A MATCH MADE IN HELLFIRE///e.m

Phase Three

SAM TOOK A SEAT AT A LITTLE coffee table, placing her lamp onto it.

"... I thought about all that shit you told me. About how I'm a coward, and how I let Billy die. You're right, I am a coward. I lay in bed every night, thinking about that day. That day I let Billy down, let Max down. I thought you were just trying to upset me, but you were only telling the truth. I sit here and regret everything, and think about how I could have pushed him out of the way, or if I was just quicker or if I just didn't completely freeze and not do anything. But I did, I did freeze, and it made my life a living hell knowing I let my best friend die. I just let it happen. But now I know, now I know I don't have to hide, or run, or freeze. I can fight, and I can stand up to you and anyone who tries to hurt my friends, my family, Hawkins. Because you, you are nothing. You hide in the shadows, you sit here and watch people die too. I'm not scared of you like you think I should be." Sam's voice was low, and raspy. The room was silent for a bit, and Sam started to gently cry.

"Are gonna let me die? Are you gonna sit there and let Lucas die too?" Max asked softly.

"What? No! Max, no! And you're not supposed to talk, what are you doing." Sam asked turning around swiftly.

"Are you gonna let us all die?!" Lucas yelled standing next to Max.

"Coward. Coward. Coward." Lucas and Max repeated over and over as they slowly walked toward Sam. "Or maybe, we'll sit here and watch you die." A voice more sinister came from both Max and Lucas.

"You, you will be the chosen one. The final sacrifice. The fourth and last one. It's gonna be you, that breaks the world." Sam shuttered as they trapped her in a corner.

"Get away from me!" Sam shouted. "Oh come on Samantha, come with me. I'll make it end soon enough."

"Did you hear me?! I SAID GET AWAY FROM ME!" Sam shouted pushing "Max's" body onto "Lucas's" and diving for her spear on the floor.

"Max's" body morphed into "Lucas's," becoming one, becoming Vecna.

"Stay away from me you fucking creep." She gripped her spear in both hands.

"SAM? SAM CAN YOU HEAR ME?!" Max yelled in Sam's face. "Oh shit. Oh my god, SAM!" Lucas shouted at Sam, shaking her shoulders. "Shit!" Lucas blinked his flashlight out the window, as Erica blinked back.

SAM RAN DOWN THE STAIRS and tried to run out the door, but the windows and doors were all blocked off by planks of wood.

"Oh, don't run Sam. You have nowhere to go. I don't want to hurt you, I just want to give Max time before I kill her." Vecna's voice echoed in the house.

"NO!" Sam yelled slamming open doors. Everywhere she ran she couldn't find ways out, she opened a door to a bedroom and saw Max's body broken and her eyes sucked out. Sam whimpered at the sight but shook it off and slammed the door shut, running to find another door.

She opened it and saw both Sinclair's with bullet holes in their foreheads. "STOP FUCKING WITH ME!" Sam screamed closing the door again. She ran downstairs and she was in her basement, with Mike, Holly and Nancy... mom and dad, dead. All of them, on the floor, scattered all over the floor. She almost threw up and ran up the stairs again.

Once she reached the top of the stairs, Billy's body was on the floor, dead with a gaping hole in his chest. "Sam?" Billy whimpered, with blood pouring out his mouth.

She closed her eyes and imagined her happy place, which she never had time to think about in a time like this. But her mind instantly went to one quickly.

She appeared in the Hawkins High School gymnasium. Freshman Prom night, 1982. Her date was Steve. "Holy shit." Sam laughed looking around.

There was silver and red streamers hanging from the ceiling and red, black and silver balloons on the floor. The song "In The Air Tonight" by Phil Collins played in the speakers, it echoed as she spun around. A giant sign that said "Prom '82" hung on the wall in red glitter paint.

She didn't know exactly what she was supposed to do, but she stood in the bleachers, behind laced curtains, listening to the song. And she wondered, why this memory came to her mind. But this night was her first prom, with her best friend, and even the night he became prom king, with years of winning that spot after that.

She started to think of the little details of the memory. Her small glittery, tacky, red dress her mother picked out for her, and her red converse, her hair in a tight bun that her mother also did. Steve's suit was gray with a red handkerchief in his chest pocket. He even got them matching corsage and boutonnières.

She could still hear the echoes of her and Steve's laugher when they would mess up a step in the slow dance, or them drinking cups and cups of fruit punch Kool-aid, and their lips were stained red, or when their favorite song came on and they looked at each other from across the gym, smiling and running toward the middle so they could dance. She knew Vecna wouldn't find her here, in such a happy place.

But then, "Dream A Little Dream Of Me," by Ella Fitzgerald played in the speakers of the gymnasium, echoing.

Sam looked around in confusion, "Shit." She whispered.

He's definitely found her. The paint on the walls started to turn a rusty orange and peal off the walls, and the streamers hanging from the ceiling fell apart falling to the floor. The lights became dim and the sunlight outside became dark red, shining into the gym. And particles started to fall from the ceilings. "No, no, no, no." She backed up from the walls.

"Fuck this." Sam grabbed chairs from the side of the bleachers throwing it at the gym doors, piling them.

She walked away and found a fold-up table and grabbed it, when she turned toward the doors, the chairs were gone. She dropped the table. "You can't hide from me, Samantha." Vecna's voice echoed louder than the music.

Sam exhaled and tried to find another good memory.

"You think I don't see, everything?" He spoke. Images of Jason holding a gun to Lucas and Max flashed in her mind, "You thought you could trick me? You thought your friends, could stop me?"

Now images of Steve, Nancy and Robin getting attacked by vines appeared too. "No." Sam whimpered.

"I see them. I see your friends."

Eddie and Dustin were being swarmed by Demo-Bats. "I can feel them, dying." The clock chimed, causing Sam to open her eyes.

"It's time, Sam. Either you or Max. You choose."

Sam breaths started to shake as she turned away from the door.

"It's time." Vecna came up behind Sam, throwing her into a wall with his mind, holding out his hand. Sam screamed, hitting the wall of the gymnasium. She couldn't move her body and she couldn't breath, her hitting the wall took her breath away.

She cried out in pain, waiting for whatever the plan was to work. She imagined that the things Vecna was showing her, were fake. He slowly walked toward her, growling.

"You are brave, Samantha." He stared into her eyes, she winced at the sight of him. "But in the end... you are weak, and fragile, a coward. And you... will, break." He brought up his hand to her face.

Sam's eyes fell to the back of her head, she couldn't control it, she was scared, she wasn't ready to die. He stared into her eyes as his hand laid on her face.