Another side

Chapter 24

We look around Eddie's tapes for a song, any song that will take Nancy out of her trance. Erica runs in. "Steve says you need to hurry!" Dustin glares at her. "Yeah? No shit!" Max nods. "We're trying. We can't find anything." Robin looks at Eddie in panic. "What is all this shit?" He looks at her. "What are you even looking for?"  "Madonna, Blondie, Bowie, Beatles? Music! We need music!" He picks one of the tapes up. "This is music!" I run back to check on Steve and Nancy to make sure she's not floating. "She's awake." I sigh in relief. "Guys, Nancy's awake." 

Steve helps her down and she's shaking. I grab her hand and she squeezes mine tightly not letting go. We leave Eddie's trailer as to not be in the same room as a literal portal to the Upside Down. We move ourselves to Max's trailer which is thankfully empty. Nancy doesn't let go of my hand so I end up sitting next to her as she explains what she saw. 

"He showed me the things that haven't happened yet. The most awful things. I saw a dark cloud spreading over Hawkins. Downtown on fire. Dead soldiers. And this giant creature with... a gaping mouth. And this creature wasn't alone. There were so many monsters. An army. And they were coming into Hawkins. Into our neighbourhoods. Our homes. And then...he showed me my mum. And Holly. Mike. And they... they were all..."

She lets out a shaky breath. She doesn't even need to say it. Steve speaks up. "Okay, but... he's just trying to scare you, Nance. Right? I mean... I mean, it's not real." "Not yet. But there... there was something else. He showed me gates. Four gates. Spreading across Hawkins. And these gates, they looked like the one outside of Eddie's trailer, but... they didn't stop growing. And this wasn't the Upside Down Hawkins. This was our Hawkins. Our home."

Suddenly Max speaks up. "Four chimes. Vecna's clock. It always chimes four times. Four exactly." "I heard them too." "He's been telling us his plan this whole time." Lucas looks at us. "Four kills. Four gates. End of the world." Dustin speaks up. "If that's true... he's only one kill away." We all look at each other panicking and Steve tells me to try calling the California crew again. I grab the phone and dial their number. It rings for a few seconds and then the same busy signal we've been getting for a few days comes up.

I put the phone down. "Anything?" "No. Rang a few times, then went to a busy signal." "Maybe you punched it wrong. Try again." I glare at him. "Because I don't know my own house's number? Is that what you're saying?"  "Well, I don't know." "I think she knows how to use a phone." He glares at Dustin. "I'm just saying she could have typed it in wrong." I sigh and dial again but it still comes up with the same busy signal. "Same shit." "How is that possible?" Dustin looks at us. "Joyce has this telemarketer job. Always on the phone. Mike won't stop whining about it." I look at him. "That's not it." "How do you know?" "Well, A) I lived there so I know my mum's working hours. She shouldn't be working right now and even so, it's been busy for large amounts of times. 3 days is way too long. This is not my mum. Something's wrong." 

Nancy speaks up. "She's right. It can't just be a coincidence. It can't be. Whatever's happening in Lenora is connected to all of this. I'm sure of it. But Vecna can't hurt them. Not if he's dead. We have to go back in there. Back in the Upside Down." Steve and Eddie start protesting. Steve stands up. "Let's think this through." "What is there to think through?" "We barely made it out of there." "Yeah, because we weren't prepared. But this time, we will be. We'll get weapons and protection. We'll go through the gate, we'll find his lair, and we'll kill him."

Steve looks at her. "Or he'll kill us. The only reason you survived is because he wanted you to. He's not scared of us." Robin stands up. "And for good reason. We were wrong about Vecna. Henry. One. Sorry, what are we calling him now?" Everyone answers different things. She nods. "Right. We've learned something new about Vecna/Henry/One. He's a number like Eleven, only a sick, evil, male, child-murdering version of her with really bad skin. But my... my point is, he's super powerful. He could turn us inside out with a snap of his fingers. It's not a fair fight."