Bloody Negatives {Stranger things}

Chapter Forty-Four

《Chapter Forty-Four》
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There wasn't much Tally could do other than accept that he was going to die.

It wasn't like he'd brought his headphones into the Upside Down, so if he was completely honest with himself, there was no way out of this.

And of course he knew he shouldn't think like that. He knew he should hold onto the brief thread of hope that he'd somehow manage to survive.

But it was difficult, because Vecna already seemed to be pretty much done with Tally, and he could practically feel his bones cracking.

Tally closed his eyes tightly, trying not to focus on Vecna's long, spindly fingers hovering in front of his face.

In almost a last ditch attempt at salvation, Tally let his eyes roll to the back of his head, and attempted to push Vecna away.

You should know that Tally Parker did not, in any sense, believe in miracles. Tally Parker did not believe in a higher power, and he certainly did not believe that anything would come to save him.

But the universe works in mysterious ways.

And at that exact moment, a gunshot went off in the Upside Down. The real one, not the odd vision of it Vecna has concocted in Tally's mind.

Tally felt the invisible force that was holding him up give way. He fell onto the ground, crying out in pain as the impact of hitting the ground caused his ankle snapped to one side.

He heard several more gunshots, and when he managed to open his eyes again, Robin was crouched in front of him, rifling through her backpack.

Tally looked around frantically. Steve and Nancy were stood over a wide, floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at the ground below.

Vecna was nowhere to be seen.

"What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck," Tally whispered under his breath, briefly standing up, before yelping at the pain and slouching against the nearest wall.

"Tally," Robin hissed, annoyance dripping off her tone. "Stay still."

Tally yelped again as Robin roughly splinted his ankle with two stray pieces of broken wood—presumably broken off from the floor.

"Is that sanitary?" Tally gulped quietly, in too much pain to raise his voice above a whisper.

Robin shrugged, tearing a piece of fabric off her sleeve and wrapping it around the splint, pulling tightly, causing Tally to yelp again.

"Where'd he learn how to do that?" he asked, wincing as he spoke.

Nancy shrugged and turned back to Nancy and Steve. "We should get out of—"

And then there it was. Four chimes. All of them long, almost taunting.

Tally felt his stomach plummet. The world swam before his eyes. He could barely even hear what Nancy whispered next.

"Max."

Then, all at once, the ground began to tremble and shake. Like the ground itself was jumping.

Tally's eyes wandered upwards, nausea gripping his body.

The ceiling was beginning to split. Small chunks of wooden debris fell to the ground as the thin orange line grew.

"Holy shit," Steve whispered under his breath. Tally felt Nancy grab his hand.

It was hard to stay upright. Every single bone in his body was trembling. It felt strange. Unnatural. Though he supposed that unnatural was nothing new anymore.

Tally wasn't sure how long it lasted. It felt like forever.

But when it finally stopped none of them knew what to do at first.

Tally couldn't think straight. All the thoughts of what Vecna had told him were racing through his head. Lies, lies, lies. They had to be lies.

He couldn't be one of Brenner's experiments. He had parents. He had a life.

Everything felt wrong.

It all made him so frustrated.

It was his senior year. He was supposed to be going to parties and drinking too much and waking up hungover.

"Tally?" he heard Nancy ask quietly.

His name sounded so surreal. Like it belonged to someone else.

"Tally, we have to go," Nancy squeezed his hand tightly.

The walk back to Eddie's trailer was painful. His ankle throbbed and his nose bled and his head felt like it was splitting in two.

He just wanted to go home.

But of course, everything was bound to go off the rails again.

Because Eddie Munson was dead.

And Tally could see his body. The way he lay completely motionless.

Everything was spinning out of control in Tally's head. He couldn't think. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't speak.

It wasn't the plan to be leaving the Upside down with one less person.

It wasn't the plan to find Lucas crying over Max's barely-breathing body back at Creel House.

It wasn't the plan to return to a Hawkins split into four separate parts.

It wasn't the plan to have Lucas grab Tally's shoulder and tell him that Jason was dead. Split apart. Gone.

Tally wasn't sure if it was the pain or the grief that finally made him pass out.

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