Chapter Forty Four:
"Rot in hell."
WHEN Violet comes to, it's due to the throbbing ache in her temple, along with her wrist searing with pain since she seemed to have fallen on it.
A whimper of pain slips from her lips as she raised her un-injured hand to her temple, she hissed and grits her teeth when the contusion throbs. She pulls her hand back and noticed with her adjusting sight that there's a smudge of crimson on her palm.
Great, her head's bleeding, that's just what she fucking needs.
She very quickly noticed her other senses going haywire, her ears were ringing, her sight was blurry and all she could see were the wild and relentless flickering of her light all around her. But what really made her blood run cold, was the sight of the curly haired dirty blonde who was kneeling above her.
Her vision cleared and his face became more apparent, she whimpers helplessly as he leans down and his lips brushed the shell of her ear. "Just try and stay very still." He said softly, eerily. "It'll all be over soon."
As soon as he raised up her nostrils were assaulted by a dreadful and all too familiar smell, the wafting stench of rotted corpses had returned. In that moment Violet knew, she was absolutely fucked. And as if things couldn't get any worse, she hears a small sob beside her. She whips her head in the direction of the miserable sound, and her russet gaze grew twice their size as they fall upon her telekinetic counter-part.
El is here too, which means... they failed.
The Mind Flayer is going to finish them off, then he's going after their friends and every person that they love, and finally, everyone in town. Everyone in Hawkins would either be dead and used to expand this monstrous beast before them, or they'd be flayed like Billy until he felt they'd ultimately served their purpose. The Mind Flayer and the Upside Down would conquer Hawkins... and eventually, the world.
No.
That would happen over Violet's dead fucking body, she's not giving up until she's taken her last breath on this earth. She will not lay down and wait for her inevitable death, she will keep on fighting until the bitter end.
Even if it kills her.
She had to think of a plan, and she had to do it as quick as humanely possible. Or, as quick as she can while suffering from a head injury and a broken wrist. If she moves her gaze upward she's got the perfect view of her inevitable death, courtesy of the human flesh spider monster known as Mr. Mind Flayer. And if she moves her gaze up but slightly lower, there's Billy kneeled between she and El's helpless bodies on the floor.
Now, the chances of outrunning this rotted corpse beast are extremely slim, but it's glaringly obvious that he's slightly slower from the weight of having to carry all of it's multiple arachnid-like limbs around. At this rate, Violet will take those slim odds.
But here's the kicker, getting past Billy.
She already knew what he was capable of, he was entirely too strong now thanks to the Mind Flayer's influence, and her broken wrist was the result of that. And since she didn't want to wrist two broken wrists tonight, she'd have to find another way. A second option, one that she was seriously dreading having to consider.
Max was going to kill her, but she was running out of ways of getting not just herself but also El out of this alive. She has to give Billy an aneurysm. She won't kill him, but it will distract him just enough for her to pick up El and make their escape.
Her mind was made, this was her only chance.
She turns her head to face El, the doe eyed brunette's gaze meets hers instantaneously. Her soft brown eyes are flooded with terror, tears escape from the corners of of them, and her lower lip is trembling from her cries. Violet's heart wrenched in her chest, she reached over with her good hand and laced her fingers with El.
This had to work, she had to get them out.
She sent her telekinetic counter-part a tearful smile and a small nod, which resulted in a small weak smile from El who nods in return. Shortly after that exchange is shared and Violet noticed the Mind Flayer approaching them, she turned her gaze to Billy and enacts her plan.
Since his back was turned to her, all she had to focus on was the back of his unruly and sweat soaked curls, but she could work with that. Her eyes narrowed sharply as she gathers every ounce of the leftover power raging inside of her, and she concentrates unflinchingly on the severe damage she wished to do on Billy's vessels, and then... pop.
A sudden yelp of pain rips from the curly's blonde's lips, his hands reach up and he buries his head them. He grunts and screams in sheer agony till he falls to he knees, all the while Violet's nose seeps with increments of crimson from both nostrils as she held her focus.
The moment Billy is curled on the ground, practically shaking from the pain she's inflicting on him, she makes her move as she released him of her mind-melding torture and crawled towards the brunette. "El, come on. I stalled Billy, but we don't have much time."
"W-What?" El whispered as Violet rushedly helped her to her knees. "But what about the-"
Violet shook her head, "Don't worry about the Mind Flayer, come on."
El nodded wordlessly and Violet helps her up from the ground, she quickly remembered that Mike and Max were helping her walk and placed El's arm around her shoulder for support. Her wrist was practically screaming with searing pain, but that was the least of her concern as the Mind Flayer's monstrous roars rang in her ears.
They had to go, now.
And they did, the two of them rushing away as El hobbled on her hurt leg, going as fast as she possibly can with Violet's assistance through the food court. The next course of the plan was to escape behind one of the restaurants cash wrap counters, sneak out the back doors into the corridors where they'd been before, and hopefully find Max and Mike before the Mind Flayer tramples the mall beneath it's feet to look for them.
However, she may have slightly underestimated the monster's speed.
Suddenly, a slimy tentacle from the monster curled it's way around her waist, and before she could even begin to think of what to do, she's ripped away from El and suspended in the air. Violet can frighteningly admit, she did not expect this.
"Violet, no!" El screamed, the volume of her voice piercing enough to shatter glass.
"El, run!" Violet shouts in utter desperation, all she can do is squirm and writhe in the monster's hold. He's got her pinned down by the arms, she couldn't use her other hand if she tried, and she doubts she could overpower the Mind Flayer after her stunt with Billy.
She was, quite literally, fucked.
Her legs dangle and kick uselessly as she grits her teeth, she fights with all she has to get free. Her nostrils sting as the rotten stench of the monster's flesh hits her nose, her eyes grew as she realized how close she is to the interdimensional creature's gaping and razor toothed maw. The monster roars ferociously and directly in her face, her hair whips back and her stomach churns as the stench of flayed bodies intensified.
With a greeting like that she can only assume that was the Mind Flayer's way of saying that he hates her guts, to which she promptly replies, "Yeah, I hate you too. Rot in hell, you son of a bitch." She spits out furiously, jaw clenched tight with a gaze like daggers.
Violet refused to go out in fear, unbridled hatred was more her style.
The Mind Flayer obviously didn't take well to that respond, considering the grip on her waist tightened and there was a sharp and piercing pain in her abdomen. A harrowing cry of pain falls from her lips, it felt like her stomach was being ripped to shreds. She very briefly looks down and noticed the rows of canines in the slimy tentacle that pierces her flesh, and her eyes clenched shut and she screams as the blinding pain rips through her.
Her entire life flashes before her eyes in a span of a couple seconds.
Her mom whispering her name just moments before her death. The earliest sign of her powers coming to be when she was just a baby. The first test that Dr. Brenner had her do to confirm her high ranking power level. Meeting El for the first time. Trusting the wrong person. The trail of blood and snapped joints of innocents in each of the rooms in the facility. Falling into a coma after the battle of her life. Waking up from the coma and escaping the lab.
Leaving El behind.
Foraging for food in trash cans. Wandering Hawkins barefoot in a hospital gown barefoot. Being found by social services. Staying in an adoptive home. Getting adopted and taken in by the Harrington family. Adjusting to her new family. Declaring Steve as her asshole older adoptive brother. Going to school for the first time.
Meeting her best friends, Mike, Will, Lucas, and Dustin.
Years worth of friendship with the four boys she called her family. Will going missing. Finding El in the woods. Reconnecting with her. Looking for Will. Finding out he was dead. Learning from El that he's alive. Ultimately bringing Will back home. Losing El.
Finding her again.
Seeing Max for the first time. Meeting Max for the first time. Falling for Max. Getting to know her and becoming her friend. Falling for her more. Telling her about the Upside Down. Revealing her power by placing a flower behind her ear. Listening to her talk about California, her dad, and Billy. Telling her about El. Instinctively holding her hand when they're both scared. Almost kissing her at the Byer's home in Will's bedroom. Helping her take down Billy.
Telling everyone she's a lesbian. Max telling her she's bisexual. Leaving the Snow Ball to cry and wait for Steve. Turning around and finding Max had come to find her. Realizing the feelings she had for the redhead were mutual. Kissing Max for the first time. Dancing with Max under the moonlight in front of the school.
Every moment she had this summer with her friends, her brother, and her girlfriend.
To this moment, right now.
Violet did everything that she possibly could, but it just wasn't enough. With every squeeze of the monster's tentacle that's curled tightly around her waist, the more blood she lost and the dizzier and weaker she felt. This was it, Violet's inevitable death. She failed herself, she's failed El, she failed her friends, her brother, and her girlfriend.
But mostly, she failed Hawkins and the world.
Her eyes slowly fell shut as she accepted her untimely demise, but then, she heard a sharp and shrilled voice coming overhead.
"Flay this, you ugly piece of shit!" The all too familiar voice of Lucas Sinclair bellowed.
A monstrous screech pierced the lobes of her ears, shortly after came the sound of what she could only assume was fireworks as they explode in the Mind Flayer's maw. Her friends were back and came to the rescue using Lucas' epic 4th of July inspired idea.
She knew keeping those fireworks was a good idea.
Suddenly the Mind Flayer's tentacle grip on her loosened, and her body went free falling to the ground below. Thankfully, she wasn't suspended too high up from the ground, but the crushing drop to the floor still hurt like a bitch. The air in her lungs was practically punched out of her as her back collided with the linoleum floor beneath her, and her head thumps against the floor as she adjusts to being on solid ground again.
To put this lightly, everything hurts.
Her wrist sends shockwaves of pain up her arm every couple of seconds, her head is throbbing relentlessly, and her stomach feels torn open in ways she didn't think was possible. Now, she's burning up like the heat's been turned up in this place, which makes sense because her friends are somewhere in the mall throwing fucking fireworks and there's more than likely a nice little fire whipping into a frenzy nearby.
This is... absolute chaos.
Suddenly she feels a sharp tug on her ankle, she nearly freaks out thinking the Mind Flayer had gotten her in his clutches again. But then her horror filled gaze meets the warm honey brown eyes of her older brother, relief coursed through her as her eyes well up with tears.
She reached a shaky hand out and he instinctively tangled their fingers, he sent her a tear eyed smile before quickly lifting her up from the ground. She let's out a guttural cry of agony from the pain of her torn open stomach, and she curls her good hand around Steve's neck as he carried her away from the madness of the showdown.
Steve carries her to a Burger King in the food court, he sets her down on the cash wrap counter and rushed to her side. He takes her hand in his as tears slip down his face, "You little shit, I told you not to die on me!" He shouts in anguish, lacing their fingers.
Violet chuckles weakly, a tear slides down in her hair. "I thought it'd be more likely that you die tonight, not me. Guess we switched roles."
"God, Tink." Steve sniffles as he looks down at her stomach, his face just about crumbles as he meets her russet gaze. "There's so much blood, what do I do?"
"I'd say call an ambulance, but I think we're way past that, considering." Violet replies softly, her head tilts to the side as she blinks slowly, growing weak from blood loss.
"Shit, no!" Steve cries frantically as he leans over, taking her face in his hands. "No, no, no, no. Violet!" He shakes her shoulders, forcing her to keep her eyes open. "Don't you dare close your eyes, okay? Stay with me, the ambulance will come. There's a fire here, someone will have called it in by now. Just keep your eyes open, Tink."
Violet moans miserably, blinking slowly as she fights the pull of exhaustion. "But I'm so tired, Stevie. Please, just let me sleep."
Steve shakes his head empathetically, "No, you can't fucking sleep right now. Violet, listen to me. Stay awake, talk to me about... shit, anything. Come on, what's on your mind?"
Violet scoffs feebly, "Aside from the fact that I'm exhausted?"
"Yes! Anything but that!" Steve pleads in desperation.
Violet sighs heavily, or well, she tried. It was getting a little harder to breathe with every second that passed her by. Not only that, but she found it hard to think, her thoughts were forming a lot slower than usual.
God, she's so tired.
Come on, Violet, think! Steve is hellbent on keeping her awake, which must mean that she's losing too much blood and she's well, on the verge of dying. And while she had a very close encounter with the Grim Reaper tonight, she'd rather not have another one. And so, she put all her concentration on one task, thinking of something to talk about.
After a few moments of anxiety inducing silence, her eyes flittering overhead as she willed her brain to function despite the levels of pain coursing through her body, and meeting her older brother's frantic and desperate gaze, she finally got something.
"Eleven." She whispered as her eyes widened, fear flooded her system on instinct as she turns to face Steve. "Where's El? Did she run? Did she make it out?"
Steve's crestfallen look makes her heart sink, he clutched tighter to her fingers as he dips his head down. "I'm sorry, Tink. She's- She's stuck with Billy, he has her."
Violet's heart rose from her stomach to her throat. "W-What? N-No! I- I told her to run!" After saying those words, it took a second for her memory to register in her brain. Once it did, her features were wiped with realization. "Shit, her leg. She can't run."
Steve shook his head as he looks up to meet her gaze. "I saw her trying to escape, using her elbows to drag herself away from Billy."
Violet's eyes narrowed, her anger flares quick. "Y-You saw her? And you didn't help?!"
Steve frowns deeply, "I know I should've, trust me. I know. But I-"
"There is no buts, Steve!" Violet snapped, cutting herself off with deep groan of pain as she strains her wounded abdomen. "El needed help, you should've been there!"
"Damn it, Violet!" Steve shouts, there's a glint of anger and devastation that lingers in his warm brown eyes. "I had a choice, okay?! I ran into the mall with the others ready to throw these damn fireworks, and instead I find my little sister dangling in the air and screaming in pain while that son of bitch has her. I wasn't thinking about El when I ran down the broken escalator stairs, or when I booked it pass the very thing trying to kill us, all I thought about was you!"
A few broken and heart wrenching sobs escape from Steve's lips, and suddenly Violet can't find it in herself to be pissed at him anymore.
"I got down here just in time for Lucas to throw the first firework, and I just barely got to you when the Mind Flayer dropped you to the floor." Steve explained, he sniffles as he gives her palm a tighter squeeze. "I'm sorry I didn't think about El, and if anything happens to her I will regret it for the rest of my life. But damn it, Violet. I wouldn't be able to wake up the next morning with the knowledge that I didn't get to you first and I lost you." A lone tear slipped down his face as their gazes meet, "We're family, Tink. You're all I have."
A tear escapes her eye as she nods her head, she sends him a reassuring nod as she gave his palm a tight squeeze. "I understand, Steve."
And really, she does. As much as she hates the idea of El on her own and vulnerable in the hands of Billy and the Mind Flayer, she really does get why Steve chose her over El. Like he said, they're family, they're all each other has.
Their parents haven't been the best, in fact they've been shit parents for years. They're never home, constantly traveling for their jobs and they don't come back for a matter of months, leaving Steve and Violet to fend for themselves. And when they do come back, they have no regard for how either of them have been in their absence.
All Carrie Harrington cares about is Violet's grades and whether they've slipped or not, if Steve has found himself a nice girl to settle down and start a nuclear white picket fence Suburban family with, and their dad Marcus Harrington is always on Steve's ass about working a dumb desk job and taking over the family business.
Other than that, they couldn't give a rat's ass about them.
So yeah, she understands why Steve rushed to save her instead of El. Because if it really came down to it and Steve was the one in trouble, and Violet had to choose who to save between him and her friends, she'd choose him in a heartbeat. He may not be her blood, and maybe they had a rough start when they first met, but after everything happened in 83' he's been nothing but a genuinely good older brother to her, the best she could ever ask for.
He said he couldn't wake up the next morning knowing something happened to her because he didn't get to her first, and she reciprocated that feeling. Steve Harrington was her older brother, her family, her best fucking friend in the world.
She couldn't live without him.
"Y-You do?" Steve whispered.
Violet nods slowly again, "I do. I would save you too." A sentimental smile curved on her lips, "You're my best friend, Stevie."
"Yeah?" A watery chuckle tumbles from his lips, he smiles down at her fondly. "You're my best friend too, Tink."
Violet gaze slips behind her brother, her eyes widened slightly as she takes in the havoc that ensues in every direction. The Mind Flayer is flailing about the mall, screeching and shrieking in pain with each and every blow he receives from the fireworks being thrown overhead. There's also multicolored sparks from the explosives that rain down, courtesy of Lucas and party. Well, they're shutting this place down, that's for sure.
RIP Starcourt Mall, it was fun while it lasted.
Speaking of resting, Violet was starting to feel the pull of exhaustion again. Only this time, it was hitting her like a ton of bricks. Every instinct in her body was telling her to give in to the feeling, to let it wash over her so she can get the rest her system so desperately craved. She wanted to, the feeling was enticing, she was so tired and all she desired is to close her eyes and drift off into a much needed slumber.
She couldn't resists, the call to sleep was too strong.
Her eyes fluttered as her head goes limp on the counter, and her grip on Steve's hand loosens. "Stevie... I can't."
"What? No!" Steve panics as he drops her hand, taking her face into his palms. "Violet, stay awake!" His palm gently slaps her pale cheek, her brown honey skin is quickly losing it's color. You can't close your eyes, please! Stay with me!"
Violet shook her head weakly, "I'm so tired, I'm... sorry." Using what very little strength she had left, she raised a trembling hand and cupped Steve's cheek, "I love you, Stevie. Y-You were the best big brother... a girl born in a lab could... ask for."
"No! Violet, please!" Steve cries in complete and utter misery, his warm brown eyes spilling over with tears. "You can't do this! You have to stay awake! Come on, stay with me!"
Eventually as Steve continues screaming, pleading, and crying desperately for her to stay with him and stay awake, Violet can no longer hear him. Every sound around her is muffled, like her head's been dunked in a pool of water. Shortly after she loses all feeling in her limbs as her hand slips from his face, and next her sight as her vision goes blurry.
And then... it goes black, and the world around her fades to nothingness.
—micaela speaks
Yo !
So uhm... oops?
PLEASE DON'T KILL ME.
I shall say no more, that is all I'm gonna leave you guys with.
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, I've been working on it all damn day. Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments, I really love hearing from you guys ! Thank you for reading, and I will see you in the next chapter !
Byeee <333