Joan was pretty confident that Dustin was as stupid as he was intelligent.

The kid was able to solve calculus and engineering problems in middle school yet thought screaming out for a drug dealer in the middle of the night was the best way to find Eddie Munson, possible psychopathic killer.

"Christ, Dusty. If you were suicidal you could have just told us to give you some space." Joan hissed out at her brother in disbelief from the bottom steps of the house. "You can't just scream that out!"

"What? Why not?" Dustin asked defensively, turning around and flashing his light in his sister face. Joan hissed like a vampire and covered her eyes while Steve quickly shoved the kids hand down in annoyance.

"Stop blinding people, dingus." Steve ordered with a roll of his eyes before proceeding with looking through the house blinds the best he could. "You can't just... scream about drugs o-or a possible psychopath in the darkness of the night!"

"Eddie is not a psychopath!"

Joan let out a noise of disagreement from her throat, her own flash light looking around the woods as she kept everyone in her vision along with a clear escape plan.

Murderer? Probably not.

Psychopath? Still debating.

Max and Robin had already started their path toward the back of the house and Joan suspected it was something to do with the loudmouth.

"Guys, there's a shed!" Max interrupted the sibling dispute and Joan made her way towards the red head, making sure to butt her hip with Dustin's in revenge. "It looks like someone's been here." The girl shined her light over the back and forth dirt trail from the house to the shed in example.

Robin carefully opened the door and Joan watched as everyone filed in with careful eyes, a grim pool of fuck that settling into her stomach uncomfortably. For a second she thought about how far her car was and how easy it would be to just... go home.

"Hello, anybody home?"

Joan snorted as she took a careful step inside and sneered at the dirty conditions of the boat shed. "Yes, cause a possible psychotic murderer is just gonna answer hi honey, I'm over here! Dinner's in the oven!" It came out crueler than she intended, the atmosphere was raising her blood pressure unhealthily and her body yearned to bolt.

"Hey, coming home to a nice dinner would be appreciated." Steve said sarcastically as he turned towards Joan with a smirk. The senior scoffed and walked up beside the graduate because if there was anyone here she trusted with her safety... it was him.

God her choices were slim.

"I'll get you a cookbook for your birthday, big boy." Joan smiled thinly and patted Steve on the shoulder roughly, nearly sending him toppling into the boat behind him. "Geese, Steve. Need some gymnastic lessons to work on that balance."

"Ha, ha." Steve rolled his eyes dryly at the girl, the atmosphere lightening up a little bit at the jokes between the eldest teens. But as he was catching himself from falling, the boat caught his eye and he flickered off his flashlight. "You're so funny, Ags."

Joan snickered and stayed next to Steve with her own flashlight shining around slowly while the others walked around for further clues. Her eyebrows lifted at the oar and then she flinched involuntarily as he smacked the tarp on the boat right next to Dustin.

"What are you doing?!" Dustin hissed out in surprise, flinching backwards as he watched Steve aggressively poke the top of the boat again.

"He might be in here!" Steve exclaimed back incredulously, going back for a few more pokes, giving Joan a side eye at the the giggle she hid behind her mouth as she stared near the guy. "If you think it's funny why don't you take the tarp off?!"

She through her hands in the air in surrender and Steve's poked became only slightly more aggressive.

"If he is in there that must hurt like a bitch." Joan pointed out and Steve paused with a stank eye trained on her, holding out the oar dramatically.

"Do you want to check the boat for a possible murdering satanic psychopath?"

"Oh, but you were doing such a good job." Joan replied half heartedly while pushing the oar away from her with her pointer finger and looking anywhere but the wooden stick. "It'd be a shame to steal your job of looking like a doofus."

She held her hand up and Dustin walked by with a high five as the Henderson's smirked humorously at the shared torture of Steve Harrington.

"I swear, you two are the absolute worst when together." Steve grumbled out as he continued his smacks.

"I think he was definitely here." Robin said quietly as she held up some wrappers for the rest of the crew to see. Max shone her light on some beer cans with a frown and kicked on lightly, sending everyone into a jump as they looked towards her.

"...sorry."

Joan's hand lifted to her heart as she let out a shaky breath at the come down. The creaks and footsteps were enough to send her on edge, but the sudden loud noise had her nearly sweating in the cold air.

"Don't worry guys, Steve will get him with his oar." Dustin joked and Joan let out a broken smile at the humor, appreciating the attempt at cleaning the strenuous air.

"Real funny Henderson." Steve replied with an aggressive smack in the middle that had Joan grabbing his hand because if it was Eddie... "you wanna do it, Ags?"

"You don't have to be so aggressive. You might bruise..." her hand waved around in a panic as she searched for something to say as Steve cocked in eyebrow at her. "...the boat."

"The boat." Steve replied slowly looking from the oar to the boat, and then gesturing to the boat. "You're worried about... the boat..."

"Yes."

"As much as I have tried to bring you two together in a relationship, can you guys stop flirting?" Dustin remarked with a shake of his head and a roll of his eyes. "Be serious!"

"Be!? Serious?!" Steve sputtered out at the audacity to call him out. He gave the oar to Joan who reluctantly took it while he threw his hands up in the air as the last little bit of patience started to seep out through his ears during his weekly Harrington lecture. "I'm the only one who is being serious! And considering everyone in this room has almost died a hundred times I think I'm-"

Steve sure did like to hear himself talk, Joan mused as she eyed the rocking boat in front of her. With a hum, she relinquished the command of the oar back to Steve who returned to her side in a huff. A smile quirked at her lips.

Another poke and Joan sighed because fuck this was getting annoying pretty quickly. "God this is taking too long! Just open-!" Her hand reached for the edge of the tarp and her fingers clenched over the plastic material with haste.

"Hold on, wait-!" Steve grabbed Joan by the forearm to stop her, but the girl didn't budge as she began to rip the covering off the baton

"There's nothing to-!"

A battle cry left the boat and sent Jon's brain into overdrive as a dark mass jumped out from underneath the tarp. In her panic, Joan accidentally tripped Steve into the boat and cried out as a cold hand wrapped around her neck, shoving her backwards into the wall painfully.

"Holy fuck-!" Joan shouted out as she tried to peel the fingers from her throat but froze at the broken bottle at her neck, eyes widening at the intense stare of Eddie Munson as the culprit of her capture.

There was only a half of a second spared before the room turned into a panic with everyone scrambling over to the two in an attempt to calm down the agitated metalhead.

"Eddie! Eddie!" Dustin yelled out in a panic as he stared at the fearful expression on his older sisters face. "That's my siste- Eddie, it's me! Dustin! That's my bitch of a sister, Joan!"

"Hey!" Joan cried out incredulously at the quip, but unable to look at her brother with the grip on her neck. Instead she swallowed and tried to smile at Eddie. "H-hi?"

"What are you doing here?" Eddie's voice had a tremor in it, but was darker than she had ever heard it before. His eyes flickering around the occupants of the room in a silent frenzy.

"We're here to help you." Robin blurted out worriedly as she smacked the oar held like a weapon from Steve's hands when Eddie's eyes flickered to it, his hand tightening on the bottle. "We're not going to hurt you."

"This is Robin, remember from band?" Dustin took the conversation back over with his introductions and Joan almost broke down in laughter at the little imitation trumpet that left the girl's lips. It was too chaotic and too intense for her, and Joan was sure she was a surprise away from a heart attack. "A-and thats Max, the girl who won't play DND? Eddie, we're on your side."

If Joan hadn't known better she would believe that Eddie was sucking the oxygen from the room and replacing it with lead. His eyes looked like a trapped animal trying to find his way home and the way his hand shook made Joan's eyebrows pinch. Shakily she covered the weapons hand and tried to smile at Eddie who was obviously still trying to figure out who was friend or foe in his fight or flight mindset.

"H-hey, Eddie. C-can I roll for defense?" Joan joke but was semi-serious that maybe the DM would let her roll for her life if he wouldn't back away easily. It relaxed him a little bit before Joan's eyes flickered briefly to the crowd and lowered her voice teasingly. "You know, I didn't expect the next time you had your hand around my throat with my back against a wall would be like this."

Just like that the coil snapped and Eddie let go of Joan with a breath of exhaustion, nearly collapsing himself from the tension. Steve was quick to grab onto the girl while Dustin hurried to Eddie to talk with him.

"Christ, second adventure with you lunatics and I'm still useless." Joan whispered dryly as Steve frantically ensured there was no damage. She swatted the hands away with a scowl, her heart beating rapidly from the assault and attempted life ending from the hands of her ex...friend. "I'm fine, you dingus. I-I, I'm just going to go get some air..."

"Ags, hold on a-"

"Steve." Joan said quietly, looking down at the floor as her chest visibly went up and down because she didn't need to hear about what happened to Chrissy when the image stained her mind so heavily. "I need to... be alone."

And nobody stopped her as she stepped out into the cold air and walked around the property to calm herself down. Situation aside the little house in the woods had a charm to it and there was a beauty in the isolation of the private lake bank. It was calming to be around something normal, natural, of this earth.

She could have gone her entire life without knowing about the dangers of Hawkins and she wish she had. The knowledge of what could have been lurking next to her while growing up all those years in the future started to make sense. From the weird way her dad ensured she could make a radio from scraps to Uncle Lucas' gun lessons and the constant dungeons and dragons Lore had Joan in the morbid realization that they weren't just teaching her... they were preparing her.

Joan looked out at the lake with her arms wrapped around her body with a frown. Could it be that they knew what would happen to her? Did they figure out that the two Joan's melded together at some point in their past, her future?

"𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔣𝔲𝔱𝔲𝔯𝔢 𝔦𝔰 𝔫𝔢𝔳𝔢𝔯 𝔭𝔯𝔬𝔪𝔦𝔰𝔢𝔡."

With a gasp, Joan turned around to face the unnaturally low voice behind her and stumbled backwards at the look of her twin staring directly in her eyes. She wore the same drenched outfit as she always wore, but this time she'd voice no longer sounded faint and far away, but loud and unnerving.

"What do you want?!" Joan cried out as her heart elevated and she tried to find an escape route. Her feet were now wet from stepping into the water in an attempt to get away, but soggy socks were the last of her worries at the moment. The hallucination didn't respond at first, sending Joan spiraling downwards towards losing more and more of her sanity. "What are-?!"

Within the span of a single blink, a hand touched Joan's forehead and Joan's vision went black.