Little Lover

Chapter 24: The Myers Mask

"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...this 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..." Nancy said, her voice hoarse and full of fear. "And then...he showed me my Mom. And Holly. Mike. And they...they were all..."

Y/N couldn't even begin to imagine what Vecna showed Nancy. To see a vision of Dustin or Eddie in the same state he showed Mike and Holly to Nancy, it would break her.

"Okay, but...he's just trying to scare you, Nance." Steve said, hoping that his words would assure her that everything will be fine. "Right? I mean....I mean it's not real."

"Not yet." Nancy replied. "But...but 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 the Upside Down Hawkins. This was our Hawkins. Our home."

Eddie held on to Y/N's hand tightly, and she placed her other hand on top, caressing his to help him know that it's alright.

"Four chimes." Everyone turned to Max. "Vecna's clock."

Y/N then remembered those chimes. "It always chimes four times. Four exactly."

"I heard them too." Nancy said, to which Steve instantly looked at her.

"He's been telling us his plan this whole time." Max said.

"Four kills. Four gates. End of the world." Lucas said.

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

"And he was smart enough to have a back up." Y/N said. "When his attempt with Max failed, he instantly went to me. And now...all he has to do is choose."

"Oh Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ." Eddie exclaimed, covering his face as he stressed out in fear.

"Try 'em again. Try 'em again." Steve told Max. Max quickly went to the phone and dialled something.

"Hey, hey. It's okay." Y/N said, trying to calm Eddie.

"No, it's not okay." He said, looking at her. "He can kill you."

She can feel his fear, how scared he was to lose her. "Look at me, touch me. I'm fine. And I'll make sure I'll be fine throughout all this. Okay?"

She saw that Eddie was truly scared, so she pulled him in close and hugged him tight.

"We have to go back in there. Back to the Upside Down." Nancy said.

"Woah, no, no, no, no, no." Steve protests.

"Nope. Nope." Eddie says.

"Let's think this through." Steve said as he stood up.

"What is there to think through?" Nancy said.

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

"Yeah, because we weren't prepared." Nancy said. "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." Steve said. "The only reason that you survived is because he wanted you to. He's not scared of us."

"And for good reason. We were wrong about Vecna. Henry. One. Sorry, what are we calling him now?" Robin asked.