Steve leaned forward and interlaced his fingers to attempt to help boost Julia up when he became aware of how fast her body went stiff. He stood up and noticed how pale her skin looked: even from standing behind her.
'Please no. Please no.' Steve thought, his mind already knowing the answer to what happened. As soon as his eyes saw her caught in the trance, he felt his heart stop and his entire body run cold.
"Jules? Julia! Hey! Doll, hey it's me Steve." He raised his voice at first only for it to falter at the end as he watched her rolled back eyes twitch.
He gripped her shoulders with desperation, "Stay with me Julia Henderson! Julia! Hey!" His eyes started to fill with tears, normally he was the one in danger; seeing Julia trapped by Vecna and not knowing what would happen was killing him.
As soon as the others in the normal dimension heard Steve's anguished cries they rushed to try to see what happened as they peered through the gate. "Vecna." Max and Lucas spoke together as they looked at Dustin.
"Steve, don't stop talking to her. I don't care what the hell you say just do what you do best and say nonsense." The younger Henderson brother practically shoved his head down the gate opening and caught a glimpse of his older sister.
His face dropped in terror at the paralyzed state on her face before Eddie grabbed him by the back of his shirt and pulled him back to refrain him from jumping into the upside down.
"You guys, Nancy!" Robin called out to everyone in the room as she immediately noticed Nancy's eyes roll to the back of her head, her entire body went stiff.
"Wheeler? Come on Nancy, wake up. I don't like this. We need you guys." Eddie's voice softly cracked.
"He's got both of them?" Dustin asked out loud to the group.
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Julia's eyes clenched shut as she braced for impact; landing with a hard smack against what felt like concrete. She winced in pain and groaned as her ears were ringing, the impact of her head hitting the ground making her feel dizzy.
She rolled herself over slowly, trying to catch her breath as the wind was knocked out of her. Resting her hand against her ribs she gently sat up, that's when she noticed she wasn't alone.
Nancy Wheeler laid right next to her, groaning in pain as she too was impacted from the fall.
"Nancy!" Julia kneeled down next to the girl as the Wheeler sister lifted her head up to see Jules' worried face. With a hand extended out, she helped pull Nancy up to stand and balance herself.
The girls looked around the empty, vine covered swimming pool as Julia began to ask, "are we…" she trailed off as their eyes landed on a body engulfed in sludge and wrapped in vines. To be more specific, Barbara's body.
Nancy let out a cry of disbelief and shock as she held onto Julia's arm and gripped it as she was forced to look at her old best friends dead body.
"Do you remember what you two did? Julia? Nancy?" Vecna's voice grumbled through the air as the girls shared a regretting, knowing look. "Or have you already forgotten?"
Julia remembered the night better than she would've liked to. The feeling of embarrassment as she ran out of Steve Harrington's house, the heartbreak when she heard them having sex… not thinking about taking the extra 2 minutes to take Barb home safely.
"When I kill someone… I never forget." The moment Vecna finished his sentence, thick blood began to pour through the pool vents; the smell of copper overwhelming the two girls. "Shit." They muttered in unison.
"Nancy, come here." Julia instructed as she made her way over to the small ladder to exit the pool. She locked her fingers together, "ready?" Nancy carefully stepped up and grabbed onto the handles next to the pool entrance.
"You good?" Julia called out as she attempted to push her all the way up to at least climb over the edge.
"Got it!" Nancy called out before climbing all the way up and turning around.
Nancy extended her arm down as Julia jumped up and grabbed it, the Wheeler sister pulling the Henderson sister up by one arm as far as she could before Julia could grab onto the railings.
As soon as Julia had her torso on the ground, Nancy helped her stand up as they caught their breaths.
When they turned around they realized they were no longer in the pool, but what looked like Max's drawing depicted.
Everything around them glowed under a red light in the sky, distant cries and wailing echoed in the air when there wasn't a clock chiming.
"I see you've been looking for me, girls. Nancy, you were so close. So close to the truth. How was old, blind, dumb Victor? Did he miss me?" The two girls slowly walked down the broken and decrepit steps that lead to the ground as they listened to Vecna's voice echo throughout the air.
"I've been meaning to check back in, but I've been busy." Nancy stopped in her tracks and stared in front of her in shock.
Embedded in the tree roots, Nancy's friend Fred's body was displayed. His jaw gaped open, arms bent in different directions, and black voids where his eyes should've been.
Nancy's hand reached out and gripped onto Julia's arm who quickly moved her away from the tree where her former friend had been.
"So very busy." The girls could practically hear the pleasure in Vecna's voice at their terror.
A loud chiming sound emitted from behind Julia, catching her attention. She snapped her head around in a panic before she could stop herself, but when she turned her head back around Nancy was gone and she was in a different location.
"Nancy?" Julia screamed out as she took in her surroundings trying to process it. She was back in Steve's backyard, not in the pool which was now filled with water, but right at the backyard door looking out.
As she looked at the pool, she could see a familiar silhouette sitting at the end of the diving board, legs hanging into the water as they softly kicked their feet around.
It took a second for Julia to process that it was Barb sitting on the diving board. "Barbara?" Julia called out as she examined the redheaded girl with glasses who was holding her hand with a look of discomfort on her face.
Footsteps racing in the house made her heart stop as she whipped her head around, only to see herself running down the steps of Steve's house and out the front door.
"What the fuck…" Julia whispered in terror as she watched herself slam the front door, voices beginning to echo softly through the walls. Not just voices, but the moans of Steve Harrington and Nancy Wheeler.
She tried to make a run towards the backyard doors, only for them to swing shut and lock her inside. The noises coming from Steve's bedroom began to get louder as Julia began to punch and kick the glass door in hopes to escape.
The lights above her began to flicker for a moment before remaining on, a few seconds passed by before the pool lights began to flicker aggressively.
Julia smacked her fists against the doors as she screamed at redhead to leave now. "Barb run!" She screamed out, trying to raise her voice so loud it drowns out her boyfriend's moans with another girl.
"You could have saved her, Julia." Vecna's voice grumbled in her ears as every light around her began to flicker. "You could have driven her back to her car, but instead you chose to run like a coward because the boy you liked had a girlfriend. You sat in your car and cried when you could have saved her."
"This is what you did." Julia's vision blurred with tears as she tried to tear her head away from the scene, but two of Vecna's vines lashed out and wrapped themselves around Julia's head forcing her to look as Barb was ripped apart.
"Oh my god…" She muttered to herself as the image of the blood surrounding Barb's now limp and lifeless body stained Julia's mind. The vines holding Julia in place released her as she fell to her knees, eyes burning with tears from the horror she just had to watch.
"You could've saved her from all that." Vecna's voice grumbled in the air, a hint of satisfaction in his tone as he watched Julia cover her ears with her hands as she pushed her back against the door.
If it was even possible, the noises coming from upstairs grew louder and louder before Barb's cries were added into the mix.
She felt like she was going insane, all the noises sounded like they were coming from inside her head rather than the space around her.
As she collapsed to the ground, the scene around her changed. Within a millisecond, Julia's arms, legs, and neck were trapped against a wall being held back by Vecna's vines.
In front of her sat a panicked Nancy, strapped down with vines to a doctor's chair, an overhead lamp illuminating her as Vecna stood face to face with her.
"Jules!" Nancy nearly screamed at the sight of the Henderson sister, she feared the worst when they first got separated.
The girls attempted to wriggle their bodies to ease the pressure of the vines tightening, only to be met with the vines clenching around them even harder to keep them in place.
Vecna walked up to Julia and took a long look at her, almost studying her face and expressions as she attempted to refrain herself from trembling in fear.
"I…want the both of you to tell Eleven. I want you both to tell her everything you see."
Vecna's hands reached out towards both girls, in an instant filling their minds with visions. In Julia's mind, she could vividly see the bodies of her loved ones dead.
Different creatures like the Demogorgon nipping and ripping the flesh off of her family and friends. All at one she began to hear everyone's screams and cries for help.
Everyone she cared about, she could hear their voices screaming her name, begging her to help them. She could even hear Elevens voice in the distance crying out for Julia.
"Tell her… everything."
Within a second Julia gasped aloud as her knees went weak below her. A pair of hands reached out and grabbed her shoulder, emitting a terrified scream from the Henderson sister.
"Jules! My love, it's me. It's Steve." The brunette boy found himself on the ground next to his girl the second she came to.
"It's me doll, I'm right here." Her hands reached up to touch his that laid on her shoulder.
He knelt closer to her, moving his hand from her shoulder to cup her face. The second his thumb stroked her cheek, she finally processed that it really was Steve in front of her.
His eyes were glossed over; nose a faint pink color as he sniffled. She nearly leapt from the ground and tackled him in a hug as she began to sob into his chest.
Her fists clenched onto the fabric of the vest, Steve planting kisses on her forehead as one he clutched onto her. "I was so scared." She whimpered as Steve gently rocked her back and forth.
Steve was almost in a paralyzed state as he just held her in his arms, trying to forget the feeling of how terrified he was at the thought of losing her.
"Let's get you out of here, okay beautiful?"