I See You (Please See Me): Chapter 7

A Stranger Things Fanfic

Trigger warning: referenced abuse and eating disorders

Nancy decided everyone would stay at her house that night. Chrissy was grateful, having finally found something she was more afraid of than her mother’s anger. Despite this, when Nancy told everyone to call their parents to let them know, Chrissy waited until last, choosing instead to help Nancy set up places for everyone to sleep in the basement. When they had finished, Nancy ran upstairs to grab some of her pajamas for Robin, Chrissy, and Max to borrow, and some of her brother’s for Lucas. Steve chose to sleep in his clothes instead of asking Mr. Wheeler for some.

Nancy handed Chrissy a long nightgown. “Alright. You go change into this–the bathroom’s over there–and I’ll call your mom to let her know you’re sleeping here tonight.”

Chrissy opened her mouth to say she could do it (despite the pit in her stomach at the thought), but Nancy pushed her into the bathroom before she could get anything out.

When she came out, everyone but Nancy had disappeared. “They’re all eating supper. Come on.” She led her up the stairs.

“Did my mom say anything?” Chrissy asked.

Nancy’s smile was tight. “She said to have fun.”

Mrs. Wheeler passed her a plate piled high with food. “I think it’s greath that you kids are all sticking together right now.”

“I don’t know why you can’t stick together at someone else’s house for once,” Mr. Wheeler muttered.

Chrissy thanked Mrs. Wheeler for the food, but only picked at it, knowing she wouldn’t be left alone for even a moment for at least the next day.

“You have a lot going on right now,” Nancy murmured, keeping her face tilted down to the table. “You really need to eat.”

Chrissy froze, far too aware of the pounding blood in her face. Nancy looked up and smiled gently, patting her hand under the table.

“It’ll be okay.”

Chrissy was fairly certain no one slept much that night. The music running through her headphones over and over kept her up most of the night, and she saw Max tossing and turning just as much as she did. Everyone else stayed up in shifts to watch the two of them.

When the sun came up and it was at least a somewhat reasonable hour to get up, Max and Chrissy told Lucas, who was on duty, that they were going upstairs. He wrote a quick note to the others, and the three of them crept up to the living room.

Lucas apparently visited the Wheelers often, so he knew where they kept their large collection of board games. He disappeared for a moment and came back with his arms full of boxes and Nancy’s tape player.

The girls took off their headphones, and he put a tape into the player, turning it down enough that it wouldn’t wake the others, but they could hear it and still talk. They shuffled through one board game after another, and soon Nancy, Robin, and Steve came up as well. Steve joined in the games (reluctantly), and the other two ran upstairs to find clothes to wear to the asylum as they interviewed Victor Creel. Chrissy was glad she wouldn’t be included on that particular excursion.

Mrs. Wheeler fixed breakfast, then she and her youngest, Holly, joined in the games. Despite the knot in her stomach and the fact that Mrs. Wheeler kept asking to turn the music down (Steve insisted his hearing was terrible), she found herself happier than she could remember being in a long time.

Mrs. Wheeler smugly informed Steve of just how much fake money he owed her for her hotel on Boardwalk, Holly stacked as many plastic houses as she could until they fell down, and Lucas stole money from the bank to get a rise out of Max (the banker). Chrissy smiled as she watched them all, deciding then that even if everything went horribly, even if Vecna did get her, she wouldn’t regret a thing.

Victor Creel’s house was the exact sort of place you would expect to be the site of a triple murder by an evil, undead wizard. According to Steve, it was creepy, and Chrissy was sure there was no other word for it.

Nancy and Robin had come back from their visit with Creel even more certain that his family had been the first victims of Vecna. They had insisted they were still missing some important pieces of the puzzle (namely why Vecna was attacking, and whether he had any weaknesses), and so they wanted to explore his old house. Steve, of course, wasn’t letting them go alone, and no one wanted to split up the group further. Chrissy didn’t want to go to the abandoned house, but that was much better than sitting around the Wheeler’s basement on her own.

She glanced around, keeping her feet locked in one place as everyone else spread out in the entryway. Her flashlight beam fell on a clock. A familiar clock. She whimpered and grabbed onto the nearest person.

Steve yelped, then whirled around and glanced at her fingers digging into his arm. “Oh, sorry, Chrissy. I didn’t realize that was you.”

“Sorry.” She let go of his arm, though she stepped behind him a bit. “But . . . do you see that?” She pointed the flashlight back at the clock.

“Uh, yes?”

Nancy joined them. “What’s the matter Chrissy?”

“I saw that clock, in the woods the day Vecna attacked me, and then I heard it again when I got to Eddie’s trailer.”

“Huh,” Steve said, stepping closer and studying the grandfather clock. “Why is this wizard obsessed with clocks? Maybe he’s like, a clockmaker or something?” Robin shot him a look.

“The answers must be here,” Nancy said, though she sounded desperate. “Somewhere. Okay, everyone stay in groups of two. Chrissy, come with me.” She ran upstairs, and Chrissy followed after. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be looking for, but clearly Nancy did, and she was fine with just following along.

Glass shattered in one room, and Chrissy jumped. Nancy, of course, immediately went running toward the sound. Steve stumbled out of the room, frantically brushing off his head and shoulders.

Nancy came up behind him. “Whoa, whoa. What’s wrong?”

He stopped, but kept dusting off his shirt. “There was a spider,” he panted. “It’s–it’s a black widow.”

Chrissy took a step back. Brian enjoyed reading about bugs, and his favorite thing was to tell her all about the poisonous ones, which usually didn’t bother her, but now . . .

Steve slammed the door shut on the room he had just been in. “Don’t go in there.” Chrissy shivered.

He turned around, and his hair had several cobwebs stuck in it.

“Oh, oh.” Nancy reached up to brush them out. “Wait, just–”

“What?” He darted away, peeking in a dingy mirror a few feet ahead.

“Just stop moving!” He stopped, and she combed the webs out of his hair. Chrissy shifted awkwardly from one foot to another. She suddenly remembered that they had dated a couple years ago and wished she could sneak away without potentially running into something dangerous.

“If there’s a spider next in there, you’re never gonna find it till it lays eggs and all the babies spillout,” Robin declared gleefully as she came out another door from the room she had been searching with Steve.

“What’s wrong with you?” Steve asked.

She laughed and grabbed Chrissy’s arm, dragging her on. “Let’s leave them alone a bit.”

“Thank you,” Chrissy hissed, and Robin grinned.

She could still hear the pair talking as she and Robin searched the next room, but Chrissy turned up her music to drown them out. Cobwebs, dust, old furniture. That was all she saw. She couldn’t help but feel like Dr. Watson, seeing every clue but not recognizing them.

Robin tapped her arm and pulled her headphones down. “Lucas and Max found something.” They headed downstairs and found the pair standing in front of a flickering chandelier.

Nancy explained that they had seen something like this before, and that, most likely, it meant that Vecna was in the house, exactly where they stood, just in the other dimension. The light flickered out.

“I think he just left the room,” Robin said.

“Can he hear us?” Max asked.

Steve glanced at her. “Can he see us?”

“Headphones!” Lucas said, and Max and Chrissy both put them back on.

Nancy tapped her shoulder, took her flashlight, turned it off, handed it back, then led her into another room. Everyone split up again, stumbling through the house. Nancy pointed her own unlit flashlight around the room as though it would help. Chrissy mimicked her, still confused on what exactly they were doing.

Nancy suddenly stiffened, whirling around. She grabbed Chrissy’s hand and dragged her into another room where Robin stood, her flashlight flickering. It flickered out, then Steve’s lit up. Chrissy felt a chill as she realized they were locating Vecna.

Steve started walking, following the light of his flashlight. Everyone followed, Chrissy trailing along at the back. Everyone stopped, and Chrissy realized Steve’s flashlight had gone out. Max opened a door in the hallway, and they ran up to the attic.

Chrissy’s flashlight lit up, and she gasped. Everyone turned to look at her, then pointed their own flashlights up. One flickering bulb hung from the ceiling, and everyone circled around it. Chrissy didn’t know what they were doing now, but judging from everyone else’s confused expressions, they didn’t either.

Then the flashlights exploded, one at a time. Chrissy screamed, pulling her arm up to shield her face. When all the lights were out, she slowly put her hand down. Nancy took it. Chrissy hesitantly pulled down her headphones.

“What happened?” she asked.

“I think we found a clue,” Robin continued breathlessly.

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