we've missed you

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

Before anyone could even react, the flayed Tom Holloway lifted Jonathan Byers up by his collar using his Mind Flayer induced strength. With a grunt, he slammed the boy against the cabinet, where Jonathan promptly fell to the ground, a moan tearing loose from his lips. Alina's vision was blackening now, her vocal cords aching, but the sight of her brother being hurt yet again made her muster up her voice to call his name. As desperate tears fell down her face, Alina rubbed her palms together, trying to make some kind of spark, but she was too tense to let anything in, and therefore nothing arrived. And perhaps she should've kept quiet, because Tom whirled around at the sound of her voice, seeming to remember that she was there.

Alina couldn't move—she could barely breathe—so she was defenseless when Tom picked her up next. Seizing her by the collar, Alina felt her feet lift off the ground again, and she could do nothing but stare into his cold eyes. They were the eyes of the monster, and she could see the Mind Flayer peeking out of the dilated pupils. She could see it in the insane smile on Tom's lips.

Tom's voice was slime when he spoke next. "Well, well," he said, keeping a firm hand on her. "Who is this bleeding all over the hospital room right now?"

It was like a slap in her already-injured face, a kick to her bruised ribs. The reference to the dinner, where Tom Holloway had been human, if a bit of an asshole. The Mind Flayer was toying with her, showing a bit of his old humanity from his old life and lacing the words with venom. It wasn't Tom Holloway speaking anymore, Alina knew, but the Mind Flayer had access to all of him. His memories. His mind. His heart. Just like it had for her last year. So Tom had no secrets anymore.

Alina wheezed through broken vocal cords. "L-leave my brother alone," she pleaded. Her words were slurring a little less now, but they were still thick. It didn't matter, anyway. She didn't think the Mind Flayer was judging her. "P-please. I'll... I'll do anything."

"Will you?" Tom asked, tilting his head. "I know. We know that about you. We know everything about you. We know that you'd do anything for your family." His tone was high and mocking. "Anything. But it's a real shame, Alina Fairgrieves, because there's nothing you can give to us that we can't just take for ourselves."

He slammed her against the cabinet, and Alina couldn't look away from his eyes. She couldn't move, couldn't struggle, and so she just had to listen as the Mind Flayer spoke right to her. "We've missed you, do you know that? And you're going to come home soon. You're going to become a part of us again. You're going to be welcomed with open arms."

And then he slammed her against the cabinet again, and Alina fell to the floor in a heap. Her mouth filled with blood and she realized she'd bitten her tongue, but that was the least of the worries because she was on fire, she was an inferno, she was being consumed by flames. Her vision was blackening, and even when it cleared—which took too long to be considered healthy—it was still like she was seeing everything through a thick veil of smoke.

She wondered if she'd pass out.

"Alina," Jonathan moaned from the ground, attempting to crawl towards her, but Tom grabbed him again and shoved him over the bloody medicine cart. Alina could see his arms and legs flailing as he toppled over it, could hear his groans, but all she could do was lie there, her heart beating abnormally fast as her mind whirled at the Mind Flayer's implications. She was missed. She was wanted home. She was going to be flayed.

I can't let that happen again, she thought desperately. Not to me. Not to anyone. I have to do something.

Come on, come on. Alina's hands were stiff, but she managed to raise them to rub her hands together. Come on, come on. I'm allowing you in. Her palms were sweaty, her entire face drenched in blood, panic ripping through her with each passing second, and it wasn't working and they were all going to die or get flayed—

Then, a miracle, as amazing as a birthday wish coming true or a boy coming back to life. Alina's palms began to itch. It was the best feeling she had ever felt.

With Tom still focused on Jonathan, who was attempting to crawl towards the pair of bloody scissors Nancy had discarded during her erratic flight, Alina sunk her nails into the red-stained floor. Her entire body lit up with pain and she bit down on her tongue and a scream, moving forward towards her brother. Tears streamed from her eyes and her heart thumped wildly, but she managed to claw herself to a sitting position. Or, at least, the closest to a sitting position she could handle without passing out. Dizziness was sweeping over her, and instead of one Tom she saw two, but her palms were burning and she had to save Jonathan. She had to save him.

Tom knelt down, grabbed Jonathan by the hair, and slammed his head against the floor, where his whimpers faded to silence. His eyes were closed. And that was when Alina acted.

Closing her eyes, Alina let a ball of energy form on her palms. She could see the red light behind her eyelids and let it grow bigger and bigger, until it was a sphere of glowing crimson. With blood trickling from her broken nose, Alina opened her eyes and, remembering El's training, and flung the ball of energy right at Tom's back.

It hit the target right on, sizzling through his thin clothing and knocking Tom to the ground. His foot caught on the scissors and sent them skidding away from Jonathan, and he let out a ferocious howl, whirling towards Alina. She could see that the skin on his back was blistering and red and attempted to back up, staring in terror at the snarl that had made its way onto Tom's face.

"You bitch!" he growled, and there was nowhere for Alina to go, to run, because she was in so, so much pain, and Tom slowly rose to his feet, seeming like he was in agony, and lunged towards her. Alina saw the red light leeching off his wounds and beginning to float towards her, but it was too late, because Tom had already seized her by the hair, his gnarled fingers tangling in it. Alina screamed as pain ripped at her skull and Tom threw her to the ground, where her cheek slammed into the cold, bloody floor.

Before she could move, Tom's foot was on her back, pressing her against the ground, and she could do nothing but watch as the flayed man picked up the bloody scissors and held them above Jonathan, who was still unconscious. His breath was heavy, and his smile was insane, and as a helpless Alina watched, Tom looked down at her.

"Love," he said. "It's humanity's greatest weakness. And we learned that from you, Alina Fairgrieves. We learned a lot from you."

"Don't," Alina begged, because she knew what was going to happen, knew that the Mind Flayer was going to kill Jonathan. "Don't!"

Tom brought the scissors down and Alina screamed, sure she'd just watched Jonathan die, but then she noticed that he hadn't made it all the way there. Halfway down, Tom had staggered, dropping the scissors, and blood began pouring from his face. He looked like he'd been hit, but neither Jonathan, who was still unconscious, nor Alina, who had just received the energy back and had been attempting to form another beam of energy, had done anything.

Then Alina remembered that the flayed were connected, and to hurt one was to hurt the other. Which meant that, hopefully, Nancy was still alive somewhere else in the hospital, and she had managed to get a hit on the other flayed man that had been chasing her.

Jonathan began to stir, and Alina looked up at Tom, whose face had transformed. His teeth were oozing black and his face was crawling with veins, and he wobbled slightly as he brought his hand to the wound. And it was enough for Alina to no longer see Tom as Tom anymore, to see him as the monster that was wearing his skin. This was the monster that had stayed inside of her for a year, that had done the same for Will and Heather and Mrs. Driscoll and even Billy, this was the creature that hurt El and Gabe in the sauna, that hurt so many people. This was the monster that could end the world. It was enough for what happened next to happen.

The energy came from everywhere, not just her palms. It floated out of her body and surrounded her like an aura, swirling around her body and lighting it up with red. Her hands, which usually were just cradles for it, looked like they were encased in red gloves. Not a flash of bare skin could be seen. Her nose was bleeding, but Alina couldn't feel it, couldn't even feel the pain of her wounds as she stared Tom down. She was lit up with energy, and she was angry. No, not angry. Alina Fairgrieves Byers was furious.

Alina unleashed a vicious scream, the sound echoing across the hospital room, and then the energy surrounding her was sent forward, all of flying right towards the stumbling Tom just as Jonathan—who Alina hadn't even realized had woken up—plunged the scissors into the man's neck. The dual attacks—plus, it seemed, another one from Nancy, as a dent appeared in Tom's skull—sent him flying back in a breathless second, his entire face overrun with black streaks and his skin glistening with burns. And then he crashed into the wall, and didn't move. His eyes, just like the ones of the dead doctors she'd seen in the hallway, were open and glassy.

He was dead.

Jonathan jumped back, his chest heaving, turning to look at Alina, who promptly collapsed. The leftover energy she'd hurled at Tom zoomed right back into her, filling her up again, and this time, her eyelids didn't grow heavy. They stayed wide open as she lay on the floor, nausea boiling up inside her. Her entire body was throbbing, and exhaustion was beginning to sweep over her, but Jonathan was standing up and he was okay and they'd done it, they'd killed him.

They'd killed him. A person but not a person.

After a couple minutes of just breathing, the two of them in sync with racing hearts, Alina gripped onto the medicine cart and rose to her feet. Her legs were shaky and her entire body was throbbing, but the adrenaline still zooming through her allowed her to finally get to her feet. She stared at Jonathan, her face wet with tears, and then she said his name.

Jonathan stepped away from Tom's corpse and towards her. "Alina," was all he said before they were throwing their arms around each other, sobbing, the embrace hurting both of them but neither of them wanting to let go. They were both covered in blood and filth, but they were alive. They were alive.

Jonathan's voice was shaking when he finally spoke. "Al... I... I thought I was going to lose you." He was crying, too, Alina realized. "Oh my God. Oh my God, Alina. Don't do that again, okay? Not ever."

Alina's voice was raspy, but it was no longer thick. "S-sure. I'll try not to let Tom Holloway almost kill me again."

Jonathan laughed, actually laughed, and held her tighter. "You know what I mean."

The two of them needed desperate medical attention, both bleeding enough to fill a bathtub, so after ten more seconds, they finally detached, their blood smeared on each other's already-filthy clothes.

Alina hadn't noticed the lights were barely flickering until they started again, plunging them into quick darkness before turning back on again. And then, impossibly, from the floor, Tom Holloway, who was supposed to be dead, began to moan.

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

a/n: the way i cried while editing jonathan and alina's hug scene... i just love them so much 🥺🥺

this scene was so fun to write 🙈🙈 i guess i just like hurting characters LMFAOO but like also the part where tom (who was the [redacted] i was talking about) telling alina she's going to be flayed gave me chills 😳 it's this kind of stuff i add into my books to try and really make it seem like it's a part of canon, so hopefully i succeeded 🙈

'till next time!