I See You (Please See Me): Chapter 11

A Stranger Things Fanfic

When they got to the War Zone (Chrissy had a hard time not giggling every time someone mentioned the name), Steve, Robin, Nancy, and Max climbed out of the RV. Erica stood up as well. “I’m coming too!”

Steve stared at her for a second, then shrugged and gestured for her to follow. “Okay.”

The others settled in to wait. Chrissy sat with Lucas at the table, fiddling with the Walkman. Her tape finished, and she rewound it. Eddie stayed on the floor, fiddling with his rings, and Dustin couldn’t stop pacing, staring at his watch.

“What the hell is taking them so long?” he complained. Chrissy didn’t know how long they had been inside, but considering the length of their shopping list and the size of the warehouse, she thought the boy was getting a little too impatient.

The door burst open, making everyone jump. “What happened?” Lucas asked, spinning around to where Steve was coming in.

“We gotta go,” Steve said, climbing into the driver’s seat.

Erica followed him, clutching a large paper bag. “Your old friends are here.” Lucas cursed.

“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” Dustin shouted, tapping his watch. Robin made her way in, clutching another paper bag.

“Wait!” Everyone but Steve turned to Chrissy as Max and Nancy made their way in and shut the door. “I–” She swallowed. “Maybe I should stay.”

Lucas stared at her. “What?”

“I mean, I don’t really have anything useful to do in your plan, but if Jason is looking for me–”

Nancy shook her head. “He’s not just looking for you. He wants revenge for Patrick, and right now, he’s unhinged. We won’t keep you here if you want to leave, but I really don’t want to leave you with him right now. Besides, we can’t spare anyone, and you shouldn’t be alone until Henry’s dead.”

Chrissy swallowed, knowing she should argue because she wouldn’t be alone. She would be with Jason, and wasn’t that the point of dating? Dating was for marriage, and marriage was having someone to help you always, someone who wouldn’t leave you alone.

But Jason had been the one to leave, hadn’t he? He hadn’t called when she didn’t show up to Benny’s, hadn’t come to visit when she broke her arm. Hadn’t bothered to look until she disappeared. (A traitorous part of her whispered that he might never have looked if Eddie hadn’t been involved.)

But Nancy had stayed without her asking. And Eddie . . . Eddie had stayed at the table when she asked, stayed at the trailer when she was attacked, and came back the next day, even though he could have just left, pretending he had imagined the whole thing.

Steve turned around, hands on the wheel. “Listen, Chrissy, we really need to go, like right now, so you’ve gotta make a decision.”

Her eyes happened to drift down to where Eddie stared at her. She wished she could decipher his expression.

“I’ll stay,” she whispered.

Eddie dragged his eyes away from her and clapped his hand on the back of Steve’s seat. “Go!'

The RV lurched away.

Chrissy and Max watched as Nancy took a few practice shots with her sawed-off shotgun. The other girl looked so confident with it in her hands that Chrissy couldn’t help but feel jealous. Nancy noticed her watching and turned to smile at her.

“When your arm’s better, I’ll teach you how to shoot.”

Chrissy shook her head. “My mom wouldn’t like it.”

“She doesn’t have to know. My parent’s certainly don’t. I know keeping a gun around the house would be too hard to explain, but it would be good for you to at least know how to shoot one.”

Chrissy looked down and picked at her cast. “Maybe if you do, if anything . .. weird happens like this again, I won’t be so useless.”

Nancy put the gun down. “You aren’t useless.”

“You guys are the ones fighting monsters. I’m just supposed to sit around and let Lucas babysit me. And–and maybe I could help fight, but I’m scared of making things worse, and I’m afraid I might just freeze–” She swallowed.

Nancy glanced back at Max, then took Chrissy’s arm and led her a little further away. “You were the first one to fight Vecna when you didn’t even know how. You’ve given us so much help, and your infomation saved Max. You may not be fighting Vecna or those weird bats tonight, but those aren’t the only kinds of monsters.”

Nancy pursed her lips and continued. “Max has this . . . theory. She thinks all the people that Vecna targets have something hurting them. Something haunting them, and I know you’ve been fighting your own monsters for so much longer than just the past couple of days, even though you’ve been scared.”

Chrissy shook her head, but a few unwelcome tears trickled down her face, and Nancy wiped them away. “I’m not–I don’t–it’s not monsters–that’s not–” She swallowed. “I’m fine. I’m fine. I just–I complain too much–”

“I haven’t heard you complain once, Nancy said firmly. “Not once. And believe me, with a broken arm, an evil wizard haunting me, and all my new friends dragging me along to haunted houses and inter-dimensional portals, I would definitely be complaining.” She smiled gently and brushed away the tears that were falling fast now. “I don’t want to tell you how to live your life–I have a feeling you have to deal with enough of that–but I do want you to live it, and you can’t do that if you’re letting other people kill you slowly.”

And she had, hadn’t she? How long had she been living in a haze, following Jason or the other cheerleaders around, eating the tiny portions she was served, and letting her mom alter her uniform whenever she saw fit? If she hadn’t been targeted by Vecna, hadnt met Eddie or Nancy, would she have ever escaped that haze, or would she have continued in it as she got married, had her own children, and grew old? The thought made her claustrophobic.

Chrissy hugged Nancy, burying her face into the other girl’s shoulder. Nancy held her tight, seemingly oblivious to the tears soaking into her sleeve. “It’ll be okay,” she whispered in Chrissy’s ear. “I promise, it’s going to be okay.”

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