Wait For Me ~Stranger Things Fanfiction~

Chapter thirty-eight:

3rd Person POV:

It was morning now, Steve drove the Squawk van back to the radio station. Wendy and Dustin knew they'd probably get questioned about their injuries, and Wendy knew Dustin would probably lie about it.

They got out of the van, Jonathan immediately going to Nancy.

"Holy shit," Mike gasped at Wendy and Dustin.

"Hi.." Wendy hid her arms.

"We were racing on our bikes, got intertwined," Dustin lied. "I flew right into a light post.."

Wendy ignored the look of disbelief on Steve's face from the lie, and that Wendy wasn't going to tell the truth.

"We're sorry about missing the crawl," Wendy said. "We're sorry about your parents and Holly, Mike."

"It's not your fault," Mike said comfortingly. "Don't beat yourselves up."

"Looks like they already did," Lucas said, pointing to Dustin's nose. "Is that broken?"

"But, guys, there's something else," Wendy sighed. "My scars, they tingled again, and the black lines showed up.."

"Black lines, as in.." Lucas trailed off.

"I knew what the demogorgon was thinking briefly? Yeah," Wendy confirmed. "I could almost see what it was doing to the soldiers, I could see it go to your house, but then after that, nothing."

"Are the lines still there?" Mike asked.

"No, they went away as soon as the connection faded," Wendy shook her head.

"Hey! This isn't a social call, kiddos," Robin came out of the building. "Let's go!"

Everyone went inside the Squawk, going down into the secret hideout. And that's when Will told us who Vecna would take next.

"Derek? Derek Turnbow?" Steve asked. "As in the Turnbow family? Turnbow Realty?"

"The one and only," Robin nodded.

"Whole family's a menace," Lucas muttered.

"How can you be sure?" Nancy asked. "Sure that Derek's the next target?"

"Because I saw," Will said. "I've learned that when I'm close enough to the hive mind, I can tap into Vecna's mind. I can see who he's targeting. The first time it happened, I saw through Holly's eyes the same day she was taken. And this morning, it happened again. Only this time, I wasn't Holly. I was Derek. I'm positive."

"Hold on, I'm a little lost," Steve sighed. "Were you seeing through the eyes of Vecna or of Derek?"

"He was Vecna inside of Derek's mind," Wendy answered. "Vecna attacks through the mind first, this is no different than last time. Only that instead of playing through fears, he's gaining their trust before he takes them."

"Mike and I, we did some digging at the hospital," Nancy spoke up. "We found out that before he took Holly, Vecna stalked her. But he didn't appear as Vecna, he appeared as Henry."

"This makes sense with Wendy saying that he's earning their trust," Mike nodded. "But why he's taking them, and why he's going through all that trouble, we don't know. But I doubt his long-term goal is friendship."

"Whatever it is, whatever he's planning, we have to stop him," Will said. "And we have to save Derek."

They pulled up the projector to display the plat maps on the wall.

"The Turnbows live here," Will pointed. "We wait in a van across the street. As soon as they're asleep, we move in, we grab Derek, and we take him to here, the McCorkle farm. It's completely isolated. It's abandoned. The only thing is, we need to make sure he doesn't see us or know where he is. So..we'll need to blindfold him."