𝐑𝐮𝐛𝐢𝐤'𝐬 𝐂𝐮𝐛𝐞 ─ 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀

𝟬𝟰. 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝘁𝘁𝘆 𝘀𝗰𝗶-𝗳𝗶 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘀

Silently, Sabrina stepped onto the basement floor. Her toes curled, instantly rejecting the ice-cold concrete. Neither had seen or heard her come down. Both were too caught up in whatever was happening.

"You hurt me!" Mike told her. "Do you understand?" he asked, shoulders dropping disappointedly. "What you did sucks."

Eleven opened her mouth but couldn't bring forth any words. And Mike scoffed, shaking his head.

"It isn't her fault, Mike,"

Sabrina sighed, her head tilted, and she looked at her little brother with a pitiful expression, only being able to imagine what it was that he was feeling.

Surprised, Mike turned, his eyes wide, shocked that Sabrina was standing behind him. He hadn't seen her come down the steps, hadn't heard her. He was too caught up in his anger toward Eleven.

"Did mom send you down to talk to me?" he guessed, rolling his eyes.

So, it wasn't just Eleven he was angry with.

Sabrina shrugged, "And what if she did?"

"I'm fine," said Mike, his tone harsh and distant as he turned away from Sabrina. "You can go now."

"Being an ass isn't going to make you feel better about Will," said Sabrina, and did so quite bluntly. "And blaming the people who only wanted to help you won't bring him back."

Mike slammed his hand against the round table that he and his friends would sit around for hours playing their stupid game. The old wooden legs trembled and shook from the impact. Sabrina watched as the table swayed threateningly. She waited for the collapse to come. For the crash to echo through the house and for her parents to come rushing down the stairs. Then everyone would know about El, and Sabrina would be grounded for the rest of her life.

Luckily, after a moment the swaying stopped, and the collapse never came. So, neither did her parents.

"She lied to me!" Mike yelled, turned to glare at El, making her turn away from him and hurry into the homemade tent they'd made for her out of sheets taken from the laundry baskets. "She was supposed to be my friend!"

"How was she supposed to have known?" Sabrina asked, flailing her arms. "I mean, for real, Mike, your hope was based on a board game," she reminded him, pointing to the board that was still flipped Upside Down, with the Demogorgon sitting on top of it. "She thought that she was helping!"

"But she wasn't helping!"

Mike turned away from Sabrina. He had nothing else to say. His mind had been made up. This was Eleven's fault. She told him that she knew where Will was. But she didn't. She only knew where his body was.

Sighing, Sabrina ran a hand over her tired face and fell back against the stair post. She didn't know what else she could do. Mike seemed hellbent on casting his blame on El. But unless she'd been the one to have thrown him in the water, she wasn't guilty of anything other than getting Mike's hopes up.

El had backed all the way into the sheet fort. Her knees were brought to her chest as she played with the walkie-talkie Mike had let her borrow days ago. She spun the dial at the top, flipping through the channels, mostly made of static since the storm was still going strong outside.

Sabrina fell into the old, discolored couch. She rested her elbows on her knees and buried her face in her hands, legs bouncing up and down. She didn't know how to fix this. Or if it even could be fixed. This wasn't something she'd gone through before.

"So, come on and let me know, should I stay, or should I go...?"

Her head lifted from her hands. Slowly it turned to face the small girl hidden inside the tent with the large walkie inside of her small hands. She stopped breathing for a second, wondering if maybe she'd gone crazy, or if somehow, she'd just heard Will Byers' voice come from the small speaker.