chapter forty-one
the haunting of steve & ruby
alt: ruby, baby (part iii)

🖤

RUBY IS QUICK TO CHANGE after the funeral, desperate to forget the morning's proceedings. She wipes her makeup off clean, splatters of black mascara dotted around her eyes like mud. Downstairs, she knows Harrington is telling the others how she reacted, having already dressed into something more relaxed. But she needs some more time; more time to gather her bearings, more time to get ready again, reset the whole day.

She can't believe she cried like that. What a baby, she thinks nastily to herself, her gaze glaring at her own reflection. She applies her foundation with her fingers, a tan mess covering her skin. It feels oily already, and before she can try to make it work, she's grabbed another makeup wipe, scrubbing it clean off.

She'll go without today. She looks fine without, really — her eyes look darker than usual, more blue underneath them, but it isn't her fault she hasn't slept well the past few days. She gets herself dressed, back into jeans and a David Bowie t-shirt (He thought I was cool, once, she thinks, as if to reassure her own ego), the one she slept in last night. It smells a little like her ex-boyfriend (the one gossiping about her downstairs, she means), and she wonders how close they were, sleeping on that sofa last night whilst on Max duty...

Ruby looks at herself in the mirror, her focus flooding straight to her dark circles, her red eyes. She looks at the pictures of her mom, all dotted around the room, a depressing memorial of both her life and her adolescence. Ruby eyes the pictures, her mom her age in all of them, taken long before she left town, before she got pregnant, before she died. I look just like her, Ruby thinks, her face becoming a miserable reminder of the mother she barely remembers.

She reaches the bottom step, everyone in the party looking up at her, concerned. Ruby gives her ex-boyfriend — already changed into jeans, a striped polo, and a windbreaker she picked out for him, once upon a time — a dirty look.

"OK. So I got upset."

"I didn't know you could cry," says Robin, sounding scared.

"Well, it won't happen again," says Ruby. Her sadness has quickly turned into anger, as it always does with Ruby; she extends her hand, Steve's car keys flying across the house, from the kitchen counter to the hallway. They land in her hand, and she tosses them to him. "Are we going to this haunted house or what?"

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THE GANG ENDS UP STOPPING by at the grocery store on the way, realising that some of them (Steve and Ruby) had forgotten to bring a flashlight. Steve gets the idea that they would've been left to see for themselves if he hadn't been driving, turning harshly into the parking lot and jumping out.

"I'm too hot to remember these things," says Ruby, annoyed. The others have decided to stay in the car, but Ruby, refusing to let Steve pay for her, walks alongside him. His ex-girlfriend has been irritable all day, ever since they got back from the funeral. Steve won't say this to her, but he knows this is her being defensive — as if her being a bitch for the rest of the day will make him forget she sobbed in his arms earlier. Ruby doesn't show sadness; instead, she lashes out, just like she is now. Steve wants to say something, but knows it isn't his place. He does wonder why, though, she's keeping this wall up, when he still knows how she thinks. (Unfortunately, he thinks.)

"It's not unfortunate, though, is it?" Another voice in his head says. It makes Steve pause for a second, confused. It's a deep voice, one lower than his own, one he's never heard before. "You never stopped thinking about her."

The voice is right, so he shrugs it off, weird as it is.

They walk into the store, the automated doors opening and greeting them with air-conditioned coolness. It reminds Steve of the chilly Starcourt Mall, how the warmth from outside disappeared the second you stepped inside, replaced instead by cold yet stuffy air. Sometimes, he'd have headaches from the lack of fresh air. That, and how boring it was — God, the amount of days that slugged by. When he knew Ruby was on her way, he'd be watching the clock like a hawk, feeling like a dog waiting at the front door. "And now, you're on your own," the voice says. "Alone. No one loves you, do they, Steve? Alone, alone, alon—"

"Where would flashlights even be?"

Steve looks up at Ruby. Once his Ruby.

She frowns. "Are you OK?"

"Yeah, peachy," he says.

"OK..." Ruby gives him a funny look. She looks away from him, her head tilting up, seemingly scanning the aisles' names. "You have any idea where flashlights would be? Home or Outdoors?"

"Why would they be in Outdoors?"

"You might be... in a tunnel... Out... doors..."

Ruby trails off, as if embarrassed with herself.

"OK, weirdo..." Steve smiles slightly. "You look in Outdoors, I'll do Home."

"I hope I get a prize if I'm right," says Ruby, before she wanders off.

Struts, he means, her hips swaying side-to-side. Steve has to peel his eyes off of his ex-girlfriend, forcing himself to walk the longer route to avoid walking behind her. He thinks spending this much time with her is driving him insane.

He won't admit it to anyone — not even Robin, despite how much she believes it anyway — but the breakup hit him hard. Like, a bullet to the chest, a knife to the gut, a thousand Demodog teeth to the skin. The amount of times he stopped himself from calling her in California. One time, when he was super drunk, he mapped out how to drive from Hawkins to California, to win her back in person. He never did, of course, and quickly he bottled it all up into spite — especially after he started hearing from Robin about Ruby's new boyfriend... And her new new boyfriend... And her new new new boyfriend...

He doesn't know why he's thinking of this now. It sucks, it really does, to desperately want to get over someone, but his brain stopping him. Everything reminds him of her. The song playing in the grocery store is some old one, one that goes, "Ruby, baby, how I want you..."

Steve thinks about last summer, when she was Flayed. He felt so unimaginably guilty about that. He wished he could've gone back in time, to that night she drove home alone. If only he was there, he could've helped her. Saved her. Stopped that stupid fucking monster from possessing her, and ruining both of their lives.

He starts scanning the Home section for flashlights. But, he reaches the end of the aisle, where all of the magazines are. He's about to turn into the Garden aisle and accept Ruby's victory, when his gaze notices the magazines. Every single one has a picture of his ex-girlfriend on the cover. Steve's stomach drops. He knows these can't be true — Ruby Brenner would not have shut up if she was on fucking Vogue. And yet, there's an image of her, posing.

"She's everywhere, but she isn't yours," the voice says. "She doesn't care about you anymore — you're just the loser boyfriend from high school.

Steve picks up one of the magazines, flicking through. On every page, there she is. Ruby, holding a bag. Ruby, with a logo saying Versace. Ruby, on a runway. Ruby, Ruby, Ruby. The girl that isn't his. The girl that he wished still was and yet—

"Why would she care about you, when she's rich and famous? How many guys do you think she has lined up in California, all better than you? All hotter, all smarter? Why would she even care about a loser like you—?"

"What are you...?"

Ruby's voice snaps him out of it.

Steve looks up. The magazines are back to normal; he looks down at the one open in his hands, Cindy Crawford on the centrefold instead. The song on the radio has changed, too, to something a little more modern.

"Now's not the time to pray, Steve," says Ruby, taking the Vogue out of his hands, and placing it back on the shelf. "I've got flashlights, c'mon."

Steve follows her, confused. He could've sworn that was real...?

It's probably nothing, he tells himself. It's just, like, when someone in elementary school got lice. Everyone's heads started itching. Maybe he's just, like, seeing stuff funny because he's getting paranoid. It's probably nothing...

Probably.

🖤

WHAT A STUPID GIRL.

He has been watching her with a close eye, ever since her return. He felt it when she stepped foot back into Hawkins, like his body was reawakened. Little Ruby is back, he sensed; his mind's eye showed her, wandering into that video store, letting herself into Brenner's house, trying to pretend she's normal. He watched her, salivating, waiting for her to use her powers. Let me back in, he thought...

... And then, at that party, that stupid boy caught her off-guard. He was watching the scene, feeling her emotions through the dimensions, drooling over the energy exuding from her, spilling from her world into his. You'll be mine again soon, he thought, her abilities finally snapping, and giving him his gateway back in.

Chrissy. Fred. And almost Maxine, if it wasn't for her stupid friends. All his, gifting him more and more power. And, soon, he'll have his Ruby back in his grasp. With her dead, her power absorbed into his, her world will be his.

It was always him versus her. He felt it, ever since he first met her. But he knows she's paranoid since the last attempt, has become too slippery for his grasp. She's being careful with her powers, he can feel it. He knows it'll be a fight, getting her body again. He'll have to change his tactics, instead focusing on something that'll destroy her from the inside, something that'll make her beg to be taken, to stop it from happening...

There's always been one delicious weakness of hers, one he hasn't exercised enough so far... He didn't need to before, but now? He needs to pull out all of the stops.

He switches his focus; away from his favourite pawn, to the one nearest to her.

Steve.

🖤

THE CREEL HOUSE LOOKS exactly how you'd picture a haunted house; windows boarded up with decade-old wood, weeds and overgrown grass braiding the house's foundations into the ground, like the earth is trying to reclaim it. Peeling paint reveals old, rotting wood. As they walk up the dusty path, up to the porch, they all skip the first step, it's wood cracked in half.

There's a plank of wood covering the front door. Steve walks up to it, checking it.

"It's nailed—"

Ruby raises her hand, the plank falling onto the porch.

"—Show off," says Steve. Ruby smirks. She steps forwards to unlock the door, but Steve puts his arm out, stopping her. "Should we, like, knock or something?"

"Why?" says Ruby. "I don't think Vecna cares about manners."

"Maybe I do," says Steve under his breath, as Robin lifts a brick, throwing it through the stained glass window in the middle of the door. He sighs, carefully extending his arm through the hole in the glass, finding the door handle from the inside. He unlocks it, the door swinging open.

Ruby watches her ex-boyfriend nervously step inside the house. He looks... less sure of himself, than usual? It sounds weird, she knows, but he also moves with such confidence — like he fully believes in whatever action he's making, whatever step, is fully justified. He moves with purpose. Or, at least, he normally does. Her brows furrow; she knows him enough to know that he won't admit anything is wrong. She'll, annoyingly, just have to keep an eye on him.

The house is just as eerie from the inside. Ruby steps inside, the floorboards creaking underneath her feet. She looks around, at the cobweb-ridden walls; wallpaper curls off of the walls, dark corridors leading into nothingness. Her body tenses, goosebumps appearing on her arms. An awful sense of deja vu takes over her. She knows it sounds bizarre, but this place looks familiar...?

"Hey, guys? You all see that, right?"

Max takes Ruby out of her spell. The ginger girl stands in front of a grandfather clock, her eyes wide. Ruby frowns.

There's murmurs of yeah. Nancy steps forwards, and goes, "Is this what you saw? In your visions?"

"I mean, it's... just a clock, right?" says Robin, who weaves between them all, standing close to the clock. She touches its window, wiping the dust so they can see the clock's face better. "Just a normal old clock."

"Why is this wizard obsessed with clocks?" says Steve. "Maybe he's, like, a clockmaker or something?"

Dustin gives him a funny look. "I think you cracked the case, Steve."

Ruby rolls her eyes at Dustin.

"All I know is the answer's are here... Somewhere." Nancy looks around, hesitant to search any further in the house. Ruby understands why; her entire body feels on-edge.

But, Nancy must've talked herself out of it; she moves backwards, clicking her flashlight on. "OK, everyone stay in groups — Rubes, you too," says Nancy. Ruby gasps. Nancy doesn't seem to care, though, as she starts to walk away. "Robin, upstairs."

Ruby remembers Steve's weird behaviour; she turns to him, and smiles awkwardly. "Uh, hey..." she trails off, feeling embarrassed. He frowns at her, knowing she's trying to be nice. She sighs. She can't say, I feel like Vecna is after you next, so instead, she goes, "I just thought... if my powers go haywire... you calm me down... the most... so..."

She feels pathetic.

Steve looks at her oddly.

"OK... Let's go this way, I guess..."

🖤

LOOK. STEVE THOUGHT HE'D BE happier, Ruby trailing around after him like this. He feels a little cocky — after the past few days of her berating him, she's finally coming around. Not that he's interested anymore, because he isn't. But he thought it would be nice to see her try and be friendly to him... Instead, it's fucking annoying. He can't move without seeing her. What's wrong with her? Why's she acting like he's been shot?

They walk up the stairs. The house is made up of two floors, with an attic overseeing them all. Nancy and Robin went to the right hallway, when they reached upstairs, so Steve and Ruby went left. He looks over, as Ruby shines her flashlight along a bookshelf. She's frowning, her lips pouting, the way she does when she's confused. He always thought it was cute.

🖤

RUBY'S FROWNING, BECAUSE everything feels familiar. She's trying her best, Goddamn, to keep an eye on Steve — but when she recognises every square-inch of this house, she's struggling to concentrate. She frowns at the bookshelf, her eyes scanning the titles of books she shouldn't recognise. There's old encyclopaedias, ones about animals, clothbound classics. There's a copy of Dracula; without picking it up, a memory flashes into her head, one of the book's pages, her fingers (are they hers?) flicking through the pages, past the prose to focus on the illustrations. Ruby picks the book up to check — she sees the illustration of Lucy Westenra, the girl Dracula turns into a vampire. Her brows knit together; not only does she recognise the image, but why does the illustration's face look like her...?

She stands up, to ask Steve if he thinks the same. But as she turns around, the house around her changes. Gone are the peeling strips of wallpaper, the cobwebs, the smell of mothballs and rust. Instead, the house is shiny and new, fresh wallpaper applied to the walls, the lights shining a warm light around her. She looks around; in the mirror opposite her, her reflection is that of a young boy, the one she presumes is Victor Creel's son... She knows it sounds weird, but her mind tells her not to step any closer to the mirror, feeling scared...

What is going on?

Why can she see all of this? Why does all of this seem so familiar — why is her mind letting her see this? What does any of this have to with—?

Everything returns to the present day, everything back in it's original place — all except for Steve, who's disappeared. Shit, she thinks, rushing to find him—

🖤

HE WANDERS OFF INTO THE room to his left, an old bathroom — and a fancy one at that, he thinks, eyeing the checkerboard tiles — with another door, leading into another dark room in this dark house. His flashlight catches the brass hardware across the room; the sink taps, the bath curtain hoops, the frame of the mirror. It reflects the metal of the air vent in the floor, too... His brows knit together, as he crouches down, inspecting it.

The vent's lid lifts off without a fight, and Steve spots old jam jars inside. He shines his flashlight, but it doesn't do much — so instead, he picks one of them up. Inside, there's the dead body of a spider, hardened into place on a stick. "Gross," he says to himself, putting it back away. He swears he feels a spider on his shoulder, and he swats it with his other hand; a black widow sits on his hand, and panicking, he stumbles backwards, back into the hallway, wildly trying to fling the spider off of him—

"What's wrong?"

He looks up, finding Ruby staring at him, confused. Her outfit has changed, somehow, into one of her short skirts and an equally revealing top, like the sort of thing she wore last summer...

I'm just being paranoid, he thinks. He closes the bathroom door.

"Don't go in there," he tells her.

Ruby moves closer. She doesn't say anything — she doesn't pretend to be nice, like she has been the past half-hour. Instead, she stares at him, emotionless.

Steve frowns. "Uh, Rubes...?"

"You've got something in your hair," she says, giving him a funny look.

"What?" he says, horrified. He steps backwards, and towards the mirror on the wall — he checks his hair, panicking that the spider is still on him.

"Oh my God, stop moving," she says, giving him a dirty look.

Steve does so, but he looks at her weirdly. The outfit is throwing him off still. He recognises it from something, but he isn't sure what...?

Ruby reaches up, pulling a piece of cobweb from his hair. She gets another piece; her fingers accidentally brush the skin on the back of his neck, and he shivers, her skin ice-cold. Steve frowns. His ex-girlfriend always ran red-hot, the only time she was ever cold was when—

"What's wrong, Steve?" she says. But her voice doesn't sound like her voice. She moves forwards, but it doesn't feel like her. His Ruby. No, not his Ruby, but he means— "You're acting all funny."

"I... I dunno, you're just... really cold, that's all..."

He steps backwards. She steps forwards. He moves backwards again; the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, his body feeling an intense pull away from her.

"I'm not going to hurt you, Steve..." says Ruby. She pauses for a second, before she grins — a nasty grin, her lips parting to reveal her teeth, like a predator showing its fangs off to its prey. "I'm sorry, that's a lie. I'm eventually going to kill you, but not just yet." Steve tries to move, but he's frozen in place. He looks down, his ex-girlfriend's hand moving lightly, controlling him. "But this is all your own fault, isn't it? Did you seriously think I had any interest in a has-been like you?"

Has she been Flayed again...?

"Rubes, come on—"

"This is all on you, Ste—"

"Steve?"

He takes his eyes off of Flayed Ruby — and his surroundings change. He's back in the bathroom, standing on his own, the spider jar on the floor. Another Ruby is standing in the threshold of the room, but he worries that it's another trap.

"No, no! Get back! Get—!"

"Steve!" she says, and she rushes forwards. He starts to panic, and the other Ruby puts her hands on his chest, as he tries to push her away. But she doesn't give up, her hands finding their way to his face, holding him in place. "Steve. It's me!"

"Yeah, well, it was you a minute ago saying you wanted to kill me—"

Ruby looks like she's been shot. "What?"

"You—You were right next to me, and you were saying all of these things—"

"That wasn't me," says Ruby. She's cupping his face in his hands still, forcing him to look at her. "Steve, that wasn't me... You're safe, OK? You're safe. I'm not gonna let anything get you—"

"But that thing was you—!"

Ruby hesitates for a second. "Steve..."

"What...?" he goes. It takes him a minute. He thinks about seeing Flayed Ruby, about hearing that voice earlier, about all of those magazines he swore had his ex-girlfriend's face on. Slowly, the pieces fall into place. He looks at his Ruby, his stomach dropping. "Oh..."

Ruby's thumb lightly brushes his jawline. She looks worried, too, her lips pursed, lost in thought. "We're on the right track, aren't we? We'll figure all of this out, and by that point, we'll be able to stop this before anything happens..."

Steve looks down at her. His hands find their way to hers.

"Can you... keep this between us?" he says, softly.

She goes quiet, as if she can't understand why he'd suggest that.

"I just... everyone's got enough on their plate, without worrying about me."

Ruby looks like she could cry.

"Fine," she says. "As long as you tell me what song will bring you back."

"Anything," he says, with a shrug.

Ruby looks at him weirdly.

Steve lets go of her hands. He moves, and she doesn't put up a fight, stepping back from him as well. He looks away, awkwardly, before he says, "Everything reminds me of you, so... Anything will work."

"That's not... that's not how it works..."

"Maybe I'm special," he says, feeling like shit. "Let's find the others."

🖤

RUBY FEELS LIKE A LOSER, running after her ex-boyfriend like a lost puppy. He seems to be more pissed off than worried about his imposing death — maybe because he's just admitted to not being over you, she thinks, as she miserably follows him around, trying to get a better answer than any song.

"Steve, that isn't how it works — I need to know one—"

"OK." He stops walking, turning around to her. They're in the hallway now, the copy of Dracula she planned to show him sitting just behind him, on top of the writing bureau. "Then pick a song from our relationship."

"What?"

"There's got to be one, right, that you remember? California isn't so cool you forgot everything about us?"

"I don't..."

"Nights in White Satin? Daddy Cool? Hell, even Hopelessly Devoted—"

Ruby looks at him, confused. "Why are you being... mean?"

Steve pauses. "Says you."

Yeah, says me, she thinks, glaring at him. He thinks he can out-argue me? Come on.

"Don't push me away because you're scared," she says. "Because you just said that you're not over me—"

"Why don't you just tell Dustin? At least then I'm not your responsibility. You're only caring because you have to."

Ruby opens her mouth to shout back at him, but the light above them flickers. Her brows furrow, and she looks down at her own hands. Was that? Was she getting angry? OK, no, she was angry, but not enough to spark anything... surely...?

"I hate this fucking house," she says.

Steve scoffs. "Tell me about it."

"When you went into the bathroom, I saw this place — like, when the Creels were still living in it," she says. "It was... so... weird."

"Isn't that what happened to Will, a couple years back?"

Ruby frowns. "When he was possessed...?"

"The now-memories, right?" says Steve.

"But why am I seeing them, for this place...?"

"GUYS!"

Dustin runs up the stairs, flailing his arms around, making his flashlight's beam dance wildly off of every surface. He stops for a second to catch his breath, and then he goes, "The lights downstairs, they're—"

The light above Ruby and Steve flickers.

"—Doing the weird thing?" says Ruby.

Dustin nods, panicking. "Yeah."

"I don't think it's me..." Ruby trails off, stepping backwards. She presses her free hand's palm to her forearm, checking her temperature. Her hands seem warm, but not as if she's used her powers — she's been scared shitless the past half-hour, her entire body's on the defensive. But she would've known if the lights were her, surely? "Normally I feel it, in my fingers, when I use my powers... My nose isn't bleeding, right?"

She turns to Steve, who shakes his head. The lights stop flickering.

Ruby looks at him, worrying. "I don't understand...."

"If this isn't you, then who is it?" says Dustin.

Ruby and Steve exchange a look. Her stomach drops, thinking about Steve in the bathroom, seeing one of Vecna's visions. But Vecna can't be here, surely? Wouldn't she feel it? But then, she's been on-edge since stepping into this house, so maybe he is here, and she never even noticed—?

"GUYS!"

Downstairs, Lucas shouts them all. Ruby grabs onto Steve's hand, the two rushing down the stairs. Her mind is panicking about Max, something that's made even worse by the fact that her ex-boyfriend has also just seen a Vecna vision... One of her, last summer, when she was Flayed...

They all end up in a room downstairs, one that must've once been a living room. Above them, a fake chandelier flickers.

"It's like the Christmas lights," says Nancy.

Ruby nods. She didn't expect to be this close to Vecna just yet.

"Christmas lights...?" says Robin.

Nancy says, "When Will was in the Upside Down, the lights came to life."

""So Vecna's here," says Lucas. "Just on the other side..."

Nancy looks at Ruby, unsure what to do. Ruby, her stomach in knots, looks around at the others, desperately wishing her grandpa was around to help. I need to call him when we get back, she thinks.

The chandelier stops flickering.

"I think he just left the room," says Robin, uncomfortable.

Max, quietly, says, "Did he hear us?"

Steve adds, "Did he see us?"

Max and Steve looks at Ruby, waiting for her answer. But the thing is, she doesn't know. When she's been in the Upside Down, she hasn't known about the goings-on in the normal-world version of the room... But she isn't Vecna, so it might be different. She racks through her brain of everything her grandpa has told her the past six months, but nothing seems to apply.

"I don't... I don't think so...?"

She looks around, confused herself. Upstairs, though, she hears music start to play — a familiar song, one that makes Ruby's body freeze.

"Well I've got a girl and Ruby is her name..."

Ruby feels as if the room is collapsing in on her.

"Ruby, Ruby, how I want you..."

"Who's... playing music?" says Steve, confused.

"Like a ghost I'm gonna haunt you..."

Ruby feels like she can't breathe, choking on nothingness. She darts past everyone, climbing up the stairs, eventually finding herself on the path to the attic. Her heart is pounding in her chest, her memories from last summer flooding back. The image of the abandoned warehouse she was Flayed in rushes to the front of her mind; the sound of this awful song, as she was lifted into the air...

Wait.

"Ruby, Ruby, when will you be mine?"

The entire group follow her; in the attic, someone's old record player is blasting Ruby, Baby, the song the Mind Flayer used to taunt Ruby last summer. But there isn't a record in place; instead, the turntable spins, empty, creepily moving by itself.

"I'm gonna steal you away from all those guys..."

"The Mind Flayer played this song, when I was Flayed," says Ruby.

Nancy frowns. "So, are they connected? Like, all of the demodogs?"

The flashlights, now all off, flicker back into life, shining brightly in the center of the room. Ruby steps backwards, her entire body overcome with pins and needles. She struggles to breathe, and as she concentrates on breathing in, breathing out, she blinks — and that's when she sees him.

In the air, past all of her friends, a monster stands, suspended into the air by the same tentacles infiltrating the rest of the Upside Down. Her brows knit together. Somehow, she's able to see both worlds — her friends, in their world, and Vecna, in his, the air around him blue like the Upside Down.

"I can see him," she says, softly, worried she'll alert him.

His eyes are closed. She stares up at him, recognising him from somewhere. Has she seen him before? She doesn't think so — before Will went missing, she only ever saw the demogorgons. And then there were the demodogs, and then she started to see visions of the Mind Flayer's monster... And then the Mind Flayer itself, when she had to fight against it to free herself. She thinks of the Mind Flayer, his body a mixture of a human's and a demogorgon's, just like Vecna in front of her...

Hang on.

The song. The visions. Steve being taunted by a Flayed version of herself. The murders themselves — how they've been hoisted in the air, just like she was last summer...

"Oh my God..."

Her heart is rattling in her chest, as if it's trying to get out — begging her body to take them away from this place. But Ruby is frozen, her gaze fixed on the monster in front of her. The same monster as last year, the one that ruined her life...

"Vecna's the Mind Flayer," she says.

She didn't think things could get any worse.

In her world, the flashlights are being burned out, glass shattering everywhere. Her friends stumble backwards, confused, she can see it in her peripheral vision. But Ruby doesn't care. All she can focus on is Vecna, the Mind Flayer, whatever this monster truly is. He destroyed her life last year — she's spent the six months in-between their last encounter getting ready for this, and although she thought she'd have more time than this, a red-hot rage growls through her blood.

He thinks he can destroy her life, and swan back into Hawkins, not even a year later? Not just that, but go after Steve? What a stupid thing to do.

Her eyes narrow into an awful glare. You're dead, she thinks.

i didn't completely plan on doing this.... but.... in this episode, when steve's in the bathroom, it does look as if he's seeing things... so i thought it would be an interesting au to explore! plus now we'll have ruby frantically making sure he's okay 🥰

I hope you enjoyed!! lmk what you thought 🩷🩷