Chapter Text
Dustin, Steve, Max, Lucas, Erica, Robin, Eddie, and Nancy all sat in the trailer-house that Max lives in, discussing what their plan should be to take down Vecna once and for all. They would have to get weapons to go back into the upside down, which was the easy part. The hard part was hitting Vecna while he was vulnerable.
Max offered herself up as bait, which everyone objected to.
“No,” Lucas shook his head. “We’ll figure out another way.”
“Lucas, I’m your best bet at distracting Vecna,” Max insisted, arms crossed. “He wants me.”
“You’ve spent all this time playing music to make sure he doesn’t get to you. Whose to say that he doesn’t have a backup?” Lucas demanded.
“As much as it pains me to say this, Lucas has a point,” Erica piped up. Max shot her a look of mock betrayal. “You said you can still feel this Vecna creep, but the other three people he killed must’ve felt him for the past week. He may have a backup plan in place in case you decided to leave town or something.”
Once those words left Erica’s mouth, Dustin heard something. He looked around at everyone else’s faces, to see if they heard what he had. All of them looked unfazed while Erica and Lucas argued.
None of them heard the chime of a clock.
Maybe Dustin’s mind was playing tricks on him. It’s been a long couple of days. But that didn’t stop the hair on the back of his neck to stick up. Was this how Will felt, all those times? Is this what Max was feeling?
It was either his paranoia, or Vecna having the best and worst timing.
The worst part was that Dustin has been hearing these chimes all day. It was getting harder to convince himself that he was merely hearing things. He didn’t want to take the attention away from Max, she almost died right in front of him after all. Then Nancy was trapped in her own Vecna-induced vision while in the Upside Down.
Nancy nodded. “Erica’s right. Vecna probably has a backup person in mind. He probably has since the moment we saved Max.”
“What does this have to do with me being the bait?” The redhead asked.
“If Vecna sees that you’re giving yourself up randomly after fighting like hell to escape from him, he’s going to realize that something is up,” Dustin spoke. “He might not take the bait, Max.”
“Thank you!” Lucas slumped back into his seat, relieved.
“Okay, so who else can be the bait, then? Has anyone else been seeing clocks or hearing them or having visions?” Steve asked sarcastically. It was clear that he wasn’t fond of the plan, either.
Dustin put his hand up. “Does hearing chimes count?”
Those four words led to immeasurable chaos.
“Dustin!?” Lucas exclaimed, jumping right back up from his seat. He really couldn’t catch a break, Dustin thought sadly.
“Dustin, how long has this been going on?” Nancy demanded, her eyes shining with concern and anger, the latter directed to Vecna.
“You’ve been hearing shit this whole time and didn’t bother saying anything?” Erica asked.
“Shit, shit, shit,” Eddie mumbled under his breath before going silent. He ran a hand through his long hair.
“Dustin, this is serious. Like, more serious than those damn Russians,” Robin pointed out. Bless her heart, she was trying to remain calm compared to the rest of their friends. “If you’re marked too, then he could kill you!”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Max questioned. “You should’ve told me!” Max had a fair point. If anyone deserved to be told, it was Max. He definitely owed her an apology. Lucas too, he was one of his best friends.
“I know I should’ve told you, Max-” Dustin began, looking at her, before Steve cut him off.
“You should’ve told me , man. I don’t even have your favorite song on tape! I left it in my car!” Steve exclaimed. He looked more frustrated than Nancy as he ran a hand through his messy, thick hair. Dustin could see that his stress levels went up by a hundred. “Jesus, Henderson, if Vecna is coming after you too then-”
“Then you can use me as bait!” Dustin pointed to himself. Max said that she thought of her happy memories when Vecna tried to use her trauma against her. Luckily Dustin had a good balance of those. He took a quick glance at Eddie, who aside from his string of curses, stayed silent. He looked like he was still in shock, paired with something else. He looked…scared? The metalhead was still new to all of this, Dustin reasoned, he probably still needed time to process everything. Plus Eddie had witnessed two of Vecna’s victims dying already. It was clear that he didn’t want to think about the death of a friend.
At least Steve’s arguing would give Eddie plenty of time to process.
“No, absolutely not-”
“You just asked if anyone else was being haunted by Vecna-”
“That was sarcasm, Henderson! I don’t like this plan at all!”
“Guys!” Nancy raised her voice. “Okay, let’s take a breath. We obviously don’t want Max or Dustin in danger. I hate this plan just as much as you, Steve, but unless someone can think of an alternative, then this is our only chance of killing Vecna.”
“No, look, I’ll be the bait,” Max tried. Dustin appreciated that Max was willing to put herself at risk for him, but he couldn’t let her do that.
“No, I’ll be the bait,” Dustin insisted in turn. “Look, I got this, okay? Max can coach me on Vecna’s mind, and one of you will be there with music in case I start floating.”
“That sounds like a good plan,” Robin admitted. When Steve whirled around to look at her, she put her hands up. “We’ll be in constant communication with the walkies. If we need to abort, then we’ll abort.”
Steve threw his hands up. “Fine, fine. I’ll stick with Dustin, and Munson can go in my place-”
“Actually, I think you should be with Robin and I,” Nancy said. “You and I have the most fighting experience with creatures from the Upside Down. We need you.”
“I’ll stay with Dustin,” Eddie finally spoke. Everyone was focused on Steve’s increasing hysterics that they were almost startled at Eddie’s voice.
Dustin motioned over to Eddie. “See? Eddie will make sure I’m safe.” He smiled at the metalhead, who returned the gesture.
“Lucas and I can be the distraction, then,” Max piped up. At Steve’s sigh, she said “Or I could go with Dustin and we can both be the bait-”
“No, I-” Steve sighed again. “Fine. Fine, we’ll go along with this plan. But,” he wagged a finger at Max and Lucas, “at the first sign of trouble, you two go back through the gate to safety. And-” he turned to Eddie, “the second Dustin starts to float, you blast music in his ears.”
“Okay.”
“Fine.”
“Don’t worry, Harrington, I’m not going to let anything happen to Dustin,” Eddie said steely, as if there was an implication that he wouldn’t protect Dustin. Dustin glanced between the two of them. Sure he quipped that Steve was jealous of Eddie, but that was a joke to get under his skin. Now things were getting too awkward.
“So, where are we going to get weapons?” Erica asked.
Eddie told them about a place called the War Zone. Then they decided to comandeer a trailer to get out of town quickly. Once they got inside and Steve drove them away, Max looked around.
“Is there a spare walkman in here? And any tapes?”
Everyone started looking around immediately. Surely the owners of this trailer listened to music, right?
“I found some tapes!” Lucas exclaimed, he and Erica each holding a few.
“Found a walkman!” Robin held it up and checked if it had batteries. Thankfully it did, and it came with headphones wrapped around it. She tossed it to Dustin.
“Ohhh look what we found,” Lucas teased, holding up a tape while Erica laughed. The tape in question was none other than Limahl’s Never Ending Story . Robin, Nancy, and Max exchanged amused looks while Steve looked hilariously exasperated. Eddie looked confused and Dustin felt bad that he was left out. He made a mental note to explain the reference to him. Hopefully once they defeat Vecna, he can tell Eddie everything that they’ve encountered.
“Saved the world and yet I’m never gonna hear the end of it,” Dustin grumbled, catching the tape too. He put it in the walkman then slipped the device into his pocket.
“I can always sing it too if Vecna decides to attack you before our plan,” Max smirked. It was nice that she still had her sense of humor despite everything that was happening.
“Will singing even work?” Robin asked curiously. “The voice is technically an instrument, so logically it would, right?”
“Maybe,” Nancy shrugged. “It’s a theory that I wouldn’t test out unless there was no other option. At least we have the walkmans.”
~~~~~~
Once they pulled up to War Zone, Steve, Nancy, Robin, Max, and Erica opted to go in and buy supplies. No one was looking for them, since as far as anyone knew, they had no relationships with Eddie Munson. That left Dustin, Lucas, and Eddie in the trailer.
Dustin sat on one of the couches, scribbling away on a sheet of paper Max gave him. She was smart enough to grab some spare paper, envelopes, and two pens in case Dustin wanted to write letters of his own, just in case. He had so many people to write letters for- aside from the seven he’s been with since the whole Vecna thing started, he had to write for his mom, El, Mike, Will, Jonathan, and Joyce. If he has time, he’ll throw one in for Mrs. Wheeler, who was always kind and welcoming to him.
Lucas was on lookout duty, checking the windows to make sure no one would approach the random trailer. Eddie was sitting in another corner, going through all of the tapes they found. Dustin was finishing up a lengthy letter for Steve when Eddie walked up to him.
“Hey, man, what are you doing?” He asked.
“Oh, just writing letters just in case I die,” Dustin said as nonchalantly as he could.
Eddie’s eyes widened. “Hey, Henderson, you’re not going to die, okay? Nothing is going to happen to you, I promise.”
“This is just a precaution. Max did the same thing and she said it helped her come to terms with everything. And it’s helping me, too.” Dustin gave him a cheeky grin. “Aww, don’t worry, I’m going to write a letter for you, too.”
Eddie rolled his eyes. He was surprised that he and Max still had their senses of humor after everything they’ve been through. What was it that Harrington said when they came to Reefer Rick’s hideout looking for him? “I know you think you’re being funny Henderson, but considering the fact that everyone in this room has nearly died a hundred times- ” was what he said before Eddie pushed him against a wall and held a knife to his neck. He didn’t pay attention to that before but now it made sense. Dustin and the rest of them came close to dying because of this Upside Down stuff, no wonder the kid was being levelheaded in the face of death.
He knew that Dustin said that it was just a precaution, but did he actually think there was a chance that Eddie would let him die? He was like a little brother to Eddie, not that he ever told the kid. To be fair, he did run away when Chrissy and Patrick were killed… did Dustin think he would run away again? He wouldn’t, not with Dustin’s life on the line.
“Hey, I’m not going to leave your side, okay?” Eddie took a seat next to him. “I’m not going to run away this time.”
Dustin looked at him and offered a small smile. “I know, man. I trust you. I-” He paused and gasped. His eyes widened as he looked out the window. Eddie’s stomach churned. Was he having a vision? Did he need to get the walkman?
“Dustin? Hey, you with us?” Eddie gently shook his shoulder. Dustin’s head snapped back to him.
“Yeah, I’m good. These damn chimes, I don’t know how Max dealt with it,” Dustin said quietly. He looked down at his letter to Steve and signed his name. “I should probably finish these.”
Dustin put the completed letter into an envelope and wrote Steve’s name on it before starting another one. Eddie stayed quiet and watched him. He wanted to make sure Vecna didn’t force Dustin to have a vision. If that creep did, then Eddie would be ready with the music.
And he’ll be ready when they are at the Creel house.