"We should stick to the plan Nancy came up with," you say. You squeeze Steve's hands. "But I really appreciate you for wanting to be by my side."
Steve opens his mouth to argue, and suddenly Eddie appears by your side.
"If you want, Harrington," Eddie says, "Dustin the Bard and I can go with Dear Waldenbooks."
"What about bat duty?" Steve asks, furrowing his brow.
"Erica wants bat duty," Eddie says. "Something about wanting to try the amateur flamethrower she bought from the War Zone. I didn't ask any follow-up questions."
You have quite a few follow-up questions about said flamethrower, but you save them for later.
The plan is changed — Eddie and Dustin are going with you, and Max, Erica, and Lucas are distracting the demobats.
When Steve parks the Winnebago by the Creel House, he walks you, Dustin, and Eddie to the house's front door.
"Be safe," he says, giving you a tight hug. "Stick to the plan. Listen to your song until we change phases. Okay?"
"Okay," you echo back. "I love you. Please be careful."
"I love you too, Waldenbooks. I will."
He kisses you goodbye, hopefully not for the last time. Your heart sinks as you watch him walk back to the RV. He glances back at you with one final smile before climbing in and driving off.
"You okay?" Dustin asks quietly. You realize you've just been staring at the street, and the others look impatient and ready to get going.
"Yeah," you lie. "Let's do this."
***
Once you've figured out where Vecna is hiding, you remove your headphones and begin speaking to him. You're trying to goad him into putting you in a trance so the next phase of the plan can commence: Steve, Nancy, and Robin killing him in the Upside Down.
You tell Vecna all about the guilt you feel for arguing with your father the day he died. About the times you wished you'd spent time with him instead of going out with friends or staying up in your room alone. You lament about last summer, about how scary it was facing the forces of the Upside Down, and how you sometimes wish you'd never come to Hawkins.
Dustin and Eddie begin taunting and berating you, cluing you into the fact that you are now in Vecna's trance. You escape and run through the house, focusing on happy memories to keep Vecna at bay as much as you can.
When it finally seems like he's got you cornered and you're done for, somehow Eleven shows up to fight him.
But when Vecna gets the upper hand and has you pinned up, you keep expecting to hear "Better Things." You're waiting for your metaphorical, musical getaway car to the real world, and it never comes.
Instead, you're in a world of pain. When you finally do wake up again in the Creel House, you can't see anything, and everything hurts.
"It's okay, Waldenbooks!" Dustin says frantically somewhere to your left. "You're going to be fine! Everyone's going to be completely, totally, fine!"
You don't feel very fine. Your head is swimming.
"Where's Steve?" you croak. "Is he okay? Did they do it?"
"We're not sure," Eddie says. Even in your current state, you can tell his breathing is labored. "You just relax, okay? I'm going to try and get help."
"Eddie, no!" Dustin says. "I'll get help. You just bandage that and keep them awake, okay?"
You hear footsteps retreating. Eddie explains that Jason arrived while you were unconscious. He immediately shot at Eddie on sight, grazing the metalhead's arm. Eddie and Dustin were able to get the gun away from Jason and knock him out before anything worse happened.
Eddie tries to keep you alert by cracking jokes and singing currently unreleased Corroded Coffin songs, but your consciousness wanes. You're so out of it, you can't even find it in yourself to be scared of what's happening.
Your pain ebbs away, and you drift off into a dreamless sleep.
GO TO PAGE 59 FOR THE "HAWKINSPOCALYPSE" ENDING.