NANCY'S IDEA TAKES THE THREE GIRLS TO THE LIBRARY.

The Wheeler tells her sister and the Buckley that before Fred died, she managed to catch an interview with Wayne Munson—Eddie's uncle. In their brief few minutes, he'd told her that Chrissy's death is almost reminiscent of that of a murder that happened many years back. 

The slaughtering of the Creel family, which held none other than the father himself, Victor, as the killer. He killed his two kids and wife, and when found, they had no eyes. Just like Chrissy; just like Fred. 

She'd heard stories of the Creel house, which sat rotting away, uninhabited due to the horrors that happened within, however she'd never heard the full story. It was an eerie looking house, boarded up windows and peeling wood. No one dared to go in it, and the Wheeler understood why now. It was a house of horrors—she certainly wouldn't want to live where a father took his family's eyes out. 

Yet, Carla's happy she followed Nancy because even if the story was gruesome, it was too much of a coincidence to not be promising. 

"Okay, help me get this straight." Robin starts as Nancy parks the car, making a beeline for the library doors. The Buckley stumbles after her, Carla following alongside with an even pace. "Eddie's uncle, Wayne, thinks that Victor Creel escaped from Pennhurst Asylum and that he's the one running around Hawkins committing these murders?" 

Nancy gives a tight lipped smile. "Pretty much."

Victor Creel had been locked up in Pennhurst for his crimes, and if the murders happened when Wayne was younger, he had to be an older man. Carla doubts someone his age would be able to escape a highly guarded facility. Yet, in Hawkins, you never knew. The Wheeler decided it was worth the trip either way.

"But, Victor committed the eye-ball murders, like, way back in the fifties." Robin continues, the trio of girls walking up the stairs to the library doors.

Nancy's hand curls around the doorknob, "Well, '59." 

Carla passes in front of her sister, leading the way into the library. Since it was a Sunday, the Wheeler had the day off—she rarely worked on Sundays,  which she always appreciated, especially today. It was never too busy, certainly not on the weekend of a school break. Seniors were pausing from college things, and no one had any library books they needed for assignments. 

Today seemed no different as Carla glanced around, only catching a single man standing near a bookshelf. The front desk is empty, Marissa off somewhere—if she was working, the Wheeler would be standing there, helping people check out books or answering their questions. 

She paced to the front desk, tapping the small bell that sat at the desk. The ring echoes through the quiet library, and Carla straightens, waiting for her boss to peek out of a corner. 

"So, that means these murders predate Eleven and the Upside Down by about thirty years?" Robin continues talking as her and Nancy follow after Carla, stopping when they too reach the front desk.

Nancy hits the bell again. "Yeah." 

"Which makes spooky Victor Creel like seventy years old." 

Another bell ring. "Yep." 

Robin leans her elbow against the desk, putting her chin in the palm of her hand. "So...he's a grandpa murderer who can turn invisible and lift people into the air."

Carla shrugs. "At this point, it makes more sense than anything that's ever happened to us."

"I told you, it was a shot in the dark." Nancy repeats what she'd told the two girls. Her idea was nowhere near complete, but she just needed to look further into Victor Creel's case. Growing slightly irritated, she presses the bell for a third time.

"I know." Robin says as the Wheeler rings the bell, "I just thought that by 'shot in the dark' you were being modest or hiding something super solid up your sleeve that you were gonna wow us with later." Nancy presses the bell twice more and Carla can sense her irritation with the Buckley growing. "But this is really, truly, a shot in the dark." 

Having spent part of her summer at Scoops Ahoy, as well as the Buckley becoming one of her close friends over the school year, Carla was used to Robin Buckley and her rambles. She was used to the girl talking beyond where she should have stopped, spilling what she doesn't need to spill, adding on to points that already have bulleted lists.

Nancy, however, isn't, and Carla can easily tell she's growing more annoyed by the second with Robin's words. She knew  Victor Creel was in his seventies in an asylum, and she knew this plan was a shot in the dark, a weak attempt at trying to get information, but could Robin just shut her mouth? 

"Like, we are snipers with blindfolds on who've been spun around fifty times." Robin continues to ramble on. 

Nancy begins to jam her finger into the bell the same way Dustin continuously rang Reefer Rick's doorbell, irritation growing by the minute. 

The ringing persists and Carla smacks her sister's hand away. "Jesus, Nance—"

"Coming!" A sing-song voice echoes, though Carla can hear the slight bit of annoyance in it due to the obnoxious ringing. Marissa comes around the corner, a stack of books in her hands—as always. She spots her employee and warmly smiles. "Carla, honey. I'm glad you seem to be feeling better."

Carla smiles at her boss, recalling the excuse she'd used yesterday to get off her shift. "Oh, yeah. I don't know what hit me, but I guess I just needed a day of rest. Thank you for letting me off again, Marissa." 

"It was no problem, honey." Marissa smiles back before glancing at the other two girls with Carla. "What can I do for you girls today?"

Nancy comes forward. "Could we get the keys to the basement archives?"

"Of course." Marissa puts her glasses on and turns around. "Give me one sec."

Carla smiles as best she can. "Thank you." 

Marissa walks away and Robin suddenly whips around to face Nancy, "Did I come off mean or condescending or something?"

Nancy's jaw clenches, but she says, "No."

"Right." 

Carla tunes out her friend's conversation, nails clicking against the desk as she awaits Marissa to return. She aimlessly looks around the library, eyes drifting over the shelves full of books and the quiet, studious atmosphere.

As her gaze wanders around, it lands on a tall, bony man standing near one of the bookcases. He has a hand outstretched, finger grazing the spine of a book. He has high cheekbones and short blonde hair, a brown suit and a hat. His appearance is rather striking, almost out of place in the mundane setting of the library.

But, the weirdest part about him is when Carla looks at the man, he's already looking at her. Piercing blue eyes locked on her brown ones with an unsettling about of intensity. 

As soon as they lock eyes, he lifts his hand and gives a friendly wave, a smile playing at the corners of his lips. 

The smile does nothing to make Carla feel less weird—it actually makes her feel weirder. Who the hell was this guy and why was he being so creepy?

To be nice, Carla awkwardly smiles and gives a hesitant wave back. Maybe he was just a socially awkward guy; didn't realize how hard he was staring.

Before she can do anything else about the situation, there's a jingling of keys and Marissa is back at the front desk. The Wheeler looks away from the man and at the librarian. "Alright, ladies. Here you go." Carla takes the keys. "Have fun."

"Yep." Nancy has a tight smile. "We'll try." 

The Wheeler girl stalks off towards the basement, and Robin shrugs at Marissa before following along. Carla smiles at her boss, "Sorry about her. She's had a....day." 

Marissa doesn't seem to care. "We all have them sometimes."

Carla starts walking towards the basement, glancing back at the bookshelf only to see that the man was gone.

Huh. 

Carla has been reading newspaper articles for God knows how long.

The moment they reached the basement, Nancy stole the keys and started hunting. She scanned through newspaper and newspaper, giving Robin and Carla a stack of their own to start hunting through for any details or information that could help them out—the Wheeler isn't sure what information, exactly, but she can tell her sister is tense and takes her stack to go and search anyways. 

For the past few hours, machines have been whirring and Carla has been reading the same words, each just a paraphrase of the other. Every article from every journalist or newspaper held the same sentences, same information.

Police, neighbors, everyone said the exact same thing. 

Victor Creel was a normal guy, his wife was a sweet woman, his kids were abundant. Nothing was ever off putting about them. They were an every day nuclear family living in a small town until Victor just snapped. 

The Creels were found eyeless, and Victor went to Pennhurst on a plea deal, to which he still is.....supposedly. 

Carla's eyes are tired and sore from reading the same black font from the screen. The idea of searching about Victor Creel seemed promising at first, but now, it almost seemed like a waste of the day. A day they should have spent trying to stop Vecna—but instead, the Wheeler spent hunched over in a seat reading.

She hopes Max, Dustin, and Steve are having more luck than they are.

"Anything.....juicy yet?" Robin's voice breaks the pool of silence the three girls had been sitting in. Her patience is wearing thin, and she sits with her chin on her knee. 

From across from her, Nancy sighs. "Nothing new."

"Same bullshit as the last time you asked." Carla huffs, knee bouncing up and down to keep herself stimulated. At first, it had been interesting to look into the Creel case, but it had grown old rather fast. 

"Yup," Robin pops the 'p',  before rallying off the same information that the Wheeler twins had been reading about. "Same here. Victor seemed like a normal guy. Dead family, missing eyes, took a plea deal, sent to Pennhurst." She drags, "Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." 

Carla sighs and puts her head into her hands.

"What are we looking for, exactly?" Robin's chair creaks as she leans to the side to look at Nancy's face. However, the girl doesn't reply, and the Buckley knocks on the side of the microfilm reader separating them to grab her attention. "Nance?" 

Nancy leans to the side with a forced polite smile.

"Any mentions of dark wizards or alternate dimensions? Things in that vein?"

"I don't know, okay?!" the Wheeler exasperatedly shakes her head, tired of Robin's constant questions. At the moment, she'd rather be stuck with Steve because at least Carla could answer his questions instead. She pushes her chair back and paces across the room, losing her polite persona. "It's starting to seem like this was just a big waste of time."

Carla opens her mouth, "No, Nance, I'm sure—"

"Don't bullshit me, Carla." Nancy huffs, before pointing at Robin, "You're obviously bored, and we both know that Steve is whining to Dustin because he doesn't have his arm around your—" she points at her sister, "—waist, so why don't you two just call him and I'm sure he'll come pick both of you up." She scoffs, "I'm not really in any danger here, so...." 

The Wheeler's boots click against the stairs as she goes down.

Nancy's bluntness isn't unwarranted. Carla will admit, her and Robin haven't been that helpful. The Wheeler had stopped focusing on paragraphs a while ago and the Buckley was already on thin ice with the Wheeler as it was with how much she'd opened her mouth. 

But, Carla wanted to help. 

"Nancy, I didn't come to make Steve stop worrying—I came because I wanted to help." Carla follows her sister down the stairs, watching as the girl opened a drawer to look at film reels. "So did Robin." 

Nancy barely skims over the name of the film before discarding it and picking up another. She keeps her lips pursed.

Carla crosses her arms over her chest, raising a brow. "Is there something you want to talk to me about?" 

Nancy seemed tense around her sister suddenly, and Carla couldn't help but feel like she had done something wrong. 

"Look, I'm sorry if I haven't done much—"

Nancy huffs, "It has nothing to do with you personally, Carla, okay? Today has been shit and this library has nothing to help, and Robin hasn't shut her mouth since we got here—"

As if on cue, Robin comes barreling down the stairs, looking between the two sisters with wide eyes. A smile creeps onto her face. "Hey, I just had a good thought and I think it could get us more on this whole Victor Creel story." 

Carla turns around to look at the blonde. "What's your thought?"

Robin brushes past the two Wheeler's over to one of the drawers, the letter 'W' above it. Opening the drawer, she scans for a tape before pulling one out. "The Weekly Watcher. I didn't think they'd have it, but here it is." 

Nancy glances at the Buckley. "Don't they write about, like, Bigfoot and UFO's?"

"First of all, UFO's are absolutely real. Bigfoot I am still on the fence about but may I remind you that we are looking for information on dark wizards." Robin comes towards the girls, a film reel clutched in her hand, chipped nails tapping it excitedly. "If someone's gonna write about that, it's gonna be these weirdos."

Carla shrugs. The Weekly Watcher was known for its wacky articles and topics, but maybe that was exactly what they needed. "I mean, the Hawkins Post isn't going to write about that kind of shit, but...."

Nancy snatches the tape in Robin's hands and rushes back upstairs, Carla and the Buckley following suit. She puts the tape in the microfilm reader and the trio leans forward to lean the text on the screen.

The first title reads 'Elvis Cloned By Aliens'.

Promising. 

"Ah, 'Elvis Cloned By Aliens'." Nancy remarks with a small smile, finding the article to be already nonsense. 

Robin shrugs, "You ever know."

Nancy paces away, hands on her hips. Carla stands behind the Buckley, watching as she twisted the knob to file through the different articles. She skims over plenty before halting on a bolded title, a giant smirk growing on her freckled face.

"'Victor Creel claims vengeful demon killed family'." Robin bellows, deep and over enthusiastic  voice mocking that of a dramatic narrator. "'The murder that shocked a small community.'"

Carla's eyes widen as she reads over the title herself. Somehow, this seemed more credible than any of the other articles they'd read—vengeful demon? Carla immediately connected that to the creature who was behind Chrissy and Fred's similar killings.

Since she wasn't next to the two, Nancy assumes the Buckley is just messing around and sarcastically muses. "Ha, ha. That's very funny." 

"She's not kidding, Nance." Carla shakes her head, ushering her sister over with her hand. "Come here."

Nancy perks up and crosses over, brows furrow as she looks at the article Robin had pulled up. The Buckley reads out loud as the other two teens skim through, "According to several insiders, Victor believed his house was haunted by an ancient demon. Victor allegedly hired a priest to exercise the demon from his home." She muses. "Pretty novel for the '50's. Exorcist wasn't even out yet." 

Nancy still holds some hesitance but urges, "Keep...keep going."

Robin twists the knob and the article moves on to the next page, "Okay, so Victor claimed this exoticism failed but it angered this demon, which then murdered his family, removing their eyes. Victor believed he was spared as a punishment."

"That was pretty convenient for Victor..."

"Yeah, or super inconvenient." the Buckley argues, voice more serious as she starts to connect everything. "Victor was declared legally insane by the court, right? What if this is why?" 

Carla thinks to everything they told Eddie, which sounded just as insane as whatever Victor Creel would have told the judge. "It sounds just as insane as the shit we told Eddie. Any judge would have sent him straight to Pennhurst. But, it didn't go public because of the plea bargain."

Nancy recalls, "The records were sealed." 

"What if a demon did invade Victor's home?" Robin inquires, "It's just, this demon wasn't any old demon."

"It was Vecna." 

Carla smiles—so much for a 'shot in the dark'. 

They'd hit the jackpot. 

mara's misc!

low-key i don't like this chapter that much! it's kinda short and it feels eh. 

BUT since it's my 3rd anniversary and since i haven't updated in about a month, i found it fitting to update this fic!! carla is really my first baby and she's what started me up so i feel like she deserved an update today of all days. (also a little appreciation for GhostWriterGirl-1 bc if it wasn't for me joining wp i legit would have never met her which is wild bc she's such a good friend???? go follow her PLEASE)

also i cannot remember if i said anything yet but i am NOT ruining starla this season!! nope, nope, nope!! BUT i will be including some of the nancy tension to keep the plot involved, but for a totally different reason. she's not jealous of carla for having steve, she's jelaous/envious of their relationship because to her, they're a much more perfect couple compared to her and jonathan who seem to be failing. that's it.

i have a bad urge to write the og starla argument that led to them breaking up someone stop me :D

anywho next chapter is wild.

hope you enjoyed <3 see you back with chapter 8!!