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❛ sᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴡɪᴄᴋᴇᴅ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ sᴛᴏᴘ ʙᴇʟɪᴇᴠɪɴ' ꒱


❝ PAYIN' ANYTHING TO ROLL THE
DICE / JUST ONE MORE TIME ❞

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Jessie's lips still tingled from the kiss she'd given Max even after they'd left Creel House behind. She did her best to refocus— though she wasn't completely successful— as Nancy spoke up from the front: "okay. I wanna run through it one more time. Phase one."

"We meet Erica at the playground," Robin provided. "She'll signal Max and Lucas when we're ready."

"Phase two."

"Max baits Vecna," Steve said. "He'll go after her, which'll put him in his trance."

"Phase three?"

Dustin continued: "me and Eddie draw the bats away."

"Four."

"We head into Vecna's newly bat-free lair, and. . ."

As Robin finished her sentence, Jessie lifted the gasoline can that was covered with a cloth. A menacing smile formed on her lips. "Flambé. I'm feeling particularly peckish for crème brûlée'd monster right about now."

Nancy gave the younger girl a stern look. "Nobody moves on to the next phase until we've all copied. Nobody deviates from the plan, no matter what. Got it?"

"Got it," everyone echoed.

After that, they moved with rapid efficiency towards Eddie's trailer where the hole between Hawkins and the Upside-Down resided. The darkness helped cover their presence and kept the curious residents from watching them. When they got to the door, Steve was the first one through and he flicked on the lights. He dropped his bag to the ground and made for the makeshift rope that still hung from the ceiling.

"Be careful," Dustin told him.

"Thanks, buddy." He took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing."

Steve successfully made it through and looked up at them through the portal. Robin was less than impressed. "What does he want us to do, applaud?"

Jessie sighed. "I was never very good at the rope-climbing test in gym. Maybe I should've practiced more, but who knew I'd use this skill to climb into another dimension?"

The older teen gave them the all-clear and Nancy went next. Their stuff followed her and then Eddie joined them. Finally, Robin, Dustin and Jessie landed on the mattress and everyone was through.

They made their way out of the trailer and the brunette stopped to stare at the new world around her. While she'd heard so many stories about this place, she'd never truly expected it to look so much like Hawkins. Sure, Nancy's house was in the same location and so was Eddie's, but it had been hard to picture an alternate world without having been there.

She stepped slowly down from the doorway with wide eyes. "This is wicked."

Steve waited to speak until everyone had gathered around him. "Hey, guys, listen. If things here start to go south— I mean, at all— you abort. Okay? Draw the attention of the bats. Keep 'em busy for a minute or two. We'll take care of Vecna. Don't try to be cute or be a hero or something. Okay? You guys are just—"

"—Decoys," he and Dustin finished together. The curly-haired boy continued: "Don't worry. You can be the hero, Steve."

"Absolutely." Eddie agreed. "I mean, look at us. We are not heroes." He paused for a moment. "Hey, Steve?" The boy turned to face him again. "Make him pay."

・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

"Uh. . . I don't mean to freak anyone out," Robin began hesitantly some time later, "but I swear we've seen this tree before."

"That's impossible," Nancy protested.

"That would suck, right?" she asked. "If Vecna destroyed the world because. . . 'cause we got lost in the woods?"

Steve shone his light directly in Jessie's face, causing her to squint. "I thought you were supposed to be good at this shit. Y'know, street smarts?"

The brunette scoffed. "Sorry, Steve. I might be a little out of my element because I'm in an alternate dimension. It might take me more than twenty minutes to get my bearings straight. Is that alright with you?"

"No, it's not alright, actually—"

"We're not lost," Nancy cut in loudly to put a stop to their brewing argument. Even if they were, fighting amongst themselves wouldn't help; it would only distract them from their current goal. Robin was too jittery to do anything except move forward so while they'd stopped to talk, she kept moving to keep her nerves at bay. Nancy raised her voice as the other teen moved forward: "Robin, hey. Watch out for the vines! Hive mind. Remember?"

"Thank you!"

Jessie walked ahead of Nancy and Steve, not wanting to get caught as a third wheel. Besides, Steve was irritating at the best of times and she didn't really appreciate his attitude right now. Sure, she got that they were all worried about the outcome of their endeavors tonight, but they were supposed to work together; calling out whatever her shortcomings were wasn't going to help anything. In an effort to stave off her impending resentment, she shone her light around the forest. Jessie did her best to take in the surroundings as she walked and reminded herself of how thrilled  she was with the choice she'd gotten to make. It wasn't every day that you got to go to a parallel universe, after all— especially one you've been fighting against for the last three-ish years.

Her enjoyment was short lived as Robin came racing back towards her. Due to the already high emotions from the rest of the group, she immediately stiffened as her first instinct was to think that something was wrong. "Robin! What's up?"

"Awesome news!" she exclaimed. "Come on!" Without pausing, she grabbed the younger girl's wrist and yanked her into motion. Ignoring Jessie's protests, they ran together to catch up to the other teens. "Hey, guys!" she called to them. "Looks like we weren't going the wrong way after all. Come on!"

The brunette jerked herself free from Robin's grasp. "Don't grab me like that again," she complained, trying to catch her breath as she rubbed her wrist.

"Sorry, sorry. Let's go!"

Steve seemed to take a minute to register her words. "Okay." She darted ahead again, causing him to call after her: "Ro. . . slow down! Ro. . . Robin!"

Luckily, they only walked at a fast pace and didn't run the rest of the way. When they came out of the copse of trees, the Creel House stood ominously against a thundering sky. Bats squealed as they flew around the roof and the whole building had an air of danger about it.

They made it to the park and spoke to Erica through the sparkling particles. A few moments later, she answered: "' okay, Lucas and Max have copied. Max is moving into phase two: distracting Vecna.'"

Although Jessie knew that she wouldn't regret her decision to be on the ground— sitting around and waiting had never been her style— a part of her still wished that she was with Max. This wasn't even because Lucas was there anymore; it was more than that. If their roles had been reversed, she'd want Max to be there for her within reaching distance. The thought of the red-haired girl having to take off her headphones and face Vecna alone made the foreign feeling of fear twist in her stomach.

"So far so smooth," Robin commented.

"Yeah, we're not even at the hard part yet," Steve said.

Jessie turned away from the jungle gym to face the Creel House. On the other side of reality, Max was preparing for her role. It seemed surreal that she could picture the redhead so clearly in the house, yet they couldn't actually see her thanks to the barrier between the dimensions.

"Take the bait, you son of a bitch," Nancy murmured. "Take the bait."

・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

Many tense minutes later, Erica's voice sounded through the particles again: "'okay, she's in. Initiate phase three.'"

Robin radioed Dustin and Eddie. "She's in. Move on to phase three."

The younger teen's voice answered shortly after: "'copy that. Initiating phase three.'"

Jessie watched with awe as the bats suddenly took off towards the direction of the trailer park. "It's working!" she exclaimed. Her voice was oddly bright for such a dire situation.

"Let's go," Nancy ordered them.

They made their way purposefully towards the Creel House, keeping in mind that they only had as long as Dustin and Eddie could hold out. Steve opened the door with a squelch that came from the vines surrounding it. More vines spread out over the floor and blocked any easy access that they could hope for. He let out a breath. "Oh shit. That's not good."

It turned out that they were going to have to play a very deadly game of hopscotch in order to make it to their destination. Neither Robin nor Jessie were thrilled about the current situation. "Shit."

Nancy gave the pair a brave smile. "It's okay. You got this."

The stairs turned out to be the hardest part by far since they could only have one foot on each riser as they climbed upwards. They couldn't even use the handrail because of the vines that wound all the way down the banister. The house creaked around them as Robin's breaths panted from the back of the group. Jessie stifled her own heavy breathing in an effort to keep the noise level down.

When they got to the door of the attic, the quartet readied their weapons. Before they could even take a step further, a tremendous thunderclap shook the house, causing all of them to lose their balance. Steve made a grab for the girls to keep them from falling over completely as dust rained down from the ceiling above. 

That was when things started to go wrong.

A tendril near Robin's foot started moving with a suspicious amount of energy and in seconds, it curled around her ankle. The movement caused the other vines to slam her against the wall as they curled around her shoulders and waist to trap her there. Frightened gasps left her mouth as she became pinned to the wall. "Steve! Nancy! Jessie!"

The older girl ran forward and began to stab at the vines with her spear. Steve and Jessie quickly followed suit with their own sharp objects— the boy with an axe and the girl with a long knife. The tendrils didn't like that very much and one lashed out to wrap around the handle of Steve's blade. He stumbled with the movement as the axe was brought to the opposite wall. His struggle proved fruitless as he became trapped just like Robin.

Nancy was the next victim of the vines' attack and they wrapped around her throat as they hugged her to the wall. Jessie's right arm became ensnared by the tendrils and she dropped her blade in her efforts to free herself. Adrenaline swept through her like a tidal wave and she was relieved that her fear continued to remain dormant. The vines were quick to yank her into a similar position as her friends' and she could feel the weight of them pressing down on her chest.

She'd never been one for hugging— Max and Will were the exceptions— and now she knew why. While she'd never met a Boa Constrictor in real life, this was exactly the crushing feeling she'd expect from the reptile. Her chest felt as if it were trying to cave into her back and her breath came in short gasps as she struggled against the binds. Still, even as her vision grew spotty, terror remained an absent emotion.

・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

By some miracle, the vines retracted from them before they passed the point of no return. The oldest three teenagers fell to the floor with heaving breaths as they fought to regain their lost oxygen. As they recovered, Steve noticed that the fourth member of their group wasn't as actively recuperating as they were. He inched towards the younger girl and studied her with concern.

Jessie's eyes were closed and her chest was moving but she didn't seem to stir otherwise. He pulled her towards him so that she was sitting up slightly on his knees as he lightly hit her face. "Hey, kid, wake up."

Robin moved to join them. "What's going on?" she asked worriedly.

"I don't know," the older teen admitted. "She's said before that she has a shit heart so maybe it has something to do with that." Steve continued to pat her face in an effort to wake the girl up.

"Maybe she has asthma?" Robin guessed. She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them while she kept her eyes on the brunette. "There's this girl in my band class— Rebecca McNelly— who's got really bad asthma. She plays the tuba and whenever she has a really long part she always ends up gasping for air at the end. I think she even passed out at one point on a band trip and they—"

"Robin," Steve cut her off gently.

"Sorry."

"It's not asthma," he replied. Then he addressed Jessie: "c'mon, kid. Wake up. Let's go."

There were several more tense minutes of trying to rouse the girl before she finally came to with a rather loud gasp. Her gaze slowly came into focus to see the anxious expressions of the teens staring back at her. After a moment, she sighed. "Damn. Did I blackout again?"

"Yeah," Steve said. He placed a light hand on her back to help her sit up. "How're you feeling, kid?"

She huffed. "I'm not a kid, first of all. Second of all, I'm just fine so you can all stop crying over my dead body because news flash: I'm not dead."

"We weren't crying!" Robin protested immediately. "It's the dust!"

"Right," Jessie agreed, though her tone was entirely disbelieving. "Then why do Steve's eyes look all watery?"

"They don't!" he insisted. "I-I'm allergic to these vines. That's why."

"Uh-huh," the brunette replied. She began to stand and ignored the other teens' objections as she did so. "There's no need to throw a fit, you know. I'm right as rain." She dusted off her coat before she looked down at them. "Well, c'mon! We still have phase four to complete and you can be as sure as hell that I'm going to bring this bitch's head to my girlfriend."

Nancy stared at her with confusion. "What?"

Jessie shrugged. "Y'know, the spoils of war. I'll bring back Vecna's head as proof that I slayed the monster for her. Heroes do that kind of shit all the time to show their feelings for their significant other."

She wasted no more time with talking and turned to start up the stairs. As the rest of the group got to their feet, Nancy frowned at Steve. "She's not really going to bring back Vecna's head, right?"

The brown-haired boy just sighed in response.