Alexithymia | STRANGER THINGS [ON HOLD UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE]

twenty three | the bite

As she looked around at those that were in the cabin with her, El told them, "He said he was building something. That it was all for me."

Max replied, "Building something... Is he talking about the flayed?"

Nancy said to her, "He must be."

While El glanced over at Matthew, who kept his arms tightly wrapped around her ever since he and Mike had managed to calm her down, Lucas said, "So, he's building an army, just like we thought."

Mike replied, "Yeah, but he's not building this army to spread."

With a nod of his head, Will said, "He's building it to stop Eleven."

With his eyebrows raised, Mike said, "Last year, El closed the gate on him. I have a feeling that really pissed him off."

With a raise of his own eyebrows, Lucas said, "Like, royally."

Then Mike told them, "And the Mind Flayer now knows that she's the only thing that can stop him. But if she's out of the way–"

Lucas said, "Game over."

It was then that El said to them, "He also said he was gonna kill all of you."

While Matthew only sighed to himself and tightened the hold he already had on El some more, Max replied, "Yeah, well, that's nice."

It was then that some faint screeching was heard in the distance, which got Matthew to quickly raise his head at the same time that Nancy started to walk over towards one of the windows to the cabin before she asked them, "Do you guys hear that?"

Jonathan told her, "It's just the fireworks."

As she continued to stare out the window, Nancy said, "Billy..." Then she quickly turned around and asked El, "When he told you this, it was here, in this room?"

Shortly after El had only nodded her head, they could all hear some thudding in the distance.

It was then that Will brought a single hand up to the back of his neck before he told them, "He knows we're here."

Then, just like that, the eight of them quickly ran out of the cabin and were quick to follow Jonathan, who eventually came to a halt.

It wasn't long after that that they heard the sound of some trees rustling before they saw the Mind Flayer quickly shove some trees out of the way and let out a screech as it quickly made its way over towards them.

* * *

With a tight grip on his crowbar, Matthew silently eyed his surroundings with his eyes narrowed and simply gulped to himself as quietly as he could.

And while he did that, the sound of some rumbling could be heard, shortly before the electricity in the room started to crackle.

As soon as some of the dishes in the room started to shake, Will said, "It's close."