The other Mayfield (Will Byers X Reader)

022. After

~3rd person POV~

After El had blasted Vecna away from Max and Y/N, the force of it sent him crashing backward, his body slamming into one of the towering vine pillars that lined the space. He struggled against her force.

El stood her ground.

She kept him locked there. Blood streamed steadily from her nose, dripping onto the floor beneath her, but she didn't wipe it away. She stepped forward slowly, each movement deliberate, her breathing heavy but controlled.

"You and your friends believe you have one," Vecna told her. "Don't you?"

El lifted her chin, glaring up at him, her jaw clenched tight. She didn't answer, she didn't need to.

Far away, in the Upside Down, Steve, Robin, and Nancy moved quickly, their actions urgent and practiced. They dropped their bags to the floor and began pulling out the bottles they'd prepared, each one sloshing with gasoline. The air around them felt charged, like the moment before a storm broke.

"But this is only the beginning," Vecna growled at her.

"The beginning of the end."

Steve shoved the bottles toward Robin, who took them without hesitation. She struck the lighter, flame catching instantly as she brought it to the cloth stuffed into the bottle's neck. The fire flared bright, reflected in her eyes.

"You have already lost," Vecna finished.

"No," Eleven said, glaring at him. "You have."

At the same moment, Steve hurled the Molotov cocktail as hard as he could. It spun through the air and collided with Vecna's body, bursting on impact. Flames erupted, racing across him as he let out a scream that echoed through the space, the fire crawling along the vines that held him fast.

In the mind world, Vecna started screaming in pain.

The sound tore through the red, pulsing space, echoing unnaturally as Eleven stood still. The air around him rippled, bending and distorting, and pieces of the crimson environment began to fracture and peel away.

Eleven watched as Vecna seemed to come apart, his shape dissolving into smoke and embers that scattered into nothing. The red sky flickered violently, then dimmed, draining of color as the mind world collapsed inward. The ground beneath her feet vanished, replaced by the familiar emptiness of her void.

The screaming faded.

The red world disappeared completely.

And there was only Eleven, standing alone in the dark.

Vecna broke loose from the vines restraining him and staggered forward toward the group. The flames clung to him as he fell to the ground.

At the same moment, far from the chaos of the Upside Down, both Max and Y/N were pulled back into their bodies in the real world.

They gasped sharply. Their bodies jerked as reality came crashing down on them. Lucas was already there, catching them before they could collapse, his arms tightening around them as if letting go would make them disappear again.

Max was cradled in Lucas's arms, while Y/N leaned heavily into his side, not even able to hold herself upright as she fell on the floor beside them.

He tightened his grip on max, panic flooding through him as he looked back and forth between their faces.

"Max! Max! Y/N!" he shouted, his voice cracking as he shook slightly, afraid of how still they were.

Neither of them answered right away.