Alice the Amazing ⇒ STRANGER THINGS

[73] Lazarus

TW FOR VIOLENCE, BLOOD AND...Y'ALL PLEASE DON'T GET MAD AT ME...MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH. 

BEFORE YOU READ!!! I NEED EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU TO MAKE A SOLEMN PROMISE TO ME NOW THAT YOU WILL READ TO THE END AND NOT GET PISSED AND CLOSE THIS BOOK FOREVER!!! I'M DOING A DOUBLE UPDATE TONIGHT TO SOFTEN THE BLOW OF THIS INSANITY SO YOU CAN GO RIGHT TO A MUCH LESS SAD CHAPTER. 

SIGN THE CONTRACT HERE TO PROMISE THAT YOU WON'T QUIT ON ME —>

{The Piggyback, Part II}

Everything hurt.

Alice's head pounded. Her ears rang. Her muscles screamed in pain, making every slight move unbearable.

She opened her eyes, vision adjusting to the dim light. She sat in an uncomfortable wooden chair, wrists bound to the arms with vines. The stale air of the Upside Down made it impossible to catch her breath.

She couldn't quite tell where she was. The room was large, with a few tables and bookshelves of moldy games. The walls and floors had stripes painted on them, stripes of every color in the rainbow.

Alice yanked at her arms in a pathetic attempt to free herself.

"I would not do that if I were you."

She snapped her head to the left and resisted the urge to scream. Vecna stood in the corner of the room, watching her with those piercing pale eyes. The smell of kerosene and ashes clung to his charred skin. The scent nauseated her as he walked closer.

"Let me go," Alice said, raising her chin in defiance and trying to keep her voice from shaking.

"I will not."

"LET ME GO!" Alice yelled. Her eyes blazed with anger, and she prayed Vecna couldn't tell how scared she was.

"Oh, Alice," Vecna tutted. He traced the back of one finger down her cheek. She leaned away from his touch, stomach rolling. "You must have known it was all leading to this. To you and me, in the Rainbow Room."

Eleven had mentioned this room before. Alice remembered El saying she and Kali played here together, before Kali escaped—

"The Lab," Alice said, thinking of rabbits' cryptic messages. "You took me to the Lab. Why?"

"This is where my journey began," Vecna said. He paced in front of her, a slow shuffle, his newfound third-degree burns taking their toll. "The journey to become who I am today started not at my home, but here. And it is where your journey will end."

Vecna let out a dark chuckle.

"I wondered about you for a long time," he continued. "Papa suspected your mother Amelia had a child in secret, and he sent his men looking for you. But after months of surveillance, it was as if you disappeared. Papa gave up, assuming you died. I assumed the same. Until 1984."

He leaned in too close for comfort, their noses almost touching. Alice whimpered, her whole body tensing up.

"That's when I felt you," he said. "I felt you trying to stop me from taking Will Byers under my control. You were not supposed to be there, mucking things up. In all the plans I made, I did not anticipate you. You are an outlier. You are not meant to be here at all."

"No shit," Alice said. Forcing faux bravado, she added, "If I'm not meant to be here, just send me home. Hail me a cab?"

"There is no going home for you, Alice," Vecna said with a malicious grin. "I need your powers. With those, and my newly opened gates, I will return to your world and be a god amongst men."