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Fireworks burst through the dark sky that hugged the moon. They exploded colorful and fiery among the stars, and they cracked to the Ooh's and Aah's of the crowd that huddled to watch them. Fireworks were a beauty, but with beauty came danger.

Just like Sam. She was a beauty, and everyone seemed to know it but her. She had perfectly toned skin that never broke out. Her nose was arched perfectly, and her blonde hair was always styled just the way Sam liked it. Sam was kind, and most people were naturally drawn towards her. They liked staring at her. Most people watched Sam, only a few knowing how much weight Sam truly carried with her. Sam hated it — everything about her that could possibly gain attention. She never liked it when people would stare because it made her feel small and vulnerable.

Like she did now.

The majority of the room stared at her, watching the similarity between Sam and El carefully. They both had blood running down their nose, and had both gone into the mindscape together. But it was Sam who had gotten stuck in there; it was Sam who was panting at a pace that seemed like she was at the brink of a panic attack.

"I'm — I'm sorry, Sam," El shook her head in the clutches of Max and Will. "I meant to get you out—"

"No," Sam shook her head quickly in the clutch of Lucas, who had Corey and Mike hounding behind them. She was weak — not in the way she had been in the void, but because she had exhausted too much energy by going into the void. "No, it's my fault. I shouldn't... I shouldn't have offered to go in there with you. Not for my first time. I ruined everything."

Lucas shook his head, said, "You didn't, Sam."

Sam choked out a dry sob, disagreeing.

"I did. I — I really did," she rasped. "You guys didn't hear Billy, okay? I... It all went wrong."

Jonathan rushed out of the kitchen, handing both girls a glass of water. Nancy gave them wet washcloths to wipe the blood off their noses. Sam accepted both things gratefully with a croaky thank you.

"I don't understand," El sniffed after she wiped her nose off. "That's never happened before."

"What even happened, though?" Will asked, which was a fair question.

Sam chugged all the water down in one gulp, earning concerned stares from her friends, because she had never done that once in her life. Actually, they made fun of her for drinking and eating so slow. She shakily set the glass down before meeting everyone's expecting eyes again.

"I think the emotions from Billy's memories were making you weak," El said, much calmer than Sam. "All of the pain hurt you. The void was never safe for you."

"I don't know what it was," Sam shrugged with a miserable huff.

Lucas began shifting up from their spot on the floor, and before Sam could question why, me muttered, "Come on. You should sit on the couch."

So he helped Sam up, with Mike and Corey also coming to her aid, and sat Sam down on the couch where Max was. Max could see the wet tear tracks running down's Sam face at the close proximity.

"When I took the blindfold off... I was here, but... but no one else was," Sam began, recalling the traumatic events that had passed. "I was alone, until B-Billy — he came out of El's room. He said that 'they' can see me, and that El let him in, so I have to let 'them' stay... He also said he was building something. That it was all for El and I."

"Building something..." Max repeated in a mumble. "Is he talking about the flayed?"

"He must be," said Nancy.

Lucas paced back and forth behind the couch where Sam sat. "So, he's building an army, just like we thought."

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

"He's building it to stop Sam and Eleven," Corey finished.

Mike said, "Well, last year, El closed the gate on him. I have a feeling that really pissed him off."

"Like, royally," Lucas dramatized.

El shook her head. Softly, she questioned, "But Billy said me and Sam. What did she do?"

All heads turned to Sam.

"I... I really don't know," she shrugged tiredly. "He told me—"

Don't you see? All this time, we've been building it. We've been building it... for you. For you and Eleven, Samantha. You don't even have a clue how important you are to all of this, do you?

"—that I don't even know how important I am to all of this," Sam finished, throat suddenly dry and yearning for water.

They all processed her words, wondering what that could mean. It didn't help that Sam, for once in her life, couldn't figure it out. She was supposed to be the genius, the one that did figure everything out. Apparently, when it came to herself, she was clueless.

"Maybe you're like El," Max wondered. "What if you can stop him, too, but you just don't know it?"

"Well how do I know something that I don't know if I don't know it?"

"I don't know."

"I'm confused," said Corey.

"Okay, let's just assume Max is right," Mike said, surprisingly. "The Mind Flayer now knows that El and Sam are the only things that can stop him. But if they're out of the way—"

"Game over," Lucas finished with a defeated frown.

Sam shifted uncomfortably in her seat on the couch. She added, "He... also said he was gonna kill all of you."

Everyone in the room got awkward, looking at each other, off-put.

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

Boom.

There was a faint, screeching nose in the distance.

Boom.

Nancy stiffened up, walking towards the front window. "Do you guys hear that?" she asked in a strained voice.

Boom.

"It's just the fireworks," Jonathan said dismissively.

Boom.

"Billy," Nancy started, turning around and looking at Sam. The blonde straightened up at the tense eye contact. "When he told you this, it was here, in this room?"

Boom.

"Yeah, wh...?" Sam trailed off herself, a wide-eyed look forming on her face. "Oh, fuck."

The thudding was getting louder and louder and louder.

"What is it? What's the big deal?" asked Corey, not realizing yet.

Boom.

Boom!

BOOM!

With a disturbed face, Will's hand slowly found the back of his neck. "He knows we're here."

Everyone's eyes met, and then they were all filing out the cabin in one, big, huddled mess.

In the distance, trees far away began to tumble, and something was clearly pushing them down. The floor underneath Sam's feet vibrated with each BOOM! The Fourth of July fireworks were seen as another tree was trampled and no longer blocking the sight of the night sky.

"I didn't sign up for this shit!" Corey yelled, thoroughly done.

Mike grabbed Corey's wrist and yanked him back into the cabin. "Come on!"

The Mind Flayer was about thirty feet tall now.

And he was heading their way.

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"If I'm gonna be honest," Sam announced as she carried a Hopper's mattress with Corey on the other side, "I thought the eyebrow scar was the worst it was gonna get for me."

"Yeah, well, lucky you," Corey sassed, holding most weight from the mattress. The both of them heaved the mattress out into the living room and leaned it against the front of the house.

Everyone was trying to board up and protect the house from the inevitable Mind Flayer invasion that was coming their way. Nancy and Jonathan returned into the cabin, Nancy holding a shotgun and Jonathan holding an axe.

Mike and El lifted the coffee table and placed it on it's side on top of the mattress so to cover the front window that the mattress didn't reach. Max, Will, and Lucas all had to pitch in to left up Hopper's storage shelf that was twice their size. They moved it in front of the window at the back of the living room. After covering all the windows, the group locked all doors so that they only had to focus on the front of the house. When Sam ran out of the bathroom, she saw that Nancy and Jonathan were lifting Hopper's couch and putting it against the front door.

After the entire living room was cleared of furniture, Nancy marched to the middle, reloading the shotgun she'd taken from Hopper's shed.

"Hey! Get away from the windows!" Nancy chided Mike and El.

Everyone jogged over to where Nancy was in the middle of the living room. The group of nine stood in a circle formation facing outwards as they waited impatiently for the Mind Flayer to arrive. Nancy pointed her gun at the front door and Jonathan gripped his axe tightly. Both Sam and Corey seemed a little disgruntled that Nancy and Jonathan got their usual weapons, but now was not the time to comment on it. Even Sam knew that.

The heavy silence was interrupted by the sound of cutlery in the draining rack rattling noisily and the squeak of the lamp hanging from the kitchen wall. Little clouds of dust began to drop from the ceiling. The trees outside rustled under the weight of something.

It was here.

The lights began to flicker against Sam's doing, and Sam flinched as mugs and plated began falling from the shelves, shattering on the floor into tiny pieces. The tension was slowly killing Sam as she gnawed on her ring finger nail, taking a glance at Will to see if he felt anything.

Everything went quiet.

"Where'd it go?"

The silence rang, and then commotion did.

A loud shriek pierced Sam's ears as a long, large tentacle burst through the cabin wall. Everyone screamed and backed up against the far side of the room as it thrusted itself around the room, trying to reach someone — anyone.

Sam got pinned against the wall with Will as El put both of her arms in front of them protectively. The tentacle — with a terrifying, leech-like claw at the end of it — snapped towards them. It reached for El, presumably, and Sam tried clutching onto El and holding El against her.

It got close, but before it could hurt anyone, Jonathan lunged at it. He swung the axe down at the arm, and the monster screeched in pain. It turned to shove Jonathan in the stomach. He was thrown across the room, crashing against a shelf. The axe flew out of his hands.

Now, the claw shot right for where Jonathan was laying in the floor. Jonathan groaned defenselessly and the creature shrieked. It got right in Jonathan's face, but Nancy started to shoot at it with her shotgun.

The tentacle wailed and screeched with every blow of the shotgun Nancy took at it. It kept trying to go for her, but Nancy continued pulling the trigger, and it was shot back every time.

But Nancy didn't see the board of broken wood that was behind her. She walked backwards, and tripped to the ground. She lost the grip on her gun, and the creature took its opportunity. Nancy scrambled backwards with her arms and legs until her back hit the wall. Her chest rose and fell with heavy pants, and she shut her eyes to wait for the attack when the monster was inches from her face.

But then, nothing happened.

Nancy slowly opened her eyes to see that El had stepped in to save her, making the girl gasp in shock. She gasped to see that Eleven was using her powers to pull the flesh-made monster away from her. The creature screamed in anger as El forced it away. When it was far enough, El whipped her arm down, and the tentacles mouth snapped right off. It shot back out of the hole the creature came from.

"Holy shit," Max breathed, looking out the hole that happened to be next to her.

It didn't take very long for another arm to come flying in, and luckily El was fast enough to catch it. Another one broke through the walls from the other side of her, so El shot her left arm out, stopping that one with her powers as well. She looked between the two, whipping her head back and forth, clearly straining now.

"Sam, you could use your powers, too, you know?!" Corey yelled, not wanting to see El get hurt.

"I don't know how!" Sam shouted back desperately.

Sam really wished she had a control on them, but the only times she'd used her powers as a weapon was twice with Billy. Both of the times, it only happened because she lost control of her emotions. She couldn't force that to happen right now.

Luckily, El didn't falter under the strain of her powers. She morphed her face into focus before rapidly crossing her arms, cropping both mouths off the monster's tentacles.

All the injured limbs withdrew hurriedly, and it all went quiet for a moment. Sam could almost believe everything was over.

Almost.

The roof caved in and all the windows shattered. Glass spilled into the cabin from all around, and Sam ducked with her arms over her head, trying not get cut by it. The roof continued to cave, and there was suddenly a giant whole where the stars, moon, and fireworks shone in the cabin. The Mind Flayer had gotten onto the roof, and it pulled on the wood, creating a giant hole it could peer into the cabin from.

A new arm came through the roof, revealing a gaping mound of pulsing flesh before Sam's vision was skewed by the tentacle flying down and latching right onto El's ankle.

El and Sam screamed in unifying pain as it began trying to pull El out of the house. Luckily, Mike was quick, and grabbed her arms before El disappeared out the hole. Sam didn't know why her left leg buckled, why her left ankle burned in pain.

"EL!" Max yelled, running forward and joining Mike in trying to release El. Corey, Will, Jonathan, and Nancy ran forward too, attempting to pull El back down. Sam stared at the scene with wide eyes, grunting in pain. Lucas's head whipped between Sam and El, wondering why Sam sounded so hurt.

Sam felt like her ankle was being stretched apart, her leg muscles pulling each other as she tried to stay upright. Blinking through tears of pain, her gaze found the shotgun on the floor that Nancy had dropped over near the kitchen entrance. Her brows furrowed, knowing what to do.

She began limping quickly over to the other side of the living room, shouting out in pain with every blazing step of her left foot. Sam picked up the shotgun, holding it firmly as she did last year in the Byers' residence. It didn't take her long to aim, but the second she did, she wasted no time.

Sam shot at the Mind Flayer much more furiously than Nancy did with an angry face, not missing the tentacle holding El once. Mike, Max, Corey, Will, Jonathan, and Nancy were still trying to yank El free. Lucas ran over to the corner of the living room and picked up Jonathan's axe. As Sam shot the gun unrelentingly, Lucas hacked at the tentacle and tried cutting the arm free from El's leg.

The clip emptied, out of bullets, but Sam pulled a pack of bullets from her pocket — she'd stolen them from Nancy just in case — and re-loaded the shotgun with ease. Sam continued shooting and Lucas continued swinging. It snarled in pain as Sam kept up the heat of pulling the trigger with a furious glare; the Mind Flayer's grip on El was clearly weakening.

"I'm running out of bullets here, Sinclair!" Sam shouted, aiming her next shot right into the Mind Flayer's open mouth that included hundreds of layers of teeth.

Lucas's head whipped to Sam. Her screams of pain were going overlooked by everyone else because they intertwined with El's, but he saw Sam holding all her weight on her right leg; he saw her face screwed up in pain.

"Just a moment, Hughes!" Lucas called back.

He hopped up on a coffee table to gain better height on the Mind Flayer's tentacle. Lucas roared out before swinging the axe down as hard as he could; this time, he really did damage. Blood spurted out of it, causing the creature to roar in Lucas's direction. Sam shot it in the middle of the head, distracting the monster.

El and Sam were screaming in pain. Mike, Max, Corey, Will, Jonathan, and Nancy were straining to pull El down, rapidly growing tired. Lucas grunted, trying to chop off the thick arm.

Just as the final bullet ran out, Lucas swung down the axe one, last time. The claw was finally severed by the weapon with a pained roar. The sudden loss of force had El, Mike, Max, Corey, Will, Jonathan, and Nancy flying to the ground.

Sam threw her gun to the ground and tried running over to El, but she fell to the ground in a yell of pain. She crawled the remainder of her distance, noting that the mouth of the tentacle still had a bite on El's leg, even if Lucas severed the connection.

She could feel the rushing throughout her body, and Sam knew she could do it. Sam shouted, and the electricity coursed through her veins. She took a hold of the claw still pried onto El's ankle. Both girls yelled, feeling the pain of the mouth biting tighter. As Sam's pain increased, so did her power. She screamed, louder, and eventually had enough to strength to electrocute the claw dead.

The problem wasn't gone, though. The head of the actual Mind Flayer was still looming outside the hole of Hopper's cabin with a snarl. He did not seem happy at what Sam had just done.

But El picked herself up from the ground, face furious amidst the sweat and the blood. She was hobbling on one foot to stand, but that didn't stop her from holding a glare on the Mind Flayer. The creature was about to send more tentacles from its mouth, but El used both her arms to ward them away with her powers. El began yelling again, and, finally, split the Mind Flayer in half. She fell back into Max's arms out of exhaustion.

"Go, go, go!" Nancy yelled the second she got an opportunity to.

Everyone began scrambling out of the house while they still had time, before the Mind Flayer recuperated. Mike and Max helped El walk, throwing both of her arms over their shoulders. Sam was still on the floor, and she tried getting up, she really did. But her ankle strained, and Sam yelled out in pain. Everyone was running out of the house and leaving her behind.

"Sam, let's go," Lucas begged, desperate to get away before they died.

Sam's eyes screwed tight shut, and a lone tear fell down her face as she did so. She choked, "I — I can't get up. It hurts, Luke. I don't know what happened."

Lucas dropped the axe from his hands immediately. He scooped Sam from the group with his arms under her armpits and, as Sam yelled in pain, heaved her up. Lucas was quick to throw one of her arms around his neck, while his went around her torso. As he tried rushing them out of the house, the limp on her left leg was notable.

Jonathan had the door open for them, making sure everyone got out. The group of nine ran for Nancy's car, hearing the pained roars of the Mind Flayer behind them. Sam tried sprinting as fast as she could; with Lucas's help, luckily, they didn't lag behind completely.

Sam didn't have time to process where the sudden pain came from, or why it was hindering her so much. She could only force it to stop slowing her down, because they needed to get out of here, and they needed to do it fast.

Corey got into the backseat with Will, not even caring to think about his claustrophobia right not. He let Nancy and Jonathan take the front, while Max and Mike helped the injured El into the front. Sam and Lucas reached the car last and had no choice but to squish themselves in with Corey and Will. Sam and El let out comprehensive wails of pain.

"Drive!" Max yelled. "Drive!"

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They pulled into the Bradley's Best Buy parking lot a crooked angle, the car swerving with the force of it, and Jonathan yelled at Nancy for her reckless driving as they all began to pile out of the vehicle.

Sam stood with her arm looped around Lucas's shoulder while the rest of them unloaded themselves from the car. Max and Mike took El out the trunk, holding her up the same way Lucas did to Sam.

Nancy marched toward the closed shop, not even bothering to lock her car. She picked up a rock from the ground and threw it right at the automatic doors. The glass shattered loudly, but no one even stopped. Nancy led them into the store, stepping over the doorframe now that the doorframe wasn't actually framing anything.

They needed to find something to tend to El's wound. Sam's wound, of course, was nonexistent, so she nor Lucas quite knew how to go about saying that. Nancy went searching down the correct aisle, with everyone following in her wake. She picked up a bottle of rubbing alcohol and gauze pads before turning back to Max and Mike, who were helping El stand.

"Okay, get her down," Nancy ordered.

Both of them listened, gently setting El to the floor and propping her up against the shelves of medical supplies.

Nancy hunkered down in front of them, said, "Okay, let me see."

She hiked up the end of El's jeans slightly to reveal the gaping wound beneath the fabric, a large oval-shaped gash oozing thick crimson blood and leaving a small puddle on the floor.

Sam immediately gagged a little unkindly, feeling a gut-wrenching swirl in her stomach. She peeled her gaze away towards Lucas's neck before she either fainted or threw up again.

Nancy frantically opened the box of gauze pads, taking one pack out.

Max startled, holding Nancy's wrist to stop her. "Woah, woah. What are you doing?"

"C-Cleaning the wound?" Nancy stammered, not understanding.

"No, first you need to stop the bleeding, then clean, then disinfect, then bandage," Max explained, and everyone looked at her, wondering why she knew so much. She flushed a little, explained, "I skateboard, trust me."

Max grabbed the box of gauze from Nancy's hand and pulled a few sheets out. She pressed it on El's bleeding leg, causing both El and Sam to wince. The pain in Sam's ankle was burning, and her reaction caught the attention of Lucas, Will, and Corey around her.

"Mike, hold this," Max moved Mike's hand to put pressure on El's bite. Sam quivered. "Keep the pressure on it — nice and firm, okay?" she told him. Max then looked up at Nancy and Jonathan. "We're gonna need water with soap."

The couple nodded, then quickly turned to go get it. Max turned around towards the four friends behind her.

"And..." she started, but quickly caught sight of the flashing red alarm that was Sam's whole demeanor. "And what's wrong with you?"

Sam immediately jumped out of Lucas's grip, trying to stand firmly by herself without showing any pain. She shook her head, "Nothing — I'm fine—"

"She's been in pain ever since El has," Lucas cut her off, forcing Sam to let him help her stand again. It passed Sam off to no end that she stumbled into the grasp. "She couldn't get up, and she's been limping on her left leg."

"Why?" Will questioned. "She looks fine."

Corey snorted in disagreement.

"Okay, well, her leg looks fine," Will corrected himself with an eye roll.

Lucas and Max shared eye contact, they seemed to be having a wordless conversation. Sam hated that she was taking away attention from El.

"Guys, really," Sam tried pulling herself away from Lucas again, but failed to do so. "I'm fine."

"No, you aren't," Max disagreed, looking to Lucas. "But we think we know why."

Like the two had discussed this topic before, Lucas shot Sam a wry look. He asked her, "Remember when I called you an Empath?"

"No," Sam immediately protested. "No way."

"Wait, what?" Mike questioned what they were insinuating, accidentally forcing more pressure onto El's ankle. Sam winced at the action, and now the attention really was on her. Shit.

Max sighed, standing up so they could really discuss this. "Come on, Sam. Remember when we had our first ever sleepover Halloween night? You dropped your guitar on me, but—"

"But I hissed in pain," Sam mumbled, finally putting it all together in detestation. "Shit."

"It would explain why you're in pain with El right now," Lucas said.

"And why you were in pain in the void," El added.

Will blurted, "And why you're so good at reading people."

"Reading their emotions, too," Corey included himself, though he did not seem a fan that Sam could do that.

Sam huffed, thoroughly feeling like she was being ganged up on right now. "Guys, this is craz—" she was cut off by herself and El grunting in pain at the same time. There was a deadpan expression on Sam's features. "Okay, maybe you're right."

"Samantha Renee Hughes admitting our theories about her powers are right," Lucas mused sarcastically. "What kind of world are we living in?"

With the arm Sam had around Lucas's shoulder, she pinched the skin of his ear with that hand. Lucas hissed, muttering, "Sorry! Sorry!"

Sam let his ear go, tampering her pleased smirk.

"Okay, well, um," Sam winced in pain again, looking at the group as a whole. "Listen, I've only known about these powers for, like, two days. I don't really know how to un-attach myself from El. So, if anyone's got any ideas as to how that would be great, because I've gotta hand it to El, I'm about to kill myself with this amount of pain."

"Please don't," El grunted from the floor.

Mike wondered, "Maybe it's a proximity thing? Like, you only feel it when you're close enough to her."

"But Sam can't stay away from El forever," argued Will.

"I was just trying to give an explanation," Mike argued right back.

Corey sighed, interjecting himself. "You know what? I'm gonna take Sam away from here for right now. But we'll get like, frozen peas, or something for when we all meet back up. Maybe it'll help her psychologically or something."

"Gray going two for two with the good ideas recently," Max joked sarcastically.

"Here," Lucas started before the two bickered, "you can take Sam, Core."

Sam grumbled, "I'm literally right here, can you stop talking about me like I'm not?"

Corey rolled his eyes as Lucas carefully shifted Sam into his hold. Instead of Sam's right arm looped around Lucas's left side, Sam's left arm was looped around Corey's right side.

"Alright, you big baby, let's get you some peas."

Sam jolted him with a small burst of electricity, to which Corey yelped.

Now that Lucas wasn't supporting anyone up, he took his backpack off his shoulders. Lucas unzipped it and dumped the entire contents of his bag onto the floor.

"What... are you doing?" Max questioned.

Lucas wondered, "Does any of this help?"

"No," Max answered blankly, but then she caught sight of a roll of duct tape that came from his bag. "Okay, maybe this," she said, tossing the roll to Corey, implying he use it for Sam, to which he caught it with ease. To Lucas, she continued, "Now go get me a washcloth and a bowl."

Lucas pulled a face at that. "A bowl?"

His eyes widened at Max's warning stare. Will knew that face all-too-well and slapped the boy's arm, tilting his head down the aisle.

"Go, dude."

The pair scampered off with Corey walking Sam away behind them. They started slow, trying to make it to the frozen foods section, but apparently Mike's proximity theory was right. After Sam got about seven or eight aisles away from El, her ankle felt completely fan.

"Man, this is weird," Sam muttered. Her once-blazing pain dissipated into absolutely nothing, and she could walk just fine. "I'm like an unwilling masochist."

"You are so weird," Corey commented, stretching his limbs now that Sam wasn't propped up beside him. Sam rolled her eyes for his dramatics, because Lucas hadn't done that, and he was holding Sam for much longer.

As if Sam had manifested the boy, she and Corey heard the sound of his voice the next aisle over.

"Bowl... Bowl... Why wouldn't it be with the cereal?"

Sam grinned at his ingenuity. Searching with him, Will responded, "I don't know."

"What else do you use a bowl for?"

"Cutting Will's hair," Corey called back a response, trying not to break out in laughter as he did so.

Sam swatted him in the side incredulously. From the other aisle, Sam heard Will shout an offended, "Hey!" and Lucas burst into cackles. Hearing that Lucas was laughing, Corey laughed too.

"Oh, my god," Sam muttered in disapproval, shaking her head. "Guys, quit looking in the cereal aisle for bowls. They're down aisle three—"

"—How do you just know that off the top of your head—?"

"—and Corey just be quiet and wrap my ankle. Please," she added a moment after, feeling a little bad at suddenly fussing at her friends like that. "Also, Will, I'm sorry you have such a laughable haircut."

"Hey!" Will protested again, and this time, all of Sam, Lucas, and Corey began laughing.

◦☆＊★ ━━━━━━ ★＊☆◦

The best part of living with your cousin (in Sam Hughes' humble opinion) was that Sam didn't have one older sibling she could make bend to her will, she had two.

Sam was perfectly capable of grabbing a pack of frozen peas, taking the roll of duct tape, and wrapping it around her ankle as a precautionary measure.

But it was much more fun to make Corey do the work.

Sam sat on top of the wall where the refrigerated foods were, feeling the cold chill of it all on her back. Her legs dangled underneath her, watching as Corey wrapped the duct tape around the frozen peas to secure them.

"I really don't think this is gonna work," Sam commented, because it was all really stupid of them to think so.

"Well, if you knew how to control your powers, this wouldn't be an issue," Corey mumbled, sounding slightly annoyed like he always did.

"That's not my fault!" Sam gaped.

"You've been repressing your powers for who knows how long! This is totally your fault!"

"I—" Sam geared up to argue back, but her shoulders deflated in annoyance, "don't have anything to say to that."

Corey let out a triumphant hum from where he was crouched down at Sam's ankle. Sam wanted to remind him that he was, in fact, crouched down at Sam's ankle just because she asked him to, but she was sick of all the fighting the entire group has been doing lately. With Corey, it was normal because they were family, but Sam just wanted one moment of peace. She hadn't felt it since that day at Starcout Mall with Max and El.

When Corey finished securing the stupid peas against Sam's ankle, he tore off the duct tape with his teeth. He left the duct tape on the ground before standing up to his normal height.

"Hey, at least you're not actually in El's place," Corey said lightly, in his own weird way of trying to comfort Sam. "I mean, did you see the chunk out of her leg?"

"Yes, Corey," responded Sam blandly. "I also felt it."

Okay, maybe she could save a little bickering for Corey.

"All right, forgive me for having to filter your powers in account, now, too," Corey huffed, sitting next to her in front of the refrigerated foods. "It's not every day your cousin's a supernatural being."

"Or being hunted by an interdimensional being taking the form of dead people," Sam added, including herself in his banter.

"Along with one of our best friends," Corey reminded, which he really didn't have to do that. "Yeah, shit's fucked."

Sam inhaled deeply through her nose, trying to process everything that had changed in her life throughout the past so many hours. She thought of The Sauna Test, the powerful rushing feeling that had her throwing Billy through the brick wall. She thought of the hospital, how she could finally know that the cold feeling in her chest was because she knew there was danger near. She thought of going into the void with El, how all of the negative emotions from Billy's made her weaker. She thought of how she failed to exit the mindscape, and everything Billy told her in leu of her mistake. Sam was a part of something much bigger than herself, and she didn't even know what it was. Mostly.

"Can you — Can you promise me something?" Sam broke the tiny bit of silence with a quiet voice. Corey's head turned to her, curiously, wondering what Sam had suddenly gotten so serious about. "Just... if it comes to me or El—"

"No, no way — You can't ask me that. You can't."

Sam desperately tried, "Corey—"

"It's not happening," he cut her off, voice final.

"If it comes to it—"

"No, Sam."

"I need to know you'll do the right thing!"

"What, let you die?!"

"Let El live."

"That's the exact same thing!"

"Well I worded it better than you did!"

"Not a chance," Corey argued. "What's wrong with you? How could you even...?" He turned his face away from her, not wanting Sam to see the amount of pain the thought even caused him. "Listen, Sam. If it comes to it, we save you both. If there isn't a way, then we'll find a way."

"Corey—"

"Just shut up," ordered Corey, once he couldn't stand to hear it anymore. "For once in your life, Sam, just shut the hell up."

Sam, surprisingly, silenced. Her mouth shut closed in surprise.

Another surprising thing, was that now Corey couldn't stop talking. It was like the roles were reversed.

"I mean, do you listen to yourself? Sam, you have friends who love you. So much. You're the glue keeping the Party together, and from what I've seen, you always have been. And you have —" Corey stopped with a sharp inhale. "You have me. You have a family. Did you even think about Steph? She's got one sister and that's you. You need to understand how much you mean to people, okay?"

And if it was coming from Corey then Sam realized she really needed to get her shit in check. He was the last person she'd ever expected to be telling her this. Sam knew it was hard for him to be telling her this.

Corey was staring at her, waiting for an affirmation. He blinked, hard, in a very telling way.

"Am I allowed to speak now?" Sam asked, only sort-of joking.

He nudged her in genuine annoyance.

"Okay, sorry," she said, finally. "I... I mean I guess if you guys want to save me you can. I won't break my bones and suck my eyes out to stop you."

Corey huffed, and Sam could've sworn there was a smile at the corner of his lips. There was warmth radiating off of him in waves. It was a type of empathy that didn't make Sam ache.

"Good. Just — quit being a stupid, little idiot."

It was Corey's way of being thankful, Sam knew. It was kind of heart-warming and saddening at the same time, because this seemed to be the only way Corey knew how to be vulnerable.

"I didn't really think about Steph," Sam admitted, because it was only fair if she was vulnerable, too. "Can you imagine the amount of drugs she'd claim were on if we told her an eighth of what's going on?"

"More than 'an eighth' of cocaine I'll tell you that," snorted Corey.

It really sucked, because Stephanie didn't seem to know it, but they both loved her so much. Sam knew that Corey possibly looked up to Stephanie just as much as Sam did, even if he was too afraid to show it. Stephanie was just a guiding light for the two kids. When Aunt Kat and Uncle Dan stepped down, she stepped up. She was a sister, a cousin, and — honestly — a mother.

Both Sam and Corey would rather die than ever admit it, though.

"Do you ever want to... like, I don't know, tell Steph about all this crap?" Corey wondered, shivering at the cold chill of the open fridge behind him.

Sam huffed humorlessly, and Corey didn't understand until she responded, "All the damn time."

"Really?"

"Yes," said Sam in exasperation. "Like... sometimes I wake up screaming from the nightmares... and all I want to do is go to her, but I can't. We're not even close anymore, and it kills me, because I know it's my fault. I mean," Sam swallowed the lump in her throat, "all I wanted was to be her when I was older..." Then, she shrugged, a little sadly. "Now, I'm older and I'm — I'm just a disappointment."

Corey breathed in, sharp, because that hurt to hear. He had always theorized Sam had a deeper sadness to her, but this was more than enough to make his heart break. This was his little sister, essentially. Though he'd never say it aloud, he'd fight wars to keep her happy. He'd wrap peas around her ankle, for god's sake.

"I don't think you're a disappointment, Sammy," said Corey.

Sam raised an unamused eyebrow at him. "Oh, yeah? And what do you think?"

"I think that you've always put too much pressure on yourself," Corey sighed a little weakly, "because my dad made you believe who you naturally are will never be good enough. I know I'm right because he did the same thing to me."

The fluorescent light above Sam flickered once. He watched Sam make a face of annoyance at the fact she'd failed to control her powers. There was something different about her since the start of the summer. Corey didn't know if it was Zimmerman changing her, or her new-found powers, or the weight of everything she'd been through, but Sam was different. A little horribly, he thought she was getting worse.

"I'm sorry you had to live with him for so long," she apologized quietly.

Equally as quiet, Corey admitted, "I think he really fucked me up, Sammy."

"I can't stand that you think that," Sam started, a face full of remorse, like she was blaming herself for Corey's poor mental state. "You're not fucked up, Corey. He was. He is. You got mad at him for things he said to me or Steph, so why would you think they're true when it applies to you?"

Corey's nose scrunched up, and his eyebrows drew like he was in pain. "I — I know he's wrong. Or, at least I'm trying to, anyways. But it still..."

"Sticks?" Sam finished helpfully, like she knew the feeling.

Corey hated that he knew she did.

"Yeah," he blew out a puff of air. "It sticks."

Corey meant it. His dad's words... his dad... He stuck. Just when Corey thought he could brush it all off, at the end of the day he was a culmination of his father's anger and his mother's cowardice. Corey was a boy, brought up by his father's words, and now he was just a guy, forever changed, with a hole inside him that chewed away more of his heart every year. How was that supposed to be enough for anybody?

How was that supposed to be enough for Mike?

"I kissed Mike," Corey confessed.

Sam gasped in a dramatic breath, gripping the wall she sat in with both hands. She gasped so hard that she began coughing, and when she finally recovered from the fit of coughs, she looked at Corey with the most surprised face she'd ever pulled for him.

"What?!" Sam freaked out. "Oh, my god, that's CRAZY! I cannot believe it! Wow, I'm so proud of you, Core—!"

"I know you already know."

Sam's shocked facade immediately dropped, and she deflated into a defeated figure with a sorry frown.

"Yeah, I did," she admitted.

Corey rolled his eyes, albeit fond, shaking his head. Sam is gonna freak if she finds out, Stephanie had told him. How could he have ever thought she'd react any differently?

"I really am proud of you, though, Core," Sam said it as if he needed him to know that. "You're amazing for who you are, and you shouldn't ever want to hide it, and it devastates me that anyone has ever made you feel any different." Then, catching him off guard, "I'm sorry, but... but I hate your dad."

Corey gasped at Sam, almost scandalized.

"Samantha Hughes!" he jokingly reprimanded her, smiling, although he was very shocked. "I don't you've hated a person in your life!"

"Yeah, well, I hate him," spat Sam, and she wasn't even laughing.

She genuinely meant it. Corey had to bark out a laugh out that, it stumbled out of him in shock. Who knew Sam would hate homophobes so much?

"How'd you find out, by the way?" Sam asked, once Corey's laughter had died down. "That I knew?"

Corey shrugged carelessly, his arms raising before they dropped back into his lap. Unfortunately, he said, "You're smart. I figured you'd've worked it out immediately. Chances are you've known longer than I have."

"Eh, six years, but who's counting?" Sam waved a sarcastic, dismissive hand.

"Six years?" Corey eyed her incredulously. "We met six years ago!"

Sam pointed at him, "Exactly."

"I cannot believe you," he shook his head in exasperation, because there truly was no one like Sam. "I hated him back then."

"Did you? Or were you using hate to repress attraction because you thought it was wrong and it's easier to get angry than it is to love a man openly in Hawkins, Indiana?"

Jesus fucking Christ.

Corey had to catch his breath at that.

"You're a creepy freak, you know that?" Corey said to her, but Sam knew what he truly meant. His voice was strained and there was something caught in his throat, and she was an Empath.

Yeah. She knew what he meant.

"It has its perks," Sam grinned. She leaned into his shoulder in an annoying, little sibling-like way. "He's, like, totally obsessed and in love with you, too, by the way."

And—

And then—

I don't like El, I like you!

You can't keep disappearing whenever this gets hard. Not this time, just — stay with me.

And Corey's eyes were screwed up, forcing Mike Wheeler's voice out his brain.

He took a deep breath in, said, "I know," then took a deep breath out. "I think... I think the problem is me, this time."

"Corey," Sam said gently, watching Corey's head lift to meet Sam's eyes. "If you're not ready for that — for dating — that's okay. You don't have to be. You don't have to do anything you're not ready for. Just tell that to Mike, and he'll understand. I know all of you guys think he's some, like, emotionally unavailable idiot, but he's really not." Then, "All the time."

"But I want to be ready," Corey said, a pleading note to his voice.

Sam watched him sadly. "Wanting to be and actually being are two different things."

Fuck this philosophical little shit.

"What if I tell him, and... and he doesn't want to wait? What if he runs?"

Corey was never this vulnerable with people, this emotional. The only other time was when he came out the first time (this was technically the third, if you count abruptly kissing Mike Wheeler out of the blue). All Stephanie had to do was be there, and Corey was spilling his guts to her. Just like Sam.

They really were siblings.

"I think the only one running away, anymore, is you, Corey," Sam said in her simple, earnest way. No one else in Hawkins talked like that. "Just stop running. See where it goes from there. You don't have to be afraid. It's just you and Mike."

You don't have to be afraid. It's just you and Mike.

◦☆＊★ ━━━━━━ ★＊☆◦

"We need to find Dustin," was all Mike stated, barely explaining further. After trying to contact Dustin for days, somehow Dustin randomly decided to finally get in touch with the group. Through Lucas's Walkie, Mike had a brief conversation with the curly-haired boy. Something the gate being opened, or at least it's what Mike had said.

After helping El wrap up her bite injury with the best of their amateur abilities, they brought her to the frozen foods section. Jonathan had found an American flag for El to use as a blindfold after she said she could find Dustin in the void for them. No one was letting Sam join her this time, not even Sam herself. The proximity theory was still proving to be true, as Sam's ankle hissed in pain again, although much more controlled, and the frozen peas did help a tad.

Sam and Lucas were leaned up against a wooden, fruit display in the middle of the expansive aisle. Sam bent the leg of her hurt ankle and propped her foot against the side of the ice-chest shaped fridge. That way, she didn't have to stand on it.

Corey and Mike were sitting on the wall of the refrigerated foods, just like she and Corey were previously doing. Corey was too lazy to get up, and Mike was a clingy bastard who couldn't sit away from Corey's side. Sam honestly didn't know how no one else besides she or Lucas had brought attention to the pair.

With a good few feet between them, Max and Will were also sitting on the wall enclosing the refrigerated food. Although, the two of them were sitting apart, and their sides weren't brushing with every movement.

Nancy and Jonathan were standing, just standing, to the left of El, different from Sam and Lucas who were to the right. They had similar arm-crossed stances of displeasure, which made Sam smile at how well of a couple they made. Despite how judgmental.

Lucas clicked open a can of New Coke. The sound echoed throughout the whole store, followed by soft sizzling.

"Quiet," Sam whispered to him.

"Oh, sorry," he muttered right back before sipping from his drink.

He raised the can of New Coke to his lips, taking a loud, long slurp.

So much for quiet, Sam thought pettily to herself.

"How do you even drink that?" Mike asked him with a disgusted look on his face.

Like it was obvious, Lucas answered, "Because it's delicious?"

"What?" Max and Mike looked at Lucas like he was crazy.

Even Sam had her disbelief, although probably for a different reason. She never liked Coke — or any soda at all. She didn't like the feeling of the carbonation, and much preferred simpler drinks like lemonade or coffee. Water also tasted gross to her, so that was a no as well.

"It's like Carpenter's The Thing," Lucas began explaining to his haters. "The original is a classic, no question about it. But the remake?" Lucas took another slurping slip of his can — to which Sam furrowed her brows at him. He then let out a dramatic, satisfied sigh and smacked his lips. "Sweeter, bolder, better."

"You're insane," Mike claimed.

Sam and Corey shared looks, they were pleading and were sort of begging to be saved from the idiocrasy of the whole situation.

Lucas's face screwed up judgmentally. "So, you prefer the original Thing?"

"What? No!" said Mike. "I'm not talking about The Thing, I'm talking about New Coke."

"It's the same concept, dude."

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

Max held up a mocking finger in the air. In an overexerted, nerdy mannerism, she mouthed, 'Uh, actually,' to make fun of Mike. Will snorted.

"It is the same concept."

"No, it's not!"

"Yes, it is!" Mike exclaimed now, no longer whispering. "Corey, what do you think?"

Corey rolled his eyes, not even sparing Mike an agitated glance. He deadpanned, "I really don't give a fuck."

"You have such a way with words," Mike sighed fondly.

"Hey!" El snapped, tearing the flag from her eyes. The three boys instantly shut up. She glared at them, blood rolling down her nose.

"Sorry," Lucas apologized.

"Sorry," Mike did, too.

"That was not my fault," Corey said.

Sam asked El, "Did you find him?"

El gave a tired sigh and wiped the blood from her nose. She nodded, then said, "He's at the movies. At Starcourt."

"What?"

"He's at the movies," El repeated with a shrug. Max came up to El and helped her stand with her injured leg. Sam just refused help and limped through the pain that shouldn't even exist. She tried shutting connection between her and El's pain, but she didn't know how to do something she didn't know how to do.

They all began walking towards the entrance, and the only person who had accommodated for Sam's slow pace was Jonathan, who walked alongside her towards the front of the store. Once Jonathan got there, he accepted orders from a fourteen-year-old and picked up a crate of fireworks.

"Lucas, why do you have a shopping cart full of fireworks?" Sam asked.

Max sighed in annoyance. "It's all of this brand 'Satan's Baby' that he's convinced will destroy the Mind Flayer."

"Wow," Lucas nodded in disappointment at the ginger. "You're really hating on me, Mayfield. I see how it is."

Max shrugged at him with a smirk, not caring one bit.

"Oh, my god, Lucas," Sam said. She was staring at the fireworks in amazement. "Do you know how dangerous those things are? Those fireworks are filled with 150 grains of gunpowder. You can create a bomb with, like, five of those."

Lucas grinned at her proudly. "I know."

"You do?" Sam asked, entire face morphing into that of shock.

"Always the tone of surprise," Lucas replied in a teasing tone.

The entire group continued walking towards the exit, when Sam noticed no one had made a stop for the cash register.

"Wait," exclaimed Sam, and everyone stopped in fear. "We're not gotta leave any money behind?"

As Sam was at the caboose of the group, they all turned around to her slowly. Each one of their faces was painted in confusion.

"Why would we do that?"

Sam gaped at them in terror. "We can't just... steal."

"Oh, my god," Nancy muttered, shaking her head.

Then everyone turned back around, ignoring her, and continued to the shattered front doors. Sam couldn't believe the audacity these people had. She dug in her pockets, pulling out exactly one dollar bill, a dime, and two pennies — $1.12. Sam didn't have the speed right now to find the cash register and break into it, so she just placed it down on the ground right at the front of the store.

"The movies... El, are you sure?" Will frowned as he helped Lucas's shopping cart over the doorframe and walking out into the parking lot.

"Yes."

"Really? I mean — the movies?"

Sam piled out of the store, followed by a fond-looking Jonathan who had watched her leave some money behind. He made sure Sam didn't topple over as the group walked back over to Nancy's horribly parked car.

Lucas scoffed, pushing the cart of fireworks by the handle. "Yeah, Dustin's so freaked out about the gate, he decides to go watch a movie? Makes total sense," he rolled his eyes sarcastically.

"Are you positive he said 'gate' and not 'great'?" Will checked El's certainty for the third time.

Corey nodded, "Yeah, like, 'This movie I'm watching is great!'"

"Sounded like gate," El said, resting her head against Max's shoulder tiredly.

Eyeing Lucas, Corey, and Will with a look, Sam asked, "Why would he be freaked out about his movie being great?"

They shrugged back at her cluelessly.

"Sam's right," said Mike. "And it would explain how the Mind Flayer's still alive."

"Yeah, we just have to shut it again," Nancy said, unlocking into her car and not helping anyone load the fireworks atop of it.

"Then the monster dies," Corey nodded.

"But if not," Max shot Lucas a look when he turned back around to try and stuff fireworks in another basket he could secure above Nancy's car, "we always have Lucas's fireworks."

Lucas, noting the sarcasm, challenged, "Keep mocking my plan, Max. Keep mocking it. I wanna hear you say it again, because you keep doubting me. You keep doubting me!"

"Because it's ridiculous," Max scoffed, shaking her head.

"Sam was amazed and she's always right about everything!" Lucas argued. Max rolled her eyes, and Lucas sighed. "Will? We're gonna prove her wrong, right?"

"I'm not getting into this."

"Wh — dude!"

◦☆＊★ ━━━━━━ ★＊☆◦

hughclair doing what jancy couldn't!!! give the gun and axe to them instead, your honor!!

no but the parallels ^^^ the gun-wielding dad friend (sam and nancy) and the axe-wielding-always-panicked mom friend (lucas and jonathan)

sam's also an empath! oh, she's finding out things left and right

COREY COMING OUT TO SAM TOO!! SAM ACTING SUPRISED EVEN IF SHE ALREADY KNEW BECAUSE SHE DIDN'T WANT TO RUIN A VERY IMPORTANT MOMENT FOR COREY!!! SAM NOT RATTING OUT MIKE BECAUSE THAT WAS AN IMPORTANT MOMENT FOR MIKE TOO!!!

corey wanting to be mentally stable for mike... same, dude.

sam wanting to sacrifice herself for el... uh oh :(

anyways, i have more fake tweets!! there's like so many in my photo album so the next few chapters will have them included at the end... i hope they're enjoyed because there's really no choice

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what'd you think?