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"HE SHOWED ME..." SEB STARTED, DUSTIN STOOD ACROSS FROM HIM. The group sat around the boy in the trailer, his voice hoarse as he sat on the couch, a blanket around him. The whites of his eyes held lightning bolts of red in them, the boy's complexion deathly pale underneath his layer of sweat. "things that he wants to do." The boy dared not to look at anyone, Steve sat next to him. "There was a, uh, dark cloud going over Hawkins and... fire." Seb stared at the ground, Lucas and Dustin sharing a glance. "There was dead soldiers. And this, uhm, big creature with a big mouth." He gulped down his dry throat, Dustin looking to him. "And the creature was with loads of other creatures. Like a big group of them. Coming here." Seb simplified, Max staring at him. "Into the houses. And..." Seb inhaled shakily, Max scanning his body language. He looked uncomfortable. As if he saw something else.

"He showed me, me. By his side." Dustin stared at the boy, Robin looking up. "Killing people." Seb couldn't believe he would do that, Steve glancing at the boy. "I mean, he's just trying to scare you, right?" Steve spoke, Seb staring at the floor. You ruined everything- "I mean, it's not real." He continued, Seb blinking harshly. "It will be." He spoke simply, everyone going silent. "There were gates, four of them. They were in the same spots the ones we know were." Eddie pressed his hand to his mouth, absolutely petrified. "They got bigger and bigger. Here." Seb croaked out, Max glancing down. "Four chimes." She let out, Lucas looking to her. "Vecna's clock. It always chimes four times." Max spoke, everyone but Seb looking to her. "Four exactly." She continued, Nancy nodding in agreement. "Did you hear the chimes?" She asked softly, everyone watching Seb. He went blank before nodding slowly. "He's been telling us his plan this whole time." Max informed, Nancy's face paling.

"Four kills. Four gates. End of the world." Lucas summed up, Dustin's hands on his hips. "If that's true..." Seb squeezed his eyes shut at the boy's voice, not wanting to remember the last time he heard it. "he's only one kill away." Dustin informed obliviously, Eddie holding his face in his hands. "Oh, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ." He muffled out, Steve clenching his jaw. "Try them again." He ordered, Max walking over to the telephone. "Anything?" El heard Dustin ask, Max shaking her head. "No." She huffed, the girl walking forward more. "Rang a few times then went to busy signal." She let out, Steve sighing. "Maybe you punched it wrong. Try again." He spoke, Max scoffing lightly as El walked slowly towards the voices. "I didn't punch it in wrong." Max shot back at the Harrington boy, him gulping. "Well, I don't know." He huffed, Dustin nodding as Seb stared at the floor. The carpet warped lightly under his deprived gaze, the boy trying his hardest to keep tears in. "I think she knows how to use a phone." Dustin defended the ginger girl, Steve rolling his eyes. "I'm just saying, she could've typed it in wrong."

El's face paled, keeping her eyes on one specific figure. Tears immediately fell down her cheeks, the girl gasping out a sob. "Seven?" She asked, Max placing the phone away before facing the group. They couldn't see her. "Same shit." Max spoke obliviously, El lightly stepping forward towards her brother. He was alive? How? Where's Hopper? "How is that even possible?" Lucas asked tiredly, El crouching lightly. Her face fell at her brother's state. He looked as if he hadn't had a proper rest in way too long. His hair was long and dishevelled, his hair dye faded from his scalp. He looked a mess. "Joyce has this telemarketer job. Always on the phone." El looked to Dustin as he spoke, the boy shrugging. "Mike won't stop whining about it." He spoke, El looking down to her brother. Her ears rung, knowing he has been alive this whole time as she has been living her life believing he wasn't. Seb shuddered, glancing to his right quickly. El flinched, stumbling back as she tried not to hit anything in the room.

Inhaling sharply, Seb stared back down at the floor, El taking the time to observe everyone else as they spoke mindlessly around the twins. "Yeah, but this phone's been busy for, what, three days now? That's not Joyce." Max shot back, El staring at her. "No way. Something's wrong." El's eyebrows furrowed, why would Joyce be in trouble? "She's right. It can't be just coincidence. It can't be." Nancy spoke up, El watching her look out the window in the trailer. "Whatever's happening in Lenora is connected to all of this." She informed, moving to look out of the window of Eddie's trailer. "I'm sure of it." Glancing back at the crown of Seb's dishevelled hair, Nancy gulped. "But Vecna can't hurt them. Not if he's dead." Seb slowly looked up, Nancy glancing at everyone. "We have to go back in there. Back to the Upside Down." Nancy announced, Eddie immediately shaking his head. "Whoa, no, no, no, no. What?" Steve asked, meeting Nancy's height. "Let's think this through." He spoke, Nancy scoffing. "What is there to think through?" She spat, Steve turning to her. "We barely made it out of there-" "Yeah, because we weren't prepared."

Everyone listened to the back and forth, Dustin glancing to Seb. This was the first time he'd shown his face to the group fully, the boy simply staring at the two bickering teenagers. "But this time, we will be. We'll get weapons and protection." El's eyebrows furrowed, Nancy huffing towards Seb. "We'll go through the gate, Seb will lead us to his lair, and we'll kill him." She spoke, El's face dropping at her plan. Steve sighed simply, his chest ragged. "Or he'll kill us. Sebastian is being haunted or recruited or whatever by this thing and you're going to just take him there?" Steve spoke, Seb leaning back into his chair as Max squeezed her lips shut. Nancy stuttered, trying to justify the plan as El stared at the back of her head. She was going to lose her brother. If they went through with this, she was going to lose him. Again. "He wants Seb alive." Nancy let out, everyone looking to her. "Yeah, so he can help him take over the world!" Steve shot back, Nancy gulping. "But he's not going to do that-" "Vecna isn't scared of Seb at all. Or any of us for that matter." Steve let out, stressed.

"And for good reason." Robin spoke, everyone watching her stand up. "We were wrong about Vecna. Henry." Robin halted, glancing to Seb. "One. Sorry, what are we calling him now?" She asked everyone, a mix of each answers being replied. "Right, we've learned something new about Vecna/Henry/One. He's a number like Eleven and Seven, only a sick, evil, child-murdering version with really bad skin." Seb watched Robin speak, not taking his eyes off of her for a second. He admired Robin with his entire heart. Like he did the others, yes, but Robin was different. "But, my point is, he's super powerful. Could turn us inside out with a snap of his fingers. It's not a fair fight." Robin spoke, pointing to Seb as the boy inhaled sharply. "Can you turn people inside out by snapping your fingers?" She asked, El watching her brother. "Uh-" "I don't think he'd want to." Dustin answered, Robin clapping her hands together. "But why fight fair?" Seb asked, Robin glancing back to him. "He's a number like me and my sister. That gives us the advantage. I know my strengths and I know my weaknesses." Seb spoke, his voice becoming clearer.

"Weaknesses?" Erica asked, Seb sighing out. "When my sister looks through places, she goes into like a trance. One has to be doing that too when he, like, gets people." Seb had more ideas the more he spoke, Dustin looking to him. "That would explain what he was doing in that attic." Lucas added, Seb nodding. "He's defenseless when he's killing people. Just sat there-" "Defenseless? What about the army of bats?" Steve asked, Eddie humming. "He did kill them quite fast and I'm not trying to push, but he could kill all of them." Seb looked to Eddie, him nodding. "Or at least I think so." He shrugged, Seb staying silent for a moment. "I can't do both at once." He spoke, Dustin glancing around everyone. "Then we can distract them somehow-" "How do we do that?" Eddie interrupted, very set on the idea that Sebastian explodes them himself. "No idea." Dustin spoke quite proudly, Eddie standing up. "But once they're gone, he doesn't stand a chance." Eddie sat himself back down, Dustin continuing. "It'll be like slaying sleeping Dracula in his coffin." Dustin spoke as if it were obvious, Robin staring at him.

"That all sounds good in theory, but there is no pattern to Vecna's killings. Not one that I can decipher. We know he's not killing Seb so we don't know when to do your plan." Robin pointed out, shrugging. "We don't even know who he's going to attack." She let out, Max looking to the ground. "Yeah, we do." She spoke quietly, everyone glancing to her. "I can still feel him. I'm still marked." El's gaze pierced the back of her best friend's head. "Cursed." Max's voice echoes in her black void. "I ditch Kate Bush, I draw his focus back to me." Max summed, Lucas immediately opposed. "Max. You can't. He'll kill you." He made it obvious, Max huffing. "I survived before. I can survive again." Seb met eyes with the girl himself. "I just need to keep him busy long enough so that you guys can get into that attic. Then you can chop his head off. Stab him in the heart. Blow him up with some explosive Dustin cooks up. Or kill him yourself." Everyone looked between the two, Max gulping. "I honestly don't care how you put this asshole in his grave. Just... whatever it is... whatever you do... try not to miss." She looked around everyone, Seb sighing.

They were going to do it.

El's chest quickened in pace, her eyes stinging. Her brother was alive. Sebastian was alive. And yet before she even got to unite with him he was walking into another death trap. And Max was using herself as bait. They were going to die. Sebastian was going to die... again-

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"YOU OKAY?" HOPPER ASKED MURRAY, THE MAN ECSTATIC IN THE FRONT OF THEIR RUNAWAY VEHICLE. Dmitri sat in the passenger seat, gripping anything to keep him steady as Murray looked away from the road for a frightfully long amount of time. "I'm great! Whoo!" Murray yelled, Yuri, Joyce and Hopper staring at him from the back of the van. "Oh, nothing like a little prison escape to get your day started, am I right?" He asked Dmitri, the man nodding lightly as he glanced out of the window. "We're not out of the woods yet. My people do not take kindly to escapes. They'll be hunting us." He informed, Hopper moving forward in the moving van. "Yeah, well, we aren't exactly planning on sticking around. Where's the plane you came in on?" Hopper asked Murray, the man glancing back to him. "That plane? Um, that crashed." Joyce answered for Murray, Hopper glancing back to her. "Crashed?" He asked, Joyce immediately pointing to Yuri. "His fault." She spoke simply, Yuri's yelps muffled behind his mask. "Word of warning. That man is more slippery than a eel dipped in baby oil. I wouldn't trust a word from his mouth-"

Hopper ignored Murray's advice, yanking the mask from Yuri's mouth. "My tongue. My tongue!" The man sputtered, Dmitri glancing back. "I can't feel my tongue-" "We need to get out of here, back to the States." Yuri felt his jaw get gripped harshly, Hopper's face close to his own. "Can you get us another plane?" He asked, yearning to be anywhere but in Russia. "Now? You're asking for Yuri's help after dragging him through miles of shit tunnel?" He spat, Hopper huffing. "I could have told you we are going wrong way hours ago." Yuri spoke, Hopper glancing back to him. "You Neanderthal-" "Watch your mouth, or I am gonna take this," He held up the mask, Yuri's eyes widening. "I'm gonna rub it along the bottom of my shoe, and I'm gonna jab it down your throat." He started to yell, Yuri scoffing. "Well, go ahead!" He yelled back, yelping once Hopper gripped his neck. "But then you'll never make it out of my country alive." He strained, Joyce nodding. "So you can get us out." She pointed out, Yuri gasping. "For a glass of water and a hot steam bath and five-inch stack of American dollars," He looked back to Hopper, naming his price.

"Yuri will fly you to the moon." Hopper scoffed, sitting back next to Joyce as a gun clicked, Dmitri leaning back as he pointed the weapon at Yuri's head. "You make another demand, you double-crossing mudak, I'll decorate the roof of this van with your brains." He threatened, watching Yuri smile. "Why so angry, comrade? Rough couple of days for you, I'm sure. But now you are free." Yuri glanced at everyone for this, uncomfortably happy. "Everything works out. Happy ending for everybody." His voice quietened, looking to Dmitri. "No?" The man just tilted his head. "For you, that will very much depend on how you answer. Comrade. Will you take us to America?" Dmitri's voice grew more and more venomous as he spoke. "Yes?" He cocked his gun. "Or no?" Yuri's smile genuinely dropped, not being able to look anywhere but Dmitri's eyes.

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[2331 words!]

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