HAWKINS, INDIANA — 1986.

     WHEN THE CREW REACHED HAWKINS again, they could immediately see something was wrong.

"Oh shit," Nancy said from the driver seat, everyone else straining to see what was going on.

Theresa pushed Steve and Dustin out of the way in the very back, the two of them grumbling while she tried to see.

There were police cars and a crowd around the lake house when Nancy pulled up, the group not hesitating to jump out of the car as soon as she stopped. This was not good.

"It's not Eddie, is it?" Robin questioned, Tess frowning.

"I don't think so." She clenched her jaw, looking around before hurrying over to a news van and ducking around the side while the others followed. She was trying to get as close as she could to the police speaking to the news reporters without being seen.

"...the Roane County line received a call a little after midnight... reporting a homicide here on the lake," Officer Powell spoke, Tess uneasily fidgeting with her fingers as she looked to the others.

She had been right; Vecna made another kill.

"Officer Callahan here and myself arrived first on the scene," Powell continued. "We made our way to the shore of Lover's Lake, about ten yards from that house you see behind me. It was there that we found the victim, an eighteen year-old senior from Hawkins High, Patrick McKinney."

Theresa glanced over at Lucas as his face immediately dropped. She briefly recalled Patrick's face, him having been the one that asked Lucas if she was single the night after the basketball game.

"...His limbs, his body, uh– it was disfigured," Powell droned on, Tess looking down at the ground.

Then, he said, "We have also identified a person of interest." Powell held up a photo, Theresa squinting as she tried to see it.

"Eddie Munson. We encourage anyone with information to please come forward."

Tess pulled her lips in, letting out a deep exhale. "Fuck," she muttered.

Just as Officer Powell finished speaking, there was a crackle from Dustin's walkie-talkie.

"Dustin, can you hear me? Sinclair?"

Dustin scrambled to get his walkie, turning away from the scene and responding, "Eddie, holy shit! Are you okay?"

There was a pause. "Nah, man. Pretty– pretty goddamn far from okay," Eddie scoffed.

"Where is he?" Robin asked.

"Where are you?"

"Skull Rock," Eddie replied, "do you know it?"

Theresa and Steve exchanged a look, both of them almost smirking while Dustin replied, "Y-Yeah, I think so–"

"We know where it is," Tess said, giving a nod of assurance and patting Dustin on the shoulder.

Nancy headed for the car to grab Eddie's six pack and snacks, and then he and Theresa lead everyone off into the nearby woods. They knew where they were going.

Dustin, however, had disagreements.

"This isn't the right way," he complained, looking between the map and the compass in his hands. "We're supposed to be going north. It's on the map!"

Tess rolled her eyes, reaching over and snatching the map out of his hands. She looked at it for a moment, then handed it back.

"Well the map is wrong. I know where it is."

"How are you so sure, huh?" Dustin shot back.

Theresa crossed her arms. "Because I found Skull Rock. I'm the one who made it popular."

"Eh, that's debatable," Steve cut in, making a face.

She turned to him, arching an eyebrow. Everyone looked between the two, remaining silent.

"Did you seem to forget that I already explained the exact timeline to you?" Tess returned, tilting her head.

Steve paused, looking up as he tried to recall. He realized then that she was right, dropping his shoulders dejectedly.

"Whatever," he grumbled, continuing to walk. "I still know where it is, and it's not north. I don't care what the compass says."

Theresa looked back at Robin and Nancy walking alongside each other, and then Lucas and Max doing the same. She wondered if Nancy knew that Robin was into girls; likely not.

Then, that made her think about Jonathan. As far as she knew he and Nancy were still together, but she felt like she had not heard from him in so long. They wrote letters back and forth, but he always seemed to be 'busy'. Or, so he claimed.

Steve came to an abrupt halt, Tess bumping into the back of him with a small yelp.

"What are you doing?"

He raised a finger, furrowing his eyebrows. "Do you go left or right?"

Theresa looked both ways, sighing. "It's left, dumbass. We're going toward the lake."

She reached down and grabbed Steve's hand, pulling him in that direction. They pushed through a bunch of shrubs, coming into a clearing where the infamous Skull Rock sat.

Steve picked a leaf out of Tess's hair as Dustin came up right behind him, looking down at his compass and then back up with confusion.

"It doesn't make sense," he shook his head.

"Yeah, yeah, even with it staring you in the face you can't admit it," Steve taunted. "You just can't admit you're wrong, you little butthead."

There was rustling behind them, Theresa whipping around quickly to see Eddie jump off of a boulder in Eddie-like fashion.

"I concur," he said, "Dustin Henderson, you are a total butthead."

Dustin quickly smiled, approaching him. "Jesus, we thought you were a goner," he gushed, pulling Eddie into a hug.

Tess glanced over at Steve beside her, noticing his visible envious irritation. She nudged him with her elbow teasingly, smirking.

"Shut up," he muttered.

The other four arrived at once, Nancy handing Eddie his beer and food. He immediately turned to Theresa with a big smile on his face.

"You really came through, huh Sinclair? I almost wanna hug you."

She held a hand out as Eddie stepped closer, vigorously shaking her head.

"Nuh uh. You need a shower."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

    "...WHEN I GOT TO SHORE, I TRIED calling you guys, but uh–"

Eddie opened a flask of water and took a swig in the middle of his explanation, then continued, "my walkie was busted, man. Drenched. So, uh, I did the thing that I do now, apparently. I ran."

He laughed cynically, Theresa tapping her chin in thought.

"What time did it happen? The attack?"

"Yeah, I know exactly what time it was," Eddie replied, reaching around his wrist and undoing his watch. "My walkie wasn't the only thing that got soaked."

Holding up his watch, he tossed it to Tess who observed the time it was stuck on. 9:27 P.M.

"9:27," she said aloud.

"Same time our flashlights went kablooey," Robin responded.

Steve looked up. "Which means... what, exactly?"

"Remember how I said I was pretty sure Vecna had made another kill?" Theresa told him, glancing back down at the watch. "I was right."

"That surge of energy was Vecna attacking Patrick," Nancy cut in.

Tess threw Eddie's watch back to him, pacing back and forth for a moment. She had been having heavy pregnancy symptoms since the day had started, but she was trying to ignore them. Now was not the best time to be feeling pregnant.

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

"And where he attacks from," Lucas added.

Max looked over at him, nodding. "So, now we just need to sneak into his lair in the Upside Down and drive a stake through his heart."

"If he even has a heart," Robin remarked.

"A stake?" Steve questioned. "Is he like a vamp– is he a vampire?"

Tess pinched the bridge of her nose, sighing. "No, honey, he's not."

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

Lucas raised his shoulders. "I say we chop his head off."

Theresa raised a hand. "Woah woah, hang on a second. We still have to figure out how we can get into the Upside Down. Because the only way we've ever gotten in is with El and she's not here nor does have her powers."

She rubbed her temple, folding one arm under the other. The others could see she was in her brainstorming phase, so to speak. Tess drew her lips in, pacing around with her eyes trained to the ground, a hardened and concentrated look on her face.

"What's she doing?" Eddie questioned quietly to Steve, who looked over at Theresa.

"Oh, she's thinking. Usually she comes up with some super awesome plan when she does this–"

"Shh!" Robin interrupted, halfway glaring at the two. "Let the woman work her magic!"

Tess stopped, raising her head as she looked around for Dustin. "Henderson! Let me see that compass."

He walked over, confused, placing it in her hand. The compass needle was completely awry, seemingly thrown off by something.

"You were right," she said to him, the realization hitting her.

Dustin raised his eyebrows. "I-I was?"

"Yeah," she nodded, turning toward the giant rock. "Skull Rock is north. Dustin was right, but the compass wasn't. Do you know when it started acting weird?"

"When we got to the lake house," he immediately replied.

Theresa chewed her inner lip. "That's it! The electromagnetic field around here is– it's off."

Some of the others looked lost. Tess dropped her shoulders with a huff, explaining, "In the presence of a stronger electromagnetic field, the compass needle will deflect towards that power."

"Exactly," Dustin interjected, "so either there's some super big magnet around here, or..."

"There's a gate," Lucas finished.

Nancy shook her head. "But we're nowhere near the lab."

Tess shrugged. "That doesn't necessarily mean anything. I mean, this is Hawkins. If there's one gate, and God knows what has escaped from it, there's bound to be another one around here somewhere. Only, smaller."

"A snack-sized gate," Robin replied.

Theresa handed Dustin his compass, crossing her arms again. "It's just like what happened before. The Upside Down causes electricity and electromagnetic fields to act weird. Hence, Dustin's compass."

Dustin looked up at her, almost smiling in awe. He would never get over how cool she was.

"Well, let's go then," he said, turning around and immediately starting away from Skull Rock.

"Hey, hey hey hey!" Steve called. "Where are you going? Dustin!"

He stopped, looking back at Steve with annoyance.

"Eddie's still a wanted man," Steve informed him. "We can't just go for a hike in the woods!"

Tess tapped her foot, about to reply when Dustin did instead.

"This little steel capsule might be the key to saving Max, Tess and Eddie." He looked to Eddie, raising his arms.

"What say you, Eddie the Banished?"

Eddie stared at the ground for a moment. "...I say you're asking me to follow you 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."

Theresa contorted her face, unable to comprehend Eddie's geeky lingo. She and all of the others looked over at Dustin to see him jumping up and down excitedly like a little kid.

Eddie slapped his knees and stood up, pursing his lips.

"So Mordor it is."

He walked over to Dustin while the group all started to follow, Steve leaning down next to Tess and whispering, "What is Mordor?"

She shook her head, placing a hand on his back.

"Nothing. Just come on."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

IT HAD REACHED NIGHTFALL AGAIN BY the time Dustin noticed some weird activity with his compass.

Without warning he took off running, leaving the others confused and scrambling to follow him.

"Dustin!" Tess snapped irritably, pushing away low tree branches that were in her way.

"Can you slow down?" Eddie jogged behind Dustin. "Dustin!"

He looked back at the others with his compass in hand. "I think we're getting close!"

Eddie reached out and grabbed Dustin, who nearly stepped into the lake water. They were at the shore of Lover's Lake.

Theresa placed her hands on her hips, panting a bit.

"You gotta be shitting me," Dustin breathed out, standing before the lake. His compass was going crazy, Tess looking down at it.

She sucked in a breath. "Well, it looks like there's a gate in Lover's Lake."

"But– why? How?" Max asked.

Theresa knit her brows. "The Demogorgon always left an opening after it attacked. And so maybe... it's the same for Vecna. He– he opens a gate wherever he makes a kill."

Steve stood right beside her, tilting his head. "Only one way to find out."

The boat in which Eddie had taken the night prior, when running away from Jason, Rudy and the other guys, was not too far down the shoreline. He pulled the tarp away, revealing it to all of them.

Steve and Eddie pushed it into the water, Theresa volunteering herself to be the first one on.

Steve held out his hand, helping her into the boat. He was admittedly uneasy about her going, but he was not going to argue this time around. He had learned his lesson about that.

Robin followed behind Tess, and then Eddie and Nancy. Four already seemed like a lot, but Dustin started to walk toward the boat. Steve stood up, stopping him.

"What are you doing? This boat's not gonna hold all of us."

Dustin scoffed, offended.

"It's better this way, okay?" Nancy suggested.

"Yeah," Theresa cut in, "You guys stay here with Max, keep an eye out for trouble."

"You keep an eye out!" Dustin shot back, Tess giving him her infamous glare.

He jerked his head back. "It's my goddamn theory!"

"No it isn't, I came up with it first!" Theresa retorted, narrowing her eyes.

"You heard her," Robin interjected.

Dustin huffed again. "Who put her in charge?"

"I did," Robin quickly responded.

Tess held out a hand to him. "Give me the compass."

Dustin was reluctant, finally passing it over to her with a scowl. She gave him a smile, and then Steve tossed Dustin's bag to him.

"There ya go," he said before giving the boat a hard shove into the water, hopping on and grabbing a paddle.

Theresa sat toward the front with the compass, Robin and Nancy on either side of her. She knew she was right about the gate being out there, but she still had no idea what they were going to do if they actually found it. They were running out of time and options.

"So... what exactly are we gonna do if we find the gate?" Robin questioned, almost like she had read Tess's mind.

The Sinclair girl gave a small shrug, looking down into the black water.

"Pray we don't run into Vecna, I guess."

notes.
pregnancy reveal coming soon 🤭 like... next chapter, perhaps? heheheh

the fruity four becomes the fruity five, we love to see it! i 🫶 gays in the 80's

the way erica is just sitting at the house with dinah wondering where tf her siblings are 😭 idk i just had this random thought of her being at the house confused asf

omg can you imagine in the future robin & nancy babysitting tess & steve's kid 😣 they're both the cool aunts and you can't tell me otherwise

how do you think theresa would react to angela?