'tis the damn season

Forty-Nine: State Of Grace (Acoustic Version)

"Now all we know is don't let go"

Part 3 

November 3rd, 1987

"Breakfast!" Holly announces from the bottom of the staircase.

I lean over the banister and smile at her. At the same moment I attempt to reply, Mike shouts as loud as he can. "We're coming!" The sound echoing off the walls of the Wheeler's house.

Holly rolls her eyes, her blonde pigtails flip over her shoulder as she heads back into the dining room.

Mike bangs on the bathroom door, startling me. "Nancy c'mon!"

My eyes widen, and I try to cover my smile with my hand. "Uh, Mike—" I start, but he doesn't hear me. Instead he smacks his hand against the door again.

"Nancy hurry up or I swear to god, I'm gonna take a wiz on the floor right here!"

With his hand still in the air, Joyce swings open the bathroom door with a wide grin on her face. "Wiz away," she remarks, walking past him.

"Sorry Mrs. Byers," Mike mumbles, his face beet red.

"Nice one Mike," Nancy quips as she leaves her bedroom, following Joyce down the stairs.

He gives his older sister a withering look, before stepping into the bathroom and shutting the door.

I slide down from my spot against the banister to stand across from the bathroom door just as Will comes up the steps.

"Is someone in there?" My little brothers asks me, his hair sticking up every which way.

"Get in line," I say, my brows lowering as Jonathan appears at the top of the steps, looking as if he'd also woken up a minute ago. "We only have like twenty minutes you know? Nancy and I have been up for over an hour."

"I'll be ready," Jonathan promises, as Mike comes out of the bathroom.

With eight people living under one roof and only one bathroom with a shower, it made for chaotic mornings; especially when we all had to be out the door for the same time. Will, Mike and Holly all had to get to school, Joyce had to meet Hopper and El for her training sessions, and Nancy, Jonathan and I had to get to Squawk to meet Robin and Steve.

We'd been living with the Wheeler's ever since shit hit the fan a year and a half ago. Joyce, Jonathan, Will and I, all slept in the basement taking up every bit of space on the floor and couch. It helps that we're not at the house very often and have enough to keep us busy with the search for Vecna.

We've sent Hopper searching through the upside down over thirty times, checking off different grids of Hawkins and still, we'd never even had a glimpse of Vecna.

He was hiding—recharging—so that whenever he appeared again, he'd be bigger and stronger then we'd seen him before. Or at least, that was my theory.

Steve liked to take the optimistic route, hoping that we actually had killed Vecna during our stupid plan. When really, all it seemed to do was kill Eddie, put Max into what seemed like a permanent coma, and split Hawkins into four; the gates destroying everything in their path.

I don't remember a time that I wasn't stressed. It drove me insane not knowing where Vecna was or what he was planning—or when he was planning it for fucks sake.

It was all I could do to not spiral into endless panic. We were all experiencing it—the gnawing fear—so I tried my best to keep it inside, for the sake of keeping the group focused on our goal.