fast car | STEVE HARRINGTON [2]

33. vecna-henry-one

RINGO WHEELER DIDN'T SKIP A BEAT. She didn't let the horrifying revelation in his words get the chance to settle on her skin, or let it seep into her brain long enough to make any sense. If she had, she'd have frozen still, or shouted, or cried.

Instead, she shot up like a bolt of lightening and sprinted in the opposite direction as the world around her began to darken. A strong wind picked up as the sky started to blacken, the grass beneath her pacing feet dying away before her very eyes and within seconds she had gone from an eerily calm trailer park to the Upside Down once again. The blonde pumped her arms and legs as fast as she could, chest tightening with exertion and not even daring to glance back over her shoulder where she was sure he would be following her.

Ringo cursed herself for leaving the group, for taking her headphones off. How could she be so stupid? All she could do now was continue to flee and hope beyond hope that Steve would question her absence and save her.

Her trust was not misplaced as mere seconds later she heard the echoes of her name being shouted throughout the dark landscape she had found herself trapped in once again.

"Ringo!"

The Wheeler girl paused and whipped around on the spot, desperately searching for the opening that had appeared to her the last time she had found herself in this mess. But as Steve continued to call out for her, instead all she saw was Vecna himself - advancing toward her, now in his true monstrous form and not disguising himself.

"Ringo!"

Letting out a small scream of frustration, she whirled back around in the opposite direction from where he was slowly and menacingly advancing from and started to sprint once again. She almost tripped over a slithering vine as she rounded Eddie's trailer, making a mad dash toward the tree line where it seemed Steve's voice was sounding from the loudest.

It was then she saw it, a small hole in the vision starting to form and through she saw Steve and the others, desperately shaking her physical body and begging her to wake up. Beaming in delight at the image, she outstretched one hand longingly toward it as she continued to run. Just a little closer. Just a little further.

Ringo watched as the group in a panic shoved her headphones over her head, starting to freak out when Steve's voice didn't appear to be having the same impact as before. The portal seemed so close yet so far all the while.

"Listen to the wind blow... watch the sun rise..."

In tandem with the headphones being shoved over her ears, the opening notes of The Chain by Fleetwood Mac began to sound throughout the Upside Down, as clear as if it had been played on a boom box.

"Running in the shadows... damn your love damn your lies..."

Suddenly, a vine wrapped itself around her foot, allowing her a brief second to pause and look down in horror as it tightened its grip and suddenly yanked her mid-step. Immediately she was enslaved by the vine as it launched her body to the ground and began to drag her backward.

"No!" Ringo screamed at the top of her lungs, grappling onto anything she could use to stop her being pulled toward him but all she found was dead grass and random sticks which her fingers caught onto without much success.

When Vecna's vines had tugged her back far enough, the one on her right foot was joined by one on each limb. Their grip was used to flip her onto her back and imprison her against the ground. Relentlessly she fought against their hold but to no avail, they were simply too strong. She had never felt as weak in all her life, with tears pooling in the corners of her eyes as another vine began to slide its way around her neck, slightly choking her.