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❛ sᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴡɪᴄᴋᴇᴅ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ɪ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ᴡᴀɴᴛ
ᴛᴏ ʟɪᴠᴇ ᴡɪᴛʜᴏᴜᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ꒱


❝ I'M LONGING FOR THE DAY /
WHEN I'LL BE GIVING YOU
THIS HEART OF MINE ❞

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"We have to go back in there," Nancy announced suddenly. "Back to the Upside Down."

Steve and Eddie were immediately against her suggestion. "Whoa, no, no, no. What? Let's think this through."

"What is there to think through?"

"We barely made it out of there," he pointed out.

"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," Nancy said with determination.

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

"And for good reason!" Robin spoke up as she stood from her seat on the floor. "We were wrong about Vecna. Henry. One. Sorry, what are we calling him now?" Everyone gave her a different response which didn't really answer her question. "Right. We've learned something new about Vecna/Henry/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. Could turn us inside out with a snap of his fingers. It's not a fair fight."

"Then why fight fair?" Dustin countered. "You're right. He's like Eleven. But that gives us an upper hand. We know Eleven's strengths and weaknesses."

"Weaknesses?" Erica repeated dubiously.

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

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

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

Steve didn't look convinced. "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 wondered.

"No idea," the curly-haired boy admitted. "But once they're gone he doesn't stand a chance. It'll be like slaying sleeping Dracula in his coffin."

"Okay," Jessie began agreeably. Her tone quickly became dry. "But why do we have to wait for him to chose a victim? Isn't the whole point of superhero shit to stop the attacks before they start?"

"Right," Robin agreed. "That all sounds good in theory but not only would we not be able to save whoever Vecna/One/Henry attacks, there isn't a pattern to his killings. 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 next."

"Yeah, we do," Max spoke up quietly. "I can still feel him. I'm still marked. Cursed. I ditch Kate Bush, I draw his focus back to me."

Jessie and Lucas immediately protested against this, and at the same time: "No!" "You can't! He'll kill you."

The redhead first met the boy's gaze but then they moved to the girl's and stayed there. Her expression was determined as she reminded them: "I survived before. I can survive again. 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 J.J. 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."

・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

Eddie slammed down a newspaper page on the table in front of them. "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."

"You think fake Rambo has enough guns there?" Robin asked.

Jessie leaned forward with interest. "Is that a grenade? I've used one before. It was awesome."

The older teen gave her a look of newfound respect. "I thought Laura Ingalls was supposed to be kid-friendly."

The brunette shrugged. "She's gotten edgier, I guess."

He gave a light chuckle before he continued: "this place is just far enough outside of Hawkins. As long as we steer clear of 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 suggested.

"Normally I'd agree, but we need the weapons," Nancy said. "I think it's worth the risk."

"Me too," Jessie and Lucas spoke in unison. They gave each other disgruntled glares before they looked away.

"But is it worth the time? It'll take all day to bike there and back," Dustin pointed out.

"Who said anything about bikes?"

"You got some car we don't know about?"

Eddie shook his head. "It's not exactly a car, Steve. And it's not exactly mine but, uh. . . it'll do." He turned to Max. "Hey, Red, uh, you got a ski mask or a bandanna, something like that?"

・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

The mask turned out to be from Max's Jason costume from the year she'd first moved to Hawkins. It was so long ago that it felt— at least to Jessie— that the redhead had been a part of their group for more than just a couple of years. While she hadn't witnessed that particular Halloween night, she remembered the next day when Max had told her about how Lucas had screamed like a girl. That had been back when she didn't fully trust that Max had genuinely wanted to be her friend (or, eventually, more than that.)

Now, they ran as silently as possible through the maze of trailers to the one that Eddie had in mind. Once they'd arrived, he pulled back the unlocked window and jumped inside. As Steve and Nancy quickly followed suit, Jessie held out an arm before Max could go next. She bent and cupped her hands above the ground as she tilted her head to look at the other girl.

"I'll give you a leg up," she offered.

If Lucas had been making the suggestion, Max would have instantly protested against it or ignored his help. But, they didn't have much time to argue anyway so she gave the brunette a little nod and gently placed her hand on Jessie's shoulder. Her foot came to rest on the girl's hands and in an easy hop, the redhead launched herself towards the window where her extra boost landed her on the couch with a roll.

Feeling rather smug about Max's acceptance of her suggestion, Jessie shot Lucas an (unnecessarily) arrogant look before she entered the trailer on her own.

・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

They had been driving for some time and had left the angry owners of the trailer they'd stolen behind. Jessie sat in the back with Max, though on the complete opposite side of the couch. She twisted the sleeve of her olive coat between her fingers as she stared at her beat-up sneakers.

She'd been afraid for the first time in her life only a few days ago. It was a hard concept to think about and an even harder one to understand— the paralyzing fear that had made her freeze like a deer caught in headlights rather than her usual instinct to fight. It always came down to those three primal options for people: fight, flight or freeze. She'd always acted on the first one; her mind was wired to survive and the other two options guaranteed certain death. But. . . seeing Max up in the air like that, suspended so unnaturally, she'd been unable to do anything, which had only left one option: freeze.

Admitting this unusual reaction to the group probably wouldn't help their situation. If anything, it would make it worse: the one person who'd always been ready to fight suddenly shying away from the greatest enemy they'd ever face? Team morale would go down faster than snow in an avalanche. That is, if they cared about her half as much as she thought they did. There was the other side where they wouldn't be affected at all if she shared her feelings. (She wasn't sure which outcome would be worse.)

Jessie startled when she felt a gentle nudge to her side. Her gaze lifted from her feet to meet Max's blue eyes. She had a guilty? Uncertain? expression on her face as she spoke: "what are you thinking about, J.J.?"

The use of the familiar nickname made her stomach somersault pleasantly but she pushed it aside. Max broke up with you, remember? She gave the redhead a tight smile in return. "Not much. What's up?"

"Not much?" the other girl repeated with disbelief. "I can literally see steam spewing out of your ears."

"It's nothing to worry about," Jessie said in what she hoped was a reassuring tone. "Seriously. There's bigger things at stake here than my thoughts."

The redhead reached over to take her hand. She gave it a squeeze as she said: "hey. You can talk to me, y'know? I could use something to think about besides my impending doom."

Despite her light tone, her words made the brunette frown. She retracted her hand from Max's grasp and tugged on her coat sleeve. "I really wish you wouldn't do that."

It was Max's turn to frown. "Do what?"

"Pretend to care about me," Jessie replied. She returned her attention to studying the dirt that clung to her sneakers. "I know the timing isn't great but I just wish you'd hurry up and make your choice already— I mean, the one between me and Lucas. All of this running around in circles is exhausting and if stopping means that he wins, then—"

"God. You really are an idiot, aren't you?"

The girl's question made her look up with some offence. "Excuse me?"

"Do you know what Vecna does when he's inside my mind?" Jessie shook her head, so Max continued: "he uses my memories against me. But. . . only my darkest memories. It's like he only sees the darkness in us. So the way that I can beat him is to run in the opposite direction. Run to the light and maybe he won't be able to find me there."

"This is touching and all but I'm really hoping you'll get to a point soon," the brunette huffed.

"I'm getting there. In order to survive, I need to find a happy memory and hide there. Hide in the light. And. . . I have a memory in mind. It was a time when I was the happiest."

Jessie glanced over at the dark-haired boy who sat in one of the seats several feet away. "I bet Lucas is there," she mumbled bitterly.

"That's presumptuous of you," Max chided her lightly. "And actually, he's not. How many times do I have to tell you that I don't have romantic feelings for him?"

"Maybe you should try telling him that for a change."

The redhead reached forward and took her hand again. "J.J., would you stop obsessing over Lucas and listen to what I'm trying to say?"

She pulled her gaze from her shoes to meet the other girl's eyes again. "Right. Sorry."

"Do you remember what you said to me in the woods earlier today?"

She cringed outwardly. "Can we please not bring that up? That was way too cheesy for me. . ."

Her words trailed off as Max lifted her hand to place it against her chest on the left-hand side. It was really the redhead's fault this time for her drifting interest— to put her hand there of all places. The only thing that Jessie could think about was the fact that Steve was one-hundred percent wrong: she was definitely old enough to know that she liked boobies— particularly her ex-girlfriend's.

Max seemed to notice where her gaze wandered and she lightly snapped her fingers to get the brunette's attention back. "Hey, keep your eyes up here. I'm trying to have a moment with you." The other girl didn't even seem embarrassed to have been caught— she only gave Max a salacious grin in response. The redhead sighed but pushed on: "what I mean to say— if you'll pay attention to my words for all of five seconds— is that you have my heart, J.J."