"Hey, you remember what I said last year, right? We're Zombie Boy and Ghost Boy. I'm not ever gonna leave you."
"Promise?"
"One hundred percent."
***
In which Alistair fights the monster that possessed his friend alongside his friends, while trying...
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Chapter Ninety: The Beginning Of The End
(The Piggyback, Pt. 10)
***
The minute Alistair saw Will tense up, he moved to him, touching his arm as he asked, "Hey, Will, you okay?"
But the confusion died when he saw the look on Will's face, how his hand slid up to touch the back of his neck—like he always did when he sensed the Upside Down. Dread roiled through Alistair at seeing his boyfriend's reaction as now Will turned and Alistair looked up.
His heart seized when he saw grey clouds rumbling overhead. Clouds that might be mistaken for rain or even snow if they were heading into winter, not summer.
But it was not snow. It would never be snow that was now drifting from those clouds, because Alistair knew what those flakes were.
It was the ash of the Upside Down, falling down in their world.
Dread and horror churned in Alistair as Hugin cawed uneasily as they all stared at the Upside Down's ash drifting down, as Alistair felt it land on his clothes, his hair. Alistair shuddered, as El reached up to catch a flake, staring at it in confusion and shock, as more drifted down. As now Alistair could feel the unnatural cold of the Upside Down, feel its' rot, could taste it on his tongue, as he kept staring at those clouds, those impossible clouds that shouldn't be here in Hawkins, that shouldn't be raining this ash, that shouldn't be bringing this cold and decay of that hell-dimension.
But they were here, and that meant... that meant...
Horror chilled Alistair as the realisation struck him.
He didn't need to look at Nancy, to look at everyone that the same feelings were on their faces, or that they had decided to walk, to try and find the source of the clouds even though Alistair knew what the source would be, as they walked through the woods, away from the cabin as the sky growled and Alistair shivered with each growl.
He'd never been scared of storms, because storms meant his sister, but this storm...
This was the only storm he ever felt afraid of.
When they walked out from the woods, the first thing Alistair saw was the hill—a hill like Weathertop, a hill that was almost like the field where they'd prepared to go into the Upside Down and kill Vecna. But as they walked further, Alistair noticed it.
The bottom half of the hill was dying.
Where green grass and bright flowers was, it had faded into grey, a shadow of death sweeping across it, almost feeling like it was creeping higher up. El walked forward, plucking one of the dying flowers off, and Alistair saw the cloud of spores and rot that was released with the movement—the same unnatural rot of the Upside Down, the same thing that was causing the flowers and grass to die.
Alistair shivered at seeing that, at seeing more of the Upside Down coming through, rotting away at the plants, and it was a death that wasn't natural, that had his powers recoil, and he could feel the ghosts recoil as well, their panic and fear, see the animal ghosts retreating from it.
A boom came and Alistair looked up and his heart stopped
From the four gates, plumes of black smoke were rising up from them, darkening the sky as a military helicopter flew beside them, flashes of red lightning shearing the sky with each monstrous roar the clouds gave—the same lightning of the Upside Down, that was now leaking through into their world, and bringing the rot, the cold with it.
Alistair stared at it, his realisations confirmed of what Vecna's plan was—what Nancy's visions had shown. The Upside Down was coming through into their world, in Vecna's last step to destroy the world, the gates tearing down the barrier keeping their worlds separate so he could do that, and bringing about the apocalypse on them.
The doomsday had come.
As Alistair stared at it, at the apocalypse happening before his eyes, the Upside Down coming through like some sort of nuclear fallout, as El got to her feet again, he knew. He knew that along with it being the apocalypse, this was it. This would be the last battle in their war against the Upside Down, that this was Vecna's declaration of Hawkins being made the battleground for all to see. Because it wouldn't just be the rot and cold and the Upside Down's storm—it would be the monsters soon, crawling through the gates, ready to tear apart the unlucky civilians in Hawkins.
That this would be the last battle between the Party—between El—and between the Upside Down, this would be their last chance to end this and finally win the war.
At that, determination slipped through the horror as Alistair linked his finger with Will's, feeling his boyfriend tremble but his face was just as determined as Alistair's was, as the cold in his bones reared up instead of recoiling, to challenge the monsters that would come through, to show he would fight, as Hugin croaked his own challenge. Vecna and the Upside Down had hurt them both so much, but now they would fight. They would kill Vecna, and Alistair knew that was in El's face as she stared at those clouds, at the Upside Down coming into their world, at how he knew it was on Mike's face, on Hopper's and Joyce's faces, on Aunt Aco's face and on Nancy's and Jonathan's faces.
They would end this. This was their last fight, their last chance, and they would stop this. They would end this, win the war and kill Vecna. After three years of fighting, after years of trauma and pain and loss, after trying to stop this and failing, of seeing the apocalypse they tried to prevent, this was it. The very last chance they had in actually winning this war and ending this once and for all, to make the sacrifices of Eddie and Max worth it. To avenge all who had fallen, whether as casualties or as heroes—Barb, Bob, the Flayed, the Creels, the other lab kids, Chrissy, Fred, Patrick, Eddie, Max. This was it.
Because this was the beginning.
The beginning of the end.
***
AHHHHH!!!!
Wow, what a turn-around—last chapter was so long and this was such a short chapter. Goes to show my range 😂
Anyway... AHHHH THIS WAS SO FREAKING EPIC TO WRITE!!! I love this scene so much and how EPIC it was and how it flashed from the group at the field to Robin, Steve and Dustin, then to Lucas and Erica, and finally back to everyone at the field as they stare down the Upside Down coming through, at how this is their last battle, their last fight to win the war and end this and defeat Vecna and the Upside Down, at how Hawkins is definitely the battleground and Vecna is challenging them to fight and just... AHHHHH!!!! it was so freaking epic and s5 is gonna be so epic!!!!
And yes, Alistair and Will were standing together—Mike was on Alistair's right—and facing down the Upside Down coming through and Alistair is challenging it back
Also... this is now officially the last chapter of Reaper!!! This has been such an amazing ride, and I loved writing the last half of Alistair's story in here and I'm gonna miss it and these characters so much. Thank you all for sticking around and reading this story, and I am so sorry for the pain I brought, especially in this act (well, not much)
Anyway, this means the story has been concluded until s5, which will be in a separate book I'll be writing once s5 is all released and I've emotionally recovered, because I know I will be taking emotional damage (and hoping Will and Steve will stay safe and not die, that the Kas!Eddie theory may be true, and MANIFESTING that Final Countdown, Never Tear Us Apart and Everybody Wants To Rule The World are in the s5 soundtrack, especially if the Damned Anthem cover of Final Countdown is used)
Thank you all so, so much!! For the last time, please read, comment and vote!
