-This chapter takes place during Season 3 Episode 7: The Bite-
-Max's POV-
"He said he was building something. That it was all for me", El says. I rub her arm, holding her close to me. The sounds of fireworks outside helped me calm my thoughts. "Building something?", Julie asks. "Is he talking about the Flayed?". "He must be", Nancy chimes in. Lucas stopped pacing for a moment before turning to us. "So he's building an army, just like we thought". "But he's not building it to spread. He's building it to stop Eleven", Mike says. I kiss El's forehead as she brings herself closer to me. Instinctively I hug her even tighter. I really want to talk to her about her seeing... what she saw. But right now is probably the worst time.
I can't even imagine witnessing that and not being able to do anything about it. I was there, I lived it and I was far too young to fight back but El literally wasn't able too. She told us that Billy had hurt me and that she went straight through him while trying to stop him. Luckily she didn't go into further detail about what exactly he did.
Mike continued talking. "Last year, El closed the gate on him. I have a feeling that really pissed him off".
"Like, royally".
"And the Mind Flayer now knows, that El's the only thing that can stop him. But if she's out of the way-"
"Game over".
"He also said-", El started. "That he was going to kill all of you". She looks up at me. "But I'm not going to let him". I rub El's head gently as Nancy gets up. "When he said this, it was in this room?". El sits up and nods slowly. In the silence I notice the sound of the fireworks not sounding like fireworks. The booming turned into crashing and it was getting closer and faster. "He knows we're here", Will says, reaching for his neck. The cold, frightened expression returning to his face. Johnathan gets up and opens the door, looking outside. I hear a loud screech that most definitely didn't come from a firework. Julie stands up and looks around slowly. She's seen this before while looking in the future, I realize."Barricade the windows! Find weapons! Hurry!", she shouts. Johnathan and Nancy run out to the shed and I get up to help block the windows and doors. Johnathan and Nancy come back in and lift the sofa to the front door. I help El walk to the middle of the room and we all wait there. A thud shakes the house like a quiet earthquake. Julie closes her eyes for a moment. Trees rattle outside. A mug breaks in the kitchen then silence. "There!", Julie yells right before something breaks through the wall. I yank El back and Johnathan begins to axe the thing. It knocks him against the wall, threatening Johnathan by moving closer to him until Nancy shoots it with Hop's gun that she got from the shed outside. She quickly runs out of ammo but El grabs it and rips off the "head" with her powers. It retreats back to the hole it came from.
"Holy shit", I gasp before another two burst through but El catches them both. She tears them down with a scream, panting. I think it's over, relaxing for a moment. Then something breaks through the roof grabbing El by her ankle. I quickly grab her arm, not daring to let go. Julie grabs her other arm before Mike, Will, and Johnathan jump in. Nancy begins to shoot it again now that she's reloaded. "Lucas help!", I shout at him. He grabs the axe and starts hacking the tentacle. He finally chops through and El falls back down. I try to make it so her head doesn't hit the floor but I have no idea if my efforts really worked. "El are you okay?", I ask her. She nods. The thing attached to her leg squirms and Mike looks at it with great disgust. "El, I'm sorry", I say in advance. She looks at me confused. "Mike pull it off". The raven haired boy yanks the fleshy thing off and she screeches in pain as it's teeth rake her leg. El painfully digs her nails in my arm. It crawls back outside.
El stands up, blood flowing from her pant leg onto the floor, and looks the Mind Flayer's monster in the face where it's eyes would be and rips its head right down the middle. She falls back into my arms as Nancy rushes us outside. Julie and me help El walk to the door. Johnathan pulls down the couch and we rush to Nancy's car. Me, El, and Julie get in back, which should have been roomy enough but Julie and I have to squeeze together so El can lay her leg out. She speeds off down the road. "We need to go to the Big Buy!", I say. "What?", Nancy exclaims. "Her leg! Go to the Big Buy Nancy!". Nancy changes her original route and pulls into the Big Buy parking lot a few minutes later. Julie helps me get El out of the car as Nancy breaks the glass doors with a rock. We hobble inside and bring her to the medical aisle. "Okay get her down", Nancy commands. Me and Julie set down the brunette and Nancy pulls up her pant leg. Nancy begins to open the bottle of rubbing alcohol before I stop her.
"What are you doing?", I ask her.
"Cleaning the wound".
"No. First we gotta stop the bleeding, then clean, then disinfect, then bandage". Everyone looks at me. "I skateboard, trust me". I hold a towel to El's leg, putting lots of pressure on it. "We're gonna need water and soap". Nancy and Johnathan nod before getting up. Lucas dumps a shit tone of crap out of his bag. "Will any of this help?", he asks. I shake my head. "No. Go get me a wash clothe and a bowel. Grab more ammo for Nancy and anything you think we can use". Julie, Will, Lucas, and Mike rush off.
Now me and El are sitting by ourselves. Max this would the perfect time to have that talk you were thinking about. As I open my mouth El speaks first. "Max", she says. "Why didn't you fight back, when he-?". I shrug and avoid looking her in the eye, knowing exactly what she's talking about. "I don't know. Guess I deserved it. I snitched on him. I should have let him do his thing. It's my fault really", I answer. El lifts my chin up gently. "No. He was wrong. You told Hannah. You did the good thing. Billy is a bad brother. He was a bad boyfriend. But he won't hurt you anymore. I'll protect you", she says. "I promise". "El-", I start. I love you. "That means a lot to me that you say that", I say instead. "But I had no reason to tell on him other than spite. I was just being a bitch about him kissing that girl. He really loved Hannah, I know he did, I deserved what I had coming to me". El opens her mouth to reply but Dustin's voice comes through the walkie. It's so distorted I can barely hear him. I grab the supercom and speak into it. "Dustin?", I say. "Max?". He starts talking but all his words skip and distort. "Dustin you're breaking up", I say. He keeps going. "Dustin you're cutting out!". "Dustin are you there?", I ask. I here him start to say my name but he quickly cuts out. "I can find him", El volunteers.
-A Few Moments Later-
Lucas loudly opens a can of Coke. "Quiet", I say. "Sorry", he quickly apologizes. As he takes a sip Mike looks at him in disgust.
"How do you even drink that?", he asks.
"Because it's delicious".
"What?", Mike and I both say.
"It's like Carpenter's The Thing. The original is a classic, no question about it. But the remake,"-he pauses to take a long sip-"sweeter, bolder, better".
"You're insane", Mike comments as he shakes his head.
"So you prefer the original Thing?".
"What? No. I'm not talking about The Thing, I'm talking about New Coke".
"It's the same concept, dude".
"Uh no, actually it's not the same concept".
"It is the same concept".
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