mercy ; peter ballard

18. f i g h t o r f l i g h t

steve inhales. "here goes nothing."

steve climb up the makeshift rope before flipping down and landing. he looks up, expectantly, before running to eddie's room.

robin looks over to nancy and beatrice, muttering sarcastically. "what does he want us to do, applaud?"

steve drags the mattress under the gate to make for a safer landing.

"alright," he says, fixing the makeshift rope. "let's go."

nancy went first, followed by some weapons then eddie, bea, robin, and dustin. bea slings one of the guns across her shoulder and grabs a pocket knife and a bottle.

everyone leaves eddie's trailer, flashlights ablaze. thunder boomed menacingly in the distance.

steve turns to eddie and dustin. "hey, guys, listen. if things here start to go south, i mean, at all, you abort. okay? draw the attention of the bats. keep 'em busy for a minute or two. we'll take care of vecna. don't try to be cute or be a hero or something. okay? you guys are just-"

"decoys," dustin finished. "don't worry. you can be the hero, steve."

eddie joins in. "absolutely. i mean, look at us. we are not heros."

bea walks over to them, wrapping her arms around both of them. eddie and dustin thought of it like a hug from their mothers. it was warm and caring. like with max, they dreaded letting go, scared it would be their last hug.

"you guys be safe. look after one another," she says, pulling apart.

"yes, ma'am," eddie answers as she begins to walk away. "hey, steve?"

the group turns around. eddie hesitates, thinking about what to say.

"make him pay."

steve gives him a small nod in reply before heading out.

creatures chittered as they walked through the dark forest. bea held tightly to her gun.

"uh...i don't mean to freak anyone out, but i swear we've seen this tree before," robin said, nervously shining a light to a tree.

"that's impossible," nancy assures her.

"that would suck, right? if vecna destroyed the world because...'cause we got lost in the woods."

"we're not lost, robin," bea says, placing a hand on robin's shoulder.

robin chuckles, nervously.

"robin, hey. watch out for the vines! hive mind! remember?" nancy scolds as robin ran ahead.

"robin! wait up!" bea yelled, running after her.

bea tries to catch up but robin was faster than her. she stops for a second to take a breath before running after her again.

"found it!" robin exclaims, pointing at the house.

it looked the same as it did in the overworld. it was like a broken heart. crumpled. abandoned. hopeless. bea looked at it, sorrowfully. she saw how beautiful the house once was before the darkness engulfed it. just like him.

he was beautiful to her. maybe he will always be beautiful in her eyes. maybe that darkness was always there, and she looked past his darkness and found the light. she could always pick out his light, just as he could pick out her dark.

robin looked to bea, "let's go get them!"

robin and beatrice raced back to nancy and steve. "hey guys! you guys! awesome news! looks like we weren't going the wrong way after all."

robin tries to catch her breath, bea standing behind her, gasping for air.

"i hate running," bea says, between breaths.

"come on!" robin says, leading the way. "let's go!"

bea begins to trail behind her, steve and nancy following closely.

"okay." steve sighs like a tired father. "ro..slow down! ro..robin!"

robin weaves her way around vines and sticks, flashlight in front of her. in the distance, lightning strikes loudly. robin stops where bea and her stopped before.

the house was swarmed with bats meant to protect henry's physical body. their sight line shifts to the playground where erica's light can be seen.

"erica," steve says, looking to robin. they begin to move out.

[REDACTED], 1975

beatrice dumped the wooden blocks into their bin as peter drew away on a piece of paper on the table. the children would use the paper to draw stick figures of whatever their minds came up with.

earlier in the day, nine had even given beatrice a picture of bea and her in a flower field. nine had drawn based off of the stories bea would tell her before the children had to go to bed.

"what are you drawing, dear?" beatrice asked, pulling a chair up to the table. she craned her neck to peer the sketch. she could make out eight legs.

peter smiled at her interest. no one had ever shown interest in his drawings before he met her. "a black widow. my old home used to have a nest of them in a vent. i was very fascinated with them."

"that's nice," bea said, looking up at the flickering fluorescent lights. "i always had a fascination with bunny rabbits and cats."

peter paused for a second, remembering the rabbit in his backyard. he stopped drawing, folding the picture and putting in his back pocket.

"how about we go get some dinner in the cafeteria?" he asked, standing up. his pushed the chair back a bit. he held a hand to bea to help her stand up.

she took his hand, gladly. "sure, i am pretty hungry."

he led her out of the rainbow room, towards the elevator. he would glance at her as she walked a couple centimeters ahead. she would gently pull him to wherever she wanted to go and he would follow. he wondered if she would do the same. he was wrapped around her finger. he simply admired her. her movement, her voice, her smile, her short raven hair, her smaller build, her patience, her. one could only envy the way he thought about her.

he wondered if that feeling would ever end.

march 27, 1986

bea, robin, steve and nancy crouched underneath rocketship playset. robin waits for erica's call, walkie in hand to report to dustin.

"okay, she's in. initiate phase three," erica's voice echoed from the overworld.

robin brings the walkie close to her face. "she's in. move on to phase three."

dustin answers back immediately. "copy that. initiating phase three."

the radio goes silent after that. suddenly, the swarm of bats begin to follow the sounds of master of puppets playing from eddie's amp. the house was clearing out.

"okay, it's working. let's go," nancy commanded.

they crawl out from under the structure and head towards the house.