While the seven of them stared at a blank wall in the hallway, Max said, "It was here. Right here."

Then Nancy asked her, "A grandfather clock?"

After only nodding her head, Max told them, "It was so real. And then, when I got closer, suddenly I just... I woke up."

It was then that Dustin said to them, "It was like she was in a trance or something. Exactly what Eddie said happened to Chrissy."

While Valerie and Matthew looked over at each other with furrowed eyebrows, Max turned around to face them before she said to them, "That's not even the bad part." It wasn't until they were back inside of Ms. Kelley's office that Max told them, "Fred and Chrissy, they both came to Miss Kelley for help. Uh, they both were having headaches, bad headaches that just wouldn't go away. And then... then the nightmares. Trouble sleeping. They'd wake up in a cold sweat. And then they started seeing things. Bad things. From their pasts. And these visions, they just... they kept on getting worse and worse, until eventually... everything ended."

With a mere raise of her head, Robin said, "Vecna's curse."

While Matthew and Valerie shared yet another look with one another, Max said, "Chrissy's headache started a week ago. Fred's, six days ago. I've been having them for five days." While Valerie repeatedly blinked to herself and felt like her eyes were starting to burn from the tears that were building up inside of them, Max told them, "I don't know how long I have. All I know is that, for Fred and Chrissy, they both died less than twenty-four hours after their first vision. And I just saw that goddamn clock, so... looks like I'm gonna die tomorrow."

As soon as Valerie started to repeatedly shake her head with tears rolling down the sides of her face, Matthew went to wrap his arms around her, only to stop when they heard a clanging sound in the distance, which got everyone in the room to quickly turn their heads and look out into the hallway.

After a couple seconds of silence, Steve looked around at the others in the room and said to them, "Stay here."

Then, as he started to walk out of the office, he grabbed a lamp and took it with him out into the hallway, shortly before Matthew reached into his backpack and took out his crowbar and started to quickly walk out of the office as well.

Instead of saying anything once he saw that Matthew was silently walking beside him with his crowbar held high above his own head, Steve only shook his head to himself, shortly before the others soon enough joined them out into the hallway.

It wasn't long after each and every single one of them was out in the hallway that yet another clattering sound was heard, shortly before they could hear the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps.

In response to hearing the footsteps, Matthew tightened the grip that he had on his crowbar and started to raise it even higher above his head, only to stop when someone came to a sudden halt in front of the seven of them, which got Steve and the others to only let out a yell.

Matthew, however, narrowed his eyes at the person and was about to take a step forward and swing the crowbar at their head, only to stop when a flashlight was suddenly shone into the person's face, who yelled, "It's me!"

Then, with a mere tilt of her head, Nancy said, "Lucas?"

With a sigh, Matthew started to lower his crowbar as he asked, "Are you fucking serious, Sinclair? Do you have any idea how close I was to bashing your fucking head in right then and there?"

Then, while letting out yet another sigh, Lucas said, "It's me."

It was then that Steve yelled, "Jesus, what's wrong with you, Sinclair?!"

Then Lucas said to them, "I'm sorry."

Then, once more, Steve yelled, "I could've taken you out with this lamp!"

While Matthew turned to look over at Steve with a blank look on his face, Lucas said to them, "Sorry, guys. Sorry." While Steve practically threw the lamp onto the floor of the hallway, Lucas told them, "I was... I was biking for eight miles. Give me one second. Shit. We've got a code red."

In turn, Steve said to him, "What?"

Instead of responding to Steve, Lucas quickly walked past him and Matthew and headed straight for Dustin as he said, "Dustin. I've been with Jason, Patrick, and Andy, and they've gone, like, totally off the rails. They're trying to capture Eddie, and they think you know where he is." While Matthew clenched his jaw at the mere thought of Jason and his friends getting their hands on Eddie, Lucas told Dustin, "You're in terrible danger."

Dustin replied, "Alright. Yeah, that-that definitely sucks, but we've got bigger problems than Jason right now."

Then Dustin turned his head to look past a teary-eyed Valerie Mayfield and over towards her younger sister Max, which got Lucas to slightly turn his head to look over at Max as well.

While pacing around the inside of the basement of the Wheeler siblings, Steve said, "Okay, be honest. Uh... You guys understand any of this?"

With a shake of his head, Lucas said, "No."

Then, with a sigh, Matthew said, "I think I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that this Vecna dude has apparently been around since, like, the fifties– according to Nancy."

It was then that Dustin told them, "Pretty straightforward."

With a nod of his head, Steve replied, "Oh, straightforward, really?"

Then Dustin asked him, "Well, what's confusing to you? So far, everyone Vecna has cursed has died, except for this old Victor Creel dude Nancy found. He's the only known survivor. If anyone knows how to beat this curse, it's him."

Steve replied, "Yeah, that's assuming that he was cursed, Henderson, which we don't even know. How can Vecna have existed in the fifties? It doesn't make sense."

While Matthew turned to look away from them and over at Valerie, who hadn't taken her eyes off of Max ever since Max had revealed to them that she was supposed to get killed by Vecna when they were at the high school, Dustin told Steve, "As far as we know, Eleven didn't create the Upside Down. She opened a gate to it. The Upside Down has probably been around for thousands of years. Millions. I wouldn't be surprised if it predated the dinosaurs."

With a mere shake of his head, Steve asked him, "Di-Dinosaurs? What are we—"

It was then that Lucas said to them, "Okay, okay. But if a gate didn't exist in the fifties, how did Vecna get through?"

Then, with a mere point of his finger, Steve asked, "Oh, and how's he getting through now?"

Then Lucas asked them, "And why now?"

Then, with a nod of his head, Steve asked, "And why then? Just pops out in the fifties, kills one family, and he's like, 'Eh, I'm good'. And poof, he just disappears. Just... gone? Only to return thirty years later and start killing some random teens? No, I don't buy it." Then, as he started to pace around the inside of the room once more, Steve said, "Straightforward, my ass. You know, honestly, Henderson, a little humility every now and then, it wouldn't hurt you."

With a mere nod of his head, Dustin said to him, "Sorry."

While Steve went to sit down on a nearby chair, Matthew turned his head to look away from Valerie as he said, "Now that I think about it, it does kind of make sense. I mean, what if this Vecna dude couldn't get through until now, which is why he was only able to get back to killing people when he killed Chrissy back in Eddie's trailer?"

With a mere nod of his head, Steve looked over at Matthew and asked him, "You're seriously buying this, Wheeler? Is that what you're trying to tell me right now? You're buying literally every single thing that Henderson over there has just told us."

With a mere shrug of his shoulders, Matthew replied, "Well, I mean it makes more sense than your route of constantly shooting down Henderson's ideas and not believing that he might actually be right about this. I mean, think about it, Harrington. When is the last time that Henderson has actually been wrong about something? Like, really think about it." Then, after letting out a sigh, he said, "Besides, if Henderson actually turns out to be right about this thing, then that means we're at least maybe half a step closer into finding a way to getting to Vecna, prove that he was the one that killed Fred and Chrissy and prove Eddie's innocence, so that he's not just hiding out back at that boathouse that he's holed up in."

While Steve only rolled his eyes in response, Dustin only waved a hand as he said, "Thank you, Matt."

In response to Dustin's words, Matthew only nodded his head at Dustin, which got Steve to roll his eyes once more at the clear favoritism that Matthew had towards Dustin.

After a couple more seconds of silence, Dustin simply tilted his head before he asked them, "Any idea what she's writing?" After the three of them turned their attention over towards where Max was sitting at a desk in the basement, Dustin asked them, "Did she sleep?"

Lucas replied, "I mean, would you?"

After yet another couple seconds of silence, Matthew said, "Val's not looking too good, either." When the three of them turned their attention over towards where Valerie was sitting on the floor with her arms wrapped tightly around her own legs and the bottom of her chin resting on the top of her knees, Matthew said, "I mean, she hasn't look at all that good since the day that Billy died, but still. Ever since Max told us that she was gonna be the next person that would be killed by Vecna, Val's only looked that much worse and is just refusing to sleep."

With a sigh, the three of them shared a single look with each other before the four of them turned their attention over towards the staircase of the basement when they heard the sound of the basement door opening.

It wasn't long afterwards that both Robin and Nancy quickly made their way down the stairs, shortly before Nancy said to them, "Okay, so... we have a plan."

While Dustin opened the folder that he was given by them, Robin said, "Thanks to Nancy's newspaper minions, we are now rock-star psychology students at the University of Notre Dame."

Then Nancy told them, "I'm now Ruth."

Then Robin said to them, "And I'm Rose."

With a mere nod of his head, Steve said, "Ruth?"

After Nancy had only tilted her head at Steve, Dustin looked over at Nancy and said to her, "Nice GPA."

Nancy replied, "Thanks." While Matthew only crossed his arms over his chest with a sigh, Nancy told them, "So we called Pennhurst Asylum, told them we'd like to speak with Victor Creel for a thesis we're co-writing on paranoid schizophrenics—"

Then, with a nod of her head, Robin said, "To which they said no."

While Steve went to take the folder out of Dustin's hands, Nancy said, "But we landed a three-o'clock with the director."

Then Robin told them, "Now all we have to do is charm him and convince him to let us talk to Victor."

Then Nancy said to them, "And then maybe we can rid Max of this curse."

With a mere nod of his head, Matthew asked them, "And in doing so, we'll be one step closer into proving Eddie's innocence, right? I mean, that's what we're trying to do here, right? Find out who this Vecna dude is, find him, stop him and prove Eddie's innocence?" After Nancy and Robin had only shared a look with each other, Matthew said, "Right?"

Just when Robin and Nancy turned their heads to look back over at Matthew, Steve said to them, "About that. We've been doing our Victor Creel homework, and, uh... we got some questions."

In turn, Lucas said to them, "Lots of questions."

Nancy replied, "So do we. Hopefully, Victor has the answers."

Then, with a mere turn of his head, Steve said to them, "Wait... Wait... Wait a second. Uh... Where's mine?"

After slightly turning her head, Max said, "I know you guys are staring at me."

In response to her words, three of the five people that were staring at Max started to act as if they weren't staring at her in the first place.

Matthew, however, only silently looked between the two Mayfield sisters– one of whom was apparently going to be another victim of Vecna, while the other was refusing to let herself fall asleep because of her fear that she would end up waking up to the sight of her sister's dead body lying right in front of her.

With a sigh, Max said, "How you think your eyes boring into the back of my head is protecting me from Vecna, I don't know."

Then she grabbed several envelopes that she had sprawled around the desk before she quickly walked over towards them and then came to a halt when she saw that Lucas and Dustin were staring at a random page in the magazines that they were holding, Steve was repeatedly tossing a ball up into the air and catching it, Valerie looking exhausted as ever because of her refusal to fall asleep and Matthew just silently looking between the Mayfield sisters with his eyebrows furrowed and a frown on his face.

After a couple seconds of silence, Max told them, "You can look at me now."

In turn, the three of the five people started to thank Max and tell her that they were sorry as they turned their attention back over towards Max.

While Matthew resisted the urge that he had to roll his eyes at the three of them, Max let out a sigh before she handed an envelope over towards Dustin as she said to him, "For you." Then she handed one over towards Steve as she said, "For you."

Then she handed envelopes over towards Matthew and Valerie as she said, "For you two." Then she handed one over towards Lucas as she said, "And, um, you."

After Lucas had taken the envelope out of her hand, Max handed Lucas three more envelopes as she told him, "Oh, and, um, give these to Mike, El, and Will. If you can ever get a hold of them again." As soon as she saw Dustin and Steve start to open their envelopes, she asked them, "Hey, what are you doing? No, don't. That's not for now. Don't open it now."

In turn, Dustin said to her, "Don't... Okay." After closing the envelope once more, Dustin said to her, "I'm sorry. What is this?"

As she lowered her head, Max replied, "It's, um... it's a fail-safe. For after. If-If things– If they don't work out."

It was then that Lucas said to her, "Wait, whoa. Max, things are gonna work out."

In turn, Max said to him, "No! No, I don't need you to reassure me right now and tell me it's all gonna work out. Because people have been telling me that my entire life and it's almost never true. It's never true. I mean, of course this asshole curses me. Should've seen that one coming." While Matthew only sighed to himself and wrapped an arm around Valerie as he brought her even closer to himself, Max quickly walked over towards Dustin radio and picked it up from a nearby table before she asked Dustin, "If we go to East Hawkins, will this reach Pennhurst?"

Dustin replied, "Of course. Yeah."

It was then that Steve said to her, "Wait. Why are we talking about East Hawkins?" When Max only stared at him, he said with a mere shake of his head, "No. No. No!"

As he hurriedly walked after Max, Steve said to her, "Max, Max. Seriously." While the two freshmen and the two juniors were quick to walk after Steve, Steve said to her, "Seriously, I'm not joking, okay? I'm not driving you anywhere."

Max replied, "Steve, if you think that I'm going to spend what is likely the last day of my life in the armpit that is Mike Wheeler's basement, then you're out of your mind. So, either take me where I need to go or you're gonna have to tie me down, which is technically kidnapping of a minor. If I live to see another day, Steve, I swear to God, I will prosecute."

Then she went to open the back door to Steve's car, only to stop when it wouldn't open, which got her to repeatedly attempt to open the door.

And when it still wouldn't open, Max turned to Steve and said to him, "Open the door."

In turn, Steve said to her, "Uh, no."

With a mere raise of her eyebrows, Max told him, "I know a good lawyer."

After a couple seconds of him just staring at Max, Steve only shook his head with a scoff before he took out his car keys as he said, "Henderson, that super walkie of yours better reach Pennhurst."

As he put his car in park, Steve said, "Alright, this better be fast, Littlest Mayfield."

In turn, Max said to him, "Twenty seconds."

Then Max quickly got out of the car and ran away from it, leaving Steve to turn to Dustin and ask him, "That thing's got batteries in it, right?"

After glancing over at Steve, Dustin turned to look away from him as he said, "I'm not even answering that question." After Steve looked over at Dustin with furrowed eyebrows, Dustin told him, "Yes, it has batteries."

Steve replied, "Yeah, I got it."

It wasn't long after Steve said that that Matthew reached into his backpack and pulled out his walkman before taking out the tape that he had inside of it.

Then, after going through his backpack some more, he pulled out another tape before he put it into his walkman and then proceeded to put the headphones onto Valerie's head.

With furrowed eyebrows, Valerie glanced over at Matthew, who only pressed the play button to his walkman, shortly before the sound of Fleetwood Mac's Don't Stop started to play on his walkman.

While Valerie let out a sigh once she realized that she was going to be listening to her favorite album from Fleetwood Mac, Lucas silently looked between the two juniors before he asked Matthew, "Why do you have a cassette tape for Fleetwood Mac in that bag of yours? I mean, I thought that you don't listen to that kind of music."

In turn, Matthew said to him, "I don't. I just got it for Val's sake, just in case she forgot her own at that trailer that she's living in with her mother and Max."

It was then that Dustin turned to Matthew as he said, "Remind me again why you and Val aren't a thing?" After seeing Matthew slowly turn his head to look over at him, Dustin grimaced to himself before he said, "Never mind."

While the three of them started to stare out the window once more and Fleetwood Mac's Go Your Own Way started to play on Matthew's walkman, Steve simply sighed to himself as he looked between the two juniors.

Based on his encounter with the Russians during the days leading up to the Fourth of July with Valerie, Robin, Dustin and Erica, Steve knew well enough why Matthew and Valerie weren't a thing, since it was made quite clear that– like Robin– Valerie had a thing for girls and was in no way interested in guys, no matter who they were.

Matthew, however, was a complete mystery to Steve.

While both Robin and Nancy seemed to have an idea on just who Matthew liked, Steve was completely clueless and didn't seem to understand just why Matthew cared so much about Eddie and having the metalhead proven innocent in regard to the murders of Chrissy Cunningham and Fred Benson.