Tʜᴇ Fʟᴀʀᴇ ꕥ Lɪᴢᴢɪᴇ Jᴏʜɴsᴏɴ

sᴇʀɪᴇs ғᴏᴜʀ ꕥ 11

You wanna hurt me...?

You wanna feel how it feels...

Yeah, yeah, yeah...

"Dustin?" Lizzie said, turning him round. They had both recovered from Lizzie's story and were now standing up, back to investigating. "I promise I'm gonna stop asking this, but... you're seeing that too, right?"

She was gesturing to a lamp. A lamp with a flickering light.

Then it stopped flickering. And one that was at the other edge of the room started.

Then it stopped. And the one outside the room started.

Then the one under the stairs...

The one lighting up the next room...

Then to the chandelier in the next one.

And that's where it stayed, the electricity surging then dropping again.

"Guys?" Lizzie asked. "Guys?"

Robin, Nancy and Steve came first, then Max and Lucas, then they all stood in a circle with their torches angled upwards, and their heads too. They were all looking at the chandelier.

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

"Christmas lights?" Robin frowned.

For the benefit of Max and Robin, both of whom hadn't been there since the start, Nancy explained in a whisper. "Yeah, when Will was in the Upside Down, the lights... came to life."

"Vecna's here," Lucas realised. "In this house... just on the other side."

"And the flickering lights from upstairs were him... moving," Lizzie shrugged.

Then, suddenly, the chandelier went dark.

"I think he just left the room," Robin suggested.

"Did he hear us?" Max hissed.

"Can he see us?" Steve asked.

"Headphones!" Dustin nudged Lizzie, hissing to her.

Lizzie jammed the headphones on her head and clicked on the walkman. Running Up That Hill started to play again.

"Wait, wait," Nancy said commandingly. "Everyone, turn off your flashlights, spread out!"

"Wait, but we're not gonna be able to see if we turn off our..." Steve gave up, everyone had gone. "Flashlights," he muttered irritably. "Jesus Christ..."

It only took a few more minutes for someone to shout. "I got him! Got him!"

Lizzie and the others ran to Robin, who was holding up her glowing torch, even through it was turned off.

Vecna was there.

It turned off just as everyone came. "I- I had him."

Then Steve's torch turned on. "Oh, whoa," then it threatened to turn off, but he went with it- "Oh I think he's moving! He's moving!"

The others went with him as his torch continued to glow. They went up the stairs, past the clock, along the landing-

"Shit."

It went out.

"I lost him."

"No, you didn't," Max said, venturing further and opening a door off the stairs that they didn't notice was there. To the attic.

In there, every light was going.

Lizzie sighed, walking up beside Max. "Come on, let's go."

They all quietly went up the creaky stairs. "It's an attic, of course it's an attic..." Robin said shakily.