Chapter Text
El was walking around - trying her best not to step on any vines. She knew how that ended, and she knew the hard way. Stepping on a vine meant you basically sent the whole hive mind your way. Sure, the place was already crawling with demos - but a vine meant at least five coming your way. She could handle one, but five or more was extremely tiring.
Just as she had nearly made it back to her shelter - she heard the familiar roar. It was behind her. She swiveled on her heel immediately to face the Demogorgon. It stood tall above her - trying to make itself bigger and scarier. But El had no trouble with Demogorgons.
Just as it swiped at her face she held an arm out. Its clawed hand stopped and it stared in confusion. Suddenly it found itself being flung across the alley. El wiped her nose and walked away.
She looked out towards what she had named “The container.” It held everyone else from Hawkins. All her family, all her friends, everyone was in there. It was shaped like a sphere with blood red vines covering it. She had found no way in - which probably meant there was no way out. Her friends would be trapped in his made up world forever. She just needed a way to save them. Just then she felt something - a connection. It was weak, extremely weak. But it was something. She tried reaching out - hoping it would work.
Mike woke up after 3 hours of sleep. He hadn’t been able to sleep much for the past 2 days - no, week - wait, maybe a month. He couldn't tell. The days had just blurred together. In fact - he wasn’t sure what date it was. Mike decided to just lay in bed until around noon.
He trudged down the stairs and found chaos in the kitchen. Both of his sisters were attempting to make lunch - Holly had insisted that Nancy taught her stuff like that. His father was sitting on his chair doing nothing as his mother yelled at him to get up and do something.
Mike sighed at the scene. He decided that it might be nice to go for a walk. He couldn’t really remember the last time he had voluntarily gone outside. Mike walked out the front door of his house - not bothering to tell his family that he was leaving. They probably wouldn’t notice. Mike had felt like a ghost in his own house - he didn’t know why, but he tried to blame it on grief. Part of him felt like it was something different - something dangerous.
The cold air - despite it being summer - hit his skin and he felt an unnatural chill. Once again, Mike brushed off that anything was wrong. He kept walking through the town until he got to an alleyway.
As he walked he suddenly felt a chill - worse than before. His mind blacked out and his vision blurred for a split second before he saw it. All around him. It was like the upside down - but worse. Mike whipped his head around - trying to see who did that. But then the world flickered and he was back where he was before. Back in the alleyway - the normal alleyway.
He stumbled back for a few steps - still shocked at what had just happened. Then he sprinted away. He sprinted back to his house. His mind's only thought was getting to safety.
Max and Lucas were sitting in Lucas's room - leaning against the bed. It had felt like a long day, and the two of them were tired. Lucas could tell that. He had gotten quite good at noticing things - small details that wouldn't really matter to others. But he had learnt to see them in people - well, not all people, mostly Max and his friends. Ok, maybe just Max. But it had come in handy multiple times before.
Like in that moment, she was quiet. The kind of quiet that meant she was hiding something. Or struggling with something. Or both. Yeah, definitely both. Lucas knew that Max wouldn't want to talk about it, but he had to try - right? “Max? You ok?” He asked as her gaze snapped towards him. She nodded and went back to staring into space.
Lucas tried asking again “Are you sure?” Max sighed before reluctantly shaking her head. Her voice was soft and almost broken as she said “Lucas, I think he's back.” Lucas’s stomach dropped. He opened his mouth to ask a question before Max signalled him to shut up. She continued by saying “I can hear him sometimes. Never see him though. I can't really see anything at all when it happens. My vision just blurs out. It's random and unpredictable and I hate it!” She exclaimed - her voice getting more and more frustrated as she said the last sentence.
Her eyes threatened to tear up but she stopped herself. She really did. She spoke again and said “I know you’re about to ask about how long it's been happening for. The answer to your question is a month.”
Lucas had to stop himself from yelling - getting mad over nothing. When he was really only mad at himself. He should've noticed earlier - he’d had a whole month to notice and he had only just done that a few minutes ago.
He stared into Max’s eyes with hurt - not from anything she had said, but for what she was going through. He could see her eyes develop a glassy look and he immediately wrapped his arms around her. It was muscle memory by now. From all the hard times she had been through, he had been there for most of them. He only gripped her tighter as she sobbed into his chest.
“Mike?” Nancy said as she heard someone slam the front door and sprint up the stairs. She got no reply so she decided to walk up to his room and open the door. Mike flinched, jumped backwards, and covered his face as if someone was going to hurt him. That’s when Nancy knew something was definitely up. “Mike?” She said softly, approaching him cautiously “What happened?” Mike quickly resumed a normal position - as if he was snapping back into reality. “Nothing! It’s nothing!” He stammered out. Nancy raised a question eyebrow but walked away.
Mike almost sighed in relief when he saw his sister walk out of the room. He knew that Nancy was just concerned for him, but she wouldn’t believe what had happened. Vecna was dead. Mike had watched it. He didn’t know what he was seeing, but it certainly wasn’t normal, or real, or believable. He would just have to ignore it until it went away. Unless there was something wrong with him. Was there a reason he was seeing things? Was he going crazy?
Mike’s mind wandered to the promise he had made years ago with Will. When they had agreed to go crazy together. He thought about talking to Will, but things had felt different with him lately. Will had seemed more distant, almost like he wanted to be away from Mike. Mike missed Will - he missed his best friend. Best friend? That felt familiar. He thought back to the radio tower and his stomach sank. He had lied to Will, all because he was too much of a coward to admit his true feelings. And now Will hated him for it.
Will sat on his bed. Not moving - just sitting. It had gotten worse. His plan must have been escalating, and Will seemed like the most important part. He wanted to tell someone - he didn’t want to be stuck like this anymore. But he couldn’t even be near his friends or family without it happening. The overwhelming urge to hurt them - or worse.
He knew this was vecna’s doing. He just wished he had a way out of it. But it happened almost every time. He’d watch himself moving, without any control over what was happening. It had first happened on the radio tower. When Mike had said “Friends, no thanks, best friends.” Will had wanted to throw him off. He didn’t actually want to do that, but the thought had climbed to the top of his head and he had almost started moving. He’d been avoiding Mike ever since - in terror of accidentally hurting him.
“So, you’re sure they’re unpredictable? No pattern whatsoever. Like, nothing at all?” Lucas asked for the fiftieth time. “Yes!” Max replied, starting to get sick of his questions “There’s no specific people! No specific time! No specific place! No specific theme! No specific gap between them! No specific smell! No specific anything!” Max stood up and said “You know what? This is stupid. I’m leaving.” She started walking towards the door when Lucas grabbed her arm and said “Wait! Earlier you said that I’m the first to know other than you! That must mean they only happen when you’re alone!”
Max stared at him in disbelief, thinking for a second that he was right, that maybe there was a pattern. But then she heard a faint ringing in her ears and blurry patches appeared in her vision. With the last of her strength she choked out “You’re wrong.”
Lucas stared at Max, wondering what she had meant by that. “Max?” He tried to ask, but she didn’t respond. He stood there for a second before noticing the vacant look in her eyes. That must’ve been what she had meant. As her knees buckled, Lucas caught her. He gently lowered her limp body down - being careful not to drop her. He kneeled over her, watching carefully for any sign that something was wrong.
His voice. It was louder, more powerful. It was like a warning, a warning for someone else. “You try that little trick again, and you're dead.” Vecna’s raspy, guttural voice boomed in her ears. Next she heard footsteps, running away. They got quieter and they faded away from her hearing. Someone must have been running away from him. Vecna sighed, a weird sound, as if his breathing was unnatural. Then he said something, as if it was directed towards Max “You weren’t supposed to hear that.” Then Max felt a sharp pain in her head. As if vecna was punishing her for what she had heard.
Lucas’s breath hitched as he saw Max’s face scrunch up in pain. “Max!” He yelled as he tried to shake her awake. Panic rose in his chest as his attempt failed. He was helpless, forced to watch with no way to help Max.
Max’s eyes shot open and she saw Lucas hovering in front of her - brows furrowed in concern. She froze in shock for a second. She finally registered what had happened and said “See, no pattern.” But the pain in her head still slightly lingered and it hurt to think. It literally hurt to form a proper thought. Lucas still hovered in front of her, eyes and tone full of concern as he said “Max, what happened?”
Max tried to think of what had happened. It was still hard to do that but eventually managed to grasp the memory of what she had heard. “He was telling someone off?” She said - almost as if she was asking herself if that was the correct answer. “And then. And then he was talking to me. Directly to me. He said that I wasn’t supposed to hear that.” She winced, the pain settling over her mind again.
Her vision blurred again, but this time it was from exhaustion. Lucas immediately rushed to her side and caught her as she fell sideways. She fell into unconsciousness in his arms.
Lucas stared down at the girl in his arms. She looked so precious, like one wrong move and she would fall apart. Lucas loved that Max trusted him. She trusted him enough to be vulnerable. It had taken a while, but it was worth the wait. He just wished that he could protect her more. He wished that she didn’t have to go through what she did. It wasn’t even her fault that she heard it. He gripped her tight - as if the wind might blow her away. He wasn’t going to lose Max. He couldn’t lose Max. He didn’t know what he would do if he did.
Mike was back in that place again. The same place from before. But he knew it was a dream, at least he thought so. But he decided to look around. It looked like the upside down, but it looked endless as well. There was no wormhole, there was no way of exploding it. It also wasn’t stuck in 1983. Mike could see things that had been there after that. The place was crawling with demos, there was practically one around every corner. But they seemed to ignore Mike - as if he wasn’t even there. He was in the sky, like a permanent cloud. Like a permanent shadow. The mind flayer. One of its arms was pumping into something below it.
He turned an empty corner and saw it. The weird ball thing. That’s what the mind flayer was pumping particles into. It was covered in vines. He felt like he needed to find out what was in there. He walked closer, passing multiple demogorgons on his way. A swarm of demobats flew above him. He stared up at them. They were flying in a perfect formation, like those army planes you see flying around. And they were all headed for the ball. Mike approached the edge and reached out a hand to touch it. As soon as his fingers touched the slimy texture of the vine - he felt a weird pull in his head and he felt as if he was flying backwards.
Mike awoke with a jolt. His head pounding, and heart racing. He sat up and looked around - hoping that he was back in his room, not wherever he was before. He felt something dripping from his nose and he reached out to touch it. Blood. Just as he was examining the red liquid on his finger - his door flew open. Nancy stood in the doorframe and said “Alright now you really have to explain.” Mike took a deep breath and said “I think vecna is back.”