This time, it was Julie herself who drove the group to the hospital. She didn't trust Nancy's driving one bit, and wanted the ride to be smooth because children were in the car. It took some negotiating, but Julie prevailed.
Nancy led the group through the waiting room to see Mrs. Driscoll, but they were stopped by a female receptionist who was on the phone.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Excuse me!" The woman stood up, causing the group to inwardly groan at being caught. "Where do you think you're going?"
Nancy turned to the receptionist. "Oh, um... I was just going to visit my grandma again. And-- And this... this is my family." She said. The receptionist placed her hand on her hip and narrowed her eyes at Lucas.
"Extended." He said, making Julie bit the inside of her cheek harshly to keep from laughing out loud.
"I don't care who they are. You know the rules. Two vistors at a time." The woman reminded Nancy, who knew the rules all too well.
"Yeah, but--" Nancy tried, but her efforts were in vain.
"Two!" The receptionist interjected, sitting back down and going back to her conversation.
The group looked around at each other, trying to decide who to go. Julie glanced at the distracted receptionist and shrugged her shoulders. "We could make a run for it?" She suggested.
"We're not going to 'make a run for it'." Nancy said, rolling her eyes. "It's simple. Jonathan and I will go. Stay here." The Wheeler girl briskly turned and walked towards the elevators, tugging along Jonathan who sent an apologetic look Julie's way.
Julie scoffed loudly. "Going to screw is more like it." She muttered under her breath, smiling softly when Lucas snickered.
Julie and the kids made themselves comfortable in the waiting room. Mike and Lucas occupied themselves with the vending machine, El and Max flipped through magazines, and Julie was seated next to Will. The two hadn't been talking, but Julie could tell that Will had something to say to her. His distracted gaze towards Mike and bouncing knee were dead giveaways. Julie had learned all of Will's quirks in the time she had lived with him. She was thankful that she had payed attention.
"Bud?" Julie said, lightly tapping Will's leg. Will looked up at Julie, plastering on a neutral face, but Julie saw right through his facade. "Wanna tell me what's up?"
Will sighed lightly, and looked at his feet, instead of at Julie. "It's kind of hard to explain it." The boy admitted.
Julie thought on his response while Lucas hurtled a package of Skittles at her, and Reese's Pieces at Will. They began to snack on their candies, while Will thought.
"You know how when you all were fighting the Demogorgan for the first time, it was always Nancy and Jonathan together, and then just you?" Will asked. It was an odd thing to bring up, but Julie vaguely remembered those days, and how annoying they were.
"Yeah." Julie nodded. So did Will.
"Okay, good. This summer... it's been like that. Mostly with El and Mike. Lucas and Max at least include me in everything. And... and I thought that once Dustin got back, that it would all be fine, and that he would be my buddy. But I was wrong." Will explained, and Julie felt her heart ache for the sweet boy who was neglected by his best friend. "Dustin got a girlfriend too, and now he's gone AWOL, and I'm all alone again." Will finished with shakey breath.
Julie sighed. She didn't bother commenting on the fact that Dustin Henderson had a girlfriend. "Your friends love you, Will. Even if you never have a girlfriend, or if you date a special person one day, they'll still love you. I'll still love you. So will your mom, and Jonathan. I'm sorry that you've felt this way all summer, bud. I'm here for you, even if I'm not here." Julie spewed out, her hand finding Will's. Julie saw Will nod his head rapidly, and the gloss of his eyes indicated that he had on-coming tears.
"Thanks, Jules." Will said, leaning across the arm of the chair to hug his big sister. Julie hugged her little brother back just as hard. Their moment didn't last forever, as sounds of struggle, and the buzzing electricity of many lights loomed near. Nancy. Jonathan. The Flayed. That had to be it.
Quicker than a flash, Julie was up and out of her chair, discarding her sweatshirt and instructing the confused kids to stay put as she ran for the elevator. Once she was inside, she let her ears lead her, and she zeroed in on the floor number of the ongoing conflict. Julie rapidly pressed the floor number, as if that would make it go any faster.
The elevator couldn't move slow enough, and when the doors did open with a 'ding', Julie was greeted with the stench of blood and flickering lights. Her theory was correct, and she hoped she wasn't too late to save Jonathan and Nancy.
Julie immediately sprinted towards the sounds of whimpering, and groaning. She heard Jonathan, and she heard Nancy, as well as another man, who she assumed was Flayed. When she finally made it through the maze of hospital hallways, she bursted through a door, and found a heap on the floor. It was Jonathan. He was hurt.
"Jonathan! Jonathan! What happened?" Julie rushed over to him, dropping in front of the weak and bloodied teen.
Jonathan looked relieved to see her, but the relief was flooded with immense concern. "Nancy. Go to Nancy!" He instructed his friend, pointing out another door.
Julie nodded, and tucked some strands of hair behind her ears, before turning and taking off down the hallways, towards Nancy and a Flayed. her converse slapped against the floor, and her breaths became rigid, but she forced herself to keep going. She heard the girl scream for help from afar, and she heard the taunts of the man after her. As Julie rounded a corner, she wasn't looking where she was going, and ran right into the back of the Flayed man who was chasing Nancy.
The man turned around slowly, and Julie recognized him as a man who worked for the Hawkins Post. Right now though, he was her enemy. Her adreneline was so high from the sprinting, that she couldn't bring herself to be afraid. "Ahh! It's you." The man said, his veins black and pulsating.
Julie braced herself for what was about to come. "You've heard of me. Excellent." She said, rocking on the balls of her feet before releasing a scream towards The Flayed's right arm, exploding it in nothing. Unlike all of the other times, Julie was somehow able to control the guts that would have landed on her, and directed them in the man's face as he groaned loudly.
From somewhere else in the hospital, another Flayed was experiencing the same thing. Somewhere else, Billy, and countless others were as well. Julie shook off her thoughts and screamed again at the man before he could recover, sending him flying into a nearby room, just like what she had done to Billy the night before.
Julie followed the man into the room he had flown into, seeing Nancy unveiling herself from the corner with a fire extinguisher in hand. She looked shocked to see Julie, but both girls main focus was the man in front of them, who was starting to climb to his knees.
Nancy gripped the fire extinguisher tight in her hands. "Go... to... Hell!" She yelled, using all of her strength to hit the man directly in the face with her weapon. Elsewhere, Jonathan stabbed his Flayed at the same time. The man in front of the two girls fell back motionless onto his back. It seemed that he was dead.
Nancy dropped the fire extuinguisher, panting, while Julie hunched over and held her hands to her knees. Nancy turned to Julie. "thank you." She said breathlessly.
Julie waved her off. "Don't mention it." She huffed. She was over-exterted and exhausted, but her needs would have to wait. Because the lights brightened an extreme amount, before the girls and the whole hospital were caught in repeating darkness and light. Nancy and Julie extended their hands, and held onto each in fear, while Julie stood up straight.
All of a sudden, the sprawled out man in front of Julie and Nancy started shaking, as if he were a bowl full of jello. A horrid sound filled Julie's ears, as her and Nancy stepped back in shock. The man was grunting, and seemed to be in pain, as the shaking intensified, as well as the sounds.
"Don't look." Julie whispered to Nancy, having an idea of what was going to happen. She was right. The man's body started melting, until all that was left were throbbing guts, just like the ones Julie had exploded. It was happening in different places, which made the whole thing even more scary. Sadly, Julie was forced to hear it all.
The melted guts started to move away from the girls, and Nancy insisted that they follow it, ignoring Julie's concerns. The two teens ended up in a hallway. Jonathan was across the hall, watching as the same thing happened to his Flayed. The two sets of guts met in the middle and formed some type of monster, that was on it's way to Julie and Nancy. But it wanted Julie.
The lights turned off as Julie began to hyperventilate, and when they turned back on, the monster was roaring and shrieking loudly. Julie couldn't bring herself to make a noise. But Nancy did. "Shit." She cursed, squeezing Julie's hand when she heard her shaking breaths.
"Nancy! Julie!" Jonathan screamed from the other side of the monster. "Run!"
"J, come on!" Nancy urged the Hargrove girl, who was still as a statue. With a tug, Nancy was able to snap Julie from her daze and pull her with her to the nearest door. When the girls attempted to push it open, there were too many things on the other side preventing them from doing so.
As Nancy pushed, Julie turned around to face the monster and attempted to scream. All it did was explode a few arms or legs of some sort, and didn't stop the monster from advancing towards the girls. Instead, the monster absorbed the guts back into itself as it moved. Julie groaned in frustration, as the monster came even closer to the two of them.
"Julie! I got it!" Nancy called, making Julie whip around and rush through the crack in the door Nancy had made. Nancy started running, and Julie followed her. The exhuasted and terrified girls ran down new hallways, with the gut-monster hot on their trail.
Nancy was falling behind in her shoes, and Julie didn't even have time to wonder why she didn't take them off. Instead, she found a door to push open, pulling Nancy inside and shutting it firmly. She locked the door with shaky fingers, and stood back next to Nancy.
"If this is how we die, I'm sorry for being a bad friend." Julie said, panting between her words. The monster was banging it's head on the door, but Julie wasn't focused on that. She didn't quite know what caused the rift between her and Nancy, but lack of effort and communication had to be part of it.
"I'm sorry too. I was awful." Nancy apologized quickly, squeezing Julie's hand. For a second or two, it was silent, before Julie heard the squelching again. The monster was melting itself to get under the door, and through the vent.
"Oh hell no." Julie said, her throat closing.
"Oh, God." Nancy mumbled, panting harder than Julie had ever heard a person pant before. "Jonathan..."
"Jonathan!" Julie joined in on Nancy's efforts, figuring they had nothing else to lose as the monster was completely through the door and beginning to take shape again while they watched in horror. Julie tried screaming again, but the results were the same as a minute ago. Jonathan could be heard muffled on the other side, but in that room, the girls were screwed.
The monster took it's full shape and shrieked, using one of it's limbs to whack Nancy across the room. Julie didn't even have time to call out to her friend as a limb wrapped around her body, squeezing her tight. She couldn't even focus on the disgust she felt, as the monster moved its limbs to squeeze Julie by her neck.
"Not... again!" Julie managed to say, as she swung her legs up to kick the monster in the face. It barely loosened it's grip on her tender neck, but it was enough for her to use her scream and explode that limb, setting herself free. She felt the continuous blood dripping from her ears as she fell to the ground and scurried back until she was met with a wall, and Nancy terrified in the corner. Luckily, the monster wasn't focused on Nancy at this moment.
It crawled over Julie and roared in the terrified girl's face, causing heavy sobs to escape her. Right when she was about to be eaten, the door was blown away, and Julie saw five pairs of feet, small enough that it had to have been the kids. That was worst case scenario.
The monster turned and roared at the kids, until El sent it flying into a nearby wall with a yell. Julie crawled backwards into nancy, scaring them both. Julie couldn't bring herself to sit up any longer, so she curled up into a ball and released terrified sobs while Nancy covered her with her arm, and El dealt with the monster.
With a final yell, El pushed the monster out of the window, where Julie heard it flatten into guts on the pavement. "Go." She said.
"Nancy!" Jonathan yelled, running into the room and over to his girlfriend. Max and Will ran to Julie and pulled her up.
"Thank God you have good hearing." Max teased as her and Will helped Julie run.
Julie didn't acknowledge the poor joke, but Max didn't care. She saw the state her sister was in; sweat covered her body and hair, blood was leaking from her ears, she still had a terrified look on her face, and she was downright having a panic attack.
The trio quickly joined everybody else as they ran to the entrance of the hospital. They watched as the guts began to move over to a sewer drain, and suck itself in. All that was left on top was a bone or two.
"I'm gonna be sick." Julie announced quietly, her weak stomach finally getting to her. She rushed away as far as she could before she hunched over and released the little that was left in her stomach, while being forced to listen to the guts move about. She felt a warm hand on her back and in her hair, and she knew it was Max. Julie coughed and wiped her mouth, standing up straight and turning to face Max with uneven breaths.
"You good?" Max questioned, feeling Julie's forehead for a fever.
Julie shook her head. "I want my mommy." She said, before hugging Max tight. Maybe too tight, but Julie needed that stability right now. Max hugged Julie back, feeling quite useless, but she knew Julie just needed her. Nothing more, nothing less.
Nancy, who had gone through the same thing had Jonathan. Julie didn't have anyone besides Max. Not anymore.