Cammie opened her eyes with a gasp, body pressed into her seat as Steve drove them down a road. She looked around the car, seeing Steve and Dustin were talking to themselves, while Max was staring at Cammie.

Cammie's hands came up slowly to touch her throat, feeling the back where it had been snapped in her nightmare. She couldn't feel any pain or anything out of the ordinary, so she dropped her hands from her neck and rested her head in them instead.

"Hey," Max whispered, rubbing Cammie's back. "Nightmare again?" she whispered.

Cammie nodded.

"Dustin," Dustin's radio cracked with Lucas' voice. Dustin grabbed it quickly. "It's Lucas. Do you copy?" Lucas asked.

"Lucas? Where the hell have you been?" Dustin said.

"Just listen. Are you looking for Eddie?" Lucas asked.

"We found him, no thanks to you," Dustin said.

"You found him?" Lucas said.

"A boathouse on Coal Mill Road. Don't worry. He's safe," Dustin said.

"You guys know he killed Chrissy, right?" Steve said.

"That's bullshit. Eddie tried to save Chrissy," Dustin said.

"Then why do all the cops say he did it?" Lucas said. Max huffed and grabbed the radio.

"Lucas, you're so behind it's ridiculous, okay? Just meet us at school. We'll explain later," Max said.

"I... I can't. I think some real bad shit's about to go down," Lucas said.

"What are you talking about? What bad shit?" Dustin said.

The radio remained on static and the three teenagers shared a look.

"Lucas? Lucas?" Max said, but Lucas didn't reply.

"Why are we going to the school?" Cammie asked.

"Max stole the keys to Ms. Kelly's office because she wouldn't tell Max anything," Steve said.

"Oh, right. Good old fashioned B&E. Cool," Cammie said.

"Yeah. You sleep okay?" Steve said. "You've been out for, like, an hour and a half," he said.

Cammie nodded.

"Yeah, it was okay," Cammie lied.

"Good," Steve said.

Max looked at Cammie with a small frown, but she didn't push. There would be time later for them to talk, when they were alone and Cammie didn't have to lie to try and save some of Steve's sanity.

Cammie led Max, Dustin and Steve down the hallway of the school to Ms. Kelly's office, the boys' flashlights illuminating the way.

"Dustin, do you copy?" Robin's voice came over the radio.

"Yeah, I copy," Dustin said.

"So, Nancy's a genius. Vecna's first victims date back all the way to 1959. Her shot in the dark was a bullseye," Robin said.

"Okay, that's totally bonkers, but I can't really talk right now," Dustin said.

"What are you doing?" Robin asked.

"Breaking and entering school to retrieve confidential and extremely personal files," Dustin said.

"Can you repeat that?" Robin asked.

"Just get your ass over here, stat. We'll explain everything," Dustin said.

They got to the door and Max unlocked it, the four of them stepping inside. Max beelined towards the file cabinet and Cammie followed, shining her torch on the files while Max flicked through them.

"Holy shit," Max muttered.

"You found it?" Dustin and Steve hurried over.

"Yeah, and not just Chrissy's file. Fred was seeing Ms. Kelly too," Max said, looking up at the boys with a frown.

"Is it just me that doesn't have a good feeling about this?" Cammie asked.

"No, it's definitely bad feelings. Very bad feelings," Dustin said.

"Thought so," Cammie nodded.

Cammie sat on Ms. Kelly's desk beside Steve, reading the files upside down as Max looked over them. She had Chrissy's open, shining the torch on the page that said Chrissy had been having headaches, nosebleeds and constant nightmares.

"Can I see Fred's file?" Max asked.

"Yeah," Steve handed Max the file.

Max flicked it open to the same page in Fred's file, Steve shining his torch on it.

Cammie frowned. Headaches, nosebleeds, constant nightmares. She looked up at Max, green eyes meeting blue. Max had those symptoms, too, and so did Cammie.

"Max? What is it?" Dustin asked, looking between the two girls with a frown.

Neither of them replied. Cammie frowned as she took Fred's file off the table, seeing his symptoms had started six days ago, while Chrissy's had been a week ago. Max's had been five days ago.

But Cammie, her nightmares and headaches had been happening for years now. It didn't make sense. If Chrissy and Fred had been having the same symptoms as her but had died, why hadn't Cammie? Was it completely unrelated?

Then again, they'd been having visions of weird things from their past. Cammie had been dreaming, awake and during sleep, about someone calling for Thirteen, and the clock was always stuck on 3, which was Cammie's lucky, or unlucky, number.

She was Thirteen, born on the third of March, escaped the lab at 3am on the third of March, woke up from all of her nightmares at 3am. Something wasn't right, here, for sure, but Cammie couldn't place her finger on what the hell it was. If it was Vecna, she should be dead, but she wasn't. So, either Vecna had an ulterior motive for Cammie, or she was just going insane.

"Max!" Steve's voice snapped Cammie out of her daze.

She looked at Max, seeing she was breathing heavily as she looked around the room. Her eyes met Cammie's and she chewed her bottom lip.

"What the hell just happened?" Cammie asked.

"She... It was like she was in a trance, like the curse. Like Eddie said with Chrissy," Dustin said quietly.

"I saw something," Max said.

"What did you see?" Cammie asked.

Max stared at Cammie with tears in her eyes. Cammie leaned forward, cupping her cheeks and brushing her thumbs over Max's cheeks.

"Max, what did you see?" Cammie said softly.

"A grandfather clock, stuck on 3," Max whispered.

Cammie's hands fell from Max's face.

"Fuck," Cammie breathed.

"It was here. Right here," Max shone her torch down to the end of a hallway at an empty wall.

Steve was right behind her, Dustin on her other side, while Robin and Nancy brought up the back. Cammie was stood at the other end of the hallway away from the group, chewing on her bottom lip as she listened to Max talk.

"A grandfather clock?" Nancy asked.

"It was so real. And then, when I got closer, suddenly I just... I woke up," Max said quietly.

"It was like she was in a trance or something. Exactly what Eddie said happened to Chrissy," Dustin said.

Max turned around to face the group.

"That's not even the bad part," Max said.

She pushed through the group, heading back into Ms. Kelly's room. The others followed, Cammie at the back again. She stopped in the doorway, watching as Max leaned against the cupboard.

"Fred and Chrissy, they both came to Miss Kelley for help. Uh, they both were having headaches, bad headaches that wouldn't go away. And then... Then the nightmares. Trouble sleeping. They'd wake up in a cold sweat. Then they started seeing things. Bad things. From their pasts. These visions, they just... They kept on getting worse and worse, until eventually... Everything ended," Max said, voice shaky.

"Vecna's curse," Robin said.

"Chrissy's headache started a week ago. Fred's, six days ago. I've been having them for five days. I don't know how long I have. All I know is that, for Fred and Chrissy, they both died less than 24 hours after their first vision. And I just saw that goddamn clock, so..." Max inhaled shakily. "Looks like I'm gonna die tomorrow," Max whispered.

Cammie's heart sank in her chest. If Max was right, Cammie needed to figure out a way to save her before tomorrow, which was looking impossible right now. Her girlfriend, her lifeline, she would leave Cammie and it would be all Cammie's fault for not being able to save her. She was meant to protect Max, keep her safe, and all she ever seemed to do was cause pain.

Cammie hadn't been able to stop the Mindflayer before it killed Billy, and she hadn't connected the dots about Max being cursed until it had punched her in the face. She'd been having these symptoms and Cammie just put it down to stress and depression because both of them had the symptoms and both of them were in shitty places mentally right now.

Then, Cammie realised that she and Max had both experienced these trance like episodes. Max's was barely an hour ago, while Cammie's had been 26 and a half hours ago exactly. If Max was right and Vecna's victims died 24 hours after their visions, why hadn't Cammie died? And why hadn't he come back for her yet?

Cammie cleared her throat, making them all look back at her. She looked up from the floor, a guilty look on her face.

"I need to tell you guys something, and I need you all not to get mad at me," she said.

"We would never get mad at you," Robin said.

"You might want to," Cammie said.

"Well, we won't. We promise," Dustin said.

"So, you all know that I seem to have a thing for the number three and having nightmares," Cammie said.

"Yeah," Nancy said slowly.

"The clock was on 3am," Dustin said, looking at Max.

"Max isn't the only one who's been seeing clocks," Cammie said.

Their eyes all snapped sharply back to Cammie.

"What?" Max said, voice dangerously close to pissed off.

"I've been having the same dream about being in a house. I was in a hallway and there was a grandfather clock stuck on the number three. And... And there's lights going off being a door. I followed the lights upstairs to an attic sort of room and the clock was there. And I never see anyone, but... But my throat got slit again and... And then something grabbed me and dropped me, and then I woke up," Cammie said, voice getting quieter towards the end as their shock got more and more obvious.

"Wait, what?!" Steve said.

"How long have you been having the other symptoms? Have you been having them?" Robin asked.

Cammie nodded.

"I didn't think twice about it. I always have headaches after my nightmares and my nosebleeds have been happening constantly since El awakened my secret superpowers," Cammie said.

"How long, Cammie?" Max asked.

"The clock nightmares... Three months. But my first awake vision, it was-" Cammie said.

"It was last night when we found Eddie and I followed you outside. You didn't reply when I called your name. You were just staring at something," Robin said.

"The curse, like with Max," Dustin said softly.

"That's not why I'm worried, though. If I've been having these nightmares for three months, and I survived past the last twenty six and a half hours after my vision, but Chrissy and Fred didn't survive their 24 hours, why aren't I dead yet?" Cammie asked.

They all stood there in silence. Nancy and Dustin looked like they were doing some intense thinking, while Robin looked confused. Steve and Max were in various stages of anger, denial and devastation. Cammie had kept this secret from them because she wanted to protect them, but now it was coming back to bite them in the ass and they were all fucked now.

"Maybe your powers give you some kind of protection?" Nancy offered weakly. Cammie shook her head.

"No, I don't think so. He's stronger than I am. I'd probably be easy to kill. And if he killed me, he'd have an easier time getting to Max," Cammie said.

"But that means that he could be going after Max because it'll be easier to get you if she dies. If your powers do give you some protection, murdering your girlfriend would surely hurt you enough for him to get into your head," Robin said.

"I don't think he's going after Max because of me. Chrissy and Fred have no connection to me, so he's changing his motive by picking Max as his next victim. Something else is making him pick," Cammie shook her head. 

"Hey, so, I don't want to play devil's advocate right now," Dustin said.

"Go on," Cammie said.

"If you've survived this long, that sorta makes Max's curse more of a priority because you're clearly not... well, maybe you're not his primary target anymore now he's focusing on Max, so we have to focus on Max and figure out how to stop it. This is related to the Upside Down, and you're our only chance of defeating Vecna with your gifts. You can't do that if we don't break the curse on Max," Dustin said.

"That hasn't answered any of my questions. Why would Vecna leave Cammie and focus on Max? Surely he knows Cammie is more of a threat to him than Max, if he can get in her head. He'll see what she did to the Mindflayer last year and know that she's strong enough to hurt him at least a bit," Steve said.

"Maybe he thinks Cammie has a chance and killing Chrissy and Fred was for an ulterior motive that'll help him kill Cammie," Dustin said.

"No offence, genius, but what chance in hell do Chrissy, Fred or Max have at beating me in a fight? I mean, Max might be able to smack me silly, but if I use my powers, game over. Why is Vecna targeting them? Why is he killing them?" Cammie asked.

"We don't... We don't know that, yet," Nancy said.

Cammie sighed, rubbing her throat as she looked at the floor. She didn't even know what to say and her head was starting to hurt with everything going on because this was insane. Was this really happening to them again?

"Max might die tomorrow, and Cammie's kind of overdue a visit. How are we going to break the curse by then so Cammie can defeat Vecna and save Max's life?" Robin said.

"We have to find a way into the Upside Down, or a way for Cammie to get in the next vision with Max. If Vecna is the one making the visions, he'll show up eventually. That's when Cammie strikes," Dustin said.

"But how are we going to do that?" Nancy asked.

"Can you do that in your void?" Dustin asked Cammie.

"Uh, I speak to dead people, Dustin, and Max isn't dead. So, no," Cammie said.

A loud bang in the hallway made all of them jump. Cammie opened the door and stepped into the hallway, fists clenched as she looked around.

"Stay here," Steve said to the others, grabbing a lamp for protection.

Cammie grabbed her pocket knife out of her back pocket, levitating it in the air just in front of her and Steve. They crept further down the hallway, the other four following against Steve's wishes with their flashlights raised to give them light.

More banging came from the hallway closest to them, all six of them freezing in their tracks. Steve held his lamp above his head and Cammie held her knife ready in the air.

They all screamed as Lucas ran around the corner, Steve swinging at him before stopping in mid air.

"It's me!" Lucas cried.

"Lucas?" Cammie yelled, dropping her knife into her hand.

"It's me," Lucas panted.

"Jesus, what's wrong with you?" Steve yelled.

"I'm sorry," Lucas panted.

"I could've taken you out with this lamp!" Steve yelled, brandishing the lamp around.

"Sorry, guys. Sorry. I was... I was biking for eight miles," Lucas groaned as he rubbed his side. "Give me a second," he said.

"Shit," Robin breathed.

"We've got a code red," Lucas said.

"What?" Dustin said.

"Dustin. I've been with Jason, Patrick, and Andy, and they've gone totally off the rails. They're trying to capture Eddie, and they think you know where he is. You're in terrible danger," Lucas said seriously.

"All right. Yeah, that definitely sucks, but we've got bigger problems than Jason now," Dustin said.

"Bigger than Jason?" Lucas repeated.

Cammie laughed emptily, patting his shoulder.

"Welcome back into the madness, Sinclair. We're in some serious shit," Cammie said.

Cammie stood against the wall in Mike Wheeler's basement the next morning, between Max writing letters at the desk and Steve, Dustin and Lucas reading about Nancy and Robin's findings while Nancy and Robin were upstairs.

She was chewing on the inside of her cheek as she watched Max write on the page in front of her. Max sighed.

"I know you're staring at me, Camden," Max said.

"Ouch. I got the full name," Cammie muttered.

"Yeah, you did, 'cause I'm mad at you right now, but I don't want to be mad at you because we're both apparently cursed and people are dying and you are the one person I cannot lose, but you are also the one person who I thought would never lie to me, and you did about your nightmares. And I get why you did it, 'cause you want to protect me from everything, but you can't always protect me," Max said quietly.

Cammie sighed and pushed off the wall, walking over to the desk. She sat up on the desk, watching as Max leaned back to let Cammie put one leg on either side of hers. Cammie leaned forward, cupping Max's face in her hands.

"I'm sorry," Cammie whispered.

"Why didn't you tell me? It's me, Cam. Me and you, forever, right? Romeo and Juliet?" Max said, tears in her eyes.

Cammie shook her head.

"We are not Romeo and Juliet, Max. We're not going to end up like them. You are not going to die. No," Cammie said, shaking her head.

"Cam-"

"No," Cammie shook her head. "I'm not letting that happen. Not you. You are not dying on me," Cammie said.

Max nodded.

"Okay. I'm not. We'll find a way to fix this. But you have to tell me the truth. Why didn't you tell me the truth?" Max whispered.

"I didn't tell you because not all of my nightmares are really what happened. My mind is cursed. I didn't think it was unusual when I saw the clock at three am, 'cause I always wake up at three am and I'm connected to the number three," Cammie said.

"Was anything else in the dream?" Max asked. "What was your awake vision like? Did you see things?" Max asked.

Cammie stared at her for a few seconds.

She could be honest and tell Max about how she had died in the last two nightmares of the clock, and how she could hear the voice calling for her to follow it. But Cammie was worried about why Vecna hadn't killed her. He had killed Chrissy and Fred and Max was apparently next, but Vecna had been inside her head. He had seen her past at the lab to call her Thirteen, he had probably seen the whole Mindflayer thing, so he probably knew that Cammie was powerful.

If he wanted to curse people and take over the world, killing Cammie was his smartest move. She wouldn't let him do this while she was still around, or she'd die trying to stop him. But that idea was surely going to upset Max, so she couldn't exactly be honest.

Or, Cammie could lie and protect Max, keep her calm until they could figure out a way for Cammie to get into the Upside Down and stop the curse and Vecna. If Cammie died, she died, but if she could free Max, she would find a way to free herself.

This option came with it's own risks, like her not killing Venca or Max finding out she lied if she did kill him. She was already mad at Cammie for lying, but she was also traumatised at the idea her death was around the corner.

Cammie had to decide which of the two options would hurt Max the least. And, right now, neither option seemed good.

But Max was looking at Cammie with her beautiful blue eyes, the same eyes Cammie had seen first thing in the morning and last thing at night for almost two years, the same eyes she'd fallen in love with now looking so empty and exhausted, and Cammie knew she couldn't hurt Max more than she was already hurting.

She would not be the cause of any more pain for Max. She couldn't.

"There was nothing else in the dream. And my vision, I didn't see anyone or anything. I just heard the clock," Cammie said.

Max nodded slowly.

"You promise?" Max whispered.

Cammie forced herself to nod.

"I promise, daydreamer," Cammie whispered back.

Max nodded, leaning forward and resting her head against Cammie's forehead. Cammie closed her eyes, catching Max's lips in a kiss.

"I'm sorry for being mad," Max whispered.

"No, it's my fault for lying. I'm sorry. And I know you're scared right now, 'cause I am, too, but I'm gonna find a way to get you out of this, okay? I promise," Cammie whispered.

"I love you," Max whispered.

"I love you, more," Cammie whispered.

She kissed Max's forehead three times before climbing off the desk, walking over to the boys and grabbing a copy of Nancy and Robin's findings.

"Okay, be honest. Uh... You guys understand any of this?" Steve said.

"No," Dustin said.

"Pretty straightforward," Dustin said.

"Oh, straightforward, really?" Steve scoffed.

"What's confusing to you? So far, everyone Vecna has cursed has died, except for this old Victor Creel dude Nancy found. He's the only known survivor. If anyone knows how to beat this curse, it's him," Dustin said.

"That's assuming he was cursed, Henderson, which we don't even know. How can Vecna have existed in the '50s? It doesn't make sense," Steve said, rubbing his forehead tensely.

"Far as we know, Eleven didn't create the Upside Down. She opened a gate to it. The Upside Down has probably been around for thousands of years. Millions. I wouldn't be surprised if it predated the dinosaurs," Dustin said.

"Dinosaurs? What are we-" Steve said.

"Okay. But if a gate didn't exist in the '50s, how did Vecna get through?" Lucas asked.

"And, how's he getting through now?" Steve asked.

"And why now?" Lucas asked.

"And why then? Just pops out in the '50s, kills one family, and he's like, I'm good. And poof, he just disappears. Just... gone? Only to return 30 years later and start killing random teens? No, I don't buy it. Straightforward, my ass. Honestly, Henderson, a little humility now and then, it wouldn't hurt you," Steve said, dropping into the armchair and crossing his legs.

"Sorry," Dustin rolled his eyes. He peered around Cammie, looking at Max. "Any idea what she's writing?" he asked quietly.

They all shook their heads.

"Did she sleep?" Dustin asked.

"I mean, would you?" Cammie asked.

The door to the basement opened and footsteps hurried down, Nancy and Robin coming into view.

"Okay, so, we have a plan," Nancy said.

They dropped down into the seats around the boys, Cammie moving to stand at Steve's side.

"Thanks to Nancy's newspaper minions, we are now rock-star psychology students at the University of Notre Dame," Robin said.

"I'm now Ruth," Nancy said.

"And I'm Rose," Robin said.

"Ruth?" Steve said, earning a snarky look from Nancy.

"Nice GPA," Dustin looked at Nancy.

"Thanks. So, we called Pennhurst Asylum, told them we'd like to speak with Creel for a thesis we're co-writing on paranoid schizophrenics-" Nancy said.

"To which they said no," Robin said.

"But we landed a three o'clock with the director," Nancy said.

"Now, all we have to do is charm him and convince him to let us talk to Victor," Robin said.

"Then maybe we can rid Max and Cammie of this curse," Nancy said.

"About that. We've been doing our Victor Creel homework, and, uh, we got some questions," Steve said.

"Lots of questions," Lucas said.

"So do we. Hopefully, Victor has the answers," Nancy said.

"Wait... Wait... Wait a second. Uh... Where's mine?" Steve held up the files with a frown.

Nancy and Robin shared an awkward look before standing up.

"No way. I'm not babysitting again. I'm always the babysitter!" Steve said.

He jumped to his feet, following Nancy and Robin up the stairs.

"Your sister and her girlfriend are cursed. Who better than to babysit them?" Nancy said.

"My sister and her girlfriend being cursed is exactly the reason I should talk to Victor Creel! If he beat this curse, he's the one who knows how to save them," Steve said.

The basement door closed over and Cammie sighed, taking Steve's seat on the armchair.

"Are we sure your void won't help?" Dustin looked at Cammie. "You could talk to Chrissy or Fred, right? Anyone who's dead, you can talk to?" he said.

"I'm not using the void," Cammie said.

"Cammie, I get why you don't want to, but we're running out of options here. If it doesn't help, fine, but we won't know if we don't try," Lucas said.

"This isn't a 'we' kinda thing, Lucas, okay?" Cammie snapped.

The boys stared at her with raised eyebrows. Cammie rolled her eyes.

"Look," Cammie sighed, leaning forward and putting her elbows on her knees. "The only thing Chrissy and Fred are going to be able to tell me is what Vecna showed them before they died, probably a clock, and maybe what he looks like. And, even then, they probably won't tell me, because newly dead people are usually traumatised by their recent murders and are a bit overwhelmed about what's going on!" Cammie said.

"But they're not the only dead people in there," Lucas said. "You could talk to Callum-"

"Callum died before any of this shit happened. He didn't know anything to help in the past few years, so I doubt he's gonna know about Vecna. And I'm mad at him, so I'm not gonna ask him shit he doesn't have answers to," Cammie said.

"He saved our lives, Cammie," Dustin said softly.

Cammie shook her head angrily.

"And he ruined mine. I'm not doing it," Cammie snapped.

"Not even if it'll help Max?" Lucas whispered.

"It won't help Max. Callum doesn't know shit," Cammie said.

"Well, what about Hopper? Can't you speak to him?" Dustin asked quietly. "He knew about all of this. He can help this time, too," he said.

"No! He died fighting for us to win last time. If I tell him that bad things are happening, he's going to blame himself and he's dead, so there's nothing he can do to help us. But do you know what will happen? Every single time I go into the void, I'm going to see the man who died for us know that he, ultimately, failed. His death was for nothing if this is really happening again. And you two aren't the ones who have to live with the fact you were the ones who told him that. It'll be me, and it'll be me stuck with him and his guilt for the rest of my life. So, no. I'm sorry, but only bad things are going to happen if I go into the void. I cannot put myself through that again when there is no way in hell it'll help save Max," Cammie said.

"Leave her alone. If she says they can't help, drop it," Max said.

The boys fell silent, but their gaze on Cammie was hard to ignore. Still, she closed her eyes and leaned back in the chair, rubbing her temples as she tried to clear the headache clouding her mind.

She had to think of a way to save Max, and Callum or Hopper was not the way to go about doing that. Their manhunt for Victor Creel was their best bet.