Jeopardy- Stranger Things

Chapter Fifty Six

November 12th, 1983

From somewhere outside the house a snarling...something was pacing around. Whatever it was, they could hear it moving around outside. It seemed to be circling the house as the snarling kept getting softer and then louder as it approached the front door. All the while, the lights were flickering like crazy.

"Where is it?" Nancy said as she kept turning around, following the noise around the house.

"Where is what?" Steve asked, sounding more and more panicked with every syllable, "What is going on? Woah! Watch where you're waving that thing," he snapped as Nick readjusted her grip on the baseball bat, waving it dangerously close to where Steve's head was.

"Watch where you put your big head," she snapped and quickly returned her attention to locating whatever this monster was that Nancy and Jonathan had sworn they'd seen.

"Where is it?" Nancy asked frantically as the lights went into a flickering frenzy and the sound of snarling became too frantic to place. It was like it was everywhere at once.

"I don't know!" Jonathan shouted back, sounding as panicked as Nancy, but not as panicked as Steve, who was just staring and gaping at them and flinching at every sound.

"It's gotta be here somewhere," Nancy continued as she and Jonathan spun around trying to locate it.

"Hello? Am I invisible? Where is what?" Steve asked again, his voice rising and falling in his state of panic, "Will someone please explain to me what the hell is going-"

"Jesus Christ, do you ever shut up?!" Nick interrupted, shouting at him louder than she probably should have. The snarling noise suddenly stopped and so did the lights. They flashed brighter than they ever had done and stayed on, surging with a blinding amount of power. Then, all at once, the bulbs burst spraying them with a rain of broken coloured glass. They all ducked, covering their eyes and holding their breath in the eerie silence.

"I think it heard you," Jonathan mumbled, slowly standing to his feet sending shards of glass cascading to the floor. Slowly, they all stood up, looking around the house, clueless as to where the monster was now there was dead silence. Then, without warning, the plaster on the ceiling began flaking and the beams started creaking. Before Nick could ask if that was the monster, her question was answered. What looked vaguely and hauntingly human but with arms and legs that were far too long crashed through the ceiling right in front of them.

*

Mike had disappeared off somewhere with El that the others honestly didn't want answers too. Lucas was switching between sitting looking deep in thought at the back of the bleachers and pacing along the back row of seats with his hands behind his head. George was sat by the window, just looking out at the blackness of the night. He couldn't see much due to the glare from the lights on the window but he wasn't really looking at anything in particular. He was just thinking. And hoping. Hoping that Nick was going to be okay, wherever she was.

"Hey," Dustin said softly as he came to sit next to George. George looked up as Dustin sat down and smiled weakly in greeting before turning his head back to stare out of the window.

"Want one?" Dustin said and George frowned. He turned back around to see Dustin had an armful of pudding cups, "Raided the kitchens," he said with a goofy grin that George couldn't help but smile at, "Pudding usually cheers me up when I'm upset," he reasoned with a gentle smile at George.

"Thanks," George mumbled as he took a pudding cup. Dustin was already halfway through eating one as George tore the top off. He took one last look out of the window, not sure what he was hoping to see and when he saw nothing, he turned away to face Dustin as the two grinned at each other over their feast of pudding cups.

*

Nancy raised her gun and shot it twice but the thing just snarled at her, like it was angry rather than in pain. The thing, whatever it was, rose to its full height, standing on it's inhumanly long legs and facing her...Nick thought anyway. It was hard to tell...it didn't have a face. Nancy held the gun up again and went to shoot but the thing opened its mouth, or rather it opened its face, baring rows upon rows of sharp teeth and roaring horrendous.

"No," Jonathan called and darted to grab Nancy by the waist, "Go! Run! Go!" Jonathan shouted, pulling Nancy behind him. She didn't have to be told twice. She ran down the corridor where they had set the trap, Jonathan not far behind her. Once Nick had got over the initial shock, she sighed and told herself she would panic later.

"Come on, Harrington," she snapped, "Don't just stand there like a lemon, run!" she scoffed, grabbing his wrist because there was no way in hell she was going to hold his hand, and dragged him down the corridor after Nancy and Jonathan.

"Jesus!" Steve was shouting, a look of pure horror on his stupid face, "Jesus! What the hell was that?" he asked, looking scared to the core as the four of them retreated into Will's bedroom, just outside where they had laid the bear trap.

"What was that...what the hell was that," Steve repeated over and over and over. It was really starting to get on Nick's nerves.

"Shut up!" she snapped at the exact same time as Jonathan and Nancy seemed to lose their patience as well.

From outside Will's closed bedroom door, they heard the monster screech. It was like a bird of prey but more guttural. It made Nick wince. She'd never heard anything like it before and hoped she never would again.

"What is it doing?" Nancy breathed as she, Jonathan and Nick all stood in front of the door, their makeshift weapons raised. Steve cowered behind Will's bed. The monster's roars seemed to have died down. In fact, there was little to no sound coming from the corridor at all.

They'd set up a trip wire made from a yoyo wedged between two doors that hadn't moved since they'd retreated into Will's bedroom. The monster wasn't in the corridor anymore. If it was, it would have set off the trip wire. Where was it going?

"It's not out there," Nick said, lowering the bat and walking towards the door.

"What- what are you doing?" Steve stammered, staring wide eyed at her as she grabbed the door handle.

"Shut up," she whispered, her heart thumping in her chest. She turned the handle with a slight click that seemed ten times louder than it probably was. Nick took a deep breath and slowly swung open the door.

"It's not here," Nick called back into Will's room as she stood in the empty corridor, the bear trap still set and ready. She was shortly joined by a very weary looking Jonathan and Nancy soon behind him. Steve poked his head around the doorframe but didn't look any less scared upon seeing the house was empty apart from the four of them.

"Come on," Nick said, shoving past Steve going back into Will's bedroom. She picked up the baseball bat and wung it confidently over her shoulder, "We'd best prepare for round two."