"Whatever you guys are doing up there, hurry up!" Steve yelled from inside of the gate.

"Vecna needs to get dead!" Mavis yelled as she ran down Eddie's hallway. "Steve says you need to hurry up!"

"No shit!" Dustin yelled.

"We're trying. We can't find anything." Max panicked, throwing everything around, accidentally smacking Carrie in the head.

"Seriously, what is all this shit!" Robin shouted loudly.

"What are you even looking for?" Eddie shouted.

"Music music, not music music." Mav shouted back, holding up a cassette.

"This is music!" Eddie leaned in close to her to yell, taking the cassette.

"Then fire it up!" she grabbed his hands, dragging him to the living room.

"Walk-man!" Carrie called, throwing it as Mav caught it.

"Here." Eddie hurried to give her the cassette, just as Nancy gasped. They shared a look, looking up in the gate to see her bright blue eyes wide and awake, trying to catch her breath in Steve's arms.

"It's okay." Steve shhed her. "It's okay. I'm here. I'm right here."

"Didn't need to fire it up." the younger girl whispered to Eddie.

Carrie encouraged Mav to sit between her and Dustin, they both let their legs touch hers, when morning rolled around. She spend all night trying to get ahold of Mike in California, running on zero sleep and one single OJ cup from Max's fridge. Nancy inhaled, finally ready to explain what happened. "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...this giant creature with a gapping 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. And they... they were all..."

Carrie and Mavis both shifted at Mikes name. One, that got Dustin's attention, and the other that got Lucas's hand on her back.

"Okay, but...he's just trying to scare you, Nance." Steve looked over at her. "It's not real."

"Not yet." Nancy's voice broke. "But there...there was something else. He showed me gates. Four gates. Spreading across Hawkins. And these gates, they looked like the one 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."

"Four gates?" Mav repeated, her leg kept bouncing. Dustin clamped his hand over her knee in hopes of calming her nerves.

"Four chimes." Max's words only made Mav's anxiety worse. She never had a big issue when it came to that sort of thing. It was bad when she thought El was dead, back in eighth grade. But, since then, she'd been a lot better at it. She didn't struggle much, and if she did, she'd be able to call her girlfriend in California. Now, she couldn't even do that. "Vecna's clock. It always chimes four times. Four exactly."

"I heard them too." Nancy looked over. She wanted to ask Mav, but she could tell by her face she heard them.

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

"Four kills." Lucas stated. It would be one of the girls, they all knew it. Carrie frowned, taking Mav's hand. She didn't understand why he hadn't come for her yet, why her trauma wasn't being feasted on. If he did come for her, at least that'd mean Nancy, Mavis, and Max would be safe. "Four gates. End of the world."

"If that's true, he's only one kill away." Dustin shook his head.

"Jesus Christ." Eddie cupped his face in panic.

"I need more wine coolers." Mavis stood up fast, her fishnets pressing into her skin more as she walked.

"Try 'em again. Try 'em again." Steve spoke quickly as Max hurried to the phone.

Dustin bumped his knee with Carrie. "Nothing is gonna happen to you."

"How can any of us know that?" she found herself laughing sadly, tossing her hands.

"Because I happen to know you like Madonna." Dustin tapped the side of his head. "And, thanks to Max, we have another walkman. Would you-"

He pulled one from behind him, faking a gasp. "-look at that."

Carrie hid a smile, taking the headphones to loop around her neck.

"Oh, nope!" Lucas took the vodka from Mav. "You're bad enough on wine coolers."

"Max's mom does have-" she stopped when he held the bottle high enough for her not to reach. "-you're using my mothers drug addiction against me?"

"What?" he asked her in disbelief.

"I lack height because I grow slower, because Sarah used drugs while pregnant with me." she crossed her arms across her shirt. "That's very insensitive."

"Yup." Lucas popped the bottle ontop of the fridge. "That's exactly what i'm doing."

"Rude." she shoved a finger in his face. "Bet Max has something in her room."

"Mav!" Lucas called, but she was running down the hallway.

Mavis made it into Max's room, her pink curls behind her head. Her legs looked longer in her combat boots, usually something she felt most confident with, but didn't even bother to take a look this time. She had been to Max's trailer multiple times now. Her eyes looked around the room, because she knew that Max liked to hid her moms alcohol sometimes.

'Mav.'

It was so faint, so small she barley heard it. Almost an echoed, but she knew that voice. She looked for El, looked around the room, expecting her to be there. Mavis pulled the closet door open, because that's where she heard it come from the most. She wasn't sure what she was totally expecting, like Eleven was gonna be hidden in Max's closet the entire time.

No El, but her pink leather jacket was here.

She'd leant it to Max at a football game last semester, because she couldn't wear it to cheer. It caused a sudden pain to form in her chest when she realized she'd forgotten about it this whole time. For months, it was just sitting in Max's closet because she hadn't asked for it back. Mav frowned, taking it off the hook and pulling it into her chest. "I'm sorry I forgot about you, darling."

Pulling it on her arms, she felt as though it was giving her a big hug. Telling her, it'd be okay. Granted, it was just a jacket, and she was just a girl. But, it was more then that. It was El, watching her from how she piggy bagged off a pizza freezer, seeing her lover in need of a comfort. She knew the jacket would comfort her, and she knew, from Max's letters, that she kept it in her closet now.

"He's right." Nancy spoke as Mav walked into the living room, feeling lighter. "It can't be just coincidence. It can't be. 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. We have to go back in there. Back in the Upside Down."

"Whoa, whoa, no, no, no." Steve shook his head.

"Nope." Eddie confirmed. "Nope."

"Let's think this through." Steve stood up quickly.

"You don't have to worry about me." Carrie laughed as she pointed to the couch. "I will be right here, my behind is not moving."

"Behind is not movin." Mav mocked her with a purse of lips and a point of her left index.

"We barley made it out of there in one piece." Steve agreed with the Byers girl.

"Yeah, because we weren't prepared." Nancy shook her head fast. "But this time, we will be. We'll get weapons and protection."

"My bolt cutters!" Mav smiled.

"Her bolt cutters." Nancy agreed, motioning to the pink haired girl.

"Do not encourage the bolt cutters!" Lucas spoke in absolute disbelief.

"We'll go through the gate, we'll find his lair, and we'll kill him." Nancy finished confidently, Steve grew more and more annoyed.

"Or he'll kill us." Steve stated, like she was a child. "The only reason you survived is because he wanted you to. He's not scared of us."

"He should be. I'll-" Mavis smacked her hands. "-wham on him again."

"God, can we please end this wham thing?" Carrie begged.

"I like it." Eddie shrugged. "Wham!"

"And for good reason." Robin got to her feet. "We were wrong about Vecna. Henry. One. Sorry, what are we calling him now?"

"One."

"Vecna."

"One."

"Henry."

"All the above."

"We're learned something new about Vecna/Henry/One." Robin shook her head. "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 and no amount of whamming is gonna take him out. He could turn us inside out with a snap of his fingers. It's not a fair fight."

"So then why fight fair?" Dustin suggested.

Mavis threw her leg over one of Max's chairs, sitting down on it backwards. "What? Like, fight dirty?"

"If he's like Eleven, that gives us the upper hand. Like you had with the dirt." Dustin gave her a knowing head tilt. "We know Elevens strengths. And weaknesses."

"Weaknesses?" Erica looked in disbelief. "Her Little Babe has weaknesses?"

"Aside these charming looks?" Mavis sent her a smirk.

"Dear god." Carrie squeezed the bridge of her nose.

"But, yeah, she has a weakness. When she wants to spy, which isn't always likely, she kinda looses her senses. Everything around her, in this world, it doesn't exist." Mavis explained, motioning around her. "She's in a void, she doesn't know what's happening here."

"I bet it's the same with Vecna." Dustin nodded her way.

"That would explain what he was doing in that attic." Lucas tilted his head.

"That's his lair." Carrie confirmed.

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

"Defenseless? Yeah, what about the army of bats?" Steve crossed his arms.

"True. We'll have to find a way past them. Distract them somehow." Dustin tilted his head, Carrie rose a single eyebrow.

"Not at all important or anything, right?" she nodded, his tone clearly not too worried.

"And, uh, how do we do that, exactly?" Eddie cleared his throat as he stood up.

"No idea." Dustin's words made Eddie go back down. "But once they're gone, he doesn't stand a chance. It'll be like staking sleeping Dracula in his coffin."

"Not a vampire type of girls, but I think I get what you mean." Mav cracked him a smile.

"I knew you would." he pointed in her direction.

"That all sounds good in theory, but there is no pattern to Vecna's killings." Robin shook her head. "At least not one that I can decipher."

"Well, what do Mav and Max have in common? Aside visiting Ms.Kelley?" Carrie spoke up, looking between the pair. One, with crossed arms, the other straddling a chair. "Intimidating?"

"Super hot?" Mav suggested, leaning back to get a subtle high-five from Max.

"We don't know when he's going to attack next." Robin ignored the trio. "We don't even know who he's going to attack."

"Yeah, we do." Max inhaled deeply. "I can still feel him. I'm still marked. Cursed. I ditch Kate Bush, it draws his attention back to me."

Carrie looked over at Mav as she stood up. "Sit down."

"I'm sat." she said in return, sitting back down and looking to Max. "Let me go, I can handle it."

"I know you can." Max shook her head. "That's why I need you here. You protect me out here-"

Max motioned around the area, then pointing to her head. "-and I keep you safe in here."

"Max, he'll kill you." Lucas stared at her like she had four beads.

"I can survived again." Max shook her head, her hand sneakingly was pressing into Mav's shoulder. Carrie saw it, she took Dustin's hand. "I just need to keep him busy long enough so that you guys can get into that attic and he'll stay away from Mav. Then you can chop his head off. Stab him in the heart. Let Mav wham him again. Blow him up with some explosive Dustin cooks up. I honestly really don't care how you put this asshole in his grave. Just...whatever it is...whatever you do...try not to miss."

"How is this logical?" Mav stood up as Eddie hurried off, distracting everyone for them to have a small moment of privacy. "No offense, but i'm stronger then you are."

"Because if i'm gonna come back, I need you outside of my body to keep me safe." Max stared at her with a shake of her head. "You deal with the physical, i'll deal with the mental."

Mav nodded with a sigh. "If you start floating, i'm coming in there and saving your ass. Physically and mentally."

Max smiled and her. "I know."

."Check this out. The War Zone. I've been there once. It's huge. They got everything you need for, uh...well, killing things, basically." Eddie came back, making the pair walk his way.

"Do you think fake Rambo had enough guns there?" Robin stared as he flipped the page. "Is that a grenade? I mean, how is any of this legal?"

"Well, lucky for us it is, so..." Eddie trialed off. "This-this place is just far enough outside of Hawkins. As long as we steer clear of the main roads, we oughta be able to avoid cops and, uh, angry hicks."

"If we're trying to avoid angry hicks, maybe we shouldn't go to some store called the War Zone." Erica scoffed.

"Normally, i'd agree, but we need the weapons." Nancy looked at Dustin. "So, I think it's worth the risk."

"Except, there's a very legal documents that says I need to stay at least fifty feet away from War Zone." Mav inhaled deeply with pursed lips.

"Oh my god, what happened?" Carrie looked back at her in disbelief.

The Hilton-Sinclair girl waved her off. "Psh, misunderstanding."

"I don't wanna know. I do not wanna know." Steve shook his head quickly.

"What about the traveling state anyways? Biking there all day, then biking back with extra weight? I'm sensing that'll take nearly forever." Carrie tossed her hands up slightly.

"Her senses are never wrong." Dustin rose his eyebrows.

"Who said anything about bikes?" Eddie smiled her way.

"You got some car we don't know about?" Steve looked down at him curiously.

"It's not exactly a car, Steve." Eddie rose to his feet, smiling at Steve over his shoulder. "It's not exactly mine but, uh, it'll do."

Mavis looked between the two with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey, Red." Eddie turned to Max behind Mav. "You got a ski mask or a bandanna, something like that?"

"Oh shit!" Mav whistled. "Yeah, she does!"

Mav though Eddie looked great in his Michael Myers mask as he lead them behind trailers, staying close together before heading behind an RV. He opened up a window in the back, pulling himself through first. "That was suffocating."

"Leave this to the professional." Mav rubbed her hands together, jumping off the ground and pulling herself into the RV with a thump.

Carrie inhaled from outside. "Miss Graceful."

"Tell me about it." Dustin hummed, helping her up.

"Want me to hot wire?" Mav called to Eddie after Robin and Steve called him.

"I got it." he reassured her from the front, Erica grabbing her sisters arm as she lifted her into the RV.

"Everyone hold onto something!" Steve shouted when the engine blew, he hit the gas. Mav screamed when her body was yanked, falling into Dustin as he yelled as well.

"Oh my God! Oh my God!" Lucas moved in closer to Max.

"Erica!" Carrie yelled, talking her hand, considering Dustin was currently holding Mavis.

"Drive, Steve! Drive!" Dustin shouted as he held his oldest friend, though the buttons on her shorts were stabbing him.

"I'm on probation!" Mav yelled.

"She's on probation!" Robin yelled, Eddie threw the Michael Myers mask at her face so she could stay covered.

"Shit, they looked pissed." Dustin peaked out the back window.

"It's not every day you lose your house and car in one fell swoop." Robin held onto the side of the RV.

"Hold on! Hold on!" Steve took a sharp turn, causing Dustin and Mavis to do a side flip.

"Oh!" Carrie gapped, going to help them before Steve gassed it again and they went tumbling down the RV once again. "Oh my god!"

•

kylie speaks

el helping her baes anxiety from
a pizza freezer>