ,' cursed Eddie, burying his head in his hands.

'Try 'em again. Try 'em again,' said Steve, looking at Max.

She walked briskly to the phone and dialled the number.

'Anything?' asked Dustin after a moment.

'No,' said Max, frustrated. 'Rang a few times, then went to busy signal.'

'Maybe you punched it in wrong. Try again,' said Steve.

'I didn't punch it in wrong,' countered Max.

'Well, then I don't know,' said Steve.

'I think she knows how to use a phone,' said Dustin.

'I'm just saying, she could've typed it in wrong,' countered Steve.

'Same shit,' Max said after a moment, hanging the phone up and heading back to the others.

'How is that possible?' asked Lucas.

'I told you this, Joyce has this telemarket job,' said Dustin. 'She always on the phone. Mike won't stop whining about it.'

'OK, yeah, but this phone's been busy for, what, three days now?' reasoned Max. 'That's not Joyce. No way. Something's wrong.'

'She's right,' agreed Nancy, her voice stronger now. 'It can't be just coincidence. It can't be.' She stood and moved to the window behind her. 'Whatever's happening in Lenora is connected to all of this. I'm sure of it. But Vecna can't hurt them. Not if he's dead.' She turned back, moving to the back of her chair. 'We have to go back in there. Back to the Upside Down.'

'Whoa, no, no, no. What?' said Steve.

'Nope,' Eddie agreed at the same time.

'Let's think this through, OK?' said Steve, standing to move towards Nancy.

'What is there to think through?' Nancy countered, meeting him in front of the chair.

'We barely made it out of there,' Steve argued.

'I think we should,' said Mia, earning everybody's attention in an instant. 'He has one more victim. How much time do we really have before four chimes is up?'

'One a day,' murmured Belle, attention drifting to the window.

'We barely made it out because we weren't prepared,' Nancy insisted, shooting a small smile their way. 'But this time, we will be. We'll get weapons and protection. We'll go through the gate, we'll find his lair, and we'll kill him.'

'Or he'll kill us,' said Steve. 'The only reason you survived is because he wanted you to. He's not scared of us.'

'And for good reason,' said Robin, standing from her spot on the floor. 'We were wrong about Vecna. Henry. One. Sorry, what are we calling him now?' She glanced around at their group, seeking an answer.

'One,' said Dustin, Lucas and Belle simultaneously.

'Vecna,' Erica announced.

'Henry,' said Nancy, as if it were obvious.

'Right,' said Robin, still sounding confused. 'We've learned something new about Vecna-slash-Henry-slash-One. He's a number like Eleven, only a sick, evil, male, child-murdering version of her with really bad skin. But my – my point is, he's super powerful. He could turn us inside out with a snap of his fingers. It's not a fair fight.'

'So then why fight fair?' asked Dustin. 'You're right. He's like Eleven. But that gives us an upper hand. We know Eleven's strengths. And weaknesses.'

'Weaknesses?' asked Erica disbelievingly.

'When El remote-travels, she goes into this sort of trance-like state. I bet the same is true of Vecna.'

'That would explain what he was doing in that attic,' supplied Lucas.

'Exactly. When he attacks his next victim, I'll bet you he's back in that attic, physical body defenceless,' said Dustin.

'Defenceless? Yeah, what about the army of bats?' asked Steve.

'Right, true,' conceded Dustin. 'We'll have to find a way past them. Distract them somehow.'

'And, uh, how do we do that, exactly?' asked Eddie, standing up.

'No idea,' said Dustin, causing Eddie to sit back down. 'But once they're gone, he doesn't stand a chance. It'll be like slaying sleeping Dracula in his coffin.'

'That all sounds good in theory,' noted Robin, 'but there is no pattern to Vecna's killings. I mean, at least not one that I can decipher. We don't know when he's going to attack next. We don't even know who he's going to attack.'

'So we force his hand,' said Mia, shooting Max a quick look. 'You can feel it too, right?'

Max nodded. 'I'm still marked. Cursed. I ditch Kate Bush, I draw his focus back to me.'

'Max,' said Lucas.

'No,' said Mia, closing the distance between the two of them. 'He'll come for you twice as hard because you got away.'

'And so did you.'

'I'm the failsafe, remember?' Mia noted, trying to ignore the murmuring of the others.

'Exactly,' said Max simply. The conviction behind the simple word was enough to make Mia back down. The longer they argued for, the more time they wasted. She hated the idea of Max being bait, hated the idea that she would have to go through all of that again.

'You can't seriously be thinking about this,' said Lucas simply. 'He'll kill you.'

'I survived before,' Max reasoned. 'I can survive again. I just... I need to keep him busy long enough so that you guys can get into that attic. And then you can chop his head off... Stab him in the heart or blow him up with some explosive Dustin cooks up. I honestly... I really don't care how you put this asshole in his grave. Just… whatever it is… whatever you do… try not to miss.'

'What was that?' Robin asked softly. The others were all dotted around the trailer, trying to come up with a plan. Steve was acting like a shadow to Nancy, something she realised Lucas was mirroring with Max. Belle had ended up on the sofa beside Erica, Eddie not too far away as he rifled through the paperwork beside them.

'What was what?' Mia asked, her attention flicking over the knives she pulled from each block.

'Mia –'

'We have to try something, Robin,' Mia said, voice a low whisper but no less firm because of it. 'We can't just let some poor sap be the next potential victim.'

'But it being you is fine?'

'It being Max is fine?'

Robin's brow furrowed. 'That's not – I didn't mean – Mia.'

Mia let out a long breath, rubbed at her temple briefly before dropping her hand again. 'I can't sit and do nothing again, Robin.'

'Nothing?'

Tears glistened in Mia's eyes, and Robin hated it. She hated that Mia didn't realise how much she'd done over everything that had happened. She watched as Mia's throat bobbed, as she tried to swallow the tears away.

'Mia, you've never done nothing,' Robin said, carefully placing a hand over Mia's.

Mia's heart thundered, and she put a tentative hand on top of Robin's. 'We're gonna get him before something happens to Max, right?'

'Right,' Robin assured her.

'Guys,' said Eddie, drawing all attention towards him. He was already marching towards the table, Belle and Erica hurrying after him. He dumped the phonebook on the table, and the others crowded around. Robin offered Mia a hand, and she accepted without hesitation. Robin stood behind Belle, resting her other arm across her best friend's back, grateful that Mia stayed beside her. 'Check this out. The War Zone. I've been there once. It's huge. They got everything you need for, uh… well, er, killing things, basically.'

'Do you think fake Rambo has enough guns there?' asked Robin, pointing to the advert. 'Is that a grenade? I mean, how is any of this legal?'

'Well, lucky for us it is, so…' said Eddie. 'This – this place is just far enough outside of Hawkins. As long as we steer clear of the main roads, we oughta be able to avoid cops and, uh, angry hicks.'

'If we're trying to avoid angry hicks, maybe we shouldn't go to some store called the War Zone,' noted Erica.

'Normally I'd agree, but we need the weapons,' said Nancy. 'So I think it's worth the risk.'

'Me too,' agreed Lucas.

'Yeah, but is it worth the time?' asked Dustin. 'It'll take all day to bike there and back.'

'Who said anything about bikes?' asked Eddie.

'What, you got some sorta car we don't know about?' Steve questioned.

'Yeah, it's not exactly a car, Steve,' said Eddie, straightening to look him in the eye. 'And it's not exactly mine, but, uh… it'll do.' He turned towards Max. 'Hey, Red, uh, you got a ski mask or a bandanna, something like that?'

Max looked dubious for a moment, before she gave the slightest of nods.

Eddie looked far more conspicuous in his Michael Myers mask, but the whole thing brought a small smirk to Belle's face. As they hurried through the trailer park, Eddie with a toolkit in hand, Belle stayed at the back of the group, her attention shifting over her shoulder to check nobody was following them. If anybody asked, she'd try to play it off as rehearsals for Mia's latest play. She just hoped the other girl would agree with her.

Still, Belle couldn't help but think about how she'd offered herself up. How Max had as well. If there was a way they could do this without using bait, Belle would take it in a heartbeat.

Idly, she tried to feel the pressure of Axel's presence, but since his verbal berating of her, the vague warning that made her remember those initial few conversations with him, she wasn't eager to talk to him again if she could help it. Knowing he was around, she realised, would have at least offered a strange sense of comfort. At least if he was focused on her, then he couldn't be involved in anything else. She hoped.

They reached the motorhome in question and Eddie opened the window before diving through it. Belle helped the others through, keeping an eye on the park behind them just in case.

Mia put her hand out the window, and Belle gratefully took it. She clambered up the side, landing firmly on the sofa running along the back of the motorhome.

She'd barely sat up as the engine started and "Up around the Bend" blared out through the radio.

'What the hell?' someone outside asked, before slamming a hand against the door. 'Hey! Open this door!'

'Hey!' yelled the man.

'They locked the door!'

There was a commotion at the front of the vehicle before Steve yelled, 'Everybody hang onto something!'

'Oh my God! Let's go! Let's go!' yelled Lucas.

'Drive, Steve! Drive!' yelled Dustin as Belle hastily pushed the window beside her shut.

'Go, go, go!' called Robin.

Lucas called continually for Steve to go as Belle turned to watch the couple scrambling to their feet in the wake of the vehicle.

'Shit, they look pissed,' said Dustin.

'I mean, it's not every day you lose your house and car in one fell swoop,' noted Robin.

'Hold on! Hold on!' shouted Steve, the drive much bumpier than Belle had been expecting.

The couple were chasing after them, losing too much ground to be a problem. Dustin was swearing under his breath.

They finally pulled out onto the road, wheels screeching as they did so.

Belle just hoped that the trip to the War Zone would be worth it.