[ 𝙿𝚎𝚝𝚊𝚕𝚜 & 𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚛𝚗𝚜 ] ~ 𝚂𝚝𝚎𝚟𝚎 𝙷𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚝𝚘𝚗 𝚡 𝙾𝙲

VI - Middle Schoolers

"Wait a sec. How big?" Steve asked for the third time since the middle schoolers originally explained it. They talked about a reptilian super natural creature that was apparently the size of a small-ish dog. They also told Russell specifically about some other world they called 'the Upside Down' that existed as a sort of shadow realm version of Hawkins. It had monsters that Lucy said were similar to their lizard thing and that took their friend Will Byers, Jonathan's brother, the previous year. It seemed crazy, but who was she to not believe them? 

"First it was like that." Dustin said as Lucy held her fingers up from the backseat. "Now he's like this." She held her hands up instead, leaving quite a bit of room between them.

"I swear to God, man, it's just some little lizard, okay?" Steve groaned out as he drove them to the Henderson boy's house.

"It's not a lizard, Steve." Lucy grumbled back.

"How do you know?"

"How do we know if it's not a lizard?" Dustin asked.

"Yeah! How do you know if it's not just a lizard?"

"Because his face opened up and he ate my cat."

Steve paused, clearly not knowing how to respond to Dustin's information. 

"So what is it?" Russell turned to the two kids in the back.

"A Demogorgon." Lucy gave Russell a frown. 

"Well. . .That's what Lucy thinks." Dustin pipped up.

Steve pulled up at Dustin's house, coming to a stop just at the side of the house. The four teens followed Steve to the back of his car. He opened the trunk to pull out a bat that had nails buried into various parts at the end so the pointed ends would properly stick out. 

"You keep a bat covered in nails in your trunk?" Russell looked at the boy with her mouth agape and her eyebrows shoved together

"Never know when I'm gonna need it." He shrugged, tossing it between his hands with a heavy smirk. 

"Come on Harrington! I don't want to be out here all night." Rylie groaned from where she had followed Dustin and Lucy to the red cellar doors.

Steve motioned for Russell to follow him, walking over to the cellar with a sigh. As he got to the cellar doors, he leaned closer to it, nearly tapping it with his bat, but not quite. "I don't hear shit."

"He's in there." Dustin told him.

"Yeah, we locked him in there this morning." Lucy squeaked her words with a tight nod, hiding ever so subtly behind Dustin. 

Steve tapped at it with the bat, no noise at all rising from the doors. He hit the metal harder this time. Still nothing. "Alright, listen kid. I swear, if this is some sort of Halloween prank, you're dead." The brunet said to Dustin, shining his flashlight in his eyes. He moved the flashlight to his sister's face, turning to her instead. "And you. . .you're not dead. But you will be grounded."

"It's not." Dustin shook his head, Lucy holding her hand in front of her eyes.

"Alright?" He moved the flashlight back to point in Dustin's face.

"It's not a prank. Get it out of my face." Dustin mumbled, squinting.

"Seriously, Steve, you're gonna blind him." Russell huffed, taking the flashlight from the taller.

"You got a key for this thing, Henderson?" Rylie asked, tilting her head at the boy who was rubbing his eyes and blinking to shoo light away. 

"Yeah, here." Dustin dug into his pocket, digging around for a moment before he pulled out a silver key. Steve grabbed it, opening the lock on the cellar. He pulled the doors open with a loud creak, looking into the near black room below.