ahoy? » Steve Harrington x reader

8.3

"try 'em again. try 'em again." steve says to max, she goes over to her phone phone and dials the Byer's number

max holds the phone to her eye for awhile before hanging up the phone with a sigh,

"anything?" dustin asks

"no. rang a few times, then went to busy signal."

"maybe, you punched it in wrong." steve suggests, "try again."

"i didn't punch it in wrong."

"well, i don't know."

"dude i think she knows how to use a phone."

"i'm just saying, she could've typed it in wrong."

phone hangs up the phone again, slamming it into its holder, "same shit."

"how is that possible?" lucas asks

"i told you, joyce has this telemarketer job. she's always on the phone. Mike won't stop whining about it."

"okay." max stops dustin, "yeah, but this phone's been busy for, what, three days now? that's not joyce. no way. somethings wrong."

"she's right." nancy says, "it can't be just a coincidence. it can't be."

"we have to go back in there. back to the upside down." nancy says

"whoa, no, no," steve starts

"nope!" eddie says

"no. what? let's think this through, okay?" steve reasons

"what is there to think through?"

"we barely made it out of there in one piece, vecna nearly got one of us, y/n could've died!"

"yeah, because we weren't prepared. but this time we will be. we'll get weapons and protection. we'll go through the gate, we'll find his lair, and we'll kill him."

"or he'll kill us. The only reason y/n survived was because he wanted her to. he's not scared of us."

"and for good reason." robin says standing up, "we we're wrong about Vecna. Henry. One. Sorry, what are we calling him now?"

"one." dustin says

"vecna." erica says

"one." lucas says agreeing with dustin

"henry." nancy says

"right. We've learned something new about Vecna-slash-Henry-slash-One. He's a number like eleven, only a sick, evil, male, child-murdering version of her with really bad skin. But my.. my point is, he's super powerful. He could turn us inside out with a snap of his fingers. it's not a fair fight"

"robin's right, we stand no chance against this guy." you say, "he messes with your mind.. and and he has eyes everywhere.. like the bats."

"you're right he's like eleven. But that gives us an upper hand. we know elevens strengths and weaknesses."

"weaknesses?" erica asks

"when, El remote-travels, she goes into this sort of trance-like state. i bet the same is true for vecna."

"that would explain what he was doing in that attic." lucas says

"exactly. when he attacks his next victim, i'll bet you he's back in that attic, physical body defenceless."

"defenceless, yeah? what about the army of bats?" steve asks

"right, true. we'll have to find a way past them. distract them somehow."

"and, uh, how do we do that, exactly?" eddie asks

"no idea." dustin says, "but once they're gone, he doesn't stand a chance. it'll be like slaying sleeping Dracula in his coffin."

"that all sounds good in theory, but there is no pattern to vecnas killings. at least not one that i can decipher. we don't know when he's next going to attack. we don't even know who he's going to attack."

"yeah we do." max says, making everyone turn to her, "i can still feel him. i'm still marked. cursed. i ditch Kate Bush. i draw his focus back to me."

"max." lucas says, "you cant. he'll kill you."

"i survived before. i can survive again. i just need to keep him busy long enough so that you guys can get into that attic. then you can chop his head off. stab him in the heart. blow him up with some explosion dustin cooks up. i honestly don't care how you put this asshole on his grave. Just..." she takes a deep breath, pausing for a moment, "whatever it is. whatever you do.. try not to miss."

Eddie slams a newspaper on max's dinning table, pointing at one of the articles, "check this out. The war zone." we all stand around the table listening, "i've been there once. it's huge. they've got everything you need for, uh... well, uh, killing things, basically."

"do you think fake Rambo has enough guns there?" robin asks, "is that a grenade?" she asks pointing to the picture in the newspaper, "i mean, how is any of this legal?"

"well, lucky for us it is, so... this.. this place is just far enough outside of Hawkins. As long as we steer clear of main roads, we oughta be able to avoid cops and, uh, angry hicks."

"if we're trying to avoid angry hicks, maybe we shouldn't go to some store named the War Zone." erica says

"normally, i'd agree, but we need the weapons. so i think it's worth the risk." nancy says

"me too." lucas agrees

"yeah, but, is it worth the time? it'll take all day to bike there and back." dustin says

"who said anything about bikes?" eddie asks

"what, you got some sort of car we don't know about?" steve asks

"it's not exactly a car, steve. it's not exactly mine, but, uh.. it'll do."

"hey, red, uh, you got a ski mask or bandanna, something like that?" eddie asks max, max looks down thinking and then looks back up at eddie raising her eyebrows

We exit max's trailer, eddie leading wearing a mike myers mask, the rest of us following him.