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_______ c h a p t e r s i x t y - o n e
Sam walks over to the living room hesitantly, shoes making noise on the creaky floorboards as she does.
Once she stands in the area of the glowing light, she turns off the Walkman, handing it to Dawn, before shouting to Vecna, "Hey! You said you were saving me for last, right? Well, here's your chance."
When nothing happens, everyone begins to worry that he won't take the bait.
"Don't tell me you're all bark, no bite," she taunts. "I'm making it easy for you."
The lamp then fades, before the one in her hand begins to glow brighter, signaling he is on the move.
Sam leads Dawn, Lucas, and Max up to the attic, hands trembling in fear.
_____
Still beyond stressed about the state of her sister's life, Bianca assists Mike with the glasses as they wait for Jonathan and Will to give El the go-ahead.
"Okay, almost done," Mike tells the girl, as she inspects the sides of the glasses in his hands, making sure they were actually blocking.
"They should block any peripheral light," she picks them up. "Try them on."
He then moves his head, allowing them to place them on his face. His handiwork was actually pretty good, coming a long way from the atrocities he'd created for their science fair posters back in middle school.
"Totally dark, so it works," he nods. "But I have one important question: do I look cool?"
She chuckles, knowing he was just trying to take her mind off of the looming death in Hawkins. Somehow, it works.
"Feel like I look really cool."
"The coolest," she laughs harder.
"Are you giggling?" he teases. "You're giggling because I look awesome. I can't see it, but I know you're smiling because I look so good. Right?"
"You got me," she laughs. "Come on, I should give them to El."
He then takes them off, hand brushing hers as he passes them to her. "Wait."
"Waiting for...?" she raises an eyebrow.
"They're not ready yet, it won't make a difference," he shrugs. "Can we just take a minute?"
"One minute," she holds up her index finger. "What's up?"
"When we get back to Hawkins, I don't want to go back to the way things were."
"What do you mean?"
"You're my best friend. I mean that, but I haven't been acting like it lately. But I want it to be like when we were kids. What I'm trying to say is I care. Even when it seemed like I hated you, I cared. And I'm gonna be better."
