Chapter 35

The group walked into the trailer, focused on their mission. Stressed out but focused.

“Be careful” Dustin said, as Steve prepared to climb to the upside-down. 

“Thanks, buddy” Steve responds. “Here goes nothing”.

They watched as Steve landed perfectly on the floor. “What does he want us to do, applaud?” Robin mutters, sarcastically. It’s amusing how Robin could always turn on the light even in the darkest moments.

Quickly, everyone entered the upside down. They exited the trailer, and all they could hear was thunder. Sofia kept on holding Robin’s hand tightly. 

“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” Steve carefully explained. “Okay? You guys are just…”

“Decoys.” Dustin ends. “Don’t worry. You can be the hero, Steve.”

“Absolutely. I mean, look at us. We are not heroes” Eddie adds.

“Eddie…” Sofia said and pushed him aside to talk. 

“‘Sup?” Eddie asked.

“Please keep Dustin safe” Sofia begs him. “I wish I could stay with him now, but we have more chances of beating Vecna if there’s four of us… I really, really need him. You’ve got to protect him…”

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of him” Eddie says with a calm tone, sure of his purpose.

“Thank you” Sofia whispers, a relieved smile on her lips.

They walk back to the group. “Ready?” Robin asks.

Sofia looks at her and then at Dustin. “Be careful, okay?” Sofia asks her brother.

“I will” he says.

“You better” she smiles, hugging him. “I love you”.

“Love you too sis” Dustin says.

He didn’t want to show it, but he was really scared. Not only for him, but for his sister and the others. The fact that Sofia’s been acting weird just makes him more anxious. There’s so much he wants to ask her, but there’s just no time.

The upside-down atmosphere felt rougher than ever. Sofia struggled to take deep breaths, as the four of them walked through the forest. Anxiety filled her lungs and all she wanted to do was to cry. Why the fuck did I crack the Russian code last summer?

Sofia softly hums to a Beatles’ song as her and Robin walk with their hands intertwined.

“I don’t mean to freak anyone out, but I swear we’ve seen this tree before” Robin says.

“That’s impossible” Nancy says.

“That would suck, right? If Vecna destroyed the world because… ’cause we got lost in the woods?” Robin jokes, to which Sofia chuckles.

“We’re not lost, Robin” Nancy says.

“Follow me” Robin whispers to Sofia, as the two girls start running.

“Hey, guys! Watch out for the vines! Hive mind. Remember?” Steve warns them, again.

“Thank you!” Robin shouts.

“I won’t let her trip!” Sofia shouts too.

They carefully run through the woods, never letting go of each other’s hands. If this is their last moment of freedom, they might as well just enjoy it. That’s what Sofia was saying on repeat in her mind.

“Holy shit, there’s the house” Robin says when she abruptly stops.

Sofia loses her balance for a second, but Robin quickly wraps her arm around Sofia’s waist, holding her close. 

“You okay?” a very worried Robin asks.

“I’m just feeling a bit dizzy” Sofia responds, taking the moment to appreciate the feeling of Robin’s arms wrapped around her.

Sofia was worried sick for her girlfriend, God knows if she could die now. Her life was at risk and how is Sofia supposed to survive without her?

“Let’s go tell Steve and Nancy we’re going the right way” Sofia says, and the two girls start running back to their friends.

“Hey, guys!” Sofia yells, as they’re almost approaching them.

“You guys! Awesome news!” Robin says, out of breath, but in a very cute and excited tone. “Looks like we weren’t going the wrong way after all. Come on”.

Sofia looks at the two and feels like they definitely interrupted something. “Were you… in the middle of something?” Sofia asks, hiding her smirk.

“No” Nancy immediately says. “Let’s go!”.

“Okay” Sofia whispers, sharing a look with Robin.

“Ro… Slow down! Robin… Sofy!” Steve complains.

They quickly get to the house. Their glance goes directly at the playground. The spaceship had the light on. They all smiled in relief, since this only meant one thing: the plan was working and everything might just be okay.

As Sofia replayed the plan in her head, they walked to the front door. When Steve opened the door, she could’ve sworn she stopped breathing.

“That’s not good” Steve says.

Sofia looks inside and it’s full of vines. Full of vines. She just wanted to give up, go home and move to some other town. Then she remembered how lucky she was because her life was less at risk than Max’s. 

She just wished for everyone to get out of this alive. She just wanted for all of this to be over.

“Shit” Robin whispered, holding Sofia’s hand tighter.

“It’s okay. You got this” Sofia assured her.

Watching every step Robin took, Sofia finally got up the stairs. Robin quickly grabbed her hand and took a big breath. 

Suddenly, as they got ready to go to the attic, an earthquake started. Robin held onto Sofia, but as Sofia almost lost her balance Steve grabbed her arm. Soon, the earthquake stopped. But what came next was the real nightmare.

Right when the earthquake stopped, a tentacle wrapped around Robin’s leg, pushing her against a wall.

“ROBIN” Sofia screamed, in the most painful and gut-wrenching way. Is this it? Will she die then?

“SOF” Robin screamed back. She didn’t even have to ask for help as Sofia immediately grabbed her axe and tried to free Robin.

In a matter of seconds, Steve and Nancy got pushed to the opposite wall. The last thing Sofia could do was try to grab Robin’s hand before she got pinned against the ceiling. 

Yes. This is it. This is how we die.

As the three struggled to breathe and tried to escape, Sofia accepted her destiny. Sure, she lived a short life, but at least it was a good one. One filled with tons of love and joy at times.

Robin looked up, locking eyes with Sofia. 

“I love you” Sofia mouthed to Robin.

“I love you too” Robin mouthed to Sofia.

As if by some miracle, the vines wrapping each of them backed away. They all fell to the floor, Sofia a bit harder, just when they were about to die.

They were all a coughing mess, trying to catch as much breath as possible. Robin crawled over to Sofia, as a tear fell down her cheek.

“I don’t believe in a higher power or divine intervention. But that was a miracle” Robin says, as they get up.

“Then we better not waste it” Nancy says, preparing her gun.

“Phase four” Steve says.

“Flambé” Robin adds.

With determined eyes, the four walked into the attic. “Gross” Sofia says, as they look at Vecna. Somehow, it didn’t seem more terrifying than the mind-flayer. Maybe she just blocked her memories from the 4th of July.

They dropped their backpacks and grabbed the molotovs. Robin lit one up. Steve threw it. 

Just like that, Sofia felt adrenaline going through her veins. She felt like she did on the 4th of July. Like she was an observer, a simple witness of life. 

Vecna screamed in pain and dropped to the floor. Looking into his eyes was just horrifying, a feeling that no book or song could ever warn her about.

Robin threw a Molotov, then Sofia threw another one. After that, Nancy took the lead and shot him until he fell through the window.

They ran as fast as they could to the place where Vecna fell, only to find it empty. And Sofia felt it. She knew it wasn’t over. It was like she could still feel his presence. 

The clock chimes made Sofia jump in place. They ran inside to see the clock. “Four chimes” Robin says.

“Max” Nancy says.

“No…” Sofia sobs, starting to cry. How did they lose Max? How did they fail the plan? Why did it not work? Why did it have to be Max? Why Max? Why her?

Sofia let out some of her most painful sobs as the ground started violently shaking, but her blurry vision didn’t even let her process what was happening. She could feel Robin’s grip throughout the whole thing.

It was a living nightmare.

Two days later.

Dear diary,

Things are not okay. Not at all.  

After the big earthquake I didn’t really feel like it was over. And how I wish I was wrong.

Dustin is alive on the outside but dead on the inside. I am worried as fuck about him. Eddie meant the world to him, and his loss truly left a void in Dusty’s heart. Mom’s alive as well, gladly. Max is in the hospital, in a coma. It pains me to admit that she might just not get lucky, but I’m trying to be positive as Robin told me to. If I think about Max too much I think I might just kill myself.

Robin is also not okay at all, but at least we’re miserable together. We couldn’t sleep on the first night after it happened, so we cut our hair and I dyed Robin’s. I try to avoid talking about it, but Robin says it’s very important for me to do that, so we have been chatting about it. We cry, laugh, and feel fucking crazy together. We cry about what happened. We laugh about how we got into this. And we go crazy together.

Right now, I’m waiting for Robin to get ready so we can go donate stuff for the people who lost their houses and etc. I really hope I can get through this, and that this is the end after all.

It doesn’t feel like the end. It feels like the beginning of the end. God, I hope I’m wrong.

Sofia drove Dustin, Steve and Robin to school. They grabbed their boxes and entered the densely populated school. 

“Hi. Uh, so these are blankets and sheets. And some… some clothes and… and some kids’ toys” Robin tells the volunteer.

“Wow. It’s already so organized. We appreciate that” the woman says. “Do you want a tax receipt for it?”

“Um… No. I don’t think that we need one. Thank you, though. But is there anything else that we can do to help?” Robin asks.

Sofia and Robin follow the volunteer to the children’s part, filled with parents trying to calm their kids down. “Please, just entertain them” the volunteer asks, to which the girls agree to do.

“How the fuck do we entertain kids?” Robin whispers to Sofia.

“Take your socks off” Sofia whispers back.

“What?”.

“Just do it”.

The couple take their socks off and do a puppet show about Little Women. They were so focused on their little show, they almost didn’t even notice Steve calling for them. They followed Steve until they reached the window.

At first glance, it looked like snow. But once they realized what it was, their smiles quickly dropped. Everything started to look grey, lifeless, sad. All they could see was an apocalyptic Hawkins.

Her vision was right. Vecna wanted the world, and to take Sofia’s too.

Robin grabs Sofia’s hand, holding it tight, bracing themselves for one last fight.