Yours Truly | B. Hargrove

32

"He said that he was building something." El whispered, "that it was all for me.."

"Building something? Is he talking about the flayed?" Max asked.

"He must be." Nancy assumed.

"So he's building an army, just like we thought" Lucas shook his head.

"Yeah, but he's not building this army to spread." Mike stated matter of factly.

"He's building it to stop eleven." Will was as right as anyone could be.

"Last year, el closed the gate on him. I have a feeling that really pissed him off." Mike sighed.

Eden snorted, "you think?"

"And the Mind Flayer now knows that she's the only thing that can stop him. But if she's out of the way-"

"Game over." Lucas interrupted.

"He also said that he was going to kill all of you." El added on, looking Eden in the eye.

"Yeah well that's nice." Max scoffed.

Nancy's attention had soon been directed toward a window. Eden would be lying if she said she didn't hear a petrifying screech in the distance. Sure, it was Fourth of July and fireworks were being set off, but this was different. This was inhumane.

"Did you guys hear that?" Nancy whispered.

"Totally." Eden mumbled, standing up from the couch.

"It's just the fireworks." Jonathan tried to calm the girls down.

"Billy," Nancy whipped around, "when he told you this. It was here, in this room?" El only nodded.

"Fucking shit." Eden cursed, knowing this wasn't good.

Wills hand suddenly found its way to the back of his neck, "he knows we're here.."

The group exited the cabin for god knows what. All Eden could think of doing was screaming at them to get in and hide like rational people. They all stood on the gravel pathway leading into Hoppers cabin, fireworks illuminating the sky above them. In the distance all that could be seen were trees being chopped down like they were sticks to a beaver. The mastermind behind it all, an enormous flesh like monster that was making its way toward them in a haste.

"What the fuck is that?" Eden shouted as the kids shoved her back inside, beginning to barricade the doors and windows. No one was listening to her hyperventilating.

Everyone stood in the center of the room, back to back as it suddenly got extremely quiet. Quietness was not a good sign. The only thing that notified them the creature was getting closer were the lamps and walls shaking as it thudded with every step it took.

"It's close." Will notified the group, everyone arming themselves.

Plates and mugs rattled of the counters and out of cabinets, smashing to pieces on the floor. This happened for a few seconds, before everything stilled. Then, it was truly quiet.

"Where did it go?" Max whispered, the lights flickering.

As if on cue, a tentacle made its way through the wall, shooting across the room. It was headed directly toward El, until Jonathan hacked at its arm with an axe. The tentacle soon got pissed off at Jonathan's behavior and whacked him into a wall.  It changed its course to attack Jonathan, but a loud ring sounded as Nancy shot her gun at it. She shot it once more, the third time never came as the chamber was cleared out.

"Nancy!" Eden screamed as the tentacle lunged straight toward the girl, no way to defend herself.

That is, until the tentacle was stopped in its place. El's hand was reached out, controlling the now stunned monster. She somehow caused the tentacle to slice in half, and it retracted out of the house at the sudden pain Eden was sure it felt.

"Holy shit." Max mumbled, speaking everyone's thoughts.

Then, two more tentacles crashed into the house. El disposed of them once again, the same way she did the first. A slight pause happened before a tentacle smashed through the ceiling, grabbing at elevens ankle and pulling her up. Mike grabbed the girls arm, majority of the group grabbing onto Mike in an attempt to save her. Nancy reloaded her shot gun, beginning to shoot the monster at Jonathan's command. Somewhere along the line Lucas picked up the axe from earlier and began hacking away at the arm. He finally severed through, but the arm was still attached to El's leg.

With no mercy, pure adrenaline rushing through him, Mike pulled the remainder of the tentacle off El's leg. The girl of course screamed in pain as he did so.

"Jesus Mike!" Eden yelled at the boy, just as the mind Flayer stuck its head through the roof, staring at El almost.

The girl stuck her hands out and ripped them apart, causing the Flayers head to rip in almost two. It recoiled, screeching and during this time they all decided it was time to run like hell out of the cabin. Nancy and Jonathan were directing everyone toward the cars, the group splitting in two. They quickly turned on the vehicles and peeled out of the driveway.

"I cannot believe this is my life right now." As the night proceeded Eden was trying harder and harder to keep herself together, for the kids sake.

She knew Billy was in danger and she was tired of the games with this stupid flesh creature. She wanted nothing but for the old Billy to be in her arms, allowing her to comfort him as they joked over stupid things. She would even take an argument over the situation they were in at the moment.

One thing was certain, Eden wanted her Billy back.