"So." Nancy says, crossing her ankles primly. "Vecna's been making more new friends for us."
"What?" Mike splutters. "We've got, like, actual confirmation on that?"
"Actual confirmation." Steve confirms. "By way of Eddie's rat-soldiers."
Max leans forwards. "Wait, it worked? We can control normal animals?"
"That's a point to D&D vampire rules, by the way." Dustin says.
"They have to be animals you've turned." Eddie says. "And I don't know about bigger ones, but, yeah, on rats and mice it works."
"What exactly did you see?" El asks.
"It was more of what I felt. It was a Demodog, though, and I'm almost certain there were more."
"That's...bad, right?" Argyle asks.
"...Yes, it's bad." Jonathan plucks the joint out of his hand. "...And time and place, man." He snuffs it out.
"Respectfully, Jonathan, we all cope with stress in our own way. And you owe me another." Argyle says.
"Yeah, whatever, fine, so...how do you know there were more?"
"Well, they were in this cave, and I could feel the one who chased them more clearly because it was guarding the entrance, I think. But I could feel this feeling, like..." He trails off. "Like there were these flickers of life, all bunched together."
"...That's what I can feel." Max says. "Whenever I try to... reach out, I mean, especially right after one of the nightmares. It's like there's this feeling of life up there, something beyond the bats and the landscape, I just can't pinpoint what."
Lucas rubs a hand over his forehead, distressed. "Plus there are all of those corpses from the night he split Hawkins open. That's what he built the Spider out of last summer."
"Exactly." Nancy says. "The fact that the Demogorgon wasn't full grown yet means we still have some time, maybe, until he attacks, but..." She trails off, face hollow. "I don't think we have long now."
El nods, her eyes wide in distress. "I know what he is planning. It is War."
"...Like, war war?" Robin asks, timid.
"He is building an army. That is why the leaking slowed." She sounds certain, now, her mind clear from the time she's been spending in the salt-pool with Will and Mike's support. "That's the volcano."
"Guys, can I..." Will says, making himself known from where he's been silently sitting by Jonathan. "Can I make a request?"
"What is it?" Jonathan asks.
"It's for you. Max and Eddie." He turns to them, his mouth a serious little line. "And please don't immediately say no."
Max grimaces, her fangs poking through. She looks like she already knows what he's going to ask. Eddie gestures for him to go ahead.
"Can you guys turn me?"
Nobody says anything, for a moment, then they all speak at once:
"—What?"
"Will, no way—"
"—Trying to make yourself vulnerable?"
"Vecna would just exploit—"
Will sinks into himself. "Can't you hear me out?"
"Are you sure this is even your idea?" Mike asks. "And not a seed that Vecna planted on purpose?"
"Why would he want me to be a vampire? The whole point is he only wanted Eddie!"
"Yes, but why did he turn Eddie? To get close to him? To use him? We don't know." Steve says. "We can't put you at risk like that."
"Especially since you've already got a connection to him." Jonathan says. "Buddy, you know we can't do that."
"But that's why I want to in the first place!" Will says. "So that I'll be able to defend myself, for once! I'm sick of being the...the alarm, the one who has to feel him coming without any kind of powers to defend myself with like the others he's marked!"
"...Eddie turned me because I was dying, Will." Max says, sympathetic. "It was the only option."
"Well, who knows what could happen to me if I can't protect myself?"
Eddie has literally no idea what to say. He knows enough about Will's history with this stuff to think that turning him might be a bad idea, though. "...Sorry, Will." He says, dropping his eyes. "But I don't think Max or I are willing to do that."
"Of course." Will says, standing up and walking to the door. "Of course."
After he leaves Mike and El stand to go after him, but Jonathan holds a hand up. "I'll go. It's fine."
