Chapter 24

It’s already dark outside when they pull up at Rick’s house. Dustin rings the bell and waits for an answer. Not hearing anything, he rings more rapidly.

“Okay. Well, that’s settled. I guess he’s not here” Steve says, wanting to go home.

“Eddie! It’s Dustin!” he yells.

“Great” Steve complains.

“Look, we just wanna talk, okay? No cops, I swear. We just wanna help. Eddie!” Dustin keeps yelling.

“Shh”

“Rick! Reefer Rick!” Dustin yells again.

“Don’t scream that” Steve complains.

“Rick!”

“He’s not there. He could just be really high” Steve points out, making Sofia chuckle.

She starts following Max, who’s looking around. Sofia notices how different Lovers Lake looks at night. It looks creepy, but her mind’s too foggy to care.

“Hey, guys?” Max says, seeing a barn.

They walk up to the barn and Robin slowly opens the door. “Hello? Is anyone home?” she says.

“What a dump” Steve points out.

Sofia slightly jumps when she hears Steve hitting the tarp with an oar. She looks at him confused but keeps looking around, following Robin and Max.

“Hey, look over here” Max says, pointing her flashlight at leftover food. “Someone was here”.

“Maybe he heard us. Got spooked and ran” Robin says.

“Don’t worry. Steve will get him with his oar” Dustin says sarcastically, making Sofia smile.

“I know you think you’re being funny, but considering everyone in this room has nearly died a hundred times,” Steve starts saying, “personally, I don’t find it funny in the slight..”

Eddie suddenly jumps from under the tarp, pushes Steve against a wall, and puts a knife by his neck. Sofia screams of surprise and holds Robin’s hand, out of instinct.

“Eddie! Eddie! Stop!” Dustin yells. “Eddie! Eddie! It’s me. It’s Dustin. This is Steve. He’s not gonna hurt you, right, Steve?”

“Right. Yeah”

“Steve, why don’t you drop the oar?” Dustin suggests and Steve looks confused for a second but does it anyway. When the oar hits the floor, it makes Eddie flinch.

“He’s cool. He’s cool. I’m cool, man. I’m cool” Steve whispers.

“What are you doing here?” Eddie asks. He sounds disturbed.

“We’re looking for you” Sofia says, just wanting the situation to end. “We’re here to help” Robin adds. Eddie looks at them strangely.

“Eddie, these are my friends. You know Robin, from band” Dustin says, and Robin imitates playing her instrument, which soffens Sofia’s grip on her hand.

“This is my friend Max. The one who never wants to play D&D” Dustin says. “And that’s my sister, who keeps using the Hellfire shirt because she thinks it’s cute”

“Eddie. We’re on your side” Dustin says. “I swear on my mother! Right, guys?”

“Yes. Yes. We swear” Max says.

“On Dustin’s mother” Robin says.

“Yeah, on my mother” Sofia joins.

Eddie finally let’s go of Steve. As Dustin moves closer to Eddie, Sofia and Robin check on Steve to see if he was hurt. Gladly, he wasn’t.

“Eddie… We just want to talk. Okay? We want to know what happened” Dustin says as he crouches.

“You won’t believe me” Eddie says, in a weird tone. A scared, miserable tone.

“Try us” Robin says.

Sofia was definitely anxious to find out what happened to her friend. The thought of knowing brought chills down her spine, but curiosity filled her mind. It’s still not real. It can’t be. It’s a sick joke, a nightmare.

He starts explaining what happened. It was worse than what she could have imagined. Way worse. She started feeling nauseous.

“Her body just, like, lifted up into the air and, uh… And she just, like, hung there. In the air. And her bones… Uh, she… Her bones started to snap” Eddie keeps explaining.

Sofia couldn’t even imagine the pain Cher felt. Her eyes got watery, but she didn’t cry. Her hands felt numb.

“Her eyes, man. It… It was like there was something, like, inside her head, pulling” Eddie says.

Suddenly, Sofia feels much more nauseous. Like she was about to throw up. Not of disgust, but of anxiety. Of too many emotions at once.

“Where’s the bathroom?” Sofia asks in a faint voice, as if not to be heard. Quiet, not like her thoughts.

“Down to your left” Eddie explains.

And there she was, sitting on the ground next to the toilet, cleaning her mouth with the inside of her sleeve. She couldn’t help but wonder how many times Cher was in that exact position. It was like a part of her was connected to Cher by staying in that exact position. A position of rough memories, that described drastically different moments for both girls.

Leaning her back on the wall, Sofia starts shaking a lot. Was this even real. A sudden craving for weed.

Then, she heard three knocks on the door and, knowing who it was, Sofia let her in. 

“Are you okay?” Robin asks, sitting down next to her.

“No really” Sofia whispers with a smile. She felt like she was going insane.

“You’re shaking like crazy” Robin says and embraces her, in hopes of making her stop shaking.

It worked. After a minute they got out of the bathroom and walked back to the group. Sofia didn’t want to seem dramatic.

“There’s another world. A world hidden beneath Hawkins. Sometimes it bleeds into ours” Dustin explains.

“Like ghosts and shit?” Eddie asks.

“There are some things worse than ghosts” Max says.

“These monsters from this other world… we thought they were gone. But they’ve come back before. That’s why we needed to find you” Dustin says. 

“If they’re back again, we need to know” Max says.

“That night, did you see anything?” Robin asks.

“Dark particles, maybe?” Sofia adds.

“It would almost look like dust, swirling dust” Dustin explains.

“No, man, there was nothing you could see or, uh… Or touch” Eddie says. “You know, I tried to wake her, man. She couldn’t move. It was like she… she was in a trance or something”

“Or under a spell” Dustin suggests.

“A curse” Eddie adds.

“Vecna’s curse” Dustin says.

“Who’s Vecna?” Steve asks.

“An undead creature of great power” Dustin explains.

“A spell caster”

“A dark wizard”

They left Eddie in the barn, since it was safer there, and Steve drove everyone home.

In the car everyone was silent. They couldn’t believe it was back. The everlasting fear of dying in the middle of this.

“Hey Sofy… are you okay?” Dustin asks from the passenger seat. Robin had her arms around Sofia’s waist, and she was leaning into Robin.

“I’m… processing. But I’m okay” she responds with a sigh. She feels Robin holding her tighter, like she was afraid of letting her go.

After a while, Sofia and Dustin got home. Before getting out of the car, Sofia turns to look at Robin and asks, “Can you sleep over?”

“Of course” Robin responds right away, with a soft smile. Her parents didn’t care anyway.

They go straight to Sofia’s room and start getting ready to sleep. Since Robin slept there so many times, she already had a drawer for some of her clothes and a toothbrush. 

Sofia lies in bed first and looks at Robin changing shirts. She starts remembering the events of last night and smiles. 

“Why are you smiling?” Robin asks, now smiling too, as she lies in bed.

“Nothing” Sofia says, smiling more.

“I hope it was about me” Robin smirks.

“That’s presumptuous of you” Sofia smiles.

They fell asleep embracing each other, facing one another with their bodies entwined. Surprisingly, Sofia fell asleep very quickly. 

Being with Robin made her feel like she was safe. Like everything was okay, even though shit was doomed. 

Robin is her happy place.