✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　six　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

- alright, gracie abrams

" I don't know if I'll be alright
what will it take to make this good? "

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　promises　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Eddie and Gracie had been coddled under the tarp of the boat when he suddenly heard noises and jumped from it. "Stay right there." He held he hand out stopping her from exiting the boat.

Eyes flicking from the grass to the trees through the window hopping for any sign of Dustin's arrival. "Shit." He cursed, seeing not a glimpse of human activity.

He quickly jolted bat onto the boat a the door swung open, eyes moving to the idle girl as a small shriek shot from her throat. "Jesus..."

Dustin strutted with a smile and grocery bags with the four behind him. "Delivery service." The two startled teens let out a heavy breath they held in when they nearly got their hearts blown out of their chest.

"What the hell, Dustin?" Gracie removed herself from the boat coming over to the four. Steve moved around them hugging her tightly, making sure not to his any of the bruises he formed.

He was truly sorry, he's never felt as much as he felt since last night. Never in a million years would he had thought he'd be beating his best friend with an oar. Removing herself from his with a smile, she sat next to Eddie who had begun shoving honeycomb cereal down his throat in the boat.

"May I have a bit?" Eddie's eyes flickered to her lips, hearing her soft voice flow from them. Humming out, he dug his hand inside grabbing a few before he brought them to her closed mouth.

Gracie didn't understand what he wanted her to do until he lightly pulled her lip with his thumb making her mouth open. The other four in the room watched in confusion or some disgust as he feed her the small sweet cereal with a shit eating grin.

Somehow she found her eyes staring into his as he placed a few in her mouth at a time, allowing her to swallow.

Their attention was brought to Dustin when he cleared his throat breaking their moment of peace. "Okay, then. So we got, uh, some good news and some bad news. How do you prefer it?" The eldest's eyes flickered down to the bronze haired girl who's eyes merely stared up at him waiting for him to answer.

"Bad news first, always." He moved his 'YooHoo' to the girl beside him allowing her to take a sip. A small chuckle ran from his mouth when he saw the small brown 'mustache' it had created above her lip.

Taking his shirt, he swiped it from her face, gently taking the 'YooHoo' back in his hold. "Thanks..." Her ears heated up at the contact before she eagerly looked back at Dustin waiting for him to tell the news.

"All right, bad news. We tapped into the Hawkins PD dispatch with our cerebro, and they're definitely looking for you." Gracie looked at all of them in worry, beginning to feel the fear race through her blood. "Also, they're, uh, pretty convinced you killed Chrissy."

"Like, a hundred percent kind of convinced." Max said as she moved to sit next to her closest friend here. Her hand gently grabbed onto hers seeing the way her lip curled down at the mention.

"The good news?" Gracie asked hopefully, tightening her hand on the orange haired girl's. "Your name hasn't gone public yet. Also, they have no clue Gracie was there that night. But if we found out about you, it's a matter of time before others do. And once that gets out, everyone and their shallow-minded mother is gonna be gunning for you." Robin was the one who broke it to them.

Eddie's hand moved around Gracie's waist in a way of comfort. "Hunt the freak, right?" Dustin stopped him before he could throw out a string of curses, "So, before that happens we need to find Vecna, kill him, and prove your innocence." Eddie huffed out, pulling the girl closer to him trying to calm his anger and fear down. "That's all, Dustin? That's all?"

"Yeah, no, that's pretty much it." He but his lip turning away from the young boy when Robin saw his frustrations. "Listen, Eddie, I know everything Dustin is saying sound totally delusional, but we've actually been through this kind of thing before. I mean, they have a... a few times, and I have once. Mine was more human flesh based, theirs was more smoke related, but bottom line is, collectively, I really feel like we got this."

"See, we usually rely on this girl when superpowers. But, uh, those went bye-bye, so..." Steve sighed, leaned against the wooden poll of the shed. "So we're technically in more of the..."

The other four rambled while the fling watched on in small amusement. "Brainstorming phase." Max finally worded stopping their rambling. "Brainstorming." Steve snapped his fingers with a smirk giving Gracie a smile on her face causing once to appear on his own.

"There's nothing to worry about." Dustin shrugged, glancing at Steve when a small scoff came from his mouth. Gracie placed a short forced smile on her face as she looked up at him. "Eddie, we've done this before, okay? We can stop it again."

He seemed as if he drifted off into thought before he ran his fingers through his hair which Gracie knew was a sign of stress. "You guys are a hundred percent sure they don't know about Gracelyn?" Her mouth parted in shock, he had never used her full name before. But she guessed serious times cause for serious name?

"With all that we know... no one knows she was there."

Gracie's eyes drifted off to the side as she felt a warm trail of liquid flow down her chin along with a shaft pain in the middle of her head. Bringing her hand up she swiped it against her face. Her breath was caught in her throat as she saw the red.

This had happened four times in the last three days but never this much has come out. Making sure no one saw, she used the inside of her shirt to wipe away the blood from her face that she knew was now smeared all over.

Clueless to Max's gaze on as the other four talked among themselves. Her brows furrowed seen the red on her hand. She decided to say nothing about it, maybe it was just what happened when she was stressed.

She used to get them when the whole Fourth of July fiasco happened. Maybe, it was nothing to worry about.

Suddenly the wailing of police sirens entered and Gracie flew out do the boat, pulling the tarp over Eddie who shot his body down on the floor of the boat.

When she went to walk away he grabbed her hand through the opening. So, she sat beside the boat as the others looked out of the window. "It's going to be okay, Eddie. Nothing's going to happen to you or me or anyone else. I promise."

-

Gracie decided to stay with Eddie while the rest went out to see what the sirens were about. Eddie was off checking the windows when Gracie felt a shiver run down her spine.

Her ears all of a sudden trained on the familiar chime of the clock that terrified her to her core. "No, please." She placed her hands over her ears, screwing her eyes tightly shut.

"Eddie!" She called out to him, scared to open her eyes. It was too around that time Max had discovered the file that was graced with Gracie Hopper's name.

"Gracie was seeing her too..." Her eyes scanning over every word in the girl's file seeing nearly everything connect to hers, Fred's, and Chrissy's. "All the same." She whispered to herself, eyes widening in disbelief.

Gracie's small cries were unheard by Eddie as if she as in another world. Slowly, she allows herself to open her eyes and all she saw were vines. Vine covering the floor. Vines covering the walls.

There were vines everywhere and it made her feel trapped. She hates vines ever since that November in '83. "Eddie! Please!" She didn't know what to her, her blood ran cold and her mind went blank.

Her eyes moved around seeing no sign of Eddie. The loud echoing stomps nearly shook the shed. Her breath had been caught in her throat, she didn't know what to do.

"It's not real." She placed her hands back over her ears. Closing her eyes from anything in sight and rocked back and forth on the floor. "It's not real. It's not real."

Suddenly something in the atmosphere changed and she felt safe to open her eyes. Once she did so she looked around seeing a cold sweat on her skin.

Her hands aimlessly felt around on the floor for any sign of the terrifying vines. "Oh, thank God." Her hands over her heart as she leaned against the shed wall.

Glancing up at Eddie it was like there was no change in time, like had even happened when she was in the cold dark place. He turned around with a frown seeing the sweat break out on her skin. "Hey, you all right?"

She nodded her head with a hum barely breaking his concern. "Yeah, just warm and tired. I'm fine, I promise." She lied, traces of fear still in her eyes.

Only hoping he hadn't come to know her giveaways when she did so from the months of time they spent together.

- from honey

I watched the second volume last night.. i cried for all three hours of the two episodes combined just because I knew deep down inside i just knew