"This is just great! I've always wanted to be trapped in a Russian elevator for my summer with my co-workers, my sister's ex's sister, and a couple of kids including the ice cream twerp! It's just what I wanted to do all summer!"
"Well, look on the...
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Chapter Twenty-Three: Stuck
(The Flayed)
***
Valerie, like any kid who grew up in New York and could afford it, had been to Coney Island during summer. Hell, she still remembered when she and Cami, five and eight respectively, had begged their parents to go there for the first time, and then every time that they could in the summers before the move to Hawkins. The days had been hot and full of half-melted ice creams and sticky funnel cakes and corn dogs and games that were definitely rigged, but the highlight had always been riding the Cyclone. Riding the iconic roller coaster that climbed up and up, until dropping at a steep angle at rushing speeds as Valerie's stomach flip-flopped and her heart climbed up her throat and adrenaline pounded through her veins and an excited scream let loose from her lips, had always been her favourite part. She had always thought no fall could have been as great as the Cyclone's.
This fall, however? The secret room that had somehow become an elevator falling Dios knew where? This was way greater than the Cyclone's drop or any rollercoaster's drop—and so much worse.
Valerie was screaming her head off like everyone else in the room was, pressed up against the shelf of boxes alongside Robin, the terror of her flying across the room if she didn't brace herself against the boxes entrenched in her head as they just kept falling with absolutely no signs of stopping and Valerie was honestly entertaining the thought they were just gonna die when they landed and she was absolutely terrified of that being true, she didn't want to die in a secret Russian elevator, oh God she never should have volunteered to translate that Russian code, they were all going to die!
"Shit! SHIT!" Dustin shrieked.
"We're going down! We're going down!" Steve yelled.
"Yeah no shit, Harrington!" Robin shouted.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!" Rowan screamed.
"God, please God let us survive, mierda, MIERDA!" Valerie yelled, just praying they would live.
"Why don't these buttons work?!" Dustin shrilled as he and the twerp were in front of the button panel, the strange child slamming the buttons maniacally.
"Press the button!" Erica yelled.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M DOING!?" Dustin screamed.
"Come on, press something! Just press the button!" Steve shouted.
"Press it, you twerps!"
"Fucking press the button!"
"PUSH IT!"
But as suddenly as it fell, the elevator stopped. Valerie fell to the floor, narrowly avoiding having her head collide with the boxes. It seemed everyone else had fallen too, and Valerie heard Rowan hiss out, "Fuck."
