ON HOLD peaches

viii

the car ride to the mall was dead silent, the only noise heard being sam's small whimpers of agony. she had to use her belt to stop the bleeding in her thigh, and the incident that had happened not even thirty minutes ago made her heart purely raw. she wasn't even crying anymore, because she couldn't. she was numb.

when they finally made it to the mall, they silently entered through the side door and sprinted up the stairs, making it to the balcony. there, they saw dustin, steve, steve's coworker robin, and lucas' sister erica hiding behind a counter in the food court, men pointing their guns in that direction. everyone except el backed up, the brunette putting her hand up and making the car go berserk. it was bouncing up and down, the head and taillights flashing on and off while the alarm went off.

the men turned over to the car rapidly, thrown off by the loud noises and flashing lights, their guns pointed in front of them as well. they slowly looked up only to make eye contact with the eleven hopper before she hurtled the car towards them, crushing them.

the rest of the group walked forward, revealing themselves to the four who stood up behind the counter. the first person steve and sam noticed was each other, and they didn't waste a second. sam was the first to sprint over to the escalator, but she practically dragged her right leg, the one that was stabbed, behind her since it was completely limp.

everyone followed close behind, sam and steve being the first to embrace. steve practically swung the younger harrington around from how hard he was hugging, pulling away after forever. the first thing he noticed was her blood-stained shorts and the dry blood that had dropped down her leg, his jaw dropping. "WHO THE HELL DID THAT?!" he screeched, pointing to the belt-wrapped wound. "and also, are you okay?!" he asked calmer now, robin, dustin, and erica staring at sam with wide eyes.

"doesn't matter, tell you later." was all sam replied with, everyone forming into this circle-like shape. sam's voice was hoarse, indicating that something heinous had occurred. then the questions started.

"lucas?" erica exclaimed, furrowing her eyebrows as she came to a halt, dustin pulling away from the beat hug he gifted to mike and el. "what are you doing here?" lucas questioned, also furrowing his eyebrows.

"ask them, it's their fault." the sassy sinclair motioned over to steve and robin. steve was still skeptical over his sisters well being, but put his hands on his hips. sam didn't even question steve's black eye, the poor dude got in a fight every time this happened.

"true, yeah. totally true. it's absolutely our fault." steve sassed, looking over at robin while nodding. "i don't understand what happened to that car." robin declared, pointing over to the red car that was absolutely demolished in the food court. "el had superpowers." dustin shrugged, el looking over at robin with frowned eyebrows. sam crossed her arms, leaning into max a bit. "i'm sorry?" robin proclaimed.

"superpowers. she threw it with her mind. c'mon, catch up." steve waved his hand around, giving robin a look. "that's el?" erica questioned, motioning over to the girl with the bob haircut. "no, it's molly fucking ringwald." sam mocked, squinting at the younger sinclair who pursed her lips at sam, about to say a snarky remark.

"who's el?" robin asked before erica could get a single sound out of her mouth, looking over to erica. "i'm sorry, who are you?" nancy interrogated the dirty blonde, scrunching her eyes a bit and raising her eyebrows at robin. "i'm robin. i work with steve." robin introduced herself to nancy, grinning a bit.

"she cracked the top secret code." dustin informed nonchalantly, pointing over to robin. "yeah, which is how we found out about the russians." steve added, looking over to sam for a split moment. "russians? wait, what russians?" jonathan furrowed his eyebrows, leaning over just a bit towards steve. "the russians!" steve exclaimed, looking back over to the men who were deceased on the ground.