HEART FLAYER | b. hargrove

CHAPTER 033.

July 4th, 1985 (Later the Same Day)

Once Eleven had managed to be calmed down, she began to explain what she had just witnessed in the void. She sat between Mike and Arwen on the couch with their concerned and curious eyes rested intently on her.

"He said he was building something..." Eleven said in a heavy tone. "That it was all for me. To kill me and that... he wants Arwen."

"Pardon the fuck out of me?" Arwen asked with wide eyes, turning her body to face her more. 

El looked at her seriously. "He wants you on his side. He thinks you will join him and then he will kill me and everyone else to get us out of the way."

Arwen felt as if cold water had been dumped on her and that she might be sick. She stood up to walk away from everyone else for a moment. That familiar feeling she got when she saw Billy at the Holloway house... the way he stood... the way he talked...

Fuck. Was it him? Was it really Henry this whole time?

The ringing in her ears muffled out the others talking amongst each other. She had no idea what to do. Of course she'd never betray her sister. Her friends. Her Billy. Never in a million years. And absolutely not for Henry who very clearly only wanted her due to their past and her powers.

Ever since that day in the lab, Arwen's memories had felt so muffled. She remembered what Henry did to those other kids, whereas El did not. But her mind definitely tried its best to push him out. Sometimes he was there with his cold blue eyes and his intimidating demeanor and his honeyed words, but sometimes her subconscious kept him far away. 

But right now, he felt close. Far too close. And she was struggling to truly grasp that; to understand the fact that the ghost that haunted her mind was never really dead.

"Do you guys hear that?" Nancy asked suddenly, causing Arwen to finally snap out of it and look over at her.

"It's just the fireworks." Jonathan explained away.

"Billy..." Nancy turned around to look at El. "When he told you this, it was here, in this room?"

Eleven nodded and they then heard the haunting thumping. The rumbling off in the distance.

Will reached up to feel the goosebumps on the back of his neck. "He knows we're here."

They all ran outside, at first seeing nothing but fireworks in the dark sky. But then they saw it. A massive, spider-like creature pushing trees out of its path as it came towards the cabin. Its screech was heard. They all hurried back inside and began to arm themselves. Arwen grabbed her lighter, flicking it open. They began to barricade the doors and windows as best as they could. Nancy grabbed her shotgun and Jonathan an ax. They all stood back to back in the center of the living room, just waiting. The walls began to tremble.

I won't fail them all this time. I won't.

"It's close." Will spoke.

They can hear it now just outside of the cabin as things began to fall off of the walls. And then silence. Deafening silence.

"Where'd it go?" Max broke the quiet.

The next events occurred so quickly it made Arwen's head spin; a black tendril burst through the wooden walls and Jonathan tried to hit it with the ax, but is knocked backwards in retaliation. Nancy began to shoot at it, but ran out of shells after a few. The tendril goes straight for her, but Eleven stopped it with her powers. Arwen blasted flames from her lighter as its being held still and it burned to a crisp before it retracted. 

Two more take its place and El is reaching out to either side of herself to stop them in place, blood streaming down her face now. Arwen once again begins to burn them before her little sister ripped them into pieces. There is only a split second of peace before another tendril broke through the ceiling to grab ahold of El's foot, holding her upside down in the air. It attempted to pull her towards the gaping maw above but everyone quickly dove to take her hand and tried to hold on. Nancy reloaded her gun and began to shoot at its face. Lucas grabbed the ax to chop at the creature's grasp. 

Adrenaline pumping through her, Arwen stepped back and formed a fireball in her hand with intense focus. She dropped the lighter with the flame held in both of her hands as she blew all of the air in her lungs into it. It formed a sort of flamethrower as it blasted directly into the creature's face and it screeched, recoiling and letting Eleven drop to the floor.

Arwen breathed out a long, exhausted breath and slumped onto the floor. She looked over to see if her sister is okay and saw Mike ripping off a bit of the monster that had still been attached to her ankle. Eleven screamed in pain and Arwen crawled over to her with wide eyes.

The monster peeked its head in through the ceiling again and Eleven got to her feet, raising both arms and yelling as she uses her powers to force it away. Arwen lifted one hand and did the same, focusing all of her remaining energy to help her sister. The monster's face split in half and they have a moment to gather each other and get out of the cabin. 

Nancy supported Arwen, with Mike and Max doing the same for El as they're swept out of the house and to the car. Eleven is groaning in pain while Arwen is silent other than her quick pants of breath. They end up peeling into a small grocery store's parking lot and the two sisters are helped inside. They set Eleven down to get a better look at her injury, with her elder sister flinching at the sight of her leg. She desired nothing more than to take the pain away from the girl.

"Hey, listen to me," Arwen said softly as she reached forward with a small grunt to take El's hand and look at her with heavy-lidded eyes. "It's gonna be okay. We've got this."

"And you're gonna have a badass scar." Mike adds. El seemed to smile a bit and nodded.

The young boy goes on to try and talk about their relationship, so Arwen takes this as her cue to leave them be. She huffed heavily as she got to her feet and made her way to go find a drink. 

After a bit of time and some tending to El's injury, the girl is back in the void state to try and locate Dustin after his very failed attempt to reach them on the walkie talkie. She informed them that he was at Starcourt Mall and so they begin to head out again with a shopping cart full of fireworks. Apparently it was Lucas' idea and Arwen had to admire the potential use of pyrotechnics to blow this thing up. 

And according to Dustin, there was yet another gate to be closed. Arwen just hoped she could help more than she was able to last year.