The Midnight Man ━ Steve Harrington

𝟬𝟭𝟳 who is the monster?

       "I wanted to talk to Lucas," she said instead. "It won't take long—"

       "Anita?"

       Anita's gaze snapped to the person who showed up behind Mrs. Sinclair. "Lucas."

       Lucas' face was stern, displeased. He was not happy to see her. And Anita couldn't blame him one bit. "What do you want?"

       "I'm gonna leave you two to it," Mrs. Sinclair said, smiling first at her son, then at Anita. Anita forced herself to return the smile, but she wasn't sure if it actually looked real. She also didn't care. Mrs. Sinclair gave Lucas a pat on the shoulder and disappeared into the house. Anita noticed Lucas sigh heavily before he came closer to her, now standing in the exact same place where his mother had stood — in the doorframe, not letting Anita inside.

       "What do you want?" he repeated, this time with more emphasis on each word.

       Subconsciously, Anita started to fidget with her fingers again. "I wanna apologize," she said.

       Lucas crossed his arms, obviously wanting her to continue. "And?"

       Anita narrowed her eyes at him. "Look, what El did was fucked up. And I'm sorry for how the situation... blew up."

       Lucas' scowl deepened, and for a few seconds, he simply stared at her. Then: "That's it?"

       "Uh..." Anita was lost for words.

       Lucas scoffed. "Whose side are you on?"

       "What?"

       "Mine or the weirdo's?" Lucas clarified, getting impatient.

       Anita looked at him perplexed. She didn't know what to say; she hadn't expected that — hadn't expected to have to choose a side. Yeah, she wanted him to forgive her for not defending him back at the junkyard, and Lucas wanted her to be on his side because they were best friends, and they always stuck together. But she couldn't say that she was on his side, she just couldn't. He thought El was the monster they were looking for, the monster that had kidnapped Will and India. And that was just wrong.

       "Come on, Anita, me or her?"

       "El isn't the bad guy—"

       "Oh, screw you," Lucas snapped.

       OK, what the fuck? Anita felt her anger flaring up. "It wasn't El who kidnapped Will, Lucas. You know that. It was the Midnight Man!"

       "She almost killed me!" Lucas whisper-shouted; his family shouldn't hear that.

       "That was an accident!"

       Anita wasn't really sure why she felt the need to defend El like this, she barely knew the girl. But there was just something about her that was so familiar to Anita. El was scared, terrified, and Anita knew exactly what that felt like, how that could affect you and the things you did. And now she knew that her father had risked everything to help her, to get her out of that lab. Maybe she wanted to finish what her dad had started: protecting El.