They were robbed of a peaceful start to the morning when someone began pounding on the bedroom door. The measly, thin curtains that were closed to offer seclusion from the outside world had no streaks of sunlight itching to break through any tears in the fabric. The sun had not yet risen.
Nancy burst into the room, appraised the sleeping situation of Eddie and Null, and chose to ignore the fact that each was shirtless(evident by the bedding not fully covering their shoulders), with Null's bra straps being the only thing to provide Nancy a small inkling of relief. It proved they weren't totally naked, which if they were, Nancy would have probably lost it on them.
"Get dressed," she ordered bluntly, before leaving the room, "we need to get to Max's trailer before the sun rises so nobody sees us."
Eddie had strained his neck forward, originally aiming to get a better view at who had walked in. Now that Nancy was gone, he let his head flop backwards onto the mattress and groaned.
"You know I think I prefer my actual loud alarm clock to Nancy Wheeler," Eddie broke the silence.
"Seconded," Null agreed, moving her arms as she stretched.
Eddie rolled over on his side to face her. "Good morning, girlfriend," he said with a lazy grin.
"Top o' the mornin' to ya, boyfriend," Null replied in mock excitement, too tired to care of what delirious words might drop out of her mouth.
Eddie pecked her forward with a kiss, before jumping up and tugging his pants on. Null watched him get dressed, admiring the tattoos and his body in general.
"Take a picture, it'll last longer," Eddie suggested with a cheeky grin.
"I'm taking plenty of mental pictures right now, don't you worry," Null replied.
Eddie laughed before yanking the bedsheets off of her suddenly, and pulled her off of the bed, before plopping back into the bed himself. "My turn to take mental pictures."
Null rolled her eyes, "You're ridiculous."
"But you love it."
"Unfortunately," Null mumbled.
~~~~~
"He showed me things that haven't happened yet. The most awful things. I saw a dark cloud spreading over Hawkins." The group watched Nancy intently while she spoke about what Vecna had showed her. Null was standing behind Nancy, walking back and forth occasionally, before stopping to listen better, and the pacing again to try to put the pieces together. "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 neighborhoods. Our homes. And then...He showed me my mom. And Holly. Mike. And they...They were all..."
"Okay, but... he's just trying to scare you, Nance," Steve tried to offer her some comfort. "Right? I mean...I mean, it's not real."
"Not yet," Nancy breathed shakily. "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."
"Four chimes," Max realized. "Vecna's clock. It always chimes four times. Four exactly."
"I heard them too," Nancy added.
Null, who had been pacing for nearly a minute on the verge of a minor headache from the dizziness, stopped in her tracks. "Four chimes," she said in disbelief.
"But sounds are boring," Zero whined. "I hate trying to imitate sounds."
"Sounds are powerful," Peter corrected.
"But how am I supposed to make you hear something I've never heard?" Null asked, no stranger to her lack of imagination stunting her skills.
Peter pulled out a walkman, something Zero had never seen before, and handed it to her. "Here, listen to this and make me hear exactly that."
So, Zero listened, and after a few failed attempts, was able to copy exactly what she had heard. 4 chimes of some bell, she had assumed, that played before stopping briefly, then picking back up again showing that there was a pattern. Zero moved to hand it back to Peter.
"Keep it, you'll need it for more of your later training," Peter smiled down at her as she thanked him.
"You've heard them too?" Eddie panicked, concerned with what Null had muttered before going deep into thought, as if trying to remember something.
"Dustin," Null beckoned, "Backpack, bitte." Dustin who had been wearing it, simply turned around as Null rummaged through it, eventually finding her old walkman.
"Is that supposed to mean something?" Erica asked, doubtfully.
Null rolled her eyes before pressing play, revealing the audio she'd memorized of the 4 chime pattern, making Max and Nancy visibly tense, and Robin shudder.
"How'd you get that?" Lucas asked.
"One of the orderlies at Hawkins Lab gave it to me for my training. His name was Peter. Nancy did you see a tall and skinny blonde man in your vision?" Null asked.
"Yes-" Nancy replied.
"It's him. Peter, Vecna, Henry, One. It's all him," It clicked for Null.
"So what does this mean?" Steve asked.
"It means he's been telling us his plan this whole time," Max answered.
"Four kills," Lucas deducted. "Four gates. End of the world."
"If that's true..." Dustin swallowed nervously. "He's only one kill away."
"Oh Jesus Christ," Eddie put his head in his hands, "Jesus Christ."
"Try 'em again. Try 'em again," Steve urged.
"Anything?" Dustin asked.
"No. Rang a few times, then went to busy signal," Max answered.
"Maybe you punched it wrong," Steve suggested. "Try again."
Null's focus was directed elsewhere as she felt an illusion in the air. The same as the time she'd seen Eleven in the diner. Null's eyes drifted behind Max, landing on a cautious Eleven with buzzed hair and a white uniform.
Null's hand flew to her mouth to try to cover a sob, trying to hold back the inevitable mental break down. "What happened to you?" Null asked just barely above a whisper, hardly aware of the eyes of the group on her back.
Eleven ignored the question. "You can't fight him. He's too strong. I'm coming back soon, just wait until I get back."
Null smiled sadly, "we don't have that type of time. If we wait Peter could kill another person. Their blood will be on our hands for no reason other than our hesitation."
"Please, don't do this," Eleven urged.
"Get here as soon as you can," Null told her. "We'll beat him down a bit for you."
"Uh, sorry, who is she talking to?" Eddie asked.
Null wiped a few tears that had fallen onto her face away with the back of her hand. She sniffed before grabbing one of the couch pillows, setting it on the floor, kneeling down and punching it and screaming to release some of her anguish.
"Stupid...fucking...controlling...UGH!!!" Null yelled.
"What'd you see?" Steve asked, hardly offset by her outburst.
Null sat on the floor abruptly and threw the pillow back at the couch. "Why is it that whenever we get into this shit, we're always like getting fucked in the ass from 3 angles?"
"Excuse me?" Erica asked.
"Eleven's hair is buzzed-" Null started.
"Shit," Dustin groaned.
"-So Brenner's, apparently back from the dead. That fucking asshole."
"So where is she now?" Nancy asked.
"In a new lab I'm guessing, one where we have no idea where it would be." Null resumed her pacing. "So we have Eleven in the lab, problem number one. Then we have Vecna, problem number two. Then we had those idiots who aren't picking up the phone, which of course can't be a coincidence-"
"I knew something must've been connected to Lenora," Nancy realized.
"-So whatever miscellaneous shit that's happening there would be problem number 3. Then we've got the fact that Eddie's also being hunted like a fucking deer in season, which is problem number 4. Like we can never just like deal with one thing. Shit's always coming at us from multiple angles. My brain can't handle that."
The group nodded, acknowledging how shitty their situation was.
"We have to go back in there," Nancy spoke up. "Back to the Upside Down."
"Whoa, no, no, no. What?" Steve sputtered out quickly.
"Nope," Eddie shook his head in disagreement. "Nope."
"Let's think this through," Steve suggested.
"What is there to think through?" Nancy asked.
"We barely made it out of there," Steve scoffed.
"Yeah, because we weren't prepared," Nancy explained. "But this time, we will be. We'll get weapons and protection. We'll go through the gate we'll find his lair, and we'll kill him."
"Or he'll kill us," Steve replied. "The only reason you survived is because he wanted you to. He's not scared of us."
"And for good reason," Robin added as she stood up. We were wrong about Vecna. Henry. One. Sorry, what are we calling him now?"
Lucas and Dustin had agreed on One. Erica on Vecna, Nancy on Henry, and Null on Peter.
"Right. We've learned something new about Vecna/Henry/Peter/One. He's a number like Eleven and Null, only a sick, evil, male, child-murdering version of her with really bad skin. But my... my point is, he's super powerful. Could turn us inside out with a snap of his fingers. It's not a fair fight."
"Then why fight fair?" Dustin asked. "You're right. He's like Eleven and Null. But that gives us an upper hand. We know Eleven and Null's strengths. And weaknesses."
"You have weaknesses?" Eddie asked Null.
"I'm only human, Edward." Null smiled softly.
"When Null cloaks someone from a distance remotely, she goes into this sort of trance-like state. I bet the same is true of Vecna," Dustin explained.
"That would explain what he was doing in that attic," Lucas pieced together.
"Exactly. When he attacks his next victim, I'll bet you he's back in that attic, physical body defenseless," Dustin guessed.
"Defenseless?" Steve asked sarcastically, pointing to his neck. "What about the army of bats?"
"True. We'll have to find a way past them," Dustin agreed. "Distract them somehow."
"And, uh, how do we do that, exactly?" Eddie asked.
"Distractions are practically my speciality, leave it to me," Null answered.
"Anyways once they're gone," Dustin moved on. "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. Not one that I can decipher. We don't know when he's going to attack next, don't even know who he's going to attack next," Robin pointed out
"Yeah, we do," Max spoke up. "I can still feel him. I'm still marked. Cursed. I ditch Kate Bush,
I draw his focus back to me."
"Max," Lucas pleaded. "You can't. He'll kill you."
"I survived before," Max disagreed. "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."
"Pull out his eyes and then laugh at him so he feels left out of the fun, then chop his ears off and leave him Helen Kellered and then finish him off," Null brainstormed.
"Morbid, much?" Erica judged, to which Null just shrugged.
"I honestly don't care how you put this asshole in his grave. Just...whatever it is...Whatever you do...Try not to miss."
~~~~~
Hey guys, so if you haven't noticed by now, I usually only write around 1500 words give or take, so it feels like this is going by really slowly and getting really drawn out. I hope to finish up soon, though July is a busy month for me, plus I'm still not decided on how I want the ending of vol 2 to go yet. So bear with me and have a nice night.
Xoxo