max said after putting her phone down. everyone was then all ears, turning to look at her. "apparently, eddie gets his drugs from some guy named reefer rick, and sometimes eddie crashes there."

robin smiled. "that sounds promising. where does this reefer rick guy live?"

max frowned. "see, that's the thing; no one knows. he's more of a.. legend than someone that people actually know."

"well what about a last name?" dustin inquired.

"we don't have that either." she sighed.

robin, after thinking for a moment, sat down at the computer. "maybe we don't need a last name." she said, searching for anyone named rick with an account at family video. "twelve ricks already have an account here."

max eyed it. "that's a lot of ricks."

"so, let's narrow it down." robin smiled, scrolling through the recent movies that each of the ricks had rented. "rick alderman's latest rentals are annie and dumbo. what are the chances our drug dealer has a family?"

"not likely."

robin nodded. "alright, rick conroy. sixteen candles, teen wolf, and romancing the stone."

"no."

"okay, rick joiner. mask, footloose, and grease."

"nah."

"rick kimbrough. the blue lagoon and splash." robin laughed, shaking her head. "okay, rick lipton. fast times at ridgemont high, cheech & chong's next movie, cheech & chong's nice dreams, cheech & chong's up in smoke."

dustin chuckled. "bingo."

"lipton?" max asked, leaning in to read the address listed for him.

robin nodded. "spelled like the tea. 2121 holland road."

"that's out by lover's lake." dustin noted.

"middle of nowhere." max added.

robin smiled. "it's a perfect place to hide."

meadow held her hand out and steve wordlessly dropped his keys into it. while robin closed the family video, everyone else piled into steve's car and off to go find eddie. "who is in control of the music here, my goodness." meadow complained, turning off whatever had been playing and switching it over to a rock station.

dark had fallen by the time they made it to lipton, and supposedly to eddie. dustin rang the doorbell once, and paused for a moment before ringing it fifteen more times in a row.

steve sighed. "okay. well, that's settled. i guess he's not here."

dustin, however, wrapped on the door with his fist. "eddie! it's dustin! look, we just wanna talk, okay? no cops, i swear. we just wanna help."

meadow followed robin to the side of the house while dustin continued screaming, and eventually she followed max's gaze to a shed on the side of the house. "hey, guys?" she called, shining her flashlight on it.

robin opened the door hesitantly, and there was no sign of life. "hello? is anyone home?"

"what a dump." steve complained. he grabbed an oar from the wall, holding it in his hands like a weapon. after carefully approaching a boat that sat in the middle of the room, he made an attempt to stab at it.

"what are you doing?" dustin asked, watching as steve continued to jab at the tarp on top of the boat. "what are you doing?"

steve shrugged. "he might be in here." he explained, continuing to poke at it.

dustin gave him a look. "so take the tarp off!"

"if you're so brave, you take the tarp off." he replied.

"someone was here." max said, picking up some food wrappers that were laying out on a table.

robin shrugged. "maybe he heard us. got spooked and ran."

"don't worry," dustin assured them, "steve will get him with his oar."

meadow smiled over at him. "downgrade from the bat with nails in it."

steve looked between them. "i know you think you're being funny, henderson," he said, directed at dustin, "but considering the fact that everyone in this room has nearly died a hundred times, personally, i don't find it funny in the slight-"

he was cut off when eddie burst out from the tarp, grabbing him and pinning him to the wall. meadow couldn't tell if it was a gun or a knife in his hands, but she held up her hands in shock. "woah woah woah woah."

"eddie!" dustin screamed. "eddie! eddie stop!" his voice made the boy turn, but his grip on steve didn't loosen. "it's me. it's dustin. this is steve. he's not gonna hurt you. right, steve?"

steve, his head titled back to avoid the object, looked down at eddie. "right. yeah."

"steve, why don't you drop the oar?" dustin suggested, but kept his voice calm. as soon as he dropped it, though, eddie's grip tightened, and steve groaned. "he's cool! he's cool."

"i'm cool, man. i'm cool." steve agreed.

eddie was clearly (and understandably) terrified. "what are you doing here?"

"we're looking for you!" dustin said.

"we're here to try to help." meadow added, watching as eddie turned to look at her, robin, and max for the first time.

dustin then gestured to them. "eddie, these are my friends. you know meadow. you know robin, from band." he added, and robin intimated playing her trumpet. "this is my friend max. the one who never wants to play d&d. eddie. we're on your side. i swear on my mother. right, guys?"

meadow thought about this for a brief second before nodding. "yeah."

"on dustin and meadow's mother." robin added.

steve nodded as much as he could. "yeah, dustin.. and meadow's mother."

eddie then dropped him, and meadow let out a breath of air that she didn't know she was holding in. steve hunched over to the side, gasping at the air. meadow stood next to him, putting a hand on his back and leaning down. "are you okay?"

he nodded for real this time, one of his hands reaching out to grab her free one. "yeah, yeah i'm good."

the focus of the room then entirely shifted to eddie, who was crouched in a corner. "eddie. we just want to talk." dustin said. when he reached for him, he swatted his hand away. "okay."

"we want to know what happened." robin said, crouching down next to them.

eddie sniffed, shaking his head. "you won't believe me."

meadow tilted her head. "eh. try us."

he looked up at her, and she could tell that they'd been right. some creature had done this. the upside down was back, and as far as they knew, it was stronger than ever.

eddie told them about how chrissy had gone to his trailer for drugs, and that he'd gone back into his living room to find her standing completely still, almost paralyzed.

"her body," eddie said, "it just like.. lifted up into the air, and, uh.. and she just, like, hung there. in the air. and her bones, uh.. she.. her bones started to snap. her eyes, man. it was like there was something, like, inside her head, pulling. i.. i didn't know what to do, so i.. i ran away. i left her there." he then scoffed. "you all think i'm crazy, right?"

"no," meadow said immediately, "we believe you."

he looked up at her. "don't bullshit me, okay, i.. i know how this sounds."

she shook her head. "no, we believe you, because this has happened before."

eddie then looked back at her, his brows furrowed. "you know how people say hawkins is.. cursed?" dustin asked him. "they're not.. way off. there's another world. a world hidden beneath hawkins. sometimes it.. bleeds into ours."

"like ghosts and shit?" eddie asked.

max shook her head somberly. "there are some things.. worse than ghosts."

"these monsters, from this other world.. we thought they were gone. but they've come back before, and that's why we needed to find you." dustin continued.

"if they're back again, we need to know." max said.

meadow nodded. "that night.. did you.. see anything weird? other.. otherworldly? any flickering lights?"

"dark particles, maybe?" max added.

"it would almost look like dust, swirling dust." dustin said, trying to give him a better mental picture.

eddie still shook his head. "no, man, there was nothing you could see, or.. uh.. or touch. it was like she.. she was in a trance or something."

dustin nodded. "or under a spell."

"a curse." eddie said, seemingly thinking the same thing as dustin.

"vecna's curse." dustin breathed.

steve, his arms crossed, looked over to them. "who's vecna?"

meadow crouched down next to her brother. "the d&d character they've been trying so hard to defeat." she said.

he nodded. "an undead creature of great power."

"a spell caster." eddie added.

"a dark wizard." dustin finished.

meadow didn't remember much about d&d, if she was being honest, but she always remembered the 'biggies', as she liked to call them. the villains that her brother and his friends would always go on about. "he has the ability to paralyze people with his touch, right?" she looked to dustin. "and, correct me if i'm wrong, but he can alter reality, right? that one campaign you guys put me into that lasted all night, and lucas was stuck for half of the game?"

dustin and eddie both looked to her in awe. "you're a genius." the younger boy marveled.

she sent him a look. "yeah, you don't have to be so shocked about it."

max then spoke. "okay, so, if all of that is true of.. of the real vecna, then.. what?"

meadow frowned. "then everything we've seen so far with the upside down has been child's play."