Chapter Eighty-Two: You're Losing Me

It was hard, with the lack of oxygen and all, but Annie was getting up. Albeit a little slowly. She heard someone come running over and looked up and saw El, right there, now helping her stand back up.

"Annie, are you okay?" El asked, looking over the girl in front of her.

But Annie was also looking over El, but for a much different reason. "El..." Annie whispered, tears of relief coming to. "I... Are you... are you real?" Annie asked, poking at El's face. She was tired of the people she loved and cared for being used against her by Vecna.

El took one of Annie's hands in both of hers. "I'm real."

"H-how?"

"I piggybacked from a pizza dough freezer."

She couldn't help it. Annie burst into laughter at El's words, because she was the only person Annie knew who could deliver such lines so seriously, and she wouldn't get why they were so funny.

Annie pulled El into a hug, holding her as tight as she physically could. "I am so happy that you're here," she whispered.

El hugged her back, holding her just as tight. "Me too."

Annie wanted to say more, because now she actually wanted to know what the El had been talking about. But a creaking in the house stopped her.

The girls looked in the direction of the noise, and Annie saw a giant hole in the wall where El must've thrown Vecna. He was down for a moment, but not forever. They took cautious steps forward and watched Vecna pry himself off the ground.

When he stood up, he did not look very happy. Annie could understand.

"Stay back," El commanded as Vecna started walking forward. Annie looked over at the other girl and only saw determination on her face. When El went to meet Vecna in the middle of the room, Annie did as she said and stayed back. She would do anything to keep El at an advantage.

They finally stopped walking to each other, and El took in a breath.

"If you touch her again, I will kill you again." Her voice was completely steady, and it even sent chills down Annie's spine. She's rarely had the chance to see El so serious, and when she did, she knew it meant shit was going down.

"Is that what you did? Hmm? Did you kill me?" Annie took some extra steps back, not entirely liking the way Vecna was talking. "I am so glad you are here, Eleven. This... is going to be beautiful."

He raised his hands, and along with them came pieces of broken wood. They all pointed to Eleven, and acted as swords almost. "So beautiful. And it's all thanks to you."

Thunder cracked above them, and Annie nearly jumped out of her skin. But she was okay. Not only did she have the people trying to kill Vecna, but she had the ones keeping her safe on the other side. And now, she had Eleven.

Her shoulders slumped, however, when Annie remembered some of what Vecna had shown her. The flashes of Eddie and Dustin being attacked by the bats, and Steve, Robin, and Nancy being held to the walls, suffocating.

Suddenly she felt her chances had suddenly gotten slimmer.

Vecna threw the shards of wood forward, and El deflected them easily. However, Vecna followed quicker than El recovered. He thrusted a hand forward and sent her flying back, crashing into a wall near to Annie.

Then, he picked El up again and threw her into the kitchen, and she slammed into cabinets. When she fell, she landed on the counter first before rolling to the floor.

"El!" Annie cried, but was too scared to move anywhere. She didn't know if she could handle being back in Vecna's target.

But he kept throwing El, and it was starting to freak Annie out. She looked around the room and tried to find anything she could use as a weapon against Vecna. Her options were limited to things she could carry and things that would do actual damage to him.

Her eyes landed on a stray shard of wood. It was long enough to do actual damage, and it was close to where she was hiding.

Her mind went back to words Max had told her over and over again: "You are so brave... you have no idea how brave you are... you're still a badass, though..." Her girlfriend's voice was the only thing she needed.

After Vecna picked El up again, Annie was on the move. She hurried over to where the wood was and picked up a decent sized piece. Splinters were making their way into her hand, but that was the least of her problems.

El made contact with another wall, falling to the ground in pain. This was Annie's opening. She stood and started charging at Vecna.

He turned and looked at her, and that's when Annie let out a war cry and hoisted the wood piece higher.

Vecna, however, was easily able to throw her off to the side with a simple wave of his hand. Annie let out a yell as she started flying, and suddenly crashed through the glass doors to the backyard.

The impact of that followed by a hard landing on the concrete by the pool left her down, barely wavering between consciousness and not.

It was all El needed, though. The second Vecna's attention was off of her, she was on her feet and rushing forward. She hoped it would work.

Yet, Vecna was better than that. He turned and took an invisible hold over El before she had the chance, and her whole body seized and tensed. It was getting harder for her to breathe. It got worse when Vecna picked her up and El was now fully in his control.

"Before I kill you... I want you to watch..." Vecna suddenly pushed El back, throwing her into a portal that took her away from Annie's house and into a bright, blood-red world.

Her vision was bleary, so she couldn't make out much around her. Even when she felt vines grab a hold of her wrists and drag her up to a wall, El wasn't able to fight it off. She was too tired. Vecna was too much for her.

She could make out a distant tick... tock... sound. It stirred her mind enough to get her to open her eyes fully and see where she was. The first sights were not comforting.

A mangled body was mounted on a pillar. She was blond, with a bow in her ponytail. The clothes she was wearing reminded El of a photo Annie sent. It was of her in a cheer uniform. This girl was a cheerleader. One Annie knew.

El looked away at the thoughts of Annie, and saw Vecna carrying her unconscious friend over his shoulder. Like she was nothing but a sack of bones. Her eyes were wide with fear, but she simply didn't have strength to fight the tightening vines on her wrists and ankles.

Annie was set down on the ground by part of a wall that was still standing. Once there, more vines took over and hoisted Annie up against the wall, similar to how El was.

And how the cheerleader was.

El was terrified now, and threw out the only thing she thought would work. "Papa is dead!"

It had an effect. Vecna paused, and slowly turned around to face the girl. When he didn't speak, El took it as an invitation to keep going. "I know what he did to you," she said, her jaw quivering as she remembered what she learned. "You were different. Like me."

The words she spoke brought up memories, and also tears that freely fell. "And he hurt you... he made you... into this. He is the monster, Henry. Not you... not you!"

Vecna, who'd been walking over to El during her speech, stepped up to be directly in front of the girl. "You're right. You and I, we are different. And Papa did hurt me. But he was no monster. He was just a man. An ordinary, mediocre man. That is why he sought greatness in others. In you. And me."

El breathed heavily, not sure where this was going and how she was going to make any of this work in her favor. She let out a shaky breath as Vecna brought one of his monstrous claws to her face, creepily brushing her jaw.

"But in the end..." he continued, "he could not control us. He could not shape us. He could not change us. Do you not see, Eleven? He did not make me into this. You did."

Annie could feel herself trying to wake up. It started like she was in a dream, and she wasn't sure what was real and what it was she was hearing. All she knew, is that it was deep and gravely. It make her feel inexplicably cold.

Her senses seemed to wake up on their own, one by one. Her mouth was dry, throat burning. She hadn't been screaming, had she? But she might've been. Her breaths were also coming out quick and shallow.

Then, she could feel something slimy on her. It was on some of her clothes, but mostly she felt it on her arms and legs, underneath her sweater and jeans. It wasn't completely unfamiliar, it was unwelcome.

Her nose started to pick up on strong smells of blood, and that's when familiarity was starting to kick up a notch to recognition. When her hearing cleared up, she couldn't quite make out the words, but she could pinpoint the voice.

Vecna.

It was followed by a lighter, more scared voice, another she could recognize almost immediately.

El.

Her eyes started to flutter open, and she felt shock wash over her body, and then she was quickly drowning in fear.

Annie found herself back in Vecna's Upside Down lair. The Creel house that seemed to have exploded into thousands of pieces that roam the air. The bright red skies and blood-soaked ground that had triggered her nose.

When the words finally became clear, Annie had wished they never did.

"And now, I just want you to watch."

She turned her head weakly and saw Vecna turning to face her, and he started walking back over. Behind him, she saw El, also restrained against the wall with the same slimy vines Annie felt on her.

"El..." she whimpered and she started hyperventilating as Vecna got closer and closer to her. "El, please." When she looked at the girl again, Annie could see a vine wrapping itself many times around her neck. "No..."

Vecna made it up to her, getting as close as he did last time, not allowing Annie to be able to look at El for help or even for comfort. She started openly sobbing now, not caring if Vecna saw the darkness or saw her fear. It was too strong to hide.

He reached a bony, claw-like finger up and said, "Don't be afraid." As if that would help anything. "Try and stay very still."

Annie shook her head, sobbing out the word 'no' when she could. But nothing was helping her case anymore. There was no Bonnie Tyler, there was no El to come save the day.

"It will all be over soon."