"He said he was...building something," Alex said, taking a sip of water before setting it down on the table. "That it was all for me." He said, wiping his tears and resting his head on Mike's chest as he pulled him closer.
"Building something? Is he talking about the flayed," Max asked, looking at Alex and then everyone in the room.
"He must be." Nancy said, rubbing the back of her head.
"So he's building an army just like we thought," Lucas said, slowly pacing behind the couch.
"Yeah, but he's not building this army to spread," Mike said knowingly.
"He's building it to stop Alex," Will said, nodding his head.
"Last year, El closed the gate on him. I have a feeling that really pissed him off." Mike said, glancing at Eleven.
"Like royally," Lucas said.
"And the Mind Flayer now knows that since Alex has his powers and he's stronger than Eleven ever was. He knows that Alex is the only person who can stop him," he said. "But if he's out of the way."
"Game over." Lucas nodded.
"He...also said he was going to kill all of you," he said, looking around as everyone, feeling Mike take his hand and intertwine their fingers.
"Oh, well, that's nice," Max said sarcastically, looking away from him and Mike. There was a faint screeching sound, and Nancy walked towards the window, looking out at the trees.
"Do you guys hear that?" Nancy asked. Alex sat up, listening to the fireworks and something else that screeched from a distance.
"It's just the fireworks," Jonathan said.
"Billy," she said, turning around to look at Alex. "When he told you this, it was here, in this room?" She asked quickly, a bead of sweat falling down her chin. Alex slowly nodded as there was a loud thumping sound coming from a bit away from the cabin. Everybody carefully listened, looking around the room. Will slowly lifted his hand, shaking, and placing it on the back of his neck.
"He knows we're here," he said. Everybody got up, rushing to the door and walking out of the cabin. Everybody ran inside except for Jonathan and Nancy, going to the shed to get some weapons. Everyone started setting up things against windows and doors so that it didn't get in, Nancy and Jonathan storming back into the house and shutting the door.
"Yeah. That's good like that," Mike said, lifting up a chair in front of a window. Lucas shut all the bedroom doors and Jonathan and Nancy grabbed a long chair, putting it in front of the front door and walking into the middle of the room.
"Hey, get away from the windows," Nancy said. Everyone walked over to them, looking around and listening for anything as Nancy lifted up the gun she was holding and Jonathan lifted his axe. It was silent for a bit before the house slowly shook, the lights beginning to flicker.
"It's close," Will said, looking around the room. Dust fell from the ceiling as they could hear the leaves rustling from outside. Alex watched from one of the windows as the trees started shaking from outside, and he clenched his fists. Plates and cups slowly started falling off of tables as the house started to shake more violently, the noises getting louder. Then, it stopped.
"Where'd it go?" Max said, trying to stay quiet as the lights slowly started flickering again.
Then, a disgusting tentacle shot through the wall, going to attack Alex. he put his arms in front of Max and Mike, watching as Jonathan hit it with the axe. He hit it again, and again, and again until it shoved him against the wall. It went towards him as Nancy started shooting at it, reloading her gun and shooting it again and again. Then, she ran out of ammo. It backed her into a wall, going to attack her when it stopped, shaking violently. Alex slowly pulled it away from Nancy, moving it back from her face. He panted heavily, lifting his arm before swinging it down, cutting the claw off of it. The claw writhed on the ground as the tentacle went back out of the wall and past Max, who screamed in surprise.
"Holy shit." She said, another claw shooting out from the other side of her and towards Alex, who lifted his arm and stopped it. Then, another shot from the other side of him, lifting his arm and stopping that one too. He looked between them, panting and grunting before swinging his arms down and cutting off the claws, screaming as he did so. Then, another tentacle shot through the ceiling from behind him, grabbing his leg and pulling it towards him. He screamed, seeing Mike run forward and grab his arms. Then Jonathan ran up and grabbed him, then Max and Will.
"Pull!" Mike shouted as Nancy reloaded her gun.
"Nancy, shoot it!" Jonathan screamed, looking back at his girlfriend. She lifted it up, pointing it towards his mouth and shooting.
"Lucas!" Max screamed. Justin ran forward, grabbing Alex too, pulling as hard as he could. Lucas ran forward and grabbed the axe, jumping on a footstool and hitting the tentacle. He did it again, Nancy still shooting at its mouth. Alex screamed as the people holding onto him strained, Lucas hitting the tentacle with the axe again, trying to break it off. With one last hit and gunshot, the tentacle broke off and the creature backed away, causing Alex and everyone to fall on the floor, Mike holding onto him.
"Alex? Al, are you okay?" He said. Alex couldn't say anything, the claw part of the tentacle still attached to his leg. Mike got up, grabbing onto it and pulling hard, yanking it out of his leg as Alex screamed in pain. Mike threw it across the room, watching as it crawled out of a hole in the wall. The creature moved its face closer, watching as Alex stood up, glaring at him. He limped towards it, the creature making a loud noise as small tentacle's slithered out of his mouth. Alex lifted his arms, yelling as the tentacles retreated back into its mouth, its face slowly ripping in half. He threw his arms to the side, falling backwards, Max catching him as the creature's face ripped in half. Alex heard Nancy and Jonathan screaming for them to hurry and run, feeling Max and Mike help him out of the cabin as they ran towards the car. They watched the monster cry out in agony as they got in the car, in the same spots as last time as Nancy started it.
"DRIVE!" Mike screamed, and Nancy did, driving the car away from the cabin and into the woods.
