(y/n) - your name

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Max walks over to squeeze next to Lucas as he drapes a blanket over her, letting her lay her head on his shoulder and Billy narrows his eyes at the boy. He promised to keep an eye on the kid, moving to grab a cigarette to relieve his stress of this whole fucking situation.

Everyone soon nods off to sleep one by one, leaving Max and Billy to be the last ones still awake. "I'm sorry..." Max whispers, looking up at his brother who turns around to see her already looking at him.

"None of this is your fault. You can't blame yourself for things like this." he shakes his head but his sister persists.

"None of this would've happened if (y/n) didn't save me, didn't sacrifice herself to save me and give me her headphones or-"

"Maxine," Billy cuts her sister off and she purses her lips quickly. "I'm not going to say this again. None of this was your fucking fault. You're just a kid for fucks sake and this is all some magic and monster shit come to real life from fucking books. "you wouldn't have known any of this was going to happen."

"But-"

"-come back to Cali with (y/n) and I." Billy quickly says, cutting off Max who looked at him with wide eyes.

"What? Why?"

"Because of the demonic creatures coming out from hell!? That's why!?" related or not, it was every older sibling's instinct to look after the younger ones and Billy definitely didn't like the frown on his sister's face.

"Billy... I can't. What if something happens here and they need my help-"

"-well then they all need to leave too, run away from this Upside Down shit.

"We can't just leave this town with the monsters! They don't know what's going on like we do-"

"-and suddenly it's our job to kill these fuckers and make sure the people in town are safe!?" Billy snaps back. "We're not fucking heroes and we shouldn't have to be if we don't want to-"

"-I want to..." Max says, the siblings quietening down. "I want to help... I know I'm not a hero but please, please let me make it up to (y/n) for what she did for me..." she says, Billy sighing out. He takes one last puff, blowing the smoke above him and stubbing out the cigarette on a tray on the coffee table next to the couches.

"Fine Max. If that's what you want," he pats her head gently. "Then I guess we're staying a little longer back at Hawkins than planned." The siblings were the last to fall asleep, quickly dozing off to dreamland along with the others.

"He showed me things that haven't happened yet. The most awful things." Nancy says hoarsely, absolute fear and terror in her eyes as the visions ran past her eyes over and over again. Erica, Steve and Eddie were sitting on the couch in front of Nancy, Robin curled on the floor next to her, Lucas and Max standing by the wall behind the couch with Billy standing on guard with his arms crossed. "I saw a dark cloud spreading over Hawkins. Downtown on fire. Dead soldiers. And this... giant creature with... a gaping mouth." everyone listened carefully to what Nancy saw in her visions with dull expressions as if they were no life in them except for the fear in hers. "And this creature wasn't alone. There were so many monsters. An army. And they were coming into Hawkins. Into our neighborhoods. Our homes." Nancy was terrified, terrified of why and what Vecna had shown her, tearing up when she recalls what happens to her family. "And then... he showed me my mom. And Holly. Mike. And they... they were all..."

"Okay, but... he's just tryingto scare you, Nance." Steve blinks like crazy, snapping his head around in confusion. "Right? I mean... I mean, it's not real." he mumbles out, wondering how it was light already outside when he swore that the group decided to catch on some sleep. "Wait, when did we wake up? Eddie?" he shakes the man next to him who startles, almost as if being shot awake and he looks around in confusion.

"Where-this isn't Billy and (y/n)'s place." Eddie says, Billy waking up at the mention of his name and he quickly shoves off the wall and pats his chest as his heart was racing for some reason.

"Max, kid you good?" he asks his sister and Lucas who shakes their head, life brightening their dull eyes as they look around in confusion. Steve went to snap his fingers in front of Robin who falls back but quickly sits up in shock, Eddie shaking Dustin who swats his hands off when he wakes up.

"Weren't we just in your place right now?" Lucas asks, looking at Billy who was searching for (y/n).

"How the hell are we at Eddie's trailer again? Why are we here-and why is the gate gone!?" Steve exclaims, pointing up at the ceiling to see that it was back to normal.

"Someone explain to me what the hell is going on!" Max exclaims. "Where's (y/n)!?"

"I think this is a dream!" Dustin blurts out, pointing to Nancy who went on rambling about her vision on repeat until Robin went to gently wake her up. "We all went to sleep right, Max's place and now we're sharing a dream-"

"-that's just bullshit Henderson." Steve scoffs in disbelief when Nancy gasps in shock, waking up and looking around.

"Shut up! Where's (y/n)!?" Billy hisses out, moving to step out of the trailer when he stumbles back when the door slams open. "Shit!" he grits his teeth, looking at the imposter in front of him of his love as she looked at him tearful eyes. She wasn't (y/n), she wasn't his love as her skin decayed and moulted. "Stay the fuck back! What did you do to (y/n)!?" Billy yells out, grabbing a bat from next to him to keep this thing away but he freezes. The bat... it was the same one that belongs to (y/n) but he holds tight to it, walking backwards and standing guard as this creature staggard towards him brokenly.

"This is just a dream, this is just a dream!" Dustin screams out in fear, the grownups protecting the kids.

"Listen close, follow my instructions. There is no, time for introductions." the creature croaked with a warning, looking at the group. "He was the one that made us," she pointed to the Upside Down that the group suddenly realised was outside the trailer and they all realised Dustin was right about this being some sort of shared dream. "you'll be the one to save us." she points to the group then to herself, tears falling down her face.

"(y/n)?" Billy wavers, lowering the bat and recognising those warm doe eyes anywhere. "What happened? What's going on!?" he exclaims, the group staggering back when her arms suddenly get lifted violently like a puppet being controlled, a wicked smile on her face as her eyes rolled back.

Her voice growls in distortion, like multiple voices echoing from her mouth. "Underground, welcome to the circus. Power down, are you feeling nervous?" (y/n) shakes her head and rips her arms away from whatever was controlling her, her eyes full of colour again but with fear as she held her head to drown out the voices. "His voice means to deceive you, my voice just wants to lead you." she quickly points outside the window again to a foggy mirage, a scream echoing across the land as the group watches the Mindflayer pierce through (y/n) as she begs it to take her and not her family. The mirage quickly changes to when (y/n) escapes the clutches of Vecna in the Upside Down in Eddie's trailer, but the group notices a change in her demeanour as they watch how unresponsive she was to Billy when he hugged her in relief.

Dustin looks at the decayed figure, seeing her bright eyes filled with tears compared to the dull ones that were on (y/n) in the mirage. "That's not (y/n)," the group looks at him as the colour drained from his face. "(y/n) didn't come back from escaping the curse..."  the group slowly turns to the decayed girl standing in front of them.

"(y/n)..." Billy drops the bat, noticing how she held onto his mother's necklace with dear life, the gem glowing brightly.

"I'm sorry..." she croaks out, reaching out to the group as if she needed someone to hold her.

"We're going to help you (y/n)!" Steve says quickly. "Tell us what we need to do! Where are you!?"

"I'm sorry..." that was all she could muster out tiredly before her eyes rolled back again. "There's no one left to find you (y/n)... I'll take your place inside you." the dark voice spilled from her lips, the group shrieking as (y/n) suddenly gets pulled down to the floor by tentacles grabbing around her body.

"(Y/N)!" Billy rushed to help her but she screams as she gets dragged away out through the door and the group's vision goes black.

"Oh, shit!" the whole group quickly sits up in the living room while hyperventilating, either gasping for air from the suffocating darkness they were thrown into or the fact that they had a shared dream.

"We got a lot to talk about before (y/n)-if that is even her upstairs anymore-wakes up." Robin whisper yells quickly. "We need to figure out a way to save her!"

"First, Nancy, you gotta tell us what Vecna showed you when he cursed you." Dustin asks and she slowly nods, retelling everything that he made her saw to the group.