Chapter 32

024

• 𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐞 •

─────✧･ﾟ: *✧･

☄. *. ⋆ The atmosphere was tense, everyone nervously waiting around as Eleven searched the darkness again. But the blindfold was torn off again, Eleven reporting back the state she found Billy in.

“And that’s not normal, right?” Nancy checked with Max.

“Billy staying in his room on the fourth of July? No, that’s not normal.” Max’s eyes fell, and it was then that Stella realized it was even the fourth. She had wanted to spend today with Max. Go to that stupid fair, win stupid prizes from stupid rigged games, share cotton candy with one of the only people she didn’t find stupid.

“He wants us to find him,” Will nodded, earning the same motion back from Nancy. “Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of. If we go to Billy, then the rest of the flayed know where we are.”

“It’s a trap, I agree,” Mike spoke up. “We’ll be ambushed.” But Lucas chimed in in their favor. “We won’t be surprised. We’ll know that they’re coming, and we will kick their flayed butts.” He clapped the back of his hand to his palms, adding emphasis.

“You mean Ess and El will kick their butts,” Max corrected, her girlfriend looking up at her briefly from her spot on the ground, back against the couch and Max’s legs beside either arm. Stella wished she could agree whole-heartedly, but was forced to be left with a mere hope she would be able to muster her powers. She shot Max a half-hearted grin.

“It’s too risky,” Mike shook his head, although Stella was pretty convinced he was only worried for Eleven.

“Yeah, and unnecessary,” Nancy added. “Killing the flayed won’t stop the Mind Flayer.”

Stella faltered. There had to be another way, right? They couldn’t just kill the flayed. They couldn’t. They weren’t gonna let Ozzy die. Stella wasn’t gonna let Ozzy die. Nancy continued, and Stella forced herself to focus. “We have to find out where it’s spreading from. We have to find the source.”

“And quickly,” Max declared. “If we don’t hurry, more people will get flayed, and more of Ess’s powers get drained.”

She was right. Stella wanted to help, she had to. She would help El, they’d do it together. But she was starting to worry that might not be too easy. Especially if they waited much longer. “How are we even supposed to find the source?”

“Billy knows it.”

Heads turned to El, no longer with the glass of water she had gotten for herself. “Billy’s been there. To the source.”

“Yeah, but–“

“It’s a trap. I know,” Eleven interrupted Mike. “We can’t go to Billy, but… I think there’s another way. A way for me to see where he’s been.”

“How?”

–

☄. *. ⋆ Mike knelt by El, starting to give some sappy speech that wasn’t over until Mike gave an unnecessary look to Max and Stella, then back to Eleven to finish the conversation.

El’s blindfold went on, and she plunged into the darkness.

The brunette started to pant after a moment, hyperventilating in a panic.

“El?” Stella tried, but there was no response.

“Something’s wrong,” Mike worried. Stella stood from beside Max on the couch, basically dropping next to El. “Hey. Hey, hey.”

“Ess, what are you doing?” Max leaned forward. Stella’s hands shot up. “I don’t know! I don’t know, I just– maybe I can try something!”

“Stella, be careful!” Nancy told her, and Stella wasn’t sure how to abide by that. She didn’t know what she was doing at all, let alone how to do it carefully. She took El’s hand. “Um– El, I don’t– really know what I’m doing, but, uh… shit, okay.” Stella shut her eyes, trying to think of what it could be that El does to get her there. Would this even work? She’d feel really stupid if it didn’t.

Ozzy. Ozzy. Ozzy.

Stella repeated his name in her head, pleading to nobody in particular that she could reach him. She tried her best to drown out the others, focusing in on the static.

Ozzy. Ozzy. Ozzy.

“Ozzy!”

When Stella’s eyes opened, she found herself in a record store, one she’d visited a few times, only there was something off about the name that was called.

It was her voice, but she hadn’t said anything. She turned to find the source, a girl running past her with a joyful expression. She was tall, with brown hair, brown eyes, skin tanned but clearly from the summer, and a Talking Heads record in her hands.

It was her.

A memory, she remembered. From not long ago. This was just a few weeks ago. But… not her memory.

“Woah,” she breathed.

Memory-Stella ran past now-Stella, turning a corner. Now-Stella followed, limping over to find Ozzy. They started talking about the record in past-Stella’s hands, and present-Stella started to look around.

Through a crack in a door, typically the bathroom in the store, a faint red glow emitted. Stella followed, leaving the memory of her and Ozzy behind to push open the door.

On the other side was a path, a trail through woods with a faded red sky. Pine trees lined the asphalt path, and the description rang a bell to Stella.

.　 . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

“I remember a long time ago, before I moved here, there was this path I took with my parents sometimes.”

Stella looked over at Ozzy, averting her attention from the basketball she had been tossing aimlessly up to catch again. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Ozzy nodded. “It had pine trees following down the trail. It was the prettiest thing in the snow.”

Stella smiled, trying to envision a younger Oscar, peppy and hyper as he walked with his parents through snowy woods.

“I miss when they’d do stuff like that,” the boy frowned a bit. “I don’t know what happened when we moved here.”

.　 . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

Stella tried to step out into the snow, but her foot didn’t land on snow. Or anything, for that matter. She gasped as she dropped, a shout leaving her.

She slammed against the cold, hard ground, crashing through the blanket of snow that didn’t do much to break her fall. She cried out as her head thudded against barely softened concrete.

The wounds in her ankle ached, blood managing to dye the snow crimson through her bandaging.

Suddenly dizzy, the world spun for Stella as she took a moment to push herself up. Down the path in the forest, voices could be heard, one that she didn’t recognize.

She struggled to stand, left leg dragging behind her nearly uselessly. Through the trees and her hazy vision, the faint sight of people could be seen amidst the trees, almost as if she were watching through some strange window.

“But why do we need to move?” A small voice asked, saddened and disappointed. Stella realized why she had recognized it– a tiny, much younger Oscar Rollway pleaded to his parents.

“Daddy and I found good jobs in Hawkins,” his mother explained. “You’ll make lots of friends.”

Stella kept staggering down the path, just now noticing she had been trembling in the cold. She hugged her arms around herself.

The same kind of window, this one to her left. The Snow Ball, and Stella began to wonder if Ozzy had any fond memories at Hawkins before they met. Part of her felt a pang of guilt for not befriending his earlier.

Further down the path, Oscar sitting by his bed, curled with his knees to his chest. The shouting of adults joined with crashing came from the background. Ozzy brought his hands to his ears. Stella frowned before continuing down the path.

In the distance, Stella’s gaze landed on a tall building. The source. It had to be.

She broke into a run, or the best one she could manage.

But it came to a quick halt.

The grip around her wrist whipped her around, and when she turned, she was no longer in the snow, but back in the cabin.

Only this time, no one was there. No one but Stella and Ozzy, whose hand still held onto Stella’s wrist. His eyes were dark. Cold. Stella stared into them until she pulled herself out of her fear and looked to where Max had been sitting. “Cali… Max?”

“She can’t hear you.”

Stella turned back to this twisted version of Oscar. “What did you do to her!?” She shouted, rage louder than her fear for a moment. “Where is everyone!?” She struggled in his grip, fighting him back until he suddenly released, sending her flying backwards onto the wooden ground. Ozzy hovered over her, and she wasn’t sure her ankle would allow her to stand back up. She gazed up at him, the fear returning.

“You think… you got in here?” He spoke slowly, lowly. “You think… you invaded my head.”

She felt her heart rate picking up. “Shut up.”

“I let you in,” Oscar leaned down more, starting to kneel. “Let you come here. Because I needed to tell you.”

“You’re not really here.” Stella pushed back with her right leg, using that and her arms to try to scramble back, just to hit the wall.

“I needed you to hear…”

“This isn’t Ozzy,” her eyes shut as she shook her head.

He crept closer. “How useless your plan is.”

“Stop!” Eyes glossed over, and she did everything she could to prevent the hot tears from trickling down her face.

“How useless you are.”

“Max!” Her efforts were fruitless as the salty tears leaked from her eyes.

“You… and Eleven. You will join us…” he took another step towards her. “Your friends will all be gone.”

“No!”

“And Max…”

“Don’t!” She shot forward, bursting with movement as she tried to stand, and as she tackled into Oscar, she simply fell through to the floor. The boy was nowhere to be found.

“Ess!” She picked amongst other calls of her names.

“Cali,” Stella sobbed out, her girlfriend at her side on the ground. She clung to Max, cupping her face for a moment before wrapping her arms around her, dragged into her lap.

Stella turned her head, seeing Eleven in a similar state, breaking down with tears streaming in Mike’s arms.

“What happened?” Nancy asked, panic in her voice after the voices had quieted down, left with pants from the two powered girls.

Stella looked back at El, looking for any sign that they saw the same thing.

She figured there’d be some explaining necessary.

─────✧･ﾟ: *✧･

hello!!! sorry this chapter is kinda short(?), i basically wrote the entire thing in one sitting right before bed and i really wanted to get a chapter published.

but tysm for reading, sorry it took so long also, my motivation went poof after break ended so i havent written a lot 😓

also i realized that i accidentally started numbering the chapters wrong a couple updates ago so thats why it went from 22 to 24. but it’s right now!! just dw about that

BYE HOPE U LIKED 🥹