she saved the day, again

✧

FIREWORKS BURST THROUGH the dark sky that hugged the moon. They exploded colourful and fiery in among the stars, and they cracked to the Oohs and Ahhs of the crowd that huddled to watch them. Fireworks were a beauty, but with beauty came danger.

Just like Rue. She was a beauty, and everyone knew it. She had skin that wasn't too dark or too pale. Her nose was arched perfectly, and Rue had just the right amount of freckles. She was pretty, and it wasn't a shock when boys would turn their heads to look at her again. It happened a lot, but Rue never noticed. She had her eyes on someone else anyway. But even if Rue did, the glances never stopped, and her beauty never went away. And neither did the danger that she carried with her. Rue never liked it when people would stare because it made her feel small and vulnerable.

Like she did now.

The majority of the room stared at her, watching the similarity between El and Rue carefully. They both had blood running down their nose, and they both were panting at a pace that seemed like they were at the brink of a panic attack. And what had them curious was that Rue had woken up the exact moment El pulled herself out of the Void.

"El. . ." Nancy said slowly, standing from her seat. "Did you do what I told you not to?"

El shrunk in her spot. She had moved from the floor in front of the T.V to sit next to Rue, wanting nothing more than her best friend's comfort. Her friend was the only one who understood her panic, who understood the responsibility she was given. El looked at her shoes, watching the blood from her nose drop on the carpet.

"Eleven. . ." Nancy had a look in her eyes that didn't only scare El, but Rue as well. "Did you, or did you not?"

"That's not what's important right now!" Rue sputtered, reaching for the box of tissues and handing a few to El as she cleaned her nose. She sniffed, slowly standing from her seat and leaning on her good leg. "El didn't mean to, Nance. It was an accident — and I'm not mad. I'm fine — only a little dizzy, but I'll get over it! We need to focus on what El saw —"

"Apparently, you did too," Nancy crossed her arms.

Rue's fingers fumbled with the hem of the green shirt with blue and white stripes she had on. "That's not important—"

"You could've gotten hurt—"

"But I didn't—!" She lied.

"You could've gotten stuck—"

"But I didn't—"

"Something might've happened to you—"

"But nothing did!"

"You're not listening! You're being so ignorant to your own safety, Rue! It was my mistake to let you go last night, and I won't make that mistake again."

Rue ignored this and said, "He's building something. He said that it was all for El, and as far as I know, it's something to kill her with — so can we focus on that? Thank you."

She spoke so bitterly . . . so rude. So . . . unlike herself.

Max shifted from where she sat, staring at Rue, who slumped back down on the couch next to El. She wondered if it could have been Rue's mother speaking through her again . . . but Rue said Emilia was gone for good. And besides, Emilia wasn't rude. No, this was something else.

"Building something?" Will echoed. "Is he talking about the Flayed?"

Rue looked at him and shrugged, "Must be."

"Wait a minute — wait a minute," Lucas put his hands up. "Are — are we just going to brush over the fact—"

"Yes!" Rue, Will and Jonathan said together.

"Oh."

"I'm sorry, did I miss something?" Alex asked. "Something's not adding up—"

"Hey — guys! The Mindflayer is making a fucking army!" Rue exclaimed. "Can we just focus?"

"He's not building an army to spread," Mike said.

"He's building to stop Eleven," Will adds.

Mike brought a finger to his chin as he thought, "Last year . . . El closed the gate on him — which must have really pissed him off,"

"Like, royally," Lucas nodded.

"And the Mindflayer now knows that she's the only thing that can stop him. But she's out of the way. . ."

"Game over," Lucas sighed.

"He said. . .'' El finally spoke, her voice quivered and her face had tear stains. "He said he wanted Rue to help. He wants to Flay her and—"

"Shit," Will muttered, running a hand through his hair. "I knew it."

Everyone looked at Will, confused, while he chewed on his lip in worry. He wondered if he should finally tell the secret that he has been keeping for almost a year. He decided it was only fair to tell them what was going on before matters got worse. "Remember when I was . . .um . . ."

"Flayed?"

"Possessed?"

"The Mindflayer's flesh and bone?"

Will made a face at Alex's comment and nodded. "Yeah, that." He shifted awkwardly in his spot, looking at Rue. "He knew, and he knew much more than you did at the time. And I know what he knows, but he might know more because of what might have happened at the Butcher's. So, I know more than you know, but I never told you because Hopper and Joyce didn't want you to know."

Rue blinked, "That literally makes no sense," she said, and everyone nodded in agreement.

"No," Will's voice cracked. "It makes sense —well — maybe for me more than you, because I know what it is."

"What is it?"

A faint growl roared over the fireworks. Then booming softly shook the ground. Nancy gave Will a look that said; This conversation isn't over. She stepped towards the windows, peering into the dark woods. "Billy. . ." she trailed off, looking at El from the corner of her eye. "When he told you this, he was here? In this room?"

Slowly, El nodded. Everyone went silent, trying to listen for the noise again. They mostly heard the fireworks, but then there it was. It was louder and faster. Whatever it was — it was getting closer.

Rue watched Will shiver, and he moved his hand to the back of his neck. "He knows we're here," he said. "It's too late."

The group hurried out of the cabin and stumbled into the cool night air. Max had helped Rue limp down the few steps of the porch before watching as trees far away began to tumble, something pushing them down. As another tree fell, the fireworks were seen.

"He also said he wanted to kill you all," El spoke breathlessly, shaking as whatever was pushing down trees came closer.

"Yeah, that's nice," Max said sarcastically, holding Rue securely under her arm.

"It's okay, I already lived longer than I expected." Rue huffed, feeling the ground shake beneath her feet.

Nancy was the first to snap out of the trance, and she ran into the shed, Jonathan hot on her trail as they searched for things to prepare themselves for the upcoming monster. If it is anything they knew, it would be just like the one in the hospital, if not worse. It was like moving on to the next level on a video game.

The kids gasped when the monster finally came to view — it was illuminated by the colourful fireworks. It was gigantic, and it had the shape of the Mindflayer Will used to draw. It was enormously bigger than the one in the hospital, and it was coming closer - coming to them, coming to kill El and then everyone else.

They hurried back into the safety of the cabin, but that was only when Jonathan had told them to. He told them to board up the windows and doors. Rue watched with slight amusement as everyone ran around. She found it pretty fucking stupid because if whatever was coming towards them was pushing down large trees with ease — it could destroy the cabin just as efficiently. They could have used this time to get in the car and drive away instead.

But she bit her tongue and didn't say a thing — Rue could already feel the panic coming from everyone in the room as they ran around. And she didn't think Nancy would be a good driver with the pressure of racing away from a monster that could play with the car as if it was a Hot Wheel.

"Hey! Get away from the windows," Nancy told her, and Rue limped away and stood with everyone else, who gathered in the middle of the cabin. Everything that made the small cabin a homey place got pushed to block the door and windows.

"Rue," Turned to see Mike looking at her with a bat with nails in his hands. He nodded at her, tossing Rue the bat, which she gladly caught.

"I thought this was Steve's?"

Mike shrugged. "I found it in the shed."

Rue grinned, holding it higher. Jonathan carried an axe while Nancy clocked a gun she had found. "It's close." The room went silent, nothing heard but everyone's pants and their feet creaking on the wood. Rue stood between El and Max, reminding herself that it was calm before the storm.

The footsteps outside were so close that the cabin started to shake as if there were an earthquake. The branches from the trees scratched at the windows, or they snapped and fell. Rue peered up at a window almost at the ceiling, and she gripped the bat tighter when she saw a branch fall. Everyone jumped when mugs and plates started to fall from the shelves, shattering on the floor into millions of tiny pieces. The tension was slowly killing Rue as she chewed on her lip, taking glancing at Will to see if he felt anything else when everything went quiet. "Where did it go?"

There was silence, and then there was a commotion.

A loud shriek rang through Rue's ears, and a long and purple tentacle — arm almost — burst through the cabin wall. It broke through the thick wood and reached into the room, trying to grab onto someone — anyone.

The circle spread apart, getting as far away as they could from the tentacle that flew across the room. Rue got pinned against the wall with Max and Will, and El put both her arms in front of the three in a protective matter. The arm snapped and bit at the air with the sharp teeth it had at the end. The four kids stared at it with wide eyes, and it reminded Rue of a giant leech.

Before it could hurt anyone, Jonathan had lunged at it. He stabbed at the arm with his axe. The monster screeched in pain, turning to shove Jonathan in the stomach. He was thrown across the room and crashed against a shelf.

The glass shattered across the room, and Jonathan was struggling to stand. "Jonathan!" Will cried, trying to push on El's arms to get to his older brother. The arm slithered towards Jonathan, but Nancy started to shoot at it with her shotgun.

The blowing sounds of the gun echoed through the cabin, drowning the sounds of the growling monster and the kids screaming for help. The arm turned to face Nancy, "Shit," she muttered when she realized she was out of bullets. Nancy backed up to the wall until her back hit it. Her chest rose and fell with her heavy breaths, and she shut her eyes when the monster was eye level with her.

But then, she was slowly opening them to see when nothing happened. Nancy gasped when she saw that Eleven had stepped up to save her. She was using her powers to stop the tentacle from hurting Nancy, gradually pulling it away from her, and when it was far enough, El whipped her arm, and the creature's mouth snapped off, and the tentacle shot back out of the hole it came in from.

"Holy shit," Max said, looking out the hole that happened to be next to her. It didn't take very long until another arm came flying in, and El was fast enough to catch it. Another one broke through the walls, and El shot her other arm out, stopping that one as well. She looked between the two, whipping her head back and forth. It was only a matter of time before another one came in. El scrunched her face in focus before rapidly crossing her arms, cropping both ends of the monster.

Rue beamed from where she stood, cheering for El's greatness. She was proud of El for being so quick to react and save everyone. Again.

It must have been over, and everything was still. But the roof caved in, and all the windows had shattered. Glass spilled into the cabin from all around, and everyone ducked, trying not to get cut by it. The roof continued to cave, and there was suddenly a giant whole, where the breeze from outside came inside, and the stars, moon and Fourth of July fireworks shone in the cabin. The monster had gotten on the roof, and it pulled on the wood, creating a giant hole it could peer into the cabin from.

Another arm had reached into the cabin as if it were one of those toy houses — the kids were the dolls, and the Mindflayer was the one playing with them. Literally. — But references aren't important right now. The fucking monster was staring right at them!

Rue's mouth dropped as she stared up at it and all its fleshy glory. The arm that had reached inside grabbed onto El's ankle — the girl was swept off her feet. She got dragged on the floor like a doll, and she dug her nails at the wood, grasping for something that could stop her from being pulled away.

Everyone reacted quickly, and they all hurried from their spots to help El. Rue caught El's hands just before she got pulled out of the house. But Rue wasn't strong enough to hold her down. The monster lifted them both from the floor, and Rue panicked when she didn't feel the wood tiles under her sneakers.

Then there was a hand that gripped on her good ankle, pulling her back. Rue looked over her shoulder to see Lucas holding on, trying to draw her back with the help of everyone else.

She felt like she was being stretched apart, her mucusless pulling on each other as she tried her best to stay in one piece. El held her hands tightly, and Rue did too, not wanting to lose her. She could only imagine the pain El could be in. And once Rue felt the tip of her shoe hit the floor again, she pulled on El's arms, trying to drag her back to the safety of the ground.

Mike had come to Rue's side, replacing Rue's hands with his and Rue tumbled to the floor, feeling her shoulders ache. She spotted the bat with nails on the ground and crawled towards it while Nancy had reloaded the shotgun and began to shoot at the monster's head.

It roared, and she limped to stand with Lucas, who was trying using Jonathan's axe to try and cut the arm free from El's leg. She swung at it with him, and the arm shook violently, shaking El with it.

"Rue!" She stopped her movements when she heard Nancy's breathless call. "Do something!" Nancy yelled, getting rid of the gun when she had run out of bullets again. She was holding another Mike's shoulder, helping him hold onto El.

"But you said—!" Rue tried to say. Her little secret wouldn't be so secret anymore.

"FUCK THAT!" Nancy exclaimed, "Hopper said emergencies! This is an emergency! Fucking do something!"

Nancy was right. What the fuck was she doing with a stupid bat with nails? Rue dropped the bat and scrambled away from Lucas to a clearer area. She focused, remembering what El had told her. ("Kali said you have to channel your anger if you want to be stronger." — "Remember to breathe. . . that's important! You don't wanna choke up." — "Just focus." — "See? Easy.")

"'Easy,' my ass," She mumbled, feeling the ground rumbled under her feet. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, feeling the warmth growing from the pit of her stomach. The monster's roaring and El's scream buzzed into background noise, and all she could hear was her own heart beating. When Rue opened her eyes again, a gold flashed in them, shining as bright as the blue and gold hues on her fingertips.

She twirled her fingers, breathing out. And when Rue looked up at the monster, the gold shone in her green eyes again — she raised a hand, and then the other. Gold and blue strings of light slipping from the tip of her fingers and reaching the middle of the arm that clung onto El's foot. Rue slowly made a fist with her hands, and the monster screeched loudly.

Lucas's mouth dropped, and so did the axe in his hand. Rue's powers seemed to be similar to those superhero comics they'd read. They acted so much like Wanda Maximoffs - (the Scarlet Witch) — or Carol Danvers — (Captain Marvel) — maybe even Jean Gray (Marvel Girl/Dark Phoenix). It would be a lie if Lucas said Rue hasn't introduced him to some of the best female superheroes he'd fallen in love with.

The monster cried again, and so did El. And finally, El got dropped to the ground. She fell on top of everyone, and they all tumbled to the floor and scrambled out of the way.

Rue choked, and she remembered she had to breathe. She gasped in a breath, taking a few steps sideways to stand in the middle of the room. Rue grunted in pain from her right leg but fought against it. "You can do many things, my dear," She remembered. Fuck it. Rue Newby could do many things. Now that was a boost to her ego.

It was like it was a burst of strength and the glowing only became brighter. Rue whipped her arms down as El had, but instead of the arms snapping like it did when El had down it. There was an explosion. Her powers were building up energy the longer she had been pushing at the monster's arm, and it finally had the chance to combust when she brought her arms down.

The explosion was bright and filled with golden rays of yellow, orange, and blue. Rue got flown back a couple of feet, and she landed on her butt. She stared at her glowing hands in shock, a breathless laugh slipping from her lips. Rue clapped her hands together, watching the light spark. Maybe she did get her firework show that night.

Rue scrambled to stand, limping back to get a look at the damage she's done. The hole on the roof was greater, and the wood got burnt to a dark black crisp. And the monster. . . . Well . . . it didn't look any better than the wood. Its arm had retracted back to where it came from, but it was still staring down into the cabin. Its flesh was burnt and red, and smoke snuck out from its burns into the air.

Rue heard footsteps behind her, and she turned to see El had gathered whatever strength she had left to stand next to her. She had ash on her nose and face, and Rue wondered if she did too.

The two girls stood under the moonlight, staring back at the monster that had been hunting them down. They looked so powerful, Rue just knew it. And she wished someone would take a picture so she could remember this moment.