Chapter 37

They made their way to the Creel house, although Robin began to think they’d been going in circles. “Uh, I don’t mean to freak anyone out, but I swear we’ve seen this tree before,” she said.

“You’re memorising what the trees look like?” Claudia asked.

“That’s impossible,” Nancy said.

“That would suck, right? If Vecna destroyed the world because we got lost in the woods.”

“We’re not lost, Robin.” Robin chuckled. “Robin! Hey, what out for the vines! Hive mind, remember?”

Robin ran off. “Thank you!”

Claudia chased after her, making sure not to step on any of the vines. “You gotta chill,” Claudia told Robin when she caught up.

“How am I meant to chill in this situation? This is so scary! I’m about, you, and me, and Nancy and Steve and everyone! What if this doesn’t work?”

“Robin, it’s gonna work. We’re saving the world here. And once we’re out of her, you and me can get a cute little apartment, some cats. No babies, though.”

“Not like it’s possible anyway.”

The two kept walking, talking about their plans for the future. They weren’t the types of people to start planning their future at such an early age, but talk of what would happen after this shit show is really all that kept them going.

They finally made it to the Creel house, looking up at it and it’s dishevelled glory. “Holy shit,” Claudia said, “It’s a lot scarier here than it is in our world.”

“You getting second thoughts?” Robin asked.

“No way.”

“Good, cause I wouldn’t be able to do this without you. Let’s go and get the other two love birds.”

“Don’t call them that. I really like Jonathon, it makes me sad.”

They ran back to Steve and Nancy. “You guys! Awesome news! Looks like we weren’t going the wrong way after all. Come on. Let’s go!”

They made their way up to the Creel house again. It was surrounded by bats, of course. They looked over to the slide, were a faint light shone.

“Erica,” Steve said.

They made their way over to were Erica was, alerting her that they were there. She flashed her light for Max and Lucas. “Okay, the lovebirds have copied,” Erica said, “Max is moving into phase two: distracting Vecna.”

“So far so smooth,” Robin said.

“Yeah, we’re not even at the hard part yet,” Steve said.

“Don’t be a pessimist,” Claudia said.

“I don’t even know what that means.”

“Me neither, I just know it’s bad.”

The bats shrieked in the distance as they stared at the house, waiting for Vecna to take the bait. Erica’s voice came through the walkie again a few minutes later.

“Okay, she’s in, initiating phase three,” Erica said. Robin repeated the same thing to Dustin. The swarm of bats flew away from the house and towards were Eddie was playing Master of Puppets on his guitar.

“Okay, it’s working,” Nancy said, “Let’s go.”

They walked to the Creel house, and Claudia felt her heart slowly dropping, beating rapidly as her breath increased. Robin squeezed her wrist reassuringly. “We got this,” she said.

The house was awful. It was dark, even darker than it was in the normal world, if that was possible. There was a strange smell in the air. Not quite rotten, but certainly not clean. The ground was covered in vines, with very few gaps showing the actual floor. It was definitely gonna be a nightmare to get to Vecna.

“Oh, shit,” Steve said, “That’s not good.”

“On your toes, Steven,” Claudia said. Robin’s face fell. Her uncoordinated self was definitely not built for dodging deadly vines. Claudia squeezed her hand. “You said it yourself, we got this.”

They all made their way up the stairs, thinking that they’d dodged the vines, when one of the earthquakes stuck. When it stopped, and they were free of vines, Claudia let out a sigh of relief. She thought they’d avoided touching them. She was wrong.

A vine wrapped itself around Robin’s leg, pulling her up onto the wall. Vines wrapped around Robin, choking her as Nancy, Steve and Claudia attempted to get them off. They soon met the same fate as Robin. Steve was pulled by his axe, and Nancy by her leg.

“Claudia, stay still!” Nancy yelled at Claudia, the only one who hadn’t fell victim to the vines grasp.

“I can’t stay still while you guys are all being choked to death!” Claudia said. She picked up Nancy’s gun from the floor and tried her best to get Robin out, still being unsuccessful.

The vines finally recognised that Claudia was there. They wrapped around her waist and she struggled out of their grip, only to be pulled back by her arms. It became pretty clear to everyone was she was trying to do as she repeatedly slipped in and out of the vines grasp. She was trying to get to Vecna, to fight him on her own. She still had Nancy’s gun in her hand, and her backpack has some of the bottles her, Steve and Robin had made.

“Claudia!” Nancy called out, “Don’t fight it!”

“Nancy?” Claudia said, looking up at Nancy, continuing to fight with the vines.

“Yeah?”

“Shut up!”

“You can’t fight him alone!”

“And if I wait patiently for you guys to escaped the vines, I can’t fight him at all. One person going up against him is better than none!”

Nancy didn’t say anything else. Not because she didn’t want to, but because she was being strangled so hard that she physically couldn’t.

Claudia was free of vines and began climbing up the attic stairs. Just before she could get to Vecna, to her target, another set of vines got her. One on each leg and arm, and one around her waist. There was no way she was getting out of that.