Sleep came surprisingly easily, but a clash of thunder had stirred her awake a few hours later. She lifted her head from her arm, which was numb from the restriction of blood flow. She took a moment to flex her fingers, though as she did, she noticed she was the only one sitting on the couch.
Sitting up, she hazily looked around. The bathroom door was open, but the light was off. The bed was still perfectly made.
Eddie was nowhere in the room.
"Eddie?" she called out, making sure. She looked to the phone sitting on the bedside table, then to the clock next to it. It was 6:22am.
Lillian stood, making her way over to the window to pull open the curtains. Her heart stopped as she saw the familiar, strange shade in the skies - the colors of a violet-necked lory, which she had grown accustomed to looking at when she was in the Second Circle. Panic thrust through her.
Then, she looked down towards the street. A figure in a jean jacket stood in the middle of it, staring right up at her window on the second floor.
Billy.
Lillian's heart began to hammer, and her eyes grew wide with terror, and suddenly, she heard the door open behind her.
With an audible gasp, she spun around, ready to run. Eddie stopped as he closed the door, noticing the dread in her face. He was holding a grocery bag and a six-pack of beer.
"Hey, you okay?"
Unsure of how to answer that question, she pulled open the curtain again. The sun was just starting to give color to the sky - just ordinary hues of yellow and orange. Breathing in through her nose, Lillian couldn't shake the tenseness from her shoulders.
"I... yeah. I'm fine."
"You don't look like it." There was skepticism in his voice. He set down the stuff he brought into the room and walked over to her. One hand wrapped around her waist, and the other held open the curtains so he could see what she was looking at. Naturally, there was nothing there. No Billy, not even any other sign of life. The town really was quite barren.
"I talked to the guy at the desk. He said a lot of people left town after the earthquake. Remember those bodies we saw?"
"How could I forget?" she retorted with a distressed murmur, green eyes still staring through the window.
"He said he saw what did it. There were two of them. Freaky-looking demons, is basically what he said."
Lillian looked at Eddie. Her fears were confirmed. "Whatever lives down there is surfacing here, and there's four, giant gates stretched across the country. Vecna is trying to destroy the whole world."
But what did that have to do with Billy, or her visions of the Second Circle? Lillian couldn't wrap her head around it.
"We should hit the road soon," Eddie suggested, "but I did bring us some grub." He left her side to grab the bag, pulling out some warm food for them. They checked out after they ate, and Eddie put the individual bottles of beer in his backpack. She wasn't about to ask if he had paid for those, already knowing he wasn't quite old enough to purchase alcohol yet.
Then again, the grocery store was probably deserted and ransacked, for all she knew.
Once everything was gathered in their filched bags, they headed down towards the lobby to check out. However, there was a strange sound coming from the reception desk. Eddie, who had neared the bottom of the stairs first, stopped abruptly, holding his arm out so Lillian could not go any further. The scene that was unfolding in front of them was abominable. The man working the desk, who Eddie had just been talking to not even an hour ago, was lying on his back on top of the wooden furniture, eyes wide with a dead horror that send a piercing chill through Lillian. Above him hovered the familiar monster that had attacked her at Billy's house, quite similar in size, possibly even larger. He was feasting on the receptionist's still warm body, the sounds of many, razor teeth tearing through organs and skin practically making Lillian sick. It was all she could do to suppress the urge to vomit.
It was a miracle they hadn't been noticed yet. Eddie was ready to keep going towards the front door when Lillian grabbed him by his jacket. She firmly shook her head. If they went through the front door, the bell would go off, and that thing was certain to be grumpy with his breakfast being interrupted.
Cautiously, they tiptoed across the lobby to the other end, passing through a yellow-painted hallway that they hoped would take them through another exit door. Luckily, it worked out in their favor, and they were able to creep out of the motel to the parking lot. Both of them still too afraid to speak, they located a white Ford Bronco that Eddie would start to hotwire. Lillian anxiously watched the building, still worried that that thing would come out any minute.
"Come on," she muttered, standing by the open, driver door. He was not getting this thing going as quickly as she would like.
"I'm trying," Eddie insisted. Finally, the old Ford road to life, making more noise than Lillian anticipated it would.
"Move over!" She ushered urgently, and Eddie practically soared over the center compartment to seat himself on the passenger side. Lillian climbed in behind the wheel, slamming the door shut just as they spotted the main door of the motel shattering from its hinges. Sure enough, the grumble of the engine had been enough to tear the demogorgon away from it s meal. Lillian slammed her foot on the gas, and the wheels screamed beneath them as they took off from the parking lot.
"Son of a bitch! That thing moves fast!" Eddie turned his body enough to look at it as it tried to chase them down. It seemed to move almost as fast as the truck did. "Do you think that's the thing that killed all those other people?"
"No doubt about it," Lillian said. Now was probably not a good time to share that she had already seen one of these before. Right now, she needed to focus on where she was going, and hopefully lose this freak.
It didn't take long for it to lose stamina and give up all together, but they weren't about to stop. Soon, they were on the road and were forced to keep going. Heart rates finally getting back to normal, Lillian's grip loosened on the steering wheel after about ten, whole minutes.
"Well! That was eventful." She sighed. They were hitting winding roads now that they were further from the town, and so both of them put on their seatbelts. They hadn't thought to do so in their panic earlier.
"Demogorgons," Eddie muttered. Lillian looked at him with a look of both confusion and amusement.
"I don't think now is a good time to think about Dungeons and Dragons."
"Dustin was talking about those things. I'm sure that's what it was. They're demogorgons."
"Oh," Lillian said simply. She had never really thought about what they might be called, and although she was sure that's not what nature intended for them to be entitled, it was good to put a name to that ugly face.
It was 10:15. The morning air of late fall was quite chilly up here in the mountains. Lillian hadn't had a chance to put on a jacket, but at least she had one in her bag. She started fiddling with the dial for the heater when they turned a bend, and something was spotted further ahead.
"You've got to be kidding," she breathed.
There were two demogorgons blocking the road, both of them snacking on their own dish. One was an older man, and the other was a teenage girl, likely his daughter. Lillian couldn't stomach to look. much like the receptionist, there was so much Gore, but it also left her with the sickening reminder that she didn't know if her own dad was okay or not.
The vehicles slowed to a stop, still a good few yards away from the couple of demons. Knuckles once again white, Lillian gripped the steering wheel.
"Now what?" Eddie asked.
Lillian didn't answer. Instead, she concentrated, trying to clear her thoughts of everything except the sheer need to set these two demons afire. Her grip was warm around the steering wheel, but she wasn't getting that tingling feeling of unnatural warmth in her. Nothing was happening.
Beside her, Eddie looked over his shoulder through the rear window, and the sound of another vehicle pulling up behind them alerted them that they were no longer alone.
Good. Maybe these people could help.
But as an impatient jock in a red and white basketball jacket came climbing out of the car, Lillian could hear him hollering at them.
"Hey, assholes! Why are you stopped!?"
Obviously, he hadn't noticed the monsters on the other side.
Oh, but they sure noticed him.
Both heads popped up from the corpses, directing their attention to the young, adult male that was obliviously making a scene.
Lillian and Eddie both ducked low in their seats, obscuring their own view through the windshields in hopes that they hadn't been spotted.
Holding her breath, it took all of her might not to shriek when the Bronco gave a violent kick. One of the demogorgons pounced on the hood, and as the other circled around the side, they both kept going, heading for the stranger behind it.
"What the fuck!? Holy shit!" The guy screamed, but Lillian was already flooring it, straightening up in her seat before they could hear the hollering escalate to screams of agony.
Did she feel guilty for leaving him there? Kind of, but clearly, there was nothing she could do.
Having driven so far off the path, they had to take a detour through the mountainous roads to get back on track to their destination. It put them a couple of hours behind, forcing them to take the scenic route.
There were a number of overlooks that actually provided a beautiful view of the mountains. They slowed at a couple of them, but there was one particular one that actually made her stop the car. They climbed out, walking past a sign:
Angel's Reach Overlook
Highest Altitude
6,743 ft
But it wasn't the sign that caught her attention. The overlook provided a bird's eye view of the giant crevice, though it was more distant than when they first saw it. Seeing it from this view certainly provided more of a perspective of how destructive it really was.
After a minute of gawking at the view, they drove down the road for only a minute when they reached a rest area. Eddie made one more call out to the Henderson household. When Dustin's mom answered, Eddie had to keep his identity secret. Dustin wasn't home, but was apparently at the hospital. He managed to get some information before Mrs. Henderson started asking questions, but it wasn't good news.
As he abruptly hung up, Eddie looked harrowed.
"What is it?"
"Max is in a coma. Dustin is visiting her with the others."
Lillian, who still knew very little about the situation and their plan to try and destroy Vecna, practically gawked at him. "Max Mayfield? How? What happened?"
"Shit," Eddie slammed the receiver onto the hook, his thumb tapping it in frustration. "Fuck!"
"Eddie?" Lillian knew he was stressed out, but she also didn't want him to lose his head. She grabbed his arm, and her other hand cupped his face. "I need you to keep it together."
"Dustin left out some things when we talked on the phone yesterday. The gate opened, but I should have made the connection as to why! I'm such an idiot!"
"Please explain, Eddie. I'm in the dark here."
"Max was bait...and she died."
Her heart wrenched inside of her chest, but then, she blinked, her hands falling to her sides. "You just said she was in a coma."
"Yeah, your guess is as good as mine." Lillian looked at him for a moment, and then, Eddie met her gaze. It seemed he caught onto the realization before she did. "Ohh..." he said.
"What?"
"Eleven brought her back. Just like you brought me back."
Lillian stared at him for a moment. She still couldn't explain how that happened. She always thought the whole Disney's "true love's kiss" thing was pretty cheesy, but she never anticipated such a thing could happen in real life. No. It had to be just a coincidence.
Then again, she was able to summon fire (but why hadn't she been able to just earlier?), like Billy had. What more, hell now walked on earth. What was to say there wasn't such a thing as resurrection?
As they headed back to the car, she paused at a sign to read it, feeling too much like a tourist, though the place was otherwise dead.
"I always wanted to see the caverns," Lillian said, looking at an advertisement for Luray Caverns. "I remember I heard about them and the Blue Ridge Mountains back in social studies. I think a couple of times I asked my dad if we could go for vacation sometime."
Never did she think she would end up so close to there, but with the fate of the world at stake, there was no time for tourism.
"I'm sure it was a booming place before Vecna blew it all to shit."
Again, reminded of the whole reason they ended up way over here, Lillian's uneasiness returned. She wondered if Billy really was following her, or if she was just suffering from trauma and was seeing things. If those demons passed through the gate, then what kept him from doing the same thing?
She inhaled. The last thing she wanted was to worry Eddie with her fears of her ex-boyfriend coming to kill them.
