╔═════ ∘◦ ☽ ﾐ ◦∘ ══════╗
𝗠𝗢𝗢𝗡𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧
𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓻𝓽𝓮𝓮𝓷:
"𝙸 𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚍 𝚘𝚏 𝚏𝚎𝚎𝚕 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚊 𝚔𝚒𝚍
𝚊𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗."
╚═════ ∘◦ ミ ☾ ◦∘ ══════╝
"ARE YOU REALLY that mad at me?" Megan asked.
Mackenzie had been sitting in her seat, staring out the window at the trees and how the sun shone on the green leaves. The camper had been quiet for a while as Steve drove, besides from the murmurs of Steve and Nancy in the front and Lucas and Max in the back. Her and Megan hadn't shared a word at all, until now, when Megan just asked that.
"Yes," Mackenzie answered.
Megan sighed. "Mackenzie, I'm sorry."
"I just don't understand why you didn't just listen to me. The one thing — the one thing I needed you to listen to me about."
"I was worried about you." Megan paused for a moment. "I've been worried about you since Will disappeared three years ago. You keep having nightmares but won't tell me or mom about it . . . but now I guess I know why."
Mackenzie's eyes slightly softened. "Thank you for being worried about me, but Meg, I wasn't lying when I said Hawkins wasn't a normal town. And now you know about the Gates, and Vecna . . . this is the worst one we've had to deal with."
"The worst one? How many others have you had to deal with?"
"A lot." Mackenzie let out a deep breath. "I'll tell you everything after we get everything from the War Zone. Promise. But it's a really long story with a lot of . . . awful details." She looked at Megan. "You used to believe monsters were in your closet and mom always told them they weren't real. Are you up to know that they are?"
"I guess so," Megan replied. "As long as you're there, I think I'll be okay."
Mackenzie gave her a tight smile. "Well then, welcome to the Party, Meg — where we deal with dangerous things from a parallel dimension."
After a little while more of driving, they finally made it to The War Zone. Steve parked away from the main parking lot at the side of the building. This was to ensure that nobody saw Eddie, because he was still actively being hunted for murder not only by the Hawkins High basketball team but by the police as well. Lucas and Dustin stayed with him, too, because they were known to be friends with Eddie due to them being in the Hellfire Club together.
That left Mackenzie, Megan, Max, Erica, Nancy, Robin, and Steve to go in together. The group of six marched into the store, looking quite disheveled because three of them had just been in the Upside Down and the other four had biked several miles. They were immediately met with a large store that sold any sort of weaponry imaginable. Signs stating knives, guns, survival, tents, and other things hung from the ceiling. The place was packed, mostly by older men with bandanas — hicks, as Eddie called them.
"So much for avoiding angry hicks," Robin said.
"Let's be . . . fast," Nancy suggested.
"Yep."
"Definitely," Erica agreed.
"Do not let go of my hand," Mackenzie ordered, holding her hand out to Megan.
Megan rolled her eyes. "Kenzie—"
"No. Now that you're sucked into this whole thing, I want you to stay by my side. Now hold my hand and don't complain."
Megan huffed, but gripped onto Mackenzie's hand anyways. The group split up to go to different sections of the store to cover more ground and spend less time there. Mackenzie grabbed a hand cart and started to pick up some items. So far, she had a couple of glass bottles, some gasoline, and some towels. She remembered that the one thing the monsters in the Upside Down didn't really like was fire. That meant Vecna probably didn't like fire either.
Also, she really just wanted him to burn. She was tired of all of his shit that he had pulled over the last few years.
"This is your solution?" Megan questioned as they stopped at the knives section. "You're going to throw a bunch of knives at this guy like a ninja?"
"If it causes a distraction, yeah," Mackenzie responded. "We caused a distraction last summer with fireworks. All Lucas' idea. It was completely genius."
"A distraction against what?"
"Oh, you know, a giant monster called the Mind Flayer that was made out of melted humans."
Megan blinked. "Huh?"
"I'm telling you, this shit's crazy," Mackenzie stated. She reached forwards and started to put a couple knives in the basket, hearing the metal clink against the bottles. "It started as a shadow, and then it turned to flesh. The Upside Down is truly something else. Oh my God, wait." She looked around for a moment, trying to find Steve. "We need Steve's bat. I haven't seen that thing in ages."
"Kenzie, we can buy a bat. There's literally some over there."
"No. This one has nails in it. It was made by Jonathan, but Steve used it to attack the Demogorgon."
"You're speaking a whole other language right now," Megan told her. "Could you at least provide me with a little context?"
"I said I would tell you after this," Mackenzie insisted. "Right now I'm just rambling. Take it as bits and pieces of the larger story. You'll understand everything later."
Megan suddenly tugged on her hand. "Kenzie."
"Okay, fine. I'm sorry. I'll start with Hawkins Lab—"
"No. Kenzie, the basketball team is here."
Mackenzie looked up, her eyes widening, suddenly on high alert. Sure enough, multiple teenage boys wearing the green and yellow Hawkins High varsity jackets were milling around the store. She saw some she didn't know the names of, but she did see Jason and Andy. Jason was standing by the guns with Nancy.
She knew what they were doing — they were still hunting for Eddie, but now, after the murder of Patrick, they were kicking it into high gear. They didn't just want to hurt him and hand him over to the police anymore, they wanted to kill him.
"Shit," Mackenzie commented.
If Jason saw her, she was totally fucked. She was on the cheer team and Chrissy's friend. Considering Jason had been dating Chrissy before she died . . . that would not end well.
"We have to go. Oh my God, where's Steve?"
"I can go find Erica," Megan suggested.
"No, you're staying with me, I don't want you to get lost," Mackenzie protested. "Let's try and find Steve or Robin and tell them we have to go."
She gripped onto Megan's hand tighter and made a beeline through the crowd of people. However, a voice from behind her and Megan cut her off.
"Mack?" Andy began.
Mackenzie froze in her tracks — both from being fearful that Andy would realize she was tied to Eddie because of Lucas, and from Andy calling her that name. He probably heard it from Jason that night of the basketball game and decided to use it as well.
"Mack?" Megan repeated. "But only Will—"
"Not right now, Megan," Mackenzie stated. She slowly turned around to face him, her eyes narrowing. "Don't call me that."
"I would've never expected to see you here," Andy admitted. "A cheerleader, at The War Zone?"
"Cheerleaders can shoot you down, too. Don't give into the stereotypes."
Andy took a step towards her, but Mackenzie stood her ground, her head tilting back slightly to continue glaring at him. "Chrissy would've never done that."
The name of her friend was enough to make Mackenzie's heart sink.
"Chrissy wasn't like me," Mackenzie voiced firmly. "Now, if you would excuse us, we have somewhere to be."
"Not so fast," Andy said, blocking their path again. "You're friends with Lucas Sinclair, right?"
Mackenzie kept her cool. "What, you obsessed with him or something?"
"No, just curious. You hugged him after the basketball game, so I'm assuming you're close. It's just . . . he's in Hellfire, right?"
Mackenzie's jaw clenched. "What's it to you?"
"You know what it is to me, Mack," Andy insisted. He stepped forwards, making Mackenzie push Megan behind her back. "They have connections to Eddie, which means you have connections to Eddie."
"You have no idea what you're talking about."
"Can you stop, like, interrogating my sister?" Megan interrupted. "It's kind of creepy. And your eyes are all wide. You look weird."
Andy slowly looked at her before smirking. "Oh, and you brought your little sister."
Mackenzie raised an eyebrow. "If you even more so look at her again, I will not hesitate to take one of these knives that I have and point it at your throat. Got it?"
"You're bluffing."
"Then try me."
"Is there a problem?" Steve's voice asked.
Mackenzie inwardly took a sigh of relief. She felt the familiar hand of Steve's on her shoulder and his presence behind her. Andy looked up at him, his eyes widening just the tiniest bit at Steve.
"No problem," Andy answered. "Just your little friend threatening me with a knife."
"She probably had good reason for it," Steve replied. "I suggest you leave her alone." Andy hesitated for a moment. "Leave."
With one last suspicious look at Mackenzie, who glared at him even harsher, Andy turned around and walked off. Mackenzie closed her eyes and let out a breath. She hated that.
"We have to go, Steve," Mackenzie urged.
"I know," Steve responded. "Come on."
They grouped up with the others. Steve and Nancy paid for all of their supplies and they all grabbed the brown paper bags full of their things. They walked rather quickly back to the camper, making sure none of the basketball team was following them. Steve opened the door to the camper and they all clambered inside.
"What happened?" Lucas inquired.
"We gotta go," Steve announced.
"Your old friends are here," Erica explained.
"Shit!" Lucas exclaimed.
"Let's go, let's go!" Dustin shouted as Max shut the door behind all of them.
"I'm going, I'm going!" Steve yelled. "Sit down!"
Mackenzie sat down on the couch in the back with Megan. Steve turned on the camper and sped off out of the parking lot. Against her own will, she turned back and looked through the back window. Jason was standing there, staring at their camper.
Their eyes locked, and Mackenzie quickly turned back around, her heart beating fast against her chest. Shit.
༻✦༺༻✧༺༻✦༺
THEY HAD SITUATED themselves in an open field by the trailer park. All of them were in charge of making different weapons — Nancy was cutting off the long part of her gun with a saw while Max held down the gun, Dustin and Eddie were putting nails in trash can lids to make shields, Lucas and Erica were making spears with sticks, knives, and twine, and Steve and Robin were filling up glass bottles with gasoline and rags so that it could more easily catch on fire.
As for Mackenzie and Megan, Mackenzie had told the others that she would be explaining everything that had happened to them in the past three years to Megan. She had started from the very beginning, with Hawkins Lab and Eleven. Then she moved onto Will's disappearance, how they found Eleven in the woods, and how they saved Will from the Upside Down and the Demogorgon. She told Megan about the Mind Flayer and how it it inhabited Will's body, about the tunnels that had run underneath Hawkins, and the Demo-dogs. Mackenzie explained everything that had happened last summer with Billy and the Mind Flayer and also included how Steve, Dustin, Robin, and Erica had been trapped underneath the mall in the Russian base. Finally, she told her about Vecna about he was the mastermind behind everything they had gone through.
Like Mackenzie said, it was a long story. But Megan sat and listened, occasionally asking questions.
"You went through all of that?" Megan inquired softly once the story was over, and Mackenzie nodded. "I'm so sorry, Kenzie."
"It's all right," Mackenzie replied, and even though it wasn't all right, and she wasn't all right, it really wasn't her fault that she got roped into this. She turned, only to see Eddie and Dustin wrestling each other in the field. "But my friends know what I've been through, because they've seen the same shit I have. And right now, sitting with you in this field under the sun . . . I don't know. I kind of feel like a kid again."
"You said three years ago, so this whole thing started when you were, like, twelve. You still should've been a kid." Megan looked over at her. "I know I'm younger than you, but I've watched as you became more mature in the past couple of years. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, I just . . . you shouldn't have been forced to grow up because of this."
"Yeah, well." Mackenzie let out a small laugh and shrugged. "It's always been up to us to deal with this shit because we had El. And even though she's in California, Vecna's coming after Max. I'm not going to let him take her. No way."
"But what if he takes you?"
Mackenzie looked down at her younger sister. Megan's eyes were wide, and almost glassy, like she was about to cry. Mackenzie felt her heart break and she wrapped her arms around Megan, pulling her close. She rested her cheek on top of Megan's head as Megan's head rested against her chest.
"He won't," Mackenzie promised. "I haven't had any headaches or visions. He doesn't want me. But if he does come after me, you know my favorite song."
"Should I Stay or Should I Go?" Megan guessed.
"No, that's Will's. I only play it because it's his favorite. Well, I guess it could save me because it would remind me of him. But my favorite song is Everybody Wants to Rule the World."
"I should've known."
"Yeah, you should've," Mackenzie insisted, making Megan laugh. "I've survived this long, I can survive more."
Megan hugged her a little tighter. "I love you, Kenzie."
Mackenzie hugged her tighter, too. "I love you more, Meg."
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oooh we love filler chapters let's go
two more chapters and the epilogue ouch </3