'tis the damn season

Forty-Six: Bigger Than The Whole Sky

"'Cause it's all over now, it's not meant to be, so I'll say words I don't believe. Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, you were bigger than the whole sky, you were more than just a short time" 

When we reached the playground in front of the Creel house, Nancy was the one to blink Erica's flashlight on and off to let her know we had arrived.

"Phase one is complete," Robin says, through the radio. "Are you guys almost ready?"

Dustin is the one that answers. "As we'll ever be."

We were all crouched under the slide, peaking around the play equipment, hoping Vecna couldn't see us from outside the windows of the house.

It was even creepier in the upside down than it was in our world, and yet for some reason I couldn't look away from it. He was in there. Right now he was probably noticing Max had let her guard down. By now she would have taken off her walkman, turning off the music. Max, Lucas, and Erica had brought pads of paper and pens to be able to communicate with each other, because if they spoke, Vecna would be able to hear them from this side, and figure out what we were doing. This way he wouldn't see it coming; he'd just think Max had given up.

We were all silent as we waited for Erica's voice to tell us Vecna had taken Max. It was us that were then supposed to radio Eddie and Dustin to tell them to start phase three.

I just wanted this to be over. I wanted it to be tomorrow, when everything would go back to normal, and we could live peacefully again.

No longer than ten minutes go by, when we hear Erica's muffled voice, "He's got Max, phase two is done."

My heart sank hearing it, even though I knew it was coming. It was risky using Max as bait, but this was the only option it felt like we had. Even if we had kept Max listening to Kate Bush forever, Vecna would have just picked someone else to fulfill his plan. At least with Max we had the advantage of knowing she had a little bit of control.

Robin brings the radio up to her mouth, clicking the button on the side. "Alright it's your turn now," she tells the boys.

They don't say anything in response, but instead, we can hear the riff of a guitar go off in the distance.

"No way," I whisper, as the we listen to Eddie play from the other side of the forest.

I don't know what kind of amp they had, for it to be that loud, but it was quite impressive. It didn't take long for the bats that covered the rooftop of the house to start screeching and flying towards the noise. There had to be hundreds of them. I just hoped Dustin and Eddie were smart enough to know when to stop and run.

Once all of the bats had disappeared, Nancy was the first to stand up. "Okay, let's go," she breathes, leading the way towards the front door of the house.

It took everything in me not to turn around and run the other direction, but somehow I made it to that front door as Nancy opened it, revealing the floors and walls to be covered in vines. And I mean covered. We were going to have to be light on our feet and balanced to be able to make it up to the attic.

"Just step where I step okay?" Nancy tells us, stepping a foot carefully inside the door.

I follow right behind her, focusing on floor around me. My eyes didn't seem to blink hardly as I moved across the room towards the staircase, scared that if I did, I'd misstep and ruin everything. I took the steps two at a time, being mindful not to touch the railing or walls as I did. When Nancy and I reached the top, we both looked back to see Steve and Robin were right behind us, just stepping onto the landing now.