{The Monster & The Superhero, Part I}

The next day at Reefer Rick's boathouse, Alice described her dream to Eddie, Dustin, Steve, Max, and Robin. She sat on an upside-down bucket with her knees hugged against her chest. Prominent dark circles under her eyes gave her an undead look.

"It felt so real," she said. Overwhelmed by everyone watching her, she kept her eyes on the dusty wooden planks making up the uneven floor. "Jason taunting me. The general trying to experiment on me. Barb calling me out for going to that party and..."

She trailed off, cheeks flushed. She didn't dare look in Steve's direction, afraid if she did, she'd only hear not-Barb's cruel words playing on a loop.

"And what?" Robin prompted.

"It's not important," Alice said, shaking her head.

"It is!" Dustin said. "Anything you saw or heard could help us figure out how to stop Vecna."

"It was stupid and personal and I won't repeat it," Alice said. "All you need to know is he used my fears and insecurities against me. Then, he tried to convince me to join his side, and I told him to fuck off, and he tried to take my powers away."

"I still can't believe it," Eddie said. He shoveled Honey Combs in his mouth and mumbled out, "Elder Henderson, a real-life druid."

"It's not as great as it seems," Alice said.

Steve started to put an arm around her, but she flinched at the touch. Steve mumbled out apologies and retracted his arm.

"Sorry," Alice said. "I didn't mean to—I'm just a little on edge—"

"It's okay," Steve said. "You don't need to apologize."

Max and Robin shared an uneasy look at the couple's display of bumbling awkwardness.

"Anyway," Dustin said, "we need to find Vecna, kill him so he stops terrorizing Alice, and prove Eddie's innocence."

"That's all, Dustin?" Eddie said sarcastically. "That's all?"

"Yeah, no, that's pretty much it."

"Listen Eddie," Robin said. "I know everything we're saying sounds totally delusional, but we've actually been through this before. They have a few times, and I have once. Mine was more human-flesh based and theirs was more smoke-related, but the bottom line is, I really feel like we got this."

"There's this other girl with powers that usually helps us," Steve said.

"She was way stronger," Alice said. "But she lost her powers last summer, so..."

"So we're technically in more of the brainstorming phase," Max said.

"There's nothing to worry about!" Dustin said.

Steve and Dustin shot Eddie reassuring grins. The boy in question did not look very reassured.

In the distance, police sirens echoed.

"Tarp!" Robin said. "Tarp!"

Eddie dove back under the tarp in Reefer Rick's boat, obscuring himself from view. The other five teens raced to the windows and saw a troop of police cars whiz past.

"That many cops is not good," Alice muttered.

"What do you think happened?" Max wondered—although she had a sneaking suspicion.

"We should check that out," Steve said.

"Eddie," Dustin said, "stay put, okay?"

Eddie poked his head out from under the tarp.

"And where exactly would I go as the most wanted man in Hawkins?" he deadpanned.

"Cut the sarcasm and eat your Honey Combs," Alice snapped.

🚓 🚓 🚓 

A while later, the group sat with Nancy at the trailer park's picnic shelter. Another victim had been found—Fred Benson, Nancy's managing editor at the school paper. Nancy and Fred had been investigating Chrissy's death together, but Fred wandered off and unfortunately met the same fate as Chrissy Cunningham.

After Nancy told them her side of the story, they caught her up on Vecna's misdeeds—how he was responsible for the deaths and how he terrorized Alice.

"It's for sure from the Upside Down?" Nancy asked.

"If the shoe fits," Steve said.

"And it's been haunting you?" Nancy said, turning to Alice.

"Haunting," Alice said. "Stalking. Making my life a living hell. All of the above."

"Our working theory is that he attacks with a spell," Dustin said, "or a curse. Whether or not he's doing the bidding of the Mind Flayer or just loves killing teens and stalking their dreams, we don't know."

"All we know is this is something different," Max said. "Something new."

"But maybe Vecna's been there all along," Robin pointed out. "Maybe the Mind Flayer instructed him to 'make contact' with Alice a couple of falls ago, when you started freezing over."

Nancy rubbed her forehead and said, "It doesn't make sense."

"It's only a theory," Dustin said.

"No," Nancy said. "Fred and Chrissy don't make sense. I mean, why kill them? They've never gone against the forces of the Upside Down before. So why would they be targeted?"

"They were both at the game," Dustin said.

"And near the trailer park," Max added.

Steve stiffened in his seat.

"We're at the trailer park," he said. He looked around nervously. "Uhhh, should we maybe...not be here?"

"There is something about this place," Nancy said. "Fred started acting weird the second we got here."

"Acting weird as in...?" Robin said.

"Scared," Nancy explained. "On edge. Upset."

"Max said Chrissy was upset too," Dustin said.

"Yeah," Max said, "but not here. She was crying in the bathroom at school."

"Serial killers stalk their prey before they strike, right?" Robin said. "So, maybe Fred and Chrissy saw Vecman—"

"Vecna," Dustin corrected.

"Right," Robin said. "Vecna. Maybe he appeared to..."

She trailed off, shooting Alice a worried look.

"Appeared to them," Alice finished, head pounding with stress. "And then, after he'd scared them enough, he finished them off."

"But that's not going to happen to you," Dustin said quickly. "Right, guys?"

"Right, totally, no way," the group said. None of them sounded fully confident in their words.

Alice should've been scared. She should've been sick to her stomach hearing about how her circumstances with Vecna were getting more and more similar to what happened to his other victims. But it just made her angry. Angrier than angry—blood-red fury pounded through her veins.

She wanted to scream and punch something, so that's exactly what she did.

"Son of a bitch!" Alice yelled. She leaped from the picnic table bench and punched one of the wooden beams holding up the shelter's roof. She winced in pain but reared her fist back to punch again.

"Whoa, whoa," Steve said, holding her arm to stop her.

"Just give me two minutes to decimate this picnic shelter," Alice said, trying to tug her arm free, "and then we can go back to talking about Vecna."

"Al, look at me," Steve said. She hesitated, before meeting his gaze. "We're not going to let Vecna get you. Okay?"

"He's evil and insanely powerful," Alice said, "and he wants my powers. Once he's got them, he won't need me anymore, and then—"

"He won't get them!" Steve said. "He won't."

"We need to try and figure out for sure if Chrissy and Fred were seeing Vecna too," Nancy said, brow furrowed with concentration. "And find any connection between them that'll explain why they were targets."

"Right," Robin said. "Unless they both secretly had super awesome abilities like Alice, they're totally random choices."

"I saw Chrissy leaving Ms. Kelley's office," Max said. "If you saw a monster you wouldn't go to the police. They'd never believe you. But you might go to—"

"Your shrink," Robin finished. "That's genius, Max. That's our next move: talk to Ms. Kelley."

They headed toward the parking lot, but Nancy veered away from the group to her station wagon.

"Whoa, whoa, Nance!" Steve said. "Where are you going?"

"There's just something I want to check on first," Nancy said, hands shoved in her jacket pockets.

"Something you want to share with the rest of us?" Dustin said.

"I don't want to waste your time," Nancy said. "It's a real shot in the dark."

"Are you out of your mind?" Steve said. "Flying solo with this Vecna creep on the loose? It's too dangerous."

Alice knew Steve was just being a good friend. However, not-Barb's horrible words rattled around in Alice's head like a cassette on loop: Nancy is who Steve wants. Nancy is his first true love. Steve will go back to her the day he's tired of—

"Alice?"

Alice jumped. Max was tugging on her jacket sleeve with a frown on her face. The two girls were slightly behind the rest of the group as they debated if it was safe for anyone to go off alone.

"Huh?"

"You okay?" Max said. "You kinda zoned out. Did you see Vecna again?"

"No, no," Alice said. "Nothing like that. I'm just...tired. Haven't been sleeping well."

"Because of nightmares, right?" Max asked.

Alice nodded.

Max's face contorted from worry to fear. Before Alice could discover why, Robin snatched a walkie-talkie from Dustin's bag.

"I'll go on the wild goose chase with Nancy," Robin said. "Al, wanna come? Make this a ladies of the Lunch Club excursion, minus Maria?"

"Where are we going, exactly?" Alice asked.

"The library," Nancy said. "For research."

Alice nudged Dustin and said, "Are you okay if I go with them?"

"Just don't get killed," Dustin said. "I'd be a shit only child."

"Funny," Alice scoffed, before giving him a quick hug. She hugged Max too, feeling overly sentimental given the circumstances.

"You okay to be the babysitter?" Alice asked Steve.

"Always the goddamn babysitter," Steve said with a playful eyeroll. "Kidding, it's fine. You go with Rob and Nance. Be careful, all right? And if anything happens...if you start to like, feel Vecna or whatever, radio us ASAP."

"I will," Alice said. She wanted to kiss him, but not-Barb's comments continued thrashing her brain and filling her with insecurity. Instead, she gave him a quick hug and darted to Nancy's station wagon.

Steve watched her go, his own insecurity worming its way through his mind. He felt Alice pulling away. He knew there was something she wasn't telling him...

"Earth to Steve!" Dustin yelled from the passenger seat of the BMW. "Time to go!"

"Right," Steve said, joining the younger teens in the car. "Let's rock and roll."

"Ew," Max said. "You sound like somebody's dad."

Steve huffed in indignation before peeling out of the trailer park.

📚 📚 📚

On the drive to the Hawkins Public Library, Nancy told Alice and Robin all about Victor Creel, and how Wayne Munson believed he was the real killer.

"Vecna may be who you heard and saw at the Creel House," Nancy said to Alice. "So it could all be connected. If it's too fresh and you want to wait outside while we research—"

"No!" Alice said. "I'm fine."

"The timeline confuses me," Robin said as they walked up the library steps. "Victor committed the eyeball murders way back in the 50s."

"1959," Nancy corrected.

"So these murders predate Eleven and the Upside Down by about 30 years," Robin continued. "Which makes spooky Victor Creel, like, 70 years old."

"Yep," Nancy said. She dinged the bell at the library's front desk.

"So he's a grandpa murderer," Robin said, "who can turn invisible, lift people in the air, and appear in visions and dreams?"

"Don't be ageist, Robin," Alice said. "Even the elderly can practice dark magic."

"This is why I said it's a shot in the dark," Nancy said, tone impatient as they waited for the librarian to come over. She hit the bell again.

"It's better than nothing," Alice said. "I'll take any leads at this point."

Robin yammered on about just how much of a shot in the dark this shot was, which didn't help Nancy or Alice's nerves.

As Nancy asked the librarian for the key to the basement archives, Alice felt a familiar warm sensation across her left palm.

"Shit," she muttered. Fresh blood seeped out from under the bandage, running down her arm.

"Oh, dear!" the librarian said when she noticed Alice's bleeding palm. "Let me get you a fresh bandage along with those keys."

"Oh God," Nancy said, eyes wide. "Has that been happening a lot?"

"It's been stinging pretty much constantly," Alice said. "But the bleeding has happened twice. First was last night, before—"

"Before your super-scary Vecna dream!" Robin stage-whispered.

"Yeah. That." Alice shivered. She glanced around at the library patrons. "This is not the right location for a showdown with a dark wizard. If I start screaming and crying and using my powers in front of all these people, I'll be sharing a cell at Pennhurst with Victor in no time."

"The downstairs archives will be more private," Nancy said. "If anything happens, it'll just be us three."

The librarian returned with a first-aid kit and the keys.

"Be sure to return the keys and that kit before you leave," she said. "And have fun!"

The trio thanked the librarian before moving downstairs to start their investigation.

🐻 🐻 🐻

Across town, Dustin and Steve watched as Max entered Ms. Kelley's house.

"She's in," Steve said, sounding a bit like an amateur spy.

"I'm missing collarbones," Dustin quipped, "not eyes. Are we gonna talk about it?"

"Talk about what?" Steve said.

"Your permanent state of mopiness since Alice went with Nance and Robin," Dustin said. "You're so down, you let me pick the music. Me. Something's up."

"Maybe I'm just feeling nice," Steve said. "You think about that, Henderson? Or maybe I'm just in the mood for some Weird Al tunes."

"I know you're worried about Alice," Dustin said. "I am too! But she's going to be fine. She's tough."

"I know," Steve said. "Tougher than any of us, maybe. But...never mind."

"What? Tell me!"

"You're her brother," Steve said, waving away Dustin's curiosity. "I shouldn't say anything."

"Tell me, or else!"

"Or else what?"

"Or else I'll tell Alice about the time I caught you watching The Care Bears Movie on the Family Video TV and crying."

"It's an emotional film!" Steve protested. "Sue me for having a real heart and not just a hunk of computer wires in my chest!"

Dustin rolled his eyes at the jab and said, "Fine. Don't tell me. Just let it fester at your insides until you snap like a rubber band."

Steve sighed and gave in.

"I just don't know how to help Alice through this," he admitted. "I can feel her distancing herself from me."

"You mean when she didn't let you hold her at the boathouse?" Dustin said. "And when she didn't kiss you goodbye?"

"Yep," Steve said, resisting the urge to glower at the younger boy. "Thanks for the reminders."

"Don't worry about that," Dustin said. "You know she doesn't love touchy-feely stuff in public."

"It's not just that," Steve said. "She could barely look at me while talking about her dream. Vecna probably told her something bad about me, and now I'm spinning out trying to think of what it might be."

"Whatever Vecna may or may not have said doesn't matter," Dustin said. "He's evil and Alice wouldn't hold anything he said against you. But this is really a conversation you should be having with her, not me."

Steve didn't resist the urge to narrow his eyes at Dustin this time.

"You blackmailed me into telling you what was wrong!"

"That's your interpretation of events."

Steve cursed and turned away, watching for Max's return. 

{Posted July 16th, 2022; Republished March 23, 2025}

A/N [from 2022] Consistent chapter lengths? Never heard of her 😍

QOTD: Could the Care Bear Stare defeat Vecna?

A: Duh, obviously! Brb about to rewatch Care Bears content to heal my inner child.