March 25th, 1986

Hawkins, Indiana

That sudden pain throbbed in my wrist again, pulling my attention away from the road that lingered outside the car window and onto my wrist. Dragging my eyes over the skin, with a blink of an eye the world suddenly shifted; melted away, and was replaced with another memory. Fighting to close my eyes I was forced to look up into the cold eyes of Lonnie as he latched a hand on my wrist.

His grip on my wrist tightens suddenly as he pulls my smaller hand closer to him, his eyes trained on the ring that was placed on my thumb. The ring barely fit but I once found comfort in the small band of metal. "Where'd you get this?" He questioned me, tugging on my wrist forcefully, pulling a quiet wince from me. "I- I don't know..." I had whispered, it wasn't a lie. I'd had it for as long as I could remember.

"Eleanor, what have I said about stealing?" He scoffed, glaring down at me before releasing my wrist, allowing my left hand to quickly cradle my red wrist. "I didn't steal it, I swear. A friend gave it to me." A pleaded sadly, holding a pinkie up to my father only for him to push my hand away before searching for something in the pocket of his jeans.

"You know what happens to girls with sticky fingers..." He muttered under his breath, pulling his red lighter out of his pocket. "Papa... Please, no." I cried out, moving to run away from him but he quickly grabbed back onto my wrist, pulling my right hand towards him. "Jonathan! Jonathan!" I screamed as he clicked the lighter, a blue flame emitting from it.

"" Nancy called out as she parked the car. Snapping my head towards the front of the car I found that Nancy and Robin had turned around in their seats to look back at the party before directing their gaze on the house that rested on our right.

"House... A big house..." I winced under my breath, pinching the bridge of my nose in the hopes of relieving the tension that grew there. The house almost looked a little too familiar as I peered out the window that rested behind Steve. It wasn't as devastated as the one Max had drawn but it was still pretty run down.

That sharp pain sliced through my head, causing me to quickly drop my head and look down at my lap as I felt something drip out of my nose. "Rocket... it has a slide..." Taking in a shuddered breath, I wiped the blood away from under my nose before looking out my window, finding an abandoned playground and resting in the center was a rocket slide.

Why have I been here?

Clicking the door open, Steve helped Dustin and Max out of the car before holding a hand out for me to grab. Narrowing my eyes, I pushed myself out of the car and past him, refusing to offer him a second look because I knew if I did, I would fall apart.

"Yeah... That's not creepy." Steve muttered as we came to a stop behind the rest of the group as they stared up at the boarded-up home, instinctively he tugged me into his side, and out of habit I didn't fight it. "Anyone got a hammer?" I mumbled, shooting a look between Nancy and Dustin.

Thankfully, Nancy came prepared. With two hammers and multiple flashlights in hand, we were able to pry the nails out of the plywood that blocked the door. "What exactly are we supposed to be looking for in this shithole?" Steve questioned with a huff. "We're not sure... We just know this house is important to Vecna." Nancy answered simply.

"Because Max saw it in Vecna's red soup mind world?" He questioned with a furrowed brow. "Basically." Nancy rolled her eyes at the question. "Maybe it holds a clue to where Vecna is. Why he's back. Why he killed the Creels. And how to stop him before he comes back for Max." Dustin elaborated on all the good possibilities that could come out of this little adventure. "Or it's a trap..." I mumbled under my breath, scanning my eyes over the weathered house.

"We- We don't think he's in here... Do we?" Lucas questioned anxiously from his place next to Max. "Guess we'll find out." She mumbled as Steve pulled out the last nail. "Ready?" He questioned, pushing his weight against the plywood until he got the go-ahead from Nance.

Humming in response, the two carefully stepped away from the wood and allowed it to fall onto the porch, dry leaves and dirt blew past us from the impact of the wood but our sights rested on the stained glass window of a rose that had been hidden by the wood. Exactly like Max had drawn it.

Twisting the doorknob, Steve only succeeded in rattling the door in its frame. "It's locked." He mumbled before turning to the rest of us. "Should I knock, see if anybody's home?" He questioned while Robin stepped away from us. "No need." She called out before raising a brick in the air, "I found a key."

Taking the brick from Robin's hand, Steve waved for the rest of us to give him some space before throwing the brick through the stained glass. Approaching the door, Steve carefully reached his arm past the broken glass before unlocking the door from the other side. The door hinges creaked in protest as Steve pushed it open, taking it upon himself to be the first to enter the house. Giving us the all-clear, he waved us in.

Time had not been kind to what I could only imagine was once a grand house. In Max's drawing the world was a mixture of red and black while the house we stood in now was grey and mostly rotted away. Running a finger up the staircase railing, I watched the path my finger left in the years of dust. "Looks like someone forgot to pay their electric bill." Lucas called out as he tried to switch on the lights. Dustin shrugged in response, switching on his flashlight.

Looking around at the rest of the group as they clicked on their lights, Steve furrowed his brow. "Where'd everyone get those?" He questioned, earning a dumb look from Dustin. "Do you need to be told everything?" Steve only stayed silent, staring down at Dustin. "You're not a child." He added.

"Thank you." Steve mumbled sarcastically, earning a hum from Dustin as he shrugged off his bookbag. "Back pocket." He stated before passing the bag to Steve. Shooting him a smirk, I moved past him and towards Nancy and Robin as they looked around the living room. "They just left everything..." Nancy mumbled as she traced her light over the furniture. "Guess triple homicide isn't good for resale value." Robin chuckled before looking down at the girl.

"Hey, guys..." Max called out from down the hall, frozen in her place with her flashlight trained on an object in front of her. "You all see that, right?" She questioned softly as we approached her, finding that she stood in front of an old grandfather clock that looked like it had stopped working ages ago. "Yeah..." We mumbled, taking a closer look at the clock that Vecna was so obsessed with.

"Is this what you saw?" Nancy questioned Max. "In your visions?"

Max nodded hesitantly before Robin leaned past her, "I mean, it's... just a clock. Right?" She mumbled before taking a closer step and wiping away the dust that coated the face of the clock. "A normal old clock." She confirmed with a shrug.

"Why is this wizard obsessed with clocks?" Steve questioned, keeping his eyes trained on the clock. "Maybe he's, like, a clockmaker or something?" He turned to the rest of us to check if we were on board but he was only greeted with our blank expressions. "I think you cracked the case, Steve." Dustin mumbled, turning to me before slowly shaking his head in disbelief.

Shrugging off the topic, I moved away from the old clock. "Whatever it means doesn't matter right now. There has to be some answers here. Somewhere..." I mumbled tracing my light over the rest of the foyer. "Everyone stay in groups. Robin, upstairs." Nancy nodded for Robin to follow her before Max and Lucas moved into the living room, leaving me with Dustin and Steve.

Moving my light onto the two boys, I fought to hold back my scowl as Dustin offered me a friendly grin while Steve nodded for us to follow him in the opposite direction of the house. "I think I can handle myself." I mumbled, moving past the two and towards the staircase. "Nance said to stay in groups." Steve called out, grabbing onto my wrist to stop me but I quickly flinched away, earning a worried look from the two. "Yeah, last time I listened to Nancy she almost fed me to a Demogorgon. Besides, we can cover more ground this way." I stated shrugging off their worried glance before moving up the stairs.

Stuffing one hand in my pocket, I used the other to light my path as I looked around the upstairs hall. I could hear the voices of Nancy and Robin coming from the left hall, so I branched off and moved down the right hallway.

Pushing open the first door, I found a child's room. Based on the dated decor I assumed it belonged to the son. It was rather neat, a little too tidy for a child. Growing up our rooms only looked this clean when Dad said he'd be checking them, once we knew he was done, our rooms wouldn't stay tidy for long.

Moving through the room, I stopped in front of the boy's desk. If the house hadn't deteriorated over time, it's be perfectly cleaned off. Nothing rested on the surface so I pulled open the few drawers of the desk to find school papers, notes, and drawings. He drew spiders; realistic depictions of a black widow for a child. He'd seemed to have an obsession with the creature.

His name was Henry, I found it written neatly at the top right of his homework assignments that had been dated back to 1959. He seemed gifted but from small notes here and there I could gather he was a little strange, nothing problematic really but this was the fifties, they didn't look too kindly on just about anything.

Moving out of the boy's room, I opened the door adjacent to his. This one belonged to a girl, the pinks that had once decorated her room had now faded away, turning into a murky grey like everything else in the house. Her's wasn't as neat, maybe she was younger than Henry?

Her name was Alice, she had left a small diary resting on her desk with her name written on the cover. Flipping through the pages carefully, I found that she had once been rather happy with the move, she thought the new home was like a castle; viewing herself as a princess in a fairytale. But gradually her entries grew darker, fearful of the house.

Her father; Victor, believed that the house was cursed and that a demon was haunting their family. Over time they began to find dead animals around the property, Alice had found one of these poor creatures; a bunny. Its bones had been snapped out of place, broken in all directions and its eyes pulled out. And then came the nightmares, she didn't want to write what she saw, instead stating that the demon was in her head.

She mentioned Henry a few times, she viewed her brother as weird but didn't hold any ill-will against him. But their mother viewed his quirks as a bit too strange, writing in one of the last entries that their mother had been writing with a doctor and planned to send Henry away.

Moving my flashlight down the desk, the beam shined off of a reflective surface that rested on the far corner of the desk. Pulling the piece of metal towards me, I carefully picked up the small ring. Tracing my eyes from the thin metal band that I held and onto the one that rested on my pointer finger, the room suddenly grew cold.

"Why didn't you do it, Nell?" A voice croaked, hiding in the shadows at the far end of the room. Freezing in my place, my eyes widened as I recognized the voice even after all these years. "What?" I whispered, turning to peer into the dark corner, finding the silhouette of Barb staring back at me. "Why didn't you just take the knife and drink the beer?" Her voice barely carried through the room, yet her words continued to ring in my ears.

Snapping my light onto the corner of the room, I found no one there. Releasing a shaky breath, I clenched my eyes shut at the reminder of that night. She was right...

"" Nancy called out as she and Robin suddenly entered the room, their lights trained on me as I stayed frozen in my place. "Did you find anything?" She questioned, arching up her brow as I slowly moved to face them, pocketing the ring I had found on the daughter's desk. "Yeah... But we can go over it later." I mumbled, nodding for her to lead the way.

~~~

Gathering around the dining table, we stared up at the dusty chandelier as its light flickered on and off, a constant buzzing hit our ears as the electricity crackled back to life. Something was here; someone, just on the other side. "It's like the Christmas lights..." I whispered, staring up at the lights. "The Christmas lights?" Robin leaned into my side as she whispered the question.

Taking in a sharp breath, I nodded before facing her. "When- When Will was in the Upside Down, the lights around our house they... they came to life." I informed her, thinking back to the lights that Mom had strung across the walls and ceiling of our home. "Vecna's here." Lucas called out, his eyes still locked on the chandelier. "In this house. Just on the other side."

The lights began to dull, the buzzing growing softer before the old house was thrown back into darkness; into silence. "I think he just left the room." Robin mumbled as we scanned our eyes around the house, looking for any sign of where he could have moved to. "Did he hear us?" Max questioned softly. "Can he see us?" Steve asked the more important question, prompting Lucas to quickly turn to Max. "Headphones." He mumbled, watching as she slipped the headphones over her ears and pressed play.

"Everyone, turn off your flashlights and spread out." I whispered, clicking my flashlight off before nodding for them to do the same. "We're not gonna be able to see if we turn off our flash--lights..." Steve called out, his voice dying off as he watched the rest of us move out of the dining room. "Jesus Christ."

Holding my flashlight in front of me, I moved down the hall with Robin and Nance close behind me before branching down separate halls. "Where are you..." I mumbled, moving my hand out in an attempt to see if he was off to the side of the hall. Moving into the living room, I reconnected with Nancy and Robin as the bulb of my light began to flicker on and off, its brightness growing as I froze in my place. "I got him... I got him!" I called, grabbing the two girls' attention while the rest of the group ran from their places in the house as the bulb began to die out.

"Shit... I had him?" I whispered, turning to my right as Steve came to a stop beside me. "How'd-" Steve's question was cut off as his light flickered, quickly moving in his place as the light began to dim. "He's moving. He's moving!" He called out, waving for us to follow him back into the hall as the light grew stronger.

Hurrying up the stairs, Steve cupped his hand around the light as if it would help him hold onto Vecna, but as we reached the second landing, the light clicked off. "Shit... I lost him." Pulling my eyes away from the dead bulb, I found that a light peeked from beneath a door, a door that we hadn't even realized was there. "No, you didn't," I whispered, tugging gently on his sleeve before moving towards the door to prop it open. "Come on..." I mumbled, nodding for them to follow me into the new hall as the light fixtures along the wall buzzed to life.

"It's an attic... Of course, it's an attic." Robin mumbled as we carefully moved up the new flight of stairs. "Hold up guys, what if he's leading us into a trap?" Dustin called out, still frozen in his place by the door but no one responded, our focus laying solely on the path the lights made.

The stairs led us to the attic, much like the rest of the house it had been abandoned, with dust and cobwebs littering the room while a single light pulsed in the center of the room. "What is he doing?" I whispered, confused as to why he come to a stop in the attic before dragging my eyes onto three boxes that had been left discarded in the room for so many years.

Moving away from the group, I kneeled in front of one of the boxes, blowing the dust that the surface had collected over the years. '.' Furrowing my brow as I read over the name, I carefully lifted the lid of the box, letting it fall back the rest of the way as my eyes scanned over the contents inside the box.

Inside rested glass jars, covered in dust while the inside was decorated with spiderwebs. Sliding one of the glasses from its case, I raised it to my eye level to find that a black widow had been kept preserved inside of it. Grimacing, I placed the glass back in its place before pulling out a half-burnt candle from inside the box. What was going on up here?

A light buzzing filled the room, pulling my attention away from the box and onto the group as their lights began to flicker on and off. "Flashlights..." Dustin whispered, waving for us to gather around the single bulb that dangled from the ceiling. "Okay, what's happening?" Steve hummed anxiously, eyes darting from his flashlight and onto the ceiling.

Furrowing my brow, I dragged my eyes onto my watch, taking note of the time; . A sudden popping sounded through the air, glass shattering as the energy coursing through the room was too much for our flashlights to handle. "Shit!" I scoffed as a piece of glass sliced through the skin of my cheek.

Dropping our ruined flashlights to the ground, Steve quickly inspected the cut on my cheek, dragging his finger over the damaged skin as I winced at the contact. "What the hell was that?" Dustin called out, eyes darting around the rest of us as we tried to wrap our heads around the strange occurrence and what it could mean.

~~~

We needed to collect ourselves and take the night to get our shit together before moving on to the next step in our makeshift plan. Splitting into groups we agreed to meet up back at the Wheeler's house in a couple of hours. Nancy took Max, Lucas, and Dustin while Steve and I took Robin. In the morning the plan was that we would pick up more groceries for Eddie, before checking in on him and telling him everything we'd found.

Steve and I had dropped Robin off at her house so that she could grab anything she needed before stopping at Steve's. Watching the girl jog into the house, I anxiously tapped my nails against the leather of the center console, keeping my eyes trained on the door even though I could feel Steve practically starting holes into the side of my head.

"What happened back there?" He questioned softly, moving to place his hand on top of mine only for me to slip it away before he could. "What do you mean?" I refused to look him in the eyes, ignoring how heavy my heart felt in my chest.