Chapter 33

“He showed me things that haven’t happened yet” Nancy explained as the others listened. “The most awful things”.

They were all in Max’s trailer. Nancy was seating on the armchair, Steve on the floor, Dustin was standing, Erica was sitting on the arm of the sofa. Eddie was sitting on the sofa, between Erica and Robin. 

Sofia was curled up on the sofa, reduced to the smallest form she could be, resting her head on Robin’s legs.

Robin had one arm over Sofia and was using her other hand to play with her hair. She was still shaking a bit. She also hasn’t talked much, which is worrying Robin like hell.

Sofia wasn’t okay.

But right now, Robin could only focus on keeping her safe. Safe in body, safe in mind. Or at least in one.

“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. And they… They were all…” Nancy explained as she started tearing up.

Sofia couldn’t help but feel sad for Nancy. After all, she also saw Robin dying. She also witnessed that horror, along many others.

“Okay, but… he’s just trying to scare you, Nance. Right? I mean… I mean, it’s not real” Steve said, trying to make the girl feel better.

“Not yet. 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” Nancy says, scared, distant eyes.

“He showed me that too” Sofia says, quietly, as she sits up. Afterwards, she clears her voice, trying to get the knot on her throat to go away.

“What else did he show you?” Dustin asks, afraid of the answer, but needing to know it.

Sofia takes a deep breath. “Most of it was just him terrorizing me. Scaring me, like he did with you” she says, looking at Nancy. Already in denial, because it had to be a scare, not the future. It couldn’t.

“He showed me memories and completely destroyed them. Old memories. He also showed me Hawkins demolished. The same four gates Nancy saw. People screaming for help. People dying… He showed me…” Sofia stops, afraid that she’d start crying.

“It doesn’t matter” Sofia says quietly, shaking her head, “He knows my fears, he knows everything about me…”.

There’s a moment of silence. To see Nancy and Sofia like that – it scared everyone. Good job Vecna, no one feels safe now.

“Four times” Max whispers, coming into a realization.

“What?” Lucas asks her.

“It always chimes four times” Max points out. “Four exactly”.

“I heard them too” Nancy whispers. Everyone looks at each other in panic. Robin was trying her best not to freak out: what did Sofia see that she couldn’t even find the words to tell.

“He’s been telling us his plan this whole time” Max says.

“Four kills. Four gates. End of the world” Lucas says.

“If that’s true… He’s only one kill away” Dustin says.

“Oh Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ” Eddie curses.

“Try ’em again. Try ’em again” Steve says. Max runs to the phone and calls the Byers.

Robin turns to Sofia and pulls her hair out of her face. “How’s your back?” she asks her girlfriend, whose blue eyes looked grey, less lively.

“I feel sore, that’s all” Sofia replies, trying not to break down. “I just really need to change clothes. And shower too”.

Robin nods. “We’ll do that right when we can.” she said and, trying to find something to make Sofia smile again, she remembered: “You know what day it is?”.

After giving some thought,  although her mind was blank and a headache was forming, Sofia said “I’m sorry, I can’t really think right now”.

“It’s our 5 month anniversary” Robin whispers with a smile. A smile so tender it made Sofia forgot about what had just happened, what she had just seen.

What do you mean Robin’s going to die? Vecna’s messing with you. She’s very much alive, she’s right here. And she’s perfect.

“Oh my god, I’m sorry I forgot… Today’s the 27th…” Sofia whispered back, looking surprised, and her eyes looked a little less dull. Mission accomplished, Robin.

“It’s okay” Robin whispered, a tender smile on her lips, trying to figure out how to make her smile more. “I love you anyway”. 

Sofia chuckled, shaking her head. I hate you, she thought of saying. But then she thought of what she saw, of Robin dying, and couldn’t even joke about it.

“I love you too” Sofia whispered, words heavy, worried eyes.

They focused back on the conversation going around the room. But Sofia wished she would’ve remained ignorant.

“Whatever’s happening in Lenora is connected to all of this. I’m sure of it” Nancy says, looking out the window. “But Vecna can’t hurt them. Not if he’s dead. We have to go back in there. Back to the Upside Down”.

“Whoa, no, no, no. What?” Steve says.

“Nope” Eddie says.

“Call me a coward, but I am not going back” Sofia blurts out, scared, furious about such idea. Why not just leave town.

I hate it here, she said that one time. I hate it here, in this idle town, in my mind.

“Let’s think this through, okay?” Steve asks, getting up.

“What is there to think through?” Nancy asks.

“We barely made it out of there” Steve points 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 says.

“Or he’ll kill us. The only reason you two survived is because he wanted you to. He’s not scared of us” Steve says.

“And for good reason” Robin says, getting up. Sofia could notice that she was panicking. “We were wrong about Vecna… Henry… One. Sorry, what are we calling him now?”

“One”

“Vecna”

“Henry”

“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. He could turn us inside out with a snap of his fingers! It’s not a fair fight. And I cannot take the risk of losing her!” Robin blurts out, all nervous and protective and anxious and scared too.

Sofia was lost in thought, but Robin brought her right back. Dustin was smirking, and Steve too. And it made Sofia smile a little.

I hate it here, but not so much with Robin. I hate it in my mind, but Robin ease’s my thoughts.

“Then why fight fair?” Dustin asks. “You’re right. He’s like Eleven. But that gives us an upper hand. We know Eleven’s strengths. And weaknesses”

“Weaknesses?” Erica asks.

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

“That would explain what he was doing in that attic” Lucas adds.

“Exactly. When he attacks his next victim, I’ll bet you he’s back in that attic, physical body defenseless” Dustin concludes.

“Defenseless? What about the army of bats?” Steve asks, as he points to his neck and at Sofia.

“True. We’ll have to find a way past them. Distract them somehow” Dustin suggests.

“And, uh, how do we do that, exactly?” Eddie asks.

“No idea” Dustin says. “But once they’re gone, he doesn’t stand a chance. It’ll be like slaying sleeping Dracula in his coffin”

“That all sounds good in theory, but there is no pattern to Vecna’s killings. Not one that I can decipher. We don’t know when he’s going to attack next. Don’t even know who he’s going to attack” Robin says. They couldn’t be dumb about this.

They needed a good plan, so she, Sofia and Max could go to New York. They needed a way to end this, so they could leave this town without remorse.

“Yeah, we do” Max says, and everyone’s attention turns to her. “I can still feel him. I’m still marked. Cursed. I ditch Kate Bush, I draw his focus back to me”.

Sofia didn’t want to believe what she was hearing. They couldn’t risk losing Max again. She couldn’t risk losing who was like a little sister to her. But then Sofia remembered what Vecna told her.

“What do you want from me?”

“From you, nothing”.

“Max. You can’t. He’ll kill you” Lucas says.

“I survived before. I can survive again” Max says. “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”.

As Eddie went to his trailer to get some yellow pages book, Sofia went to the bathroom.

When she closed the door, an ocean of tears flooded her face. She didn’t realize how much she had bottled up. It was like reality had finally hit. 

Why is this happening to her. Why would he show her that. Why would she now have to live with the possibility of Robin dying such a tragic death.

She was going to lose Robin, Max and potentially her brother too. Who would she live for if she didn’t have them?

“May I?” Sofia heard Robin ask, after knocking on the door.

She quickly dried the tears with her sleeve. “Yes” she quietly replied.

Robin came in and opened the door. She looked like she wanted to cry too.

“You’ve been crying” Robin says, her hands on the sides of Sofia’s face. It was like she could feel the intensity of the thoughts inside her head.

“You look like you need a good cry too” Sofia says, her lips curling into a frown.

Robin looks at her and then at the floor. A tear falls from her eye. “I was so scared of losing you” Robin sobs, as she lets herself cry more.

Sofia immediately hugs Robin, burying her face on her neck. “You didn’t” Sofia whispers, but she can’t handle hearing her cries.

And so they cry. The two, together, embraced, cry. Holding tighter and tighter onto each other. Like they could evaporate any second. Like they weren’t forever.

“Good music choice though” Sofia says, a little later, trying to lighten Robin up, because such pretty eyes don’t deserve to be swollen and red.

“I can’t wait for this to be over” Robin whispers, resting her forehead on Sofia’s.

“When all this is over, we’re gonna save money to get out of this town” Sofia says, gulping afterwards, and she said it with urgency, because they really needed to leave.

Sofia’s eyes are closed, but she can tell that Robin’s smiling. “Yeah?” she asks.

“Yeah. And we’re going to travel around the world where we can be free. We’re going to do Operation Croissant” Sofia says, letting go of the embrace to hold Robin’s hands.

Robin chuckles, intertwining their fingers. “Where are we going to live?” she asks, like she needs to live that fantasy now

“In the gayest city ever” Sofia jokes, making the two of them chuckle.

“So, like, Finland?” Robin asks, joking too, leaning in and kissing her broken-hearted girlfriend.

They hear the door to the trailer open and close. “Must be Eddie” Robin adds, softly after the kiss. 

And they exit the bathroom.

A/N: oh my god! did I just… write a new chapter??? that’s so unexpected from me

lmao anyway, I’m sorry for the wait, hopefully more chapters will be out soon 🙂

this chapter is a bit boring since it’s almost just dialogue from the show so I tried to add a bit of fluff ehe

also “I didn’t choose this town, I dream of getting out, there’s just one who could make me stay all my days” (by taylor swift) is so Robin and Sofia

vote if you love maya hawke!!!!!