There's No Place Like Hawkins//Stranger Things. SH

THIRTY FIVE

"If she was, she'd be out here with us." Dustin scoffed. "Kit never passes up an opportunity to hang out with you." Steve nodded, knowing that was true. The two walked over to the cellar that Dustin had chained shut. 

Steve held his torch over the doors, trying to hear something. Anything. "I don't hear shit." He announced.

"He's in there." Dustin reassured.

Hesitantly, Steve banged his bat on the red doors. He waited a moment for a response before repeating the action, only hitting the doors harder this time. After about a minute he turned to Dustin, shining the torch in his face and slightly blinding the boy. "All right, listen, kid. I swear, if this is some sort of Halloween prank, you're dead."

"It's not." Dustin reassured him.

"All right?"

"It's not a prank." Dustin told him. "Get out of my face."

"You got a key for this thing?" Steve asked, his head tilting towards the cellar.

***

Once Dustin had found and given the key to Steve, he unlocked the padlock that was holding the doors closed and yanked them open. Dustin shone the light down the steps. "Let me see that." Steve said as he took the torch.

Neither of them saw anything.

"He must be further down there." Dustin suggested. "I'll stay up here in case he tries to escape."

Steve sighed, standing up from where he was crouching at the entrance to their possible doom. He carefully walked down the steps, the famous, spiked bat in his hand. He reached the bottom of the stairs, shining the torch around. The light from the torch fell on a cord hanging in the middle of the room. The older teen tugged on it, allowing light to  completely flood the room.

A weird slimy substance caught his eye and he moved to pick it up with the end of his bat. He lifted it up, a green gooey liquid dripping from it. Something else caught his attention from the corner of his eye and his attention turned to the massive hole in the brick wall. A massive hole that seemed to be a tunnel. Dustin's creature must have escaped.

Shit.

Not hearing anything for a few moments, and not knowing how he would explain to his sister that her best friend (and crush) was killed on the same day as her cat by the same monster, Dustin called out to him. "Steve?"

No response.

"Steve, what's going on down there?"

Steve suddenly appeared back in Dustin's line of vision.  He shone the torch in the younger boy's face, making Dustin jump in fear. He called up to him. "Get down here."

Dustin walked down the steps and Steve lifted his bat higher, showing him the slimy substance that dripped from the end of it. "Oh, shit." Without saying anything, Steve pointed the torch at the wall, the light illuminating the giant hole in the brick. "Oh, shit!" Dustin exclaimed, not knowing how else to respond. The two approached the hole carefully, Steve holding his bat out in front of him in case of a sudden attack. "No way." Dustin breathed out as Steve shone the torch at the hole that seemed to go on for miles. "No way."

***

"That thing, it... it did something to him." Joyce explained to Doctor Owens in a conference room full of doctors. Cat was sat beside her, her hands by her mouth as she anxiously bit her nails. She was convinced that by the time all of this finally ended, she wouldn't have any nails left.

"Okay. And these now-memories, as you call them, how long has he been experiencing them?" Owens asked.

"I told you, since Thursday. Since I found him and Catherine in the field."

"And why wasn't he brought in?" One of the doctors asked.

"Why wasn't he- She's been bringing him in you dingus. You guys have done jack-shit. Absolutely nothing." Catherine snapped at him, slamming her fist down on the table. It was clear she needed sleep, she was losing her temper more often and it didn't take much to set her off.

"These are new symptoms." Owens explained and Cat simply rolled her eyes out of annoyance.

"No." Joyce protested, pointing her finger at the doctor. "No, he has been telling you over and over that's something's wrong, and you said it was all in his head."

"I have some news for you, Doc." Cat told him, and you could practically see the venom that she was spitting at him. "That was bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit. You know why? Because I've seen it too." Owens and all the other doctors stared at her in shock. "The same exact things that Will has seen, I've seen. But let me guess, it's all in my head?" She spat, shoving her chair to the floor as she stormed from the room. "Just some stupid anniversary effect." She mumbled, shoving her hands in her jacket pockets as she stormed down the endless hallways of the ex-lab.

"You said to us," Joyce continued ranting at Doctor Owens, "'Be patient.' Those were your words."

"I understand that you're upset, okay? That Catherine is too. I get it." Owens told her. "I would be, too, if I were in your shoes. But we are all in the same boat here, and I just need you to try-"

Joyce cut him off, her voice raising considerably. "What? Stay calm? Trust you? No, I want him transferred to a real hospital."

"Well, you know that's not possible." Owens told her.

"He really will get the best treatment here, Mrs. Byers." One of the doctors said.

"The very best." Another doctor agreed.

Joyce scoffed in disbelief. "And what are you treating him for, exactly?" She stammered, standing up from her chair. "Can anyone tell me what's wrong with him? What might be wrong with Catherine? Can a single person in this room tell me what is wrong with my boy?" None of the doctors answered her. "What is wrong with my boy?!"

***

"Dustin!" Lucas' voice came through the radio as both the curly-haired boy and Steve took the buckets of meat and the can of gasoline out of the back of the teen's car. "This is Lucas. Do you copy? Dustin?"

"Well, well, well, look who it is." Dustin spoke into is headset, pausing his task as he spoke to Lucas- leaving the older teen to continue sorting out the monster hunting supplies.

"Sorry, man." Lucas apologised. "My stupid sister turned it off."

"Well, when you were having sister problems, Dart grew again, he escaped and I'm pretty sure he's a baby Demogorgon." Dustin informed his friend.

"Wait. What?"

"I'll explain later. Just meet me and Steve at the old junkyard."

"Steve?" Lucas was confused. What was Steve Harrington doing hanging out with Dustin?

"And bring your binoculars and wrist rocket." Dustin informed him as Steve slung his backpack over his shoulder.

"Steve Harrington?" Lucas asked again as the said boy closed the trunk of his car. "The Steve Harrington?"

"All right, let's go." Steve said to Dustin.

"Just be here, stat." Dustin told Lucas through his headset. "Over and out."

***

Edited: 27/4/2020

Edit 2: 10/9/2021