Chapter 29

They’re all back in the car, theorizing about what just happened. There was an unbearable tension in the air that made Sofia want to sleep until everything ended. She just wanted out.

“Where are you guys sleeping today? You can stay in my house again if you want” Nancy asks the group.

“I need to take a shower asap, so I’m going home” Sofia says, with Robin’s head on her shoulder, because they’re tired, too tired.

“I’m with her” Robin says, so casually that made Sofia smile.

“How about the rest?” Nancy asks, fighting the urge to make a suggestive comment.

“I don’t think I want to go home right now, my mom’s gonna kill me” Lucas says, sighing.

“We could sleep in the basement again” Dustin suggests, wanting to be with the group.

“Yeah, I bet it was real comfy for you” Max says, sarcastically.

“Max, you can sleep in my room if you want” Nancy suggests, a kind smile on her lips.

“Sure, thanks” Max says, giving her a weak smile.

“I’ll stay with you guys” Steve says, wanting to keep everyone safe, and to be next to Nancy, too.

Nancy drops Sofia and Robin off. 

“Don’t forget to bring clothes” Dustin tells Sofia, as she gets out of the car. She gives him a thumbs up and walks to the door.

Sofia opens the door and calls for her mother. She locks the door and leaves the keys on the door. Robin turns on the kitchen light and Sofia walks to the counter, where a note is placed.

I’m out because of work, but I’ll be home tomorrow by lunch. Be safe!

Love, mom 🙂

Sofia smiles at the note. “So… no mother huh?” Robin says, with a teasing smile, as she holds Sofia by the waist.

“Yeah” Sofia says, wrapping her arms around Robin’s neck. “Why?” she asks, flirting back.

Robin chuckles and kisses Sofia on the lips. They keep kissing, slow and gently. It feels too good, too calm, too real.

“I really… should go… shower” Sofia says, between kisses.

Robin lets her go, leaving a huge smile on both girls’ faces.

“You know, it’s kinda weird that we’re making out like an hour after being in this creepy haunted house” Sofia shouts from her bedroom, as Robin looks in the kitchen cabinets for something to cook.

“The power of love is a curious thing” Robin sings in response, focused on the cabinets.

“Ooh Back to the Future” Sofia says, chuckling, walking back into the kitchen with two towels in her hand. “I really should get the soundtrack on cassette”

“You should… do you want pasta or scrambled eggs?” Robin asks, feeling very hungry all of a sudden.

“Pasta please” Sofia responds, her eyes lighting up at the thought.

“Should’ve guessed” Robin says, grabbing the ingredients.

“I’m gonna shower, shout if you get on fire!” Sofia says, heading out of the kitchen and into the bathroom.

In the shower, Sofia feels exhausted. She feels tired, and she cries, because she doesn’t know how else to react. It’s all too much.

Cher is gone, Max soon gone too. It can’t be real, her brain can’t process the idea of death. Her body doesn’t know what else to do but to cry.

After taking the long-awaited shower, Robin and Sofia have dinner. They’re both extremely exhausted and tired, so they don’t even clean the dishes.

They walk directly to Sofia’s room, and Robin goes to take a quick shower. She noticed Sofia’s feeling down, but doesn’t really know what to do to help her.

She comes back in her spare pajamas and with wet hair. “Have I told you that you look very pretty with wet hair?” Sofia asks Robin, as she watches the girl brush her hair.

Robin smiles, gets up and sits in bed. “And have I told you that you’re very pretty? Like, all the time?”

“I don’t know, maybe” Sofia jokes and kisses Robin.

After a pause, as Robin gets under the sheets, she speaks up again. “This whole thing is such a mess” she sighs.

“Yeah, I know… and scary” Sofia says. They’re now both lying down and facing each other. Sofia’s eyebags are more noticeable than ever.

“Really scary. It feels so weird, like I’m living inside a scary movie, but it’s only the beginning so we don’t know who the killer is” Robin says, trying to put her feelings into words.

“I mean, we know who the killer is… we just don’t know how, why, since when…” Sofia jokes, making Robin chuckle.

“You’re such a dingus” Robin says and Sofia responds with a fake shocked face.

“But we’ll get through this… together” Sofia says, and she sounds sure of it, but right now everything’s confusing.

“Together” Robin whispers, smiling, kissing her on the forehead.

Sofia smiles and moves closer to Robin, cuddling. Her warmth is the most stable thing in her life right now.

“Goodnight love” Sofia whispers, trying to register everything: Robin’s smell, warmth, touch; because the moment won’t last, and things may be shitty, but she knows Robin will help her with her baggage, just like she helps her too.

” ‘Night Sof” Robin whispers back, feeling her mind shutting.

Sofia’s walking around in Hawkins Middle School. She hasn’t been there for ages. The lights are out and she’s alone. There’s a bit of sunlight outside, so it must be late in the afternoon.

She can hear a choir of girls singing old songs. She looks at a door that says “Debate Team”. Weird, there wasn’t a debate team in middle school.

She opens the door and it’s all dark. She leaves the door open while trying to find a light switch. She’s walking around the room with her hand on the wall, in hopes of feeling the light switch.

Suddenly, her hand brushes on something liquid. She takes her hand off and smells it. It doesn’t have a smell. The door closes by itself, making Sofia scream. The lights start to flicker, and she can see blood on the wall.

Blood dripping from the ceiling to the ground, running down the walls.

The lights stop flickering and the room becomes dark again. She runs to the door, almost tripping a couple of times.

She tries to open the door but it’s locked. She starts screaming for help, banging on the door. She began crying due to the stress. Dark is her number one greatest fear. What’s going on.

Unexpectedly, the lights turned back on. She slowly turns around, breathing heavily. She was scared to death of turning around and seeing something she didn’t want to see, but she had to get out of this room.

As she turns around, she spots Dustin on the floor. She runs to him, only to find him covered in blood.

It was like he had been stabbed. Stabbed a million times. All over his body. His lips were sewed together, and his eyes were black. Pitch black. Dark.

She started screaming for help and crying in despair. This couldn’t be happening. Not Dustin. 

“Sofia!” a voice screams. She recognizes the voice but can’t remember who it is.

She ignores the voice and keeps trying to wake Dustin up. He’s still breathing a bit. If only he woke up.

“SOF!” Robin screams, waking Sofia up.

Sofia looked at Robin, confused. She felt her face wet – she must have been crying.

“What happened?” Sofia asks, sitting up, feeling sweaty.

“You were crying like crazy a-and screaming a bit” Robin says with her eyes filled with worry.

“Sorry…” Sofia whispers. She starts thinking about her nightmare. Why would she dream about Dustin? Could it be a wake-up call? Is he in danger? Is he not safe? Did something happen to him?

“Dustin…” she whispers and picks up the phone. 

“Who are you calling? It’s 6am” Robin says.

“I gotta check on Dustin” Sofia says, dialing the Wheeler’s phone number, in distress. 

Robin can’t understand her, and that is scary.

After ringing a couple of times, a sleepy Nancy picks up. “Hello?” Nancy says.

“Nance, hi, can you pass the phone to Dustin?” Sofia asks, anxiously. She knew he was most likely okay, but there were some intrusive thoughts telling her otherwise. She needed to be sure.

“You know what time it is?” Nancy asks, a bit annoyed.

“I know and I’m sorry but could you just… please, pass the phone to Dustin” Sofia says.

“Alright, wait a minute” Nancy says, sounding a little bit annoyed, but also understanding.

She waits for a moment, hearing silence. Deafening silence.

“Hello?” a sleepy Dustin says, after waiting for a while.

“Hi” Sofia says, full of relief, breathing out heavily.

“You know it’s 6am, right?” Dustin asks.

“Yeah, I know… I just wanted to ask you… if you think green and grey matches?” Sofia makes it up on the spot, trying not to cry.

“What?” 

“You know, for the clothes I’m bringing you” Sofia says with a soft voice, eyes teary with relief.

Dustin sighs and decides to be sarcastic. “Everything other than a clown costume is fine”.

“Ok… sleep well” Sofia says, smiling still.

“You too” Dustin says back and hangs up.

Sofia slowly puts the phone down. She tells Robin about her dream, and they come to the conclusion that it was just an anxiety dream. 

“Sorry for waking you up” Sofia whispers, as they decide to go back to sleep.

“Stop apologizing…” Robin whispers, smiling tenderly, giving her a kiss on her forehead.

“I love you for being able to calm me down even though you’re also stressing out” Sofia whispers, a smile in her voice, making Robin chuckle.

“I love you too” Robin says, proud of being able to say it with no worries now.

Sofia lies on Robin’s chest, as she always does when she’s nervous. Robin’s heartbeat calms her down. It’s stable, unlike her mind.

After a while, they fall back asleep.

The group is now on Nancy’s car, on their way to meet Eddie. Sofia and Robin are on the trunk, Steve is in the passenger seat, Nancy is driving, and the 3 kids are on the backseats.

Everyone’s in new clothes and feeling a bit better. But still scared, still lost, still doomed.

Sofia’s dressed in black jeans, a white shirt and a teal denim jacket, while Robin is looking a little too good.

“Not to be a wimp, but can I sit in the car? ‘Cause this is gonna totally and royally suck” Robin says.

“It’ll be fine” Nancy says.

“I can’t stand to see those dull eyes of Eddie’s break again. I really, really can’t” Robin says.

“At least he can drink himself into feeling better” Steve jokes.

“That’s what my mom does” Max says, making Sofia look at the girl with worry.

“Why don’t we give it a trial?” Robin says.  “Hey, Eddie. Uh, good news first this time. We got you some Dustin-approved junk food and that six-pack you requested. Oh yeah, and we found Vecna. Bad news is that he’s in that other, darker, much scarier dimension, and the gate’s closed,
so we have no way of getting to him. He’s entirely shut off to us, so basically you’re screwed. And, no, I know you were already screwed, but now you’re doubly, triply screwed.”

“Wait. Maybe we don’t put it like that” Lucas says.

“We’re one step closer to finding Vecna. That’s what we say. That’s what’s important” Nancy says.

“See, Robin? Positive spin can make all the difference” Steve says, full of food on his mouth. 

Robin rolls her eyes. “Shut up” Sofia says, feeling protective, feeling tired.

“Oh shit” Nancy says. Everybody looks to the street, seeing it filled with cop cars and news reporters.

They get out of the car and start listening to the Chief. He talks about a homicide that happened in the lake, and says Patrick McKinney was the victim. Sofia and Robin both had classes with him, but they didn’t really like him, so it was easy to sink in.

“We have also identified a person of interest” the Chief keeps talking. “Eddie Munson”.

Hearing him say Eddie’s name made Sofia’s heart drop. Now they are completely screwed. The group looked at each other in worry.

“This is not good. Really not good” Steve says.

“Dustin, can you hear me? Wheeler?” Eddie’s voice suddenly comes from the walkie. 

Dustin quickly gets the walkie from his backpack. “Eddie. Holy shit. Are you okay?” he asks.

“Nah, man. Pretty… Pretty goddamn far from okay” Eddie responds.

“Where is he?” Robin and Sofia ask Dustin at the same time.

“Where are you?” Dustin asks Eddie.

“Skull Rock. Do you know it?” Eddie responds.

“Uh, yeah. That’s near Cornwallis and…” Dustin says.

“Garrett, yeah. I know where that is” Steve says.

“Hold tight. We’re coming. We’re coming” Dustin says.

They all rush to the car and Nancy quickly drives.

Nancy pulls up and they start walking through the forest. Sofia’s walking with Dustin and Steve, still with her nightmare on her mind.

“Dude, I’m telling you, you’re taking us the wrong way” Steve says.

“It’s north. I’m positive. I checked the map” Dustin says, looking at his compass.

“You do realize Skull Rock, it’s a super popular make-out spot?” Steve says.

“Yeah. So?” Dustin asks.

“Yeah, well, it wasn’t popular until I made it popular. All right? I practically invented it. We’re heading in the wrong direction” Steve says, walking the other way.

“Steve” Dustin calls. “Where are you going? Steve!”

“Stop whining. Let’s go. Trust me” Steve says, so Sofia rushes to catch up. She looks behind to make sure everyone’s following.

“I’ve never been to Scull Rock” Sofia says, thinking out loud.

“No shit” Steve says.

“Mean!” Sofia complains, giving him a shove.

“Oh, boom! Bada bing, bada boom. There she is, Henderson. Skull Rock” Steve says, after they’ve been walking for a couple of minutes. “In your face, man. In your stupid, cocky little face”

“Doesn’t make sense” Dustin says, confused.

“Yeah, yeah. Even with it staring you in the face, you can’t admit it. Can’t admit you’re wrong, you butthead” Steve says.

“Butthead?” Sofia asks, joking with Steve.

“I concur” Eddie says, making Sofia jump in place because of his sudden appearance. “You, Dustin Henderson, are a… total butthead”

“Jesus, we thought you were a goner” Dustin says, hugging Eddie.

“Yeah, me too, man. Me too” Eddie says, patting Dustin on his back.

They give the beers and the food to Eddie. Then, he starts explaining what happened.

“When I got to the shore, I tried calling you guys, but, uh… My walkie was busted, man. Drenched. So, uh, I did the thing that I do now, apparently. I ran” Eddie explains, ending with a chuckle.

“Do you know what time this was? The attack?” Nancy asks.

“Yeah, no, I… I know exactly what time it was. My walkie wasn’t the only thing that got soaked” Eddie says, taking off his watch and throwing it to Nancy.

“9:27” Nancy reads from the watch.

“Same time our flashlights went kablooey” Robin points out.

“Which means what, exactly?” Steve asks.

“That that surge of energy was Vecna attacking Patrick” Nancy explains, throwing the watch back to Eddie.

“Well, we’re one step closer. We know how Vecna attacks” Robin says.

“And where he attacks from” Lucas adds.

“So now we just need to sneak into his lair in the Upside Down and drive a stake through his heart” Max says.

“If he has a heart” Robin says.

“A stake? Is he like a vamp? Is he a vampire?” Steve asks, alarmed.

“It was a metaphor” Max explains.

“A bullet should work on him, right?” Eddie asks.

“I say we chop his head off” Lucas says.

“We could, like… burn him alive” Sofia adds.

“Yeah, I’d say all of the above, but we can’t do any of that ’til we find a way into the upside down” Nancy says.

“We need El to get her powers back” Max says and Sofia nods.

“Everything was way easier” Steve says, turning to Eddie. “We had this girl. She had superpowers”

“Superpowers. Yeah, you mentioned her” Eddie says. “Hey, uh, Henderson’s not, uh, cursed, is he?”

They all turn their heads to look at Dustin, who’s pacing back and forth, concentrated on his compass. 

“Cursed? No, no. He’s fine” Steve says. “Mental? Absolutely”

“Pretty much runs in the family” Sofia jokes, but not really.

“Boom!” Dustin yells, making everyone look at him confused. “Bada… bada… boom. I was right. Skull Rock was north”

“Seriously? You’re serious?” Steve asks him.

“Mm-hmm” Dustin nods.

“This is Skull Rock. Okay? You’re totally, absolutely, 100% wrong. Right now” Steve says, starting to get mad.

“Yes… and no” Dustin says.

“Oh my God” Sofia mumbles, thinking her brother had actually gone crazy. 

“This worked correctly when we left the Wheelers’. Correct when we got in the car on Curly. But it started to slip the further east we went. Now it’s way off. When I was leading us here, I wasn’t wrong. The compass was” Dustin explains.

“So you’re using faulty equipment. You’re still wrong” Steve says.

“Except it isn’t faulty” Dustin says and turns to Lucas. “Lucas, remember what can affect a compass?”

“An electromagnetic field” Lucas answers.

“Yep” Dustin agrees.

“Sorry. I must’ve skipped that class” Robin says, confused.

“In the presence of a stronger electromagnetic field, the needle will deflect towards that power” Dustin explains. “So either there’s some super big magnet around here, or…”

“There’s a gate” Lucas says.

“But we’re nowhere near the lab” Nancy points out.

“But what if, somehow, there’s another gate? A gate that we don’t know about. It’d have to be smaller. Way less powerful” Dustin explains.

“Snack-size gate” Robin says, making Sofia smile.

“How? Why?” Steve asks.

“No idea. All I know is that something is causing this disturbance, and the last time we’ve seen
anything like it, it was a gate. And I hope it is because then we’d have a way to Vecna. And a shot at freeing Max from this curse” Dustin says and begins to walk away.

“Where are you going?” Steve asks, making Dustin stop. “Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Eddie’s still a wanted man. We can’t just go hike in the woods”

“This little steel capsule might be the key to saving both Max and Eddie. What say you, Eddie the Banished?” Dustin asks Eddie.

“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. So Mordor it is” Eddie says, getting up, ready to go.

“What is Mordor?” Steve asks. Sofia softly pats him on the back in response.

They walked for a long time. A really long time. They’ve only stopped a couple of times.

The walk was mostly silent. Sofia and Robin hummed some songs together, always ending in laughs, trying not to lose their minds.

“Hey, did you know Stephen King is releasing a new book this year?” Sofia asks Max.

“Really? What’s it called?” Max asked. Sofia had recommended Max to read ‘Carrie’, and she loved it so much it became her favorite book. They now share their Stephen King books and spend some time talking about them.

“It’s called “It”. It seems really cool. It’s about a killer clown and this group of kids that needs to fight him” Sofia explains.

“Sounds interesting” Max says.

“It’s being published in September and he’s gonna do this big presentation of the book the day it comes out, from what I’ve heard. You could come with me… oh, and Robin too. It’s in New York, but I can get us real cheap buses” Sofia says.

“New York? My mother would never let me” Max says.

“Come onnn, talk to her! Robin’s 18, I’ll be basically 18 too and you’ll be… 16! I’ll even pay for you” Sofia says, hoping to convince Max.

“Okay, I’ll try!” Max says, smiling.

The sky is already dark and filled with stars. Dustin suddenly starts sprinting, catching everyone off guard.

“Dustin? Can you slow down? Dustin?” Eddie yells.

“I think we’re getting close” Dustin says.

“Watch your step, big guy” Eddie says, holding Dustin by his shoulder, as they’ve reached Lover’s Lake.

“Oh man. You gotta be shitting me” Steve mumbles.

“I thought these woods were familiar” Eddie says.

“Lover’s Lake” Robin says. Sofia looks at the girl with a smirk on her face, only to find her doing the exact same thing.

“This is confounding” Dustin says.

“There’s a gate in Lover’s Lake?” Max asks.

“Whenever the Demogorgon attacked, it always left an opening” Nancy explains. “Maybe Vecna’s the same way”

“Yeah, only one way to find out” Steve says.

Luckly, Eddie had left the little boat there. They pick it up and leave it close to the water.

Steve and Eddie are kneeling next to the boat, each on one side. Robin’s the first one to get on the boat, using the guys’ heads as support.

Then, Robin extends her hand to help Sofia get on the boat. “Milady” Robin says, smiling, helping Sofia in. They carefully sit down.

Next, Eddie and Nancy got in the boat. Then, Dustin tried to get in. “Hey, hey, hey, you trying to sink us? This thing holds four people tops, okay?” Eddie says, sitting down.

“It’s better this way, okay? You guys stay here with Max. Keep an eye out for trouble” Nancy says.

“You keep an eye out” Dustin says, rudely.

“Dusty!” Sofia says, in a what-the-fuck tone.

“It’s my goddamn theory” Dustin says, offended.

“You heard Nance” Robin says.

“Who put her in charge?” Dustin asks.

“I did” Sofia says.

“Compass” Nancy says, and Dustin gives it to her.

“Hey, there you go” Steve throws the backpack to Dustin and gets in the boat.

“You said four!” Dustin says.

“Sorry” Steve whispers.

“Be safe!” Sofia shouts. “Please, don’t be stupid” she adds, not being able to stress it enough. She knew he’d be safer there, but it still made her anxious to be far from him, considering her nightmare.

“Bedtime at nine, kiddos. Miss you already!” Robin shouts, waving goodbye to them, making Sofia laugh. 

After rowing for a while, the compass starts going crazy. They stop the boat and look at it.

“Guys, what’s going on?” they hear Dustin’s voice through the walkie-talkie. “Come on, talk to me. What’s going on?”

“Uh, Dustin, your compass has gone from wonky to wonky with a capital ‘aah!'” Robin says, to which Sofia smiles, because how could she not.

Out of nowhere, Steve starts taking his socks off. “Steve, what are you doing?” Nancy asks.

“Somebody’s gotta go down and check this out” Steve says. “Unless one of you three can top being a Hawkins High swim co-captain and a certified lifeguard for three years, then… It’s gotta be me. No complaints, all right?”

“Hey, I’m not complaining. I do not wanna go down there” Eddie says.

Steve takes his shirt off, and Nancy can’t stop looking at him. Robin and Sofia try their best to not laugh.

“Oh my god, when did you get so hairy?!” Sofia asks, finding it disgusting.

“I forgot to tell you, he’s letting it grow… you know, for the babes” Robin jokes, quietly, but still loud enough for him to hear.

“Haha, very funny” Steve says, sarcastically.

“Good luck” Eddie says, handing the walkie-talkie inside a plastic bag to Steve.

“Thanks” Steve says.

Eddie grabs a cigarette and tries to light it up, but Robin snatches it out of his hand. “Gross”

“Don’t you like… smoke weed?” Eddie asks the girl, looking confused.

“That’s different” Robin says, not up for the confrontation.

“Steve?” Nancy calls. “Be careful”.

Steve jumps into the water. “Now we wait” Eddie says, leaning back.

“Now we wait” Sofia repeats, letting out a sigh.

After some seconds of silence, Eddie speaks up again. “So… are you two like, dating or something?” Eddie asks Robin and Sofia. 

He caught them completely off guard. They became even more nervous. Are they not hiding it right? If he knew, could other people know?

Robin and Sofia share a look and look back at Eddie. “We… W-we are, yes. But if you tell anyone we’ll murder you” Sofia says.

“Don’t worry dude” Eddie says. Okay, that went well.

“Where we at, Wheeler?” Robin asks, changing the topic because talking about their relationship so openly still makes her nervous, especially for their safety.

“Closing in on a minute” Nancy says, not taking her eyes off the watch.

“Okay” Robin says, looking very nervous.

Suddenly, Steve comes out of the water, making Sofia scream. “I found it!” he says, panting.

“You found it?!” Nancy asks, surprised.

“I found it. Yeah. I found it” Steve says, holding onto the boat.

“Dustin, you are a goddamn Einstein. Steve found the gate” Robin says, excited.

“It’s pretty wild. It’s more a snack-size gate than the mama gate, but still, it’s pretty damn big” Steve explains. 

He suddenly gets pushed underwater. Quickly, he resurfaces. While he looks at the group confused, Sofia grabs one of his hands.

“Come on-” Sofia says but can’t finish her sentence.

Steve gets pushed underwater again, but this time he carries Sofia with him.

______________________________________________

oooh we love a cliffhanger😳

btw, who still remembered Sofia’s afraid of the dark? i haven’t mentioned it in a while

i hope you liked this longer than usual chapter! im trying to add as much fluff as I can cuz my girl Sofia is gonna need some love after all this

anyway, my first day of school is in 2 days and i wanna die lol #junioryear

tbh i have no idea of what to do with myself when i finish writing this fanfic cuz thinking abt this all I do😋

please vote!! love ya <3