Tʜᴇ Fʟᴀʀᴇ ꕥ Lɪᴢᴢɪᴇ Jᴏʜɴsᴏɴ

sᴇʀɪᴇs ғᴏᴜʀ ꕥ 9

That night, the gang slept on sofas at the Wheeler's. Well, most of them did. Steve, Lucas and Max had had no problem and Nancy and Robin, who were still a bit shaken from their visit with Victor Creel, had a slightly harder time, but nothing major.

Lizzie, however, wasn't going to sleep. Because she knew that if she tried, visions of either what had happened to her or what happened to Flora would just come back, and she would wake up screaming, in a cold sweat.

Dustin, too, wasn't sleeping. He wanted to make sure Lizzie was okay, and he wasn't going to let her out of his sight until he knew Vecna couldn't touch her.

Lizzie, however, didn't realise this until she saw that he was determinedly keeping his eyes open. After the whole 'I love you' incident she had been left feeling embarrassed, and when she was embarrassed, it came out as annoyance.

"Again, your eyes boring into me, or the wall, isn't protecting me," Lizzie said irritably.

Dustin sighed, this time looking at her. "Do you wanna... talk... about it?" He asked her hesitantly.

"No," Lizzie said, almost putting her headphones on.

"Lizzie!" Dustin said, snatching the walkman.

"Dustin..." Lizzie said, putting a hand out for it. "Please give it back."

He sighed, handing it back to her. "I'm sorry," he looked down.

Lizzie sighed, pausing as she adjusted the headphones. "Same..." She bit her lip. "I just don't want to... you know."

Dustin nodded. "It's okay. I understand."

"No," Lizzie said, not caring how he took it. "You don't."

She hadn't meant to say it rudely, but with everything that was playing on her mind, it might have come off as that.

And see, the problem wasn't Vecna, or the fact that she had narrowly avoided death in the past twelve hours, or even that she had seen her sister for the first time since the Starcourt Battle.

No, the problem was what Flora had said.

"You know, I think there was a part of you... that wanted me to die that day. That was almost... relieved."

"Flora no, that's not true-"

"That's why you said what you did to me, isn't it? That's why you stood there? It's okay, you can admit it now... you got your wish. You don't have a sister anymore."

"Flora that's not true, I swear! I swear that's not true-"

But was it? Was it not true? Did Lizzie actually... actually mean what she had said to Flora? What had Vecna done to her-

She sighed as she felt herself slipping into sleep, then she jolted herself awake again. Don't. Fall. Asleep.

She knew sleep was Dustin's weak point, and as she saw him begin to drift off, she sighed.

Don't. Fall. Asleep.

She yawned. Shit. She was tired... she was falling...

Don't. Fall. Asleep.

Naturally, she did.

Then the nightmares started.

ꕥꕥꕥ

Lizzie awoke with a gasp, saying. "Flora..."

That was before she realised she was at the Wheeler's, Vecna was after her and her sister was dead.