slut [ eddie munson ]

032

Talia was in shock, mind whirling as she listened intently to the words her shaken cousin spoke. Vecna hadn't shown them the same things—played with them the same way. Nancy wasn't his victim...not truly at least. He had given her information, not tortured her mind with images of the worst things imaginable.
"...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 the Upside Down Hawkins. This was our Hawkins. Our home."

"Four chimes," everyone's eyes darted over to the red headed teen, "Vecna's clock...it always chimes four times. Four exactly."

"I heard them too," Nancy breathily said.

"He's been telling us his plan this whole time," Max put together.

"Four kills," Lucas realizes, "four gates. End of the world."

"If that's true, he's only one kill away," Dustin said.

"Oh, Jesus...Christ. Jesus Christ," Eddie muttered. Talia felt sick. She hadn't heard the chimes. Why hadn't she heard the chimes?

Try'em again, try'em again," Steve urged Max, who had been trying to call the California gang while Talia showered. She strode over to the phone, grabbing it. She dialed the number, the line never being picked up. Talia fiddled with her fingers as the group debated what to do.

"...not if he's dead. We have to go back in there. Back to the Upside Down," Nancy said strongly, whirling around from where she looked at the window to face the group.

Eddie shook his head in disbelief, "Nope."

"Whoa, no, no, no. What?" Steve protested, rising from his seat, "Let's think this through, okay?"

"What is there to think through?" Nancy shot back, Talia's eyes followed the conversation.

"We barely made it out of there in one piece."

"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 you, the reason Talia, survived is because he wanted you both to. He's not scared of us."

"And for good reason," Robin cut in, standing from her seat on the floor, "we were wrong about Vecna...Henry...One—sorry, what are we calling him now?"

"One."

"Vecna."

"One."

"Henry."

"Right," Robin said, question still unanswered, "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."

"So then why fight fair?" Dustin questioned, "you're right. He's like Eleven, but that gives us an upper hand. We know Eleven's strengths and weaknesses."

"Weaknesses?" Erica asked.

"When El remote-travels, she goes into this sort of transe-like state. I bet it's the same with Vecna."

"That would explain what he was doing in that attic," Lucas agreed.

"Exactly, so when he attacks his next victim I'll bet you he's back in that attic, physical body defenseless."

"Defenseless, yeah?" Steve snarked, "what about the army of bats?"

"Right, true. We'll have to find a way past them—distract them, somehow."