slay 'em dead//Steve Harrington

35

"Nancy!" I shout.

Steve keeps shaking her. "Nancy, just stay with us. Stay with us, okay?"

I look up at Erica. "Whatever you guys are doing up there, hurry up!"

Suddenly Nancy gasps. She starts to fall backwards, and Steve catches her.

"Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," Steve says. "It's okay. It's okay. It's okay."

"It's okay. We're here," I tell Nancy. "Steve and I are right here."

Steve and I get Nancy out of the Upside Down. We head to Max's trailer to regroup. Nancy begins to explain what happened.

"He showed me things that haven't happened yet," Nancy tells us. "The most awful things. I saw a dark cloud spreading over Hawkins. Downtown on fire. Dead soldiers. And this... giant creature with... a gaping mouth." I grab onto Steve's hand. "And this creature wasn't alone. There were so many monsters. An army. And they were coming into Hawkins. Into our neighborhoods. Our homes. And then... he showed me my mom. And Holly. Mike. And they... they were all..."

"Okay, but... he's just trying to scare you, Nance," Steve insists. "Right? I mean... I mean, it's not real."

"Not yet," Nancy says. "But there... there was something else. He showed me gates. Four gates. Spreading across Hawkins. And these gates, they looked like the one outside of Eddie's trailer, but... they didn't stop growing. And this wasn't the Upside Down Hawkins. This was our Hawkins. Our home."

"Four chimes," Max says. "Vecna's clock. It always chimes four times. Four exactly."

"I heard them too," Nancy confesses.

"He's been telling us his plan this whole time," Max states.

"Four kills. Four gates," Lucas says. "End of the world."

"If that's true... he's only one kill away," Dustin says.

"Oh Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ," Eddie says as he puts his head in his hands.

Steve turns to me. "Try 'em again. Try 'em again."

I stand up and move towards the phone. I dial Jonathan's number for what feels like the hundredth time. I'm still getting a busy signal.

"Anything?" Dustin asks.

"No. Rang a few times, then went to busy signal," I tell him.

"Maybe you punched it wrong," Steve offers. "Try again."

I make a face. "I didn't punch it in wrong."

"Well, I don't know," Steve says.

"I think she knows how to use a phone," Dustin insists.

"I'm just saying, she could've typed it in wrong," Steve reasons.

I try again and I still get a busy signal. I hang the phone up. "Same shit."

"How is that possible?" Lucas asks.

"Joyce has this telemarketer job. Always on the phone. Mike won't stop whining about it," Dustin explains.

"Yeah, but this phone's been busy for, what, three days now? That's not Joyce," Max says.

I shake my head. "No way. Something's wrong."

"They're right," Nancy says. "It can't be just coincidence. It can't be. Whatever's happening in Lenora is connected to all of this. I'm sure of it. But Vecna can't hurt them. Not if he's dead. We have to go back in there. Back to the Upside Down."

"Whoa, no, no, no," Steve protests. "What?"

"Nope," Eddie states.

"Let's think this through, okay?" Steve tells her.