Dustin and I spent all night on the couch, munching on snacks and coming up with many scenarios on how to keep our mom away from the house all day, while watching our favorite movies to pass the time.
We set on sending her all the way to Loch Nora and trapping Dart, the name that Dustin had given creature, in the cellar so we could burry Mews and not have any more problems to deal with.
I walk into the kitchen the next morning, starting to make breakfast so our mom doesn't suspect anything. Winking over to Dustin, who was standing by the phone, ready to pick it up, I indicate him to start our plan.
"Dusty, (Y/n), you're sure she's not in either of your rooms?" Mom asked, walking through the front door after waving around Mews' orange toy in hopes she would come back. She looks over and I shake my head, continuing to cook some eggs for breakfast.
"Dusty?" She asks, a glimpse of hope in her voice.
"Uh-huh." Dustin says, raising his finger up to indicate he was on a call. "Thank you so much, Mr. McCorkle. Thank you so much. You are a true life saver. All right, this was great. Thank you."
He spins around to look at me raising my eyebrows and waving my hand as a way of telling him to hurry the hell up.
"All right." Dustin nodded, clutching the phone close to his ears. "Have a good one. Bye-bye now. All right. You too."
Dustin clicks the phone back into its original place, turning over to face our crying mother.
"All right, great news." Dustin smiles.
"They found her?" Mom asks, tears starting to stream down her cheeks.
"No," Dustin says, walking over to her. "But they found her, wandering around Loch Nora."
"How did the poor baby get all the way out there?"
"I don't know," Dustin said, gripping onto mom's hands tightly. "lost, I guess. But they're going to look for her, and (Y/n) and I will stay here, just in case they call again."
"Yeah," I say, putting the eggs in two plates for Dustin and I to eat later. "You could go help look for her."
She lets out a sob as she throws her arms around Dustin who consulted her.
"Go get her." He encourages. "You're going to find her. All right?"
"We can find her." I say, holding two of my thumbs up.
"We can find her." Mom repeats, placing her sunglasses on her head as she grabs her keys, opening the front door.
"We love you." Dustin said, bringing his fingers up to his mouth to blow a kiss.
"I love you guys." She says, wiping the tears that fell from her eyes.
"We love you." Dustin reassured.
"All right," I say with a small smile. "Go."
I drop the pan in the sink the second my mom slams the front door shut, and follow Dustin to the cellar behind our house, unlocking it.
We then rush over to the nearest closet where Dustin pulls out some of his old hockey gear for us to wear as protection, in case Dart tries to attack.
Running into the kitchen, I grab a pack of bologna slices, making a long trail leading from inside Dustin's room all the way outside to the cellar.
I put on Dustin's old hockey gear and the plan was set in motion. Me waiting by the cellar waiting for Dart while Dustin lures him inside so I can shut it.
Dustin runs outside, 'Shit' slipping from his mouth multiple times as he grabs my arm and pulls me into the nearest shed, panting heavily.
"What happened?" I ask, looking through the cracks of the shed for any danger.
"Nothing," My younger brother sighs. "Just watch."
Dart makes his way out the back door, inhaling each bologna slice that comes in his path as he made his way through our backyard.
"Come on, buddy." Dustin whispers, holding his arms up. "Yes. Yes. Yes."
Dart makes his way over to the cellar, just as he's about to go in, he turns around, facing us and slowly makes his way over to the shed.
We lean our backs against the wall, in hopes he would turn back around, our breathing quickening.
Seeing as Dustin was impatient, he bursts through the door, scaring Dart and whacking him repeatedly with his hockey stick, sending the creature down the stairs of the cellar.
"I'm sorry," Dustin says after trapping Dart, keeping himself atop of the cellar doors. "you ate our cat."
===
Feeling sweat drip down my forehead, I shovel yet another large pile of dirt, covering up the corpse of out dead cat, along with Dustin.
"Guys," He says into the walkie-talkie, out of breath from shoveling for so long. "this is Dustin again. Does anyone copy? This is a code red. I repeat, a code red!"
After we finished burying Mews, the two of us head inside as I begin digging under the kitchen sink for any soaps I could find to clean the stain out in the rug.
"I really need someone to pick up here." Dustin desperately says once more as we slip on the yellow gloves. "Hopper's MIA and I've got a code red. Code red!"
Placing a small bucket full of water, Dustin grabs a brush and begins to aggressively scrub the ground, seeing as his friends not responding had irritated him a little bit.
"All right," He grumbles. "it's Dustin again. Seriously, I have a code red."
"Could you please shut up." A young girl's voice rang from the other side of the radio.
"Erica?" Dustin shoots up. "Erica, is Lucas there? Where is he?"
"Don't know." Erica sassed. "Don't care."
"Is he with Mike?"
"Like I said," Erica replied, the sass still in her voice. "I don't know and I don't care."
"Alright," I seethed, snatching the headphone set from my brother, my voice filled with annoyance and irritation. "listen here, Erica. You are going to give your brother this walkie- talkie the second you see him, do I make myself clear, kid?"
"Crystal." She gulped before turning off the radio.
"Damn," Dustin chuckled as his eyes grew wide. "you're kind of scary."
Shrugging, we continue our work, the stain finally getting out before we pushed the chair back into it's place, covering the scratches on the wall.
Continuing our search for help, we make our way to the Wheelers, Dustin and I walking up to the porch while ring the doorbell, Nancy's dad answering and looking down at the two of us with a hand resting on his hip.
"Your line has been busy for over two hours Mr. Wheeler," Dustin sighs. "Do you realize that?"
"I do realize." He says, leaning against the door, narrowing his eyebrows at the two of us.
"Is Mike home?" Dustin asks.
"No."
"No?" Dustin scoffs, rolling his eyes. "Well where the hell is he?"
"Karen, Where's our son?"
"Will's!" I herd Karen scream from inside the house.
"Will's." Ted simply said, turning around.
"What about Nancy?" I ask, shoving my hands into the front pockets of my jeans. "Where is she?"
"Karen, Where's Nancy?"
"Ally's!" Karen said, sounding very irritated at her husband.
"Ally's." Ted says, raising an eyebrow at us. "Our children don't live here anymore, you didn't know that?"
"Seriously?" Dustin asks.
"Am I done here?"
"Son if a bitch," Dustin says, walking away as I trail behind him. "You're really no help at all, you know that?"
"Language!" Ted shouts as he slams the front door shut and I roll my eyes with a scoff.
As we make our way back to our bikes, a familiar maroon BMW parks right at the side of the Wheeler house. Steve makes his way out of the drivers seat, holding a batch of red roses and mumbling something I could barely make out.
"Steve!" Dustin shouts as we rush over to him. "Are those for Mr. or Mrs. Wheeler?"
"No?" He says as Dustin snatches the flowers out of his hands.
"Good."
"Hey, what the hell?"
"Steve," I say. "We have bigger problems right now."
"Do you still have that bat?" Dustin asks as he clicks open the door to the drivers seat.
"Bat?" Steve asks. "What bat?"
"The one with the nails." Dustin says, waving the flowers in the air.
"Now?"
"Now!" Dustin shouts from the passenger seat as I plop down in the back and Steve rushes to the drivers seat.
===
Hammer to Fall was playing lightly on Steve's radio as an awkward silence washed over the car after Dustin and I told Steve the story.
"Wait a sec." Steve pipes up. "How big?"
"First it was like that." Dustin motioned with his hands as Steve nodded. "Now he's like this."
"I swear to God, man," Steve sighs, rolling his eyes a bit. "it's just some little lizard, okay."
"It's not a lizard." Dustin argued, narrowing his eyes.
"How do you know?" Steve retorted, irritation laced in his voice.
"How do I know if it's not a lizard?" Dustin asked, his eyes widening.
"Yeah, how do you know it's not just a lizard?" Steve repeated.
"Because his face opened up and he ate our cat." I say, raising my eyebrow at Steve through the rear view mirror.
Dustin simply nodded his head over at Steve as we continued to drive to our house in silence.
===