(Ep. 3: The Monster and the Superhero)

To say Steve was concentrated in infiltrating Ms. Kelley's home would be a complete lie. He knew how crucial it was to figure out the connection the two victims shared, but all he found himself thinking about was Gwen.

He knew she was more than capable of taking care of herself and it wasn't like she was alone. Being with Nancy and Robin brought a tinge of relief that she would be alright, but it still didn't change anything.

"Okay, she's in," Steve informed the others once Max entered Ms. Kelley's home.

"I'm missing collarbones, not eyes," Dustin sarcastically remarked.

Daphne chucked from the back seat and raised her hand for a high five, but was forced to lower it once receiving a glare from Steve. "Geesh, lighten up, Harrington."

Steve only rolled his eyes and turned back to the house. He set his gaze strictly on the door in an attempt to focus, hoping his mind could possibly find some clearance amidst the troubles.

But the silence only made things worse.

The silence was against him. It tormented him with conclusions that allowed him to place a few puzzle pieces together about everything that had unfolded.

(It should be noted that everything was Gwen.)

Seeing her again after all these months was both a blessing and a curse. He found that she had changed. She was more quieter, more reserved, less perky, and more austere. Her blue eyes were still bright, but they held a gloom only witnessed in the winter. She was careful, more cautious if you might say. Everything that transpired during her time away had hardened her and it was a change so noticeable yet subtle at the same time.

When they were together, Steve wanted to visit her many times. He wanted to surprise her by planning an impromptu trip, but then October came and she seemed hesitant to speak with him. When he called, she tended to miss his phone calls or claim she had tests to study for. He eventually decided to give her space, thinking her hesitance was actually linked to the stress, but the days turned to weeks and she didn't call.

Steve knew something was wrong.

But he didn't say anything.

Gwen had left Hawkins to follow her dreams in New York. She moved on and turned the page to a new chapter. Everything had fallen into place, but her withdrawal made him dwell on the possibility that she got everything she wanted and he wasn't one of those.

While she studied, Steve was stuck in Hawkins. He worked at a video store and didn't have a set path for the future. She wasn't wasting time... and he was still stuck.

He hated himself for believing that, because he loved Gwen and she loved him.

But eventually, it wasn't enough.

Not even now.

"So," Dustin suddenly began. "Are we gonna talk about... it?"

He didn't say anything.

"Steve?" Dustin called again.

Silence.

Eventually, Dustin raised his voice, "Steve!"

"I'm sorry, what?" Steve simply asked, still stuck.

"I said, are we going to talk about... it?"

He knew what he was referring to, but pretended he didn't, "Talk about what?"

Dustin narrowed his eyes in disbelief, "Your temporary insanity earlier today when you practically threw yourself at Gwen?"

Steve looked away in refusal to discuss it, "Okay, that's not what happened."

"Dude, that's literally what happened," Daphne intervened, now laying flatly on the backseat.

"It was pretty public," Dustin added. "There were a lot of witnesses."

Steve now urged Vecna to target him now. He much preferred enduring an attack than to divulge any of his emotions to a pretentious teen, who always claimed to know everything. For obvious reasons, he longed to avoid this as it would signify admitting his feelings for Gwen still remained.

Like expected, Dustin was one step ahead of him.

"And you're trying to avoid the subject," Dustin pointed out, offering his satisfied smirk.

Steve scoffed, "I'm not trying to do anything. I just don't see the point in talking about this."

Daphne nearly laughed, "You should have known better than to act all desperate in front of us, then."

His eyes widened in offense, "I wasn't acting desperate!"

Dustin stared at him in bewilderment, "You basically dragged her away from Nance and refused to let her go. If that's not being desperate, then I don't know what is."

"And how you only appeared worried for her and not for the rest," Daphne added.

"Are you implying that I still have feelings for Gwen?" Steve blurted out, already regretting his words after saying them.

"No, I'm not implying," Dustin replied.

"I am," Daphne retorted.

"I'm not implying it because I'm stating the obvious," Dustin continued, and pointed to the chain around Steve's neck. "And you're still wearing the ring she gave you."

Steve hastily adjusted the collar of his jacket to cover it.

"Did you think I didn't notice?"

He rolled his eyes, urging for Max to hurry just so he could avoid having this conversation. Of course an observer like Dustin would notice. Anything regarding his love life was always a spectacle for him, so he felt foolish for having underestimated the teen's character.

Still, he refused to have his feelings out in the open.

"Look, I was just looking out for her," Steve began trying to attempt to dismiss the situation. "She's your sister, so I want to make sure she was safe."

Daphne actually laughed this time, "If that were the case, you would have shown care for Robin and Nancy. Robin's your friend and Nancy's your... well, you know. A friend slash ex."

Steve shot her a look.

"Exactly," Dustin agreed with her. "You showed your obvious affections for Gwen and now you're embarrassed that we know."

"That's neither here nor there!" Steve denied, nearly blushing from embarrassment.

"And what about the ring you're still wearing?" Daphne pointed to his neck and wiggled her brows all teasingly.

"I still wear it because it was-" he paused in thought for a moment, his mind turning into a complete blank. "Because it was a gift and an expensive one."

Dustin tilted his head at him, "You don't keep the gifts your ex gave you. It's the number one rule when you end a relationship."

"I've never heard of such a thing," Steve muttered.

"Then I take it this means you still have the gifts Nancy gave you," Daphne leaned forward in between their seats, narrowing her eyes curiously at him.

"I gave them back to her the second we ended," Steve quickly defended, but it was then when he realized the grave he dug himself in.

"HA!" Dustin jabbed an accusing finger at him and smiled so widely. "You proved my point! You still have the ring because it came from Gwen and you still love her!"

Steve remained silent.

Mainly out of defeat... and shame of losing.

"And you don't love her in a platonic way," Daphne stated without an ounce of uncertainty.

"She's just a friend, okay?" Steve tried to claim, but already knew it was useless.

Dustin sat back in triumph and slowly nodded with slight sarcasm at the lie, "Keep telling yourself that."

Steve sighed in irritation, "Yeah, because it's the truth."

"You're a really great liar, Harrington," Daphne shook her head in disapproval and laid back down on the backseat.

"I'm not lying!" Steve raised his voice as if hoping it would help prove his point. "I might have seemed desperate, but it was only because I was worried something could happen! I don't want to find her with her eyes sucked out of her skull by this Vecna creep!"

Dustin laughed, "You're bright red in the face right now."

"That's cause you love her," Daphne sang teasingly.

"Shut up, Sinclair," Steve snapped. "And as for you, kid who believes he knows all the shit in the world, I don't want to talk about this anymore. I'll punch you so hard your teeth will fall back out."

The car turned silent and Steve felt instant regret for having mentioned a sensitive topic.

"Whoa. Too far," Dustin spoke in a lower voice, his teasing now gone.

Steve internally panicked, "Not cool. Sorry."

Dustin gave him the smallest smile, "Not cool. It's okay."

After a few minutes, Max stormed out of Ms. Kelley's house into the car.

"What'd she say?"

"Nothing. Just drive," Max scooted herself to the middle, not giving further information on what occurred.

"Nothing?" Steve and Daphne asked at the same time.

"Just drive!" Max yelled, and Steve had no other choice than to do as he was told.

__________________

Gwen hovered over Nancy's shoulder as they read over various articles about Victor Creel. They have been at this for hours and there still appeared to be no sign of Vecna being around back then.

Robin sighed heavily, "Anything... juicy over there?"

"Same old news," Gwen said, and frowned at Nancy's obvious annoyance for Robin. She lowered her voice to a whisper and shoved her on the shoulder, "Nance, come on. Not now."

She didn't understand why Nancy didn't appear to like Robin. Ever since the car ride, she noticed how unwilling she was to include Robin in this. Nancy would roll her eyes whenever she spoke, ignore her questions, and change the subject to something only she and Gwen knew of.

"Nothing new," Nancy grumbled.

Robin didn't seem to grasp to Nancy's annoyance. She merely continued skimming through the articles disinterested, "Same here. Victor seemed like a normal guy. Dead family, missing eyes, took a plea deal, sent to Pennhurst. Blah, blah, blah, blah."

Gwen gently rubbed her temples and stepped back from the machine, "Yeah, totally normal. Not frightening at all."

Nancy rolled her eyes and continued looking through the articles.

"What are we looking for exactly?" Robin peeked her head out in her direction and knocked against the machine for her attention. "Any mention of dark wizards or alternate dimensions? Things in that vein?"

Nancy became frustrated at the continuous knocking, "I don't know, okay? It's starting to seem like this was just a waste of time!" She sighed heavily and looked behind her, startled at not finding Gwen anywhere. "And where the hell did Gwen go?"

From the corner of the library, Gwen looked through various books to acquire a break from all the research. Long hours have been spent reading about murders that she just wanted to distract herself from all the disturbances. She skimmed through the shelves and paused upon noticing one of her favorite childhood books, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

At the first page, she was already emerged into the wonders of the fantasy world. She remembered reading this book before bed with her dad and how she then read it to Dustin years later, who must probably not remember.

She wasn't certain of how much time had passed once she reached the end of the first chapter. It was then when she considered if she should head back now, but her mind wasn't able to be made when the sudden sound of a clock chiming was heard.

Gwen stiffened at the sound. She didn't remember the library having a clock. From all the times she came here, she had never heard any chiming. She stood up and returned the book to its rightful place, settling that perhaps the library installed a clock recently.

The chiming continued.

Louder each time.

Gwen walked back to the station where she last left her friends, but came to a halt when not finding them there. She looked around and instant goosebumps were felt once noticing the lights were complete off. The chiming got louder the harder she tried to ignore it, so being the curious person is, she settled on finding the source.

Carefully, she maneuvered her way around the shelves. The sound was much more intense the closer she got to the end of the corridor, but she didn't dare stop. Something was wrong and she worried her friends could be in any sort of danger. If they left without saying anything, then something clearly forced them to.

But, then, she finally saw it.

A grandfather clock was pressed against the walls. Cracks surrounded the pillars around while a black widow trailed around the antique. The pendulum swung slowly, each chiming reverberating through the library and consuming her with a terrible sense of dread and fear.

She stood paralyzed, eyes wide and fingers digging into her palm.

(This couldn't be real. This couldn't be happening, and she couldn't be seeing a grandfather clock in the middle of a library.)

"Gwen..."

A deep voice was heard from behind.

She glanced back in a gasp, but found nothing. The chimes were now more intense and she wasted no time in stepping further away from it. Her breathing was heavy and ragged as she sprinted to the exit, but was suddenly met by a pair of arms bumping into her.

"Gwen?" Nancy asked, startled.

The lights were back on and the chiming was no longer present.

Robin took a step toward her, "Are you okay?"

Gwen glanced back to where she last saw the clock, but there was nothing. Not a single trace that what she saw had been real and prove she wasn't going crazy. She swallowed thickly and turned back to her friends, who looked at her with eyes filled with worry and making her reluctant to mention anything.

There were far more important things than this. Surely, this must be her exhaustion over not getting enough sleep. Mentioning this wouldn't provide anything helpful, so she did what she knew best.

Stay silent.

"I'm fine," she told them. "Did you find anything?"

Nancy and Robin exchanged equally concerned looks. They were aware something was wrong, but before they could get a chance to ask, Gwen was already walking back to their previous station.

"We were about to look into The Weekly Watcher and see if we can find anything," Nancy said, and met her halfway. "Gwen, are you sure you're okay?"

She nodded in response, "Let's just look into it then."

The trio then looked through various articles. One of which mentioned the possibility of Elvis Presley having been cloned by aliens. This frustrated Nancy to a further extent since there still appeared to not be a credible source that could mention anything involving Vecna and his powers.

However, Robin finally hit the jackpot, "Victor Creel claims vengeful demon killed family. The murder that shocked a small community."

Nancy crossed her arms across her chest, pretending her deep voice was humorous, "Ha ha. That's very funny."

Gwen gestured to her to walk over, "It's actually what it says. According to several insiders, Victor believed his house was haunted by an ancient demon."

Robin continued, "Victor allegedly hired a priest to exorcise the demon from his home. Pretty novel for the '50s. The Exorcist wasn't even out yet."

"Keep going, " Nancy told her, now hovering over them.

Gwen moved to the second page, "He claimed the exorcism failed and angered the demon, which then murdered his family."

"He believed he was spared as a punishment."

Nancy was still doubtful of Victor's innocence, "That's pretty convenient for him."

"More like super inconvenient," Gwen corrected. "He was declared legally insane by the court because of his claim."

"Exactly," Robin agreed. "This sounds insane and it didn't go public because of-"

"The plea bargain," Nancy finally started to catch on. "The records were sealed..."

"What if a demon did invade Victor's home?" Robin asked.

Silence came in between them as the truth settled in.

"It was Vecna."