Chapter 23

Max was of course the one who went inside to talk to Ms Kelley, since she was one of her students. Ms Kelley let her in the house, and Steve, Dustin and Claudia all waited outside.

“Okay, she’s in,” Steve said as Max walked into the house.

“Duh,” Claudia whispered.

“I’m missing collarbones, not eyes,” Dustin said, making Claudia giggle. “So, we gonna talk about… it?”

“Huh? Sorry, talk about what?”

“Your temporary insanity earlier today when you basically threw yourself at Nance?”

“Okay, first of all, that’s not what happened.”

“Pretty sure that’s what happened,” Claudia said, “It was pretty public, there were a lot of witnesses.”

“Are you guys implying that I still have a thing for Nance?”

“No, we’re not implying,” Dustin said, “We’re stating. And, as it relates to your steadfast refusal to date Robin it’s pretty much the only logical explanation.”

“That’s not the only one,” Claudia and Steve both said in unison.

“And as for Nance,” Steve said, “I was just trying to protect a friend. A friend, Henderson. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“I don’t wanna find her in the morning with her eyes sucked out of the front of her skull by this Vecna creep.”

“You’re, like, bright red in the face right now,” Dustin said, him and Claudia laughed.

“No I’m not. I don’t wanna talk about it. I’ll punch you so hard in the face that your teeth will fall back out.”

“Woah. Too far.”

“Not cool. Sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

They fell into an awkward silence, and Claudia burst out laughing. She suddenly stopped when her head began to pound, and blood dripped from her nose again.

“Woah, woah, Dia,” Steve said, “You okay?”

“Yeah, sorry. Headache,” Claudia said, wiping the blood on the sleeve of the jacket she was wearing, “God, this is Robins jacket, she’s gonna kill me.”

“That looked like a pretty bad headache,” Dustin said.

“No, it’s fine, it’s gone now.”

“You sure?”

“Positive.”

——————————

Max finally ran out of the house, making Steve drive off as fast as he could. As they drove down the road, a voice sounded through Dustin’s walkie. “Dustin. It’s Lucas, do you copy? Dustin.”

“Lucas? Where the hell have you been?” Dustin asked.

“Just listen. Are you guys looking for Eddie?”

“Yeah, and we found him, no thanks to you.”

“You found him?”

“He’s at a boathouse on Coal Mill Road. Don’t worry, he’s safe.”

“You guys know be killed Chrissy, right?”

“That’s bullshit. Eddie tried to save Chrissy.”

“Then why do all the cops say he did it?”

Max snatched the walkie from Dustin. “Lucas, you’re so behind it’s ridiculous, okay? Just meet us at school. We’ll explain later.”

“I can’t. I think some real bad shit’s about to go down.”

“What are you talking about? What bad shit?”

The radio suddenly went static. “He’s with the basketball team,” Claudia said, “That’s what he means by bad shit. They’re gonna kill Eddie.”

“Not if we can help him first,” Dustin said.

“Then we better hurry up.”

——————————

“Dustin do you copy?” Robin asked over the walkie. It was refreshing for Claudia to hear her voice.

“Yeah, I copy.”

“So, Nancy’s a genius. Vecna’s first victims date back all the way to 1959. Her shot in the dark was a bull’s-eye.”

“Okay, that’s totally bonkers, but I can’t really talk right now.”

“Wait, what are you doing?”

“Breaking and entering into school to retrieve some confidential and extremely personal files.”

“Can you repeat that?”

“Just get your ass over here, stat. We’ll explain everything.”

Max unlocked Ms Kelley’s office, but Claudia didn’t go in. “Claudia, come on,” Max said.

“Did you hear that?” Claudia asked.

“Hear what?”

“That clock.”

“No. Now come on.”

“Max, I’m serious, there was a clock-“

“Yeah, it’s a school,” Steve said.

Claudia rolled her eyes at her friends, walking into the office. Max opened the draw, looking through the files. “Holy shit,” she said.

“You find it?” Steve asked.

“Yeah, and not just Chrissy’s file. Fred was seeing Ms Kelley too.”

“So, to conclude, he preys on the depressed?” Claudia asked.

“We don’t know that,” Dustin said.

“We will soon.”

Max sat down with the file, but before she could look in it, she zoned out. “Max? What is it? Max! Max!”

Claudia waved her hand in front of her face. “I told you something was up with this place, man!”

Max suddenly came to her senses, breaking out of her trance-like state. Robin and Nancy were quick to show up.

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

“That’s not even the bad part,” Max said. They headed back to the office to look in the files again. “Fred and Chrissy, they both came to Ms Kelley for help. Uh, they both were having headaches bad headaches that wouldn’t go away. And then the nightmares, trouble sleeping, they’d wake up in a cold sweat, and then they started seeing things. Bad things. From their pasts. And these vision, they just, they kept on getting worse and worse, until eventually… everything ended.”

“Vecna’s curse.”

“Chrissy’s headache started a week ago. Fred, 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 twenty four hours after their first vision, and I just saw that goddamn clock, so… looks like I’m gonna die tomorrow.”

There was a dead silence, until Robin decided to have another look at the folders. Nose bleeds. “Claudia…” she said.

“What?”

A drip fell again from Claudia’s nose. Steve, Max and Dustin recalled what she’d said earlier about the clock sound. “Shit.”

“What? What’s up?” Claudia wiped the blood away. Robin stood up, taking a hold of her hands. “Wait. Shit.”