Chapter 32

TW: self-harm.

A/N: also the gif sucks but at least i tried lmao, i just wanted yall to get the visuals

“Sofia…” a growling voice says. She freezes, panicking. This can’t be happening. Why her, why now. What the fuck.

She slowly turns to where she heard the voice, and there it was. The creepy, tall and mysterious figure. Vecna. She whimpers, realizing what she got herself into. He looked so scary.

“I’ve been waiting for you” Vecna says, slowly walking towards Sofia. 

With every step he takes forward, Sofia takes one backwards. “Look at yourself” he says, and Sofia suddenly hits her back against something. She knew there wasn’t a wall there.

She turns around and sees a big mirror. “Look at you” he growls, and more mirrors appear around her, trapping her in. 

Sofia’s alone, surrounded by mirrors.

She frantically tries to find her way out as she starts panting and her heart starts beating faster and she’s cursing too. She knew crying wouldn’t help, but she wanted to so much.

She stops moving around when the lights go out. She’s trapped in the dark. It’s pitch black. It’s her greatest fear. 

Sofia’s alone in a dark room.

Everything and anything could happen. She could die, she could be tortured. What’s going on. Why her. Why me, why me, why me?

Sofia hears muffled cries. But she could recognize those cries. It was her.

One of the mirrors crack, the one to her right, and light breaks in. Desperate, she punches the mirror, trying to find a way out.

With a bloody fist, she cracks the last piece of mirror and rushes through it. When she’s out, she’s in a white room. It’s all white, until she sees a door. Her old bedroom door.

Sofia’s alone in a white room. 

She could stay there and yell for help, or enter the room. She looks around and can’t see Vecna. “Robin!” she yells from the top of her lungs. “Dusty! Steve!” 

She decides to stop screaming for help, but she’s in too much panic to stop violently sobbing. Slowly, she raises her arm and puts her hand on the knob.

Sofia opens the door. She gulps as she sees her twelve-year-old self with a blade in her hand. 

“No, no, no” Sofia mutters, between sobs, rushing to her old self. Why is she seeing this. What does he want.

The little girl silently cries as she brings the blade closer to her thigh. “Why are you like this?” the girl whispers. She makes a small cut first. It doesn’t start bleeding, so she makes another cut right below the first one. This time is deeper. She can see the blood coming out.

Unsatisfied, she brings the blade to her arm and makes another cut. A bigger and deeper cut, near her elbow. It’s not that she wanted to die – she just wanted to feel something.

“Why can’t you-” the girl says, slowly cutting her skin. “-just be normal”. Seeing more blood coming out, she panics and drops the blade.

It’s radio silent. Just Sofia and her old self, both crying.

Suddenly, she hears the shower running. She looks around and sees the bathroom door open. She grabs her nightstand lamp, just in case she needs to hit something or someone, and walks into the bathroom.

In the shower is thirteen-year-old Sofia, fully clothed, crying silently under the cold water. 

“Please, God, make me like boys! Make me normal…” the girl whimpered. “I don’t wanna be like this, please”

Sofia’s breathing is too irregular, she feels like passing out. What a maze of nightmares. “What do you want?!” she yells, her sadness turning into anger.

Lights go out.

Sofia’s alone in the dark. Again. Her heavy breaths fill the air. 

Then, she finds herself in the school library, with Robin. Sweet sweet Robin. Seeing her was like a wave of calmness. 

Sofia watched as her old self passed a note to Robin and, as the latter was writing back, Cher approached them. “Hi” Sofia whispered, because they were in the library.

“Hi” Cher whispered back and walked to another table. Who could tell they were best friends of many years.

“Don’t you miss her?” Vecna asks, but he’s not there. Just his creepy voice, taunting that memory. 

Pitch black. Again. What’s going on.

She couldn’t handle this much panic. It was getting hard to breathe and all she could do was wonder if the others were okay.

“Hey, Sof, let’s go” Robin says, as they finally got Nancy and Steve out of the upside down. Robin looks at her girlfriend, who’s standing by the mirror, scrunchie in her hand. 

“Sof?” Robin asks, almost in a whisper, as she approaches her. Sofia’s silence was scaring Robin as she was thinking of the worst thing that could be happening. 

When Robin finally got there, her dark thoughts were confirmed. “Guys!” Robin yells, as she shakes Sofia.

Robin didn’t know what to do. The love of her life could die any second. Any second now.

Yet, Sofia looked peaceful.

They all ran to where Sofia and Robin were standing, frightened. “No…” Dustin whispers, not wanting to believe what was happening. 

“No!” he said again, louder. He started shaking his sister, begging for her to come back.

Sofia was, once again, surrounded by mirrors.

“Let me go!” she screamed. She couldn’t think straight anymore, she just wanted to get out. “Come on!”

“Let me go…” Sofia cried. Sobbing uncontrollably, she was starting to slowly give up. She closed her eyes and placed her forehead in one of the mirrors as she cried. 

When she opened her eyes, she could see something on the other side of the mirror. She squinted her eyes, trying to figure out what she was seeing.

“Sofia! Help me, please!” she heard a voice say from the other side. It took her a couple of seconds to figure out the voice was actually Cher.

“Cher?!” Sofia screamed, really confused. Could Cher still be alive? Was it just her memory?

“Help me!” Cher screamed. Sofia could see she was covered in vines that were making their way to her neck.

Using the same fist from before, she punched the mirror again and again until the dried blood turned fresh. It took her a couple of punches, but she quickly broke it and walked through it.

“Cher…” Sofia whispered as she made her way to Cher and started trying to take the vines off her.

“I’m so glad you’re here” Cher said, but by each word her voice changed into a growl.

Shit. Sofia was paralyzed by fear. Her brain was telling her to run away but her legs were stuck to the ground.

“Got you” Cher smirked, but it was Vecna’s voice coming out. She abruptly grabbed Sofia’s hand and threw her to the ground. He was having fun with this.

Sofia was expecting to fall hard into the ground but instead she fell into a void. A pitch black void. She tried to scream but nothing came out.

She was slowly falling deeper and deeper into the void. Suddenly, she hit the ground.

“We really need music!” Robin screamed as she panicked. He couldn’t take Sofia away from her. At this point, life wasn’t worth it anymore if Sofia died. She needed her.

“What does she listen to?” Lucas asked in panic. Nancy was just looking as she was still processing what had happened to her. She wanted to help but she was too tired. Steve was also screaming Sofia’s name.

“Madonna, Kate Bush, Bowie… Anything!” Robin screamed as tears of fear rolled down her face. She couldn’t lose Sofia. 

“I have a Bowie tape… It’s in my house but I can get it now!” Max shouted, already sprinting towards her house.

“Yes, go get it!” Robin yelled as she wrapped her arms on Sofia’s shoulder and cried.

Sofia fell to the ground with a grunt. She didn’t want to open her eyes yet. What if she was somewhere scarier? 

The anxious feeling telling her to open her eyes spoke louder, so she did it.

She found herself in a garden. The garden. The one where her father took her when she was little. Sofia could smell the fresh air, the flowers and the grass. The sun was softly hitting her face as the wind brushed through her hair.

Had she died?

She followed the sound of metal squeaking that was so familiar to her. Soon, she saw her 2-year-old self in the swing as her father helped her. 

“Dad…” she whispers. She resented him for leaving her, but mostly for leaving Dustin.

“Be careful!” Sofia’s dad said as little Sofia started swinging higher and higher.

“I’m flying!” little Sofia chuckled. Back then she was so free.

Sofia felt a tear rolling down her cheek. She smiled as she watched herself play with her father, forgetting for a few seconds where she was.

Suddenly, a dark cloud started coming in her way. Destroying another memory, of course. You’re not dead yet, Sofia.

Red thunder appeared, and she started running away from the cloud. She kept looking back, seeing the cloud getting closer and closer to her with each second that passed. 

Every second, a state of panic. As she looked back, she tripped and fell to the ground.

When she tried to get up, she felt that the floor was squelchy and cold. She gulped and raised her hand and saw it covered in blood.

She looked around and realized she was in the same place Max had been. It had to be. But that meant she was going to die. She was going to die. Now. 

Sofia carefully got up as she panted. She had felt too many emotions, was too tired and just wanted to go back to her friends. Back to her brother. Back to her girlfriend.

Enough psychological torture.

“Please, come back to me” Robin whimpered as she hugged her girlfriend. 

Dustin wasn’t crying yet but Steve was trying his best to calm him down. Things weren’t looking pretty for Sofia. She had been there for as long as Nancy now.

Everyone was experiencing a different type of panic. Everyone was desperate.

“I got it!” Max shouted as she busted through the door.

Robin let go of the hug and ran to Max. “Be fast!” Steve shouted as he stayed with Sofia and Dustin. 

“Sofia… where do you think you’re going?” Vecna growled as Sofia franticly walked around. She was covered in blood and dirt, she was tired too, and her face was all sticky with tears.

“Robin!” Sofia screamed in despair, a violent sob escaping after.

“They’re not going to save you” Vecna growled. “You’re all alone”.

Sofia was suddenly pulled next to Vecna. She was floating, with vines wrapped around her ankles and wrists.

“You really think they’re going to miss you?” Vecna asked as he placed his fingers under Sofia’s chin. “Like you missed Cher?”

“I do miss her” Sofia whimpered, her heart beating on her throat, her hands shaky.

“Liar!” Vecna growled. “You felt relief. You were glad you didn’t have to deal with her problems anymore”.

“That’s not true…” Sofia cried, trying not to think about it. She really couldn’t. Every thought she had was a scream for help. “What do you want?!” she screamed, so tired of his torture.

“To show you why” he said, placing his fingers on Sofia’s head. 

Everything turned black. Pitch black, again.

All of a sudden, she was at the Wheeler’s house. Another memory.

“Are you sure your mother doesn’t need anything? I could make her soup” Karen says as fifteen-year-old Sofia followed her into the kitchen.

“Yes, I’m sure. But thank you anyway” the girl said with a smile.

“Hi, Sofia, they’re down in the basement” Nancy said without taking her eyes off her book as she walked up the stairs.

“Thanks” the girl said. “Dusty” she called but didn’t get an answer.

“Do you mind if I go down there?” the girl asked Karen.

“Not at all” Karen said as she checked the food in the oven.

Sofia followed her old self into the basement, still not understanding why Vecna was showing her this. But at least here was warm.

When Sofia reached the end of the stairs, she could see Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas and El playing a board game.

Why was Vecna showing her the memory of the first time she met El?

The group looked at the girl like they had been caught, except for the girl she didn’t know. “Hi… we haven’t met yet, I’m Sofia. Dustin’s older sister, he probably hasn’t mentioned me”

El hesitated. “I-I’m El”.

“Pretty name” Sofia’s old self smiled. “Dustin, we have to go. I have a biology test tomorrow and we gotta go to the pharmacy first”.

The memory stops.

A song starts playing. Her way out. They’re trying to get her out.

Tonight by David Bowie plays. The song that Robin hummed for Sofia to sleep. Their lullaby. Everything will be alright tonight. I will love you ’till I reach the end. I will see you in the sky.

“All of this because of her” Vecna said, not there, not invading the memory physically.

“I don’t understand” Sofia said, shaking her head. All of this because of El?

“You will. Soon. You’ll understand why I had to kill you and all your friends” Vecna said, just his voice.

Just his voice, until he brought her back to the dark red scary place. Sofia tried to move, to follow the music, but she couldn’t move. Not by fear, not by a lack of strength. She truly couldn’t move.

Without any more words, he raised his hand and placed it on Sofia’s head.

Horrible flashes of destruction flashed though her eyes. Hawkins being destroyed. Houses being torn down. People dying.

People screaming in pain for their loved ones. People crying. Hospitals full of people.

Robin. Robin bleeding out. Robin screaming for Sofia.

Sofia gasped for air as Vecna let go. “What do you want from me?” Sofia whimpered, between sobs.

“From you, nothing” he growled.

Sofia finally got out of her trance and fell backwards. “Sof!” Robin shouted as she took the girl in her arms and let her lie on the floor.

Sofia wrapped her arms around Robin. “Is this real?” Sofia asked, out of breath, as she held on tight to Robin. Very tight.

“It is, it is…” Robin whispered. “You’re safe”.

Dustin bent down and hugged his sister too. “You’re here…” he said, sighing, voice full of relief.

Everyone in the room sighed, too.

Sofia felt a lot more scared than before. But she’s got love. Maybe, back when she was twelve, she didn’t feel that love. But now she feels it.

Sofia feels.