Broken & Pretty..Steve Harrington

064.

F I G U R E   I T   O U T

⇾by myself by maya hawke

i'll wind up dead before i bruise you

⸺CONSIDERING the two people who have died so far are people who have the same therapist from the high school, Ms. Kelley was their number one suspect at the moment. Tiffany also didn't trust her since she was a therapist. Their plan was to send Max over to her house since Max is one of her patients. Max was going to try and get information on anything she could. Maybe stuff about Fred and Chrissy or just how the therapy works. Anything that could help them.

Steve, Dustin and Tiffany were just waiting in the car outside Ms. Kelley's house, waiting for Max. They watched as Max was let into the home and Steve felt the need to tell them what they just saw. "Okay, she's in."

"I'm missing collarbones, not eyes." Dustin replied in a monotone voice. Tiffany couldn't stop herself from letting out a small laugh. They all watched the house pretty severely, but they knew that Max probably wouldn't be out any time soon.

There was this nagging thought and guilt in the back of Tiffany's head that she couldn't seem to shake. It had nothing to do with Vecna, this Henry guy or her mother. It was completely separate. She felt guilty about not seeing Cory's grave still. There was a small part of her that had hope he was out there considering she had the proof to back it up. Tiffany figured that this was the perfect time to present that proof.

"Guys, I need to tell you something." Tiffany suddenly spoke up, filling the silence in the car and forcing the two boy's heads to turn to her. Tiffany took a deep breath, knowing this was a long shot and that they may not believe her.

"Alright, before you say anything, let me finish my entire statement." Tiffany looked between her brother, who was in the back seat, and Steve in the driver's. They both nodded, showing that they agreed to her standards.

"Okay, so when I went to Billy's grave, I found a letter. A really beat up and old looking letter laying in the dirt. It was addressed to me and it was from Billy. And in the letter, Billy told me that he had given this letter to Cory to give to me if something ever happened. But what I don't understand is how did the letter get on Billy's grave if Cory died the same day as Billy? And I've been hearing the word twelve in my head in Cory's voice and Cory's number at the lab was twelve. Cory could also commune with people's minds, so I think he's out there somewhere, my guess is the Upside Down, trying to talk to me and show me that he's alive."

Steve locked eyes with Dustin through the car mirror. They both had the same look on their face of sympathy and pity. Dustin wasn't sure what to say, but thankfully, Steve knows Tiffany like the back of his hand and hoped that somehow he'd be able to calm her down. In their opinion, she was being delusional. "Tiffany, you've been through a lot these past few years. You've lost a lot of people, but you need to let them go. Have you even accepted Barb's death yet?"

Tiffany was aware that she's been going through a lot and she seemed almost delirious, but she knew that Cory had to be alive. Tiffany has always had a hard time letting go, but she had to accept fate at some point. "Alright, fine. I can accept that a few people are gone. Barb's gone, Hopper's gone, Will's gone, Billy's-....B-Billy's gone, but Cory is alive! I can prove it!"

"Prove it then." Dustin challenged. Tiffany had more than enough proof to back herself up, the only problem was that no one else could see most of them.

"First there's the letter. Only Cory could've put it there since no one knew about it but Cory and it looked like it had been outside for months. Second: I can literally hear his voice in my head and Cory's main thing was talking to people in their head. Also, I saw Cory standing outside just a few days ago, but then he disappeared. AND, AND, AND! I just found out that I can't survive without my powers. I was supposed to die the day of the car crash, but Henry saved me. My entire life, my powers were keeping me alive and as I got older, I got stronger and more in control. Last summer, my powers were what were killing me. Cory probably found out a way to switch our powers. He gave me his so that I could survive with enough power and he got mine or maybe he doesn't have them at all. Cory doesn't need powers to survive, I do. Cory didn't give me his life that day, he just gave me his powers."

Steve and Dustin looked over at each other with slightly irritated looks. "See, you guys are mad 'cause you know I'm right."

"Look, that's a long shot and you are making sense, but we need to solve this Vecna thing first. We'll find Cory along the way if he's alive." Steve reassured. Tiffany knew she was being pitied, even if Steve didn't want to. Everyone has been assuming that Tiffany was under a lot of stress and pain, which she was, but it wasn't fogging her mind. Tiffany knew what she believed in and she believed that Cory was alive.

Suddenly, Max came back outside and Steve quickly shut this down. "We'll talk about this all later, alright?"

Tiffany nodded her head and Steve put his hand on hers as reassurance. Max then came into the car, slamming the door behind her and something was clearly wrong. "What'd she say."

"Nothing, just drive." They were all fairly confused by the bluntness, but Steve finally moved when Max practically yelled, "Steve, drive!"

Without a second thought, Steve started up the car and drove off. They were going to head to the school for another plan to begin.

Tiffany couldn't help but feel the anger in her soul rise. She hated that everyone pitied her. She hated that everyone thought she was broken. She hated feeling so helpless without her powers. She hated being under this Henry guy's control. With all of the voices in her head and the getting possessed by Vecna, he had something to do with it.

Tiffany was having a hard time figuring things out, but she had deducted two things.

Henry is Vecna.

Tiffany Henderson had to control the mind of Vecna, the mind controller himself.

Vecna has been making her see things like that vision she had. Tiffany figured he could probably do the same to other people too, so there has to be a pattern laced in there somewhere that connects to the murders. Tiffany wasn't too sure how to use Cory's abilities yet, she didn't even know how powerful she could be. But Tiffany knew that she had to learn how to use them quickly because she was determined to royally fuck with Vecna's head.

A/N

Raise your hand if you think Tiffany's lost her mind ✋