HAVEN - stranger things.

xix. COLLATERAL.

xiv. six harringtons and a mayfield!

the next morning arrived and the group of, now, nine sat huddled in max mayfield's trailer as they listened to what nancy wheeler had seen once vecna had gotten to her.

"he showed me things that haven't happened yet. the most awful things. i saw...a dark cloud spreading over hawkins, downtown on fire. dead soldiers. and this..." her voice was hoarse, she was shaken up.

erica, eddie, and steve sat on the couch. robin and wendy were sat on the floor on the left of nancy while dustin stood next to the couch. lucas and max were near him.

"...giant creature with...a gaping mouth. and this creature wasn't alone. there were so many monsters. an army. and they were coming into hawkins. into our neighborhoods, our homes. and then...he showed me my mom and holly. mike. and they...they were all..." nancy began to cry.

wendy carmichael felt her heart sink, at the sight of nancy wheeler break down, but also at the thought of her family being in danger.
"okay, but...he's just trying to scare you, nance. right, i mean...i mean, it's not real." steve tried to dismiss.

"not yet," nancy looked towards steve. "but there...there was something else. he showed me gates. four gates. spreading across hawkins. and these gates, they looked like the one outside of eddie's trailer, but they didn't stop growing. and this wasn't upside down hawkins, this was our hawkins. our home." nancy explained.

wendy heard a muffled version of 'somebody to love' through the headphones that rested around her neck—max had found a spare in her bedroom and lended it to wendy. they didn't want to take any more chances with vecna.
"four chimes," they heard max say.

"vecna's clock. it always chimes four times. four exactly." max explained.
"i heard them too." nancy whispered.

"he's been telling us his plan this whole time." max said, arms folded across her chest.
"four kills. four gates. end of the world." lucas sinclair spoke up.

"if that's true...he's only one kill away." dustin concluded.

"wait, wait...what about...shit, well what about wendy? i mean, that's five people cursed." steve looked towards his girlfriend and then the group.
then, all eyes fell on wendy carmichael.

"i, i don't know. did he say anything about me?" wendy looked towards nancy.
nancy sighed and nodded, looking from the near nineteen year old towards the group.

"he didn't know if...if he could carry it out with max, so he chose wendy as collateral. basically if max escaped again, he would've taken wendy instead." nancy explained.

wendy could practically feel the color drain from her face as her body went cold—it was certain, it was her fate. either max mayfield would die, or she would.

they tried to call the byers again, eleven was their only hope. wendy could feel herself zoning out as they began to devise a plan around her. it was in that moment that she realized why max mayfield had written them letters, she understood now. all wendy wanted was to say goodbye to her family in the event that anything bad happened.

she didn't care that the group was arguing about whether or not they should go back into the upside down, she wanted her family. she should be enjoying her spring break, not fearing that her death was around the corner.