𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐝𝐲 ⟿ s. harrington

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞

THE BEST THING I'VE HAD !

☀︎

THE NIGHT WAS SOON GOING TO BE COMING TO A CLOSE AS JULY 5TH HAD NEARED. The Starcourt Mall had become a base for the group as they officially had come together, sharing their separate stories and attempting to formulate a plan that could potentially save the world.

Alex had stood alongside Joyce, who had taken a wet cloth underneath her nose, cleaning her up as they listened to the others discuss.

"The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world," Mike explained. The others who didn't get to bear witness to the newest form of the Mind Flayer had all looked at one another with their eyebrows furrowed and a spike in their heart rate. Both Joyce and Alex had given one another a wide-eyed glance as she had continued to clean her face. "What an asshole," Alex whispered, hoping to make Joyce at least laugh. And it was that easy. A smile had twitched on her face, knowing that it wasn't something to be making jokes about, but it was a relief to know they could still find a sense of humor in such a nightmare. Pressing a finger to her lips, she fought back a smile as she shushed Alex to keep quiet.

"And it almost did. That was just one tiny piece of it," Nancy continued. Hopper's eyes shifted over to Alex before falling back onto Nancy's. "How big is this thing?"

"It's big. Thirty feet at least," Jonathan stated.

Giving a guilty shrug, Lucas looked to Hopper, "It sort of destroyed your cabin. Sorry."

"Okay, so, just to be clear, this... this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it's some gigantic weapon?" Steve looked around for confirmation, truly banking on the hope that maybe it wouldn't be as bad as they hoped. When the group had nodded along, he gave a small sigh. "But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon... with melted people."

"Exactly," Nancy said.

Giving a few nods of agreement and understanding, Steve crossed his arms with a frown. "Yeah, yeah, I-I'm just making sure."

Pulling away from Alex, Joyce looked around the group. "Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?"

"Totally," Alex spoke up. "El may have beat the shit out of him, but he's still out there. What we should be worrying about is closing the gate and finally killing it."

Everyone's eyes had flickered around. It sounded like a start of a plan, but to move forward with it seemed difficult. It wasn't going to be easy, they just needed to find a way. That's what they were good at, finding a way even in the most difficult of situations.