Chapter Text
Today has already started horribly.
At first in was just strange, today was their busiest day normally, but there wasen't one costumer since morning! Robin wanted to chill and just watch a movie(t which Steve rightfully protested, Robs movie pick wasen't even good!) That was until they turned the small TV on and news came up.
"-we dont have a lot of details right now but we CAN confirm a body of a hawkins highschooler was found today at the trailer part-"
a student.
dead.
They found a student dead at the trailer park.
"holy shit.." was the only thing Steve could get himself to mumble out. Robin stood shocked next to him, staring at the screen as the reporter kept talking, saying something about 'no foul play confirmed' and 'no name has been told yet' Steve wasen't listening anymore, tuning the sounds out, mind racing 100 miles a second.
'a student died. someone was dead. this must have been some incident, right? yeah, 100%. theres no way this ties it self to some murder! or even the upside down... it was probably just a car crash or some kind of alcohol poisoning, after all, everyone celebrated with the win of last nights game! but they would just say that... the police wouldn't be secretive about it-'
"-eve! Steve! oh my god, someone died!" Robin snaps him out of his thoughts rather quicky, blurring oout what shes thinking in the state of shock and what Steve guesses hint of panic. Not that he can blame her, slightly panicing himself but trying to keep his cool.
"do you.." The girl starts, then seems to hazitate and drops her voice to a mild whisper "do you think it was something to do with.. the upside down...?"
the question hangs in the air, dangerous, intimidating, ready to stike them by suprise, luckily for Steve, he sees in coming,
'its probably a car crash or something, after last night, all the celebrations maybe lead to like.. drunk driving, y'know?" he does his best to reasure Robs while keeping the unease seeping in to his bones at bay.
"yeah..yeah youre probably right..still wanna watch the movie? maybe to ease up a bit..?" Steve nods and they end up putting the movie on to ignore the growing elephant in the room.
this peace lasts for at least few hours before being rudely interupter by the door swinging open
"hey! Steve, Robin!" Dustin barges in, Max not much behind him.
'rude..'
"Did you guys see this?" Steve points to the small TV, that is now once again reporting updates on the, now newly renamed, murder.
"how many phones do you have?" henderson questions, not even reacting to Steves own. Steve tenses up slightly at the mention of phones, not going unnoticed by Robin.
He tries to continue his original sentence, just slightly worried. Why we these two out? didnt they see the news? "Somebody was murdured-"
"How many phones do you have!
Steve stares for a few seconds, strartled by the sudden yelling, before coming back to his sences. "Two." He answers, then quickly adds, confused, "why?"
technically three if you count the one in the back?" Robin points at the back of the store, eaqully confused by the sudden questioning.
Dustin and Max look at eathother "Yeah, three works..!" the red head says as Dustin sets a..bag? backpack? Steve wasent sure.
"whoa whoa whoa- what are you doing?" the bagpack hybrid was hurriedly trown over the counter, the two kids following not long after. "Nonono! not my tapes! What are you doing, man!?" Steve frowned at the tapes he neatly had set on said counter, he'll have to re-do that later now, 'thanks a lot, Henderson..'
Dustin hopped on a computer without hezitation, not easing the confusion on Steve's and Robin's face.
"setting up a base of operations."
"Base of operations??" Robin asked while collecting the mess on the ground(thank you, Robin.) Steve nodded, watching Dustin swiftly type.
"Yeah, get off of that!"
"No, I need it!" the kid protested. "need it for what?" Steve raised a brow. what the hell did he need the store computer for? didnt he have a way better one at home?
"looking up Eddie's friends phone number." oh
"Eddie? you mean your new best friend from school thats apperently way cooler then me cause he play a nerdy board game?" Steve was a little jealous, okay? he can admit it. Dustin bearly drops by anymore so forgive him for being a little petty..
"Eddie, yes! wh- I never said that..!" Henderson defended himself, looking a little hurt at the accusation.
"Seriously? guys! on like, monday you can play around like children, but its saturday! our busiest day!" Robin cut their little banter off, stacking all the trown tapes back.
"I can empathise, Robin, but this cannot wait till monday!"
Buckly rolled her eyes, turning to Dustin with the best offended face she can make, "oh yeah? Cause calling all of Eddie's friends is an emergancy?"
"CORRECT!"
"oh my god- Want me to strangle him or do you wanna do it?" Steve asked Robin, she just hummed, "he can take turns!" she smiled.
"gosh- Max, can you just fill them in while I do this?" Dustin begged the girl while still speedly typing.
"fill us in on what!?" Robs half-yelled, a bit tired of the conversation, turning, along with Steve, to Max.
Max stared at the two, letting out a sigh. "its back."
the two adults froze
...
"w-what do you mean, its back?" Steve was the first to brake the silence, voice shaking a bit. "Yeah...Hopper and Joyce closed it...how..how is it back..? Robin backed him up, equally doubtful
"the murder...it was Chrissy Cunningham..it happened in the Munsons trailer.. I-.. I heard Eddie scream and then run off in his van.."
Steve sucked in a breath at the mention of a van, 'no. dont think about that. thats in the past.' "so..what? Eddie did it? how does that tie to the upside down?" Steve tries to act calm but the accusement sound stupid even to him.
"No no, he looked scared..like.."
"like he saw something he shouldent have.." Robin finishes her thought, looking slightly baffled at her own words.
"mhm..also.." Max hezitates for a second, "the lights were flickering.."
everyone was quiet.
Steve left to use the bathroom shortly after Max told them what happend, leaving Robin, Dustin and Max to start with their calling plan.
"Well-" Dustin starter "we should start now, right? whatever killed Chrissy was quick so we dont know when it strikes next so we probably dont have much time."
Max and Robin both nodded, both starting to call the numerous numbers.
He couldn't breath.
Steve couldn't breath.
Upside down was back. If that was true...
His hallucions werent just random.
'oh god'
Whatever was coming from the rift now was something new, and it could get in to someones mind.
is that why his nose keept bleeding at random times? is that why the headaches started getting worst?
is that why...why he started having nightmares of him again..?
if what ever could find out someones memories this easily.. it knew everything.. it knew what to use against him. it knows everything.
Steve doubled over, gripping his stomach as the contents from it spilled in the toilet. 'well, there goes my breakfast..'
Eugh..he felt sick just thinking about this. The memories filling his mind in less then a minute. he renched dryly, feeling sick yet again.
god, he's so doomed..
Robin glanced at the bathroom door worryingly, hearing the sound of vomiting through the thin door..
"whats up with Steve?" Max looks at Robin and Dustin.
"oh right! you dont know!" Dustin suddanly remembers, stopping the call for a minute. "somethings been happening..? like, he's acting weird and looks super tired all the time!"
The older girl nodded, "mhm! I tried to question him on it but uh..yeah I didnt get anything. I'm 100% sure SOMETHING is going on but he just wont talk to me! Lucas noticed it too so we've all been kinda trying to figure out whats wrong without him having to talk much, we havent gotten far though..all I know is something about a Gwenny and Grabber, no idea who they are.." she frowns,disapointed at the lack of knowledge.
"oh..maybe we can try to find something out while we look for Eddie?" Max promts, slightly suprised as the information(and also worried..but she'd never say that out loud. Steve was like an older brother to her, okay? especially after Billy..dont judge her!)
"Yes!" Robin and Dustin agree at the same time.
a few minutes after, the door to the bathroom opened and Stevefinally got out. none of them mentioned about how pale he looks but they all gave eathother looks.
while the three called every number they could, Steve attended to the costumers.
"alriight, I got something here,its a double VHS, very long but thats because its filled with action and drama aaand romance," Steve hands it to the girl 'real smooth, Steve..'
"so my boyfriend wont like, barf when I bring this?" She smiled. boyfriend!?
"your boy-boy friend..? no..he's.. he's gonna love it.." Steve hid his dissappointment behind a pained smile.
he sighs, watching her leave, oh well, at least he-
"guys! I might have a lead!" Max says with a rare smile, turning his attention away from the girl.
"seriously!?" Henderson smiles too, hoprful.
"yeah! apparently Eddie gets his drugs from some guy named 'Reefer Rick'? and sometimes Eddie crashes there."
"that sounds promising..! Where does this Reefer guy live?" Max grimaces at the question
"see, thats the thing..no-one knows, hes more of a legend..? then someone people actually know.."
"what about a last name?" The red head sigh dissappointedly, "dont know that either."
"well the cops know," three heads turn to him, all with a diffrent variant of confused. "if this guy really is a drug dealer then I bet you he's been busted at some point, meaning he's in the system at.." Dustin looks at him, shocked.
"the cops? really, Steve? THATS your suggestion?" Steve nods, "yes, the cops. I mean, I think they should be filled in on what were doing by now.." 'yup..wrong thing to say' he thinks when he sees the offended look on Dustin's face.
"You think Eddie's quilty, dont you?" Henderson accuses, Steve puts his hands up in surrender, quickly defending himself. "hey, I belive in all the innocent till proven guilty and shit I just..we cant rule it out..!"
"but thats PRECISELY what we're trying to do here.." Max jumps in the argument.
"mhm! and- maybe, we'd have more luck if you spend less time trying to find a girlfriend and more time finding Eddie!" Dustin exclaimed annoyingly
"well someone has to attend to the costumers!" Steve shot back, trowing his arms up.
"especially if there babes, huh?" Robs teased
"hey! not fair! I treat every costumer same, babes and non-babes alike. we have a huge collection of things it can be very overwhealming." as soon as those words left his mouth, Robin's eyes sparkled as an idea hit her, moving to the desk computer. "yeah, it can be.."
"what are you doing?" Max asks as everyone moves to the computer.
"Maybe we dont need a last name." Robin smirked, entering the name in. "12 Ricks already have accounts here!"
"thats a lot of Ricks..."
"so lets narrow it down" Buckly announced as they started going through eatch Rick and their collection.
after few failed reseaches they pinpointed the perfect name.
Rick Lipton.
Bingo
It was late, Steve didnt like this, hated it actually. it was darh, and they were in the middle of nowhere by lovers lake looking for possibly-murder-but-probably-not-Eddie and Steve's mind was giving him too big of a déjà vu to ignore. And of course he didint listen to the million warning signs because now he was pinned to a wall by none other them Eddie with a broken beer bottle and everything is too similar.
Steve cant breath, he wants to cry, he wants to cry so bad because this feels too much like him. He doesnt register Dustin talking and all he can think about is him. hecan feel phantom hands on his skin he took so long to get rid off, a rough mouth on his as he tries to despreatly to wiggle out, that disgusting, disgusting voice whispering in to his ear.
"Just stay still, Finney. it will be over faster if you do. c'mon..I can tell youre enjoying this~"
but he's not, and he wants to cry and he can't move, why can't he move-
Eddie lets him go, leaving him to slide down the metal wall and collect his breaths, oh god that was horrifying, he can hear his own pulse, 0/10, would not reccomend.
"lets just to talk.." Dustin continues with whatever speech he gave to Eddie when Steve spaced out.
"we just wanna know what happened.." Robin crouches next to where Eddie's sitting to be on the same eye level.
"you wont belive me.." the older boy almost sobbed out, voice shaking.
"try us..?" Max says suprisingly gently for her.
"I didnt do anything to her- I-I swear..!" Eddie started, Dustin nodded, gesturing him to go on, "we.. she asked me for some drugs.. strong ones.. and I only had those at home so I invited her over.. she waited in the living room while I went to look for the.. the drugs... but when I came back, she just kinda..stood there, not responding.."
fred stood in front of a burnig car
"then..her body just... lifted up..and just... hung there... and her bones started to.." Eddie struggles the word out, eyes wet with tears "just started to snap.. h-her eyes, man- there was like there was something inside her head, just.. pulling..!
the boy walked closer to the burning car, staring in horror
"I-I didnt know what to do so I...I ran.." Eddie finishes, finally looking up at the group with teary eyes, before sighing and burying his face in his hands. "you all think I'm crazy.."
his body lifted up wuthout his knowledge, stuck in a hallucination.
"no! no, not at all! we don't think youre craz-" Dustin tries to reasure but is quickly cut off, "don't bullshit me man!! I know how this sounds!"
snap!
"we're not bullshiting you." Max steps in, Robin nodding. "we belive you.."
snap!
"look...what I'm about to say may be a little...dificult..to take.." Dustin grimaces
snap!
"You know how people say this town is cursed..?"
SNAP!
"they're not exacly.."
Fred Benson's body falls to the ground. cold and disfigured.
"wrong..."