robin insisted. they had to break all of the recent news to eddie, who still was looking very much like a suspect. "i just can't stand to see those dull eyes of eddie's break again, i really, really can't.

"at least he can drink himself into feeling better." steve said, holding up the six pack that they'd gotten for him.

robin didn't pay any attention to him. "let's just give it a trial run. 'hey eddie, uh, good news first this time. we got you some dustin-approved junk food and that six pack you requested. oh yeah and we found vecna, only the bad news is that he's in that other, darker, much scarier dimension that we told you about, and the gate's closed, so we have no way of getting to him, like he's entirely shut off to us, so basically you're screwed. and, no, i know you were already screwed, but now you're like, doubly, triply screwed.'"

meadow looked over at her. "i mean i don't think we should say it.. exactly like that."

"oh, shit." nancy said, pulling the car over. a crowd of people had collected by a ring of cops, which could only mean another murder, right where eddie had been hiding.

"mega shit." meadow mumbled when a photo of eddie was held up. he was now a person of interest, which meant more people than just a group of jocks were out looking for him.

"this is not good. really not good." steve agreed.

"dustin? are you there? henderson? meadow?" eddie's voice sounded on the walkie talkie.

"shit, man are you okay?" dustin asked.

eddie shook his head. "nah, man, pretty.. pretty goddamn far from okay."

meadow grabbed the device. "where are you?"

"skull rock. do you know it?"

she nodded. "yeah. near cornwallis and-"

"garrett," steve nodded, "yeah i know where that is."

"hold tight." dustin told eddie. "we're coming."

the journey to skull rock, it seemed, would have to be made on foot. dustin held his compass in one hand, but steve was insistent that the boy was wrong. "dude, i'm telling you, you're taking us the wrong way."

dustin shook his head. "it's north. i'm positive. i checked the map."

"you do realize that skull rock, it's a super popular make out spot?"

"yeah, so?"

"yeah. well it wasn't popular until i made it popular. alright? i practically invented it."

"you didn't invent a rock, steve." meadow shook her head.

steve didn't listen to her or dustin's arguments, and instead began leading the way off the trail. "stop whining." he said to dustin. "let's go, come on! trust me."

soon enough, they had arrived underneath the large collection of rocks. "bada bing, bada boom. there she is, henderson." steve said, wanting to relish in his victory. "skull rock. in your face, man, in your stupid, cocky little face."

"doesn't make sense." dustin said, looking at his compass.

steve scoffed. "yeah, yeah. even with it staring you right in the face, you can't admit it. you just can't admit that you're wrong, you little butthead."

"i concur." eddie said, dropping down from a tree behind them. "you, dustin henderson, are a.. total butthead."

dustin smiled. "jesus, we thought you were a goner." he said, pulling eddie in for a hug that he seemed surprised by. he then wrapped his arms around the boy, nodding his head.

"yeah, me too." once everyone else had arrived with eddie's food, he immediately sat down to eat and told them about the recent murder, which he'd also witnessed. "when i got to shore, i tried calling you guys, but, uh.. my walkie was busted, man. drenched. so, uh, i did the thing that i do now, apparently. i ran." he chuckled.

nancy thought for a moment. "do you know what time this was? the attack?"

"yeah, no, i.. i know exactly what time it was." eddie said, taking off his now broken watch. "my walkie wasn't the only thing that got soaked." he tossed it to her.

"nine twenty-seven." nancy nodded, her theory confirmed.

robin looked over at her. "same time our flashlights went kablooey."

"which means what, exactly?" steve asked.

"that all of that energy we felt was vecna attacking patrick." meadow said.

robin sighed. "well, we're one step closer. we know how vecna attacks."

"and where he attacks from." lucas agreed.

max nodded. "so now we just need to sneak into his lair in the upside down and drive a stake through his heart."

"if he even has a heart." robin pointed out.

steve's brows furrowed from his spot next to meadow. "a stake? is he like a vamp- is he a vampire?" he asked, looking down at her.

"it was a metaphor." max said, turning to him.

"a bullet should work on him, right?" eddie asked.

meadow shrugged. "not necessarily, but hypothetically, yeah."

"i say we chop its head off." lucas said.

"yeah, i'd say we do all of the above, but we can't actually do anything until we find a way into the upside down." meadow reminded the group.

max nodded. "we need el to get her powers back."

"yeah, everything was like way easier." steve said before turning to explain to eddie. "we had this girl. she had superpowers."

"superpowers." eddie confirmed. "yeah, you mentioned her." he then turned to dustin, who had been frantically pacing. "hey, uh, henderson's not, uh, cursed, is he?"

steve shook his head. "cursed? no, no. he's fine. mental? absolutely."

after standing still for a second, dustin then held his hands up. "boom!" he shouted. "bada.. bada.. boom." he then said intently, turning to look at the group.

"care to share with the class?" his sister asked with a raised brow.

"i was right." he told her. "skull rock was north."

steve rolled his eyes at this, thinking that dustin was just trying to do anything but admit to being wrong. "seriously? you're serious?"

dustin nodded. "mhm."

"this is skull rock! okay?" steve gestured to the giant rock that he had led them to.

"mhm." dustin repeated.

"you're totally, absolutely, one hundred percent wrong. right now." the older boy continued, gesturing to the ground beneath his feet.

"yes." dustin said. "and no."

steve rolled his eyes. "oh my god." he turned to look at meadow, who seemed equally as confused. "are you hearing this?"

"yeah, yeah i'm hearing it." she said. "let's hear what he has to say, though. hear him out."

her brother smiled. "thank you. this compass worked correctly when we left the wheelers'." he said, holding it up. "it was correct when we got out of the car, but it started to slip the further east we went. now, it's way off. when i was leading us here, i wasn't wrong. the compass was."

steve didn't understand his point. "so you're using faulty equipment; dude, you're still wrong!"

"except it isn't faulty." he countered. "lucas, do you remember what can affect a compass?"

the other boy thought for a moment. "an electromagnetic field."

"yep." dustin nodded.

"i'm sorry, i must've skipped that class?" robin said, inviting both boys to explain themselves.

meadow looked back over at them. "wait, when an electromagnetic field is too powerful, the needle of a compass will deflect and point towards it. and i don't think there's a super big magnet anywhere, so.." she looked to the group. "dustin just found us our gate."

"exactly." her brother grinned.

"but we're nowhere near the lab." nancy reminded the group, who knew that to be the only gate.

"but what if, somehow, there's another gate?" dustin chimed. "a gate that we don't know about. it'd have to be smaller, way less powerful."

"snack-sized gate." robin nodded.

steve put his hands on his hips. "how? why?"

dustin shook his head. "no idea. all i know is that something is causing this disturbance, and the last time we've seen anything like this, it was a gate. and i hope it is. because then we'd have a way to vecna. and a shot at freeing max from this curse." without another word, he turned and started walking down the slope.

"hey, where are you going?" steve asked. "hey, hey, hey, hey, hey." he got his attention. "eddie's still a wanted man, we can't just go for a hike in the woods."

"this little steel capsule," the younger boy said, holding up his compass, "might be the key to saving both max and eddie." he then gestured to him. "what say you, eddie the banished?"

eddie looked at the ground. "i say you're asking me to follow you into mordor, which, if i'm totally straight with you, i think is a really bad idea. but, uh, the shire.. the shire is burning."

dustin silently started bouncing up and down giddily.

"so mordor it is." eddie finished, standing up and following dustin. the rest of the group took his lead.

"what is mordor?" steve asked.

meadow looked up at him. "the hobbit? it's a.. uh.. it's a book about dwarves and elves and-" she trailed off. "yeah okay i get why you haven't read it."