macabre | steve harrington

18. this evil is necessarily

Ten minutes went by, no Robin. Another ten minutes passed, still no Robin. It was an understatement saying that all four of them were growing bored. Well.. except Steve, who was just exhausted from slinging ice cream.

Selina put her time to use by aggressively filing her nails. "I think that's doing more damage than help to your nails." Valerie's eyes flickered between Selina and the nail filer. Selina didn't even bother to make eye contact with Valerie, she just continued with her violent nail filing movements. After a couple of seconds, and still no reply from Selina, Valerie spoke up. "Hey, are you okay?" Valerie slightly leaned forward onto the table. "Mhm, I'm good." Selina nodded, not making eye contact with Valerie. "It doesn't seem like it." Dustin spoke up. "What's that supposed to mean?" Selina asked, looking up at Dustin. "That wasn't meant as an insult, just an observation." Dustin replied, putting his hands up. "Okay, but seriously, are you okay?" Valerie asked. "I told you, I'm fine. Do I not look fine?" Selina replied flatly, still not meeting her eyes with Valerie's. Valerie didn't wanna overstimulate Selina, so she just turned her head to Dustin, both of them sharing a look with each other.

The three of them entertained themselves somehow with something. There was a uncomfortable silence filling the room, due to the awkwardness Selina built, until finally, the sound of Robin's voice made the three of them rush to the window. Valerie swung the window doors open, Steve's head turning to all three of them as their heads peeked out of the window. "Finally. What is that?" Valerie asked, examining the big piece of paper rolled up in Robin's arms. "It is fascinating what twenty bucks will get you at the County Recorder's office." Robin laid out the paper onto the table, everybody hovering over the paper, which appeared to be a map of some sort. "Starcourt Mall. The complete blueprints." Robin announced. "Not bad." Dustin's eyes widened. "So, this is us, Scoops." Robin pointed to a certain location on the blueprint. "And this is where we wanna get." Robin moved her finger to a different location. "I mean.. I don't really see a way in." Steve shrugged. "There's not, if you're talking exclusively about doors." Robin threw aside the front sheet of paper, revealing a different blueprint underneath. "Air ducts." Dustin's mouth slightly gaped open, looking up at Robin with wide eyes. "Exactly." Robin nodded, walking over to the whiteboard across of the room. "Turns out, this secret room needs air just like any old room." Robin grabbed a marker, walking back towards the table. "And these air ducts.." Robin began, circling the air ducts in Scoops Ahoy. "—lead all the way.. here." Robin traced the connection between the rooms. "Holy shit." Valerie sighed in amazement.

The five of them rushed over to the air duct, Steve grabbing a chair to stand on. "Flash light." Steve took the screwdriver out of his mouth, holding his hand out to trade the tool for the flashlight. "Thank you." Steve grabbed the flashlight from Dustin's hands, poking his head through the air duct. "Yeah.. I don't know, man. I don't know if you can fit in here. It's like super tight." Steve sighed. Steve's comment had Valerie trying to contain her giggle. I mean.. could you blame her? Super tight? Terrible choice of adjectives. "I'll fit. Trust me. No collar bones, remember?" Dustin shrugged. "Uh.. excuse me?" Robin knitted her eyebrows together as Steve hopped off of the ladder. "Oh, he's, uh. ." Steve snapped his fingers, trying to find the right words. "Yeah, he's got some disease. It's chry— uh.. chrydo something. Yeah, I don't know. He's missing bones and stuff. He can bend like Gumbo." Steve demonstrated 'Gumbo' with his hands. "Gumbo?" Valerie teased. "Yeah. ." Steve shrugged, not knowing what Valerie meant. "It's Gumby." Valerie corrected. "I'm pretty sure it's Gumbo." Steve argued. "Steve, just shut up and push me." Dustin shouted, his voice echoing because of the air duct. "Okay." Steve shook his head at Dustin's tone. "I'll push ya." Steve began pushing Dustin by his feet. "Not my feet, dumbass. Push my ass." Dustin shouted. "What?" Steve knitted his eyebrows together. "Touch my butt! I don't care!" Dustin began wiggling his legs, Steve beginning to push him. "Come on! Harder! Push harder!" Dustin demanded. "I'm pushing!" Steve argued. "You're hardly pushing him." Valerie shook her head. Steve climbed further up the ladder, throwing Dustin's legs above his shoulder. "You're playing with my legs." Dustin sighed. "I'm not playing. I have terrible footing." Steve began pushing Dustin's body harder. "I'm gonna just shove you, ready?" Steve asked, getting in a different position. "You're gonna shove me?" Dustin asked. Steve began counting down, until finally shoving Dustin's body forcefully. "Shit!" Dustin exclaimed, a loud thud coming from the air duct. "Did that work?" Steve asked. "Clearly not." Valerie scoffed. All three of the girls watched in entertainment as the boys continued to struggle with their attempts of shoving Dustin inside of the air duct, until the sound of a bell ringing caught their attention. All three of them turned around, catching sight of Erica, also known as Scoops Ahoy's number one sample taster. "Ahoy, sailers. All hands on deck! Ahoy!" Erica continued ringing the bell. The three girls looked at each other in realization, Robin making her way to the front counter.

Robin had very politely served Erica a couple of samples, before asking her for a favor. It took some time to convince Erica that they wouldn't kidnap her. But finally, Erica agreed to take a look at the air duct.

Erica shone the flashlight inside of the air duct, taking a very close and careful look at the favor she was being asked to do. "Hmm. ." Erica hummed. "Yeah, I don't know." Erica climbed down from the ladder. "You don't know if you can fit?" Dustin asked. "Oh, I can fit. I just don't know if I want to." Erica shrugged. "Are you claustrophobic?" Robin asked politely. "I don't have phobias." Erica snickered. "Okay, well, what's the problem?" Steve asked. "The problem is.. I still haven't heard what's in this 'for—Erica'." Erica replied. The five of them shared a look, thinking of different ways to reason with the girl.

They were all pretty well-aware that there was only one way to reason with Erica. Considering how stubborn Erica was, they would have to give the girl whatever she wanted, which in this situation.. was tons of ice cream. A variety of sundaes, ice cream cones, and milkshakes were scattered around the table. Steve had just returned with a banana split sundae, which Erica carelessly returned the sundae back to him. "More fudge please." Erica demanded. The five of them shared a look, trying their hardest to remain patient with the girl. "Go on." Erica signaled with her hands for Steve to leave. This was not going well. "Alright." Robin sighed, grabbing the blueprint from her backpack. "You see this?" Robin pointed to the red lines she traced onto the paper. "This is the route you're gonna take." Robin said. "Then we just wait till the last delivery goes out tonight. Then, you knock out the grate, jump down, open the door." Robin announced the plan. "Then you find out what's in those boxes?" Erica asked. "Exactly." Robin nodded, Erica humming in response. "And you say this guard is armed. .?" Erica asked. "Yes.. but he won't be there." Dustin reassured. "And booby traps?" Erica knitted her eyebrows together. "Booby traps?" All Valerie, Selina, and Robin asked in unison. "Lasers? Spikes in the wall?" Erica questioned. "What?" Robin chuckled. "You know what this half-baked plan of yours sounds like to me?" Erica leaned forward, everyone waiting for her answer. "Child endangerment." Erica raised her brows. "Are you serious?" Selina scoffed. "We'll be in radio contact with you the whole time—" Robin began, soon being interrupted by Erica. "Ah, ah ah! Child endangerment." Erica pointed her fingers at Robin. Selina was on the verge of losing her shit, and Robin and Valerie were nearing the end of their patience. "Erica? Hi. Uh.. we think these Russians want to do harm to our country. Great harm. Don't you love your country?" Dustin asked politely. "You can't spell 'America' without 'Erica'." Erica shrugged, slurping her milkshake. "Uh.. yeah—yeah." Dustin took a moment to think about whether or not she was correct. "Oddly, that's, uh.. totally true." Dustin nodded. "So—so, don't do this for us. Do it for your country. Do it for your fellow man. Do this for America.. Erica." Dustin looked to Erica, proud of his heroic sounding saying. "Ooh! I just got the chills." Erica grinned. "Oh.. yeah. From this float, not your speech." Erica scoffed, Selina's eyes rolling at her attitude, although she had no room to speak. . "You know what I love most about this country?" Erica asked. "Capitalism." Erica announced. "Do you four know what capitalism is?" Erica's eyes flickered between the four. "Yeah." Everyone except Selina replied. "Do you know what capitalism is?" Erica pointed to Selina. "Nope." Selina carelessly shrugged. "It means this is a free market system. Which means people get paid for their services, depending on how valuable their contributions are." Erica clarified. "And it seems to me, my ability to fit into that little vent, is very, very valuable to you all." Erica said. "So, you want my help? This USS Butterscotch better be the first of many. And I'm talking, free ice cream for life." Erica popped a cherry into her mouth.

As of right now, all six of them were waiting very impatiently until it was showtime. The curiosity tugging at Valerie's mind became extremely irritating, considering how slow the time was going by. You see, Valerie would love if she could skip ahead to the point in time where she finds out what's inside of those boxes. But sooner or later, she'd realize that this entire 'evil Russians' conflict would result in many terrible catastrophes.