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redflagsandbanners · 10 months

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Try your hand at an angsty one of them thought the other was dead moment but SURPRISE BITCH BET YOU THOUGHT YOU’D SEEN THE LAST OF ME

..., ...

[Time]

The demo-bats screech in unity just as Dustin crackles a quiet; "Phase Three", and the first rough notes coming from Eddie's guitar echo through the walkie-talkie, the dead air.

As they swarm across the sky, Nancy ducks lower in instinct, hoping the chilly darkness hides them. Everything feels too loud; her own rough breaths in her throat, Steve's stiff hums of pain, Robin's quiet gulps. Everything feels too quiet; a stillness, a creeping shadow clouding the sky, the flash of lightning that is never followed by thunder.

The demo-bats dissappear just as a cloud passes by the bleeding moon and lets some light shine through.

Vecna already has a hold on Max.

Nancy shivers, breathes out. "Let's go?"

"Lead ahead", Steve groans as he shifts on a knee, fixing the strap of his bag, passing the axe from one hand to the other.

The Creel House raises like a tomb. Haunted and hungry for someone to walk in, get lost in its hallways. The door creaks open, almost like the wheezing air in Nancy's aching lungs.

"Shit".

The vines are crawling across the floor, the walls and the ceilings. Moving as if snakes, as if limps of a whole. They rest, for now. They wait, to be disturbed. They expect, to be called to act.

Steve goes first, looking taller and boarder. His thick clothes hide the bleeding wounds on his sides but they can do nothing of the dark bags under his eyes. And yet, even wounded and tired, he moves and jumps and hops over the maze of vines on the floor.

Nancy goes to take in a sigh of the floating white particles that burn as they're breathed in, when a brush of warmth against her hand shocks her breathless.

Robin is looking at her with tensed muscles, fearful eyes. Their blue is lighter than any other color in this world. Her hand is warm, so warm that reminds Nancy of summer, of light, of life. Her heart starts thudding in her goddamn throat and it feels like a second, a minute, an hour, a day has passed, of them simply standing in the doorstep of a haunted house.

"It's okay. You got this", Nancy whispers to her, watching her blue eyes move back and forth over her own gaze. Her fingers curl around the girl’s hand, aching to keep contact.

Robin nods, gulps one last time, and Nancy aims for the touch to linger until Robin's arm starts to hang back and she needs to break the comforting touch. The warmth stays, as a phantom, for Nancy to feel.

Steve is by the foot of the stairs now, an arm extended to the side for balance. Robin is brushing over the vines with motions that remind Nancy of a marionette controlled by strings. The coldness of the Upside-Down crawls into her gut; pooling fear, freezing.

She cannot shake the feeling they're being led into the house's attic.

Gripping the strap of the shotgun, she follows.

Her boots thud with each hop, eyes downcast and searching for spaces of wood to step in. The holes open and close depending on the pulsing vines. Steve has climbed half of the staircase. Robin stands on the second step.

The quiet thickens as they shadow up the creaking stairs. One floor up, the dark empty hole of Alice's bedroom makes them shiver. Steve stares at the black air and rubs over the angry red rings marking his wrist. Robin presses her forehead on his shoulder, catching her breath and helping him relax.

Nancy looks toward the attic's door leaning open. Vecna stands there, up another row of stairs, hunting, focusing on Max, hanging defenseless. His memories play in Nancy's head like flashes of horror; his promise for the future of Hawkins takes shape in the dead world spreading around them.

"Let's go", she whispers and anger slowly warms the fear away from her gut.

The stairs are clear from vines, the wood stays blissfully silent when they climb up. The attic is dark, the world's blue light and the red moon mapping the shadows just enough for them to see the space they're standing in. The shotgun feels cold in her hands and Nancy has a flash of Robin's fingers softly curling around her wrist.

Her heart beats the cold away. She can see him stand in the middle of the room, alone.

Vecna stands with his eyes closed, head tilted back. Steve and Robin fall into step next to her, Molotov cocktails and lighters in hands. Nancy doesn't feel they need them - not when he is standing like an open target for a handful of bullets - not when...

His foggy eyes are wide open and drowning into her gaze. The shock of the eye contact bursts the confidence to ash.

"No", he simply says and the shotgun is ripped right out of Nancy's hands and thrown to the side as if a magnet pulled it off.

"Guys! Now, now!"

A lighter sparks and the cloth catches fire, the bottle is raised and instead of a powerful throw, the air hisses, Robin screams in fear and the weapon clutters right out of Steve's hand.

Nancy freezes as she watches Robin slam against the floor, the vines snapping round her like attacking snakes. She freezes as she hears Robin's breath violently hitching, followed by a chocked sound Nancy will never forget.

"Stop!" Steve is swinging the axe down, cutting through vines, finding others in the place he just cleared. "STOP!"

"No", Vecna has not taken his eyes off of Nancy and the sight of him shakes her to an angry animal that attacks -

She cannot move. Henry's hand is raised lightly, toward her, power squeezes through and around Nancy, keeping her still. His hand turns and - with it - Nancy is forced to face Steve trying to free Robin from -

Robin's wide eyes are turning red, wet. They're bulging, vines squeezing around her throat. Steve falls to his knees, screaming and tries to lose them from around her throat, failing, failing.

"No", Nancy whimpers, feels her chest breaking open because no no no no no -

"So many friends dying because of you, Nancy, and you haven't watched them do so. Watch this".

"Robin!" Steve is screaming, tearing his fingers open as the vines clench harder.

Robin is gaping, unable to breathe in, and Nancy can spot a bruising hue start to overtake her face. Her heart breaks and she screams with Steve, trying to get to her, she can't, she can't. The shout brings out tears, brings a rough sob.

"Stop this, stop. Stop, please! Just stop!"

He smirks; a human smirk in the face of a creature no longer human. This is the torture he had always wanted; this is how he wants to conquer.

"Rob. Rob, hey, hey, look at me. Yeah? Yeah, I know, I know, I know -"

Nancy cries, pain snapping through her as muscles try and stain to break free from the invisible strains. Despite the cold, sweat drips over her face. She needs to be next to her. She needs to get to Robin before - before -

Her knees scrape open as she falls forwards, suddenly released. Her wrists stain from the rest of her body landing on them, barely holding on from landing face first on the rotting floor.

Nancy barely stops to steady herself, half limping and half crawling to Robin. Steve is pulling fistfulls of vines off of her, covered in slime and ink. She gets there just as Robin takes in a cracked breath and starts to cough.

"Fuck", Nancy buries her face in Robin's hair, shielding her away from Henry. "Fuck, I'm so sorry". The coughs are so violent, Robin retches around gaping for air. Bloodshot blue eyes snap back and forth over the attic, finding Steve when he comes to kneel in a pile of shred vines. Her shaky hand weakly wraps around the sleeve of he jacket and he comes to drop his forehead on Robin's own and inches away from Nancy's face.

His hair has a faint scent of shampoo.

Nancy chokes over a sob, feeling rough hands come to hold onto her too and -

A scream of pain comes from behind them; Henry is hovering off the ground, limps spred open and his mouth letting out the most manic shout of; "Eleven!"

They jump, all three of them, when he bursts. Into ash. Into particles. Into a shred shadow.

"Fuck", Nancy hears herself repeat. "Fuck, fuck". She snaps her attention down to Robin trying and failing to breathe evenly. Her face is losing color. Her eyes are closed. Her lips have started to bruise.

"We need..." - Steve is silently crying - "...Steve, we need to focus, hey, we need to get her to the hospital. How're your sides, can you carry her?"

"Yeah", he wipes his face and reaches down. Robin doesn't respond to the change of the embrace, but she keeps breathing. "For a bit".

"We will figure it out but, but come on. We need to go now -"

The crackling of the radio comes into focus and Nancy feels cold all over again. Dustin is crying on the other end - a little kid's scared whimpers - calling for the three of them; "Come back, come back and help us. Steve. Steve, if Eddie stops playing, we will be eaten fucking alive. Steve, do you copy? We need help now!"

Steve grows three times the size at the sound of his begging. Nancy watches him scoop up Robin and meets his eyes, feeling something click. She gets up and grabs the walkie-talkie, the axe, the lighter and the Molotov cocktail. Calls back to Dustin to tell him they are coming, swings the damn blade through the vines to clear a path on the floor, pouring gasoline on the trail created.

By the time they reach the door, Nancy is breathing heavy, Steve breathing easy and Robin is breathing in cracked puffs of inhales. By the time they reach the door, Robin's lips have gone darker and bruises have already start to mark around her neck and bare arms. By the time the reach the woods, Eddie's guitar misses a few bits.

#using this for halftime air too?#guess what #ronance prompt #nearly #sorry anon #no suprise bitch happening but oof #i mean #please excuse me #i do love whatever mess this is #anonask

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