𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫
𝙃𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙪𝙘𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 . . .

The light flickers gently as four people stand in the dimly lit room.

001 stands in the centre of the room, looking over at the two attendants standing on either side of the door, one tall and big, his muscles clearly defined through his white uniform, and the other tall and lanky, his blonde hair neatly swept to the side. The nice attendant. The one that always looked out for the young girl. He smiled encouragingly at her, which she returned.

"Focus, One."

001's head snapped to Doctor Brenner, who stood about a foot away from her. She nodded rapidly, clasping her hands together in reassurance and glancing around the room once more before settling back on Papa. None of the other children were there with her, just her. It was a solo training exercice, it seemed almost as though the other children weren't aware of the training 001 went through in this room, just her, Papa and the two attendants.

"Now... I want you to start with visual."

001 nodded again, letting go of her hands and balling her fists up in concentration. After a few moments, a small ball of dust began to form in between Brenner and One, and it soon took the form of a blue butterfly that lightly flitted around the room, passing over her head. She giggled in delight, ignoring the sensation of her nose starting to drip with blood, and Papa smiled along with her. 001 looked over at the kind attendant, who was smiling back at her. He almost looked proud.

"Well done, One. Could you give me an auditory one next?"

The blonde girl was starting to feel more confident, and the butterfly disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared. Focused yet again, 001 scrunched up her nose, trying harder this time, before suddenly becoming startled at the loud sound of a dog barking. 001 had never seen a dog before. She had grown up her whole life in the lab, she never went outside before, and had only ever heard a dog's bark in recordings Papa would play in exercices.

"That's good One, but you already made that sound last week. You'll have to make a different one next week, alright?"

001 felt her confidence slipping slightly as she nodded in defeat, but she was ready for the next one.

"Let's step it up, shall we? Tactile."

One staggered slightly, tactile was one of the hardest ones to do. But she had to impress Papa. She balled up her fists again and furrowed her brows as she concentrated, but alas, nothing came. She began to tremble slightly and she grunted, trying as hard as she could, before finally she felt something lightly feather along her arm. It seemed Brenner felt the same as he started to chuckle, and Willow also giggled at the ticklish feeling, but it quickly turned sinister as the tickling turned into a feeling that something was tightly coiling around around her limbs. 001 felt frightened and tried to shake off the feeling, but it only got more painfully tight as the world around her started to distort.

"Papa!"

"Well done, One!"

He didn't react at all to her panicked state, but to her she felt like she was being choked and squeezed to death. She closed her eyes tightly, their voices started to fade away and was slowly replaced by the mocking tick tock of a clock. 001 opened her eyes and found a grandfather clock staring back at her, broken objects and pieces of wood floating around it, looking down she saw that odd tentacles had completely constricted her body, and she cried out for her Papa again.

"Willow..."

The same voice as before, the night her lamp flickered.

"I can feel you Willow..."

Willow woke up with a gasp, a cold sweat hugging her tight and a pounding headache echoing through her head. She looked around, visibly shaken by the dream, but she slowly calmed down as she realised it was just that, a dream. Nothing more. She was safe in her room.

She could hear steps coming closer to her door, and Dustin opened it without knocking, much to her dismay, looking at her with his usual goofy smile.

"Get up, we're going shopping!"

He yelled, before disappearing down the hall again. Willow groaned, touching her sweat stained pj's and feeling disgusting. She yelled after him.

"Can I at least take a shower first?!"

_________________________

The two cars rolled down the gritty path, Steve pulling his car up first and Willow parking hers next to his. She and Dustin got out of the black Caddy, watching Robin and Max get out with Steve. They all held a few plastic bags from their shopping endeavours that morning, they thought Eddie would appreciate a little food delivery since he was now hiding from the rest of the world.

They walked down to the boat shed and Dustin practically barged through the door, scaring the living daylights out of an on-edge Eddie.

"Delivery service!"

Dustin beamed his pearly whites, and Eddie threw a glare his way as the five of them piled into the shed. They set the bags down and let Eddie rummage through them, who settled on a box of cereal and opted for sitting in the boat that was hanging above the water in the shed.

"So we got uh, some good news and some bad news. How do you prefer it?"

Dustin started as they surrounded the man on the run, Willow watched amused as he scarfed down the food.

"Bad news first, always."

Eddie stated as if it were general knowledge, with a mouth full of Honey Comb before chugging down some Yoohoo.

"All right, bad news. We tapped into the Hawkins PD dispatch with our Cerebro, and they're definitely looking for you. Also uh, they're pretty convinced you killed Chrissy."

"Like 100% kind of convinced."

Max added, clearly not helping Eddie chill out. He seemed to remain hopeful as he asked for the good news.

"Your name hasn't gone public yet. But if we found out about you, it's only a matter of time before others do, and once that gets out, everyone and their shallow-minded mother is gonna be gunning for you."

Robin spewed out, earning a nervous look from Willow. Eddie looked down, clearly upset.

"Hunt the freak, right?"

He spat out, and Willow crossed her arms, trying to think of something to reassure him, but Dustin beat her to it as he started to explain what they were going to do.

"So before that happens, we need to find Vecna, kill him and prove your innocence!"

"That's all, Dustin? That's all?"

He retorted sarcastically, but Dustin didn't seem to catch on.

"Yeah, no, that's pretty much it!"

"We've done this sort of thing before, it'll be a piece of cake."

Willow chimed in, and Robin backed her up, nodding and taking a step forward.

"I know everything Dustin is saying sounds totally delusional but Willow's right, we've actually been through this before, I mean.. they have a few times, and I have once. Mine was more human-flesh based, and theirs was more smoke-related but bottom line is, collectively, I really feel like we've got this."

Robin was sort of rambling at this point but she sent him a confident smile as Steve took over and started rambling too.

"Yeah see we usually rely on Willow and this other girl, they have superpowers--"

"Wait what?"

Eddie sends Willow a confused and surprised glance but Steve ignored him and kept talking.

"But uh, after last time, Willow's gotten weaker and the other girl's powers went bye-bye so..."

"Steve!"

Willow sent him a look, as if to say "Shut the hell up, you're talking too much", and yet again Robin took over, Eddie's head turning as he looked back and forth between the trio.

"So we're technically in more of the..."

"Kinda.."

"Brainstorming phase."

Max finished for them, and Willow let out a sigh as she fought the urge to facepalm at the failed attempt at reassuring Eddie.

"There's nothing to worry about!"

Dustin concluded, and Steve nodded with him. Dear lord these were some idiots. They were unbelievable, and Eddie agreed, staring at them incredulously. It looked as though he was about to go off on them, but they suddenly heard the whirring of police alarms in the distance, Eddie and Willow both whispering "Shit..!" at the same time as they urged Eddie to hide under the tarp. The others went towards the window to look out at what was happening, but the police cars all drove past Rick's house, the group sharing confused stares.

"Hey Eddie.. we'll be back later."

Dustin called back, and the group didn't even wait for the fugitive's response as they left the boat shack and piled into their cars again, following after the police cars.

They pulled up on a road blocade and got out to see Nancy talking with the chief. She seemed pretty shaken up but relieved to see her friends, and after quickly closing the conversation, she rushed over to them. They began questioning her but she just told them that it would be best to talk elsewhere, so once again they all piled into the two cars and drove to the trailer park.

They sat down at a picnic table, Willow briefly glanced to where Eddie's trailer was, frowning as she saw it was completely covered in police tape. Nancy recounted what had happened, the group listening carefully, and once she had finished they told her what they knew, Steve and Robin rambling again, but Willow and Max taking over to get straight to the point.

"So you're saying that this thing that killed Fred and Chrissy.. it's from the Upside Down?"

"If the shoe fits..."

"Our working theory is that he attacks with a spell.. or a curse. Now whether or not he's doing the bidding of the Mind Flayer or just.. loves killing teens, we don't know."

"All we know is this is something different. Something new."

"Something we haven't come across yet."

Willow added, and Nancy shook her head, trying to understand.

"Doesn't make sense."

"It's only a theory."

Dustin tried to justify but she just shook her head again.

"No, Fred and Chrissy don't make sense. I mean... why them?"

"Maybe they were just in the wrong place? They were both at the game."

"And near the trailer park."

"We're at the trailer park..."

"No, no..."

Willow stopped their train of thought, this time it was her that shook her head.

"It can't just be a coincidence. This sort of thing, it's never just a coincidence. There has to be something more."

Willow continued, but Nancy chimed in again, trailing off.

"There is something about this place... Fred started acting weird the second we got here."

"Acting weird as in..?"

"Scared, on edge... upset."

"Max said Chrissy was upset too."

Dustin spoke up, remembering the red-head's words but she quickly debunked it.

"Yeah but not here. She was crying in the bathroom at school."

A silence washed over them for a moment as they thought about it, and it seemed something clicked with Robin as she spoke up first.

"Serial killers stalk their prey before they strike, right? So maybe Fred and Chrissy saw this Vecman--"

"Vecna."

Dustin corrected as Steve started to think, for once in his life.

"I dunno about you guys but if I saw some freaky wizard monster, I would... mention it to someone."

"Maybe they did. I saw Chrissy leaving Ms. Kelley's office. If you saw a monster you... you wouldn't go to the police, they'd never believe you. But you might go to your--"

"Your shrink."

Realisation washed over the others as Robin completed Max's thoughts, and they all stood up to head back to the cars. Willow was starting to think they should work for a detective, they were good at uncovering things.

As Robin and Max were getting into Steve's car, Nancy started to deviate from the group, Steve following after her in worry.

"Nance! Where you going?"

"Oh, there's just, something I wanna check on first."

"Something you wanna share with the rest of us?"

"I don't wanna waste your time, it's a real shot in the dark."

"Yyyyyeah ok, are you out of your mind? Flying solo with this Vecna creep on the loose? No, it's too dangerous, you need... you need someone to..."

Willow watched as she leaned on her car, her arms crossed in amusement. Jesus Christ Steve needed to stop hovering over Nancy like some doting father, it was like he was crushing all over her again. She glanced at Dustin and could tell he was thinking the exact same thing. Steve tossed his keys to Robin and told them he was gonna stick with Nancy.

"I don't think you want me driving your car."

"Why?"

"I don't have a license."

"Well why don't you have a license?"

"I'm poor."

"I can drive!"

Max chimed in and Steve immediately shut her down which made Willow laugh.

"No, no! Never again! Please! Anybody but you, no!"

Dustin gave Steve a look when he said "anybody", which only made Willow snort as Steve pointed at him.

"No chance."

"Come on!"

"No."

"Alright, ok, this is stupid."

Robin cut in and took a walkie-talkie from Dustin's bag, handing Steve the keys and walking over to Nancy.

"Us ladies will stick together-- sorry Willow. Unless you think we need you to protect us Steve?"

The duo walked to Nancy's car and Steve huffed turning to look at the blonde girl.

"Looks like it's you and me babysitting, Henderson."

"Actually I was thinking of checking up on Eddie. You're on your own Harrington."

Willow retorted with a cheeky smile that caused Steve to grumble and walk to the drivers side of his car.

"Fine, whatever, ditch me for your new runaway boyfriend."

"Very funny."

She snorted sarcastically, heading to her own car.

_________________________

Willow pulled up to Reefer Rick's house like she had done a few hours prior. She got out and headed down to the boat shed, and to avoid freaking Eddie out, like Dustin had done earlier, she knocked lightly on the door and called out to him.

"It's just me, Willow!"

The slowly opened the door and peeked her head in, seeing the man of the hour seated in the boat again, smiling back at her.

"I recognised your car. But thanks for not trying to scare the living shit out of me."

Willow chuckled along with him as she entered completely, closing the metal door behind her and wandering around the shed, looking at everything.

"Nice place you've got here."

She teased with a sly smile, earning a snort from Eddie as he hopped out of the boat, leaning on one of the bannisters.

"Believe it or not the last owner's were selling it for half price, it was a real steal."

He returned playfully, and Willow grinned at him.

"Half price you say? I bet it's haunted."

Eddie seemed to take her words as an invitation to go crazy, as he started banging on things and pulling on the chains hanging from the celling whilst attempting to sound like a ghost. Willow followed in tow, letting out a long "Ooooo!" and moving around in attempts to be creepy. The pair settled on sitting on the floor by the boat, smiling and laughing. Willow leaned back and stared at the ceiling, but Eddie looked at her.

"Why did you come back Henderson?"

If Willow hadn't known any better, she'd think he was suspicious, but she lowered her head to send him a soft smile.

"I thought I'd check up on you, y'know, after everything's that happened. Seems like you would get lonely here, especially when you're wanted for murder."

Eddie scoffed and nodded at the irony of it all. Just the other day he was lamenting about how 'freaks' like him always got the blame and here he was, wanted for murder when he just tried helping someone. He shook his head as he tried to think of something else, and he looked back up at Willow, who was already looking at him expectantly.

"So what, you're here to babysit me?"

He replied sarcastically, and Willow groaned, rolling her head back and letting her lay back on the dirty ground.

"Don't sound so pissed about it. I know you like me Munson."

She teased back, and she would hear another scoff along with a "Don't get ahead of yourself Henderson". Willow giggled and was once again staring at the ceiling as a comfortable silence fell over them. Or at least, it was comfortable for her, but that didn't seem to be the case for Eddie. Willow felt that something was weighing on his mind.

"Where'd the others go?"

Eddie hummed out. Willow furrowed her brows. She knew that wasn't what he actually wanted to ask her, but she went along with it.

"Dustin, Max and Steve went to talk with Ms. Kelley, they think she might know something about Chrissy but I doubt she's gonna say much, student confidentiality and all that.."

She heard a grumble of agreement from the boy next to her, and she trailed off.

"And Robin went with Nancy to god knows where..."

She didn't hear anything from him this time, which was unusual. The boy seemed to always have something to say, and yet here they were, in a silence that now even made introverted Willow uncomfortable.

"So..."

He started again, which made her frown. He sounded anxious, like he was hesitating.

"About what Harrington said..."

He continued, and Willow sat up again slowly, raising an eyebrow.

"Steve says a lot of things, you're gonna have to be more specific."

She watched him huff slightly in a nervous laugh, taking his hair and pulling it in front of his face, as if to hide.

"Do you actually have... y'know... superpowers?"

Willow was stunned. Eddie sounded and acted like a little kid looking up to their role model, and when he finally glanced at her, she could tell he was not only anxious but excited. She let out a small laugh, which only grew and soon Eddie was smiling sheepishly at her, hitting her shoulder to get her to stop.

"Hey don't make fun of me Henderson!"

Willow wiped away a stray tear, admiring him and tilting her head.

"Why don't you take a guess?"

"Well I mean, a few days ago I would have said it was impossible but..."

He trailed off as his eyes lit up and he stood up abruptly, pointing at her.

"That's how you calmed me down! You're like some kind of.. psychic, or empath or something!"

He was now pointing at his head, alluding to his mind and how she got into it. Willow was impressed, he caught on fast, and much like he did to her two days prior, she did a little bow from her spot on the floor.

"I applaud you Dungeon Master, it seems you have seen right through me."

Eddie let out a choke of laughter, his hands on his head as he spun around in a circle, seemingly rethinking everything about life itself.

"That's... holy shit that's incredible..."

He quickly spun back to her and pointed at her again, leaning to kneel down.

"You can do other things can't you? I bet you fucking can, you little witch."

Willow couldn't help but laugh at the state of awe and excitement he was in.

"Jesus Christ Eddie, yes, yes I can, now will you calm down?"

The confirmation was all he needed as he was suddenly standing again with a "WOO!", he clapped his hands once and did a little jump, Willow rolling back on the floor, she couldn't take his excitement anymore, covering her face. Eddie quickly covered his mouth and glanced around dramatically, as if to make sure no one had heard him, of course he was just messing around at this point but it was still just him and Willow, and he quickly came back over to her, laying down beside her.

"Show me."

Willow was startled to hear Eddie's voice right next to her ear, and she uncovered her face to look next to her, coming face to face with the metalhead. She wasn't used to such proximity, and her cheeks tinted a light pink as she whispered back.

"What..?"

"Show me what else you can do."

Willow was nervous.

Not just at their closeness, but the fact that her powers were still quite weak. But his smile.. It was so sweet and soft that it caught her off guard, and she quickly looked away, staring up at the ceiling again. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, outstretching her hand upwards. She thought back to the dream she had, and the small blue butterfly. She balled up the fist still lying by her side and concentrated, and upon reopening her eyes, there was the butterfly, flitting about, except this time it was not a dream.

"Woah..."

Willow turned her head to see Eddie admiring the fragile creature, still with the gentle smile he had before, and he raised up his hand to touch the butterfly. It moved away from him skittishly.

"I can make people see.. and feel things."

Willow explained, moving her hand down next to her again as Eddie continued trying to reach out to the creature.

"Kinda like hallucinations.."

He trailed off, too focused on what he was seeing in front of him. Willow hummed in agreement, and she furrowed her brows at the illusion, concentrating again. As she did this, the butterfly slowly flew over and sat itself on Eddie's finger.

"I can feel it..!"

He exclaimed, and Willow grinned proudly, albeit feeling a little light headed.

"Sight, smell, touch... I can control your senses. Control your mind into thinking something's there..."

As she trailed off, the butterfly slowly faded away into dust, disappearing into thin air.

"... when it's not."

She finished, raising her hand to wipe away the blood from her nose, onto her sleeve. Eddie let out a huff of disbelief, his smile only grew even though the illusion had disappeared. The silence between them was back, but this time it wasn't uncomfortable for either of them, they just lay next to each other, each one in the other's company, and they turned their heads to look at each other, to smile at each other, to admire each other. They inched slightly closer, as if to test the waters, their eyes still trained on the others, but as they moved closer again, the static of a radio startled them and caused them to back away slightly, and a familiar voice came from the static.

"Willow? Willow do you copy?!"

Willow jumped up to get to the radio, failing to notice Eddie's frustration at Dustin's interruption. The blonde girl picked up the walkie-talkie and pressed on the button to talk.

"Yeah I copy Dustin, is everything ok? Over."

Willow could hear Eddie behind her grumbling at Dustin and his use of radios, and she shot him a look, sticking her tongue out at him.

"Yeah yeah, we're just heading to the school, Max got the keys to Ms. Kelley's office, you comin' or what? Over."

Willow sighed at Dustin's response, sharing a look with Eddie as if to say "What the fuck, we're stealing from faculty now?".

"Yeah, I'll meet you guys there in a few minutes, over."

Willow slung her bag over her shoulder, still holding the walkie-talkie in case Dustin called again. She smiled at Eddie whilst heading towards the door, opening it.

"Sorry Munson but duty calls. Hope you liked my little show, but I'll stop by again some other day."

"I'm counting on it Wallflower."

Willow grinned at the nickname and tried to ignore the feeling of blood rushing to her cheeks. She headed back to her car for what seemed like the millionth time today, she really needed to stop for gas on the way home.

_________________________

Willow ran through the halls of the school while trying to be as quiet as possible. It was starting to get dark out, and she and the others were most definitely not supposed to be there. But apparently she was being a bit too sneaky because as she stopped in front of Ms. Kelley's office, Steve let out a loud shriek.

"Jesus Christ Willow, don't do that!"

"You sound like a girl when you scream, Harrington."

Willow retorted with a smirk, shoving him lightly as she wandered around the office. She had the oh so nice pleasure of visiting the counsellors office once or twice due to her history. Don't be mistaken, the school nor anyone besides her friends knew about her past in Hawkins Lab, but since she got adopted out of an orphanage and was found by a nice old coffee shop owner under some rather mysterious circumstances, the school had obligated Willow to at least see Ms. Kelley once.

Willow looked at the files strewn out on the desk, Max hunched over them. She had taken out Chrissy's, but it seemed like Fred was also seeing the counsellor. As Willow moved closer to get a look at them, she sensed something was wrong and glanced at Max, seeing her staring blankly at nothing.

"Max?"

Willow's voice seemed to startle the two boys that looked over to see her waving her hand in front of Max's face. They came over and started shaking her and calling her name but to no avail, until finally she woke up, flinching. She looked around, startled and confused, gazing at the trio that were staring at her in worry. She stood up and grabbed a flashlight, leading them into the hall where they met up with Robin and Nancy, recounting what she saw.

"It was right here..."

"The grandfather clock?"

"It was so real."

She trailed off, pointing her flashlight at the wall. Willow felt a shiver down her spine at the mention of the clock, a clock very similar to the one she saw in her dream.

"And... when I got closer, suddenly I just... I woke up.."

"It was like she was in a trance or something.. Exactly what Eddie said happened to Chrissy."

Dustin mumbled, and Max spun around to look at her friends.

"That's not even the bad part."

She walked past them and back into the office, picking up the files again.

"Fred and Chrissy, they both came to Ms. Kelley for help. They both were having headaches, bad headaches that just wouldn't go away, and then.. then the nightmares, trouble sleeping.. they'd wake up in a cold sweat. And then they started seeing things. Bad things. From their pasts. And these visions, they just.. they kept on getting worse and worse until eventually... everything ended."

"Vecna's curse.."

Robin muttered, looking up at Max.

"Chrissy's headaches started a week ago.. Fred, six days ago.. I've been having them for five days."

Everyone looked at each other at the revelation, but Willow was simply staring at the ground, thinking of her own experiences. The only thing different for her was the voice. There was no mentions of a voice, and yet Willow kept hearing one. But she didn't say a word. She looked up at Max with tears in her eyes. Her friends came first. She could worry about herself later.

"I dunno how long I have..! All I know is that, for Fred and Chrissy, they both died less than 24 hours of their first vision.. And I just saw that goddamn clock so..! ... looks like I'm gonna die tomorrow.."

Before anyone could say anything, a loud clang came from the hall and everyone turned, startled. Steve turned to look at them, before turning to the door.

"Stay here."

He ordered protectively, heading out the door, but of course no one was going to listen to him. They all picked up their flashlights and headed into the hall after their friend, who had grabbed a nearby lamp as protection. They shuffled down the hall as the sounds got closer and closer, before Lucas Sinclair jumped out from the hall to the left, scaring everyone half to death as they screamed, Lucas screaming in return, sounding incredibly out of breath.

"It's me!"

"Lucas?!"

"It's me..!"

"Jesus, what's wrong with you Sinclair?!"

"I'm sorry..!"

"I could've taken you out with this lamp!"

"Sorry guys, sorry.. I was biking... for eight miles.. Gimme a second.. shit.."

As Lucas was taking a moment to catch his breath again, everyone was recovering from being scared shitless, Willow holding a hand over her heart and taking a deep breath. She was not fit enough to take this shit. When he finally felt better, Lucas spoke up.

"We've got a Code Red."

"What?"

"Willow."

Lucas came hobbling over to his best friend's sister, placing his hands on her shoulders.

"I've been with Jason, Patrick and Andy and they've gone like totally off the rails, they're trying to capture Eddie and they think you know where he is. You're in terrible danger!"

Lucas sounded terrified of the boys, but Willow just frowned at him.

"That sounds scary and all Lucas, but I think we have a bigger problem on our hands right now.."

She trailed off, looking over at Max.

—•—
author's note 。

Chapter Four is here! :D

I felt sick all day but I really wanted to get this chapter out, so here it is my lovelies eheh

I thought it would be super cute for Willow and Eddie to have a moment together, but of course Dustin was a total cockblock lmao, but there will be more moments to come

We also got a glance into Willow's abilities, in a flashback and in real time, even if she's a bit weaker. I hope you guys enjoyed and I'll see you all very soon,

Mwah!
𝔎𝔥𝔞𝔬𝔰 。