veda henderson

          The sun directs its light towards my eyes, causing me to lift my hand in an effort to shield my face from the harsh brightness. Much to Dustin's protest, I had climbed out of Steve's babysitter-on-the-go car and joined them at the picnic table situated in the middle of the trailer park. 

If I had to come back to this horrific place, I wanted to be a part of the situation. For some reason, no one wanted to acknowledge the fact that I had some sort of direct connection to this thing. But, I couldn't ignore it, not when I could feel him whenever he was close and could feel what he was doing to those poor kids. 

Fred. That was the name of the other kid, the one I helplessly watched die the same way Chrissy did. 

Fred and Chrissy. Chrissy and Fred. 

   "So you're saying that this thing that killed Fred and Chrissy, it's from the upside down?" I hear Nancy question from behind me. My back is currently facing the group, my eyes too focused on the Munson trailer. 

"If the shoe fits," Steve confirmed

"Our working theory is that he attacks with a spell or a curse," Dustin throws ideas out, waiting to see if anyone has anything to add. "Now, whether or not he's doing the bidding of the mind flayer or just loves killing teens, we don't know,"

"I know," I interrupt, feeling frustrated with his ignorance, "It's more than that Dustin. He's stronger than the mind flayer and it's ritualistic. It's not just a fun little hobby. The mind flayer is nothing compared to him. If anything, he built the damn thing!"

"How do you know this?" Nancy quizzes, looking at me with millions of questions floating behind her curious eyes. 

"I've seen it. Both times. He wants me to watch what's happening I just don't know why he creates these... these portals, but everything is so calculated," I ramble, noticing how something flicked in Dustin's eyes at the word 'portals', as if it were the clue he was looking for. 

"Doesn't make sense," Nancy shakes her head in disbelief.

"Does it ever?" I reply. 

"It's only a theory," Dustin tries to reassure Nancy. It's hard to miss the underlying tone in his voice that suggested a double meaning, one he seemed to want to keep to himself. 

"No, Fred and Chrissy don't make sense," Nancy clarifies, thinking to herself. "I mean, why them?"

I look down at the wooden table, trying to comb through my brain for anything I might have seen at the events. After all, I was the only one other than Vecna that was present at both times. 

"Maybe they were just in the wrong place?" Dustin suggested, sounding unsure of his answer himself. Knowing my brother, he likes to be sure about things and link every piece of the puzzle together which is why he continues, "They were both at the game,"

"And near the trailer park," Max nods. 

"We're at the trailer park," Steve reminds with slight fear engulfing his tone. "Uh, should we maybe not be here?"

I swallow, looking around the land with caution. Being here so close to what happened to Chrissy was enough, but to think that this park is what's causing people to be chosen... I couldn't think about it without the feeling of wanting to vomit. 

"Fred started acting weird the second we got here," Nancy unhelpfully informs the group, her words only adding to the heaviness on my chest.

"Acting weird as in?" Robin fishes for more.

"Scared, on edge, upset," Nancy lists off symptoms.

"Max said Chrissy was upset too," Dustin chimes in this time. At the mention of the poor girl, I turn back to the Munson trailer, my memories of her surfacing against my will.

"Yeah but not here. She was crying in the bathroom at school," Max clarifies. My heart ached, Poor Chrissy. It was strange, but I felt some sort of weird connection to her as well, maybe due to the fact that I watched something horrific happen to her. I couldn't help her, but I wanted to make sure she wasn't just a name on the list of people lost to the upside down. 

"Serial killers stalk their prey before they strike, right?" Robin asks, "So, maybe Fred and Chrissy saw this vecman-"

"Vecna," Dustin corrects, stressing the syllables of this thing's appointed name. 

"You gotta stop naming these things, Dustin. Especially after your nerd game," I tell him, using my left hand to rub at my temples where a headache was forming.

"Oh, you mean the game your little muffin loves?" Dustin mocks. I roll my eyes, replying to him with nothing but a hard punch to his arm which he returned to me quickly. 

"Dunno about you, but if I saw some freaky wizard monster, I would mention it to someone. I mean, Veda did," Steve reasons, holding his hand out to gesture to me. 

"Yeah, but I only told you guys because of the past. Otherwise, no way in hell," I inform, shaking my head just at the thought of it. "I heard him, once before. It was before Chrissy. I tried to tell Eddie but he didn't believe me. If you saw a monster, you would never tell someone who could just blow it off,"

Max looks at me deeply, as if finding a similar bridge between us, a common road we share. "But, you might go to-"

"Your shrink," I finish our collective thought, holding eye contact with the young ginger. She visited Mrs Kelly too, I saw her. That was our shared road. Mrs Kelly was paid to listen to you and explore whatever you tell her, she'd be the best person to go to about seeing a monster. 

After a beat, we all jump up from our seats and collect our respective belongings before rushing off to where the cars were parked. A million thoughts were racing through my head, some scarier than others. If Vecna chooses his victims beforehand and stalks them, then what the hell does that say for me? What if I'm next and this is his way of torturing me, scaring me half to death before he can take me the other half of the way? 

"Whoa, Whoa. Nance, Nance!" Steve calls after his ex-girlfriend as she walks off in the other direction. The curly-haired girl stops and spins around, facing Steve with a confused look. "Where are you going?"

"God, here we go," I groan, resting my head against the roof of Steve's car. Dustin laughs beside me, agreeing with the sentiment. 

"Oh, there's just something I want to check out first," She explains, pointing behind her as if we could see what she was thinking in a physical form. 

"Something you wanna maybe share with the rest of us?" Dustin asks, annoyance in his tone. 

"I don't wanna waste your time. It's a real shot in the dark," Nancy explains timidly, looking down at the ground as she messes with the dirt with her pristine shoe. 

"Yeah, okay. Are you out of your mind?" Steve asks the same way a parent would, looking at her dumbfounded. "Flying solo with this Vecna creep on the loose? No, it's too dangerous. You need... you need someone to... Here," Steve stumbles over his words before tossing his keys to Robin who caught the sparkly car keys awkwardly "I'll stick with Nance. You guys take the car and check out the shrink," 

"I don't think you want me driving your car. I don't have a license," Robin protests.

"Why don't have you a license?" Steve questions, frustrated. 

"I'm poor," Robin replies, sounding more like a question. She then turns to me, forcing the keys into my hands.

"You definitely don't want me driving," I almost laugh, looking down at his keys. 

"Why not?" Steve asks again, waiting for my excuse. 

"I'm high," I admit with a shrug, ignoring the funny looks sent my way. 

"I can drive!" Max pipes up excitedly. Her words caused Steve's face to almost drain of all colour. 

"No. Never again, please. Anybody but you. No," Steve begged. I couldn't help but laugh at how distressed he sounded. Dustin told me years ago that Max was a bad driver and traumatised Steve with her lack of skills. I can only imagine how bad she truly was. 

I turn to Dustin just as he makes a hopeful face at his older best friend 

"No chance,"

"Come on," Dustin whines.

"Okay, this is stupid. We're wasting time," I say, holding my hands out, the sun reflecting on the silver keys still in my hands.

Robin nods in agreement, moving towards Dustin to grab the walkie-talkie from his backpack and the keys from my hand, walking over to drop the keys in Steve's hand and then moving towards Nancy who was still waiting for permission to leave. "Nancy and I will stick together. Unless you think we need you to protect us?"

Steve shakes his head at Robin's obvious attempt to bait him into saying something stupid. Robin laughs, turning around to walk off with Nancy following.

"Be careful!" Steve shouts after them.

"Be careful," I turn to Dustin, whispering and holding his shoulder as I mocked Steve. Dustin smiled, flashing his fresh pearly whites at me. 

"I'll be so careful," He whispers, grabbing my elbow as he joins in. 

"Shut up!" Steve grumbles before stomping over to the driver's side of the car. Just as Dustin opens the passenger side door, Steve speaks again, "Wipe your feet,"

Dustin turns to me, smiling before both of us stick our feet in and wipe our shoes on the carpet. 

"On the outside, not the inside!" He grumbles as we all climb into the car, my brother and I laughing like children. "Always the goddamn babysitter!"

----------

          We pull up to Mrs Kelly's house, parked far enough away for the occupants of the house to not have a direct line of vision towards us, but close enough for us to be able to see the house. 

"Okay. Who's going in?" Steve asked as he turned the car off, looking at Max and I through his rearview mirror. 

"Fugitive, remember?" I say, holding my hands up towards my face and wagging my fingers. 

"Mrs Kelly doesn't know that," Max replies. That is true, as Dustin said, our names haven't been released to the public yet.

"And what happens when she hears about my tragic kidnapping only to realise I was just in her house today?" I ask sarcastically.

"That's true. Max, all you," Dustin announces, craning his neck to look at us two girls. Max nods, climbing out of the car without protest and confidently walking up to the front door. Jesus, she seems so sure of herself at such a young age. 

"She's in," Steve comments as Mrs Kelly closes the door behind Max. 

"I'm missing collarbones, not eyes," Dustin replies sarcastically causing me to snort. "So... we gonna talk about... it?"

"Huh? Sorry, talk about what?" Steve grumbled, too focused on the house in front of him to actually pay attention to my little brother. 

"Your lapse of your cool guy persona earlier," I chime in, knowing exactly what Dustin was talking about.

"Your temporary lapse of insanity," Dustin added, talking to Steve as if he were delivering delicate news to a sensitive person. "When you basically threw yourself at Nance?"

"Okay, first of all, that's not what happened," Steve dead-pans, shaking his head as if he were scolding a child. 

"Steve, you all but ripped your shirt off, banged on your chest like a gorilla and carried her away to a tall building," I laugh, only laughing more when Steve turned and glared at me harshly. 

"That's pretty much exactly what happened," Dustin agrees with me, pointing towards me and nodding as we both stare at Steve, causing him to stir uncomfortably in his seat. "It was pretty public. There were like a lot of witnesses,"

"Are you guys implying that I still have a thing for Nance?" Steve almost gasped, offended by our insinuation. Dustin and I were silent for a moment, turning to look at each other before nodding heavily, verbally agreeing with each other. 

"I'm stating. And, as it relates to your steadfast refusal to date Robin, it's pretty much the only logical explanation," Dustin shrugs, summarising his points. 

"Can I not just have a close friend who happens to be a girl?"

"Not really. You even had a crush on Veda when she first moved here,"

"Wait, what?" I ask, turning to look at Dustin with furrowed eyebrows. I never even really spoke to Steve when everything first happened, I was too busy coming to terms with a magnitude of things including my Dad's passing and the introduction of a whole other world. "No, actually, that makes sense. He basically did the gorilla thing to me too. Remember that time when-"

"Okay, enough. I've had enough Henderson for one day," Steve cuts me off "Let's not forget about you and Eddie in that boat, Vey,"

"Eddie isn't in a long-term relationship with someone he chose over me years ago, is he Steve? Also, just friends," I clarify, noticing the way Dustin shifts in his seat at the mention of Eddie and I. 

"I was just... trying to protect a friend okay," He paused as if to try and think of a reasonable excuse that would get us off of his back. "I don't want to find her in the morning with her eyes sucked out of her skull by this Vecna creep, okay?"

"You're like, bright red in the face right now," Dustin comments.

"I'm not. I don't wanna talk about it. I'll punch you so hard in your face that your teeth will fall back out," Steve declares, getting flustered. 

"Whoa," Dustin gapes, looking at his friend with furrowed eyebrows. Steve turns to him, waiting for an explanation for his sudden mood change. 

"Too far," I shake my head.

"Not cool. Sorry," Steve agrees, looking my brother in the eyes as he apologises. Dustin accepts his apology, shaking it off. Steve then holds his fist out, waiting for Dustin to return to hit which he does. 

"Aw, what a lovely little moment," I coo. 

"If we're going to talk about Nancy, then let's talk about Munson," Steve demands, turning to look at me with excitement in his eyes. 

"Let's not, actually,"

"No, I think we should. In fact, let's talk about your lovers spat earlier," He continues, fully shifting in his seat. I could tell he didn't actually care, he just wanted to make me uncomfortable in the same way i made him.

Dustin groans. "I have to agree with Vey. I would prefer not to hear this," 

"It's a beautiful thing, Dustin," Steve mocks with a hand on his chest. 

"Eddie is so not my type," I protest, refusing to engage in this little mother's club gossip session they insist on. 

"That's bullshit," Dustin disagrees, causing my jaw to fall open in shock. Honestly, he was right. Eddie was my type if he wasn't Eddie. But, I expected Dustin to want to believe there was no chance of Eddie and I being together because there wasn't a chance. 

"Steve, maybe if you teach him the way of the Kong-" I pause, banging on my chest like a gorilla as he waved me off "-I might fall right into his arms. It clearly didn't work on Nancy but it's worth a shot, right?" 

Steve ignores me, finding the perfect opportunity to do so as Max all but runs out of the house and straight into the car in a hurry. 

"What did she say?" Dustin asks curiously. 

"Nothing. Just drive," Max commands, out of breath. I look down, spotting a small key grasped in her palm, the circular tag reading 'office'. "Steve, drive!"

----------

          "This is so stupid," I murmur under my breath, climbing out of Steve's car. He parked in the middle of Hawkins high car park, gathering torches and walkie-talkies as we all filed out of the vehicle. 

"Says the drug addict," Dustin replies, handing me my own torch with a smile on his face.

I grin, taking the torch from his hand, "Touche,"

Max takes the lead, creating a beeline for the school doors which we all follow. Not long after entering, Dustin's walkie-talkie starts making static-sounding noises. The sudden noise causes me to almost jump out of my skin, whipping my torch around until it faces Dustin's communication device. Robins's voice fills the corridor, "Dustin, do you copy?"

He quickly grabs the walkie-talkie from his pocket, pulling it up to his mouth as he presses the button. "Yeah, I copy,"

"So, Nancy's a genius. Vecna's first victims date back all the way to 1959. Her shot in the dark was a bulls-eye." Robin informs, her voice slightly dropping in and out due to the distance between Dustin's long-range walkie-talkies.

"Okay, that's totally bonkers but, I can't really talk right now," Dustin replies, not slowing down his walk. 

    "Wait, what are you doing?"

"Breaking and entering into school to retrieve confidential and extremely personal files," Dustin quickly explains. 

The idea of breaking into Mrs Kelly's office to read through Chrissy's most personal thoughts was troubling enough, but something else didn't feel right. No one else seemed to notice it except me and that's what worried me the most. 

    "Can you repeat that?"

    "Just get your ass over here. Stat! We'll explain everything,"

We find Mrs Kelly's office rather quickly, Max taking the lead as she unlocks the door and looks around as if she could feel the same dark presence I could. 

The office felt eerie at night as if all the darkness I had confessed inside of these walls was waiting for me, clinging to me as I stepped through the threshold. 

I quickly shake my head, trying to throw the darkness off of me and distract my brain as I move over to where Max is at the filing cabinet. We both ignore Dustin and Steve babbling in the background as I hold my torch up to give Max enough light to look through the cabinet. 

"Holy shit," The ginger and I say at the same time. 

"Did you find it?" Steve asks. Max grabs Chrissy's file, pulling it out and holding it up while I reach for the other one we found. 

"Yeah and not just Chrissys file," Max ironically laughs, no humour in the sound. 

"Fred was seeing Mrs Kelly too," I finish, holding the file up for them both to see. The announcement causes the previous darkness in the room to feel even heavier, almost like a malevolent creature was watching over us. 

We quickly move to the desk, Max taking the desk chair as she opens Chrissy's file and combs through the pages for some sort of answers. She lands on a specific page, her hand pausing over the corners as we all read. 

     past trauma

"Your father's suicide?"

"Not many people can relate to watching your father blow his brains out all over your bedroom,"

     terrible nightmares

"Do you talk to them about your night terrors?" Mrs Kelly asked gently.

     difficulty sleeping

I couldn't sleep until the sun had started to turn the sky from a midnight black to a navy blue.

     headaches

My left hand rubs at my temple where a headache was forming.

     nose bleeds

"How much have you taken?"

"It's just a bloody nose, Eddie. Don't be so serious,"

She reaches for Fred's file too, seeing similar symptoms written on his page. My heart sunk low to my stomach, so low it was almost through the floor. It's as if I could feel Vecna, just behind the corner of my eye, watching me and laughing. I didn't realise my stomach could sink any further until I turned to Max and saw the very same expression on her face. 

She fits the criteria too.

"Max," I hear a familiar croaky voice drawl out, louder than the voices of Steve and Dustin calling our names. Max turns around, trying to find where the voice came from, I follow her eyes, knowing all too well that feeling. 

Max gets up from her chair, slowly grabbing one of the flashlights in her shaking hand and turning to the door. 

"Max, wait!" I yell, watching as she slowly exits the room, following the sound of a clock ticking. I turn to Dustin and Steve in a panic, seeing how they looked at me with horror.

I don't have time to understand it as Max disappears from sight. Instead, I race out of the room, running after the young ginger. The clock gets louder the closer I get, rivalling my heartbeat in noise. 

I round a corner, almost falling over from how fast I was going. Max stood in the middle of a corridor, torch shining on the wall in front of her and buried deep within the wall, cracks decorating the edges.

A grandfather clock.