°
     °
°

chapter twenty-two

IF YOU ASKED DIANA, Eddie Munson—with his long dark hair and terrified eyes—was a bit of an asshole, but he was so clearly traumatized that she was willing to give him a pass, even if he'd tried to kill her boyfriend with a glass bottle to the neck.

They'd found him hiding out in Reefer Rick's outdoor shed, and after some convincing—done mostly by Dustin— they were able to calm him down and explain. While she physically couldn't help but to tune out most of it, opting out of burdening him with the story behind her own involvement, she couldn't stop the images of Chrissy's death from flooding her mind.

Eddie's retelling was graphic, and she was glad she wasn't privy to the actual visual, but she'd felt something last night. Despite being in the circle of Steve's arms, she'd shivered herself to a restless sleep the night before.

Today, she was with a thousand less mental fortifications and a ringing in her ears to prove it. "Diana, are you hearing this?" Dustin asked.

Her eyes focused on the people on the other side of the cluttered shed. She hadn't even realized she'd wandered off. She was standing in a corner filled with various tools and tarps and fishing equipment. The shed smelled of fish and lake water. It was dark and the only light was coming from a pair of flashlights. She could just barely make out the five pairs of eyes on her.

She didn't answer, but she wrapped her arms around herself, her windbreaker rustling loudly. There was a deep chill in her bones. The ringing in her ears became more incessant. She brought her hands to her ears and squeezed her eyes shut.

She could see a fire—a car crash and burning bodies— and then nothing. Abruptly, the ringing in her ears stopped, and she gasped, feeling as if she'd just walked face first into a brick wall.

There was nothing. No vision, although she was sure it had been coming.

"Diana?" Steve asked, his breath tickling her face. Her eyes shot open, and she jumped, not expecting him to be so close. Her hands dropped from her ears and she stared at him. His eyes were wild. "Did you see something?"

Her mouth opened and then shut. She didn't have an answer. "I—I need to scry," she said finally.

Steve turned toward the group of knowing faces and the one confused one. Then she saw Dustin spur into action, grabbing a flashlight and tossing it into Steve's awaiting hand.

"Did she say—" Eddie began, but Dustin interrupted him.

"We'll explain later."

She took the flashlight and sat right where she stood. Diana looked up at Steve and reached out a hand. "I need an anchor." He grabbed her hand without hesitation and squeezed tightly. "Twelve minutes. Don't let me stay under any longer than that."

Steve nodded, a determined look on his face. Assured, Diana balanced the flashlight on the floor of the shed and stared right into it.

She welcomed the familiar burn and then the uncomfortable blankness that followed. And then she was in the Void.

It was the same as it had been the last time she'd scried—endless unfathomable blackness, except this time there was a young boy sitting at a short table, coloring carelessly onto the pages of a notebook. The wooden table reminded her a bit of the one that had been in her kindergarten class, where she'd spent hours sitting alone, the other empty seats taunting her. This boy didn't seem to mind, though.

Diana took a few tentative steps toward him, and then he gazed up at her, his blue eyes piercing. She felt an air of familiarity, but before she could place it, it was gone, and he was just a unnamed boy who couldn't be more than thirteen. They studied each other. His pale skin was unblemished and his blonde hair was perfectly slicked back. His white buttons up was pristine, and he looked utterly innocent. She felt a poke against her mind, but her fortress held firm, though it was a struggle. Diana was sure that the culprit was the boy before her, but she wasn't sure he was a boy at all.

His figure was fuzzy.

Who is he? There was nothing behind him, which meant she could not find him and from the look in his eyes, he could not find her either.

Without lifting a finger, the chair opposite him pushed out toward her. Diana jerked back. "Sit," he told her.

She watched as he went back to his notebook, but made no move to do as he said. "Who are you?"

He paused. "Don't ask when you already know the answer, Diana."

She swallowed hard and felt a tickle beneath her nose. Blood.

She wiped at it. The boy watched her movements and she spoke as if her action was inconsequential. "So we've met then?"

"In a way," was all he said. The table shook slightly as he adjusted his admittedly tiny chair.

She gritted her teeth. "Are you the one who's blocking me from seeing?"

"Yes. It's a warning." He colored into the notebook, his black crayon scribbling quickly. She could not see the drawing, but not because she did not try. The sheet was blank when she stretched to see it. "I'll kill you where you stand if I feel you watching me again."

Diana narrowed her eyes, but her heart began to beat quicker. "Did you kill Chrissy? Are you the Mind Flayer."

He looked at her, blue eyes humored. "You should have heard her screams."

She flinched but carried on. He felt too much like the damned dark entity for her to let him slip past that second question. "Are you the Mind—"

"No," he let out, his expression contorting into something dark. Diana wasn't sure she believed him fully. "Don't ask again."

"You'd kill me for that too?"

"Maybe."

Diana shifted on her feet. "Tell me how you do it."

His tongue swiped over his teeth, and he shrugged. "I think you can guess," he let out, pushing hard against her mental walls.

She flinched but understanding flooded through her. "You're in their heads, then." She didn't even bother asking him why he'd killed Chrissy because if he wanted her to know, then she would. He was stabbing at her fortress then, but he hadn't even broken a sweat. Diana, on the other hand, was beginning feel dizzy. "Will you do it again?" She asked instead.

He hummed. "I already have."

Diana felt tears begin to burn the back of her eyes, but she stood tall under his gaze. "It'll be your last."

His crayon snapped in half where he held it against the paper, but when he looked up at her, he only smiled. "You cannot stop me."

"If I have to protect every mind in this God forsaken town myself, I will."

"Your mind will crumble," he murmured, slightly less amused. "And you will die trying."

"Maybe I will," Diana said, lifting her chin. "But I'll see it coming."

He sneered, his innocence dropping from his face like a mask. He shot up from his seat, his chair falling somewhere into the Void. "I'll kill your before you can finish the thought."

Diana was the one who smiled this time, a crooked unsettling pulling of her lips that dripped blood onto her teeth. "I'll worry about that when you can actually manage to find me."

His posture relaxed, and his chair righted itself. "Why should I waste any time attempting to find you, when I can find the people you love?" He sat down in one fluid motion. "Give Maxine my best regards, will you?"

Diana blanched and took several steps toward him. Her smile was gone, but his had returned. "No. No."

And then there was a tugging on her arm and she didn't have enough strength to continue to scry. Suddenly, she was back in the shed and the flashlight was searing her corneas and her hand was sweating in Steve's.

She yanked it from him.

Diana was breathing hard and blinking rapidly. She shot to her feet, knocking the flashlight over and stumbling past Steve and through the shed. She pushed open the door with enough force that pain shot down her shoulder. She ignored it. The cool night air hit her face, and she could finally find her breath again. When she saw the grass, she collapsed knees first into it and leaned over, gripping it tightly in her hands.

She saw Steve's shoes in her peripheral and heard the footsteps of the others.

"Diana, baby," Steve began, placing a soothing hand on her back. "Are you ok?"

"What did you see?" Another voice asked. Dustin.

Steve let out a frustrated breath. "Could you hold off on that for a second? She can barely catch her breath."

Diana squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. "Nothing. I can't see anything."

"You were whispering to yourself," Robin said quietly, a ways away from the couple.

"I spoke to him," she forced out. "I thought it was all me. I thought I had myself to blame, but he's stopping me from seeing."

"The Mind Flayer?" Steve asked, trying to guide her to her feet, but she did not budge.

"Something worse." She sat back on her heels and looked to the dark sky and prayed that she would not lose anyone she loved to this evil.

"Vecna," she heard Dustin say. Diana remembered reading about that D&D character ages ago. It was unsurprising that the boy was able to find some relation to the game.

"If we're keeping the theme..." she relented. Then she turned to Steve. She relaxed beneath his gaze and leaned into his hand. "He's killed again."

"Who?" Max and Eddie asked at the same time. Max shot him a look and approached her. "Who did he kill?"

"It could be anyone in this town," she said despairingly. She sat there for a moment more, soaking in the silence. Then she gathered her wits, stood and faced Dustin, Eddie, Max, Robin, and Steve, her gaze lingering on the redhead. "I won't let it happen again. If any one of you feels him in your head, you tell me, and I'll protect you as best as I can."

He's been here this whole time, she thought. Lurking, waiting.

"Unless you can do what he can," Eddie began, surveying with wariness, "I don't think you'll be much help."

Before anyone could come to her defense, she gritted her teeth and turned fully to him. "He—Vecna, whoever the hell he is— just spent twelve minutes trying and failing to get into my head and I promise if he could've killed me, he would've."

"Diana," Steve said slowly.

"It's the truth," she told him, her voice softer. "He doesn't want me to see what he's going to do before he's done it." That would make her one step ahead of him. She  gazed back at Eddie. "But I'm going to try anyway. If you feel him in your head, then you tell me so that I can help you, you asshole."

She looked at everyone in the group. "Got that?" They nodded. She watched Max for a second. "Promise me." They all did, but Steve was silent. She turned to him, waiting.

"No," he forced out. His brown eyes were fierce. "You're not getting yourself killed for anyone. And you're not going to keep watching this guy. End of discussion."

"End of discussion? End of discussion?" Diana asked, her voice rising in disbelief.

"Ok," she heard Robin mutter to Eddie, Dustin, and Max. "Let's go this way." She led them away from the couple and out of earshot.

Diana's eyes did not leave her boyfriend's. "We've got to get a handle on this, you said so yourself."

"Yeah, that was before I knew there was a killer threatening you." He crossed his arms over his chest, his knuckles white over his arms.

"I won't let anyone else die, not when I can try to stop it. It doesn't matter if he's threatening me," she said through gritted teeth.

"You can't expect me to agree with that," he replied frustratedly, his arms flinging out in exasperation.

"You don't have to agree with anything. At the end of the day, I'm going to do what I have to do, and no one's gonna stop me. Not even you."

"So you don't give a damn about how any of this makes me feel?"

She jerked back as if she'd been slapped. "That's not what I'm saying—"

He made a face. "It sounds like that's exactly what you're saying."

She groaned. "How is this any different from all of the times you've helped fight the Mind Flayer?"

"I wasn't getting personal death threats from the Mind Flayer."

Diana bit the inside of her cheek and counted to five. "You're being unreasonable, so this conversation is over."

He grabbed her hand before she could turn away from him. "Don't walk away from me," he said, but it sounded more like a plea than anything else. She felt tears spring to her eyes once more and he pulled her close to his chest, wrapping his arms around her. "I can't lose you."

For a brief moment, she sank into his embrace. "You won't lose me. You just have to trust me."

She pulled away, and this time, he let her go.

*•.*