Halley's comet | Steve Harrington

ii.xi the void sucks

"𝑨𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆?"

⇜☾✩☽⇝

He felt it. Everywhere.

That's what Joyce had told Halley when she got home. And that's what kept her up that night.

She sat curled up on the old sofa, with a ratty blanket pulled around her. Her walkman was beside her, softly playing The Smiths's Bigmouth Strikes Again from her mixtape from Steve.

The songs compiled onto the playlist were by no means 'gentle', and before, she would have never felt comforted by a mix with the song Don't Fear the Reaper by The Blue Oyster Cult, but times had changed, and nothing calmed her down more.

Still, no song could settle the storm brewing within her. Something was wrong, and it was only getting worse.

With the episodes Will was going through, and the sudden development of a physical sense inside them, paired with whatever happened today when Halley was with Lucas, it was obvious that whatever evil they had dealt with last year was far from gone.

Halley just wanted to know what was going on with her. And Will, of course, but as she sat, looking at the bare, locked door, she couldn't shake the thought of that afternoon. She had felt like she was in multiple places at once. But she knew she hadn't moved from her spot in the hallway with Lucas.

She knew that she had still been on the ground, trying to fight that god awful headache, but she couldn't convince herself that what she heard, from Mike and Max, and what she saw with El, wasn't happening simultaneously. Which, of course, couldn't be true, because that was impossible. But if it was so impossible, how had she known Will was in the field, and not in the bathroom with that creature Dustin had found?

There was no logical explanation to any of it, and it was freaking her out.

Burrowing deeper into the couch, she let her head lay against the back, and stared at the ceiling. Old water leaks and random discoloration spots looked back at her. She was home. And she was safe. But she didn't feel like it.

She closed her eyes. Ignoring the changing songs in her headphones, she tried to imagine herself back where she was in the middle school.

There was a tingle in the back of her head, similar to the beginning of the headaches she would get, but not as intense. She tried to keep her breathing calm.

It was okay. She was safe. Her mom was just in the other room.

Forcing herself to focus on anything other than the feeling of dread creeping up her spine. She thought of that place she saw in one of her dreams. The old cabin, with the girl. With El.

She didn't know what she was doing. But maybe, if she tried, she could control her episodes. She just needed to keep herself grounded. Focus on the sound waves echoing through her ears, but not the music. Her heartbeat was picking up, she could feel it. It was starting to thrum against her chest, and, despite them splayed across her chest, her hands shook.