Cammie sat beside Steve on a set of boxes, listening to Eddie talk about what had happened the night before. Max was stood behind her, her chin resting on Cammie's head. Robin was stood behind Steve, with Dustin sat closest to Eddie.

Eddie was crying as he recounted the memory of Chrissy's death.

"Her body just, like, lifted up into the air and, uh... And she just, like, hung there. In the air. And her bones... Uh, she..." Eddie mumbled, wincing. "Her bones started to snap. 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. You all think I'm crazy, right?" Eddie finished with a scoff, looking up at the group.

"No. We don't think you're crazy," Dustin said.

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

"We're not bullshitting you," Max said.

"We believe you," Robin said.

"Look, what I'm about to tell you might be a little... difficult to take," Dustin said, looking back at the other four before returning his gaze to Eddie.

"Okay," Eddie said quietly.

"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," Dustin said.

"Like ghosts and shit?" Eddie asked.

"There are some things worse than ghosts," Max said, wrapping her arms around Cammie's shoulders with a frown.

"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," Dustin said.

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

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

"Dark particles, maybe?" Max said.

"It would almost look like dust, swirling dust," Dustin said.

"No, man, there was nothing you could see or, uh... Or touch," Eddie said. "You know, I tried to wake her, man. She couldn't move. It was like she... she was in a trance or something," Eddie shook his head, a grim look on his face.

"Or under a spell," Dustin said.

"A curse," Eddie said, something like understanding flashing across his face.

"Vecna's curse," Dustin said.

Cammie felt her stomach sink, already knowing that, if they were right, this was not going to be an easy fight.

"Who's Vecna?" Steve asked.

"An undead creature of great power," Dustin said.

"A spell caster," Eddie said.

"A dark wizard," Dustin said.

"It's more D&D bullshit," Cammie snapped.

Eddie's eyes snapped to her and he blinked.

"You talked!" he said. "You can actually talk! I didn't believe Henderson when he said you still could," he said. Cammie sighed.

"Yes, I can talk. I just prefer not to, nowadays," she said.

"Understandable. People are idiots and humanity will be the end of the world," Eddie said, nodding.

"No, they won't," Cammie said. "It'll end in fire or ice. And, lately, it's looking more and more like fire," she said.

"Who told you that?" Eddie asked.

Cammie chewed the inside of her cheek. Callum had.

"Nobody important," she settled on.

She sighed as Dustin started asking Eddie what he would want them to bring for him tomorrow.

"Thirteen," a voice whispered, sounding barely loud enough over Dustin and Eddie's voices.

She looked around, but she couldn't see anyone. The sound of a clock chiming in her ears made her wince, but it blocked out the voices in the boat house. It was the same clock sound from her nightmare.

"Follow me," the voice whispered.

Cammie chewed her bottom lip as she stood up, tapping Max's hands.

This was the same voice as in her nightmares, and the same clock, and now it was happening while she was awake. She knew this was a bad idea, but something was drawing her towards the voice, much like it did in her nightmare. She had to follow it, had to find out who the hell this was and what they wanted to show her.

"I'll be back in a minute," Cammie whispered to Max, hurrying out of the door and looking around the empty land.

"Follow me. I have something to show you," the voice whispered.

Cammie stepped forward, the sound of the clock ticking getting louder and faster the further she walked. The ticking stopped and Cammie did, too, looking around.

"Thirteen," the voice whispered, sounding like it was right behind Cammie.

She turned, gasping when she came face to face with Robin. Cammie stumbled back, almost falling before Robin grabbed her wrist and caught her.

"Hey, I've been calling you for like, two minutes. Are you okay? You look pale, love," Robin said, studying Cammie with a frown.

"Sorry. Just... Overwhelmed, I guess," Cammie said, looking over her shoulder with a frown.

She couldn't hear the voice or the clock anymore, but that didn't fill her with any relief. She had been so close, and then Robin had interrupted her. It was good, 'cause Cammie didn't know if she was ready to meet whoever was apparently getting in her head, especially not when she now knew a dark wizard was running around.

But, it was also bad, because Cammie was the only one there that had the ability to stop Vecna, considering her powers. She was the one who would have to get rid of him, and she wanted to do it with as little casualties as possible.

Too much blood stained Cammie's hands, and everything she touched either died or got caught in the crossfire. Cammie would not risk losing anyone else, especially not Max. She could not lose Max.

"I get it. I mean, you almost died last time. And the time before that, and the time before that, too. And Steve mentioned your mom... He told me about the leaflets you guys found. And it's not hard to notice you practically live with Max to avoid being at home," Robin said quietly.

Cammie bit her bottom lip, nodding slowly.

"I know. It's easier, being with Max. It doesn't hurt as much," Cammie said.

"How have the nightmares been?" Robin said.

"No more than usual, no worse than usual. I'm not... I'm not exactly sleeping well, but Max helps," Cammie said,

"Good. You wanna go back inside?" Robin said.

"Yeah, it's freezing," Cammie said.

Robin wrapped her arm around Cammie's shoulders, the two of them walking back to the boathouse. They headed inside and Cammie snuck out of Robin's grip, walking over to Max. Max grabbed Cammie by the waist and pulled her to sit down on her lap, wrapping her arms around her waist and resting her head on Cammie's shoulder.

"You okay?" Max whispered.

"I'm okay," Cammie whispered.

She felt someone looking at them and she turned, seeing Eddie smirking at them.

"I knew it. I knew my gaydar was good!" he said.

Cammie rolled her eyes.

"Well done, brainbox," Cammie said sarcastically. "It's not all fried brain cells up there, I see," she said.

"Ha ha," Eddie said. "You two are cute together," he added.

"We know," Cammie smirked at him, smiling when Max laughed into her neck.

"You're such a wind up," Max muttered.

"You love it," Cammie whispered.

"I do," Max whispered back, kissing Cammie's neck.

"Hey, no PDA around mommy Steve," Dustin teased.

"Mommy?! Since when was I mommy?! If anything, I'm the dad. Dad," Steve said.

"Mommy Steve sounds better," Max said.

"Agreed," Dustin, Robin and Cammie said.

"Wait, no. Munson, back me up here. Dad Steve, right?" Steve looked at Eddie.

Eddie hummed, frowning and shaking his head.

"Mommy Steve has a certain charm," Eddie said.

Steve huffed, putting his hand on his hip.

"Mommy Steve!" the five others chorused, pointing at him with grins.

Steve groaned loudly, running his hand through his hair.

"I work so hard to make this house a home and none of you have the decency to call me dad Steve. It's heartbreaking," Steve said.

Cammie giggled quietly as Steve started muttering to himself about how he was dad Steve.

"Alright, it's getting late. We gotta get you kiddos to bed. Munson, we'll deliver food tomorrow," Steve said.

"Yes, mommy Steve," Dustin smirked, standing up and grabbing his things.

"I am so done with this family," Steve muttered, walking out of the boat house.

"Night," Robin waved, following him outside.

"We'll be back tomorrow. Stay calm," Dustin said.

"Yeah," Max said.

Cammie reached into her pocket and grabbed the last joint Eddie had made for her, throwing it over to him with a lighter.

"You owe me one. Also, please don't tell Steve you're my drug dealer. He'll be less inclined to save your life," Cammie said.

"Noted," Eddie nodded. "Goodnight," he said.

"Night," Cammie waved, taking Max's hand and following her outside.

Cammie, Max, Dustin, Robin and Steve walked down towards the boat house the next morning, holding bags of groceries for Eddie. Dustin kicked the door open, the five of them piling in and holding up their shopping as Eddie looked at them from where he was hiding behind a pillar.

"Delivery service," Dustin grinned.

"Fuck," Eddie sighed.

He climbed into the boat and they dumped the food there, sitting down around him as he grabbed a box of cereal and started shovelling it into his mouth.

"So we got, uh, some good news and some bad news. How do you prefer it?" Dustin asked.

"Bad news first, always," Eddie said.

"All right. Bad news. We tapped into the Hawkins PD dispatch with our Cerebro, and they're definitely looking for you. Also, they're, uh, pretty convinced you killed Chrissy," Dustin said.

"Like, 100% kind of convinced," Max said.

"And the good news?" Eddie said weakly.

"Your name hasn't gone public yet. But if we found out about you, it's a matter of time before others do. And once that gets out, everyone and their shallow-minded mother is gonna be gunning for you," Robin said.

"Hunt the freak, right?" Eddie scowled.

"Exactly," Cammie said.

"Shit," Eddie muttered.

"So, before that happens, we find Vecna, kill him, and prove your innocence," Dustin said.

"That's all, Dustin? That's all?" Eddie scoffed.

"Yeah, no, that's pretty much it," Dustin said sarcastically.

"Listen, Eddie, I know everything Dustin is saying sounds totally delusional, but we've actually been through this before. I mean, they have a... a few times, and... and I have once. Mine was more human-flesh-based, theirs was more smoke-related, but bottom line is, collectively, I really feel we got this," Robin said.

"We usually rely on this girl who has super powers. But, uh, those went bye-bye, and Cammie... Well, yeah. So... So we're technically in more of the..." Steve trailed off, motioning around as he tried to find the words.

Cammie shifted awkwardly in her seat. She had point blank refused to ever use three of her seven gifts after what happened last year: her ghosts, her tentacles and her murderous glow stick gift. And she didn't think her super strength, her trajectory manipulation, her rumours or her time jumps would be much help fighting Vecna.

"Kinda..." Robin said slowly.

"Brainstorming phase," Max said quickly.

"Brainstorming," Cammie agreed.

"There... There's nothing to worry about," Dustin said.

"Wait," Eddie said, looking at Cammie. "Why did Harrington just say they had a girl with superpowers that went bye-bye, and then mention you? What do you have to do with that?" Eddie said.

Dustin looked at Cammie, who shrugged. Max squeezed her hand from her seat beside her.

"Cammie also has superpowers," Dustin said.

"Right. Okay. So, this should be easy, then. Right? If we do have superpowers, we can defeat Vecna?" Eddie said.

"No," Dustin shook his head. "It's not gonna be easy. Cammie's... Well..."

"I'm not the same as the other girl with superpowers. She has one that she's really good at. I have a few smaller ones that I'm average at. I had to use some of them last year, and it wasn't pretty. I wasn't in control of what I was doing and it was dangerous. I could've killed everyone. I'm lucky I didn't," Cammie said.

"Okay, but, you still have powers. I'm not seeing the issue. If you just don't use the bad ones-" Eddie said.

"It's not... You can't say which powers are good and which are bad," Max shook her head. "There's good and bad for every single one. But that's not the point. The point is, it's too dangerous for her to use some of her gifts. And if she uses them, it doesn't just hurt her in the moment. She suffers for months after them," Max said.

Eddie didn't have time to ask more questions. Sirens filled the air and their eyes all snapped towards the window.

"Shit. Tarp. Tarp. Tarp," Dustin hissed, throwing the tarp over Eddie as he lay down in the boat.

The kids all ran to the window, peering out to watch police cars and an ambulance drive right past the Lipton land.

"That's not good. Another victim?" Cammie said quietly.

"Maybe. Let's go," Steve said.

"We'll be back. Stay there," Dustin poked his head under the tarp before hurrying out of the boat shed after the others.

Cammie followed Max out of the car as they pulled up at the police barricades on the road, Steve, Robin and Dustin getting out of the car, too. They could see Nancy talking to some officers, a body lying on the floor under a white sheet.

Cammie didn't know who it was, but she could see the outline of the body through the sheet and it did not look like a pretty death. It looked like the same thing happened to this person as it did with Chrissy.

Steve waved at Nancy and she waved back, tears filling her eyes as she tried not to cry.

"Is it just me that's starting to think we need to move out of Hawkins after this is all over?" Cammie said.

"No, not just you," Robin said.

The group sat around one of the picnic benches in the trailer park twenty minutes later, having just explained Vecna to Nancy.

"You're saying that this thing that killed Fred and Chrissy, it's from the Upside Down?" Nancy asked.

"If the shoe fits," Steve said.

"Our working theory is that he attacks with a spell or a curse. Now, whether or not he's doing the bidding of the Mind Flayer or just loves killing teens, we don't know," Dustin said.

"All we know is this is something different. Something new," Max said.

"It doesn't make sense," Nancy said.

"It's only a theory," Dustin said.

"No, Fred and Chrissy don't make sense. I mean, why them?" Nancy asked.

"Maybe they were just in the wrong place. They were both at the game," Dustin said.

"And near the trailer park," Max said.

"We're at the trailer park. Uh, should we maybe not be here?" Steve said, looking around with a frown.

"There is something about this place. Fred started acting weird the second we got here," Nancy said.

"Acting weird as in...?" Robin prompted.

"Scared, on edge, upset," Nancy said.

"Max said Chrissy was upset too," Robin said.

"Yeah, but not here," Cammie shook her head.

"She was crying in the bathroom at school," Max said.

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

"Vecna," Dustin said.

"I don't know about you, but if I saw some freaky wizard monster, I would mention it to someone," Steve said.

"Maybe they did. I saw Chrissy leaving Ms. Kelley's office. If you saw a monster, you... you wouldn't go to the police. They'd never believe you. But you might go to your..." Max trailed off.

"Your shrink," Robin said.

Max nodded, the six of them sharing a look.

This wasn't good.

The six of them hurried back to Steve's car, Max's hand held tightly in Cammie's. Nancy fumbled in her bag for a few seconds before walking away from the car.

"Whoa, whoa, Nance. Nance! Where you going?" Steve said.

"Oh, there's just something I wanna check on first," Nancy said, turning to look at them.

"Something you wanna share with us?" Dustin asked.

"I don't wanna waste your time. It's a real shot in the dark," Nancy said.

"Yeah, okay. Are you out of your mind? Flying solo with Vecna on the loose? No, it's too dangerous. You need... You need someone to... Here. I'll stick with Nance. Take the car, check out the shrink," Steve said, handing his keys to Robin.

"Don't think you want me driving your car," Robin shook her head.

"Why?" Steve said.

"I don't have a license," Robin said.

"Why?" Steve repeated.

"I'm poor," Robin said.

"I can drive," Max said.

"No, never again. Please. Anybody but you. No. No chance," Steve said.

Dustin and Cammie looked at Steve hopefully. He shook his head.

"Come on," they whined.

"No," he said.

"All right, okay. This is stupid. Us ladies will stick together. Unless you think we need you to protect us," Robin said, shoving Steve's keys at him, grabbing a walkie from Dustin's bag and walking to Nancy's side with a smirk.

Steve studied them for a few seconds before sighing.

"Be careful," he said.

Robin and Nancy nodded, walking away from the group.

"Just gonna stand there and gawk?" Dustin said.

"Shut up," Steve scoffed.

"Why don't we go? Okay?" Dustin said.

Cammie and Max got in the car, ignoring Steve's whining about Dustin wiping his feet on the inside of the car.

"Always the babysitter. Always the goddamn babysitter!" Steve snapped loudly.

Cammie sighed as she did her seatbelt up, letting Max grab her hand and squeeze three times. Cammie looked at her.

"You sleep much last night?" Max asked.

Cammie shook her head. They'd all crashed at Robin's place, considering her parents were out of town, and Cammie had spent the whole night just holding Max on the sofa while Max slept. She was exhausted, but she wasn't going to have a nightmare in front of the whole group and make herself look like an idiot.

"Why don't you try now? We've got a bit of a drive," Max said.

"Okay," Cammie said.

She closed her eyes, relaxing when she felt Max start tracing patterns over her hand. The exhaustion was setting deep in Cammie's mind and she was asleep within minutes.

Max looked at a sleeping Cammie as they pulled up outside Ms. Kelly's house to try and get information on if she saw Fred or if he or Chrissy had mentioned seeing Vecna.

"You think I should wake her up?" Max asked.

"No, just go. She's finally sleeping," Steve said.

"Okay," Max said.

She kissed Cammie's cheek and then climbed out of the car, heading up to Ms. Kelly's house.

Cammie stirred lightly as the door slammed, blinking her eyes open. She saw Max walking to the house and sighed, knowing everything was fine.

Cammie closed her eyes, expecting to return to her sleep, but she didn't.

Cammie was stood in the hallway of the same house from her nightmares. It was freezing and she could see spiders dangling from the webs on the ceiling, their eyes all seemingly fixed on her.

She stepped forward towards the stairs ahead of her, turning her head when she heard the clock chiming at the side of her. The hands were stuck on three again.

"Thirteen," a voice whispered.

Cammie's eyes snapped back to the stairs, seeing the door at the top of them was swinging open. A light was on inside. Cammie hurried up the stairs and opened the door, continuing on up the next stairs and into the attic.

The clock was back in the middle of the empty room, still on three, but with spiders crawling all over it. The ticking picked up it's pace and Cammie walked towards it.

"Thirteen," the voice came again.

Cammie turned around, but nobody was there. Something cold pressed against her back, right above her 013 tattoo on her back. Cammie flinched, a decomposing claw of a hand curling around her waist and slowly lifting her into the air.

Cammie clenched her fists tightly, trying to jump out of their grip, but she couldn't move.

"No," Cammie whispered, looking down at her hands.

"Oh, Thirteen," the voice chuckled, another hand slowly snaking around her neck to cover her mouth. "That one isn't going to work on me, I'm afraid," it whispered.

The hand wrapped around her neck and yanked sharply to the right, Cammie's screams silenced before they could even leave her throat.