Okay hold up, I might be getting ahead of myself. Cause our story this time doesn't start with me and Mike going to California, but the day before.

March 21st 1986

The final day before spring break. Oh boy was I excited, I got to see Will again. And boy was I lucky with the friends I had. Since my mom hasn't shown up yet in the past 3 or 4 years I had to ask everyone to help me raise the money for the tickets. Oh and btw do not be going around asking questions like: who pays the bills? It isn't important to the story right now.

Anyway, everyone helped me with getting the ticket, and Robin and Steve were even nice enough to pay like half of the tickets together. Robin especially put in the most money cause she supports the gay love.

Tomorrow was the day, tomorrow I would see him again. Today however, was one final day of school, which started with Lucas' pep rally. Oh that's right how did I forget to mention that, we are in high school now.

And to get you up to speed with the situations of my friends right now: Mike, still has to be useful, so the words from last summer still count for him.

Goddammit Mike can't you be helpful for once?!

Dustin is uh, still Dustin I guess, nothing much. Lucas is trying to become popular, which is working, but it also kinda splits us apart. Max is still not opening up which is fine I guess but I feel bad for her.

And Will is in California, which is basically everything you need to know.

So back to the pep rally. There I stood next to Mike and Max with Mike next to Dustin, all watching Lucas and his basketball team, or atleast his team captain, I really don't know, couldn't care less about basketball. I don't even know his name.

He was trying to inspire the crowd I guess. He was saying stuff along the lines of: "Think of Jack, Melissa, Heather, Billy and Jim Hopper who all died in that horrible mall fire."

I guess I dozed off for a few seconds since I got startled but the whole crowd cheering suddenly. "Tonight?" Mike asked while turning to Dustin. "How is that possible?" Dustin asked back totally confused. "They call it a tournament," Max replied. "You win one game, go on until there's one team left," she continued. "Wait, sorry, what did I exactly miss?" I asked. "Lucas has a game tonight," Mike said. I was utterly baffled. In shock. No now I'm exaggerating. This is exactly what I meant with him kinda being left out of the group by wanting to become popular. "Maybe we can talk him out of it?" I suggested.

So first thing we did after the pep rally was trying to find Lucas and try to talk him out of the game.

"I don't get the big deal, just talk to Eddie, get him to move Hellfire to another night," Lucas said once we stepped outside.

"Just talk to Eddie," Dustin said, mocking Lucas for even daring to say that.

"Why don't you just talk to your coach and get him to move the game," Mike suggested, also mocking Lucas. So since everyone was mocking Lucas and I for once again didn't really care I just decided to join in.

"I think that's a great idea Mike!" I said to which he replied: "Thank you (y/n)!"

"This is the championship game!" Lucas said.

"And this is the end of Eddie campaign," I answered. This conversation alone felt like a D&D match. Just throwing arguments back and forth hoping for the most damage.

"A semester of adventuring has led to this moment and we need you!" Dustin said. "Yeah and the Tigers don't, you have been on the bench all year!" Mike said.

"That is not the point," Lucas said.

"Well then please, arrive at the point," I said. I regretted that I said that cause he immediately began his monologue again on how him becoming popular was for the greater good.

"Has it ever occurred to you that we don't want to be popular?" Mike asked.

"You wanna be stuck with the nerds and the freaks for three more years?!" Lucas asked.

"Once a freak, always a freak," I told him.

"Yeah but maybe we don't have to be, we came to high school wanting things to be different right? If I don't play tonight, all of it will be thrown out of the window, so I'm asking you, as a friend, please ta..."

I walk up to him and start shaking my head.

"We are not going to ask Eddie to move the game," I told him.

What follows is Mike and Dustin dragging me to Eddie to ask him move the game.

So we arrived at the cafeteria where Eddie was reading an article on D&D and how it corrupts anyone that plays it. He was kind of mocking it and feeling violated at the same time.

Dustin and Mike dragged me to the table and sat down as Eddie said: "We're the freaks because we like to play a fantasy game, but..." He smacked his hand onto the table and then proceeded to climb on top of it, which I was very surprised about as he almost stepped right onto my plate, so I quickly pulled it aside.

"... as long as you're into band or science or parties, or a game where you toss balls into laundry baskets!" he continued as he yelled this to everyone in the cafeteria. Some guy called him a loser as the team captain from before (still don't know his name, still don't care) asked him if Eddie wanted something. The guy felt attacked which was exactly the goal.

And then Eddie made some horns by placing his hands on his head and he sticked out his tongue. Dustin laughed at it but I couldn't as I was still preparing for our asses getting beaten in a second when we told him Lucas wasn't going to make it this night.

Eddie meanwhile continued the rampage as he jumped up the table while yelling "That's what's killing the kids!" in someone's face. And then of course, like the gentleman he is, he safely let some cheerleaders pass him. "That's the real monster." He said.

Dustin then used that to announce our announcement. "So uh, speaking of monsters, uh, Lucas has to uh..." I cut him off. "These two were going to ask you if you could move the game since Lucas has his championship finals tonight," I said. Eddie looked angrily at me. "Woah, hey, I didn't agree with that idea."

Everyone started getting angry and saying stuff like "Over my dead body," but Eddie quickly got them all to shut up. "You're saying Sinclair has been taken by the darkside?" he asked me. "Uh, something like that," I responded. "Something like that?" He threw some grapes at me. "And instead of finding a sub, you want to postpone "The Cult of Vecna?" he continued. "Again, not my words," I said.

"Let me level with you, Jeff graduates this year, Gareth's got, what? A year and a half? Me, I am army-crawling my way toward a D in Ms. O'Donnell's. If I don't blow her final, I'm going to walk that stage next month, I'm gonna..." He said. "Yes and then you look the principal dead in the eye, flip him the bird, snatch the diploma and graduate, you already told that twice, and Jeff and Gareth for sure know you have said it for the past years now," I said. "Are you trying to be a pain in the ass?" "If you are implying it, then yes, we know... I know that we are the future of Hellfire, so can we please go now and find a sub?" I asked. Eddie slowly took a deep breath. "Go, before I kill you." He said.

Finding the sub took long. But eventually we found one, the one and only Erica Sinclair. So that night, we got Erica and the four of us went to go and play the game. If Erica was allowed to play, which Eddie immediately gave an absolutely not.

"You asked for a sub, we delivered," Dustin told him. "This is Hellfire club, not Babysitting club," he replied. "I'm eleven you long-haired freak!" Erica said. "My, my, the child speaks, so what's your name, child?" "Erica Sinclair," "So this is Sinclair's infamous sister," "He's sharp," Erica said as she looked at me, Mike and Dustin. "What's your class and level? Level one dwarf?" Eddie asked ready to laugh at her. But Erica went right back at him. "My name is Lady Applejack and I'm a chaotic good half-elf rogue, level 14. I will sneak behind any monster you throw my way and stab them in the back with my poison-soaked kukri and I'll smile as I watch them die a slow, agonizing death. So are we gonna do this or we gonna keep chitchatting like this is your mommy's book club?"

The room got quiet for a second. Then Eddie welcomed her to Hellfire as we then began our game. And like any D&D game this one also took like forever. But Vecna was a tough opponent, as he slaughtered Mike, Jeff and Gareth with ease. Vecna left me, Erica and Dustin on very low hp, all a one-shot kill. However, Vecna was also close to dying. So we had a quick chitchat moment to discuss if we would flee or just go for it. We ended up just going for it. We all had only one chance. Dustin went first. He missed with the 11 he rolled. Then it was my turn. I rolled a 9 which also wasn't enough.

Then it was up to Erica. And she killed Vecna as she rolled a 20. Everything happened very fast as the giant celebration began.

Afterwards I went with Mike to Mike's place as I would sleepover so I wouldn't miss the plane the next morning.

In bed I started thinking, life without Will, it was going better then I expected which was, unexpected. Tomorrow I would see him again, the love of my life. I quickly fell asleep with the thought of finally falling into his arms again.

The dream however, wasn't that pleasant. At first I just saw dead bodies of children everywhere. I was so confused as to who these were and why. Then I saw Nine again, waving, and then, flying right into my head. Which is followed by Will, looking at me, broken, in the rain, at Castle Byers. I wanted to kiss him but I couldn't as with every step towards him I took, more vines started growing from the ground around my legs and then slowly pulling me down. Eventually I went under as I could hear the faint sound of a clock. The first thing I saw again was a dark room with weird blue-ish lighting and a door with wooden planks preventing anyone from entering or leaving. I walked up to the door as from the other side I then saw Will who slowly shifted into a cheerleader. The girl screamed for help as I tried to get the wooden planks out of the way. Then she turned around as a dark and scary voice told her not to cry. The girl was apparently called Chrissy. And then the door went up in smoke as I just saw Chrissy. She started levitating and then all her bones proceeded to snap in ways that must not have been very pleasant for her. She fell down dead and I woke up to Mike, telling me it was time to go.

So in a hurry I grabbed all the stuff I needed, which I had started to already dump at Mike's place in the past week and brushed my nightmare off as just a nightmare.

But oh boy would I have been happy if it indeed would have been a nightmare.