𝚂𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝙶𝚎𝚝𝚜 𝙷𝚞𝚛𝚝

𝟶𝟸𝟷

The next few minutes could have been stretched out into hours and Stephanie wouldn't have noticed a difference. The first thing that caught her eye before the chaos that was about to ensue was Billy Hargrove thrashing on the ground in pain with a tube over his mouth. The tube in question looked similar to the tentacle sneaking its way around Stephanie's ankle, which was the next thing she noticed.

"Holy shit." Stephanie tried to wrap her mind around everything but before she could even process where she was, the shadow monster already had wrapped itself around her, pulling her down onto the pavement harshly with a thud. She mimicked Billy's actions from moments earlier, swinging her arms around the ground trying to grab onto anything that could save her. It was no use, soon she was face to face with the monster of Will's nightmares, except this time, there was no true sight or Upside Down. This was real and it was grasping onto Stephanie.

And it wanted something.

"What the fuck do you want?" Stephanie knew that this monster wasn't going to communicate. She knew that it didn't even have the ability, but something in her needed to try. Instead of a response, an identical tube hovered over Stephanie's face, taunting her. All of the writhing and squirming had caused the blonde to be covered in dirt and traces of blood.

The next few minutes were the most painful. The tube forced its way into Stephanie's mouth and down her throat. Stephanie tried to scream but it was muffled by the additional goo that the monster had covered her mouth with. Every ounce of her being wanted nothing more than to be safe at home watching some stupid movie with Steve and Dustin. She just wanted whatever torture she was enduring to be over. The pain was so much that Stephanie couldn't even think straight, or maybe that was the monster planting things in her head as it did to Will.

She was getting flashbacks to things she didn't remember witnessing. Like Will's possession, Hopper getting caught in the vines, and Will in the hospital. All events from last year flooded her mind like a hellscape.

But as quickly as it had begun, it had ended.

Stephanie crawled away from the monster, trying to stand but it was like her mind was too full to remember how. Thankfully, she felt a hand grasp her arms and pull her onto her feet. She spun around to see a mop of blond curls grasping her arm and bolting to the stairs. The duo got a breath of fresh air and didn't waste a moment getting into Billy's totaled car and getting the hell out of dodge.

Billy pulled over on the side of the road to a pay phone. The duo had not spoken a word to each other and were both silently wondering if they could be dreaming. Billy ran into the phone booth as Stephanie slowly got out of the car, not letting go of the car door, slightly dizzy from everything happening. It was almost too fast to keep up with.

Before Billy could utter a word, the lights in the booth began to flicker.

"Fuck." Stephanie muttered, grabbing onto the car door a bit tighter, thinking she might fall. In a blink, that same street went from warm air and cool breeze to dark skies and particles floating through the air.

"Double fuck." Stephanie shut the car door and stepped away from the car slowly. Billy stumbled out of the booth, refusing to take his eyes off the end of the road. Stephanie followed his gaze to see a mass of people walking toward the duo.

"What do you want?" Billy screamed at them. The people said nothing as they continued stomping toward the teens. Billy began getting angry.

"I said what do you want?" Billy was getting louder as the people were getting closer.

"Hey how about we don't piss them off," Stephanie commented but Billy didn't listen. Instead, he screamed a final time.

"I said, what do you want?" This time, thunder clapped and red lightning appeared in the sky. Billy was finally going to get his answer because a person stood ahead of the rest of the crowd and continued the march toward the teens. The only thing off was that this person looked identical to