Triple Trouble - Stranger Things

The Dive

We stayed in Eli's bed for the night. The two of us squeezed together with no fuss. I looked down at her newly bandaged arms, wondering what had happened earlier. She fell to the ground screaming, her arms had bled through her bandages, but it all suddenly came to a stop, all the lights going dark.

Eli hasn't spoken on it at all since we got home. She herself doesn't know what happened. But hopefully we'll get to the bottom of all of this. Bring it all to a stop.

"It's your fault." I jumped and looked up at Eli, she stared down at me darkly.

"What?" I said, I had no clue what to say.

"You let this happen."

"Eli, I, I'm sorry. I'm trying, I really am."

"No you're not." Her arms began to bleed, leaking onto the bed. "You never cared. You're only trying to help yourself. You don't want me alive because you love me, you just don't want to be alone, you want to keep yourself from suffering."

"No, Eli-"

"You hurt them Dani." Someone else said. I looked up to our bedroom doorway, a figure stood there. A recognizable one. "You're letting them die Dani. One by one. You'll be all alone." She came forward. My eyes widened, my heart plummeting. She looked like Max. Exactly like Max, but her eyes were brown, wide, and scary, she was covered in dirt, her clothing ripped. She was smaller than thought to be, she almost looked like she hadn't eaten in days, weeks even. "Why so scared Dani? Come on, just smile. Smile Dani!" She got up on the bed, sitting on top of me. She grabbed my face and tried to force my mouth into a smile. "Smile Dani! Smile like the murderer you are!" She let go of my mouth and lifted up my shirt digging her nails into my sides and dragging them down. I screamed and wailed trying to push her off, but my arms were stuck.

"Dani!" I finally sat up slapping hands away from me. "Dani! It's me! It's me!" I stopped and looked at my sister and her worried face. I didn't know what to do and let her bring me into a tight hug. "It's okay. You're okay...You're okay."

-

"Not to be a wimp, but can I sit in the car?" Robin asked. "'Cause this is gonna totally and royally suck."

"It'll be fine." Nancy told her.

I inhaled deeply as I tried to keep my beathing easy so no one saw me flinch. After last nights nightmare, I found scratches going down my sides, somewhat like the ones on Eli's arms. She's the only person I told, but I don't want her telling everyone else. Right now we're focused on trying to save Eli. I have time, but her. We don't know. Vecna could be out for her at any given moment.

"I can't stand to see those dull eyes of Eddie's break again. I really, really can't."

"At least he can drink himself into feeling better." Steve called from the back, pringles stuffed in his mouth.

"Trust me, I've tried that, it didn't work." Eli said. I sighed and grabbed her hand.

"Why don't we give it a trial?" Robin suggested. "'Hey Eddie. Uh, good news first this time. We got you some Dustin-approved junk food and that six-pack you requested. Oh yeah, and we found Vecna. Bad news is that he's in that other, darker, much scarier dimension with a little goon of his that does majority of the work for him. But the gates closed, so we have no way of getting to them. He's entirely shut off to us so basically you're screwed. And no, I know you were already screwed, but now you're doubly triply screwed.'"

"Wait. Maybe we don't put it like that." Lucas said.

"We're one step closer to finding them." Nancy reassured.

"Even if Vecna is nowhere to be found, we have a huge chance finding that monster of his." Eli said.

"Exactly. That's what we say. That's what's important."