ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴜʀɴ

If it wasn't clear already, Hawkins was royally screwed and ran over with a bulldozer three times in a row.

The night that Sol and the rest of the younger teenagers went to gather the rest of their friends left a mark on Sol, a big, ugly, mark on her brain that she couldn't scrub out.

She had received a warning from her sister, this she was sure of, maybe more than anything before. She didn't need to see Adelaide's face nor an outline of her silhouette no, Adelaide's presence felt like that of twenty or thirty men all looming in the distance, just watching you. Her ability to occupy the mind seemed quite unnatural, she navigated the human brain as if it were a maze she spent her whole life in.

There had to be more to Adelaide's story, missing just wasn't gonna cut it.

But even with all those questions in her mind, Adelaide had pushed those aside the night before, like she was in full control, and instead, she delivered a haunting message, one worse than the fact that they were running out of time:

The world will fall.

Not just Hawkins, not even just the state of Indiana, the entire world would fall into the veiny and spiny hands of the Upside Down, no longer being held back by a barrier and having free range over everyone and anything. Of course, it was strange to think she hadn't seen it earlier, why would Vecna just stop at Hawkins when he could have the world? Why would the mind flayer stop? Beings like that have a way of recognizing the concept of limitations—till a bigger fish comes along.

But what the hell would Soleil do with that information? Apparently, keep it under wraps till Adelaide gave the go which was cryptic as hell. And as much as she would like to think that somehow she and the rest of the group could rise against all odds and defeat a force they have no way of measuring the power of in the end, that would be too much wishful thinking. To even have a chance at defeating whatever would rise out of that tear in time and space they would need an army, an army of people like Soleil, people like El, rare to find people but that realization brought up even more things to worry about.

And they had plenty.

It was a notion Nancy Wheeler was starting to add onto after she started to share what Vecna did when he entered her mind. As the rest of the group sat and listened to her in Max's trailer she spoke like a soldier, who was struggling to explain the horrors they had seen while at war.

"He showed me things that haven't happened yet. The most awful things...I saw a dark cloud spreading over Hawkins. Downtown on fire. Dead soldiers. And this giant creature with a gaping mouth. And this creature wasn't alone. There were so many monsters. An army. And they were coming into Hawkins. Into our neighborhoods. Our homes. And then he showed me, my mom. And Holly. Mike." Her eyes were blotched with tears. "And they...they were all..."

Nancy took a shaky breath, trying to push everything back but Vecna had already scarred her deeply. Steve had been the first to speak after her.

"Okay, but...he's just trying to scare you, Nance. Right? I mean...I mean, it's not real."

She shook her head. "Not yet. But there...there was something else. He showed me gates. Four gates. Spreading across Hawkins. And these gates, they looked like the ones outside of Eddie's trailer, but they didn't stop growing. And this wasn't the Upside Down Hawkins. This was our Hawkins. Our home."

Nobody spoke, the terror-filled thought of Hawkins being pummeled into ashes and out of history demanded quiet but that didn't mean there wasn't a shred of hope left.

"But then..." Nancy started slowly at first, everyone paid close attention, especially Soleil. "I felt a warm presence and-and I was taken back to sophomore year, at the kitchen table, with those Chem flashcards. Dad—he was in the living room with Holly, Mike was downstairs, and Mom was out doing errands. It was like a regular old Friday but then it wasn't." She stared at Soleil, almost like a plea to understand. "I saw a tophat on the chair next to me, and it wasn't like this plain black one, it was uh, it was purple and it had all these ribbons, and buttons on it, um..."

A purple tophat, it was one of Adelaide's favorites as Soleil could recall—she had been given it as a gift for her thirteenth birthday by the Ringmaster. Yet another message, so subtle that Vecna could find it in time, tricky enough to buy her enough time to get her message out and free Nancy from Vecna's grasp.

Steve took Nancy's hand and looked into her eyes, trying to ground her and maybe even relighting a few sparks in the process. "Take your time Nance. Try to focus."

She nodded, Steve had managed to soothe her as she crept back into the story. "Those Chem flashcards stopped showing Redox reactions and the properties of electrons, they started showing names."

Soleil leaned in closer as she wiped her excess makeup off, this was something very urgent. Nothing, not one single piece of specific information had been released by Adelaide. Things had to have been getting dire for her to risk doing something like that.

"What names?" Sol breathed out and Nancy racked her brain.

"Ryder, Flynn, Elowen, Jamie, and Cole." Nancy paused. "The last flashcard told me the only way is to find them, find eight and then go down."

"Back down, the Upside Down..." Dustin spoke. "The only way to what?"

"I don't know, I was brought back before anything else happened."

Soleil grabbed the sides of her seat, she felt the blood pulse through her head like she had finished running seven miles and her burns seemed to heat up once again. Her knuckles went white and her eyes grew big.

No wonder Adelaide had to keep this under wraps because if anyone, anyone Vecna could easily access, anyone who wasn't bonded to Adelaide like Soleil knew the true plan, they would all be laying in a grave of rubble and scrap.

Eddie was the first one to notice her heavy breathing and his surprise was unmatched. He once again held her by the shoulders while the others watched, almost in horror.

"Sunny? Sunny? What? What now?" He panicked, thinking Sol was in some sort of deep trance again.

She felt a headache come on. "All of those names—they are the names of my dead brothers and sisters."

The tension in the room swelled like music reaching its peak volume and then it burst into a fit of confusion, fear, and uproar.

Dustin clutched his snapback. "Your siblings? Why do they keep coming in this?"

Lucas added on. "How does that make any sense? I-I mean, they weren't even from Hawkins what could they do to stop Vecna? They're dead!"

Erica sighed deeply. "Great, now the ghosts of dead children are involved in it."

Steve ran a hand through his thick hair, stressing out even more than before. "What? I mean what are we supposed to do with that? Rob their graves? What the hell does that even mean?"

The unsure atmosphere gripped everyone except Max who seemingly was lost in a whole other plane of thinking. Sol was sure they didn't mean to sound insensitive but things were getting hectic. Eddie now pulled Soleil into his side, he saw how it all overwhelmed her but what he saw was only skin deep. He had no idea about the nightmare that was cooked up in her mind but still—somehow, whatever magic that odd, metal-head, rockstar held, it brought peace into her mind. He let her lay against his chest for a second, softly stroking her hair but being ever so careful that he wouldn't mess it up.

She looked up at him. "Eddie?" He shushed her.

"I'm not gonna make this harder than it already is for you, Sunny. Just listen to my heart, it's gonna be fine."

And she did as he said, she listened to his heart as it pumped blood with mighty force but then it slowed, Eddie was trying to steady his breathing as well.

"When it's all over, we're gonna leave Hawkins, we're gonna start a band, play at some bar in the middle of nowhere, working to the top...then when we have a shitload of money, I'm gonna buy my uncle a house and you could buy Cassie and your Dad one, just like you wanted so he could end that circus and in between tours we're just gonna go to all the concerts we can, and the arcades, the record shops, the movies, anywhere, wherever we can think off, wherever you want to go...we'll go." He greeted her with a soft smile, refreshing amongst the grim background of Hawkins.

Though Soleil didn't even really know if Eddie believed in anything he was saying or even if she believed it—she knew one thing, those words were just what she needed at the moment—from Eddie's kind heart, even in his worse moments, he was taking care of her. Now that, that was a man. A man anyone would be lucky to have.

"Wait..four chimes," Max spoke up, making everyone pause. "Vecna's clock. It always chimes four times. Four exactly."

Nancy spoke. "I heard them too." She looked over at Soleil again. "Then, I felt that warm presence, I heard the oven go off eight times and then it stopped beeping."

Everyone stopped and said not a word, the answer was right in their faces this whole time.

Max shook her head. "He's been telling us his plan this whole time."

Lucas spoke. "Four kills. Four gates. End of the world."

"But eight must be eight names. The names Nancy saw make five, Soleil and Adelaide make seven so who's the eighth?"

Soleil rose back up to sit straight, there was only one logical answer to what Adelaide was hinting to. "Tell me," She spoke with a new sort of grit to her voice. "Who else do you know that has as much power as me and Adelaide?"

Dustin gasped. "El." Soleil slowly nodded.

"Eight outweighs four and leaves room for something new."

"If all that's true...he's only one kill away."

"But," Max crossed her arms. "there's a way to getting rid of his ass once in for all."

Eddie rose his head up. "That-that's good though right? We got hope, right? Maybe?" Eddie's voice shook a bit.

Dustin rose his arms up and dropped them to the side. "Maybe but we might not even have enough time to do what Adelaide needs us."

Steve rubbed the sides of his head and spoke to Max. "Try 'em again. Try 'em again." She ran to the phone and dialed the number to the California home where Will, Joyce, and El resided in. Nothing. She hung up.

"Anything?"

"No. Rang a few times, then went to busy signal."

Steve got up. "Maybe you punched it wrong. Try again."

"I didn't punch it in wrong."

"Well, I don't know."

"I think she knows how to use a phone." Dustin stared at Steve.

"I'm just saying, she could've typed it in wrong." Max got fed up and typed the number in again, but nothing.

"Same shit."

Lucas deeply inhaled. "How is that possible?"

"Joyce has this telemarketer job. Always on the phone. Mike won't stop whining about it."

"Yeah, but this phone's been busy for, what, three days now? That's not Joyce. No way. Something's wrong."

Soleil grumbled to herself. "This just keeps getting worse and the problems just keep getting bigger." At that point, Adelaide's message was all Sol had to hold onto and she knew, she had to hold on or else all would be lost.

"She's right. It can't be just a coincidence. It can't be." Nancy approached the window of Max's trailer. "Whatever's happening in Lenora is connected to all of this. I'm sure of it. But Vecna can't hurt them. Not if he's dead but we need El...or maybe—" She swallowed. "We have to go back in there. Back to the Upside Down."

Steve rose an eyebrow. "Whoa, no, no, no. What?"

"Nope." Eddie shook his head, almost like all the false hope he had built was creeping away.

"Let's think this through."

"What is there to think through?"

"We barely made it out of there."

"Yeah, because we weren't prepared. But this time, we will be. We'll get weapons and protection. We'll go through the gate, we'll find his lair, and we'll kill him."

"Or he'll kill us. The only reason you survived is because he wanted you to. He's not scared of us."

Robin stood up. "And for good reason. We were wrong about Vecna. Henry. One. Sorry, what are we calling him now?"

"One."

"Vecna."

"Henry."

"Right. Matter of fact is, Sol's story was more fact than fiction and we've learned something new about Vecna-slash-Henry-slash-One. He's a number like Eleven only a sick, evil, male, child-murdering version of her with really bad skin. But my-my point is, he's super powerful. He could turn us inside out with a snap of his fingers. It's not a fair fight."

Soleil stood up, the three eyed her. "Going to the Upside Down would be dangerous, yes but, you'll have me this time, Adelaide is bonded to me which means she'll look out for you, plus, part of her solution was to go back anyway so maybe, just—maybe this could be a fair fight." All of her faith was instilled in her sister and all Soleil could do was hope that Adelaide had a plan to fight the battle, her solution—what she wanted them to do could only be for the war but that's what she feared.

No matter what they did, they could only lose-lose. If they couldn't fend Vecna off, they die and if they could, they only prolong the fate of mass chaos set onto Hawkins and then the world.

The worse part was keeping the truth and the full plan secret, not even being able to tell them how this would play out was like an author not even being able to say how their book ends before it becomes a movie.

Dustin snapped his fingers. "Better yet, since we have the added power of Adelaide—why should we fight fair at all? You're right, He's like Eleven. But that gives us an upper hand. We know Eleven's strengths and weaknesses."

"Weaknesses?" Erica questioned.

"When El remote-travels, she goes into this sort of trance-like state. I bet the same is true of Vecna."

Lucas spoke. "That would explain what he was doing in that attic."

"Exactly. When he attacks his next victim, I'll bet you he's back in that attic, physical body defenseless."

"Wait," Soleil paused. "That must be how Adelaide can get into Vecna's mind!"

Dustin's eyebrows popped up in surprise. "That-that would make sense."

"Shit..." Steve breathed out then he groaned. "Wait, defenseless? What about the army of bats?"

"True. We'll have to find a way past them. Distract them somehow."

"And, uh, how do we do that, exactly?" Eddie got up from his spot.

"No idea."

Soleil gulped. "I mean...they don't like fire right—"

Dustin pointed his finger at her. "Don't you even think about it, Sol."

"We can't ask that of you." Robin tried to reason.

"Not a chance Sunny." Eddie was the most vocal out of all of them. Sol rose her hands up in defeat.

"Alright, alright, just trying to help."

"But once they're gone," Dustin moved on. "he doesn't stand a chance. It'll be like slaying sleeping Dracula in his coffin."

If only it was that easy.

Robin looked around the room. "That all sounds good in theory, but there is no pattern to Vecna's killings—attacks. Not one that I can decipher. We don't know when he's going to attack next. We don't even know who he's going to attack."

"Yeah, we do," Max spoke quickly. Everyone turned to face her. "I can still feel him. I'm still marked. Cursed. I ditch Kate Bush, I draw his focus back to me."

"Max. You can't. He'll kill you."

"I survived before...I can survive again and we have a guardian angel now. I just need to keep him busy long enough so that you guys can get into that attic. Then you can chop his head off. Stab him in the heart. Blow him up with some explosive Dustin cooks up. I honestly don't care how you put this asshole in his grave. Just...whatever it is...whatever you do—try not to miss.

Sol chose her words carefully. Now that was a true death wish and though it was sort of hypocritical for her to think that way, nobody else needed to die there and besides, nobody would self-sacrifice without a good reason, Soleil knew good and well what hers was but for Max, she had no clue. Vecna had to take something great away from her. What was his name?

Billy.

Now, Soleil didn't know who he was, or what impact he had on Max but whatever he did or said, meant that much to her, so much so that she was willing to put herself out there for everyone else. That was something she could respect.

"Max, even with Adelaide's protection, three people are still in the hospital fighting for their lives, he could still really hurt you."

"I know."

Well, they always did say that desperate times called for desperate measures.

                                       —㋛—

Somehow they found themselves watching Eddie hotwire some random couple's trailer to drive to a weapons store called "The Warzone" where they could all the supplies needed to attempt to end Vecna's life.

Steve and Soleil watched as Eddie made haste to hotwire the vehicle.

"Where'd you learn how to do this?"

"Well, when the other dads were teaching their kids how to fish or play ball, my old man was teaching me how to hot-wire." He cut wires and twisted the ends open. "Now, I swore to myself I wouldn't wind up like he did, but now I'm wanted for murder, and soon, grand theft auto. So, uh, I'm really living up to that Munson name."

Robin approached them. "Eddie, I'm not sure I love the idea of you driving."

"Oh, I'm just starting this sucker. Harrington's got her." He leaned over and gave Steve a huge grin. "Don't ya, big boy?"

Soon enough, the vehicle started up, the owners were angry and Steve was trying his best to get them out of there and it was like going on a wild rollercoaster.

"Hold on to something!"

"Drive Steve drive!"

Soon enough, the angry couple was left in the distance and they were crusin' on down to the "War Zone." Nothing that was happening was short of eventful.

When they all were able to sit down, Sol jabbed Eddie, who was right next to her, with her elbow and a half-smile.

"How I see it Eddie, I think you're bringing a little...nobility to the Munson bloodline."

"Oh, come on Sunny—"

"No, I'm serious." She gave a light laugh. "You have this thought in your mind that all you're doing is running away and being scared but right now, you're in the Lion's mouth, with me, with all of us. That's the bravest thing you could do."

Soleil tilted her head and gave a big smile which had Eddie in the same mood although he, however, felt himself getting all shy and gaining a sort of dreamy look in his eyes.

"Uh, um, well-"

"Just say thank you, Eddie."

"Whatever you say—I mean, thank you."

Soleil suddenly felt a sharp pain in her head as Steve hit a bump, she started to rub her temples, wincing at the stinging pain. Eddie was quick to check on her, everything seemed to have been going in a less-than-ideal way for her.

"Soleil, you alright?"

She slowly nodded. "Mhm, yeah, yeah, I'm good..." Yet another lie, Soleil felt her skin searing and her insides felt like oil when it was almost perfectly hot. She didn't know how much more she had left in her but, she knew she was getting close to the edge. Dangerously close to the edge but she had to handle it, that couldn't stop her now.

Eddie automatically raised his arm slightly so she could nest there. If anything could help her now, it was the comfort that Eddie had to offer for the rest of the ride there.

And of course, they didn't go without getting unnoticed by Lucas, Dustin, Erica, and Max who exchanged quick looks with each other, all thinking the same unspoken thing about what was going on with Soleil and Eddie.

They had no time to say anything else as Steve pulled into the parking lot of the War Zone which was packed with people ready to arm themselves from who even knows what.

The group entered the store and wasted no time getting what they needed and getting out before anyone could even notice they were there.

Robin looked around, overwhelmed by the sheer amount of weaponry that surrounded them. "So much for avoiding angry hicks."

"Let's be...fast."

"Yep."

"Definitely."

"Agreed." And with Soleil's last words, the group departed, each taking a different path to buy what they needed. Soleil ended up looking through hunting knives when Robin came barreling through, almost knocking her over.

"Whoa, whoa, everything okay Robin?" She had spotted Robin's upset expression, having a huge frown on her face and looking down. Very unlike her.

"Yeah..."

Soleil crossed her arms, holding a small box of shotgun shells. "Okay, now that's just a lie."

"Ugh, I-" Robin sat with her thoughts for a second trying to figure out how to explain her feelings. "Okay so, you know when you're watching a show like—Gilligan's Island and you really liked Mary Ann Summers, and you just wanted her to just stay single, focus on herself and just be gorgeous and break the norms but then everyone around you just wanted to focus on Ginger and when the show ended you were crushed that you'd never see Mary Ann again?"

Soleil blinked, utterly confused by Robin's ramblings. "Uh, no."

"...What I'm trying to say is, have you ever felt uh, I don't know, heartbroken?"

Now it was Soleil's turn to look down at the floor. There were a couple of times she felt like that when her father kicked her out when she had to leave Cassie when she couldn't see Eddie, and while that may not have been exactly what Robin was saying, she could still relate.

"You could say that."

"Right, and-and I have no idea what to do about it."

Well, the solution seemed simple to Soleil as it was something she had to have acted on many times before. Whenever she was feeling, heartbroken as Robin would say, there was only one thing that would come to her mind.

"Well, is this person or thing really important to you?"

"Yeah."

"Then, whatever it was that broke your heart, you fight to repair it. If you don't act, then nothing will change if you don't make the first step." She gave Robin a look of reassurance, looking at her just below eye level. "Of course, you do it with no malice or intent to hurt this person or thing, you get me, Robin?"

Robin managed to crack a smile, thanks to Soleil's efforts. "Yeah, I do. Thanks, thanks a lot."

"'Course."

She almost forgot about the pain Sol was facing but when Robin turned back, she was already gone, pity probably wasn't what she needed at all, Robin figured, none of them did.

Now Soleil had found her way over to the gun section of the store, looking for a new handgun—her .22 wasn't gonna cut it for something like this. She quickly found her way to the gun section, granted it was the most prominent section of the store. She quickly found out that she came at a good time.

Right there in front of her was Nancy being confronted by Jason Carver.

That was more than not good and soon enough, as Soleil looked around, the Hawkins' basketball team seemed to crowd the place, it was like an infestation. A pit grew in Soleil's stomach, things didn't go Jason's way so he was going to try and get back the only other way he could, with violence.

She had already warned him once, she had warned him twice and now the third time, there was gonna be no warning.

She had to get Nancy away from him.

Soleil strolled over to the two, making sure to cover every burned spot of her skin with her jacket as she watched Jason grab the barrel of the shotgun Nancy was holding. She sped up her pace and stood right next to Jason then, she looked right at the back of his head, burning a hole through it that he couldn't ignore.

Jason finally turned around, less than pleased to see Soleil in front of him. "Why the hell are you here?"

"Nice to see you too Jason." She started innocently like nothing had happened, not wanting to provoke him further. Soleil gave a sharp nod to Nancy who quickly paid for the shotgun and left the area.

"I said, why the hell are you here?"

Oh well, she tried.

Soleil's face went blank, showing little emotion as her eyes stared at the jock as if to show him she wasn't scared in the slightest. "Because it's a free country—you don't really think I'm going to stand here and explain myself to you?"

"You got the nerve to show up here in broad daylight."

"Yeah, I do, it's part of my charm and if you're annoyed, that's your problem." Soleil took her gaze away from Jason and looked at the gun seller. "That 1911 any good?"

The seller rubbed his salt-and-pepper beard and responded quickly, handing the unloaded pistol to her. "Uh, it's got a good grip, got a clean break, and reset when fired. Goin' for twenty-five dollars and I'll add in some mags."

"I'll take it and give me a few more mags." As Soleil reached for the money in her pocket, her jacket slid down slightly, exposing her burns. She rushed to pull it up but it was too late Jason had already seen them and he sure was smug about it.

He waited until she paid the seller for the gun and everything else in her cart before he spoke. "What's the matter? Too hot to handle now?"

"You shut your damn mouth."

"I will when you tell me where Eddie is."

She glared at him. "I'll say this once and once only," Soleil spoke quietly. "Fuck you."

Jason backed up from her, clearly agitated by her words but he didn't dare to say anything about it, not at the risk of being thrown out of the store. Soleil gathered all her items and she walked away from him then when she was far enough she booked it to the trailer, everyone else had the same idea.

She heard Erica first. "Your old friends are here."

"Shit!"

Dustin started to yell as they packed into the trailer. "Let's go! Let's go!"

"I'm going! I'm going! Sit down!" Steve pulled out of the parking lot, right before the jocks could see them. Soleil sat next to Eddie again and instantly told him about Jason.

"Jason was harassing Nancy, I told him to screw off."

"What?"

"He asked about you and I said nothing but I don't like the fact that they're in that store and I don't like the fact that he's getting desperate. He saw my burns he knows I'm getting weaker and we need to watch out for him."

Great. Jason's mere presence was already causing more gaps in their plan than needed and Eddie, Eddie didn't know what to think but one thing was for sure, Jason was gonna be relentless. The thought stayed with him till a distraction came, Steve had driven all the way out to a clearing in the countryside of Indiana and everyone piled out of the trailer. Now, it was time to get everything ready.

Nancy was sawing the barrel of her shotgun while Max watched, Erica and Lucas were making spears, Steve and Robin were making Molotov cocktails, and Dustin and Eddie were messing around, play fighting after hammering nails into shields.

Soleil managed to somewhat find joy in them messing around but she had to get down to business. She had her new handgun in her hand, weighing it to get a feel for the weight. Then, in a swift motion, she loaded the mag into the 1911, pulled the slide back, and dumped half of a round into the bark of the tree she stood in front of. Too close range.

She backed up a couple of feet, just till the tree could fit between two fingers in her vision and she raised her pistol and dumped the rest into the tree. Her shot never changed, that was one thing the pain couldn't affect.

Not wanting to waste any more ammo, Sol replaced the empty mag with a new one and slid the gun into her waistband. Behind her, she heard the crunch of grass and of course, it was Eddie.

"Hey."

"Hey, Eddie."

"Listen uh, can we talk?" He rubbed the side of his arm. "With everything that's been going on, it's been a while since we could've just paused for a second."

She inhaled, if this was going to be about what she thought, Sol wasn't gonna be happy. "...Yeah, yeah, of course."

She and Eddie walked behind the same tree Soleil had just shot at for more privacy from the rest of the group, she folded her arms while she waited for him to speak.

"So, uh, anything new going on with you?"

"Like what?" She huffed.

"Soleil, please, don't be like that."

"Be like what?"

"Act like nothing is going on with you."

She looked up at the sky and then back to Eddie. "I don't want to talk about this."

"Sunny...you can't just do that, that isn't fair. I'm worried about you, can I not be worried about you?"

Soleil dropped her arms to the side, trying to keep calm by pressing her tongue to the inside of her cheek. "Look, there's already a lot going wrong. We're preparing to enter the jaws of death, Jason is looking for you, the police are probably on our ass, we have no clue where Mike or Eleven or where everyone else is and Eddie," Her tone started to raise a bit and water threatened her eyes. "I just want to not think about the fact I'm dying faster for just a damn second, I just want to have that. Everything is going to shit! All of it!"

Eddie went pale as a ghost, what the hell did she mean by "faster?" It was like that and dying were the only two words he could process at that moment.

He stuttered. "Fa-faster? Sol, are you dying faster?" She gulped. "Please tell me the truth."

Every time Soleil opened her mouth, the words just went right back up to her head. What more could she say that she hadn't already? The damage had already been done and she knew it, her skin was almost constantly searing, her head was pounding and she could feel her health going on the decline. She had nothing, nothing left to hold onto, not even blissful ignorance.

All she did was cry and even then life didn't grant her the right to let her tears fall instead, they sizzled on her face like butter in a hot skillet. All she could do to respond to Eddie's question with a nod, yes.

Eddie's own eyes started to fill with tears that he managed to keep back but, it only got harder to do so when he felt Soleil's forehead. It was burning hot.

He grabbed her covered shoulders, not saying another word as he pulled Soleil into a sudden embrace. She cried into his jean jacket, unable to keep it all together anymore and the pain, the pain was starting to weigh all too heavy.

Her speech was muffled. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you Eddie it's just that I—I don't wanna leave you."

His hand gripped the back of her hair and Eddie's own eyes were going red from burning tears. "Sunny...oh God, why didn't you say anything?"

"You were already so stressed out, I couldn't add to that. I could burden you anymore."

"You're never a damn burden. What are you talking about?"

Soleil kept quiet for a few seconds. "I don't wanna leave but Eddie, I need you to understand that I still have to do this, I still have to go there and fight with everyone else, my sister is there I have to back her." She pulled back to face Eddie who was wiping his face, propped up against the tree. "Eddie, you know why I have to do this."

"No, no I don't, you shouldn't be risking the rest of your life for this Soleil. For what?"

In that split moment, Soleil felt her body cool, even if it was just for a little moment, her mind suddenly cleared. "For you."

Eddie couldn't even speak as his eyebrows clashed together and his face turned rosy. "Me? Why?"

"You know why Eddie, Deep down you do." Soleil soft guided a warmed hand down the side of Eddie's face, eventually moving hair out of his face. He was frozen in place and it stayed that way till she finally walked away, leaving Eddie mad at himself yet again, mad that he couldn't just up and say what he felt before it was too late.

But soon, everyone was back into the trailer as the evening started to arrive. They drove down a long road without even a whisper from anyone, nobody dared to talk during what would probably be the scariest moment in any of their lives. They were about to walk into Vecna's playground and everyone had a mutual understanding that if they did this, there was no turning back. Luckily enough, nobody was planning that anyway.

Soleil closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying not to focus on the heat building inside of her, the feelings that she was constantly in battle with. But it wasn't working, it wasn't meant to work and if she wanted to be of any use to fighting Vecna, she was gonna have to embrace because Soleil had to face the facts.

Her fire right now may have been her biggest weakness but that was the best damn defense she was gonna have and so be it, if it came down to the wire, which she had a feeling it would, that would be her last option for protection.

She took a glance at Eddie, who was holding his spear tight, nervous, of course, who wouldn't be? But that sight there, that was enough to make it easy to fight.

If Soleil was gonna do this, if she was gonna burn to ashes, she rather be for second chances, for a new beginning, and to put evil back in its vile coffin.

That good, that was worth everything and then more, what was right in front of her was everything and more. Everything came with a price, that was a fact, this was one she had to pay in full—

–And she wouldn't bother with thinking twice about it.