'tis the damn season

Forty-Three: tolerate it

"While you were out building other worlds where was I? Where's that man who threw blankets over my barbed wire? I made you my temple, my mural, my sky. Now I'm begging for footnotes in the story of your life"

We pull into the parking lot of 'The War Zone', parking around the side of the building. It seemed oddly busy here for a random Thursday morning. Didn't these people have to work?

Steve killed the engine, the two of us getting out of our seats, moving to where Nancy was writing at the little dining table.

"I've made a list of things we should look for while we're in there," she says, moving the paper to show all of us.

"Gasoline, rifle, an axe, a hammer, nails, knives, rope, brooms— what the hell do we need brooms for?" Robin asks. "To clean up our mess after we kill Vecna?"

Nancy rolls her eyes at her. "No, I figured we could use the broom sticks and knives and make spears or something," she explains.

That definitely made more sense than tidying up after ourselves.

"We'll have to be quick, since the police are already looking for the kids— and we did just steal this vehicle," Nancy says. "We're in and we're out."

"I'll stay with Eddie," Dustin says. "We'll radio you if we see any police cars show up."

He passes one of the radios to Lucas, and we all make way for the door. It wasn't like we'd have much time to get out of there if the police did show up. If they found us here we were definitely screwed.

I followed everyone towards the parking lot, at first feeling a little insecure about how dirty we all looked, considering the past twenty four hours; but I quickly realized we fit right in, in a place like this. Everyone who walked by looked a little rough around the edges.

The store looked huge from the outside. Nancy's plan of 'get in and get out' may not be as quick as she'd like it to be. We were going to have to be able to find everything we needed.

Everyone else weaved their way through the parked cars and to the front doors, when Steve grabbed my wrist gently, making me turn my attention to him.

"Are you doing okay?" He asks, his eyes searching my face.

I gotten so used to him checking up on me like this. No else looks after me the way he does. He was even doing it last summer when I didn't want him to.

I nod, giving him a small, slightly confused smile. I don't know why he would have thought I wasn't okay. We had been talking like normal in the car earlier, and there wasn't anything bothering me.

I watched his gaze soften as he looked at me. "Vecna took over your mind and showed you a whole bunch of terrifying shit and yet you seem completely okay about it," he explains. "Normal even."

I understood now where he was coming from. Since Vecna had taken over my mind, everything was moving so fast, with our plan, and stealing the RV. I hadn't had much time to process everything.

"I guess so," I say, with a shrug. "There's just a lot going on, and too many other things to worry about. I know I'm not cursed, he just used me to try to get to Eleven, so I doubt it'll happen again," I reason.

Oddly enough, I wasn't afraid of him. All I wanted to do was end this.

"Are you sure?" He asks, not seeming convinced. "Because if I were you, I'm not sure I'd be acting very calm."