Chapter Nine
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The Shire Is Burning

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Olivia was lounging in the back of Nancy's station wagon, sitting in between Steve and Dustin while munching on some Lay's chips. The chips have never tasted so good in her life, having not realized how starving she was. They were on there way back to Reefer Rick's cabin to inform Eddie on what they've discovered.

            "Not to be a wimp, but can I maybe sit in the car for this visit? 'Cause this is gonna totally and royally suck," Robin complained.

            "It will be fine," Nancy assured.

            "I just can't see those dull eyes of Eddie break again. I really, really can't," Robin sighed.

            "At least he can drink himself into feeling better," Steve piped up with a mouthful of Lay's chips.

            "You know, drinking doesn't solve problems, Steve," Olivia said matter-of-factly.

            "That's what my mom does," Max shrugged, her tone deflated.

            "Why don't we just give it a trial run?" Robin suggest. "Hey Eddie, uh, good news first this time. We got you some Henderson siblings-approved junk food and that six-pack that you requested. Oh yeah, and we found Vecna. Only the bad news is that he's in that other darker, much scarier dimension that we told you about. And the gates closed, so we have no way of getting to him like he's entirely shut off to us so you're basically screwed. And no, no, I know that you're already screwed but now you're like doubly, triply screwed-"

            "Hey Robin, I love you but I don't think we don't have to phrase it exactly like that," Olivia interrupted her friend, peeking her head over the seat. "How about, we're one step closer to Vecna. That's what we say, that's what important." Olivia was scared out of her mind despite seeming calm on the outside, but she had faith that they were going to find Vecna and that's what kept her going. After all, they were pros at this sort of thing now. Everyone just had to believe that they could do it and not give up.

            "See Robin? Positive spin can make all the difference," Steve agreed with his girlfriend.

            "Uh-huh," Robin muttered under her breath.

            When they pulled up to Reefer Rick's house, Olivia felt a jumble of nerves when there was what looked to be another crime scene and an unexpected sea of people ahead of them. Olivia recognized Officer Powell reporting to some cameraman. He was announcing the murder of Patrick McKinney. Hearing the familiar name, Olivia covered her mouth with her hands, not believing that another teen has been murdered. Her eyes saddened and she gave a sympathetic look towards Lucas, knowing that those two were friends.

            The crowd was gossiping in hushed tones about Eddie, making Olivia furious. More than anything, she wanted to walk up to Officer Powell and Officer Callaghan and prove Eddie's innocence, but she knew that now was not the time. The gang exchanged glances of worry for Eddie, hoping that he was okay. 

            "Poor Eddie. This is not good," Olivia whispered to her friends. "He's innocent! Why does no one believe that?" She asked rhetorically.

            The sound of Eddie's voice coming from their walkie talkie pulled their attention away from the crime scene. "Dustin, can you hear me? Olivia?"

            Dustin ducked his head so he would be out of view from the crowd. "Eddie, holy shit are you okay?"

            "No, man, pretty goddamn far from okay," Eddie responded, his tone unusually fragile and scared, making Olivia's heart break for him.

            "Where are you?" Dustin asked.

            "Skull rock," Eddie answered. "Do you know it?

            "Uh yeah, that's near Cornwallis and—"

            "Garrett," Steve completed. "Yeah, I know where that is," He stated, beginning to lead the way.

            "Hold tight, Eddie. We're coming," Olivia informed him.

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            There was something that scared Olivia about walking in the woods. Even in the day time, it still made her weary. Steve and Dustin were quarreling over which way was skull rock as Olivia just sighed at their childish behavior. The girls and Lucas were a few steps behind them, letting them guide the way.

            "Dude, I'm telling you, you're taking us the wrong way," Steve argued.

            "It's north. I'm positive, I checked the map," Dustin said confidently.

            As Dustin's sister, I have to say that Dustin is never wrong, Steve. Always trust his instincts," Olivia sided, earning an adorable toothy grin from her brother.

            You do realize that skull rock, it's like a super popular make-out spot?" Steve went on, ignoring Olivia's comment.

            Dustin shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, so?"

            "Yeah, well, it wasn't popular until I-" Glancing at Olivia, Steve stopped in mid-sentence, instantly regretting his choice of words.

            Olivia crossed her arms, looking at her boyfriend suspiciously. "Until you what, Steve? Finish that sentence."

            "I— nothing," Steve stuttered.

            "Mmhmm," Olivia shook her head at him. "It's alright. It's not like this was new information." Steve looked slightly defeated as Olivia rolled her eyes at him and walked back a few steps to go talk to Robin and Nancy instead.

            "Hey Mrs. Harrington, having a lover's quarrel?" Robin joked.

            "No. I just needed a break from the boys," Olivia giggled. Looking behind her, she smiled softly at Max and Lucas, who were walking side by side and both clearly in love with each other. "Ah, young love," She cooed.

            "Right? There so adorable, I just wanna squeeze them, you know?" Robin agreed with a smile. "If I'm permitted to see a silver lining in any of this end-of-the-world doom and gloom, it would be being able to watch you and Steve falling in love with each other. I mean, you two were practically made for each other and I can't wait for your guys' wedding."

            "I second that," Nancy added. "And I better be your maid of honor, Liv."

            "Nance!" Olivia giggled. "Of course I would have you as my maid of honor, but I think we're getting a little ahead of ourselves here."

            "Oh come on, Liv. Don't tell me that you haven't dreamed of marrying Steve at least a few times," Robin said knowingly, wiggling her eyebrows. "Plus, with both of you having incredibly good looks which is totally unfair by the way, you guys would make the cutest babies!" She sang as Nancy hummed in agreement.

            "Robin!" Olivia blushed, her cheeks as red as a rose. "Okay, so, maybe I have thought about marrying Steve," She gave in as the name Olivia Harrington echoed in her mind, feeling like a middle school girl who had a crush on the cutest guy in school.

            "You guys are going to be endgame. I just know it," Robin said wisely.

            "Enough about me," Olivia waved her hand dismissively, slightly embarrassed but also a blushing mess. "Can we talk about something else?"

            Robin nodded. "Nance, how are things going between you and Jonathan?"

            Nancy gave her a weird look in response, taken aback by the sudden question. "What? Is it so terrible to wish happiness for my friends?" Robin wondered.

            Nancy furrowed her eyebrows. "You think I'm not happy?"

            "I'm sure you are it's just, the other day in the library when Liv mentioned Jonathan, you sort of flinched or winced-"

            "I didn't flinch or wince," Nancy scoffed. "Jonathan and I are fine. We're good," She kept assuring herself, but even Nancy herself knew it was a lie. Her expression faltered as she thought more and more about her relationship.

            "It's just... he was supposed to be here for the break, and then he backed out at the last minute for some vague mumbly Jonathan reason, and to be honest I'm not even that surprised because I've been feeling him pull away lately, and I don't know if it's because we're 2,000 miles away, or if he met someone new or what... and now I can't find out why because apparently he's blown up his family's house phone or something. So yeah, if the mention of his name caused a slight muscle spasm on my face that's probably why," The Wheeler girl sighed with defeat.

            "Nance, I know Jonathan, and I know that he would never do something like to you. If he's not answering, then I believe that he must have a good reason why," Olivia comforted her.

            "I don't know, it seems like a perfectly good reason to flinch, wince, or something..." Robin mumbled.

            "You said 'the happiness of your friends'. So does that make us friends? As in officially?" Nancy asked carefully.

            "I mean, yeah," Robin confirmed with a smile.

            Olivia grinned, seeing her two best friends getting along. "Alright, once this is all over and we kill Vecna, we need to have a girls night.

            "That sounds really nice," Nancy smiled.

            The had finally reached Skull Rock where Eddie had been waiting. Olivia immediately embraced him in a warm hug when she saw him in his fragile state, but she was glad to know that he was at least okay. "We were so worried, Eddie," She mumbled into his shoulder. The thought hadn't occurred to her until now but the Munson boy was slowly becoming like a brotherly figure to her.

            "I can conquer that your little brother is a total butthead, Liv," Eddie grinned, hugging her back while feeling the same way.

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            The gang gathered around Skull Rock, listening to Eddie as he recounted the unfortunate events of the night before. "When I got to shore, I tried calling you guys, but uh, my walkie was busted man," He stopped for a moment, taking a swig of his drink. "Drenched. So I did the thing that I do now apparently. I ran," He chuckled bitterly to himself.

            "Eddie, you shouldn't be ashamed of yourself because you ran. It's just a natural part of human nature," Olivia told him comfortingly.

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

            "I know exactly what time it was," Eddie answered, tossing his watch to Nancy. "My walkie wasn't the only thing that got soaked."

            "9:27," Nancy read.

            "Same time are flashlights went kablooey," Robin widened her eyes, connecting the dots.

            "Which means what exactly?" Steve pondered.

            "That that surge of energy was Vecna attacking Patrick," Nancy clarified.

            "Well, we're one step closer," Robin said hopefully. "We know how Vecna attacks."

            "And where he attacks from," Lucas interjected.

            "So now we just need to sneak into his lair in the upside down and drive a stake through his heart," Max proclaimed.

            "If he even has a heart," Olivia said in disgust.

            "A stake?" Steve repeated. "Is he like a vamp- is he a vampire?" Olivia smiled at him, covering her mouth to stifle her giggle.

            "It was a metaphor," Max rolled her eyes.

            "A bullet should work on him, right?" Eddie wondered.

            "I say we chop his head off," Lucas suggested determinedly.

            "Yeah, I'd say all of the above but we can't do any of that until we find a way into the upside down," Nancy added.

            "And if we do manage to kill Vecna, how are we supposed to prove Eddie's innocence?" Olivia chipped in.

            "We need El to get her powers back," Max sighed heavily.

            "Everything was, like, way easier. We had this girl, she had superpowers," Steve commented, resulting in an eye roll from Olivia.

            "Superpowers," Eddie interrupted. "Yeah, you mentioned that."

            Olivia looked at her brother curiously as he was pacing back and forth in a circle, extremely focused on his compass. Eddie nodded his head in his direction. "Hey Liv, your brother's not cursed, is he?"

            "Cursed? No," Olivia answered while resting her palm on her chin, pretending to think for a moment. "A pain in the butt sometimes? Absolutely."

            "BOOM!" Dustin bellowed, his voice echoing through the woods. Everyone turned their attention towards the younger Henderson, looking at him with raised eyebrows by his peculiar outburst. "Ba da, ba da, boom!" He pointed accusingly to Steve with a proud smile plastered across his features. "I was right. Skull Rock was North."

            "Serious?" Steve said with raised eyebrows. "Your serious? This is Skull Rock," He gestured to the giant rock that hovered over them. "This is totally, absolutely 100% wrong. Right now."

            "Yes," Dustin grinned. "And no. This compass worked correctly when we left the Wheeler's. 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 still using faulty equipment dude. You're still wrong," Steve said frustratedly.

            "Except it isn't faulty," Dustin pointed out, turning to his head to look at Lucas. "Lucas, do you remember what can effect a compass?"

            "Any electric magnetic field," Lucas answered immediately.

            "I'm sorry, I must have skipped that class?" Robin raised her eyebrows, leaning closer to Liv. "Do you understand anything your brother is saying?"

            "I don't understand half of the things he says," Olivia replied honestly. It was true, Dustin was too smart for his own good, and while she admired his brains, his words often sounded like he speaking another language. "Dusty, can you explain it in simple terms please?"

            "In the presence of a stronger electromagnetic field, the needle will deflect towards that power," Dustin simplified. "So either there's some super big magnet around here or there's a gate."

            "But where no one near the lab," Olivia tilted her head. "There was already another gate, so how could their possibly be another one?"

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

            "Snack-size gate," Robin chirped.

            "How?" Steve questioned, just as clueless as Olivia was.

            "No idea," Dustin replied. "All I know 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," He said eagerly. "Because than we'd have a way to Vecna. And a shot at freeing my sister and Max from this curse." He started to turn around and walk in the opposite direction of the group, causing Steve and Olivia to share a look of confusion.

            "Where are you going?" Steve stopped him. "Eddie's still a wanted man, we can't just go for a hike in the woods."

            "This little steel capsule might be the key to saving Liv, Max, and Eddie," Dustin pleaded, willing to do anything to save them. "What say you, Eddie the Banished?"

            Eddie rubbed his temple as he thought carefully about his reply. "I say you're asking me into Mordor, which, if I'm totally straight with you, I think is a really bad idea. But, uh, the shire, the shire is burning...." He trailed off slowly, making Olivia smile at his Lord of The Rings reference.

            Having a difficult time maintaining his excitement, Dustin jumped up and down adorably as he waited for Eddie's answer. "So, Mordor it is," Eddie declared confidently.

            Everyone looked at each other before following behind Dustin. "What is Mordor?" Steve asked cluelessly.

            "It's from Lord of the Rings, Steve!" Olivia beamed while waving her hands in the air animatedly, a real glimmer of hope flashing across her eyes.

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            After what felt like hours of walking through the woods, it was now after dark and Dustin's peculiar compass had led them to Lover's Lake.

            "I thought these woods were familiar," Eddie observed, studying his surroundings.

            "Lover's Lake," Olivia confirmed.

            "This is... confounding," Dustin said in amazement.

            "There's a gate in Lover's Lake?" Max questioned.

            "Whenever the Demogorgan attacked, it always left an opening. Maybe Vecna's the same way," Olivia spoke up.

            Steve glanced at Olivia. "Yeah, only one way to find out."

            Spotting the canoe that was to their right, Eddie pulled the tarp off that was covering it. One by one, Robin, Nancy, and Olivia climbed into the canoe with the help of Eddie. Dustin sent a smug grin to Steve when he noticed a tiny hint of jealousy in Steve's eyes as Eddie helped Olivia step into the boat, making a mental note in his head to tease Steve about that later.

            As Dustin began to climb in next, Eddie stopped him. "Trying to sink us? This boat holds four people, tops."

            "It's better this way," Nancy stepped forward. "You guys stay here with Max, keep an out for trouble."

            "You keep an eye out," Dustin spat back. "It's my goddamn theory. And there's no way I'm not leaving my sister's side!"

            It was rare for the two siblings to be apart, but now that Dustin could possibly loose Olivia, there was no way he was letting her leave without him.

            "You heard Nance," Robin sided.

            "Who made her in charge?" Dustin retorted, scrunching his nose.

            "I did," Robin quipped. "And don't worry, we'll protect Liv."

            "But this isn't fair! Liv, can I please go with you?" Dustin begged with his pleading blue eyes.

            "Sorry bud," Olivia apologized, feeling a twinge of guilt for leaving her little brother behind. She knew it was safer for him this way, but she still couldn't help but feel guilty.

            "Compass," Nancy demanded. With a heavy sigh, Dustin reluctantly handed his compass to Nancy.

            As they were getting ready to leave, Steve made a last minute decision to hop in the boat, having the strong urge to protect his girlfriend. If Dustin was right about his theory (and he was right about most things), it wasn't safe for Olivia to be close to Vecna, and he wanted to protect Olivia no matter what. He tossed Dustin his backpack to him as Dustin glared at him. "You said four!" The curly haired boy pouted.

            "Sorry," Steve said sheepishly. "Liv needs to be protected."

            "Be safe!" Olivia heard Dustin call out to her as the view of him got smaller and smaller the further away they were from shore.

            "Bed time at 9 kiddos," Robin waved at the kids teasingly. "Miss you already!"

            As Robin and Eddie continued to steer the canoe with the wooden oars, Olivia kept glancing back at Dustin, Max, and Lucas but Steve comforted her, assuring her that they were going to be okay on their own.

            However, when they reached the middle of the lake, the hands on the compass began to spin furiously causing them to stop steering the boat.

            "Guys, what's going on?" Dustin asked wearily through the walkie-talkie.

            "Dustin, your compass has gone wonky to wonky with a Capitol 'Aahh!'" Robin informed.

            Noticing that Steve was beginning to take off his shoes, Olivia immediately panicked. "Steve what are you doing?"

            "Somebody's gotta go down there and check this thing out," Steve shrugged. "Unless one of you three can top being a Hawkins High swim-co captain and a certified lifeguard for three years, then it's gotta be me, no complaints. Alright?"

            "Hey, I'm not complaining," Eddie said. "I do not want to go down there."

            Before Steve had the chance to stand up from the canoe, Olivia stopped him and put her hand over his. "No- S-Steve, are you i-insane?" She stuttered. "It's not safe!"

            "If this how we can save you from Vecna, then I'm doing this," Steve said determinedly.

            As Steve began to pull his sweater over his head, Robin smiled softly when she noticed Olivia looking at him with her doe-like eyes in a dream state. Robin nudged Olivia's shoulder with a grin and Olivia blushed deeply.

            "Hey, Steve?" Olivia stopped him. "I love you. Please, come back."

            Steve softened his gaze at her with a small nod. The moonlight was reflecting on Olivia, making her look even more lovely and beautiful than ever. "I will. And I love you more than life it's self," He said seriously and gave her a loving kiss before diving into the water.

            Olivia became more and more anxious the longer they waited for Steve to come back up from the water. "Nance, where are we at?"

            "A minute," Nancy answered.

            Olivia let out a shaky breath, but Robin put a comforting hand on her shoulder, telling her that Steve was going to be okay. Olivia, Robin, Nancy, and Eddie leaned over the canoe, glancing around them for any sign of Steve. Olivia jumped back when the water suddenly splashed in their faces, but relaxed her shoulders when she that it was Steve and let out a breath that she hadn't realized she was holding.

            "I found it!" He declared.

            Olivia politely grabbed the walkie from Robin. "Dusty, you are a goddamn Einstein! Steve found the gate."

            "It's pretty wild," Steve breathed. "It's more of a snack-size gate than the mama gate, but still, it's pretty goddamn big."

            When something seem to pull Steve back in the water. Olivia frantically extended her arm out to help him get back in the canoe, but Steve's hand slipped from hers and he disappeared back into the water. Olivia and the others screamed his name but it was of no use, for he wasn't coming back up again.

            "Olivia, what happened?!" Robin screeched with fear.

            Seconds passed and when it didn't seem like Steve was going to return, Olivia began to stand up from the canoe, getting ready to dive in the river herself. She wasn't going to let her Steve risk his life for her. And she wasn't ready to loose the love of her life.

            Robin, Nancy, and Eddie widened their eyes as they realized what Olivia was about to do. "Wait, you're not going in there, are you?!"Eddie panicked. He thought of Olivia as like the little sister he never had, and the fact that she was about to go in the lake and risk her life scared him.

            "I'm going in," She insisted. "Just, wait here," She ordered.

            "No, Olivia!" Robin, Nancy, and Eddie shrieked, trying to stop her from going into the water.

            But Olivia ignored their pleas. Without any hesitation, she dove into the water to help Steve, not knowing the terrible things that were waiting for her.