"I swear, if I'm dying tonight because of you, I'm gonna haunt your ass so hard, Harrington!"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah! I'm gonna go full Poltergeist and shit!"
"Then bring it, Graveswood."
"Challenge accepted."
***
In which after years of suppressing their...
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Chapter One-Hundred-And-Sixty-One: Re-Entering The Upside Down
(The Piggyback)
***
Rowan worried her bottom lip, the only sign of her anxiety as she stood next to Steve, arms crossed. In the booth, Dustin and Alistair sat on one side, Eddie behind them, while Robin and Valerie sat in the other. Nancy was pacing down the corridor—just about to go over the plan one last time.
The RV was parked a few metres away from the trailer park—still decently hidden, but still close enough that they could walk to the Munson trailer and get inside and through the gate without anyone spotting them—or more specifically, Eddie. Hopefully.
They just needed to go over the plan, one last time before their descent into hell.
"Okay. I wanna run through it one more time," Nancy said as she turned to them. "Phase one."
"We meet Erica, Cami and Leo at the playground," Robin said, reciting it practically from memory now. "They'll signal Max and Lucas when we're ready."
"Phase two."
"Max baits Vecna. He'll go after her, which'll put him in his trance," Steve responded, before giving Rowan's shoulder a comforting squeeze at catching the look on her face, the fear of Max putting herself in danger and the potential she could die. She sent Steve a grateful smile before it fell.
"Phase three?" Nancy asked, looking over at the other group—the other distraction.
"Me, Al and Eddie draw the bats away," Dustin answered and Eddie gave Dustin an affectionate head-ruffle while Alistair added, "And if Vecna goes after me, either I'll call in Elton again, or Eddie and Dustin will."
"Four," Nancy said, looking back at Robin, Steve, Valerie and Rowan.
"We head into Vecna's hopefully newly bat-free lair, and..." Robin replied, rattling an unlit Molotov cocktail while Rowan let her fist spark with electricity, "... flambé and fry."
"Nobody moves on to the next phase until we've all copied," Nancy ordered, eyes flashing and reminding everyone that one slip, one change to the plan, and it would implode. "Nobody deviates from the plan, no matter what. Got it?"
"Got it," they all echoed back, before moving to the door. Ready to head back into the Upside Down and end this once and for all.
As they all got out and began creeping over to the Munson trailer, Rowan side-eyed Eddie and Alistair. Alistair knew that while he may not be the prime target, he was still in danger and Eddie had promised to both keep Alistair safe and to run if things went sideways. And yet, fear still clawed at her, that when she got back to the trailer, the opposite would be true, just like the fear clawed at her of Max not surviving. Fear that she could lose them, three more people she cared about, just a week after losing Chrissy.
