𝑪𝒍𝒐𝒖𝒅 𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒆 • 𝑩𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒗𝒆 [1]

21•

"Dustin shut up." I groaned as I propped my chin up with my hand. He was trying to explain his mix of the words 'Demogorgon' and 'Dog' to Hopper, who looked less than impressed.

"Evie it's better if everyone understands-" Dustin began as he turned away from Hopper to look at me, his hands still raised in example.

"How is this important right now?" Hopper frowned, cutting him off. Dustin's face fell.

"It's not. I'm sorry." He said quickly.

"And you got mad at Lucas for saying 'analogy.'" I said quietly as he moved beside me. He flipped me off and I sniggered. Stopping quickly when I received a sharp look from Hopper

"I can do it." El said softly, causing my head to snap towards her. She looked so determined, so confident, and it made me sad.

"We just got you back." I said shocked, causing everyone to look at me.

"I can do it." She said it firmer this time, and I knew there was no talking her out of this. It made me feel sick. A queasy feeling developed in my stomach and I pushed myself away from the table and moved past everyone on my way to the bathroom. It was like everything that had happened had finally hit me, and I felt sick to my soul. After a few moments of mere gagging as I had nothing in my stomach to actually throw up, I exited the bathroom and went back to the others.

"What's going on?" I asked as Joyce bundled an armful of blankets around Will.

"If we kill the brain we kill the army." Mike said.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"That means we kill Will too." Mike frowned, making me sigh. For fucks sake.

"Will kept on saying that it likes it cold." Nancy grabbed another blanket and handed it to Joyce.

"So that means we have to burn the thing out of him." Joyce said with a bold tone.

"We have to do it somewhere he doesn't know." Mike said.

"Yeah, somewhere far away." Dustin added. I turned to hopper. I had only ever been to his house once and it was in the middle of absolutely fucking nowhere.

"Hopper." I said, grabbing his attention. He seemed to get where I was going and nodded. He lifted Will and started carrying him towards the door. Jonathan was behind him, struggling to keep up with the instructions Hopper was throwing at him.

"You feeling alright?" Steve asked as he walked up to where I was standing by the front door.

"I'll survive." I smirked before jerking at the sound of Hopper yelling.

"Evie!" He shouted, pointing to my car.

"Catch." I said, throwing him my keys. "And please don't crash my car."

"What do you take me for?" He smiled, before turning to El,"We've gotta go!" He shouted at her, she was standing beside Mike on the porch. I walked over and gave her a quick hug.

"Go kick some monster butt." I smiled before letting her walk away. Nancy, Jonathan, Will and Joyce left almost immediately after Hopper drove down the driveway. Now it was just me, Steve and the kids left standing on the porch. The others went inside but I continued to stand there. God I wish that they didn't have to do this.

I frowned when I closed the front door behind me. Dustin was dumping everything out of the freezer and Steve was carrying the dead Demogorgon. I heard him gag twice as he shoved it in the freezer and closed the door.

"Where's a camera when you need one?" I grinned as Steve turned around to face me.

"Yeah, yeah. Have your fun." He grumbled as he wiped himself with a dishcloth from the counter.

"You know, I think slimey definitely tops pukey."

"Wow. You little shit." He laughed before whipping me with the dishcloth. I ran away yelping and grabbed Lucas, hiding behind him.

"Oh hell no." He shook his head, moving away from in front of me. Steve flung the towel over his shoulder and walked over to Mike.

"The lab is swarming with hundreds of these dogs." Mike explained. I saw Dustin move to correct him and I moved in front of him. Not that it did anything because he corrected him anyway.

"Listen dude. Coach calls a play in a game, bottom line you listen, right?" Steve said as he lifted the rag and wiped some more slime from his hand.

"Okay first of all this isn't some stupid sports game," Mike frowned, "and second, we're not even in the game, we're on the bench."

"Right so my point is," Steve began as he looked at the floor, "right yeah, we're on the bench so uh, there's nothing we can do." He said as he threw the cloth over his shoulder once more.

"That's not entirely true." Dustin said, causing us all to look at him. "I mean these demodogs, they have a hive mind. When the ran away from us at the bus they were called away."

"What? You want us to go out and shout 'here boy' to draw them away from the lab? Like that's gonna work." I said as I rolled my eyes. At my words, Mike's face lit up.

"You're a genius." Max smiled.

"Clear a path, get to the gate!" Mike yelled.

"Yeah and then we can all die." Steve said.

"Well that's one point of view." Dustin shrugged.

"Guys I wasn't being serious." I grumbled.

"No that's not a point of view man, that's a fact." Steve shot back. I saw Mike pinching the brow of his nose before jumping up.

"I got it!" He said as he walked over to the fridge. "This is where the chief dug his hole, this is our way into the tunnel. So..." he explained, pointing at the drawing before moving out to the hallway, "this is a hub of sorts." Mike pointed to the papers. "So you got all the tunnels feeding in here. Maybe if we set this on fire..."

"Oh yeah, that's a no." Steve scoffed, pointing to the hub.

"The mind flayer would call away his army..." Dustin continued.

"Guys slow down." I said, only to be completely ignored.

"They'd all come to stop us." Lucas said.

"Hey!" Steve called, trying to get their attention. Only to be ignored aswell.

"We circle back to the exit..." Mike said quickly. "By the time they realise we're gone-"

"El would be at the gate!" Max grinned.

"Hey hey hey!" Steve said as he clapped at the kids, "this is not happening." He had his hands on his hips, the kids tried to protest but he was having none of it. "No no no no, no buts." Steve said. "We promised to keep you shitheads safe," he pointed between me and him, "and that is exactly what we plan on doing. We're staying here, on the bench. And we are waiting for the starting team to do their job. Does everybody understand?"

"This isn't a stupid sports game!" Mike shouted.

"I said does everybody understand that?" Steve repeated, pointing his rag at Mike. "I need a yes."

"Yes mom." I grumbled as I walked passed him and sat on the couch. This was going to be a long night.