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She’d lost track of how long she’d been awake at this point. 24 hours at least; not that she slept much when they’d allowed themselves a brief moment of rest. Robin’s brain was noisy at the best of times, nevermind with everything weighing on her mind right now.
Holly was still out there, now Derek too, and sweet little Debbie. All the kids were gone. Hooked up to those spires Will had seen. Vecna had taken all of them. They’d failed them.
Once the demogorgon had miraculously dropped dead by her feet, Robin had hauled Murray’s unconscious body out of the lorry by herself. For a second, she thought he was dead. The entire left side of his face was gashed and bloody; much worse than her pathetic little bruise and the weak trickle of blood coming from the side of her neck. She could clean herself up with a cloth. He should be getting stitches. They didn’t have time for that, not when with every second that slipped away, Vecna still had the kids. Had little Wheeler. The end of the world was coming closer and closer with every tick of the clock on the lounge wall.
The only thing they had on their side right now was Will. Robin didn’t quite know how, but Byers had unlocked something within him at the Big Mac last night. Whether he’d had it the whole time, or this was just another fun new development of his link to Vecna, she had no clue. All she knew that if it wasn’t for him, that demo would have torn her to shreds. He was their upper hand, especially while El was still stuck in the upside down.
Dawn risen, the “rightside up” group (or what was left of them; Derek really had felt like part of the team) had finally gotten a moment to recoup in the radio station, to sit and think on their next move. They had something they could use against Vecna, but nobody quite knew how yet; it still brought them no closer to the missing kids. Will could see them; he couldn’t find them. Perhaps there was things Eleven could do that he could now too, but Joyce didn’t seem that willing to let him try. Robin honestly couldn’t blame her, as much as she disagreed. She didn’t have the energy to poke that bear again.
Scrubbing her eyes, she did her best to stay alert while listening to the ideas being thrown around, simultaneously trying to come up with some of her own. Now that almost everything had processed, the throbbing in her cheek was really becoming apparent. It felt insensitive to even think about, given what some the others had gone through.
From outside, Robin noticed something moving; far away, but coming rapidly closer. She leaned up, getting a better angle between the blinds. It was moving up the gravel path up the hill. Yellow. A yellow car.
“Shit.”
Any discretion she hoped to have disappeared, her mouth once again acting before her brain. Everyone’s attention was on her. Then it was on outside. She jumped up, approaching the front window to confirm her suspicions as the car pulled up.
“Who is that?” Murray asked beside her, a tense paranoia in his voice. As if Dr Kay or military police or the freaking KGB would drive a sunshine coloured bug.
Stuttering, Robin tried desperately to utter out an explanation, “I- I was supposed to meet a friend, the other night- she must be-”
She turned to face everyone, all of them gawking at her in frustration. They didn’t have time for this right now. Joyce was staring her down the most, eyebrows raised as if to say ‘what the hell?’. Her son was more important than her love life. Those kids were more important.
“I’ll get rid of her.”
Not even taking a second for anyone’s response, Robin hurried to the entrance, hoping to god none of them followed her. This conversation was going to be hard enough alone.
She shut the entrance door deftly behind her as white plimsolls stepped out from the car onto the weary grass. Her brain racked fast as she tumbled down the steps, barely taking a breath before the redhead was marching up to her, glare cutting.
“Two hours I waited, Robin.”
“Vick, I-”
Stopping a few paces away from her, Vickie’s eyes burned into her as she let out what had clearly been pent up since at least the drive here, “two hours, alone, in that fancy expensive restaurant that you promised that you would take care of, that you would be there. You didn’t even call.”
Wringing her hands, the taller girl glanced nervously behind her, hoping their voices weren’t travelling to inside. “I know, I’m so sorry-”
“No, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I trusted you.”
She sounded hurt. So fucking hurt. Robin was supposed to be getting rid of her, but-
“You can trust me!” she blurted out desperately.
Vickie’s expression stayed unforgiving. “It’s one thing to keep cancelling on me, okay, but I never thought you would sink so low as to stand me up, it was humiliating!”
“I didn’t mean to, okay, I didn’t want to!”
Still ignoring her, the red haired girl continued to rip into her, her voice a touch more unbalanced now, “not only did you ditch me, which oddly enough isn’t even that shocking at this point, but then your show doesn’t even come on for two, three mornings now. I tried calling your house, nothing, I tried calling here, nothing, I tried calling Steve-”
“Something came up.”
“Two kids on my street were rounded up by the military yesterday, the same time you vanish off the face of the planet it seems-”
Her heartbeat picked up. “What makes you think that has to do with anything?”
This was worse than she imagined. Vickie wasn’t just mad; she was close to the truth.
Fortunately, she didn’t seem to realise as she threw her arms around, clutching briefly at her red curls, “I don’t know! Everything just feels crazy right now, Mindy said two people have been admitted with indescribable injuries and their daughter missing, I can’t contact you-”
The smaller girl cut herself off as her eyes landed on something; dark and ominous on the side of Robin’s face.
“What the hell is this?” she reached for it, a low, dreadful worry in her voice now.
Robin flinched away, trying to hide it. “It’s nothing.”
“Did someone hurt you?”
“No, I’m just-” she stuttered, unable to come up with anything fast enough, “it’s fine.”
A silence passed, Vickie taking a composing breath. Her face was still a conflicting mix between pissed and terrified.
“Robin, I’m going to have to be honest here and say you are freaking me the hell out.”
It felt like everything was beginning to crumble on top of her. This was never supposed to happen; these two worlds were never supposed to meet. She was determined to keep them apart.
Apologetically, she tried to salvage what was left of anything, “I told you, everything is fine, and I’m- I’m sorry I ditched you, believe me, if I had a choice, I’d have made it, but-”
“Something came up, you said,” Vickie echoed back, resentful. Resigned. She shook her head. “Why won’t you just… just tell me what’s going on?”
She kept trying to find the taller girl’s eyes. Robin wouldn’t meet them.
“There’s nothing to tell.”
A twisted grimace tugged on the other girl’s lips at that. She wasn’t taking it, not this time.
“You’ve always been strange, Robin, it’s a quality I’m usually quite fond of, but this…” she vaguely gestured, inhaling shakily. Still tried to meet her gaze. “Every single time you cancel on me, you never tell me why.”
Robin clenched her fists. Shut her eyes. She couldn’t look at her. She couldn’t do this.
“I’m worried about you, Robin, and I swear you are hiding something from me.”
“I’m not hiding-”
She didn’t finish her sentence; there was no point. They both knew it was a lie.
Swallowing, she changed her response, “it’s nothing for you to concern yourself with.”
“If it concerns you, then it concerns me too.”
“No, it doesn’t!”
Her eyes reopened as she snapped, finally looking at her girlfriend directly. The fear in the other girl’s eyes was gut wrenching.
Deep down, Robin always knew she couldn’t have it both ways. She thought they would find Vecna, kill him before it got out of hand. Before it ever reached her. She couldn’t understand. Robin didn’t want her to understand. All she was doing was hurting her, making promises she couldn’t keep. The truth would fix everything, but if she let her in- the price was too big. They had lost too many before. Not her.
Her two worlds were too close to merging; one had to go.
“You need to leave.”
Vickie’s eyes broke, disbelieving, “you’re just going to kick me out?”
“Yes,” Robin spoke blunt. She couldn’t look at her; her eyes darted to the ground, the car, her own hands, anywhere that wasn’t her face. The tremble in her voice was unshakeable, “you need to go, you need to go home, or to your shift, anywhere that’s…”
The word “safe” wouldn’t come out. It gave too much away.
Ignoring the sudden wetness in her eyes, Robin forced herself to speak, “just stay away from here, and stay away from me.”
“Robin,” the redhead tried to plead with her. There wasn’t a hint of bitterness in her tone anymore; she just sounded scared.
“Just go,” she begged, voice a pained whisper. She had to close her eyes again. “Please.”
Vickie didn’t say anything more. The moment felt like it lasted forever. Robin swore she heard a slight sniffle before footsteps walking away. A car door slammed. Then an engine, and then…
She was gone.
Not even letting herself look down the path, Robin turned back to the entrance, wiping away hot tears with her sleeve. The others couldn’t see her like this.
Stepping inside, she startled slightly, finding Lucas stood in the entrance. He’d been getting a spare shirt, one of the bright blue WSQK ones. Kind of fortunate they had a box full of old stock to replace ripped and bloody clothes.
Despite trying to hide her expression, the younger boy took note of it immediately. Whether he’d heard any of what they’d said outside, she didn’t know.
Slightly unsure, he dared to ask, “are you okay?”
If he did hear anything, he was being discreet about it. His face didn’t seem to give away that he secretly knew she was not, in fact, okay. He just… cared, despite not knowing exactly what he was supposed to care about. He was too kind like that.
Stiffly, Robin kept her eyes on the floor, wiping another tear that threatened to come out. “Come on, we need to come up with our next move to kill this bastard for good.”
She blazed past him, assuming he was following. The others had seemingly gone into the basement. Maybe they had something. She hoped to god they did.
With Vickie out of the picture, Robin was determined more than ever to end this fucking thing. There was nothing to distract her now. All she had to worry about now was finding Holly, and all the other kids, before Vecna could hurt them any more. Kill him, close the gates. Then it would finally be over.
Maybe she’d lost Vickie, but at least she was safe, and off of Vecna’s radar; as long as that was true, nothing else mattered.
She had no idea what was coming.