chapter viii .
the shire is burning

"THAT WAS LITERALLY ILLEGAL, EDDIE," Val said flatly, staring at him as he held up a stolen walkie talkie. "You're already the cops' number one convict."

"Exactly," he said. "What's the worst that could happen?"

Val smacked a branch out of her face. "The worst that could happen is probably that there's a tracker in that construction worker's radio in case of this exact situation, and they use it to hunt us down and arrest us. I don't know, sounds pretty bad to me."

Eddie rolled his eyes. He ignored her and went back to trying to contact Dustin and the others as they slowed to a stop near Skull Rock. "Hello, Henderson? Can you hear me? Wheeler?"

The staticky feed broke for a beep, and Dustin's voice came over the radio. "Eddie, holy shit. Are you okay?"

Eddie clenched his fist in success, then rubbed his face and shook his head. "Nah, man. Pretty.. pretty goddamn far from okay."

"Where are you?" Dustin asked.

Before Eddie could reply, Max's voice flooded the speaker: "Is Val with you?"

Eddie tossed Val the radio to confirm her presence. "Roger that," she said. "We're at Skull Rock. Do you know it?"

"Uh, yeah," Dustin said, "that's near Cornwallis and Garrett. Steve knows where it is. Hold tight—we're coming. I promise."

Val dropped the walkie talkie and dragged her hands down her face, exhaling a deep breath of relief. "Jesus.. Christ."

     She and Eddie sat in silence, every distant noise from the woods startling them, making them jump. Val's clothes were sticky with lake algae, her hair crimped and greasy from whatever bacteria lived in Lover's Lake. She was hungry, tired, and in desperate need of a shower. At least she and Eddie were in the same boat. They were alone together.

     It felt like a lifetime before the group found their way to Skull Rock. Val was huddled beneath the rock, and Eddie had decided he liked it on top, so he was the first to see them.

     "Bada bing, bada boom," came Steve's voice, and Val could safely admit she had never been happier to hear Steve Harrington speaking. "Skull Rock. There she is, Henderson. In your face, man. In your stupid, cocky little face."

     Dustin seemed bewildered. "Doesn't make sense," he muttered.

     "Yeah, yeah," Steve said, rolling his eyes. "Even with it staring you in the face, you can't admit it. You just can't admit you're wrong, you butthead."

     Eddie hopped down from the rock. "I concur. You, Dustin Henderson, are a total butthead."

     "Major butthead," Val agreed, climbing out from beneath the rock. She had only made it a step or two out before she was bombarded by Max. The redhead threw herself at Val in a hug—the same thing of which happening to Eddie, by Dustin. Val met Eddie's eyes, mouthing, 'When did we become parents?'

     "Jesus, we thought you guys were goners," Dustin said.

     "Yeah, us too," Eddie said, patting Dustin's back. "Us too, man."

Nancy dropped two grocery bags full of food in front of Val and Eddie, both of which immediately going to town on the food before them. They switched off informing the rest of the group on what had happened while they were gone—Jason finding them, Patrick dying, all the fun stuff.

     "When we got to the shore last night," Val finished, "we tried calling you guys, but the walkie was busted. Completely drenched."

     "So we did the thing we're becoming pretty good at," Eddie supplied. "We ran. Like modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, man."

     "Do you know what time this was?" Nancy asked curiously. "The attack?"

     "Yeah, no, I know exactly what time it was." Eddie unlatched his watch and tossed it to Nancy. "The walkie wasn't the only thing that got soaked. 9:27."

     "Same time our flashlights went klabooey," Robin added.

     Steve's brow furrowed. "Which means what, exactly?"

     "That that surge of energy was Vecna attacking Patrick," Nancy explained. She pursed her lips. "Which means we know two things: how he attacks and where he attacks from."

     "So now we just need to sneak into his lair in the Upside Down and drive a stake through his heart," Max said. "If he has one."

     "What is he?" Val cut in. "Is he, like, a vampire?"

     "It was a metaphor," Max deadpanned.

     "A bullet should work on him, right?" Eddie added. "Just take a gun and—pew!"

     "Hey, no, yeah, by the way," Val said, scrunching up her face in mock thoughtfulness, "would any of you guys care to explain where you were all day while Eddie and I were fighting off my foster brother and his goons?"

     "Oh, well, Max got cursed," Steve said casually. "We took her around town to say her goodbyes and stuff, y'know, but then Nance and Robin found out that there's a way to stop Vecna."

     "At least temporarily," Nancy said. "Robin and I visited Victor Creel to see if we could find out anything, and it turned out being kinda helpful." She paused, then lifted a hand in a small wave. "Hi, by the way."

     "Y–Hi," Val muttered, not even trying to hide the fact that she was beyond weirded out by Nancy Wheeler's involvement. Shaking her head, Val turned to Max. "You were cursed? Like Chrissy and Patrick? How are you.. alive?"

     Max put a hand over her heart. "That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me."

     "Okay, so, sounds like you guys have had a wild day," Eddie said, staring off past the group. "Hey, uh, is—is Henderson.. cursed?"

     Everybody turned to the kid. He was pacing back and forth across the clearing, muttering to himself and checking his compass over and over again.

     "Cursed?" Steve repeated. "No, no. He's fine. Mental? Absolutely."

     "BOOM!" Dustin screamed suddenly, throwing his arms in the air. He pointed to Steve accusingly. "Bada. Bada. Boom. I was right. Skull Rock was north."

     "Seriously?" Steve said. "You're serious right now? This is Skull Rock. Okay? You're totally, absolutely, one hundred percent wrong right now."

     "Yes," Dustin agreed. "And no. This compass worked correctly when we left the Wheelers'. It was correct when we got in the car on Curly. 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."

"So you're using faulty equipment," Steve said. "Dude, you're still wrong!"

"Except it isn't faulty," Dustin corrected. "Lucas, do you remember what can affect a compass?"

Val answered before Lucas could even open his mouth. "The presence of a stronger magnetic force."

Max stared at her. "How did you know that?"

She scoffed. "Isn't it, like, common knowledge?"

"Anyways," Dustin continued loudly to get their attention, "she's right. An electromagnetic field can change the direction of its needle. In the scenario in which a stronger electromagnetic field is present, the needle will deflect towards that power. So either there's some super big magnetic around here, or—"

"There's a gate," Lucas finished, his eyebrows high on his forehead with understanding.

Nancy stammered. "We're nowhere near the lab."

"But what if, somehow, there's another gate? A gate that we don't know about. It'd have to be smaller, way less powerful."

"A snack-size gate," Robin suggested.

"What is a gate in this scenario?" Val cut in. "Because I'm guessing it's not the type that I have in my backyard."

"A gate to the Upside Down," Steve replied. "Where—"

"—where Vecna's from," Eddie guessed. "You think there's an... opening around here somewhere?"

"All I know is," Dustin said, "is that something is causing this disturbance, and the last time we've seen anything like it, it was a gate. And I hope it is."

Val's nose crinkled. "Why?"

"So we have a way to Vecna. And a shot at freeing Max from this curse."

Dustin began to head off, and Steve called after him—the conversation was clearly not over, but Val felt her attention linger in a different direction. A clock struck somewhere from the woods to her left. What the hell was a grandfather clock doing out in the middle of the woods? She turned her head towards it curiously. When it chimed again, she decided to venture towards the sound.

"I'll be.. right back," she told the others, but it was clear they didn't hear her. Nobody batted an eye as she crept off towards the chiming of the clock.

She didn't have to trek off too far, seemingly—the sound grew louder and more resonant as she walked on light feet through the forest. A few more steps, and there it was: Protruding from the trunk of a tree was a grandfather clock, chiming more times than necessary for a midnight alarm.

Val tilted her head to the side, curious. "What the hell..?" she muttered to herself, creeping towards it.

The chiming did not stop as she made her way closer to it—in fact, it grew louder and louder until it seemed to pound against her head and echo across her skull. The tolls climbed on top of each other, repeating the same grim tone over and over again. Val let out a moan of pain, clutching her ears as she stumbled backwards.

After a moment—too long of which—of excruciatingly loud ringing, there came a louder, more familiar noise: A woman calling Val's name from behind her. She knew, without even turning around, whom it belonged to. Val swallowed thickly. She spun around, immediately stumbling back upon the sight of her late mother gazing down upon her. Val's back hit the trunk of a tree, but she couldn't feel the pain. All she felt was intensified trepidation, incredulity at the fact that her dead mother was mere feet away from her, walking and talking and saying Val's name.

"M—Mom?" she gasped, her face contorting in first confusion, then disbelief. "What—how—"

"Valerie, sweetie," her mother chided, voice honeyed and sickly sweet. "How many times have I told you not to run off into the woods by yourself?"

Suddenly Val felt like a child again, four feet tall and staring up at her mother with big doe eyes. She shook her head. Her chin quivered in suppressed sobs.

"B–but you're—you're... you died. I watched you die."

Her mother scoffed, smiling like the idea of Val watching her slit her own wrists was absurd and laughable. "Valerie, please. You're talking nonsense. I don't know how you wandered so far out here; we're about two blocks from the house. C'mon, let's go, sweetie." She held out a hand, wordlessly asking Val to take it and come back home with her. And for a moment, Val wanted to grab it, just to see what would happen—if she would wake up from this reality of which obviously couldn't be real; or if this was some sort of afterlife, and her mother was about to lead her to Heaven. Or, knowing Val, probably Hell.

She shook her head, an agonized expression on her reddening face. "No, I can't. I have.. I have to stay with them. With Eddie."

Her mother began to grow visibly impatient, rolling her eyes and letting out a scoff. Now, Val knew her mother for a short period of time, and most of her memories with her were when she was quite young, but she knew for a fact that her mom was not an impatient person. And she was absolutely certain that her mother would never roll her eyes at her own daughter.

     "Seriously, Valerie, come on," she snapped, and for the first time, Val heard a grating, discordant tone beneath her voice, like she was not truly who she presented herself as. "I told you it's time to go. Come on, Valerie."

     Sickeningly, as she said Val's name for a second time, her entire figure began to melt before Val's eyes. Her mother's skin seemed to flake off, revealing a veiny, disfigured body beneath her own. She began to walk towards Val, who stumbled around the tree she'd been frozen against and practically tripped over herself trying to scramble off.

     "Wh—what are you?" Val stammered, her voice trembling as her heart pounded against her chest. "Are you V—Vecna?"

     The figure walked towards her, a hand still outstretched, still inviting her to walk with him. His undead face stretched into a wicked smile. "How did you know?"

     Val tripped over a vine, still stumbling backwards, eyes wide as she stared up at the creature. "I've d—done my research."

     Somewhere above them came the echo of Val's name, from a much friendlier voice that immediately put Val's nerves back at peace, if only for a moment. She exhaled a huff of pure relief to know she wasn't alone, even if she was stuck in her own mind. She glared up at Vecna.

     "Not yet, you son of a bitch."

     To her dismay, the disgusting smile did not waver from his face as he gazed down upon her. "Not yet," he agreed, his raspy voice malicious in intentions. Val's gut lurched. If he was agreeing with her, that was definitely not a good thing. That much she knew.

      Before she knew it, it all came to an abrupt end, and Val felt a rush of air, like that before your ears pop. Somebody was calling her name. She blinked, then her eyes darted around in pure confusion and fright.

     How the hell was she back at Skull Rock?

     Val shook her head once to clear her mind. She must've blacked out for a second—probably something she could blame on lack of sleep.

     "Hey, Val," Eddie was saying to her—the voice she'd heard in her little nightmare. "You good? You kinda zoned out on us. We're just about to go."

     She glanced around, trying not to show her hesitancy in her expression. "Yeah, I'm good. I'm fine. Um... go—go where?"

     "We're gonna find the gate," Dustin said. "We're gonna save Max, and clear your and Eddie's names."

Val wet her lips, blinking slowly to catch up to her thoughts. "Fuck it," she said, picking up her jacket and the walkie talkie Eddie had stolen from the construction site. "Worth a goddamn shot."