METANOIA | Eddie Munson

Papa, Part 2

3rd Person's POV

"He showed me things that haven't happened yet. It was almost like watching some sort of a prophecy. There was a dark cloud, spreading over Hawkins. Downtown on fire. Dead soldiers."

There was a thick silence in the room, all eyes on her.

"There was this... giant creature." She paused, trying to find the right words, "It had a gaping mouth, and it wasn't alone. There were so many monsters. An army. And they were coming into Hawkins. Into our neighbourhoods. Our homes."

Valerie took a shaky breath, "And then, he showed me my mom. And Dustin. And they were, uh.."

"Hey, he's just trying to scare you, man." Steve sighed, "Right? I mean, it's not real."

"Not yet." She shook her head, "But there was something else. He showed me gates. Four gates, spreading across Hawkins. They looked like the one outside of Eddie's trailer. They didn't... stop growing. It's like the upside down merged into our world, there was nothing separating it anymore. And the clock-"

"Four chimes." Max nodded, "It always chimes four times."

"Yeah, I could hear a chime for each gate." Valerie said.

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

"Four kills. Four gates." Lucas looked up at Max, "End of the world."

"If that's true, he's only one kill away." Dustin said.

"Oh Jesus Christ." Eddie put his head in his hands, "It's you or Max." He looked towards her, a terrible feeling weighing on his heart.

"Well it's certainly not going to be Max." Valerie scoffed, although Eddie's eyes were begging to be reassured.

"Hey-"

"Stop! Okay? We're not doing this right now. Nobody's dying." Steve cut in before Max could put up a fight, "Just try 'em again, will you?"

Max gave up and called the Byers's house in California.

"Anything?" Dustin asked after a couple minutes.

"No, rang a few times. Then went to busy signal."

"Maybe you punched it in wrong." Steve stood up to go stand by her, "Try it again."

"I didn't punch it in wrong." Max frowned.

"Dude, I think she knows how to use a phone." Dustin stood on the other side of Max.

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

"Same shit." Max turns around after trying again.

"How's that possible?" Lucas asks.

"Joyce has this telemarketer job, always on the phone." Dustin says.

"Okay, yeah, but this phone's been busy for three days now." Max says, "Something's wrong."

"I don't think it's a coincidence." Valerie chimes in.

"Whatever's happening in Lenora is connected to all of this. I'm sure of it." Nancy agrees, "But Vecna can't hurt them."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Not if he's dead."

"Okay, yeah." Valerie shrugs, "So we have to go back to the upside down."

A laugh left Eddie's lips, "Nope. Nope." He stood up shaking his head and his finger at Valerie.

"Let's think this through." Steve tried to take a more rational approach.

"What is there to think through?!" Nancy looked at him.

"We barely made it out of there in one piece!"

"That's because we weren't prepared." Valerie shot back.

"This time we will be, we'll get weapons and protection." Nancy continued.

Both men kept looking at them in disbelief.

"The only reason you're here right now, is because he wanted you to be." Eddie was on the brink of getting on his knees at that point.

"If we sit around and do nothing we'll die anyways." Valerie said.

"Okay, okay we were wrong about Vecna. Henry. One." Robin stands up from the corner that she had been curled in earlier, "Sorry, what are we calling him now?"

"Vecna."

"One."

"Vecna?"

"Henry."

"Right." Robin nods, "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."

"Eleven was created from him." Valerie says.

"If he's like Eleven that gives us an upper hand. We know Eleven's strengths. And weakness." The little Henderson joins in.

"Weaknesses?" Erica's voice dripped with skepticism.

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

"That would explain what he was doing in the attic." Lucas nods.

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

"He's not defenseless. He has his army of bats." Valerie crossed her arms over her chest.

"We'll just have to find a way past them. Distract them somehow."

"And how do we do that, exactly?" Eddie said.

"No idea."

"Mmkay." He mumbles to himself and sits back down.

"It'll be like slaying sleeping Dracula in his coffin." Dustin says.

"That all sounds good in theory, but there is no pattern to Vecna's killings." Robin says, "We don't know when he's going to attack next. We don't even know who-"

"Yeah we do." Max cuts her off, "I can still feel him. I'm still marked."

"Yeah so am I." Valerie says.

"Okay, so I ditch Kate Bush. I draw his focus back to me-"

"Max. You can't." Lucas pleads, "He'll kill you."

"I've survived before. I can survive again."

"So have I, by the way. You're insane if you think I'm letting you do this, you're a kid." Valerie says.

"I'm not a kid Valerie." Max defends herself, even though she knows Valerie's only using it as an excuse.

"You're not. But I'm still not letting you do this. Besides, I'd like to have a chat with him. He messed with the wrong Henderson."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Dustin scrunches his eyebrows.

"Nothing at all." Valerie smiled, "I just need to keep him distracted long enough for you guys to get into that attic. Then you can chop his head off. Break his teeth, if he has any. Tickle him to death, although that might break his slumber."

She couldn't hide her amusement when she noticed the incredulous way Eddie was looking at her.

"Stab him. Blow him up. I don't really care how you kill this asshole. Just... whatever you do, make sure you don't miss. Otherwise you'll have a very very dead girl in your hands."

"My death in on you. Yes I'm looking at you." Valerie pointed, one by one, at all of their defeated faces.