Chapter 11
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Dream a Little Dream of Me

            Olivia keeps falling down into a never-ending void of darkness.

            Instead of her head hitting on a soft mattress like she thought would have happened, her head hits on a hard, cold, marble floor. She winces in pain, and it takes her a moment to stand up. A chill runs through her and she crosses her arms, suddenly feeling cold. She glances around her surroundings and she realizes that she is standing in the upside down version of StarCourt mall. Creepy vines were crawling everywhere; the walls, floors, and ceilings were covered in them. She furrows her eyebrows in confusion, wondering how she possibly could have been at StarCourt when she was just in Eddie's trailer mere seconds ago. Her whole body trembles with fear when she instantly realizes that none of her friends were with her, that she was completely alone in the most terrifying place in the world.

She freezes when she hears a deep, ominous voice that startles her. She steps back in fear while trying her best to not stumble to the ground. "Do you remember what you did, Olivia?" The haunting voice asks her. "Or have you already forgotten? When I kill someone, I never forget."

𓆩♡𓆪

"Olivia," Steve's eyes widened in horror as he watched Olivia's beautiful brown eyes that he fell in love turn to a white glow. "Hey, Hey! Stay with me. Olivia!" He panicked, unsure of what to do and began to shake her shoulders vigorously. He was willing to do anything to save her, he couldn't bare seeing her in this state.

On the other side of the ceiling, the others look up to see what was happening. "Vecna," Max stated.

Dustin had never been more scared in his entire life when he saw his sister possessed. He felt a tear roll down his cheek, but he immediately asked Eddie where his mixtapes were.

𓆩♡𓆪

Olivia's breath hitches, and she covers her hands with her ears trying to rid of the bellowing voice. "Dustin! Steve! Robin!" She shrieks for her loved ones for help and her eyes search for them frantically, even though she knows that they aren't there.

"They can't help you, Olivia," The voice continues.

A shadow starts walking towards her, and when the figure comes more into the light, the figure is revealed to be Billy. He walks closer to her until he is just a few inches apart from her. "Olivia, I've been waiting to see you again," Billy greets her with a menacing smile. "You did this to me, Olivia," He accused. "You watched me die and let it happen. I can't help but think that, there's a part of you deep down that wanted me to die that day," He caresses Olivia's cheek as he speaks and tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

Olivia flinches at his touch. "N-no Billy, t-that's not true," She stutters as a tear rolls down her cheek.

"That's why you stood there, isn't it Olivia?" Billy says angrily. "You hated me... despised me, even."

"I-I never hated you Billy," Olivia quickly denies him, shaking her head. As Billy inches closer to her, she tries to walk further away from him but she bumps into the wall.

"That is why you feel such guilt," Billy goes on. "And that is why you now wish that it had been you instead of me that died that day. That is why I am here, Olivia, to end your suffering once and for all."

Glancing to her right, she finally catches a glimpse of the exit way. She rushes out of the door, faster than she has ever run in her life, before Billy could have the chance to catch her. However, once she is finally out of the mall, she becomes aware that she is in a trap with no where to escape.

Giant grandfather clocks were floating in the red sky along with broken pieces of a house, and Olivia immediately recognizes it as Victor Creel's house, just like Max's drawings. She cautiously walks down the broken stairwell case when she hears another ghostly chime and the haunting voice again. "You were so close, Olivia. So close to the truth. I've been meaning to check in with you, but I've been busy. So very busy."

           Olivia's breath quickens at an exceedingly fast pace when she turns her head around and sees Fred and Chrissy's lifeless bodies tangled up in vines. She covers her mouth with her hands out of fear and walks over to her friend. Olivia's heart shatters at the horrible sight. She holds Chrissy's cold hand in hers. "I-I'm so s-sorry Chrissy," She cried, her entire body shaking. "I'm so, so s-sorry."

Olivia looks passed her friend where she notices the front door with the stained glass window of the Creel's house opening by itself. She suddenly appears in the living room, almost like magic. A picture perfect family enters the front door one by one with wide smiles, and Olivia instantly recognizes them as Victor and Virginia Creel and their two children, Alice and Henry. On the outside, they seem like a perfect family that most people dreamed of having.

"This is amazing!" Alice beams with twinkling eyes, twirling around the house. "It looks like a fairytale. A dream!" She squeals, eagerly running up the stairs.

"Alice, no running!" Virginia laughs softly.

"It's so big!" The small girl exclaims in awe to her mother.

Virginia leans her head on her husband's shoulder, sharing a laugh with him. Behind the loving couple, Henry is quietly standing behind them with his shoulders slumped and a distraught expression on his face with his eyes seemingly focused on the floor. He solemnly goes up the stairs not long after Alice does, and Olivia decides to follow him, curiosity getting the best of her.

            After following Henry into an old room, she watches the boy when he lifts a vent up, revealing a nest of black widow spiders. Olivia cringes at the creepy spiders and tilts her head at the strange and curious boy who willingly lets the spider crawl on his hand. She is completely puzzled by how Henry watches the spider with nothing but pure fascination and absolutely no trace of fear in his eyes.

          Next, Henry starts to collect the spiders and place them in jars. Once he collects all of them, he lunges to the attic that was filled with lit candles, setting the jars down on a wooden desk and begins to intently sketch a black widow in his sketchbook.

Olivia follows him back downstairs, where he is silently observing a giant grandfather clock that was hanging on the wall. Victor closes his eyes with determination, and Olivia widens her eyes as she watches the hands on the antique clock furiously spinning in the opposite direction.

Before Olivia knows it, she is standing outside of the Creel's home. She then spots a rabbit just a few feet away from her, trying to free itself from a trap. Olivia walks towards the rabbit and is about to try and help the creature out of its trap when she suddenly freezes in horror.

            Henry is kneeling down next to the rabbit and extends his hand out to the creature with determination, like he was the one who was causing the pain. It slowly dawns on Olivia that there was nothing that she could do to help the poor, innocent animal who didn't deserve this unbearable pain and torture and she feels useless. She wipes her tears away with her sleeve, closes her eyes, and covers her ears with her hands for the second time, not being able to bear watching the rabbit suffering and hearing the sound of it's heartbreaking wails. In a flash, she turns around on her heels and rushes back inside the house, shutting the stained-glass door firmly behind her.

            But being back in the house wasn't any better than being outside. The Creel family is sitting around the old-fashioned dining room table, peacefully eating dinner when the radio turns on by its self and Olivia hears an all too familiar, enchanting melody that fills her ears.

Stars shining bright above you
Night breezes seem to whisper "I love you"
Birds singin' in the sycamore tree
Dream a little dream of me

            Victor and Virginia exchange curious glances with each other. Hesitantly, Victor walks up to the radio to try and fix it, but his attention is pulled away from it when the lights began to flicker vigorously. Similar to what happened to Max, Virginia shoots up in the air, only unlike Max, her jaw drops open and her bones began to bend. Victor trembles and stands in horror as he watches his beloved wife and daughter drop to the ground.

            Victor lets out a heartbreaking cry and immediately takes Henry away from the table. Olivia widens her eyes as she watches Henry wipe the blood away from his nose. Victor sobs uncontrollably as he cradles his unconscious son in his arms when the policemen come barging in the house and arrests him, assuming that he was the one who had done this to his family.

𓆩♡𓆪

"Olivia, just stay with me," Steve pleaded to his unconscious girlfriend. "You have to stay with me. I can't loose you. I'm not loosing you."

"Whatever you guys are doing up there, just hurry up!" He screamed at Erica.

Erica nodded and ran over to the others. "Steve said you need to hurry!"

"Yeah, no shit!" Dustin screamed harshly. He was completely frantic, he had a hard time focusing when he couldn't bare the thought of loosing his sister, his other half. He cursed himself for not being prepared, for not packing Olivia's favorite songs when he knew that this was going to happen.

"We're trying, we can't find anything!" Max panicked, shuffling through all of Eddie's mixtapes.

"Seriously, what is all this shit?!" Robin yelled at Eddie as she looks at all of his music.

"What are you even looking for?" Eddie asked.
"I know what music Liv likes, she likes Whitney, the Bangles, ABBA, Queen, Beatles? Music! We need music!" Robin said hurriedly. She was just as worried as Dustin and Steve were. Olivia was her best friend, and she couldn't bare to loose her either. None of them could.

"This. Is. Music!" Eddie shouted irritably.

"I know her favorite is artist is Whitney Houston, but I'm not sure what her favorite song is," Nancy added.

"Max, do you have any Whitney Houston mixtapes with your Walkman? It doesn't have to be her favorite song... all I want is for her to come back," Dustin asked with his pleading sky blue eyes.

Max shuffled through her bag frantically. When she finds the right mixtape, she tossed her Walkman to Dustin. The Henderson boy inserted the tape in the Walkman and his hands trembled as he threw it up to Steve. He silently prayed for Olivia to survive this, he wanted nothing more.

𓆩♡𓆪

            Olivia's scenery changes, and now she is standing in a plain hospital room with blank walls. An older man, maybe in his late forties, is engraving a tattoo on Henry's arm. The man looks strangely familiar, but Olivia can't quite place where she's seen him from. Once he finishes the tattoo, Olivia's eyes grow big when she reads the tattoo:

0 0 1

            Olivia realizes that this is Hawkins Lab, and she remembers that this is the man who "raised" Eleven. Dr. Martin Brenner, or Papa, as Eleven called him. "All done," Dr. Brenner informs to Henry. "Not so bad, was it? See? There's nothing to be afraid of. Is there, Olivia?" Dr. Brenner turns to face Olivia, and she gasps when she sees his white glowing eyes. "Why don't you take a seat?" He gestures while his voice changes to a low growl.

            Olivia flinches and tries to escape, but when she runs out of the hospital room, all she sees is blood splattered on the walls. There are numerous dead bodies sprawled on the floor, and Olivia's face drops immediately when she notices that they are children.

She tries to open the exit door with all of her strength, but it's boarded up with pieces of wood. "Olivia... what are you doing?" A strange man appears behind her, but he wasn't an ordinary looking man. His body was covered in moving vines and he had a snake-like nose. "It's not time for you to leave."

Vecna.

She panics and starts to frantically yank the pieces of wood off of the door, but Vecna comes closer and closer to her. "Now you've seen where I've been," He says. "I would like very much to show you where I am going."

When she finally manages to open the door, she springs into the other room, but she is met with Dr. Brenner again who is standing there, staring at her menacingly with his white glowing eyes. "Take a seat, Olivia."

Olivia is suddenly straddled to the hospital bed, tied up with vines. She tries to wiggle her body out of the vines, but she is trapped. Vecna leans over her intimidatingly, close enough to where she could feel his breath. Her breath is still at a quickening pace. "I want you tell Eleven. I want you to tell her everything you see." He extends his hand out in front of her face and she gasps. Terrifying images flash through her mind, but there is one image in particular that frightens her the most.

𓆩♡𓆪

Olivia is standing in the upside version of her home. She glances around her and an unsettling feeling forms in her stomach. She stops in her tracks when she sees three lifeless bodies lying on the floor in the living room.

No.

She unsteadily walks over to the lifeless bodies, and when she gets a closer look at who they are, it's as if her worst fear has come true. She finds herself stumbling to the ground and crawls over to them. It's Dustin, her mom, and... her dad? All of them were tangled in vines, just like Fred and Chrissy had been. She looks at Dustin's lifeless body and she screams in terror, completely mortified and knows she will now never be able to get the horrifying image out of her head. "D-Dustin?" She cries. "N-no... p-please... n-no..." Her hands are trembling and she keeps trying to tell herself that this isn't real, but it isn't working.

"They're dead because of you, Olivia," Vecna sneered. "Have you ever wondered how your foolish father died? He died thinking he was protecting you and your foolish brother. But he was wrong. So, very wrong. And now, it is time for you to die."

𓆩♡𓆪

"Tell her everything," Vecna finishes. Olivia is sitting back in the hospital bed. Vecna is still looming over her, but before he has the chance to do anything, he looks passed Olivia and scowls. She swivels her head around to see what Vecna is looking at in fury, and Olivia's heart leaps with hope. A red portal slowly opens and on the other side of it, she could finally see Steve desperately shaking her unconscious body. An enchanting, angelic voice fills her ears again, but this time, she recognizes it as one of her favorite songs. It was always her favorite because it reminded her of how she felt for Steve.

There's a boy, I know,
He's the one I dream of
Looks into my eyes,
Takes me to the clouds above

            "You're friends can't help you, Olivia," Vecna growls. Olivia looks back and forth between Vecna and the portal. Using all of the strength she has, she pulls herself out of Vecna's strong grasp, and starts running towards the glowing portal while passing the giant grandfather clocks and the broken pieces of the Creel house. She thinks of her loved ones and her happiest memories to encourage her to keep running, to not give up, to not let Vecna win this time.

How will I know,
If he really loves me?
I say a prayer with every heartbeat
I fall in love whenever we meet
How will I know if he's thinking of me?
I try to phone but I'm too shy (can't speak)
Falling in love is all bittersweet

She was getting closer and closer to the portal. So close.

𓆩♡𓆪

Olivia jolts awake and she gasps for air, falling into Steve's warm embrace. She felt like all her happiness was taken away from her, like she could never be happy again. She stares up at Steve who is already looking at her with a relieved smile. He pulls her closer to his chest.

"It's okay, it's okay," Steve comforted her."I'm here. I'm right here."

"I-is it really you?" She croaked, and the sound of her fragile voice broke Steve's heart.

"It's me, it's me," He said tenderly. "And I'm never letting you go."