I DIDN'T DIE TODAY!
March 26th, 1986
⏰ 8:45 pm, 📍Hawkins, Indiana
༺♥༻ Stephanie drops her bike on the grass as the five rush into Eddie's trailer.
She gasps quietly as she sees a gate thrumming from the ceiling.
Dustin studies the gate. "We're gonna need something to break the skin with so they can get through."
Stephanie looks around the room. "Uh..."
Max throws a broom over to Dustin. "Here!"
Dustin reaches up to the gate and breaks away the layer of skin, covering the end of the broom with some interdimensional sludge.
They all look up through the gate, seeing the others looking back at them, reminding Stephanie of a funhouse.
Dustin gives the cheesiest smile as he stares at everyone's embarrassed faces through the gate.
————
༺♥༻ Stephanie and Max find a mattress and center it under the rope for a landing pad once they fall through the gate.
"The hell are these stains?" Max scoffs as she wipes her hands on her jacket.
Stephanie gives a shrug. "I don't know and I bet Eddie doesn't know either."
Dustin throws the makeshift rope through the gate, it magically staying in place as Robin hangs on it from the Upside Down.
"This is the craziest shit I've ever seen in my entire life." Erica smiles. "And I've seen some crazy shit."
Dustin offers Erica a high-five, not peeling his eyes off of the rope.
Robin starts to climb through, making Dustin clear everyone off of the mattress.
"Oh, thank God." Robin sighs. "That was fun."
Stephanie offers her hand out for Robin to stand up but once Robin touches her she finds herself in her bedroom.
What the fuck?
She scans around her room, looking for any indicator of what is going on.
That's when she hears it.
"Why the fuck would you have kids if you didn't want them?"
Stephanie instantly realizes what's going on. It's a memory. One of her worst ones. She remembers it all too well.
Her parents had just gotten home from a week long trip. This must've been when Stephanie was about ten. They had just recently started taking longer and longer trips and her dad had just recently started drinking again. He always claimed it was prescribed to him. He was doing it for the better of everyone. Stephanie knew that wasn't true. She didn't believe a thing he said. Her parents started to fight, a nightly ritual at that point. They would stumble through the door, her dad would start drunkenly complaining, Steve would go into Stephanie's room and distract her of the yelling. It became a routine. However, this night was worse. She didn't know why, but she did know that whatever her dad said that night, he meant it. He really did.
Stephanie turns the doorknob, prepared to relive that night if it meant she had to see her parents fighting about Steve and her. But to her surprise, the door led to a hallway, similar to a hospital.
A dark sinister voice fills the room. "Stephanie."
Vecna.
She turns around to close the door, to retreat back to the safety of her room but her room is gone. It's been replaced with a place with red fog, cocoon like formations sticking up from the earth, and pieces of furniture floating in the air.
Max's drawings.
She's in Vecna's mind.
But how?
She takes aimless steps around the area, recognizing parts from the drawings as the voice fills the air once again.
"I see you and your friends have been looking for me." Vecna speaks, making Stephanie confused as to how he can even see her. "I've been busy."
Stephanie notices the mangled bodies of Chrissy and Fred trapped in the cocoons like they were prizes mounted on the wall.
"Do you like them, Stephanie?"
Hot tears run down her face, her mind moving a million miles a second. "Please, stop!"
She turns around to see Max.
"Max!" Stephanie runs over to her. "Max, help!"
Max pushes Stephanie to the ground. "Get off of me, freak!"
Stephanie back up to Max, only to be met face to face with Vecna. "What is going on?"
He doesn't speak and only puts a long claw-like hand over her face, sending her into a different location.
The Creel house.
Two adults standing next to each other as the younger boy who couldn't be older than Stephanie stands somberly to the side while a little girl runs up the staircase with a huge smile.
Stephanie recognized the kids as Henry and Alice Creel and the parents and Victor and Virginia. She remembered seeing all of their pictures in a newspaper Nancy and Robin brought from the library.
Stephanie followed Henry as he walked about the house, into the bathroom where he pulls out a grate to a vent and pulls out a spider, emotionlessly staring at it.
A gust of wind makes her turn around, seeing Henry again, only in a different outfit. Different memories she assumes.
She follows the boy into the attic she was in only the day before and watches him as he sits around various jars containing many spiders.
She follows him as he stands in front of the grandfather clock, closing his eyes and rapidly turning the hands back.
"No." Stephanie whispers, hearing a shriek and turning around to find herself outside watching a rabbit struggle under the hands on Henry Creel. Eventually meeting the same fate as Fred, Chrissy, and Patrick.
"No." Stephanie repeats, running back into the house only to see an image that will be in the back of her head the rest of her life.
A baby's cradle lit on fire accompanied by screams of terror, only to assume that once had happened.
She turns her head to see the Creel family at the dining table, Victor messing with the radio which was playing static filled music.
Henry must've seen this as an opening. He closes his eyes and the lights start to flicker.
Virginia shoots into the air, every limb breaking on the account of her own son.
Stephanie could only watch as so many things happen around her all at once.
She could only watch as Alice met the fate of her mother and as Henry trapped Victor inside his mind and as Henry falls to the ground, immediately breaking Victor out of his trance.
She could only watch as Victor held what was left of his family, unknowing that the devil was his own son.
She could only watch as Victor was arrested and blamed for three murders.
Then she's in the hospital again.
Tears flow down her face as she realizes everything that's going on.
Henry Creel is Vecna.
Henry Creel is One.
Stephanie watches as a younger Dr. Brenner tattoos a '001' onto Henry's wrist.
"All done." Dr. Brenner says as he sets the tattoo gun down on the table. "No so bad, was it?"
Henry shakes his head.
"See? There's nothing to be afraid of. Is there, Stephanie?"
Dr. Brenner turns to her with white eyes.
"Why don't you take a seat?" He asks, his own voice overlapping with Vecna's.
The lights start to rapidly flicker as Stephanie runs out of the room into the hallway.
Bodies. So many bodies scattered on the floor.
Guards, kids with hospital gowns and shaved heads.
Bloody handprints cover the walls as Stephanie tries to find an exit door.
After running down countless hallways, she finds grey double doors with an exit sign hanging above. The only problem is, is that there's planks of wood covering the doors.
With the strength Stephanie had due to the adrenaline, she pulls off a plank that was blocking the door.
Okay, okay, okay, okay. Four more. Just four more.
"Stephanie."
Stephanie slowly turns around to see something that can only be described as horrifying. It's like if all the aspects of fear were mixed up and created a monster.
Vecna. A six foot tall monster with a vines covering his body and an extra long hand. He slowly walks down the hallway towards Stephanie.
"What are you doing?" Vecna says through squelchy steps and heavy breathing. "It's not time for you to leave."
Stephanie continues pulling the planks off, only focusing on getting out.
"Now that you've seen where I've been...I would like very much to show you where I am going."
Stephanie bursts through the doors only to find shes in the same room she was trying to escape from.
Dr. Brenner stands with his hands clasped together, the same white eyes as before. "Take a seat, Stephanie."
The lights go out.
Once they turn on, Stephanie is tied to the chair with vines. Them constricting with every move she makes.
Vecna stands away from the light and slowly walks towards the girl. He leans closer, now only a few inches from her face.
"I...want you to tell Eleven."
He reaches his hand in front of her face.
"I want you to tell her everything you see."
Vecna straightens his hand out, making pictures of the Creel house breaking in half, gates breaking open, a clocks chiming, all of her friends facing the same fate.
And Max.
She was floating in the air, similar to how she did at the cemetery. But she was in the attic of the Creel house, wearing the same clothes she is today.
She saw so many monsters. So many monsters attacking Hawkins. Attacking her friends, her teachers, her parents, Steve.
They alternate between Vecna and the images.
"Tell her."
Making Vecna's commands sound muffled, Stephanie recognizes the familiar catchy guitar intro.
We're talking away
But I don't know what I'm to say
I'll say it anyway
Todays another day to find you
Shying away
I'll be coming for your love, okay?
Take on me
Take me on
I'll be gone
In a day or two
Suddenly, Stephanie gasps and falls back into Max's arms.
She feels around with her hands, trying to find any sense of reality after what she saw.
"Holy shit, Steph." Max envelops Stephanie into a hug. "We thought you weren't coming back."
"I'm..." Stephanie looks around, focusing on Steve's face. Seeing how distraught he looked. Seeing the tears form at the corner of his eyes, accompanying his tear stained cheeks. "I'm okay. I'm okay."
Stephanie buries her face into the crook of Max's neck, music leaking out of the headphones, filling the quiet room.
"It's Vecna, Max."
༺♥༻
i would like to thank a butter pecan swirl for forcing me to write this. (my grammy speech)
STEPHANIE GETS POSSESSED BY VECNA!!!!! *REAL* *MAX CRIED*
🎶she remembered it all too well🎶
(please get the reference)
7/11/23
lol 7/11