[ It still weirds Eddie out, the fact that Steve has been here for, what, a month? Despite the fact that Vecna's killings, for him, have only started maybe a few days ago. He doesn't really know what to make of that fact.

If anything, Eddie is almost grateful that he died. There's nothing left for him outside of this ship. If there's no hope of being able to go back and fix things?

And maybe, selfishly, Eddie likes the idea of being stuck on a cruise ship with Steve Harrington, the jock who turned out to be not quite the asshole that Eddie had always assumed he was. Poor Steve, if he thought Eddie's attempts at constantly pushing Steve's buttons, of tossing flirting words his way just to see Steve's reactions, were bad back in Hawkins, well --

well, that will all have to wait, because there are still more important matters to discuss. He grows somber as Steve asks about Max. ]

I couldn't tell you. Our plan. She was going to. [ He swallows thickly, unable to look at Steve as he waits impatiently in front of the elevator. ] Dustin and I were distraction, yeah? To get the bats away from the Creel house in the Upside Down. But we needed someone to lure Vecna there so he'd be defenseless. Someone we knew he cursed.