"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-Three: Strangled
(The Piggyback, Pt. 3)
***
Rowan bit her lip as she stood near the rusting, decrepit husk of the rocket ship slide. Her legs were burning from how long she'd been standing, but she didn't dare move. None of them did, not until either Erica, Cami or Leo told them that Max had distracted Vecna.
Rowan eyed the Creel House, her heart beating inside her chest at a rabbit-quick tempo as her nails dug into the leather of her jacket sleeves due to her crossed arms. She could feel Steve beside her, see Robin, Valerie and Nancy around her, but she could only look at that damn house, at the monster lurking inside. Soon, she'd be inside, and she could finally avenge Chrissy. They could end things and save the world again.
Sighing, she leaned against Steve, who began rubbing her back in low circles just under where her sword was. Rowan smiled, appreciating the gesture, as she tried to breathe in the air of the Upside Down—one thing was for certain, she was taking a damn good long breath of actual, non-toxic air that didn't feel like she was inhaling razors coated in honey with each breath when they got back home.
And so they waited. And waited. And waited.
Minutes ticked by, or Rowan assumed they had—there was no sense of time in this place, no way to mark it passing by, easily leading to someone growing mad. She could see Nancy periodically look at the house, too, see Robin and Valerie lean close together, Valerie looking at the light—while her sister wasn't in the line of fire, an older sibling's worry for the younger never stopped, and with Jason and his basketball thugs on the hunt for Eddie...
Rowan shivered. She prayed they wouldn't find Leo, Erica, Cami, Max and Lucas at the Creel House, or see Hugin with them. Especially Hugin.
As another minute ticked by, the golden light suddenly glowed as Erica's voice came through, "Okay, the lovebirds have copied. Max is moving into phase two: distracting Vecna."
"So far, so smooth," Robin commented as they turned back, Steve remarking sarcastically, "Yeah, we're not even at the hard part yet."
"Don't you dare say that, Harrington. You're gonna jinx it," Valerie scolded, looking at the house as she added, "And we don't need to be jinxed."
Rowan couldn't agree more, looking at the Creel house as Nancy looked at it too and whispered, "Take the bait, you son of a bitch. Take the bait."
Again, Rowan couldn't agree more even though she still hated Max using herself as bait, looking at the attic, her eyes narrowed into a glare, like if she glared hard enough, Vecna could feel it, feel her fury and vengeance. She hoped he did, hoped he knew his death was coming, borne on a storm, Molotov cocktails and a shotgun.
