march 26, 1986
beatrice and nancy were in the room where brenner tattooed one's number on his arm. the boy tried not to squirm in pain as the doctor.
suddenly, vecna's voice booms.
"beatrice. you've seen enough. wouldn't want you to ruin nancy's fun."
beatrice looked over to nancy who looked panicked. "wait, no-"
beatrice vanished from the mindscape, entering back into her physical state back in the upside down.
"god, beatrice!"
she screams in anguish, looking at nancy's still body. "shit! nancy's still in there!"
"nancy! just stay with me! stay with me, okay!" steve shouted, holding nancy's head. he looks up through the gate at erica. "whatever you guys are doing, hurry up!"
"nancy!" bea tries to help as erica runs out of sight of the gate.
steve turns to bea, shouting, "what the hell was that, bea?"
"not the time, steve! i'll explain when we get out of this goddamn situation!"
after what seemed like forever, nancy's eyes became normal and she gasped as she fell back into steve's arms.
"it's okay," steve reiterated over and over again as she caught her breath. "i'm here. i'm right here."
bea sighed, looking down at two on the floor. she remembered how that used to feel. when she would get nightmares in the orderly wing. she also remembered how much she hated him for all of this. his once warm touch now ran cold.
[REDACTED], 1970
bea was running quickly. the beams from flashlights chased after her.
"no!" she cried as she ran. it was a never-ending forest. it seemed like she would have to run forever or surrender.
she looked down at her feet and the green grass began to melt into a thick, red substance. it was like blood. it was blood. her eyes widened. she wanted to scream, but she just needed to run.
a cloud of darkness began to swell, surpassing the soldiers running behind it. she tried to escape it but it was faster than she was. it consumed her as she screamed out in terror.
"no!" she jolted awake. peter quickly got up with her sudden jump, turning on a small light next to the bed.
"what's wrong, dear?" he asked, concerned. he brought a hand her cheek. she leaned into his hold, scared he was going to disappear.
"it's fine," she sniffled. "just another bad dream."
he opened his arms for her. she laid her head on his chest as he wrapped his arms around her.
"it's alright. i'm here," he whispered, gently. he laid them back so they were laying more comfortably on the pillows. he planted a kiss on the top of her head.
she looked up at him as he asked, "do you want to talk about it?"
"not really," she sighed. "it wasn't very pleasant."
"are you sure?" he said,
"yeah."
peter planted another kiss on her head. "okay, sleep well, dear."
beatrice's eyes began to close as they became heavy.
march 27, 1986
max leaned against kitchen doorframe as they all were scattered around the room. the group sat around beatrice's living room, processing the events of the previous night and the fact beatrice was like eleven. it wasn't that important to them anymore. what was important was analyzing vecna's plan and stopping him.
"he showed me things that haven't happened yet," nancy said, hoarsely. "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. and this creature wasn't alone. there were so many monsters. an army. and they were coming into hawkins. into our neighbourhoods. our homes. and then...he showed me my mom. and holly. mike. and they...they were all..."
nancy began to cry, cutting her sentence off.
"okay, but...he's just trying to scare you, nance," steve tries to reason. "right? i mean...it's not real."
"not yet," she whispered. "but there...there was something else. he showed me gates. four gates. spreading across hawkins. and these gates 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."
the room was quiet. it felt icy cold.
"four chimes," max broke the silence. "vecna's clock. it always chimes four times. four exactly."
"i heard them, too," nancy said, lowly.
"so did i," beatrice exhaled.
max shakes her head. "he's been telling us his plan this whole time."
"four kills," lucas connects. "four gates...end of the world."
"if that's true," dustin spoke. "he's only one kill away."
"oh, jesus! jesus christ!" eddie covers his face, stressed.
steve points max to the phone in the kitchen. "try 'em again. try 'em again."
max walks over to the kitchen and dials the number on the keypad. it rang for a moment before the busy signal sounded. max hung up the phone.
eleven stood in the dark void, on the watery floor. she could see her friends and a couple of pieces of furniture scattered around. she walked closer to them.
"anything?" dustin inquired.
max sighed. "no. rang a few times, then went to a busy signal."
"maybe you punched it in wrong. try again," steve adds.
"i didn't punch it in wrong," max argues, dialing the number again.
"well, i don't know."
"dude, i think she knows how to use a phone," dustin says to steve.
"i'm just saying, she could've typed it in wrong."
max rang the line again, still going to busy signal.
"same shit," she announced.
"how is that possible?" lucas questioned as max hung up the phone again.
"joyce has this telemarketer job. she's always on the phone. mike won't stop whining about it," dustin reasons.
"yeah, but this phone's been busy for, what, three days now? that's not joyce. no way. something's wrong."
eleven watched the scene. she saw two new people in the group. she looked closer to the woman sitting on the floor as she observed what was happening.
"bea," she whispered to herself.
"she's right," nancy said to the group. "it can't be just coincidence. it can't be."
"whatever's happening in lenora is connected to all of this," nancy proposed, looking out the window. "i'm sure of it. but vecna can't hurt them. not if he's dead."
nancy turns to the group. "we have to go back in there. back to the upside down."
the group began clamoring.
"woah, no, no, no. what?" steve stood up.
"nope," eddie replied.
"let's think this through," steve states, walking to nancy. "okay?"
"what is there to think through?" nancy yells back.
"i agree with nancy!" beatrice said, standing up off the floor. beatrice wanted his reign of terror to end. she knew this was their only option.
steve reasoned, "we barely made it out of there in one piece."
"yeah, because we weren't prepared," nancy explains. "but this time, we will be. we'll get weapons and protection. bea can help us fight. we'll go through the gate. we'll find his lair, and we'll kill him."
"or he'll kill us! the only reason you survived is because he wanted you to. hell, he could kill bea if he really wanted to. he's not scared of us."
"and for good reason," robin joins, standing up. "we were wrong about vecna."
robin looks at nancy, "henry."
she changes her gaze to bea. "one. sorry, what are we calling him now?"
"one," bea, dustin, and lucas answer.
erica rolls her eyes, "vecna."
"henry," nancy continues.
"right. we've learned something new about vecna-slash-henry-slash-one. he's a number like eleven and beatrice, only a sick, evil, male, child-murdering version of them with really bad skin. but my...my point is, he's super powerful. he could turn us inside out with a snap of his fingers. it's not a fair fight, even with bea," robin rambled.
"then why fight fair?" dustin suggests. "you're right. he's like eleven. but that gives us an upper hand. we know eleven's strengths. and weaknesses."
erica looks at dustin like he's crazy. "weaknesses?"
"when el remote-travels, she goes into this sort of trance-like state. i bet the same is true of vecna."
lucas holds a finger up as he realizes. "that would explain what he was doing in that attic."
"exactly! when he attacks his next victim, i'll bet you he's back in that attic, physical body defenseless."
"defenseless? what about the army of bats?" steve doubts the plan.
"right. true. we'll have to find a way past them. distract them somehow."
"and, uh, how do we do that, exactly?" eddie asked as he began to stand up, hoping he knew where dustin was taking this.
"no idea," dustin states.
eddie sat back down, letting out a 'sure' under his breath.
"but once they're gone, he doesn't stand a chance! it'll be like slaying sleeping dracula in his coffin."
"that all sounds good in theory, but there is no pattern to vecna's killings," robin explains. "at least not one that i can decipher. we don't know when he's going to attack next. we don't even know who he's going to attack."
max joins in again. "yeah, we do."
everyone looks at the girl. "i can still feel him. i'm still marked. cursed. i ditch kate bush, i draw his focus back to me."
"max," bea looks at her somberly. "please."
beatrice thought about ways this part of the plan could go wrong. max could die just like chrissy. it would mean another loss for beatrice. she didn't know how many more hits she could take before it became too much.
lucas knew what it would mean for max to go back into that state. "you can't. he'll kill you."
"i survived before. i can survive again. i just need to keep him busy long enough so that you guys can get into that attic," max plans. "then you can chop his head off. stab him in the heart. blow him up with some explosive dustin cooks up. i honestly really don't care how you put this asshole in his grave. just...whatever it is...whatever you do...try not to miss."