_________
c h a p t e r f o u r t y - s i x
"When he attacks, our friend described it as a trance. Like a waking nightmare. That's why we think he's coming for her next," Nancy explains to Victor, as Sam keeps glancing at the wall, trying to figure out if what she saw was real.
"Sam..." a low, menacing voice echoes through the room, making her look around in fear.
"Does any of this, anything we've told you, sound like what happened to your family?" Nancy continues, unaware of Sam's situation, only for Victor to ignore her. "Victor. I know this is hard-"
"You don't know anything!" he snaps.
"You're right. We don't know. That's why we're here. To learn, to understand."
"We need to know how you survived that night," Robin adds.
"Survived? Is that what you call this? Did I survive?" he scoffs at them, garnering Sam's attention yet again. "No, I assure you, I am still very much in hell."
It's then that she sees the man's eyes, now swollen shut.
"Sam..."
"What?" she turns around completely, once again seeing the clock fused to the wall, and no longer hearing Nancy or Robin in the background.
Just as she turns around, the clock cracks, allowing a ton of spiders to pour out.
"Don't worry, Sam. I'm saving you for last," the voice continues, before everything disappears again.
Her heart rate picks up at his words, just wanting this entire nightmare to end.
"Sam?" Robin whispers, as Victor continues his story.
"Sorry, I just... I don't know."
"It was a magnificent home. Yeah. Alice said it looked like it was from a fairy tale."
"Was... was Alice your daughter?" Sam clears her throat.
"Mmm. Yeah. But Henry, my... My boy, he was a sensitive child... and I could see he felt something was wrong. We had one month of peace in that house. And then it began. Dead animals, mutilated, tortured, began to appear near our home. Rabbits, squirrels, chickens, even dogs. The police chief blamed the attacks on a wildcat. This... this was no wildcat. This was an evil. An evil neither animal nor human. This was a spawn of Satan. A demon. And it was even closer than I realized," he retells, and Sam frowns, eyes watering.
"What, um, what do you mean?" Sam hesitantly asks.
"My family began to have encounters conjured by this demon. Nightmares. Waking, living nightmares. This demon, it seemed to take pleasure in tormenting us. Even poor, innocent Alice. It wasn't long before I began to have encounters of my own. I suppose all evil must have a home. And though I had not a rational explanation for it, I... I could sense this demon, always close."
"Like it was always around, even when it wasn't bothering you? Like... Like a shadow," Sam elaborates, knowing exactly what he meant.
"Yes, exactly. I became convinced it was hiding, nesting, somewhere within the shadows of our home. It had cursed our town. It had cursed our home. It had cursed us. It took Virginia first. I tried to get the children out, to save them. But I was back to France, back in the war. It... it was a memory. I had thought German soldiers were inside. I was wrong. This demon, it was taunting me. And I was sure it would take me, just as he'd taken my Virginia. But then... I heard... another voice. At first, I believed it was an angel. And I... I followed her, only to find myself... in a nightmare far worse."
Sam's eyebrows furrow even deeper at that, feeling sorry that he had to go through all this, and terrified that she might.
"While I was away, the demon took my children. Henry slipped into a coma shortly after that. A week later, he died. I tried to join them. I tried. Hatch stopped the bleeding. He wouldn't let me join them," he cries.
"The angel you followed, who was she?"
He simply turns back around, beginning to hum a familiar song.
"Dream a little dream of me," Sam mumbles, startled by the door opening again.
"Is he everything you hoped he would be?" The director returns, anger written all over his face. "I just had a very interesting conversation with Professor Brantley. Perhaps we should discuss in my office while we wait for the police."
"Police?"
"Yes, they take away criminals, such as yourselves."
"Criminals?" she raises her eyebrows, as the guard harshly grabs her arm. "Let me go, my dad is a lawyer."
"Good, you'll need him."
"We had our reasons, okay?"
"I'm sure."
"You're not listening. Our friend is in danger," Nancy argues, as he leads them back outside.
"Do you really expect me to believe anything you have to say?"
"It's the truth."
"You are free to tell your sob story to the police. Move along."
"Don't touch me!"
"Victor said the night of the attack, everything went on in the house, but he made specific mention of music. He said music was playing," Robin points out to Sam and Nancy.
"And he started humming when we asked about an angel. Dream a Little Dream of Me," Sam agrees.
"Ella Fitzgerald. The voice of an angel," Nancy's eyes widen.
"Yeah. Hatch said that music can reach parts of the brain that words can't. So maybe that's the key, a lifeline."
"A lifeline back to reality. It's worth a shot."
"I think we can beat him," Sam scans the grassy area.
"What?"
"To the car."
"Okay. I'm warning you right now, I have terrible coordination. Took me six months longer to walk than all the other babies."
"Just follow our lead," Nancy assures, beginning to run, as Sam does the same.
"No, my God!"
"Take off the heels!" Sam shouts from the front, running past the guard, winking at him as he fails to grab her.
"Get back here!"
"Keys, Nancy!" Sam shouts, making it to the car first.
The brunette tosses her the keys reluctantly, catching up just as she starts the car.
"Come on, Rob!" Sam encourages, just as the blonde slides into the back seat, allowing her to pull off.
"Get out of the car!" The guard follows the car, obviously underestimating Sam's affinity for speeding.
"Sorry, but no," she pouts dramatically, speeding off.
"You really are a weird runner," Nancy turns to Robin.
"Robin, where the hell are you? This is a code red. I repeat, a code red!" a muffled voice comes crackling through the Cerebro unit.
"Dustin, it's Robin. We copy," she fishes it from under the seat.
"Holy shit. Finally! Please, please tell me you guys have this figured out," he sighs.
"Why?" Sam raises her voice, making a sharp turn that sends both Robin and Nancy into the door. "Sorry, you should put on your seatbelts."
"Max, she's... Vecna has her and we don't have a lot of time, how do we stop it?"
"What's her favorite song?"
"Why?"
"Robin said if she listens... It's too much to explain now. What's her favorite song?"
As Dustin scrambles to figure it out, Sam struggles to think back to the times she's come to the record store, reaching for a new cassette.
"She's bought it like four times, wait," Sam furrows her eyebrows in frustration. "It's... It's something by Kate Bush!"
"Okay, okay, Kate Bush," he nods, his voice drifting away from the radio.
"Shit, shit, come on, does this thing go any faster?" Sam hits the steering wheel particularly hard, stepping on the gas with all of her might.
"No, it can't, and if it does, we will crash and die, so please drive slower."
"We have to get to Max," Sam glares. "I am not leaving my sister without her best friend. I am not letting someone else die because I was too slow or selfish or weak."
Both girls look at her in sympathy, as Robin starts to piece together what Vecna may be showing her, and why she's so adamant on pretending she's not cursed.
"Sam, they're gonna save her, okay? And everything is gonna be fine, just slow down," Robin assures, meeting her eyes in the rear view mirror.
It's then that she glances down at the speedometer, bringing her back to reality. "I'm sorry."
"What'd you see in Pennhurst?"
"What?"
"You disappeared for a minute, like you were in a trance. What'd you see?"
"Um, it was the clock. And-And I heard his voice. He said I would be the last one," she frowns. "That he was saving me for last."
_____
A few minutes later, they make it to the cemetery, spotting everyone holding on to Max in fear as they make their way to Steve's car.
"Did it work?"
"It worked! It worked!" Dustin cheers.
Sam visibly lets out a sigh of relief, pulling the girl in for a hug.
"He almost got me," Max cries, finding solace in Sam's arms.
"We're not gonna let him again," Sam assures, but the tremble in her voice tells a different story.