Escape ~ S.Harrington

74} The Last Chime

Ugh, my head.

Jenna opened her eyes to see Eleven being held up by vines while Vecna was raising his claw over Max's face.
No.

But yes, Jenna.
Get out of my head.
I am a part of you now. Just as you are a part of me.
No, no, no, no.

Jenna used all of the strength she had left to sit up right and battle with the contradicting forces in her mind. Mike was giving El a pep talk to help her power through and all Jenna had was Vecna and his disgusting mind infiltrating hers like his vines all over the Upside Down.
Don't. Give. Up.

Jenna stood up and used everything she had to shock the vines off of El's wrists, ankles, and neck.
"Go," Jenna said, weakly.
Jenna watched as El flung Vecna away from Max, triggering her out of the headspace.

She opened her eyes to see Vecna standing in front of her, wriggling in pain.
"You can't control me," Jenna was crying now as she yelled at Vecna who was still stuck in his mind, but she knew he could hear her, "We both know what would be the nail in the coffin for you right now, and I have the upper hand, Henry."

Jenna was so focused she didn't even realize that Steve, Alice, Robin, and Nancy were now standing right behind her. She reached up to the now much bigger spot the Vecna had placed on the back of her neck. She closed her eyes, grabbed ahold of it, and started to pull and electrocute it at the same time. Little did she know, though, because her and Vecna were now connected, she felt double the pain. She screamed, but didn't stop. Tears ran down her face, but she didn't stop. She didn't want everyone else to die because she wasn't brave enough for this. Eleven did this before, so why couldn't she?

Steve couldn't take seeing her in that much pain and ran up to her, just in time before she collapsed to the ground.
"You've got this, Jen," He told her, "I believe in you. I love you. You're powerful and brave enough to do this."
With those words as a final motivator, she retched the vine free, flung it across the room, and toasted it into oblivion. Vecna visibly shuttered at this.
"Light the fucker up," Jenna croaked out.

Robin took a lighter near the end of a Molotov Alice was holding and lit it up.
"Flambé, bitch," and with that, Alice chucked it at Vecna, immediately catching him on fire and his vine, resulting in him dropping to the floor and his being sent out of the dream world.

Jenna didn't realize how much pain this would cause her as well. Every part of her body felt like it was being covered in flames. She sobbed into Steve's shoulder as he simply just held her in comfort. Jenna looked back to find Vecna stomping forward and staring right at her. She powered through the pain and tried her best to stand up facing him. Robin threw another Molotov cocktail at him, sending him backwards and made Jenna feel even more uncomfortable.

Nancy then took her turn. She faced Vecna head on and started shooting him with everything she had. Nancy got Vecna right up to the boarded up window, but ran out of bullets. Jenna held a shaky arm out and pushed Nancy behind her.
Bye, "One".

Jenna put her arms out in front of her and screamed her lungs out as she gave one last blow to Vecna. She shot lightning out of her fingertips right into his chest and sent him flying backwards through the boarded up window, falling to his demise on the pavement below.

Jenna fell to the ground, her body overwhelmed with pain as her adrenaline rush wore off. Steve ran over and pulled her into his arms.
"Can you carry me down?" She said, just above a whisper.
He nodded and picked her up, carrying her down the stairs behind the others to make sure Vecna was dead. But Jenna knew he wasn't dead, she could still feel him. She didn't know how, but he was still there.

As the group ran to the front of the Creel house, they were met with a burnt outline of where Vecna had once laid, but there was no sign of him.
"I need to get to Dustin," Jenna started to panic, "I need to know he's okay."

Steve wanted to run as fast as he could through the woods carrying Jenna to get to her brother, but the clock started to chime, signaling Max had been taken.
No...

The ground started to shake and a thick, long gate started to form on the ground.
"He actually did it," Jenna whispered, "That fucker."

After the ground settled down and everyone was exhausted, Steve trudged through the woods and brought Jenna to her brother. When they arrived at the trailer park, Jenna jumped out of Steve's arms and hobbled over to her sobbing brother. She looked next to him and saw that Eddie was dead on the ground. As soon as Dustin saw Jenna arrive, Dustin ran right into her arms and continued to cry.
"He's gone, Jenna. I'm sorry..." He croaked out, "I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault," Jenna tried to rub his back for comfort as she cried herself. "What happened?"
"He... he did what you said. The bats were com-coming after us and he- he was the her... hero. He didn't run, Jenna. He told me to tell you that he didn't run and he was proud to be be your hero and that- that you were his best friend and... and that he loved you, Jen."
"Fuck-" Jenna started to cry even harder. The pain steering through her body didn't even compare to the mental pain she was going through, "I'm- I'm just so glad you're okay, Dust. I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."
"I'm happy you didn't die again," They both let out a sad, chuckle.

Nancy, Alice, and Robin had finally shown up.
"Where's E-" Alice started to say, but was cut off when Steve fake-coughed and gestured behind him
"Oh, my god," Robin hurried her face in her hands. Alice wrapped her arms around Robin and lightly swayed with her to try and comfort her. Nancy just stood in shock not really knowing what to do with herself.

Steve finally walked up to the Hendersons and immediately got roped into their hug. Jenna slowly removed herself from the hug, wiped her eyes, and walked over to Eddie's body.
"You did good,  Dungeon Master, you made me proud."
She planted a light kiss atop his head and grabbed the guitar pick necklace off of him. She also took his bandanna.

"I think we should get out of here now," Nancy looked around to see a sea of nods at her comment. Steve was the first to pull himself through the gate and threw another, yet smaller, blanket rope through. Jenna, as usual, was last through. When they were all through and out of the trailer, they were met with a gate that stretched much further than any of them had predicted. Everyone was too tired and exhausted to care about these issues right now and Steve drove everyone home. Well, by that, he drove Alice, Robin, and Nancy to the Wheeler's house and himself, Jenn, and Dustin to the Henderson's. Claudia was away on a business trip, so Jenna didn't have to worry about her story just yet.

Jenna walked around, not even recognizing her own home. It'd been so long since she got to actually be here and it felt weird. Nonetheless, she walked straight to her room and it was left almost exactly as she'd left it, minus the blankets and pillows on her bed that were all amus. She grabbed pajamas out of her drawer and just changed right there, not caring that Steve and Dustin were right there. She'd been wearing gross clothes for so long, she just wanted to feel okay and clean. She then plopped onto her bed and swaddled herself in her favorite blanket.

She patted the spots next to her, trying not to instantly fall asleep. Steve and Dustin both quickly changed and got in with her. Steve immediately pulled Jenna into his arms and onto his chest. She missed this comforting feeling that had been absent for almost a year. She reached her hand out to her brother and just held it.

They all fell asleep within a few minutes. They were all emotionally and physically burnt out and just needed to rest.
Fuck, I really missed this.

Author's Note:
This chapter was so fucking hard for me to write. Even though I've watched the finale like 4 times already, I swear I was sobbing over Eddie's death for almost 10 minutes. I know it's a bit pathetic, but I was having a rough time. There's only one more chapter left in this story, too, and that also had me crying when I thought about it. Obviously I'll come back for season 5, but this has been my favorite thing to work on for almost a year now and
I don't know what I'm going to do without this book. Anyways, thank you all for those who have been reading and I appreciate every single vote and comment left on this story.
<3 Jenjens26