Escape ~ S.Harrington

85} The Puppet

After some more precise jabbing and breaking with a shovel, Jenna's crowbar, and her powers, they broke all the way through the rock and dirt that sat right below the barracks.
"Let me do it," Mike pushed Jenna out of the way and started poking through with his shovel.
She stepped out of the way and let him do his thing, which led to him hitting and breaking a pipe, though they didn't notice it was broken.
"This is why you let me do my thing," Jenna sneered at him, "Don't push me again, Mike, you hear me?"
"Yes Jenna," He gulped, stepping back a few steps to give her more room to finish.
"Glad we're on the same page, now let me finish this," She picked her crowbar up again and finished poking through the actual floor.
Lucas pulled himself partially through the hole and was met face to face with a little girl who looked absolutely terrified, "Howdy," He smiled.

After they confirmed she was there for Mr Whatsit, they started to help her down into the tunnels while Joyce signaled to Derek that they were ready for another kid to come on down.
"Good job," Lucas helped the girl down the ladder, "Good job. All right."
Jenna's eyes glimmered slightly red as she glanced at the girl, the entity growing eager and hungry for the power she held within her.
"Hey, sweetie," Robin held her hand gently, "What's your name?"
"Debbie," She weakly smiled, "Do you work for Mr Whatsit?"
"Mr Whatsit," Alice leaned an elbow on Robin's shoulder, "Of course we do. We're some of his elves. Like magic elves, you know?"
Debbie cringed slightly, but stayed with Robin and Alice. Next, a little boy came through.
"You're doing great," Jenna hurried him down the ladder, "Only a couple more steps. Ah, there you go, buddy."

Another little girl followed not too far behind him.
"All right," Lucas encouraged, "Great job. Step by step."
Mike and Jenna both reached up and wiped their faces at the same time, both feeling water dripping down on them.
"Good going, Michael. I think that's from that pipe you hit earlier," Jenna scolded, "Go up there and check it out!" He stood there for a moment, "What are you staring at!? Now!"
He snapped out of his daze and did as he was told. After a quick scan around the bathroom, he realized there were actually two locations where the pipe was leaking and it was much worse than he'd originally thought, "Ah, shit!"

~

"So, what's this genius plan you have, Harrington?" Jon suspiciously eyed Steve.
Steve took a deep breath, "Promise that you'll take it seriously."
"I can't promise that, but I'll try."
"Okay, so we need to get into the lab somehow. I haven't really thought about how we'll do that yet, but-"
"Just get on with it, Steve," Dustin rolled his eyes, "We'll figure that out later, like we've already agreed upon."
"Right, sorry. So, if Holly is in there like we suspect, then Vecna's gonna want the entire place guarded. I have a feeling if we can break in there, he'll summon Jenna to fight us off if she isn't there already. He knows we can fight off his other creatures, but he also knows that we won't want to hurt Jenna, so she's the perfect thing to keep us out."

He pulled out a small bottle of pills from his pocket and held them up, rattling them slightly, "If I can get close enough to her, I need to knock her out so she's sleeping."
"Where'd you get those?" Dustin questioned.
"Stole some from Alice when we were putting them into the pie."
"Why?"
"Just in case something like this happened! That's not the important part, though. Here's the crazy part that I need you to not question me on, all right? For the past, like, year or so, Jenna and I have had joint dreams where she gets into my head and we share the same dream space."
"Why did you two start doing this exactly?" Nancy eyed him suspiciously.
"She really struggled to sleep with Vecna being in her mind 24/7 and, you know, we wanted some... personal time, and it was just a win win."
"Ugh," Dustin gagged, "Gross."

"Then don't ask about mine and Jenna's private time! It's that simple. Okay, enough getting me side tracked, I think if you guys can knock me out, too, and lay me down with Jenna so we're touching, I can get into her mind and pull her back out. Back to us."
"But you don't have powers," Nancy tilted her head slightly at him, "I thought only Jenna could get into your dreams, not the other way around."
"That's what I thought for a while, too, until a couple months ago. She always falls asleep last so she can get into my mind easier, but one night, she fell asleep first. I was the one who walked into her dream. I know it sounds insane, but I think this might be the only way I can get her back. Jenna's really fucking powerful and has a ton of mental armour built up, so Vecna must be really strong at this point if he cracked through to her. I think I'm the only one who may be stronger. I think I'm the only one who can rescue her from her own mind."