"So... I've been thinking," Lucas murmurs shortly after sitting beside you in the back of the stolen RV. The Sinclair boy tenses when you remove your headphones to listen, knowing that your Walkman and Kate Bush are probably the only things keeping Vecna away.

Right; *because the malicious forces that loved terrorizing Hawkins had finally set their sights on all of them. Because it wasn't enough that this "Vecna" had claimed the lives of Chrissy, Fred, and Patrick already— he wanted you now too. He wanted you dead.

"Two of the three of Vecna's victims were seeing Ms. Kelley, right?" he poses, feeling relieved when you nod. Good, he's on the right track, then. "Okay, so I figure there's a good chance Vecna cursed another one of her students. We go back to her office, we read all her files. We look for mentions of headaches, nightmares, nosebleeds— we identify his most-likely next victim, we stake out his house—"

Lucas only pauses in his deliberate— but extremely unlikely to succeed— plan when you interrupt him, citing that there's no time to do all of that. The plan to use you as bait and lure Vecna out of hiding to kill him is already in motion, and it's not fair to involve a stranger in supernatural affairs you and everyone else are only well-versed in because of luck. "It's like he only sees the darkness in us," you tell him, and Lucas just agrees.

Vecna preys on the bad memories of his victims, and he'd done it to you in the graveyard with memories of Billy. That's why Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) has been on repeat since then, but Lucas feels better when you mention hiding in the light instead of Vecna's darkness.

It's your mind, not Vecna's. You'll just find a happy memory and hide there, simple, really (sike). You remain in high spirits, and Lucas's chest flutters when you hint at the Snow Ball being your chosen memory.

"Okay, but the second you start to lift," he mutters, "I'm calling in Kate Bush." He'll do anything to ensure you'll come out of this alive.