THREE
And the cycle continues
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❪ tw: strong language, blood, descriptions that may be disturbing, mentions of death, mentions of murder, and weapon usage ❫

a/n: VOL 2 SPOILERS IN THE AUTHORS NOTE AT THE END

STRANGER THINGS
(season 4, ep 2)

EVERYTHING WAS DARK. Pitch black. Finley's hands felt around the walls for anything. A door, a light switch. But there was absolutely nothing there. The fact that she couldn't see where she was going made her completely miss the fact that there were stairs in front of her.

Her foot slipped off the edge, causing her to tumble down. She felt nothing until she finally hit the ground and all the pain kicked in. But then, a light shined in her face. Her eyes squinted for a second before she slowly looked up. It was a door. A doorway to something she never wanted to relive.

She forced herself to get, limping over, and once she stepped in she was right back there. In the middle of the mall. Finley quickly turned back to go out the door, to run, but it wasn't there anymore. "Finley, where are going?" Someone was behind her. Flora. Finley stood there for a second, processing before she was met with her sister's eyes. "Are you trying to leave me the same you did that night?"

Finley shook her head. "I didn't. I didn't leave you, Flora." She stuttered.

A chuckle left Flora's lips. "Oh, but you did. When you stood there, you sentenced me to death." But this wasn't Flora speaking to her. She knew it wasn't real. But what she was saying was the truth. "I'm here because of you and you know it."

She wished she never ever had to hear those words. "No," Finley mumbled, a tear falling onto her cheek.

"But it's okay." Flora slowly walked up to her with a smile. Finley looked her in the eyes and the tears just wouldn't stop. "Don't cry. You'll be with me again soon enough." Flora swiped her thumb against Finley's cheek. "It's only a matter of time." But now Flora didn't sound like her anymore. She sounded demonic. Finley watched as her smile grew wider. There was blood all over her teeth and even more dripped onto her lips.

And just like every night, Finley woke up screaming.

                   FINLEY COULDN'T GO BACK to sleep. After that nightmare, no one could. She spent the morning listening to music and reading. It wasn't like she had anything better to do. Her eyes flickered down to her watch, the time reading 7:15. She was currently in the kitchen, standing by the phone while her father sat in the living room watching the news like he did every Saturday morning. She started to walk up next to him but her movements came to a crashing halt.

     "We're in the Forest Hills trailer park in east Roane County. We don't have a lot of details now, but we can confirm that the body of a Hawkins High student was discovered early this morning." The reporter spoke.

     All Finley could think about was Max and Eddie. What if it was one of them? "Oh my god." Her voice was just below a whisper.

    "Police have not released the name although we are told they're currently in the process of notifying the family."

     Donny's head turned over to Finley. "Isn't that the trailer park that Max moved to?"

     "Yeah. And the guy that drove me home last night lives there too." Finley didn't look at him. Just the TV.

     "Shit." Donny sighed.

     There was a loud bang on the door that boomed throughout the house causing them both to jump. "Hawkins Police." Donny took one look at Finley before he got up and opened the door. So many things raced through her head. But she prepared herself for the worse. "Good morning Mr. Sullivan." Chief Powell greeted.

     "Morning, Chief." Donny buried his hands in the pockets of his hoodie.

     "I'd like to speak to your daughter, Finley. Is she home?" Powell asked. Donny moved out of the way, revealing Finley to Powell and Officer Callahan.

                  FINLEY SAT IN FRONT OF Powell at the dining room table. She just wanted them to tell her everything but they kept saying the same thing. And the more they said it the angrier she got. "Can you please just tell me who it was? My friends live in that trailer park."

     Powell sighed. "Just please answer our questions first, then we'll answer yours." He was a little fed up with her asking that question but he couldn't blame her. "Now, people in the neighborhood said that they saw Eddie Munson drive you home last night is that correct?"

     Finley chuckled dryly. "Wow, our neighbors are some nosy assholes." She muttered but they heard every word. Except for her father that stood a few feet away.

     "Ms. Sullivan." Powell raised his voice.

     She gave him the most condescending smile she ever gave anyone. "Yes, that's correct." She obviously couldn't lie about that her father saw that.

    He gave her a look before Callahan jotted down what she said. "Did he say anything about having to sell drugs to anyone that day?" Powell asked.

     "No."

     "Do you recall your sister being friends with Chrissy Cunningham?" The question made her face fall but she still answered.

     She nodded. "Yeah, they were on the team together. They hung out a lot and she came to the funeral."

     "Have you spoken to Chrissy in the past few days?"

     She had to lie about what they talked about. But she was starting to put the pieces together. Why else would they ask about Chrissy? "Yesterday, but it was just a greeting."

    Callahan jumped in. "Did she ever tell you anything about wanting to buy drugs? Or mentions of Eddie?"

     Finley looked up at him and the room was silent for a second. "No." She lied. "Powell." Finley looked back at him.

      "Yes?"

     She took a deep breath before speaking. "Is she dead?" Powell didn't speak, that was her answer. Finley looked away from him. "You think Eddie did it."

     "The crime scene is in his trailer. Based on what we know he was probably the last person with her we have no other choice but to believe it was him." Powell explained.

     Finley looked at him and the expression on her face made it seem like she was seeing red. "You said this was a brutal murder and Eddie isn't a brutal person. You don't have any clue about him."

     "I promise you, I'm just as shocked as you are."

     She hated when people said that. "No, you're not." She leaned across the table so she was closer. "I'm telling you right now, Eddie didn't do this."

      Powell tried his best to not get mad at her. "I know you believe that but, just let me do my job, Finley."

      "Well, you're doing a shit job!" She yelled.

     Donny's eyes widened. Finley was never the type to swear let alone yell at an authority figure. She was always respectful no matter how mad she was. She always contained herself but now, that's out the window. Maybe the phrase love makes you crazy is true. But Finn didn't know how she felt about anything anymore. "Finn!" Donny scolded her. He was about to walk over to the table before Finley got up.

     She pushed the table a bit which hit Powell in the chest. "I wish Hopper was here." She mumbled before running into the hall.

     The slam of her door echoed a bit. "I think you guys are done here for today." Donny looked at the two officers.

     Finley locked the door before plopping onto the bed. She didn't know what she was supposed to do. She hasn't fully comprehended Chrissy's death but all of this was too much right now. She lifted her head when she heard thumping coming from somewhere in the room. "Finley!" She heard someone yell. She looked over at the window in confusion.

     She was quick to open the window and almost immediately, she saw Dustin and Max standing there. "What the hell are you doing!?"

     "We saw the police car so we snuck around. You're not getting arrested are you?" Dustin asked, out of breath.

     Finley blinked at them. "No, Henderson. I'm not getting arrested."

     "You have to come with us. Now." Max spoke in a demanding tone.

                 EVEN THOUGH FINLEY barely knew Eddie she felt a connection with him. She felt like she could tell him anything without judgment but obviously, she didn't want to tell anyone about what she was going through right now. But now that she thinks of it, she's told Eddie more about her depression than anyone else in her life. He's been giving her support and now was the time to return the favor.

     Finley barged into the store before Max and Dustin. The sound of the bell ringing made Steve and Robin dart their eyes over to them. "Hey, Steve." The three of them walked straight up to the counter.

     Steve didn't even say hello all he could think about was what was on the news. "You see this?"

     "How many phones do you have?" Dustin asked frantically.

     Steve basically ignored the question entirely. "Someone was murdered."

     Finley rolled her eyes. "Steve, how many goddamn phones do you have?" She raised her voice.

     Steve and Robin looked at each other. "Two. Why?"

     "Technically three, if you count Keith's in the back," Robin added.

     Dustin, Finley, and Max all shared a look. "Three works." Max nodded at them.

     Dustin ripped the straps of his backpack off his shoulders. "What are you doing?" Steve gave him a look. Dustin practically threw the bag over the counter, forcing Robin to get out of the way. Though it knocked down the pile of movies she just stacked. "What are you..."

     Finley ran full speed to get behind the counter. "My pile!" Robin exclaimed.

     Dustin wiggled his way over the counter to get behind it quicker and Max was the only one out of the three who wasn't as much of a mess and actually walked. "No, no, no! My tapes! Dude." Steve shrieked when Dustin knocked them over with his feet. Finley just stood by Robin now, waiting for him. "What are you doing, man?" Steve came up next to Dustin after he got onto the computer.

     "Setting up base of operations here."

     Steve just looked absolutely fed up with him. "Base of operations?" Robin questioned.

     "Get off that." Steve scolded him.

     Dustin shook his head. "I need it." He argued.

     "Need it for what?"

Dustin huffed. "Looking up Eddie's friends' phone numbers." He quickly explained.

"Oh, Eddie. Your new best friend, Eddie you think is cooler than me because he plays your nerdy game?" Dustin rolled his eyes at him.

Finley darted her eyes at him. She just wanted to get this over and done with. She wanted to know if Eddie was okay. She was also happy to see how much Dustin cared for him. "Steve, we don't have time for your jealousy right now."

Steve just scoffed at the accusation. "I'm not jealous—" He began to defend himself.

"Shut up!" Finley cut him off.

Robin started to fix everything that Dustin knocked over. "Seriously, you guys, maybe on a Monday you can play around in here like toddlers, but it's Saturday. It's our busiest day."

But obviously, Dustin wasn't gonna crack. Neither was Finley. "Okay, look, Robin, I totally empathize, but this cannot wait until Monday."

     Steve groaned dramatically while Dustin went on. "Oh my God."

"What, cause calling Eddie's friends is an emergency?"

"Correct!" Dustin yelled at them and Finley was just getting impaired.

Steve walked over to Robin and began helping her reorganize the tapes. "Want me to strangle him or you want to?" He glanced at her.

"We could take turns." Robin grinned.

Finley kneeled down next to Dustin, staring at the screen. "Can you guys fill them in while I do this?" Dustin looked back at the two girls.

The duo looked at them completely clueless. "Fill us in on what?" Steve asked. Finley and Max's eyes met before the redhead started to explain everything that they knew. Finley butted in at the end, mentioning that Eddie was most definitely a suspect right now.

🎸

                  FINLEY WAS ON THE phone with Jeff and like everyone else, had no idea where Eddie was. She was honestly starting to lose hope. Meanwhile, Steve was too busy trying to hit on a customer. "Okay, Jeff thanks. Bye." Finley ended the call and put her head down on the counter in frustration. "Someone shoot me." Her voice was muffled.

Max spoke up. "Hey, guys, I might have a lead." Finley shot up.

"Seriously?" Max nodded at Dustin.

"Yeah. Apparently, Eddie gets drugs from some guy named Reefer Rick, and sometimes Eddie crashes there." Finley finally felt hope again.

The blonde smiled brightly at her. "That's pretty good."

"Where does this Reefer Rick guy live?" Robin asked. It started to seem like all three of them were leaning in close to her. Mostly because of anticipation.

"See, that's the thing. No one knows. He's more of a . . . a legend than someone that people actually know."

Finley's smile quickly dropped. "Well, that's just peachy." She whispered to herself.

"Well, what about a last name?" Dustin questioned, slightly tilting his head.

Max shrugged. "I don't know that either."

"Bet the cops know the last name."

The words that came out of Steve's mouth almost made Finley's blood boil. Everyone looked at him almost immediately but she slowly turned her head, her eyes staring straight into his back, and her entire face scrunched up. "What did he just say?"

"What?"

"Cops," Steve repeated himself. Finley took a step closer to the counter and she just looked baffled. "I mean, listen, if this Reefer Rick is actually a drug dealer, I guarantee you he's been busted at some point. Means he's in the system."

Dustin scoffed and Finley was trying to find every ounce of self-control she had to not jump across the counter. "The cops? Really, Steve? That's your suggestion?" Dustin walked in front of him.

Finley pointed at him. "That is the dumbest thing you ever said."

"I mean, I just think at this point, they should be filled in on what we know, what's going on." Finley squinted her eyes. Deep down she imagined she would magically be blessed with the ability to have laser eyes.

"You think Eddie's guilty, don't you?" Dustin crossed his arms.

Steve looked utterly offended. "Whoa. I believe in innocent until proven guilty, all that constitutional shit. I just, you know, I just don't think we can rule it out."

"That's precisely what we're trying to do here, Steve." Dustin and Finley nodded, agreeing with Max. They even hummed at the same time.

"And maybe we'd have a little bit more luck if you spent less time trying to find a girlfriend." Steve gaped at him, throwing his arms up. "And more time trying to find Eddie."

"Oh well, somebody has to attend to the customers."

Robin smiled. "Especially if they're babes, right?" She gave him a teasing wink.

Steve's eyes widened. "Hey, not fair. Okay? I attend to all customers equally, babes and non-babes alike. We've got a very big selection in here. It can be super overwhelming for these people."

Robin looked like a lightbulb just lit up on top of her head. "Yeah, it can be."

She sat down in front of the computer and Finley couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at her. "Robin?" She rushed over to her side.

"What are you doing?" Max gave her a questionable look.

"Maybe we don't need a last name." She started taping her fingers against the keys.

After Robin clicked enter, Steve ran over to them, coming up next to Finley to see what she was going. The screen now displayed lines and lines of names. "Twelve Ricks have accounts here."

"That's a lot of Ricks."

"So, let's narrow it down." Robin clicked on the first name. "Rick Alderman's latest rentals are Annie and Dumbo. What are the chances our drug dealer has a family?" Robin looked over at Finley.

Finley shook her head. "Slim."

Robin continued to click through each name, analyzing everything until they found what they were looking for. "Okay. Rick Lipton. Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Cheech & Chong's Next Movie. Cheech & Chong's Nice Dreams. Cheech & Chong's Up in Smoke." Universal smiles grew across all of their faces.

"Bingo." Dustin beamed.

"Lipton?"

"Spelled like the tea. 2121 Holland Road."

Finley wrapped an arm around Robin's shoulders. "You are a genius."

"That's out by Lovers Lake," Dustin recalled.

It was all coming together, there was absolutely no way that this wasn't the place. "Middle of nowhere."

"It's a perfect place to hide." The group of five charged out of the store, booking it to Steve's car.

EVEN THOUGH DUSTIN AND FINLEY both had the same amount of passion when it came to finding Eddie, right now he was making her head hurt even more than it already was. Dustin continuously pushed the doorbell with his thumb. "Okay. Well, that's settled. I guess he's not here." Steve mumbled before Dustin decided to start banging on the door.

Finley glanced at the boy. "Or maybe he's just terrified because you know, he just saw someone die." She smiled at Steve and he just rolled his eyes. Their bickering was kind of a daily thing.

"Eddie! It's Dustin!" Dustin yelled. He squinted a little as he flashed his light on the glass to see inside. "Look, we just wanna talk, okay? No cops, I swear. We just wanna help." When there was no answer or sign of life at all Dustin knocked again. "Eddie!"

     "Shh."

     Finley let out a heavy sigh as Dustin rang the bell once again. God would she kill for some pain pills right now. "Rick! Reefer Rick!"

     Steve and Finley's eyes widened. "Dustin, you can't just scream a drug dealer's name," Finley whispered yelled at him.

     "Rick!"

     Steve tried to pull him off the door. "He's not there."

     "Reefer Rick!" Dustin tried calling him one last time. "He could just be really high."

     Steve's eyes squinted and he moved his face closer to the glass. Finley glared at him, trying to figure out what the hell he was doing. "Is that a foot?"

     Finley pushed him over before she shined her light inside the house to see. "That's a shoe, dipshit."

     "You know, I'm tired of your insults." Steve pointed at her as if he were disciplining his child even though she was only a year younger than him.

     "Oh, yeah?" Finley taunted him.

     Steve leaned down to her level and got up in her face. "Yeah." He spoke slowly.

     "Hey, guys?" Max calling out for them broke up the argument.

     They all walked over to where Max was. Finley brought her flashlight up and her eyes were met with a boat house in the distance. "I vote that Finn goes in first."

Finley clicked off her flashlight and turned back to Steve who was behind her. "I hate you."

They all tried to be as quiet as they could walking up to the door but everything was old which meant it creaked. Finley looked into all the windows but she saw no one. Robin opened the door, being the first one in. "Hello?" She looked around. "Is anyone home?"

     Everyone else crept in behind her and Finley was a little creeped out. "What a dump."

     "What did you expect a five-star hotel?" Finley let out a breath as she continued to shine her light around the room. All of a sudden she heard a sound that made her nearly jump out of her skin. "Jesus Christ!" She exclaimed.

     "What are you doing?" Dustin raised his voice at Steve. "What are you doing?" Dustin gaped at him, whispering this time.

     "He might be in here," Steve explained his antics.

     Finley raked a hand through her loose hair. "It's not like he has rabies. Just take the tarp off."

     Steve's head snapped towards her. "If you're so brave, you take the tarp off." He groaned before he continued poking at it.

     Max and Robin ignored the interaction and continued to search for something. Anything at all. "Someone was here." Finley's eyes floated over to Max and noticed the empty beer bottles on the table.

     "Maybe he heard us. Got spooked and ran." Robin theorized.

     "Don't worry. Steve will get him with his oar." Dustin joked.

     But Steve definitely didn't find the joke funny. "I know you think you're being funny, Henderson, but considering that fact that everyone in this room has nearly died about a hundred times, personally, I don't find it funny in the slight—"

Now, all they could hear were each other's screams. Eddie was under the tarp and he had jumped out of the boat with nothing but a broken beer bottle in his hand as a weapon. He pushed Steve up against the wall and held it to his throat. "Holy shit!" Finley screamed. "Jesus, Eddie. Put that down!"

Dustin begged and pleaded for Eddie to let go of him but it was like he couldn't even hear him. "Eddie! Eddie!" Eddie finally looked at him. "It's me. It's Dustin." Dustin gestured to himself. "And look, Finn's right here."

Eddie's gaze moved from Dustin over to Finley and he softened up just for a second. "Hi," Finley spoke through shaky breaths.

"This is Steve." Dustin pointed at him. Eddie looked back at him with angry eyes. "He's not gonna hurt you, right, Steve?"

Steve lightly nodded, if he moved his head too much Eddie might just cut his throat open. "Right. Yeah." He spoke weakly because of the fear.

"He's totally harmless," Robin added.

"Steve, why don't you drop the oar?" Dustin suggested. Finley felt like her feet were just going to be planted on this floor forever.

Steve released his grip on the oar, letting it fall to the ground. But that didn't seem to convince Eddie at all because now, he was holding the bottle even closer to him. "Okay, calm down!" Finley held her hand out.

"He's cool. He's cool."

"I'm cool, man. I'm cool." Steve whispered to him.

"What are you doing here?" Eddie's voice broke.

Dustin held both his hands out in front of him. "We're looking for you."

"We're here to help." Robin butted in.

Eddie turned his head over to them and you could just see the terror on his face. "Eddie, these are my friends. You know Robin, from band." Robin held up the flashlight in her hand, imitating an instrument. "This is my friend Max. The one who never wants to play D&D." Max waved at him. "Eddie. We're on your side. I swear on my mother. Right, guys?" Dustin looked at the girls behind him.

Max quickly nodded. "Yes. Yes. We swear."

"Solemnly swear." Finley agreed.

Robin shifted around in her spot. "O-On Dustin's mother."

Steve looked up at him. "Yeah, Dustin's... Dustin's mother."

Eddie stared at him, taking a few seconds to make a decision. His face softened and he finally let him go. Steve took a breath like it was the last breath he would ever take, it was hard to breathe probably with a sharp object poking at your throat. Finely and Dustin slowly walked up to Eddie who was sliding down the wall, right onto the floor. Finley kneeled down next to him and she felt like she couldn't do much but stare. "Eddie . . ." Dustin trailed off as he squatted in front of him. "We just want to talk."

Finley leaned in as slow as possible. She carefully touched his wrist with one hand and reached for the beer bottle with the other. "Hey, why don't we put this away." She spoke softly hoping that will make him feel safer, but, it didn't. He moved his arm away from her and she knew it wasn't the right time yet. "Okay. You keep it." She held up both hands in surrender.

Robin moved next to Finley, going into the same position she and Dustin were in. "We want to know what happened."

Eddie sniffled. "You won't believe me." He turned his head towards the girls.

"Try us."

                    THEY GAVE EDDIE A FEW minutes to get himself ready enough to tell the story. As the minutes went by it looked like Finley was the only person he let closer to him, now that she was sitting down next to him. "Her body just, like, lifted up into the air and, uh . . . And she just, like, hung there. In the air. And her bones . . . Uh, just. . ." Eddie tightly shut his eyes, a whimpering leaving his lips as he started to replay it all in his head. He felt Finley's hand rubbing against his shoulder and even though it was a small act of affection it was still something he felt like he needed.

"Her bones started to snap." He managed to get the sentence out. "Her eyes, man. It . . . It was like there was something, like, inside her head, pulling. I . . . I didn't know what to do, so I . . . I ran away. I left her there." Eddie held back tears, looking at all of their shocked faces. Finley was starting to finally process that Chrissy was dead. Gone forever. "You all think I'm crazy, right?" Eddie brought his hand up to wipe away the tears threatening to spill out of his eyes.

Dustin shook his head. "No. We don't think you're crazy."

"Don't bullshit me, man! I know how this sounds."

     Finley extended her hand, resting it on top of Eddie's. The sudden touch kind of shocked him and he looked down at their hands and up at her. "We're not bullshitting you, Eds." She never called him that before.

     "We believe you."

     Finley took a deep breath, already knowing what they had to say. Her hand fell from his, back into her lap before she looked at Dustin. "Tell him."

     Dustin nodded. "Okay." He whispered. "Look, what I'm about to tell you might be a little . . . difficult to take."

     "Okay." Eddie looked at him nervously.

     "You know how people say Hawkins is . . . Cursed? They're not way off. There's another world. A world hidden beneath Hawkins. Sometimes it bleeds into ours." Finley knew Dustin would be a better person to tell him than herself. Because she would just ramble about every single thing they had to tell her in order to understand and it was kind of a lot.

     "Like ghosts and shit?" Eddie questioned.

     "There are some things worse than ghosts."

     Finley shut her eyes for a second. She saw nothing but flashbacks. Nothing but the tentacle going straight into Flora's chest. "More like . . . inter-dimensional monsters that want to kill everyone," Finley added. Eddie's eyebrows knitted together, watching Finley staring blankly. "My sister didn't die in a fire. One of those monsters killed her."

     Now, Eddie felt even worse for her. The story they sold to everyone was that Finley was closing the ice cream shop with Steve and Robin right before the fire. Flora was still in there and Finley knew. She wanted to get to her and get her out but she couldn't see her anywhere. But, this was kind of worse. "These monsters from this other world . . . we thought they were gone. But they've come back before. That's why we needed to find you."

     "If they're back again, we need to know."

     "We're the only people that actually know what's really going on we can help you." Finley hoped saying that would help him open up more.

     "That night, did you see anything?" Robin questioned.

     "Dark particles, maybe?" Max suggested.

     Eddie lightly shook his head. "It would almost look like dust, swirling dust."

     "No, man, there was nothing you could see or, uh . . . Or touch." Eddie denied. "You know, I tried to wake her, man. She couldn't move. It was like she . . . she was in a trance or something."

     The word trance seemed to make something click in Dustin's mind. "Or under a spell."

     The two of them shared a look. "A curse."

    "Vecna's curse."

     "Who's Vecna?" Steve's voice was heard from behind Dustin.

     "An undead creature of great power," Dustin complained. Finley knew what they were talking about. She's heard the name before that one time she sat with them at lunch. She knew that the mind flayer was named after a character in the game but now this was getting creepier. These monsters were exactly like them.

     "A spell caster."

     "A dark wizard."

     They were about to be pretty fucked.

KARISSA SPEAKS !

—i'm writing this authors note as i finished vol 2 and i literally can't move, also i was too lazy to proofread this so if i made mistakes let me know

—IM SO MAD

—i have such a love hate relationship with this show jesus christ

—just know that finn is about to be a mess

—WHY DOES THIS HURT DO BAD FUCK THE DUFFERS

—the feddie kiss scene is gonna be cute (and a little horny but they're young) tho so we can be happy about that...

—i'm gonna start trying to do daily updates for this so i can get through the pain quicker i hate it here😭

—anywayss in the next chapter we're really looking into finn's cursed era 🤪