third person

Max and Dustin quickly made it to the local video store and told Steve and Robin everything they knew. They searched for a long time before finding the address of 'Reefer Rick', a drug dealer Eddie is associated with and also where Eddie may be hiding out.

Without wasting anytime, the two older kids closed their video store and the four of them piled into Steve's car before setting off to the house near lovers lake.

Dustin was on the edge of his seat the entire time, anxious to prove everyone wrong and prove Eddie was innocent along with seeing his sister alive and confirming her safety with himself. For him, it felt like forever before they were climbing out of the car with flashlights in hand, quietly making their way to the dark and quiet boathouse.

Robin pushed the creaky wooden door open, ignoring the way her stomach tightened at the darkness. She wasn't scared, she just really hated jumpscares and knew this place would be perfect for one especially with the possibility of a killer hiding in here. She swallowed "Hello?"

"What a dump," Steve commented, receiving a glare from Dustin as they moved their flashlights over the walls of the boat house, trying to find something. The older boy then spots an oar on the wall, clicking his flashlight off and silently picking it up off of the hook on the wall. He held it between his palms as he slowly approached a spot in the dark where a tarp was covering things in the middle of the room.

Dustin looked at him in shock, finding Steve's behaviour unbelievable and not helpful at all, "What are you doing?"

"He might be in here," Steve stated as he continued to hit the tarp with the oar.

"So take the tarp off!" Dustin exclaimed in a whisper, holding his hand out in frustration

"You take the tarp off," Steve replied childishly. Dustin looked at him for a second before sighing and shaking his head. He sometimes wondered if his and Steve's conciousnesses had switched bodies at some point. Only that could explain to him how Steve could be so immature at times.

On the other side of the room, Max found packets of food and empty bottles thrown all over a table. She picked a food wrapper up and inspected it. "Someone's been here,"

"Maybe he heard us? Got spooked and ran?" Robin suggested, looking around the room for any more signs of a person being here. It was hard to do in the dark, but they didn't have much choice.

"Don't worry, Steve will get him with his oar!" Dustin exclaimed with fake enthusiasm, gesturing to the man beside him as he continued to hit at the tarp with the piece of wood in his hands.

The two girls on the other side of the room ignored the banter, drowning out the sounds of Steve going on a rant about this being serious and all their near-death experiences. Until suddenly, the sound of a tarp being thrown around followed by the cut-off of Steve's speech alerted everyone in the room to the dark figure now holding Steve against a wall with a sharp object pressed to his throat.

Steve began yelling, begging the person they all knew to be Eddie to stop and wait. Dustin soon followed in Steves footsteps of yelling, his heart pounding as he shouted Eddie's name, trying to get the scared boys attention.

"It's me, Dustin!" Dustin declared, holding his hand out towards Eddie. He knew Eddie wasn't dangerous, but the fear in his eyes made him unpredictable and Dustin knew that.

Eddie shifted his eyes from Steve briefly, looking around the room for a sign of the raven-haired girl who could assure him that he could trust these people. He knew Veda went out to find Dustin, but he couldn't see her.

"Where's Veda?" He asked, his voice silent. Since she left, he had been hiding in the corner, only leaving to go into the house he forgot was there and grab food and drinks. He remembered thinking to himself that he was an idiot for forgetting about it in his panic and making Veda aswell as himself sleep in the rain.

Dustin felt his heart drop when the words left Eddie's mouth, realising his sister was missing.

"What the hell do you mean? We thought she was with you!" Steve exclaimed, filling the silence that Eddie's words had momentarily put the room into. Hearing this, Eddie turned back to Steve and pressed the sharp object harder against Steves throat. This caused Steve to yell once again, apologising repeatedly.

"Whoah, hey! He's not going to hurt you," Dustin yelled slowly, ignoring the unknown whereabouts of his sister. "We're here to help, we're on your side. Steve, drop the oar,"

Steve did as he was told, letting the wooden piece fall to the floor with a clanking sound. Eddie only pressed the object harder to Steves throat, only by a miracle, not drawing any blood.

"Eddie, c'mon you know me. You know Veda, she was with you right?" Dustin tried to find a common ground, quickly picking up on the familiarity that she brought him possibly due to their now shared trauma. He also used this as a chance to get a reaction out of Eddie to try and ease the nagging dread that he may have done something to her.

"Yeah, she went out looking for you and now she's gone. I've been alone here in the dark," Eddie confessed, looking away from Steve and towards Dustin who he knew deep down he could trust. He wasn't sure if they would believe him, but Veda had seemed sure.

He looked at Steve once more before lowering the weapon and moving away from the scared boy. He slowly walked over to a piece of wall and slid down it slowly until he was sitting.

The youngest Henderson slowly approached him, ignoring the slight anger he felt towards Eddie for his involvement in Veda's drug addiction. "Eddie, we just want to talk,"

"We want to know what happened," Robin claimed softly, crouching down to kneel beside Eddie.

"I thought.... I thought Veda was going to tell you guys everything. You don't think it got to her too? Shit," Eddie spoke mostly to himself, leaning his head back to hit it against the wall of the boathouse. He was afraid now, knowing the chances of them believing he was innocent died if Veda went missing. He also couldn't ignore the pang in his chest as the thought of her hurt or worse, dead. "I never should have let her go alone,"

"What is it Eddie? Tell us what happened. Maybe it can help us find her," Dustin asked, trying to hide the desperation in his voice as he spoke.

"She went to find you. She said you guys would understand what happened--that you had seen worse," Eddie gulped, dropping his head down into his hands and missing the look the four teens shared with each other. "Oh god, you're never going to believe me,"

"Try us," Max challenged. At this Eddie lifted his head up and turned to the ginger, slightly recognising her from the trailer park the night everything went down.

He had held it together pretty well until Veda left, he didn't realise how scared he was until he was alone in the dark. He could only trust her, she was the only one there to see it happen. He wasn't sure if they would believe him despite Veda being so adamant that they would.

He hated to discredit her, but he knew about her hallucinations and could guess Dustin had an idea. Maybe they would think the two of them were crazy and killed Chrissy in a drug fueled psycosis.

Slowly, Eddie began to tell them the events leading to Chrissys death, being careful to leave out the reason why Veda turned up to his doorstep. "Her eyes, it was like...like something was pulling them from the inside. I didn't know what to do so I ran away,"

Eddie looked around at the four faces staring at him, mistaking their looks of sympathy for looks of concern. "You all think I'm crazy,"

"No we dont-"

"Don't bullshit me man I know how this sounds!" He yelled, holding his hands over his eyes.

Unkown to the group inside, Veda was running through the trees near the shack and up the hill, fighting against her burning lungs and burning body to try to get to the shack as soon as possible. She didn't want to be alone anymore, she was terrified.

As she gets closer, the louder she gets. The sound of branches breaking and panting alerts the group inside of a presence, cutting Dustin off from his explanation of how Hawkins is cursed.

The group jumps, getting ready to hide until the door to the shack swings open and a clump of black hair and glistening skin falls to the floor with loud heaves. Dustin and Eddie were the first ones to react, running to the girl and pulling her up to her knees to see her face properly.

The other three watched as the approached the remaining three on the floor. They all looked concerned and even scared as to what had Veda panting. They shared looks with each other, all wondering which boy looks the most relieved to see her live.

"I saw him, I saw him," Veda kept repeating, struggling to catch her breath. Max took matters into her own hands, turning to scatter to the table and grab one of the half empty bottles from there, returning to hand it to Veda who generously took it, gulping down all of it in one go.

Gradually, her lungs began to cool down and her breaths become softer, less spikey. She could only gather her thoughts enough for one phrase, the one she kept repeating.

"I saw him,"