• The Best Hargrove • Steve Harrington x Reader •

Chapter Twenty-Four

The images soon ended, and you finally snapped back to reality, immediately falling to the ground, but Steve held you in his arms. You breathed heavily as Steve held your head in front of him and kissed you deeply, before pressing your head into his chest for a good minute. "Alright, come on let's get out of here" Steve stood up to his feet, before helping you up to yours.

You grabbed a tight hold of the make-shift rope, pulling yourself up to the gate. "Easy, easy" Steve's hands hovered below you, preparing to catch your weight if you fell. Your hair stood up as your head peeked out into the real Hawkins. You let go of the rope, now luckily falling on the mattress and not a hard floor. Eddie held a hand out to help you up, which you happily took. You glanced over at nancy, and a tear rolled down her cheek. It was very hard to notice, but it was there. Steve was the last to go through the gate. You held out your hand to help him to his feet, which he took and stood beside you, hugging you and kissing your forehead one last time before max spoke. "Let's go to mine, I have a feeling we shouldn't be here anymore."

You all walked out of Eddie's trailer where the gate was, and crossed the dirt road to Max's. The group settled down around the living room, and you began to explain what you saw. "At first I was.. I was back at the mall, and the Mind Flayer was there, and Billy too.." this sentence got Max to look at you. "There was fire everywhere, and when I went through it, I was in like a.. like a hospital."

"And it's like Vecna was showing me things that haven't happened yet.. the most awful things.." Steve glanced over from beside you, placing an arm around you. "I saw a dark cloud spreading over Hawkins, downtown on fire, dead soldiers, and this.. this giant creature with.. a gaping mouth. And this creature it, it wasn't alone, there were so many monsters.. an army even.. and they were coming into Hawkins, our neighbourhoods, our houses.. and then, he showed me Max.. and she w-was.." you stuttered, and a shiver ran down your spine at the thought of Max dying.

"Okay but.. he's just trying to scare you Y/N. Right? I mean, it's not real" Steve reassured, to which everyone turned to look at him. "Not yet" you added, looking up from your feet to the small crowd in front of you."But there.. there was something else. He showed me gates. Four giant gates spreading across Hawkins. And they looked like the one outside of Eddie's trailer, only they wouldn't stop growing.. And this wasn't the upside-down Hawkins, this was our Hawkins.." your voice quivered, and tears formed in your eyes.

"Four chimes, Vecna's clock.." Max finally spoke from the door frame, removing her headphones and turning to look at you and the others. "It always chimes four times. Four exactly" she informs. "I heard them too.." you add, finally understanding the situation. Everyone turned back to you, growing more worried. "He's been telling us his plan the whole time" Max shuddered, looking down at the ground.

"Four kills, four gates.. end of the world.." Lucas shivered, glancing at Max who still looked downwards. "If that's true, he's only one kill away.." Dustin grieved, looking at both you and Max. You absolutely dreaded the idea of Max having to go through any of this again, if it even was her he was planning to kill. "Oh, Jesus Christ.. Jesus Christ!" Eddie buried his hands in his palms, rubbing his eyes and dragging them down his face. "Try em' again, try em' again!" Steve ordered Max. She had been trying to contact the Byers, but their phone has been broken or something for three days now.

After a few seconds, she hooked the telephone back onto the wall and turned back to you. "Anything?" Steve urged, sitting up straight. "No, rang a few times then went to a busy signal" you all sighed in disappointment. No one knew what the hell was going on with them or what was happening, hell, if they were even safe right now.