Chapter Fourteen
Walkman
The drive back to the Wheeler house was in complete silence with the air thick with fear and anxiety. No one knew what to say to anyone else as the events that happened replayed, a part of their brain finding it hard to believe. Even after everything they've been through over the years. Billy kept a tight grip on the steering wheel, his knuckles nearly bone white with the intense hold. The engine of his Camaro revved loudly with every hard press he put on the gas pedal.
Piper stared out the window without a word muttered from her since Billy helped her into the car. Her mind was still in the Upside Down feeling the suffocating feeling of the tendrils wrapped tightly around her throat. Her hand moved up to her neck and rubbed at it gently. Though nothing physically was wrapped around her neck at the time she was under Vecna's hold – she could still feel the slick, oily feeling of it against her skin. Playing through the radio of the car was Track 16 from the mixtape that Billy had made. The usually upbeat song that brought up happy memories seemed to have a dark undertone for the moment.
When they pulled up into the driveway, Nancy's car sat waiting parked right in front of the garage. Steve pulled in and parked right behind it, with Billy parking against the curb. The moment his car slid into park, neither of them made any moves to leave the car. In the distance, Piper could hear everyone else leaving Steve's car. Billy looked over towards his girlfriend with heavy sadness in his blue eyes.
He was angry, angry that everything that he'd gone through last year was all for nothing. That the demons had fought their way back into their lives and were destroying them more than before. He was also angry that nothing could be done to protect Piper. Nothing physically. But a part of him was deeply petrified at losing her and not being able to stop it. Billy wished a part of him could be as blindly determined they were going to win against Vecna as Steve was. But unlike Steve, Billy had been in the mind of the monster. It was a dark place that you never truly escaped from.
"We don't have to go back in there, we can head back to the motel room," Billy spoke, his voice low, calm, and deep. His hand reached over the center console and grabbed her hand. Piper's head snapped away from the window and looked at him. "We can just have a night away from all this. Get some rest."
"It's better if we're all together," She spoke. Piper's voice sounded heavy, tired with a monotone. It broke Billy's heart to hear that she sounded nothing like herself. "The others need us."
"I'm not worried about anyone else but you right now." Billy shook his head, his eyes darting toward the home for a moment.
Piper's eyes followed his and saw Nancy and Steve hovering in the doorway of the Wheeler home. The couple could see that they were talking amongst each other, with their gazes moving toward the dark car parked on the curb.
"We should see what Nancy and Robin found," Piper sighed heavily, reaching beside her for the door handle. She paused for a moment, looking at her laced fingers with Billys, before moving her forest-colored eyes up to him. She squeezed his hand, releasing them, "I'm going to be ok. I promise."
She reached over to the radio and pulled out the cassette tape, before getting out of the car. Billy sat there for a moment and watched as she walked down toward the front door. Steve and Nancy spoke to Piper, both asking if everything was ok.
"He's just worried," Piper answered, looking between the two of them, and hearing the sound of the car door closing behind her. "But he's not alone in that feeling."
Steve nodded his head with his lips pressed together in a tight line, before turning and heading through the home.
"My parents are gonna be late tonight, so I thought we all could order some pizza? Head downstairs and just stick together?"
"That's a really good idea, Nance," Piper spoke before walking past her into the home. "Should we all check on Eddie maybe?"
"Already ahead of you," Dustin spoke, holding up his walkie as evidence. "He's good for the night. Holed up in Reefer Rick's still, but we might want to check on him tomorrow."
"You fill him in?" Piper asked, the group moving together to head down the stairs into the basement.
"I thought that would be something we'd talk about in person," Dustin answered.
No one else spoke as they all filed down the old wooden stairs into the basement. Piper walked over to the recliner and quickly took a seat, her body already feeling tired from the few moments she was standing. Max and Lucas took seats on the smaller couch with Dustin sitting on the floor in front of them both. Steve could be heard pacing back and forth behind Piper. Billy was the final one to make it down the steps and quickly headed to sit on the larger couch. From upstairs you could Nancy's soft voice as she spoke with someone, ordering multiple pizzas for the entire group. Piper wasn't sure how zoned out she was, but when her mind clocked back in, she looked up to see the eyes of everyone on her.
"What?" She spoke softly, her eyes barely opened.
"I-I think…we all want to first start off by saying that we're so happy that you're ok." Nancy stared, moving to kneel in front of Piper. Her large brown eyes held a heavy sympathy. Piper's stomach dropped quickly.
"I'm not ready to talk about it." She spoke quickly, her eyes moving around the room and making sure to make eye contact with everyone. "With anyone."
"And you don't have to," Billy spoke with determination, moving to stand beside her, placing his hand gently on her shoulder.
"Billy's right, you don't have to if you don't want to. That is something we can tackle together later." Robin spoke, stepping forward and standing with Nancy. Piper quickly noticed how she changed out of the clothes Nancy had given her to borrow. "But I think it's become obvious that you cannot be left alone in any circumstance. Not with the threat of having a repeat of earlier. So, we're all going to have to take watch tonight and make sure you're not trapped while we're all dreaming."
"I agree," Billy spoke up, taking a deep and heavy sigh. "Also, if music is what centers people and doesn't allow Vecna to enter people's minds. I think we need something that's going to play that cassette constantly."
"I have something," Max spoke up quickly, nearly tripping over herself as she moved toward her backpack that sat at the base of the stairs. She riffled through it for a moment, before pulling out the worn-down yellow Walkman. "It shouldn't need new batteries for a while, placed new ones in just a few days ago."
Max walked over and placed the device in Piper's lap, a small smile tugging on her lips before she took a step back. Piper's hand moved over the smooth plastic before pressing the button to open it up. She pulled out the cassette of Kate Bush's before passing it over to Max.
"Kate Bush, gonna have to borrow that from you after all of this is over," Piper spoke, the mention of Kate Bush causing Max's eyes to brighten up slightly.
"Totally," Max spoke, "Running Up That Hill is my favorite."
"Mine too," Piper spoke, before slipping in the cassette she owned and fast-forwarding to Track 16. She pressed pause, sliding on the headphones, before pressing play. The music quickly began to blare with 'On and On' starting up.
Piper's body seemed to relax as she sat back into the recliner, a small smile pulling on the corner of her lips.
"I can say one thing, I don't think I'm going to be getting much sleep tonight." Piper sighed heavily.
"Then I guess we're all pulling an all-nighter." Dustin smiled with a shrug.
Hours ticked by pizza was eaten, and movies were watched. The mood amongst everyone seemed to become lighter and lighter with each minute that passed. Piper looked amongst those she thought of as family, seeing them laughing and smiling together. She held onto that, held onto the memory that was being created out in front of her. Because deep down, she wasn't ready to lose the fight.
One by One everyone fell asleep with the promise of one of them staying awake. The first ones to take shifts were Nancy and Robin.
"Need to stretch my legs," Piper spoke, her eyes falling on her friends, "Take a walk with me?"
Robin nodded her head and quickly stood with Nancy following soon after. The blanket on her lap dropped quickly as the three of them slowly made their way out of the basement. Leaving behind half-eaten pizzas, and everyone else asleep with the movie they were watching softly playing in the background. Nancy led the way as they walked out the front door and out into the cold night. Piper let out a small shudder and pulled her jacket around her more.
"Much better, don't know how much I could take the smell of pepperoni mixed with the smell of Steve's shoes," Piper spoke, closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath, and tilting her head up to the sky.
"Ok, so I wasn't the only one?" Robin chuckled lightly, watching as Piper slowly made her way out into the front lawn of the Wheeler home. Nancy stayed back slightly as well, an apprehensive look on her face.
"Let's not get too far," Nancy spoke with a slight shake to her voice. "You know…just in case anything happens."
"Front lawn is just alright with me, Nance. Don't worry." Piper spoke, taking another deep breath before looking toward them. The headphones were now down around her neck, the music still clearly heard. "Just…needed a change of scenery."
The three of them fell in silence for a moment, before Robin spoke up, "How are you…with all of this?"
"You mean the overshadowing impending doom of my death, again?" Piper quirked a brow, a heavy sense of false humor in her tone.
"When you put it that way…" Robin muttered.
Piper turned toward her friends and relaxed her shoulder's a bit, knowing that the two of them were worried about her. And unlike Steve and Billy, weren't making her feel as suffocated.
"He used Hopper and my mom against me," Piper started. "One second I thought I was sitting in the middle of the cabin, alone, speaking…theoretically…to my Uncle. Just…I guess saying goodbye? I don't really know. But one second I was there and the next I was under his curse. You don't even get a sign that it's happening. I will give Vecna that, he's able to get you when your mind is most vulnerable."
"So he created Hopper," Nancy whispered, causing Piper to slowly nod her head.
"He'd been using my mom before but seeing Hopper…that was almost too much. Because Vecna made him appear how'd he most likely look after the explosion. Kept talking to me about how I wanted him to die, how happy I was that he was finally gone. Which is untrue. But at the moment, it was like he made me believe the words Hopper was speaking."
"He was trying to scare you?" Robin asked, "Would make sense, seems he needs you to give in completely."
"And Vecna almost had his way, but I slipped into something else. I was no longer in the cabin but the Upside Down." Piper's brows pulled together tightly. "It was like this nightmare place, but it was the Upside Down. I saw…I saw Chrissy and Fred's bodies twisted within tendrils and vines. Their bodies twisted and mangled."
Piper saw Nancy flinch back as she spoke.
"But the weird part was he seemed that he wasn't expecting me there. Like it was a part of something Vecna didn't want me to see." Piper rubbed at her temples. "But didn't deter Vecna to try and get me to become a part of his weird collection."
"Steve said they found you hovering in the middle of the cabin," Nancy spoke, her voice soft.
"Yeah," Piper chuckled with a scoff, "Because, he had a vine wrapped around my throat and was choking me to death. And I really thought he had me. But then…I heard them…I heard everyone. Especially Billy. He was calling for me, begging for me to come back to him." Piper's voice cracked slightly, as her eyes began to swim with unshed tears. "I will never get that sound out of my head."
Robin and Nancy moved quickly when they noticed her demeanor change. Their arms wrapped around her tightly and brought her into a group hug, Piper clinging to them tightly as her head fell into Robin's shoulder. The two of them tightened their hold on her as she seemed to finally let out. Her frame shook with tears as everything over the past few days finally seemed to come to a head.
With the soft serenade of Curtis Harding playing between them.
"We're gonna figure this out," Nancy spoke, the three of them pulling apart, wiping the tears from her face as the others did the same with their own. "We're gonna fight like hell before we lose you to this, Piper."
Piper nodded her head and frowned, sniffling slightly, "I'm scared of exactly that, I-I can't lose anyone else either. I thought I had Dustin making this promise before it turned out to be Vecna but…I need you two to promise me something."
Robin nodded her head, "Anything."
Piper took a few deep breaths before speaking, "If it comes down to it, I need you to let me go."
Nancy shook her head, "It's not going to come down to that."
"We don't know what this is going to come down to, Nancy. Right now, we don't know what we're up against or have any clue of how to stop him. I can't walk around the rest of my life with Max's Walkman strapped around my neck. He's going to just go after someone else. So, if it comes down to it, the only way we get Vecna ends with me dying…you let it happen. I don't want anyone sacrificing themselves to try and save me."
Robin bit down on her lower lip and let out a soft whimpering noise, her grip on Piper's arm tightening. Nancy turned her head to Robin and could see the anguish on her face. But deep down, Nancy understood Piper's ask. If the roles were reversed, she'd do the same.
"I promise," Nancy spoke, looking deep into Piper's eyes as she spoke.
"Nancy!" Robin scolded slightly. Causing the brunette to look at her with a slight scold.
"Thank you," Piper sadly smiled, before turning to Robin, "I'm not gonna give up. I'm gonna fight. But I can't let anyone else I love to get hurt by this monster."
Robin nodded her head before pulling Piper back into a hug, Piper reaching over and pulling Nancy in again. She felt a calm come over her as she stood in the middle of the front lawn under the stars with her best friends. Her family.
AN: Sorry for the late update guys, fully unintentional. Hope you enjoyed the update and new chapter. The next part is gonna be about going to the Vecna house and everything. Please leave a review with your thoughts and everything!