─── ∙ ~εïз~ ∙ ───
july 4th
hopper&el's cabin - bradley's big guys
they dashed back inside, jonathan seized an axe while nancy took a rifle. the rest of them were in the cabin, sealing off and obstructing all windows and doors.
once they were done, nancy stood in the middle of the room with her shotgun, "hey, get away from the windows." she ordered.
they all stood in a circle, tilly clung onto max's arm as the light's flickered and plates shook.
will felt his nape once again, knowing what was coming, "it's close."
tilly abruptly felt a sharp shiver trickle down her shaking body, "oh, God." she glanced down at her left wrist and felt her washed-out, spider mark tingling.
from outside, the leaves rustled, the branches snapped, heavy thuds were detected and cups smashed which made the group glance around. but then, there was pure silence.
"where'd it go?" max demanded as they all panicked.
a tendril rammed through the wooden wall and went straight for el. she and the younger teens retreated up against a wall, but before the claw could reach her, jonathan had thrust his axe onto it.
as he was about to repeat the action for the third time, the arm smacked him away into the bookshelf. as it trapped him in the corner, nancy began shooting at it. but when she ran out of bullets, the arm went straight for her.
centimetres away from nancy's face, el had held it and snapped the claw off. the rest of the arm went back through the hole it came out of.
"holy shit." max gasped before a second and third arm shot out at el.
she used both arms to hold it. but when a fourth one extended for her, tilly's hand was out to stop it. the two held the arms for a couple of seconds before el shredded the claw off causing the remains to shriek and crawl back out of the cabin.
with the claw levitating through the air at her command, tilly scorched it to dust, watching the nearly non-existent particles float down. "woah." the brunette gaped as the small bits vanished.
a noise was heard from above and a large arm came shooting out in el's direction. tilly was quick to undertake her to the ground, managing to twist eleven's foot in a weird direction - making her scream out in agony. the creature gave el a scratch on her injured leg before jamming its claws into tilly's right side and tugging her off the ground.
"fuck!" tilly cussed as she was hauled up. it must have been the adrenaline because, at that moment, tilly was unable to feel any ache. without hesitation, will and mike dashed forward and clutched her two arms, attempting to drag her down.
"mattie!"
as will called out her name, it brought her back to reality and the adrenaline washed down immediately. tilly began feeling a burning pain in her side, and it was nothing like the flames she could produce with her hands - it was much, much worse. blood-curdling screams were let out from tilly's mouth as jonathan, will, mike and max strived to lure her down.
"pull!" will ordered.
as the girl yelled out in immense pain, her abilities began going haywire. every cry and every scream, a small fire ignited somewhere in the room.
"nancy, shoot it!" jonathan dictated over the screams and roars.
nancy began shooting at the creature, but it was no use.
"lucas!" max yelled at her boyfriend who had been standing aside, conflicted on what to do.
he grabbed jonathan's axe and began hacking the arm off of tilly's waist as nancy shot at the mouth.
"pull!"
with a final chop, lucas had managed to slice the arm in half, sending everyone to the ground.
"mattie?" will studied at her tearful face, slightly unsure of how to help her, "are you okay?"
"does she look fucking okay?" max questioned in a yell, irritated at him.
"her waist!"
mike looked down and saw the tendril still fastened to tilly's side. with a lot of effort, he succeeded to pull it off. regrettably, his ears nearly burst when the davis girl screeched. her scream was so powerful, she managed to shatter a few windows and light some more books in the room alight.
"holy shit!" lucas jumped back.
"someone put the fire out!" nancy ordered.
"we've got to get her out of here."
lucas and max both hurried over and promptly began stamping on the small fires, eventually putting the flame out.
the claw that was just pulled out of her side scrambled across the room, but the head above them started roaring at them. el struggled to stand up, but when she did, she divided the head in half, the sludge then descended right down on tilly.
"are you shitting me?!" she yelled as will and lucas dragged her out of the cabin.
"go, go, go!"
"come on!"
everyone's yelling and shouting swirled around tilly's head. besides the excruciating pain, she was feeling from her waist, she was now developing a headache.
"go!"
"hurry up!"
"come on, everyone out!"
leading the group to the car, lucas and will carried tilly to the vehicle. mike and max had been assisting el over with her bad leg.
"go, go. come on!"
"come on! come on!"
"i am going to bleed out, oh my." tilly grunted with dried blood under her nostrils. "i'm gonna die."
"get in!"
"you're not gonna die." max reassured her in a calm voice, contrasting the chaos and disorder that was occurring around them.
"right here."
the two set her in the backseat and got in next to her. will allowed her to relax her head over his lap while her legs were over lucas.
"drive! drive!!"
"shut up! please."
─── ∙ ~εïз~ ∙ ───
the trio pulled the older two through the corridors of starcourt mall as they looked around in wonder.
"whoa!" steve laughed.
"where are we going?" robin quizzed.
"just trust me." dustin groaned.
he looked through the door and nodded.
"what?" slater asked.
"all clear." dustin spoke as he led the four into the movie theatre.
as they made their way in, steve snatched popcorn from the bin.
"steve!" slater scolded.
"were you going to buy me any?" steve mumbled, his mouth full.
"no..."
"exactly."
"doc!"
"what did i tell you?!" a voice was heard from one of the theatres, "eighty-eight miles per hour!"
"come on." dustin headed into the room, he found the elders seats and sat them down, "you two, sit."
"the temporal displacement occurred exactly 1:20.."
"no, no, no!" robin moaned in irritation, "these seats are too close!"
"dude, these seats blow." steve agreed.
"then don't watch the movie." dustin explained.
"we wanna watch it." robin complained.
"then watch it!" dustin snapped.
"shh!" a man hushed them, annoyed at how loud they were being.
robin turned to him, "shh!"
"sorry." dustin apologised, "whatever you do, don't... go... anywhere."
"we'll be back." slater chimed.
"fine, dads." steve joked, causing robin to snicker.
"the appropriate question is 'when the hell are they?'" the doctor in the movie said, "you see, einstein has just become the world's first-time traveller!"
dustin motioned the erica and slater to follow him to three available seats he spotted.
"sorry."
"i'm so sorry."
"i sent him... into the future!"
dustin sighed as he sat down, on the, "okay, it's official. i'm never having kids."
"what are we doing here?" erica leaned over slater to talk to the boy.
"we're laying low." dustin stated, "cooling off. like oswald."
"oswald was found in a theatre and shot to death." erica informed.
"a week later."
"the point is, his plan didn't work." erica elaborated.
"only because it was a setup." dustin argued.
"what?"
"he was just a patsy." dustin shrugged.
"tell me you're joking." erica rolled her eyes.
"he claimed he was a patsy." slater hissed, "the difference between us and him was that he assassinated the president and we are saving the world!"
"nerd."
"shh!"
"shh!" the trio huffed.
erica groaned, "we need to get outta here."
"all right, you watch tweedledee and tweedledum." dustin instructed, "make sure they don't go anywhere."
"where are you two going?"
"to find us a ride, come on slater." dustin got up.
"look out!"
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nancy recklessly swerved into bradley's big guys, making tilly's stomach churn and add onto the pain.
"jesus." tilly groaned, feeling a little light-headed, "are you trying to kill us?"
"i'm so sorry." the eldest wheeler child muttered.
will and lucas brought her out of the car and towards the shop. nancy picked up a rock and threw it at the doors. they walked through the smashed glass and towards the cleaning aisle.
nancy scanned the shelves and grabbed rubbing alcohol, gauze pads and more, "okay, get her down."
the two gently placed tilly onto the ground as she moaned in torment.
"okay. lemme see." nancy extracted up the side of her shirt to see the bleeding wound.
"oh, shit." max frowned.
nancy sighed and opened the box of gauze pads.
"what-what?" max stopped her, "hey, what are you doing?"
"i'm cleaning the wound." nancy told her.
"why?" tilly whined in agony, "why would you do that?"
"first, we need to stop the bleeding, then clean, then disinfect, then bandage." max instructed.
"she's right." tilly winced. nancy looked at her, a hint of
skepticism in her eyes. tilly continued, "we skateboard."
"trust me." max nodded in agreement, as she placed a cloth on the wound, "will, hold this. keep the pressure on it, nice and firm, okay?"
tilly squirmed and squeezed will's other hand as he used force on her injury.
"we're gonna need water, soap." max listed.
"yeah, okay." nancy and jonathan got up to look for the supplies.
"all right."
lucas zipped his backpack open and the contents spilt out, "does any of this help?"
"the chocolate bar could." tilly suggested, will reached out and handed it to her.
"the rest? no. go get me a washcloth and a bowl." max commanded.
"a bowl?" lucas raised his eyebrow.
"lucas..." max glared at him.
mike smacked his arm, "go."
"okay." the two walked off.
"keep doing that." max turned to will, "i'm gonna help el with her scratch then, we're gonna check on them."
the couple watched as the girls walked off after their ex-boyfriends.
"that was really brave of you." will spoke up once they had gone.
"huh?" tilly questioned with a mouthful of chocolate.
"you taking the fall for el." will elaborated.
"oh, yeah." tilly sighed, "no big deal, i can handle it."
"of course you can." will nodded, "but you have got to stop risking your life. because i-i-." tilly glanced up at him, her eyes filled to the brim with hope and innocence.
"i really care about you." will finished, he was telling the truth. "and so do so many other people."
"will." tilly smiled through the discomfort, slightly disappointed. "i care about you too, but i'd rather have my life risked then one of yours."
"i know you would." will sighed, "that's why i like you."
tilly smiled at him before pulling him into a hug. "no, no." she laid back in pain, "should not have done that."
will laughed, "silly."
"you want some?" tilly held up the bar.
"thought you'd never ask." will grinned as she put the bar near his mouth for him to bite.
the two sat in peaceful silence but will could hear her faintly whimpering in agony.
"you don't have to hold your pain in?" will whispered to her, "no one is going to judge."
"i don't want to seem vulnerable." tilly whispered, tears welling up, "but it hurts like a bitch."
"you are the most badass person ever." will told her, "wait... is it gringo?"
"you're such a nerd, you know that?" tilly beamed as hot tears fell from her eyes.
"i've heard."
"i just realised you just swore."
"i did?"
"you did, but. it was cut-"
"i repeat... this is a code red!" dustin spoke through lucas' walkie.
"dustin?" tilly asked as she put her hand out. she manipulated the summer's cool breeze into heat and the supercomm slowly came flying into her palm.
"mj?"
"slater!" tilly squealed in excitement, then groaned in pain, "dustin?"
"tilly! oh, my God, you have to listen. i know i've been m.i.a, and i'm sorry, it's not - i'm mad. i mean, i - was mad, but not at you but it's - because i was - - in a secret - base."
"dustin, you're going way too fast." will told him.
"we can't understand you." tilly added.
"i know that sounds insane, but the - have infiltrated - ! the goddamn - !"
"dustin - down! - can't even - us!" slater exclaimed.
the two shared a look of confusion as the audio garbled.
"and now... they're using... to open the gate."
"guys, you're breaking up." tilly tried to tell him but he didn't stop.
"and now - after - and we - have - - out of - so i - you to - and - us. - nancy -?"
"dustin, slater, you're cutting out." will stated.
"w-ll? tilly?"
"dustin? you there?" tilly asked, "slater? dustin!"
jonathan and nancy walked over and saw their distressed faces, "what is it?"
⎯ ❃ neens speaks!
okay tilly kinda has saviour/hero complex but it'll all make sense soon xo
this chap is so messy and unedited im so sorry lmao