°🌟35🌟°

🌟CHAPTER 35🌟~°PAPA°~

*🌟Third Person's POV🌟*

Hailey watched, a silent and terrified spectator, as a much younger Dr. Brenner pressed a buzzing tattoo gun into the pale skin of a boy's arm. The number 001 was etched into his flesh.

"All done," Dr. Brenner said, setting the gun down and wiping the boy's arm with a damp cotton bud. His voice was chillingly calm. "Not so bad, was it? See? There's nothing to be afraid of."

At first, Hailey thought he was speaking to the boy. Then his head turned, and his cold eyes locked directly onto hers.

"Is there, Hailey?"

Her blood ran cold. He could see her.

"Why don't you take a seat?" he asked, his voice distorting, deepening into something monstrous.

Panic seized her. She spun on her heel and ran. The sterile white hallways of the lab blurred around her, but now they were a charnel house. Bodies of orderlies and scientists lay strewn across the floor, their limbs twisted at unnatural angles. She took a corner, her heart hammering against her ribs, driven by pure, unadulterated terror.

"Hailey, just stay with me. Stay with me, okay?" Steve pleaded; his voice raw as he cradled her face. Her eyes were wide open, seeing a horror he couldn't perceive. "Whatever you guys are doing, hurry up!" he shouted toward the gate.

"Steve says you need to hurry!" Erica yelled, sprinting into Eddie's room where the others were frantically ransacking his belongings.

"Yeah? No shit!" Dustin shouted back, his own fear for his sister sharpening his tone into a blade.

"We're trying. We can't find anything!" Max said, upending a box of tapes onto the floor.

"What is all this shit?" Nancy demanded, throwing a desperate look at Eddie.

"What are you even looking for?" Eddie asked from his corner, looking overwhelmed.

"Madonna, Blondie, Bowie, Beatles? Music! We need music!" Robin yelled at him, a chaotic stack of cassettes in her arms.

"This is music!" Eddie shot back, grabbing a tape from her pile—a deafening thrash metal band called Corkscrew.

Hailey skidded to a halt. A dead end. The door was barricaded shut with heavy wooden planks. With a desperate cry, she clawed at the wood, trying to pry them loose. It was harder than it looked; the nails were driven deep.

"Hailey."

His voice echoed down the hall. She slowly turned. Vecna was there, moving toward her with an inexorable, slow grace.

"What are you doing? It's not time for you to leave."

She redoubled her efforts, her fingers splintering as she finally wrested one plank free, then another. Her breath came in ragged sobs.

"Now that you've seen where I've been..."

His voice made her freeze, her hands stilling on the wood.

"...I would like very much to show you where I am going."

The spell broke. She gave a final, mighty pull, and the last plank came away. She shoved the door open and stumbled through—only to find herself in another identical, dead-end hallway.

"Take a seat, Hailey."

Dr. Brenner stood before her again. The lights flickered and died, plunging her into absolute, suffocating blackness.

When they sputtered back to life, she was trapped. Thick, black vines coiled around her wrists and ankles, strapping her tightly into a cold, metal chair. The more she struggled, the tighter they constricted.

Vecna stood in the shadows of the corner, then began his slow, deliberate approach. She was frozen, utterly paralyzed by fear as he loomed over her. She could only stare into his monstrous, melted face as it drew inches from hers.

"I... want you to tell Eleven." His voice was a dry, rasping whisper in her mind. "I want you to tell her everything you see."

He held his gnarled hand in front of her face. Her world dissolved into a rapid, painful flash of images—a storm of fire and lightning, a world ending, a future of absolute ruin.

"Tell her..."

"No!" Hailey screamed, the vision searing into her brain.

"...everything."

"NO!"

Hailey's eyes snapped open, the terrifying visions vanishing. A ragged, gasping scream was torn from her throat as her legs immediately gave way.

"Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Steve caught her before she could hit the floor, his arms wrapping tightly around her. She was panting, drenched in a cold sweat, her entire body trembling violently.

She buried her face in the familiar softness of his sweater, and the dam broke. Sobs wracked her body, great, heaving cries of pure terror and relief.

"It's okay. It's okay. It's okay," he murmured into her hair, holding her closer, rocking her gently. "I'm here. I'm right here."

She couldn't form words. She just held onto him as if he were the only solid thing in a world that had just shattered, her fingers clutching his jacket like a lifeline.

*~*🌟*~*

The sun was already high in the sky by the time Hailey felt steady enough to speak. She was seated on the floor between Steve's legs, leaning back against his chest. His hands rested on her shoulders, his thumbs rubbing slow, soothing circles into her tense muscles, a silent anchor in the storm of her fear.

She took a deep, shuddering breath. "I don't know how it was possible, but he showed me things... things that will happen in our near future. Such awful things." Her voice was quiet, haunted. "There was a dark cloud spreading over Hawkins. Downtown was on fire. Soldiers—the ones who will come to help—were lying dead in the streets."

She paused, swallowing hard. Steve's grip on her tightened slightly.

"The worst thing he showed me was... a giant creature. It had a gaping mouth. And it wasn't alone. There were so many other monsters. It almost looked like a monster army, marching into Hawkins, into our homes."

She leaned back fully into Steve's embrace, needing the solid reality of him to remind herself she was free of the vision.

"Then the bastard got cruel," she whispered, her voice breaking. "He showed me my mom... and Dustin... and Steve... as well as everyone else I care about. Everyone was...." She couldn't finish. Silent tears traced paths down her cheeks, and she shook her head, the image too horrific to give voice to.

"Okay, but... he's just trying to scare you, Hai. Right?" Steve said, his voice tight with a nervous hope he didn't truly feel. He stared down at the crown of her head. "I mean... it's not real."

"It's not real yet," she corrected softly, wiping her eyes. "But there was one more thing. He showed me four gates. They were spreading across Hawkins, like the one in Eddie's trailer, but they didn't stop growing. And they weren't in the Upside Down... they were here. In our Hawkins."

A heavy silence fell over Max's living room.

"Four chimes," Max spoke up, her voice cutting through the quiet. Everyone turned to her. "Vecna's clock. It always chimes four times. Four exactly."

"Yeah, I heard them too," Hailey confirmed, her voice barely a whisper. Steve looked down at her, his face a mask of dread.

"He's been telling us his plan this whole time," Max stated.

"Four kills. Four gates. End of the world," Lucas said, the words sounding both ridiculous and terrifyingly real.

"If that's true... He's only one kill away," Dustin pointed out, the logic inescapable.

"Oh, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ," Eddie muttered, hiding his face in his hands.

"Try 'em again. Try 'em again," Steve urged Max, a desperate edge to his voice. He couldn't accept that the horrific future Hailey described was inevitable.

Max walked to the phone and dutifully dialled the Byers' number in California again. The line rang a few times before clicking over to the infuriatingly familiar busy signal. She slammed the receiver down. "No. Rang a few times, then went to busy signal."

"Maybe you punched it wrong. Try again," Steve insisted, his anxiety making him irrational.

"I didn't punch it in wrong," Max stated flatly.

"Well, I don't know," he said defensively, glancing at Hailey, who was staring into the middle distance, lost in her thoughts.

"I think she knows how to use a phone," Dustin pointed out.

"I'm just saying, she could've typed it in wrong," Steve argued weakly.

Max tried one more time with the same result. "Same shit."

"How is that possible?" Steve questioned, running a hand through his hair.

"Joyce has this telemarketer job. Always on the phone. Mike won't stop whining about it," Dustin explained.

"Yeah, but this phone's been busy for, what, three days now? That's not Joyce. No way. Something's wrong," Max stated, her certainty firm.

"She's right. It can't be just a coincidence. It can't be," Nancy said, standing up and moving to the window. "Whatever's happening in Lenora is connected to all of this. I'm sure of it. But Vecna can't hurt them if he's dead. We have to go back in there. Back to the Upside Down."

A chorus of protests erupted from the room.

"Whoa, no, no, no. What?" Steve asked, getting to his feet.

"Nope," Eddie said, shaking his head vigorously.

"Let's think this through," Steve pleaded.

Hailey rose and faced him, placing a calming hand on his arm. "Nancy has a point, Steve. And honestly, I don't think there's anything left to think through. We're out of time."

"We barely made it out of there alive!" Steve pointed out; his eyes wide with fear for her.

"Yeah, because we weren't prepared," Nancy countered, joining Hailey's side. "But this time, we will be. We'll get weapons and protection. We'll go through the gate, we'll find his lair, and we'll kill him."

"Or he'll kill us," Steve shot back. "The only reason Hailey survived is because he wanted her to. He's not scared of us."

Robin suddenly stood up, waving her hands. "And for good reason! We were wrong about Vecna. Henry. One. Sorry, what are we calling him now?"

"One." "Vecna." "Henry."

"Right. We've learned something new about Vecna/Henry/One. He's a number, like Eleven. Only a sick, evil, male, child-murdering version of her with really bad skin. But my... 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 rambled, finally getting to her point.

"Then why fight fair?" Dustin interjected. "You're right. He's like Eleven. But that gives us an upper hand. We know Eleven's strengths. And her weaknesses."

"Weaknesses?" Erica asked, confused.

"When El remote-travels, she goes into this sort of trance-like state. I bet the same is true of Vecna," Dustin explained.

"That would explain what he was doing in that attic," Lucas said, catching on.

"Exactly. When he attacks his next victim, I'll bet you he's back in that attic, his physical body defenceless," Dustin stated.

"Defenceless? What about the army of bats?" Steve asked, a valid reminder of their last near-death experience.

"True. We'll have to find a way past them. Distract them somehow," Dustin conceded.

"And, uh, how do we do that, exactly?" Eddie asked, standing up.

"No idea," Dustin admitted. Eddie immediately sat back down with a groan. "But once they're gone, he doesn't stand a chance. It'll be like slaying a sleeping Dracula in his coffin."

"That all sounds good in theory," Robin said, "but there is no pattern to Vecna's killings. Not one that I can decipher. We don't know when he's going to attack next. Don't even know who he's going to attack."

"Yeah, we do."

All eyes turned to Max. She stood a little straighter. "I can still feel him. I'm still marked. Cursed. I ditch Kate Bush; I draw his focus back to me."

"Max. You can't. He'll kill you," Lucas said, his voice thick with despair.

"I survived before. I can survive again," she said, her determination fierce. "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. I honestly don't care how you put this asshole in his grave. Just... whatever it is... Whatever you do... Try not to miss."

Hailey didn't hesitate. She crossed the room and pulled Max into a tight, fierce hug. "You're such a brave girl," she whispered into the redhead's hair. Max melted into the embrace, a rare moment of comfort.

The mood shifted from despair to grim determination. Eddie grabbed the Hawkins phone book, flipping it open to a specific page and slamming it down on the table.

"Check this out. The War Zone. I've been there once. It's huge. They got everything you need for, uh... Well, killing things, basically."

"You think fake Rambo has enough guns there? Is that a grenade?" Robin asked, peering at the ad nervously. "I mean, how is any of this legal?"

"Well, lucky for us it is," Eddie said. "This place is just far enough outside of Hawkins. As long as we steer clear of main roads, we ought to be able to avoid cops and, uh, angry hicks."

"If we're trying to avoid angry hicks, maybe we shouldn't go to some store called the War Zone," Erica pointed out dryly.

"Unfortunately, we do need the weapons," Hailey said, her voice firm. "It's a risk we have to take."

The group exchanged looks, a silent agreement passing between them. Nods of assent were given.

"But is it worth the time? It'll take all day to bike there and back," Dustin calculated.

"Who said anything about bikes?" Eddie asked, a sly smirk spreading across his face.

"You got some car we don't know about?" Steve asked, curious.

"It's not exactly a car, Steve. And it's not exactly mine, but, uh... it'll do." Eddie's attention then turned to Max. "Hey, Red, uh, you got a ski mask or a bandana, something like that?"

The only thing Max had for him was the Michael Myers mask she'd worn one Halloween. Eddie took the lead, sneaking behind trailers and houses until he pointed to a beige RV parked on a lot.

He slipped the mask on, crept to a window, and jimmied it open. With a grunt, he hauled himself through the narrow opening, landing inside with a thud. He tore the mask off, gasping. "That was suffocating," he muttered, making his way to the front.

"Go! Come on!"

One after the other, the rest of the group clambered through the window into the stale-smelling RV. Steve made his way to the driver's seat where Eddie was already hunched over the steering column, pulling wires.

"Where'd you learn how to do this?" Steve asked, watching his hands work.

"Well, when the other dads were teaching their kids how to fish or play ball, my old man was teaching me how to hot-wire," Eddie said without looking up. "Now, I swore to myself I wouldn't wind up like he did, but now I'm wanted for murder, and soon, grand theft auto. So, uh, I'm really living up to that Munson name."

"Eddie, I'm not sure I love the idea of you driving," Robin stated, appearing behind Steve's seat.

"Oh, I'm just starting this sucker. Harrington's got her. Don't ya, big boy?" Eddie asked with a cocky grin. On cue, the engine sputtered, coughed, and then roared to life with a sound like an explosion.

The noise immediately alerted the RV's owners, an older couple who came running out of their house, shouting. They started banging on the locked door.

"Shit! Go!" Eddie yelled, scrambling out of the driver's seat.

Steve slid into place, gripping the large steering wheel. "Everybody, hang on to something!" he shouted.

In the very back, Hailey, Dustin, and Max braced themselves against the cabinets, looking out the rear window. The couple was sprinting after them, far faster than Hailey would have thought possible for their age.

"Oh my God! Let's go! Let's go!" "Drive, Steve! Drive!" "Go, go, go!" "Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!"

"Shit, they look pissed," Dustin pointed out.

"It's not every day you lose your house and car in one fell swoop," Robin stated, holding onto the dinette table to keep her balance as the RV swayed.

"Hold on! Hold on!" Steve yelled, wrestling the massive vehicle out of the trailer park and onto the open road, finally leaving their pursuers in the dust.

After a while on the road, Hailey made her way to the front and slid into the passenger seat. "So, how's it handling?"

"Not half bad. Considering that this is a... house," Steve said, glancing at her with a smile.

"Yeah, it's... it's silly, but I... I've actually... I always had this dream that I'd have this really... really big family," Steve confessed, his voice softening. "I'm talking, like, uh, a full brood of Harringtons. Like, five, six kids."

Hailey's eyes went wide. "You want six kids one day?"

"Yeah. Six little nuggets. Three girls, three boys. And... and every summer, I figured all of us Harringtons, we would pack into something like this and... just see the country. You know, the Rockies, Grand Canyon, maybe Yellowstone. End up in some beachside town in California. Spend a week parked in the sand. Learn how to surf or something." He spoke with a wistful smile, the dream vivid in his mind.

"That sounds pretty amazing," Hailey said, a strange pang of jealousy hitting her for this future wife she imagined, even as a part of her desperately hoped it would be her.

"Yeah?" Steve asked, a note of hope in his voice. He'd been saving up, waiting for her to finish her senior year for a reason.

"Yeah, it is," she said softly. "And on the bright side, you got in some practice, just like I did." She gestured with her head toward the chaotic "brood" in the back.

"That's true," he said, grinning. As he focused on the road, Hailey leaned over and placed a soft kiss at the corner of his mouth before settling back into her seat.

For the rest of the drive, Hailey watched the world pass by her window, and Steve would send her occasional glances, the smile never leaving his face.

Dustin and Eddie stayed behind in the RV as the rest of the group ventured into The War Zone. The store was packed with people buying weapons and ammunition.

"So much for avoiding angry hicks," Robin muttered, eyeing the crowd nervously.

"Let's be... fast," Nancy instructed. They split up quickly.

Hailey stuck with Steve as he grabbed a change of clothes, then they met up with Robin in an aisle filled with gasoline cans.

"How many of these do you think we need?" Robin asked, her voice low.

"Five or six," Steve said. He and Hailey began loading cans into their cart.

Robin was about to move on when she froze, her eyes locked on a figure across the store. It was Vickie. She stood rooted to the spot, staring.

"Robin, stop standing there gawking like a fish and go talk to her," Hailey urged quietly.

"Shut up," Robin whispered, her nerves getting the best of her. She took two hesitant steps forward, only to stop dead. A guy—Dan Shelter—appeared, pulling Vickie into a kiss. The heartbreak on Robin's face was instantaneous and devastating. The moment Vickie noticed her, Robin turned and fled down the aisle.

"Robin. Robin!" Steve called after her, but he didn't follow, knowing she needed a moment alone.

The shopping trip became a blur of frantic urgency, especially after Nancy informed them of her run-in with Jason Carver and his vengeful posse. They paid for their arsenal of weapons, nails, gasoline, and supplies and hurriedly piled back into the RV, their arms full of bags.

"What happened?" Eddie asked as they scrambled inside.

"Gotta go," Steve stated, his voice tense.

"Your old friends are here," Erica informed her brother.

"Shit!"

"Let's go! Let's go!" Steve yelled at Dustin, who was still standing.

Dustin frantically looked for a seat as Steve fired up the engine. "I'm going! I'm going!"

"Sit down!" Hailey snapped, her own anxiety spiking. Dustin dropped into the nearest spot just as Steve peeled out of the parking lot, leaving The War Zone behind.

Steve drove them to a secluded meadow, a temporary safe haven to prepare for the coming fight. As the sun began to dip lower in the sky, they broke into smaller groups, each with a grim task.

Dustin and Eddie hammered nails into baseball bats and fastened trash can lids into makeshift shields, their goofy play-fighting bringing a brief, needed smile to Hailey's face. Nancy and Max meticulously modified the new shotgun. Lucas and Erica sharpened poles into spears.

Hailey, Steve, and Robin were tasked with making Molotov cocktails, carefully pouring gasoline into glass bottles.

"It just doesn't make sense," Steve spoke up, breaking their focused silence.

"What doesn't make sense?" Robin asked, not looking up from her bottle.

"That was Dan Shelter. He graduated, like, two years ago."

"And your point is?" Hailey asked.

"So, he's in college. Which means he was visiting on spring break. Fast Times was returned, like, a week ago? Right? Unless she's got some horn dog brother we don't know about. Which is possible. Or she's just really into Judge Reinhold?" Steve reasoned, trying to puzzle it out.

"Steve," Robin said, her voice tired. She didn't have the energy for this.

"Nah. What?" Steve asked, oblivious.

"I don't care. I don't understand why you do either, with everything that's going on. Honestly, this feels like a perfect time for that little pull of the rug because... in the face of the world ending, the stakes of my love life feel spectacularly low."

"We understand, Robin," Hailey said gently. "But just because we're staring death in the face now doesn't mean we won't get our happy ending. We just need to win this battle first."

"I'm not talking about hope," Robin said, her voice thick with emotion as she poured fuel. "I just... I have this terrible, gnawing feeling that... it might not work out for us this time."

"You think we shouldn't be doing this?" Steve asked, his tone turning serious.

"I think we're mad fools, the lot of us, but... but if we don't stop him, who will? We have to try, right?"

"Yeah," Steve agreed, his expression grim. He picked up a finished Molotov. "To killing Vecna."

"Slash Henry," Robin said, clinking her bottle against his.

"Slash One," Hailey added, joining the toast. She leaned in and kissed each of their cheeks. They shared a look—a mixture of fear, determination, and deep affection—their sad smiles a silent acknowledgment of the danger ahead.

As the sun set, painting the sky in hues of orange and purple, they piled back into the RV for the final drive. Their first stop was the Creel house to drop off Max, Lucas, and Erica.

Before they got out, Hailey pulled each of them into a tight, fierce hug, pressing a kiss to each of their foreheads for luck. It was a motherly gesture, one that made the stakes feel terrifyingly real. If things went south, she needed them to know they were loved.

*~🌟~*