Lucas tries to switch a lamp on, but it doesn't light. "Looks like someone forgot to pay their electric bill."
Steve looks around at all of our flashlights. "Where'd everyone get those?"
"Do you need to be told everything?" Dustin asks. "You're not a child."
"Thank you," Steve remarks.
Dustin takes off his backpack and hands it over to Steve. "Back pocket."
Nancy sticks her head into one of the rooms. "They just left everything."
"I guess a triple homicide isn't good for resale value," Robin says.
"Hey, guys?" Max says. She's staring at a grandfather clock. "You all see that, right?"
I nod my head. "Yeah."
"Yeah," Dustin says.
"Is this what you saw?" Nancy asks. "In your visions?"
"I mean, it's... just a clock," Robin says. "Right?" She wipes some of the dust from the clock face. "Like a normal old clock."
"Why is this wizard obsessed with clocks?" Steve asks. "Maybe he's, like, a clockmaker or something?"
"I think you cracked the case, Steve," Dustin taunts.
"All I know is the answers are here," Nancy insists. "Somewhere. Okay, everyone stay in groups. Robin, upstairs."
Max grabs Lucas. "Come on. Let's go."
Steve sighs.
"Was that a sigh?" Dustin asks.
"No, I did not sigh," Steve insists as he stars up the stairs.
"Why'd you sigh?" Dustin asks.
"I didn't sigh. Just come on, dude," Steve tells him.
"I heard you," Dustin tells him.
"W... We're just always partners, okay?" Steve says.
"You have a problem with that?" Dustin asks.
"It'd just be nice to, I don't know, mix it up a bit," Steve explains.
"I'm boring you? Is that it?" Dustin asks.
"No, the opposite," Steve says.
I grab his hand. "Be nice."
"Yeah, Steve, be nice," Dustin says.
We start to look through the rooms upstairs.
"Hey, uh, Henderson?" Dustin asks.
"Yeah?" Dustin says.
"Could you maybe, uh, clarify what sort of clues we're supposed to be looking for here?" Steve asks.
Dustin starts with a British accent, "The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes." Steve just stares at him. Dustin stops with the accent. "Sherlock Holmes."
"That's great," Steve says. "Thanks. That's great. Really helpful. Sherlock..."
Steve stops and looks at a vent in the floor. He takes the vent off. He pulls a jar out.
"What the hell is that?" I ask.
Steve shines a flashlight onto the jar.
"Is that a spider?" I ask.
Steve suddenly stands up and drops the jar.
"Steve?" I ask.
He looks like he is trying to brush something off of himself.
"Steve? Whoa, whoa. What's wrong?" I ask.
"There was a spider," Steve tells me.
"Not in a jar?" I ask.
"It's a black widow," Steve tells me. He closes the door to the room we were in. "Don't go back in there."
I notice he has spiderwebs in his hair as he turns. "Wait." I try to grab it.
"What?" Steve asks. "Something? Shit. Okay."
"Wait. Stop moving," I tell him. "Stop. I just..." I finally get a hold of the spider web and pull it off. "I got it. I got it."
"Thank you," Steve tells me.
Robin walks out of another room. "If there's a spider, you're never gonna find it till it lays eggs and the babies spill out."
"What's wrong with you?" Steve asks. Robin just laughs. "Robin, seriously. She's got problems."
I laugh. "Tell me about it." I pull the last spiderweb out of Steve's hair. "Okay. All better."
"Thank you," Steve tells me.
I laugh. "It's not the worst thing either of us has been covered in."
We meet back up with everyone else. Max and Lucas show us a chandelier that's lit. Something that shouldn't be possible.
"It's like the Christmas lights," I state.
"The Christmas lights?" Nancy asks.
"Yeah, when Will was in the Upside Down, the lights... came to life," I explain.
"Vecna's here," Lucas states. "In this house. Just on the other side."
The lights on the chandelier go out.
"I think he just left the room," Robin offers.
"Did he hear us?" Max asks.
"Can he see us?" Steve asks.
"Headphones," Lucas tells Max.
Max puts her headphones on.
"Wait, wait. Everyone, turn off your flashlights and spread out," Nancy tells us.
"We're not gonna be able to see if we turn off our flash... lights,' Steve says.
Nobody else says anything as we turn our flashlights off.
"Come on," I tell him.
"Jesus Christ," Steve remarks before turning his flashlight off.
I look through the rooms for any lights.
"I got him!" Robin shouts. "Got him! I got him." As we all rush in, Robin's flashlight goes off. "I... I had him."
Steve's flashlight goes on. "Oh, whoa. Oh, I think he's moving. He's moving. He's moving."
We follow Steve and his flashlight into the hall. We head up the stairs and then the flashlight goes out.
"Shit," Steve remarks. "I lost him."
"No, you didn't," Max tells him.
She opens the door to the attic. I can see that a light is on in there. Max starts up the stairs first.
"It's an attic. Of course it's an attic," Robin remarks.
"Hold up, guys. What if he's leading us into a trap?" Dustin asks.
No one stops or says anything to him.
"Guys, guys," Dustin protests. "Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit."
A single light is on in the middle of the attic. The light pulses. Then Dustin's flashlight comes on.
"Flashlights," Dustin says.
One by one all of our flashlights turn on.
"Okay, what's happening?" Steve asks.
The electricity surges before the bulb on Steve's flashlight explodes. One by one the rest of the flashlights pulse before exploding. Finally, the light hanging from the ceiling explodes.
YOU ARE READING
slay 'em dead//Steve Harrington
Fanfiction"It's a school night," I remind him. "Shouldn't you be inside?" Steve asks. "But it's so nice out here," I tell him. "I mean I am pretty nice to look at," Steve remarks.
