[ 𝙶𝚘𝚕𝚍 & 𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚗𝚎 ] ~ 𝙱𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝙷𝚊𝚛𝚐𝚛𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚡 𝙾𝙲

XXIII - Timber

"He said he was. . .building something." Eleven rasped, her throat still hoarse from her crying. It had been a few minutes, and Mike and Rylie had managed to calm her down a bit. "That it was all for me." 

"Building something. . .Is he talking about the flayed?" Max asked, looking over toward Mike and Justin. 

"He must be." Nancy answered.

"So he's building an army, just like we thought." Lucas said.

"Well that's just fucking great." Justin snarked, rolling her eyes and leaning back against the wall behind her. 

"Yeah, but he's not building this army to spread." Mike shook his head.

"He's building it to stop Eleven." Will said, finishing Mike's thought.

"Who?" Justin whispered under her breath, looking almost dumbfounded. 

"Last year, El closed the gate on him. I have a feeling that really pissed him off."

"Like, royally." Lucas agreed. 

"And the Mind Flayer now knows that she's the only thing that can stop him." A loud thump sounded outside. Must've been the fireworks at the fair. "But if she's out of the way."

Another loud thump. Rylie turned, looking out the window. She could've sworn they were far enough away not to hear the fireworks. They were nearly outside of Hawkins. 

"Game over." 

"He also said he was gonna kill all of you." Eleven said, shutting up the whole room. . .except Justin. 

"Oh how wonderful some freaky flesh monster's gonna try to kill me. Again." 

"Yeah, well, that's nice." Max said at nearly the same time. 

"Guys." Rylie said, watching the skyline outside the window. Something wasn't right. A screech sounded in the forest, birds flying away from the moving trees. Nancy walked over toward Rylie, standing near her. 

"It's just the fireworks." Jonathan attempted, and failed to ease his girlfriend. 

"Billy." Nancy started. "When he told you this, it was here, in this room?" Nancy turned, looking at El. The girl gave a nod in response, not saying anything. 

"It knows where we are." Rylie whispered. The thudding got louder, but this time it was on the other side of the cabin. Mike looked up at the roof, his breath shuddered. 

"We're gonna fucking die-" Justin muttered with widened eyes, pushing herself off of the wall. Will moved his hand to the back of his neck, touching it. "Come on." Justin ordered, standing up straight and walking toward the door.

"Where are you going?" 

"I don't feel like dying, Red." Justin gave a tight smile, throwing the door open and hopping down the stairs. The rest of the group watched for a moment before getting up and quickly following after her. They sped toward the car, but stopped when they saw trees crashing down only a mile away from them. In the trees emerged the same thing that Will had drawn the year before, except it was made out of muscle and skin. 

It snarled, throwing down trees as it rampaged forward. 

"Well fuck this-" Justin sighed. 

"Back inside!" Rylie ordered. 

The kids, Rylie, and Justin all went inside, fortifying the walls and windows with furniture. Nancy came back a minute later with a shotgun in hand and Jonathan returned with an axe before helping Rylie push the couch onto its arm and lean it against the front door.