---

ONCE EL WAS CALM SHE STARTED TO EXPLAIN WHAT SHE HAS SEEN, EVERYONE LISTENED CLOSELY AS SHE SPOKE, "He said he was building something. That it was all for me."

"Building something... Is he talking about the flayed?" Max questioned, looking around the room.

"He must be." Answered Nancy.

"So, he's building an army, just like we thought," Lucas said as he quietly paced.

Mike nodded his head, "Yeah, but he's not building this army to spread."

Will nodded as well, "He's building it to stop Eleven."

"Last year, El closed the gate on him. I have a feeling that really pissed him off."

"Like, royally." Lucas agreed.

"And the Mind Flayer now knows that she's the only thing that can stop him. But if she's out of the way..."

"Game over."

"He also said," El began with a shaky voice, she looked around, "he was gonna kill all of you."

Miles visibly stiffened and there was a moment of silence as everyone let that piece of information set in. Miles was already scared, now he was terrified.

"Yeah, well, that's nice," Max commented sarcastically.

Faint screeching could be heard, drawing everyone's attention as they fell silent. Nancy stepped closer to the window closest to where the sound appeared to be coming from, "Do you guys hear that?" She shuddered.

"It's just the fireworks." Jonathan dismissed.

"Billy..." Nancy turned to El, "When he told you this, it was here, in this room?"

El nodded.

A thunderous boom echoed through the woods surrounding the cabin and everyone looked around nervously.

Miles watched fearfully as Will's hand slowly moved to grasp the back of his neck, "He knows we're here."

The group all followed Jonathan and Nancy outside, hearing the booms grow louder as they came nearer.

The stopped at a clearing infront of the cabin, first seeing beautiful fireworks shine through the darkened tree line, then below it a far less beautiful sight was the Mind Flayer thundering towards them, knocking trees out of its way like they were nothing.

It let out a terrible shriek and they all stared in horror.

They all quickly ran inside. Miles' breathing quickened and it was hard for him to comprehend much of anything that was going on around him. Everything was moving too fast and he was incredibly overstimulated.

Everyone but Miles grabbed everything they could and began barricading the doors and windows in hopes of at least slowing down the monster but Miles' brain felt like it was moving a mile a minute and found himself doing nothing at all, just standing there with his hands covering his ears as everyone prepared for a fight.

"Get away from the windows," Nancy demanded but it was as if Miles hadn't even heard her.

Will grabbed the boy's arm, dragging him back to stand with the rest of the group. He leaned over, gently pulling a hand from the boy's ear to whisper, "Just take a deep breath, okay? We need you here." Miles just looked at the other boy. "I need you, alright?" Will added.

Miles nodded. Trying his best to focus on one thing at a time.

The boy first noticed the lamp flicker, the sound of electricity spiking before it returned to normal. Next was the dishes, clattering together in their drying rack. All the lights began to flicker.

"It's close," Will said.

Dust fell from the ceiling as the house shook on its foundation. Leaves rustled together and trees could be seen swaying as the monster grew nearer. The house shook again and a few let out gasps as a mug fell and shattered on the floor.

Max breathed heavily, "Where'd it go?" She questioned.

The house fell silent, the only sound to be heard was the group's fearful breaths as they all waited for the monster to attack.

Without warning part of the monster burst through one wall, and the group fell against the opposite wall, Jonathan another. Everyone screamed as it came closer to them.

Jonathan yelled, slamming the blade of his axe down into the creature's flesh causing it to shriek in pain. Jonathan yelled out as he hit it again. The tendril flailed and just as Jonathan was about to send another blow it reared back, hitting Jonathan and sending him crashing into another wall. He lost his axe and the creature went after him next.

Just as it was about to bite him Nancy shot it, causing it to shriek again. But Miles stared in horror as she delivered shot after shot and it only seemed to become less phased.

Nancy ran out of ammo and just as it was about to get her El stepped forward and stopped it with her powers. The creature shook, screaming in pain as it tried to release itself from El's hold. With a twist of her hand, the head of the monster's tendril broke and it retracted itself from the house.

"Holy shit." Max gasped.

Their victory was short-lived as another tendril burst through the wall. El caught it with her powers. Another shot through the wall Miles was standing in front of, hitting him in the shoulder, sending him to the ground as he cried out in pain. El caught it and Will rushed to Miles' side and helped him to stand.

Everyone watched helplessly as El was caught with both arms out, using all her strength to hold the monster away. She dropped both her hands and with them fell the heads of the tendrils she'd been holding.

She panted as she tried to regain some of her energy. But before she was prepared, a larger part of the monster broke through the ceiling of the cabin, grabbing El by the ankle as it tried to take her. "El!" Everyone screamed, rushing to grab a part of her to avoid her being taken.

Nancy scrambled to reload her gun.

"Pull!" Mike yelled.

"Nancy, shoot it!" Jonathan screamed.

El screamed in a mixture of fear and pain as her friends and the monster both fought for her.

Nancy shot over and over but the monster still wouldn't let go.

Max and Lucas caught sight of Jonathan's discarded axe at the same time. "Lucas!" Max called but the boy already had the same idea as he rushed to grab the weapon.

He yelled as he slashed at the monster, over and over until it broke and they all fell to the floor, El landing on Mike's chest and Miles with a groan as he landed on his wounded shoulder. "El! Are you okay?" He asked and looked down to where the head of the tendril was still attached to her leg.

El screamed in pain as Mike grabbed ahold of it, tearing it away from her.

The creature roared and El slowly rose to her feet as everyone scrambled away on the floor. The creature started to roar again and El cut it off with a scream, using her powers to tear it apart.

El nearly collapsed from exhaustion and Max caught her before she could hit the floor. Everyone quickly got to their feet all yelling one word or another about getting the hell out of there.

"Go, go, go, go, go!" Jonathan yelled as they ran to Nancy's car.

Miles stayed silent as he allowed his body to get him where he needed to be. He jumped in the car with everyone else, grasping at his shoulder, not even noticing the blood coming from his wound.

El continued to scream in pain and Mike yelled frantically, "Drive, drive!"

The tires screeched as Nancy sped as quickly as she could away from the cabin, leaving the monster behind.

---

THE CAR DRIFTED INTO PARK IN FRONT OF THE SUPERMARKET, EVERYBODY GOT OUT, NANCY AND JONATHAN LED, NANCY PICKING UP A ROCK, AND THROWING IT INTO THE GLASS DOOR OF THE ENTRANCE. Behind Nancy and Jonathan, Mike and Max helped support El and her injured leg, Lucas and Will directly behind them. Miles was a few steps behind, stumbling around in an effort to keep up with the group, none of which had taken notice of the boy's injury, not even the boy himself.

They went straight to the medical supplies aisle, Nancy grabbing gauze and rubbing alcohol, "Okay, get her down." She instructed.

Max and Mike helped set El down, leaning her against one of the shelves.

Nancy knelt down in front of the girl, "Okay." She huffed, "Let me see." She slowly rolled up her pant leg. Miles had settled between Lucas and Will, both boys quickly moved to shield the other boy's eyes before he saw the girl's wound.

"Oh, shit." Max gasped as everyone else besides Miles groaned. Nancy went to start pouring alcohol onto the wound and Max quickly stopped her, "Woah, what are you doing?"

Nancy furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, "I'm cleaning the wound."

"No," She held out a hand, "First, we need to stop the bleeding, then clean, then disinfect, then bandage." Nancy just looked at the girl. Max rolled her eyes, "I skateboard, trust me."

Miles just turned around so the other boys wouldn't have to shield his eyes anymore but he stopped as he felt a stabbing pain in his shoulder, he gasped, holding a hand to it. His expression fell in panic as he felt something wet beneath his fingers. He closed his eyes, slowly walking away from the rest of the group.

"Miles?" Will called. He'd only heard the boy because he had followed him, he was standing right beside him.

Miles didn't open his eyes, only turned to show the boy the wound he hadn't even seen for himself yet. The other boy gasped as he pulled his hand away. "Oh, god is it that bad?" He asked in a panic.

"No, no, no." Will quickly assured, lying.

"Oh, thank god." He let out a breath of relief, opening his eyes believing it safe to look.

Seeing him beginning to open his eyes Will tried to stop him, "Wait-"

But it was too late as the damage had already been done, Miles's eyes widened at the sight. Along his bicep leading to his collar bone was a large gash, just deep enough to require stitches, but all Miles really saw was blood.

"Oh." Miles became light-headed, his eyes beginning to roll back in his head.

Will quickly moved to grab ahold of the boy, "Oh, no." He shook the boy a bit to keep him awake, "No, no, no." He gently helped lower him to the ground leaning him against the row of shelves they'd been standing in front of. "You're okay. Okay?" He assured.

Miles squeezed his eyes shut, "I'm gonna die."

The other boy had to hold back a small laugh from escaping his lips, "You're not gonna die, okay, Miles? You're fine. It's just cut."

"Just a cut?" The boy exclaimed. "My arm is barely attached to my body, ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod." He cried.

"Just calm down, Miles." Will looked around frantically, what he was looking for he wasn't sure. He spotted a rack of 4th of July accessories, his eyes fell straight onto the American flag bandanas. As Miles continued to panic he quickly grabbed one folding it into a blindfold and tying it around the other boy's head.

"What is this?" The boy questioned as Will grabbed another and pressed it to the boy's shoulder.

Will laughed, "It's an American flag bandana." Miles' eyebrows furrowed. "What, not the print you wanted?"

And just as Will had aimed for Miles was distracted from his arm. He laughed, "You know I don't like America."

"We're in America, I'm limited on flag options, okay?" The other boy defended. "Sadly, they don't have the Iceland flag that I know you would've preferred."

"Are you sure they don't have it? It's red, white, and blue, they might've been stupid enough to mix them up." They both laughed at the boy's horrible joke.

Lucas came around the corner then, "What's so- oh my god, what happened to Miles' arm."

Will glared at Lucas as Miles began to panic again.

"Max!"

---

A FEW MINUTES LATER MILES WAS AWAKE AND HIS WOUND WAS WRAPPED TO THE BEST OF MAX'S ABILITY, THOUGH AS WILL PREDICTED, MAX ALSO SAID HE'D PROBABLY NEED STITCHES. Of course, she didn't say that to Miles though, that would be a problem they would face later because now he was finally calm and El was ready to look for the flayed once again.

The girl sat with her legs crossed in front of the freezer holding the Eggo waffles. Everyone was waiting but El just looked at the group.

"Oh, "Mike realized, "She needs a blindfold."

Miles quickly reached into his pocket, pulling out the bandana he used as a blindfold earlier, "Is this okay?" He said handing it to Mike.

The other boy nodded, folding it and tying it around his girlfriend's head.

Everyone got quiet as El focused her energy. Lucas opened a can of Coke earning a glare and a quick "quiet" from Max.

"Sorry."

Miles was sitting next to Will who was sitting next to Mike. While Miles didn't initially oy much attention, the other two gave Lucas a deadpanned look as he proceeded to slurp the drink.

Mike's eyes narrowed, "How do you even drink that?"

"Because it's delicious," Lucas said.

"What?" Max and Mike questioned simultaneously.

"It's like Carpenter's The Thing." He explained, "The original is a classic, no question about it. But the remake..." He paused to take a sip, sighing and smacking his lips, "Sweeter, bolder... better."

Miles furrowed his eyebrows, "Why do you sound like a walking Coke advertisement?"

Lucas shrugged, "It's that good."

Mike shook his head, "You're insane."

"So, you prefer the original Thing?" He questioned.

"What?" Mike shook his head, "I'm not talking about The Thing, I'm talking about New Coke."

"It's the same concept, dude."

"Uh, actually, it's not the same concept."

"It is the same concept."

"No, it's not."

Lucas raised his voice, "Yes it is."

El tore off her blindfold, "Hey!"

Both gave a guilty look, each mumbling "sorry."

Mike looked cautiously at the girl, "Did you... find him?"

---

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

my new years resolution is to update either this book or lithium at least once a week we'll see how long this lasts

vote and comment if you want this time, no obligation because it's a holiday :)

love y'all!

~lee

01/01/2023