an unexpected reunion

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

Following the cries of the miniature Demogorgons was not something Alina wanted to be doing, especially with her injured leg. She could walk now on her own, albeit slowly, and found herself limping behind the group, making her way through the woods. She needed to tell them how she was feeling soon—even as she thought this, nausea welled up inside her—but not until she knew they were safe. She didn't want to slow her friends down any more than she already had. Guilt swelled in her for that twenty-minute break they'd taken in the bus to bandage up her leg, because they needed to go faster. They needed to find Will, Mike and Joyce, as well as Jonathan and Nancy.

Alina remembered Jonathan telling her he was going to tell Barb's parents the truth about the lab, and wondered whether he'd accomplished his goal or not. And then, because she was thinking about the lab, like Will, she did not expect to come across it once the woods cleared.

She could see it although it was dark out and tendrils of fog still curled around the ground. She could see the blinking lights on the roof off in the distance and visibly tensed, her heart immediately beating faster, even as Dustin, cluelessly, said, "I don't see them."

Lucas brought his binoculars to his eyes, scanning the area. After a moment, he stopped. "It's the lab," he concluded. He put his binoculars down. "They were going back home."

Alina swallowed, looking through her own binoculars. She hated the sight of Hawkins Lab, and the tainted memories she had within it, but today she was more confused. Because it was completely dark. No lights were on, which was strange, given that her dad had told her the power was supposed to run 24/7. Which meant...

"They must be attacking the lab," she concluded. "The power's out. Usually it only goes out in emergencies." She squinted, pressing the binoculars into her eyes more. "It must be on a full lockdown, too. That's what happens when the power shuts down."

"How do you know all of that?" Max asked.

"I told you," said Alina, lowering her binoculars. "My dad worked there."

"She's right," said Lucas, purposefully avoiding eye-contact, sounding almost disappointed that she was. "We have to go check it out."

Gabe groaned. "Oh, great, we're heading right where the monsters almost killed us are going! That can't go wrong at all!"

"I have to agree with the new kid, here," said Steve. "We can't go there."

"Yes, we can!" Alina snapped. "It's not like we're going to go inside Steve, we're just going to hang around and see if anything's going on. All of those baby Demogorgons are inside." She didn't mention how she knew that.

Dustin, Lucas and Max agreed, and then Gabe reluctantly, and so because Steve was outnumbered, he had to agree. With a sigh, he led them, and the group began to walk through the woods again. At the front, Steve held his flashlight out and his bat at the ready, Lucas and Dustin were behind him, occasionally spouting an insult or two, and Alina, Gabe and Max all walked at the very back, Alina with her palms at the ready in case one of the Demogorgons tried to attack them. She limped along, gritting her teeth, for a couple of silent minutes, before Gabe finally spoke.

"I think this is yours," he said, holding out the switchblade to her. "I found it while we were looking for Will in the hallway."

Alina took it. It was the one Troy had stolen from her last year, only for her to snatch it right back after Eleven broke his arm. The one she was always going to use against the Demogorgon. The one she'd slashed Daniel across the face with.

She pocketed it, not wanting to look at the dried blood that still was streaked on the blade. "Thanks," she said. "Hey, how are you two holding up?"

"Surprisingly I haven't passed out yet," Gabe said. "I mean, I was always the guy who would die first in a zombie apocalypse, you know? But suddenly I'm fighting creatures from other dimensions and like, not dying, and threatening them with knives... I guess the tables have turned."

Max laughed. "Yeah, it's all pretty crazy," she said. "Especially that you have powers... this girl Eleven is one thing, but Al, you're actually my friend."

"How do you think I felt?" Alina asked. "I burned this guy's face last year. It was kind of insane."

"Woah."

"So, this Eleven sounds pretty cool," said Gabe. "And she was your friend, and you had that bond thing because of your powers. You guys... you guys must miss her a lot."

"Yeah," said Alina softly. "I do. After... after she died, I kept feeling like I was seeing her everywhere. PTSD, you know? I'd always see her... and my dad."

Max kept quiet, obviously remembering when Alina had told her about him during trick-or-treating, but Gabe's eyes widened. "Shit. I'm so sorry, Alina."

"Yeah," said Alina. "We didn't tell you this back in the bus, but he was one of the many people the Demogorgon killed in the lab that day." She sniffed, tears beginning to run down her cheeks. "It's pretty messed up, you know? And I just realized. Everything that's been going on... I've barely thought about them."

"That doesn't make you a bad person," said Gabe, like he'd read her mind. "I know it sucks to lose someone you care about, and you're always going to have that grief inside of you. Some days you'll think of them constantly, and it'll feel like there's a hole inside of you, that you're broken, but other days you'll still think of them, but it won't hurt as much anymore. As time goes on, you'll have more of those days. It doesn't make you bad, Alina. It means that you're healing."

Alina stopped for a moment, staring at her new friend, and then pulled him into a hug. Gabe hugged her back, and then the two of them gestured for Max to join in. She rolled her eyes good-naturedly but complied, and soon the newfound trio was hugging. At that moment, they all felt linked.

"You're pretty cool, Max Mayfield," said Alina. "And you too, Gabriel Burton."

"As are you," said Gabe, and then they started walking again. Alina felt lighter, somehow, unbeknownst of what was happening inside of her right now.

Sometimes he wondered if he'd made the right choice in choosing this girl. To have a small piece of himself nestled inside of her for almost a year, feeding off her negative emotions and the power that came with it. The girl wasn't weak—she was corrupted. Corrupted by an inky black force that lay dormant inside of her, blind to her words and her world but his ears open to her every thought. He could nest in there, give her doubts, make her wonder why, why, why. And he could use her like a puppet sometimes, just like he did with the other boy, the other vessel. He could move her arms for moments and then he would feel like he was truly in control.

But this girl fought back. She shut out the doubting voices inside of her head, fought to use her abilities—somehow, she'd managed to steal most of them right back, ripping them out of shadowy hands and bringing them back into her own palms. She was a peculiar vessel, which was why it would be so much fun to use her. But he had to get stronger. He had to wake up the boy—he was blind in him, too, as the woman (his mother, he supposed, although most human faces looked the same to him) had injected him with some kind of substance. He was proving to be less useful than he'd originally thought.

The girl was awake, though, and tonight, he would no longer be blind. Tonight he would open his new eyes and he would ruin any plans they might've had to stop him. Because these were just humans. No more than annoying gnats buzzing around his face. There were only eleven of them, after all. They were children—just children! And they really thought they had a chance.

Soon, they would all die. Soon, his army would conquer them all.

The shadow monster had a plan. And he wasn't going to let any pesky humans ruin it for him.

Gabe walked with Alina and Max, and he was unable to wipe the smile off of his face. Today had been crazy, absolutely insane, but at least he had friends. At least each and every one of them was still alive. At least they hadn't had their faces ripped out by those creatures (like Mews had. Even though the others seemed to have gotten over the loss of Dustin's cat, except maybe Alina, Gabe hadn't. He couldn't help but picture blood oozing out of a cat's body as a Demogorgon feasted on its flesh. Absolutely disturbing and horrific, and also, poor cat!). And at least he had something to do instead of wander around the neighborhood or stay home and play bingo with his grandparents.

Gabe had known that his grandparents had lived in Hawkins since he was six years old. Sometimes his dad would come into his room at three in the morning, wake him from his fitful slumber, and tell him to pack his bags, that they were leaving as soon as possible. Before Gabe could even rub the sleep out of his eyes, his dad would already be yelling at him, telling him to hurry up. Gabe would pack in a frenzy, inevitably forgetting his toothbrush or underwear, but his dad would drag him out anyway, and then they'd commute to Hawkins, where his dad would drop him off and speed off.

And when Gabe couldn't take his new stepmother and his new baby sister anymore, he knew his grandparents would be there to welcome him with open arms. And they had.

His dad hadn't come for him. Even though he knew where Gabe had gone, knew the only place he'd risk going was somewhere he already knew. Gabe liked it better this way. At least he never had to see her again.

The bushes rustled as he made his way through them, breaking through the trees into a small hill that led down to Hawkins Lab. He expected to keep going, but instead he crashed right into Max, who, like the others, was staring at the two figures who were standing at the gates.

He had no idea who they were, but apparently everyone else did. It was a girl and a boy, both around Steve's age, their car parked a little way away and their hair whipping in the wind. The two seemed to recognize their leader too, because at once they chorused, "Steve?"

"Nancy?" Steve asked.

Alina pushed through the crowd. "Jonathan!" she piped up, and Gabe now knew who they were. This was Mike's sister and Will's brother, the latter also one of the people Alina had apparently been staying with after her dad's death. As Gabe watched, Nancy and Jonathan made their way towards them.

"What are you doing here?" Nancy asked Steve, her eyes wandering onto the small crowd of kids trailing behind him.

"What are you doing here?" Steve asked, making his way down the hill. The others followed, their mouths agape at the unlikeliness of finding Nancy Wheeler and Jonathan Byers here by the lab.

"We were looking for Mike, Will and Alina," Nancy explained.

"I'm right here," said Alina, giving them a small wave, and then she immediately limped down to meet Jonathan, who pulled her into a hug. The gesture was such a big-brother thing to do that Gabe smiled, especially as he stroked her hair. He seemed like he had been worried about her.

"Mike and Will... they're not in there, are they?" Dustin asked, gesturing to the lab with the beam of his flashlight.

"We're not sure," said Nancy.

"Why?" Jonathan added, his arms still around Alina.

The sound of the monsters screeching startled them, Gabe most of all, who jumped, his heart thudding in his chest, but once he'd calmed down a little, he turned his head with the rest towards the lab. The creatures were in there. They were probably wreaking havoc. And Jonathan now knew why Dustin didn't want Will or Mike to be anywhere near it.

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

a/n: yeah so um max/gabe/alina is a TRIO. i love them and i love their bond and they're just,,, so cute. anyways i've officially confirmed in this chapter, so i'm just gonna say it: alina is possessed by the mind flayer. i've been holding that in for a while, phew. and, obviously, i had to change a few things up from canon related to this, so if you see something that doesn't really make sense in the context of the show... well it just didn't really work for this book. you'll see what i mean.

also another part of gabe's backstory is unlocked!! no spoilers but there's a chapter called "gabe's story" where you'll get the full thing. so sit tight for that.

okay final thing: do you guys want the full playlist of the acatalepsy series?? i made it on Spotify yesterday and it has the mixtapes for all three books. it's mostly 80s songs but a few from the st soundtrack and it kinda slaps ngl. especially the season three playlist. i can post a link here or whatever if you want :)

'till next time!