Stranger Things - Steve Harrington X Reader

Chapter 5: The Flayed

I put my ear to the door and listen. I rush to the hatch to the roof and peek my head through. "We've got company." I say.

I rush Erica up through the hatch and make my way up as well before closing it.

The sound of the door being opened is heard from below. We watch them through the center grate as they take the boxes. Steve looks at us and puts a finger to his lips before looking at the green canister in Erica's hands.

The men leave and, before the door can entirely close, Steve jumps down and uses the canister to hold the door open.

"Let's go." He calls to us and we jump down. He ushers everyone out before himself as the cylinder slowly starts to crack. Just as he slides out, the cylinder breaks and the goop inside it is released. It burns a hole in the floor and we back away from it. "Jesus Christ."

"Ooh." Erica hums in amazement as we inspect it.

I turn to Erica with a smug smile on my face. "You still wanna drink that?"

"Holy mother of god." Dustin says and we turn around and look down the hallway. The extremely long hallway. Miles. Astronomical Units. Light years! Let's just say, this hallway is not going to be fun to walk.

"Well... hope you guys are in good shape." Steve says. "Looking at you, roast beef." He smacks Dustin's chest before walking. He turns when he notices we aren't moving. "Let's go, come on."

I lightly nudge the kids to go before looking back at the burning floor then turning back around.

"Why me?" Dustin asks.

...

We've been walking for a while now and I don't know how far we have left.

"I mean, you have to admit, as a feat of engineering alone, this is impressive." Dustin says, gesturing to the hallway.

"What are you talking about? It's a total fire hazard." Steve says. "There's no stairs, there's no exit, there's just an elevator that drops you halfway to hell."

"They're Commies." Erica joins in. "You don't pay people, they cut corners."

"To be fair to our Russian comrades, I don't think this tunnel was designed for walking." I voice. "I mean, think about it, they developed the perfect system for transporting that cargo."

"It all comes into the mall like any old delivery." Dustin says.

"And they load it up into those trucks and nobody's the wiser." I say.

"You think they built this whole mall just so they could transport that green poison?" Steve asks.

"I very seriously doubt it's something as boring as poison." Dustin says. "It's gotta be much mire valuable, like promethium or something."

"What the hell is promethium?" Asks Steve.

"It's what Victor Stone's dad used to make Cyborg's bionic and cybernetic components." I nerd out.

"You're all is nerdy, it makes me physically ill." Erica says as she holds her stomach.

"No, no, no. No, don't lump me in with them. I'm not a nerd, alright?" Steve defends.

"Why so sensitive, Harrington?" I ask. "Afraid of losing cool points to a ten-year-old child?"

"No, I'm just saying I don't know jack shit about Prometheus." Steve says.

"Promethium." Dustin corrects. "Prometheus is a Greek mythological figure, but whatever. All I'm saying is, it's probably being used to make something."