ICH LIEBE DICH
July 4th, 1985
⏰ 9:45 pm, 📍Hawkins, Indiana
༺♥༻ After El calmed down with Mikes help, she sat on the couch as Mike put his arm around her shoulder. "He said he was building something." She looks up at Will. "That it was all for me."
"Is he talking about the flayed?" Max asks Nancy.
"He must be." Nancy responds, combing through her hair with her fingers.
"So, he's building an army, just like we thought." Lucas adds.
"Yeah, but he's not building this army to spread." Mike starts.
A lightbulb basically appears above Will's head. "He's building it to stop Eleven."
"Last year, El closed the gate on him." Mike points a finger onto his palm. "I have a feeling that really pissed him off."
"Like, royally." Lucas comments.
"And the Mind Flayer now knows that she's the only thing that can stop him." Mike says. "But if she's out of the way-" He offers.
"Game over." Lucas finishes.
"He also said he was gonna kill all of you." El adds.
"Yeah, well," Max huffs. "That's nice."
Stephanie instinctually huddles closer to Max after hearing El's comment. She knows she's been through so much and shouldn't be scared about getting hurt or even dying, but something inside her couldn't stop worrying.
The only thing that pulls Stephanie out of her thoughts is the feeling of Max's arm around her shoulders.
Nancy slowly walks to the window, the screeching and thuds pulling her closer. "Do you guys hear that?"
Stephanie let's go of Maxs hand and presses her face against the glass of the window. "I hear it."
"It's just the fireworks." Jonathan shrugs, brushing it off.
"No, it's not." Stephanie says, trying to open the window to get a better view.
"Billy..." Nancy starts as she turns back to the kids. "When he told you this, it was here, in this room?"
The thudding becomes louder and louder until Stephanie finally unsticks the window as Will puts his hand to his neck. "He knows we're here."
Everyone runs outside to find the Mind Flayer. Similar to the one in the hospital but bigger. Ferociously bigger.
The Mind Flayer breaks down trees that were blocking it's path as it makes its way closer to the kids.
"I think we should go inside." Stephanie says, knees weak, eyes glued to the Mind Flayer.
Stephanie's words snap everyone back into reality — or what's left of it, and make them run back into the cabin, retracing their steps. However, Nancy runs away from the cabin to a shed, probably finding any kind of weapon as Jonathan goes to the side of the house.
As the kids run into the house, they look for anything and everything to board up the windows, benches, chairs, tables, even pillows.
They stand in a circle as Jonathan and Nancy reenter the house one with a gun and the other with an axe, just as Stephanie and Max start to lift up the couch to cover the door.
The girls secure the couch, standing it up on the edge as Nancy picks up a shotgun from the coffee table.
The group unintentionally makes a circle in the middle of the cabin, waiting. Stephanie and Max have found each others hand once again.
All of a sudden, it gets quiet. Almost too quiet.
Stephanie looks around the room, out of every window she could see. She creeps closer to the window she opened only minutes before.
"Stephanie! Get away from the window!" Nancy whisper yells, beckoning Stephanie to come back.
Stephanie waves her off. "I just want to see."
The lights begin to flicker, the plates begin to shake in their places.
"It's close."
Stephanie inches closer to the open window, leaning her head farther outside, wedging herself behind a table.
The rumbling soon resumes at Stephanie is almost permanently stuck behind the table, peering out the window. "I see him." She whispers, not positive anyone in the room can hear.
Then, the wall which is barely inches away from the wall breaks open, almost breaking the window over Stephanie's head.
A tentacle whips around the room, willing to grab anyone and anything.
Stephanie lets out a scream, falls back and hits her head on the window sill, attempting to run away from the monsters reach. She crawls out from under the table to the other side of the room than the monster, who is threatening her friends with a screeching tentacle.
Jonathan takes his axe and hits the tentacle multiple times before it punches him in the stomach, making Jonathan soar across the room into the wall.
As he recovers, the tentacle snakes closer and closers towards his face. But before anything could happen, Nancy loads her gun and starts shooting at the Mind Flayer, turning it's attention from Jonathan to herself.
After a few shots, somehow the Mind Flayer wasn't hurt and Nancy was out of bullets. It backs her up into a corner, screeching. Stephanie watches as it pounces at Nancy, suddenly stopping only centimeters from her face.
The monstrous screeches turn into shrieks of pain as El users her powers to bring the tentacle away from Nancy.
Stephanie watches in shock as the creature convulses under El's hand. She snaps her hand back to her side with a yell as the end of the tentacle breaks off and the rest retreats back through the gaping hole in the wall.
"Holy shit." Max pants as she starts to walk across the room to Stephanie.
Stopping Max dead in her tracks is another tentacle flying through the hole, which El barely stops in time with one hand.
Glass shatters from across the house, letting in a third tentacle, which El stops with her other hand.
Sandwiched between the two snarling and barking monsters, El lets out a yell as she swings her arms together, making the ends of the tentacles fall off yet again.
Loud pants fill the room from everyone until a hole in the roof breaks open, letting in the Mind Flayer himself, wrapping his last remaining tentacle around El's ankle and pulling her into the air.
Mike acts quickly and grabs El's hands before the Mind Flayer could pull her out of the house.
El screams as the Mind Flayer pulls her closer to its big mouth, ready to do whatever else he's done to Heather and Billy.
Max joins Mike, trying to pull El out of the Mind Flayer's grasp, along with Will, joining on Mikes side.
Stephanie runs into the kitchen, pulling out every drawer until she finds what seems to be the biggest knife in the house. A rectangular butchers knife. Running back into the living room, Stephanie sees that Lucas had the same idea as her, he's standing on a box, whacking the axe into the tentacle of the Mind Flayer.
Roars and screams and pleads fill the room as Stephanie runs to Lucas' aide, sawing the dwindling thickness of dripping flesh away with her knife as Lucas continues to whack into the tentacle.
With one last saw, the tentacle finally breaks off of the Mind Flayer, dropping El at least eight feet onto the hard wood floor, back into Mike's arms.
Stephanie drops the knife to the ground as she bends down next to El's leg.
The last piece of the Mind Flayer is still wrapped around her leg, eating at the skin.
Stephanie gets a firm grip on the big tentacle and rips it off of El's leg, making her scream in pure anguish. Stephanie throws the monster aside as it chitters and scurries outside.
The Mind Flayer lets out a roar, not having anymore tentacles to attack with. To Stephanie's surprise, El stands up, fully focused on the monster. She pulls both of her hands up as she lets out a scream. So does the Mind Flayer.
Stephanie finds Max's hand as both girls watch the creatures face basically melt as El runs out of energy and falls into Max and Stephanie's arms.
"Go, go, go!" Nancy yells as Stephanie readjusts El in her arms, putting her own arms around El's shoulders as Max does the same on the other side.
Jonathan pulls the couch away from the door as he runs out and into the car.
The kids follow, basically running for their lives to the car, Stephanie pulling El along as she only has pretty much one working leg.
Max opens the door to the back of Nancy's station wagon as Stephanie helps El into the seat as fast as possible without hurting her.
Once Max gets the door closed she yells, "Drive! Drive!"
————
༺♥༻ Nancy flies down the ill illuminated road, almost thirty over the limit until the gang reaches a closed corner store. The locked door being easily solved with a rock.
Stephanie and Max help El out of the car and to the first aid section.
As the girls set El down on the floor, Nancy takes a bottle of rubbing alcohol and gauze off of the shelf.
"Okay," Nancy pants. "Let me see." As Nancy lifts El's pant leg up, Stephanie almost throws up at the sight.
"Oh." She looks away, already feeling sweaty and weak.
Nancy grabs the alcohol, rips open a package of gauze and begins to clean the wound before Max stops her. "What? Hey, what are you doing?"
Nancy shrugs. "I'm cleaning the wound." She responds as if it were obvious.
Max grabs the gauze out of Nancy's hand. "No, first, we need to stop the bleeding, then clean, then disinfect, then bandage." Everyone looks at her in surprise. "I skateboard, trust me."
Max grabs the gauze and presses it down on El's wound. "Mike, hold this." Mike puts his hand where Max's once was, resulting in a pained grunt from El. "Keep the pressure on it, nice and firm, okay?" Max sighs, "We're gonna need water, soap."
"Yeah, okay." Nancy nods, sitting up.
Stephanie whips her head around when a clattering sound comes from behind her. She tries to hide in her chuckles as Lucas stands in front of the emptied out contents of his backpack. "Does any of this help?" He asks in full seriousness.
"No." Max rolls her eyes. "Go get me a washcloth and a bowl."
"A bowl?" Lucas repeats.
"Please." Stephanie adds, giving Max a playful glare.
Will gives Stephanie a look and nods his head between her and Lucas, saying with his eyes, 'don't even think of leaving me with him.'
Stephanie sighs and follows the boys around the store to the cereal aisle, oddly enough.
"Bowl...bowl...bowl." Lucas sighs. "Why wouldn't it be with the cereal?"
Stephanie let's out a laugh. "You're joking?"
Lucas looks between her and the boxes of cereal and just shrugs.
"...Right?"
"What else do you use a bowl for?" Lucas asks again, roaming down the aisle.
"Oh, I don't know," Stephanie shrugs. "Baking, soup," She offers. "...Haircuts." Stephanie adds, gesturing to Will, who is plainly unamused.
Lucas continues walking until he stops dead in his tracks. "Oh, shit." He runs to the stand of fireworks like a child running after the ice cream truck.
Stephanie scoffs and slips away to actually find a bowl. She heads to the dishware sign, almost across the whole store.
She heads over to the aisle, walking to the beat of one of her favorite new songs, Take on Me. While it's not playing in the store, it's still stuck in Stephanie's head for a good week or two.
Stephanie browses the shelves until she spots a red bowl labeled for popcorn. She rips open the packaging as a voice appears from behind her. "At least you're actually trying to find a bowl." Max chuckles as she holds up a yellow washcloth.
"Wait." Max backs up, balling up the washcloth. "Basketball." She informs, putting a hand on her hip. When the girls are about six feet apart, Max tosses the washcloth into Stephanie's bowl. "Score!" She throws her hands in the air as she walks back to Stephanie, who's chuckling from Max's sudden cheerfulness.
"I think it's so crazy we're girlfriends." Stephanie blurts out, immediately changing the subject.
Max takes the bowl out of Stephanie's hand and places it back on the shelf. "I know, right?" She laughs, "I feel cool, y'know?"
"I feel cool." Stephanie corrects. "You feel cool? I get to date you. That's cooler than dating me."
Max gets quiet, staring into Stephanie's eyes. "I love you." She says, basically out of nowhere."
"Ich liebe dich." Stephanie chuckles, remembering what Steve would teach her from his middle school German classes.
"What?" Max asks, almost an inch from Stephanie's face.
"It means I love you in German." Stephanie smiles, realizing the absurdity of the situation.
"Oh, well then, Ich liebe dich...too" Max adds the 'too' at the end, obviously not knowing what it means in German.
"Ich bin-" Stephanie starts, but is cut off by Max's lips on hers.
Both girls laugh into their first kiss, neither knowing how to do it.
Stephanie pulls away first, her face with a look of surprise, her mind running a mile a minute, and her stomach feeling the fireworks she saw before the Mind Flayer came. But most importantly, herself going back in for another kiss, to which Max gracefully accepts, eyes fluttering closed.
The girls pull away from each other and take the others hands. "We should probably go back to El and the...uh others." Stephanie whispers, already feeling awkward.
Max just smiles. "Okay."
They swing their hands back and forth, smiling to themselves as they make their way back to the first aid aisle.
You're all the things I've got to remember
You're shying away
I'll be coming for you anyway
༺♥༻
roll the credits!
jk. it's not over.
anyways peep my awesome german skills.
ps. it's 2:30 am and i haven't slept since about 8 am so i'm running off of a medium butter pecan swirl with whole milk from dunkin. pls send help.
pss. i have a 4 day weekend (yay memorial day) so next chapter will probs be posted sooner than usual ✌🏻😙✌🏻
5/27/23