Legendary | s. harrington (18+)

chapter nine

"It's only a lizard, Steve." She was saying it to the basement doors, confused to why he was listening for something, after all, how much noise could it make?

"It''s not a goddamn lizard!" Evelyn lifted, turning her wide eyes back to their place on the doors after looking at Steve in shock.

"Okay." Eve whispered meekly, "Fine. Not a lizard." and Steve hit the doors again, harder, and they all took an unnoticeable step back. They waited and hearing nothing, Steve's patience slipped again.

"Alright listen, kid. I swear, if this is some sort of Halloween prank, you're dead. Alright?" He lifted his torch into Dustin's face and the boy looked back squinting and scrunching up his face. Evelyn put her hand on top of Steve's, forcing the torch down and out of Dustin's face.

"Its not..."

"Alright?"

"Steve." Evelyn said accusingly and Steve threw his eyes to her so quickly that she didn't notice, sighing he turned back to Dustin.

"It's not a prank."

"You have a key for this thing?" He quickly lifted the light back into Henderson's blue eyes and the young boy swore.

"Will you get that thing out of my face?" He lifted his arm to repel the blinding white in his line of sight and Evelyn swatted Steve's shoulder with a frown. He shrugged, as if he were doing nothing wrong, but lowered the torch anyway.

They unclocked the metal and Steve lifted the heavy doors open. As he moved the right one, the one closest to Evelyn, she leant down by his side to look into the basement. Only, something got in her way. Evelyn looked down at Steve's arm out in front of her and her eyebrows furrowed. She looked to his face.

"Get back." Evelyn's shoulders dropped and she pushed his arm away firmly.

"Sure, Harrington." Steve was still looking at Evelyn when Dustin grabbed the torch and clicked it to illuminate beneath them. Evelyn's eyes were straining to search the darkness and so Steve turned after a minute and snatched the light from Dustin.

"It must be further down there." Dustin was saying. "Ill..I'll wait here in case he...tries to escape." Both Evelyn and Steve's faces turned towards Dustin, they then looked to each other in disbelief and back down at the basement. Evelyn felt her stomach knot with nerves and she shook her head. She scolded herself for being ridiculous and told herself to face this made up fear Dustin brought them here for. She then pushed herself in front of Steve and Dustin and jumped into the hole.

"It's a goddamn lizard." She was saying as both the boys hissed a series of "no, no!" and "what are you doing!?" Steve instictely grabbed her arm, but Evelyn turned with a pout and moved out of his grip, she stood higher on her tiptoes leaning forward and plucked the torch out if his hand. She then turned back around, sucking in a deep breath of air to calm her unneeded anxiety and took another step. She searched the room for a minute, following the light from the torch and Dustin and Steve looked at each other, not sure what to do.

Eventually Steve scrambled to follow her, making sure to stay as close to her as possible, as he had the bat. He was starting to be unnerved by what they may find. It was stupid to bring her here and as Steve thought about this, he shook his head with regret. She was obviously too brave, and so it was likely she'd get killed.

Steve and Evelyn, though both silently denying being scared by the surrounding blackness of Dustin's unknown room, stayed very close to each other. Bumping arms with Steve, Evelyn shuffled away and yelped when something slid over her shoulder. Steve spun in a panic, but Evie blurted a laugh in one breath when she realised it was just the light switch, and pulled the cord lighting up the room. They were looking at each other, relieved, only Steve then saw Evelyn's eyes catch something when she looked away from him and his eyebrows furrowed. He followed her gaze.

"What the hell?" Evie muttered but as she went to get closer, Steve used the end of his bat to lift the item from the concrete floor. It was transparent when the torch shined through it, but dirty-looking and dripping with something green and sticky. In all, it was longer than the bat itself. Evelyn still took a step forward though and that's when Steve looked at her, exasperated.

"What are you doing?" He expected her to leave, he wanted her to be so scared she'd find a way home because he couldn't explain to her how much trouble they were in if this was what he thought it might be, or that this was something familiar for himself and Dustin.

Evelyn didn't seem frightened though, like he expected her to be. She didn't seem outraged or mad, either. She looked... strangely curious. Her hazel eyes were squinting as she examined whatever the hell was in front of them and tipping her head completely to one side she said:
"It looks, almost, like snake skin. But-" She looked at Steve with confused, doe eyes. "It's the wrong shape?" Steve looked at the phenomenon over again, trying to match what he saw with her words. He looked up though when he felt Evelyn's fingers wrap around his forearm. He looked where her small fingers were, the material of his jacket creasing beneath them, and then up to Evelyn's pale face. They were awkwardly close in proximity but Evelyn hadn't seemed to notice, she was looking to the left of where they stood. She tugged at his arm. "...Steve?"

"...yeah?" He replied just as quietly, and followed her line of sight. There was a large hole in the brick wall of Dustin's basement.

"Dustin!" Steve shouted, the torch light illuminating the unknown in the missing part of his wall. "Get down here!" Neither of them heard him join their sides as they stared, Evelyn not quite sure what to think as they edged forward to what seemed to be a tunnel leading away from Dustin's house.

"Shit." Dustin said, stepping closer. "Shit."