Hi! So I basically gave up on this fanfic series for like a month but now I finally feel motivated enough to continue it! I'll ping the people who commented on my previous chapters in the first comment.
WARNING: Please do not read unless you've read Chapters 1-4 completely.
Ch. 1: https://strangerthings.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003462393
Ch. 2: https://strangerthings.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003463730
Ch. 3: https://strangerthings.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003466286
Ch. 4: https://strangerthings.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003468941
Recap: The monsters of the Upside Down come through the gates and start attacking Hawkins. Hopper, Lucas and Mike help El recruit Kali and she decides to visit her mother one last time, while Robin sacrifices herself when Nancy and Steve try to get Max out of the hospital which is under attack. Dustin and Murray come up with a plan to stave off the monsters until Eleven and Kali arrive, and Vecna enlists Victor, while the Mind Flayer creates a new proxy body using more melted Flayed including Mr. Clarke. The Soviets arrive with Kline's help, and Dr. Owens convinces Lt. Col. Sullivan to trust him.
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Nancy and Steve arrived at the Leesburg Medical Center, a tiny building overlooking Lake Tippecanoe. They parked the Toddfather and carried Max into the medical center.
Immediately, a couple nurses rolled in a stretcher and took Max away. One nurse stayed behind and asked Nancy, “What happened?”
“Her name is Max Mayfield. She’s in a coma, but the hospital she was in is under attack. So we had to carry her out and bring her here, away from Hawkins.”
“How long has she been out of the hospital?”
“Like an hour, we ran into some trouble on the way,” said Steve.
“An hour?! That’s not good…”
“What?! Is she dead?!”
“There’s a large chance she’s not… Do you know how she fell into a coma?”
Nancy hesitated. “Um… No.”
“Well then I’m afraid there’s no telling. How about you both sit here. We’ll run some basic tests, and by procedure someone’s already prepared for her to be transported to the nearest hospital.”
The nurse hurriedly left the room.
Back at Town Hall, Dustin explained his plan to the town.
“So. Sounds doable?”
“Anything for our town,” said librarian Marissa.
Even Jason’s anti-Hellfirists agreed to help Dustin.
Meanwhile, Joyce, Jonathan and Will looked frantically for a boombox. They asked everyone in the crowd if they knew where to find one in Town Hall, but no one did.
Finally, Chance, a member of the Hawkins High Basketball Team, lended them a Walkman. But they still had to find a Should I Stay Or Should I Go cassette. This time, no one in the crowd had one.
Joyce hurried up the stage and whispered something to Dustin. He nodded, and she, Will and Jonathan left Town Hall, got into her car and drove away.
Soon, they reached the Wheeler house.
Joyce knocked on the door, and Karen immediately opened it.
“Karen! It’s been so long! How’ve you been doing?” asked Joyce cheerfully.
But Karen didn’t reply, and she looked kind of sickly.
Will became a bit suspicious. Joyce continued, “So… um… I know that this might be kind of a—”
“Oh my gosh, Joyce! What a pleasant surprise!” Karen suddenly became lively and invited the three in.
“Karen, are you… okay?” asked Joyce.
“Why… wouldn’t I be?”
Joyce wasn’t sure how to answer that, so Jonathan helped her out. “So Mrs. Wheeler, do you possibly have a cassette of Should I Stay Or Should I Go?”
Of course, Vecna shouldn’t have had any idea what Should I Stay Or Should I Go was, because it was released in 1982 and he was in the Upside Down since 1979. But he did vaguely remember Will Byers singing it when the Demogorgon brought him to the Upside Down.
And so, suspicious, he made Karen say, “No… I do not.”
But luckily, Wil did remember something. “Um… I’m pretty sure I left a cassette in your basement—”
“Why do you need it?”
“It’s kind of confidential…”
“Tell me or you’re not getting it.”
Joyce intervened. “Karen, there’s no need to be rude. It’s just that we think we have a way to stop all this.”
“Then tell me.”
Joyce, Will Jonathan would tell her—after all the whole town knows now—but by now they all knew something was fishy.
And just a couple moments later, Jonathan knew exactly what was going on. He had seen this same kind of thing with his ex-boss Tom and ex-colleague Bruce. Which meant… Karen Wheeler was Flayed.
But she was their friend. She was Nancy and Mike’s mom. He couldn’t just bludgeon her with a fire extinguisher or stab her with scissors. So now, not only did he have to get the cassette, he had to figure out a way to un-Flay Karen.
“Mom, let’s go,” he said.
“But—”
“Just come.”
He led Joyce and Will out of the Wheeler house and Karen shut the door without another word. Then he ushered his mother and brother away from the house and told them silently, “I think… I think she’s Flayed.”
“What?!” Joyce shouted.
“Shhh! We can’t let her know that we know.”
Hopper rang the bell.
“Coming!” Becky called out from inside.
After a few footsteps, the door opened. Becky was shocked. At first she saw Hopper. “You!” Then she saw El. “Jane! You came back!”
Becky hugged Eleven.
“Where is Mama?” asked Eleven.
Becky led Eleven and Hopper inside; Mike, Lucas and Kali were waiting in the police jeep. Becky didn’t ask questions. She, of course, knew what was going on in Hawkins. And so did Terry. All the news channels covered it.
The lights in the house had already started flickering. And there she was, sitting in that wheelchair, in those same, drab clothes, muttering those same words.
“Breathe. Sunflower. Three to the right. Four to the left. Rainbow. Four-fifty.”
Four-fifty. Eleven, with tears in her eyes, now wished that she hadn’t shown mercy. That she had just killed Ray Carroll. After all, she was already a murderer. All those agents… Connie Frazier. But she did it for a good reason; they had killed Benny, the first person to show Eleven any kindness in her life.
But the past was the past. Eleven walked up to Terry and sat by her side. Just like two years ago, Terry switched the TV to static. Eleven pulled out a blindfold and tied it around her eyes.
And within thirty seconds, she was transported to the Void. And just as she expected, Terry was right there in her wheelchair. El knew what to do. She walked up to Terry and held her hand. Terry disintegrated, like she had two years back.
But… this time, El wasn’t transported to any memory. She just stood there, alone, in silence, for a whole minute.
Finally, something happened. She saw someone. Max. She was sitting in the water, sobbing silently.
“Max!”
“El!”
Max got up and ran to El. El hugged Max. Then she asked her, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m… I’m fine. I just… I have nowhere to go. Nowhere except here. But how are you here? This is my mind, isn’t it? Is it… yours?”
“I… I think so…? But…” This was all very confusing to El. But then she realized. “Mama sent me to you. Somehow. She wanted me to see you, to, to talk to you. Is there anything important you can tell me? How do I get you back?”
“I… don’t know… But there is one thing. It’s the same thing that happened with Nancy. I… I was back in his mind. And he showed me something that looked like the melted people monster that the Mind Flayer controlled. But it was much, much bigger. It was destroying Hawkins. And…”
“And?”
“Mike, Holly and Mrs. Wheeler were dead. All dead.”
“How?”
“I’m not sure, I just knew.” And immediately, Max just disappeared.
“Max?” El called out. “Max?! Max! MAX?!”
There was no reply. She took off the blindfold.
Hopper sat down next to her. “What did you see?”
“I saw Max. She told me that the Mind Flayer is back, and that… that Mike, his sister and mother will die…”
Hopper didn’t know how to reply to that. Terry couldn’t help them, but she did warn them.
Hopper and El stood up. Eleven hugged Terry and kissed her. Part of her expected for her mother to magically come back to life, and hug her, but… no. “Goodbye, Mama…”
El waved Becky goodbye, and she and Hopper left the house. They got into the car, and were en route to Hawkins.
“Jonathan, we have to save her, right?” asked Will
“How?”
“What do you mean? We knock her out, tie her to a chair, and then turn up the heat!” said Joyce.
Jonathan thought for a while. Off the bat it seemed completely ridiculous, but he soon realized it could work.
The bell rang. Karen opened the door to see Joyce standing in front of her. “What?” she asked, annoyed.
Suddenly, Jonathan emerged from behind Joyce, and hit Karen with a metal rod.
It didn’t work.
“Owie,” said Karen.
“It’s too late,” said Jonathan.
“JONATHAN, NO!” screamed Joyce.
Jonathan repeatedly hit Karen with the rod until her head was bludgeoned. And then, she melted into blood and flesh. Karen Wheeler was no more.
“Let’s go,” said Will.
Will, Jonathan and Joyce ran into the Wheeler house and dashed towards the basement.
Joyce and Jonathan began searching for the tape. “Will, where is it?” asked Joyce.
Will ran to the table where they always used to play D&D. Then, he looked under it. He grabbed the tape. “Here. Quick, let’s go.”
The three quickly ran up the stairs and rushed out of the Wheeler house before Karen’s remains could form into some kind of grotesque monster. They got in the car, and that’s when Will noticed the flesh seeping through the front door.
“DRIVE, MOM, DRIVE!”
Joyce drove and drove until she reached Town Hall. She rushed Will into the mayor’s office, pushed the cassette into the boombox, and the music started playing.
Will concentrated as hard as he could. He blocked out all his thoughts. All he could think of was the music and the Upside Down.
Suddenly, he felt his feet in water. He opened his eyes. To his shock, he was in the middle of nowhere; literal nowhere. There was just black, and water on the ground. Will panicked. “Mom?! Mom! MOM!”
Then Joyce panicked. “Will? Will! What happened?! Are you okay?!” Joyce switched off the music, and immediately, Will was brought back. He was hyperventilating.
“Will! Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m… I’m okay…”
“What happened? Did you remember anything?”
“I… I was in this black space. Like there was nothing. Only some water… My feet were in some water…”
Joyce knew who to ask; Eleven.
“I have good news,” said the nurse, “She’s alive.”
Nancy and Steve smiled, relieved.
“It’s a miracle, really,” the nurse continued, “She shouldn’t be alive right now. You want to go with her to the hospital right?”
“Actually, no,” said Nancy. “We have to be somewhere. Thanks, though. We’ll come and see her later.” Nancy and Steve rushed out of the clinic and got into the Toddfather.
No one slept that night. Will told everyone else about what he saw, while Nancy and Steve and Hopper, El, Kali and the others all drove to Hawkins.
Hopper arrived at Town Hall at around midnight. Kali was completely emotional. “Hawkins, Indiana… It’s been so long…” She looked at the town’s buildings, unsure how to feel. Eleven hugged her.
“Don’t worry. The bad men are gone.”
Kali smiled. She, Hopper, El, Lucas and Mike walked into the Town Hall. About fifty people were sleeping peacefully; they all knew it was the night before the battle of their lives. Finally, they walked into the mayor’s office, and met Joyce and the others.
Joyce ran and hugged Hopper and El. “Thank goodness you’re all okay. And… you’re El’s sister?”
“Yes, Kali. And you must be… Mrs. Byers?”
“Yes, but you can just call me Joyce,” she said, smiling. One by one, Kali was introduced to Dustin, Jonathan, Will and Murray by El.
Meanwhile, the Behemoth arrived in front of the Ives house. Becky rushed out of her house, hearing the booming noises. She looked up at the monstrous creature, terrified. It roared at her, and then hit her into a tree with its tentacle, crushing her skull. The Behemoth broke into the house, destroying it. It stopped in front of Terry, and then, it stuck its tentacle onto her face. It absorbed all her hidden-away memories and knowledge. Now, Terry Ives was truly dead. The Behemoth started walking back to Hawkins.
