March 26th, 1986
NANCY HAD SUFFERED FROM ONE one of Vecna's horrific attacks. However, she came out unscathed. He didn't plan to hurt her, so he didn't hurt her. With wide eyes and a traumatised gasp, the girl fell back into Aven and Steve's arms, the pair sharing a look as they helped the shaking girl up from the ground.
After finally climbing back into their homely world, they relocated to Max's caravan across the road. Erica, Eddie and Steve all fell onto one of the fabricated couches with a grateful sigh, sinking into the fabric as Aven led a still trembling Nancy to the seat opposing them. Robin sat against one of the shelves as Max, Lucas and Dustin stood around the group, leaning against the walls or doorways throughout the room.
"What did you see?" Dustin asked from one of the wooden doorways.
"He showed me things that haven't happened yet. The most awful things," Nancy began to rant, Aven reaching over and resting her hand on the girl's lap as she gripped onto it for a sense of comfort. "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 mum and Holly, Mike, and they were all-"
"Okay, but . . . he's just trying to scare you, Nance. Right? I mean- I mean, it's not real," Steve interrupted as he leant forward in his seat, pressing his elbows against his knees with a frown.
"He's got a point. Nothing he showed Max was real, so yours might not be either," Aven whispered beside her.
"Not yet. 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." Aven shared a look with Steve, who let out a sigh, before rubbing her spare hand down Nancy's back as she cried.
"Four chimes. Vecna's clock. It always chimes four times. Four exactly," Max told the group with her arms crossed. Her headphones were dangling from her neck, the girl never having taken them off since the vicious attack of the monster in the underground world. Nobody would let her, not even herself. She didn't want to die.
"I heard them too," Nancy whispered with furrowed brows, staring down at her and Aven's hands.
"He's been telling us his plan this whole time," Max realised as she gazed across the room.
"Four kills, four gates. End of the world," Lucas mumbled as he made eye-contact with the redhead across the room.
"If that's true . . . he's only one kill away," Dustin murmured with his hands on his hips, glancing down at Erica beside him as they shared a knowing look.
"Oh, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ," Eddie screamed with despair into his hands.
"Try 'em again. Try 'em again," Steve repeated to Max, one hand rubbing his forehead worriedly whilst the other frantically shook towards the phone.
"This cannot be happening," Aven muttered as she shook her head, pressing her forehead against Nancy's shoulder as Max rushed towards the device clinging to the wall and dialled in the numbers.
"It's Hawkins, of course it's happening," Dusting muttered as he leant against the corner of the wall. He perked up when Max walked back into the room. "Anything?"
"No. Rang a few times, then went to busy signal," Max mumbled with sorrow.
"Maybe you punched it in wrong. Try it again," Steve told her with a groan of annoyance.
"I didn't punch it in wrong," Max argued.
"Well, I don't know," Steve sighed with defeat, his hands falling to rest on the edge of his knees.
"I think she knows how to use a phone," Dustin commented with a raised hand.
"I'm just saying, she could've typed it in wrong," Steve retorted, irritation lacing his voice.
"Same shit," Max said as she walked back into the room, after having listened to the phone ringing out for the third time.
"How is that possible?" Lucas questioned aloud.
"I told you. Joyce has this telemarketer job, she's always on the phone. Mike won't stop whining about it," Dustin groaned as he knocked his head back against the wall.
"Yeah, but this phone's been busy for, what, three days now? That's not Joyce. No way, something's wrong," Max gathered whilst Nancy let go of Aven's hand, the girl watching as she stood up from the couch and walked towards the window behind them all.
"She's right. It can't be just a 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," Nancy ranted before turning away from the smudged pane of glass, looking over the small group gathered in the meeting room. "We have to go back there, back to the Upside down."
"Whoa, no, no, no. What? Let's think this through." Steve went flying from his seat, eyes blown wide with hands flinging around worriedly before him.
"Nope, nope," Eddie commented from his place on the couch, instantly shaking his head at the mere thought.
"I've spent way too much time in that place, no way am I going back," Aven stated as she sent the girl standing behind her a look, kicking her legs up onto the far arm of the small couch.
"What is there to think through? And what's one more visit gonna do?" The girl argued, looking between Steve and Aven with her hands out in question.
"Add to that number, add to my time there - which is the last thing I want to do!" Aven exasperated, pushing her hands through her hair to move it out of her eyes.
"And we barely made it out of there," Steve added, approaching the two girl's by moving around the small coffee table in the middle of the area.
"Yeah, because we weren't prepared. But, this time, we will be. We'll get weapons and protection. We'll go through the gate, find his lair, and we'll kill him," Nancy summarised with a convincing smile.
"Or he'll kill us," Steve countered angrily. "The only reason you survived is because he wanted you to. He's not scared of us."
"And for good reason. We were wrong about Vecna, Henry, One. Sorry, what are we calling him now?" Robin interrupted as she stood up from the floor, shaking her head with confusion as her thoughts spiralled within her head.
"One," Lucas and Dustin agreed.
"Vecna," Erica and Aven mumbled as they sent a glare to the two other boys.
"Henry," Nancy stated confidently, ignoring the others incessant arguing.
"Right, we've learned something new about Vecna / Henry / One. He's a number like Eleven, only a sick, evil, male, child-murdering version of her 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," Robin told them all.
"I agree with Robin!" Aven shouted as she stuck her hand up with a smile.
"Then, why fight fair? You're right. He's like Eleven, but that gives us an upper hand. We know Eleven's strengths and weaknesses," Dustin explained easily, taking a step forward after kicking himself away from the wooden trailer wall.
"Weaknesses?" Erica exasperated whilst leaning over the arm of the couch.
"When El remote-travels, she goes into this sort of trance-like state. I bet the same is true of Vecna," Dustin theorised aloud.
"That would explain what he was doing in that attic," Lucas caught on, pointing an index finger in Dustin's direction. The boy pointed one right back at him.
"Exactly. When he attacks his next victim, I'll bet you he's back in that attic - physical body defenceless," Dustin speculated with a proud grin.
"Defenceless? What about the army of bats?" Steve asked incredulously.
"Yeah, and they're bloody lethal," Aven commented from beside the boy, holding her arms behind her head as she leaned back on the couch to stare up at the roof.
"True. We'll have to find a way past them. Distract them somehow," he dragged out, mumbling away.
"And uh- how do we do that, exactly?" Eddie asked, speaking up after falling out of his worried, quietly-panicking state.
"No idea. But once they're gone, he doesn't stand a chance. It'll be like slaying sleeping Dracula in his coffin," Dustin told the boy excitedly.
"That all sounds good in theory, but there is no pattern to Vecna's killings. I mean, 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 next," Robin exasperated.
"Yeah, we do. I can still feel him. I'm still marked - cursed. I ditch Kate Bush, I draw his focus back to me," Max spoke up, gesturing to her headphones as she spoke about her beloved artist.
"No. Hell no," Aven immediately disagreed, sitting up from the couch with a noticeable frown.
"Max, you can't. He'll kill you," Lucas began.
"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. 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," she ranted, her eyes occasionally flicking to Aven's sympathetically. She knew her older sister would rather choose any other option than put Max in danger - they had only just been reunited. But, the end of the world was at stake. Max had to do what she had to do, even if it hurt her sister as much as it hurt her.
"I don't know about this, I really don't," Aven muttered as she stood up from the couch, rubbing her upper arms as she nervously looked at her younger sister.
"I'll be fine, just- if you do your job, I'll do mine, okay?"
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