𝐀𝐏𝐎𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐘𝐏𝐒𝐄
𝟎𝟗. 𝐀𝐧 𝐔𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦
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"WAIT, HOW BIG IS THIS THING?" Steve asked, his eyes trailing on the road as he drove.
The car was traveling through the road of Hawkins, and the sun had set over the horizon quite a while ago, leaving them in darkness. Queen's "Hammer to Fall" was playing softly on the radio, and Lorelei silently commended Steve Harrington for his spectacular music taste.
"First it was this big," Dustin showed with his hands before opening them wider "now it's this big."
"And how do you know that it's not just some lizard?" Steve. waved his free hand around as he spoke, his gaze moving to Dustin for a moment.
"How do I know it's not just some lizard?" Dustin repeated, his face twisted into a scowl.
"Yeah! How do you know man?" Steve exclaimed, his shoulders tense.
"Because its face opened up and it ate my cat!" Dustin shouted at Steve.
Lorelei could not help but smile to herself at the frozen look on Steve's face; he was clearly trying to process the information that Dustin Henderson had just thrown at him. Feeling her eyes on the side of his face, Steve turned to her for a short moment, his lips in a straight line, mirroring the rest of his tense expression.
"What Frizzy is trying to say, is that there is no way in hell that thing is some random lizard," Lorelei added.
"Right," Steve sighed. His fingers tapped on the wheel for a moment before he turned to Lorelei once more "and how do you know about all this?"
"It's a long story, Harrington, let's just say that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time," she retorted, her eyes looking straight at the road.
"And how are you not like - I don't know, freaking out or something?" he inquired.
"Oh, she did freak out," Dustin interjected from the back seat.
"Frizzy-" Lorelei warned.
"Did she?" Steve smirked, head-turning to Dustin for a moment.
"She was screaming for like five minutes when she first saw it," Dustin teased.
"Alright - that's an exaggeration," Lorelei rolled her eyes.
"So you were no help at all, Keller?" Steve turned to her for a split second before looking out at the road.
"I helped," Lorelei snapped under her breath.
"Sure-" Steve smirked once more, and Lorelei wanted to slap it away from his face.
"No, she actually did," Dustin defended "she was the one to lock it in the storm cellar. It was pretty badass actually, she just kept swinging at it with a hockey stick."
Steve whistled under his breath before he turned to Lorelei and his eyes met hers. The smug smirk that had been residing on his face for the past couple of minutes was gone, and now he looked almost - proud of her. They nodded to each other in silence, acknowledging the fact that they were both willing to do whatever they needed to do in order to keep Dustin safe before their eyes separated once more.
The car was enveloped in silence as Steve drove them to Dustin's house. Everyone was trying to process what was happening - especially Lorelei. She leaned her head against the window with a barely perceptible sigh and her eyelashes fanned her cheeks as she looked out at the moon that was sitting in the night's sky. Her breath fanned against the window, creating a small circle of mist that she wiped away with her jacket sleeve before closing her eyes.
It must have been around eight already, and Lorelei was running on very little sleep and quite a lot of coffee - an unhealthy amount, most likely. Never in her wildest imaginations would she have believed what was happening if she had not seen it with her own eyes and pinched herself about a thousand times.
As a child, Lorelei had never been one to believe in fairy tales - sure, she read them and her eyes would light up when the dashing prince rescued the princess from a terrifying creature. But it didn't take her long to realize that in real life, there were no princes and princesses; not for her anyway. No one would rescue her, so she would have to do it herself.
But that fact had never been much cause for much concern, for Lorelei might have read about dragons, witches, and gargoyles - but that was all it was, reading. Illustrations on paper or videos on the television at most. They could not reach her, so they could not hurt her either. But now she discovered that monsters were very much real, and they were living in her town.
"Keller," Steve's voice called from beside her "we're here."
It was only with his calling that she noticed the car had come to a full stop, and she turned her head to him with a small nod before walking out of the car. Her hands quickly came to rest within the pockets of her jeans as the frigid air hit her all the once; a stark contrast to the warmth of Steve's car.
She watched with her tongue pressed to the inside of her cheek as Steve opened the trunk of his red BMW and reached inside for his bat. Her eyes widened slightly, though she tried to play it off, but it was clear that she was uncomfortable when her feet instinctively took a step back.
"Do I even want to know what you used that on?" she asked as Steve turned to her, bat in hand.
It looked as if someone had made it in a haste, probably in preparation to fight something much more frightening than that small creature she had locked in Dustin's storm cellar. There were nails sticking out from every end, but Steve held it over his shoulder as if he were holding something as simple as a backpack and not some deadly weapon.
"I don't think so," he winced.
Lorelei raised her brows at him for a moment before she followed Dustin back to the cellar. She watched as Steve walked past her, a flashlight in his free hand and his eyes slightly narrowed. When they came to a full stop in front of the cellar, the Harrington boy turned to Dustin, pointing the flashlight at him with a tired look in his eyes.
"Alright, listen kid if this is just some Halloween prank-" he started speaking.
"It's not a prank," Dustin replied, his voice low and his hand raised to his eyes "get that thing away from my face."
Steve turned to Lorelei and he titled his head to the side as if quietly asking her to confirm what Dustin had just said. She merely rolled her eyes at all his questioning, not having time for any of this staling. Her hand reached over for the flashlight and she snatched it out of Steve's hand with a heavy sigh she then placed her right foot atop the door of the storm cellar.
"I wouldn't be here if this was just some prank, Harrington," she snapped before her eyes turned slightly softer and her voice followed "just - help us, please."
"Okay," he agreed, leaning down and removing the lock from the door.
Lorelei helped him open up the doors and she hesitantly pointed the flashlight down at the stairs of the storm cellar. She was half expecting Dart to come rushing out and bite her face off as an act of revenge, but when not a single sound came, her eyes turned to Steve and she shrugged lightly.
He held his bat tighter in his hand, rolling his shoulders back as if he were preparing for a sports game before he reached out to Lorelei, quietly ordering her to give him the flashlight.
"Give me the flashlight," he insisted, hand reaching out once more.
"You're not going down there alone," she retorted "someone needs to have your back."
"Are you sure-"
"Lead the way," Lorelei forced a tight-lipped smile, her head nudging towards the stairs.
Steve watched for a moment, trying to sense any fear or hesitation, but there was only pure determination in Lorelei's eyes. He nodded before walking down the first few steps, one hand holding the bat and the other in front of Lorelei, stopping her from walking in front of him.
"I'll just stay here!" Dustin yelled out behind them "you know, in case he tries to escape."
Both Lorelei and Steve continued silent during their descent of the stairs, though Lorelei quietly chuckled at Dustin's poor attempt to mask his fear. At least she was better at hiding how absolutely scared out of her mind she was than a thirteen-year-old - so if everything else failed, she had that going for her.
Her eyes squinted as Steve turned on the cellar light, pulling on the string above his head. The lightbulb flickered for a moment, its lights growing before the cellar was illuminated almost to a full.
"Oh my god," Lorelei mumbled, her nose scrunching in disgust as she lowered the flashlight to the floor "what the hell is that?"
She turned to Steve, her face still twisted in the look of pure repugnance and her eye followed his movements as he leaned down with his bat to grab the substance off the floor. Lorelei was not proud of it, but she nearly threw up at the sight of the slobbery, dripping, translucent green skin that was perched on the edge of the bat.
"This just keeps getting worse and worse," she groaned.
"Well, then - if you think this is bad, don't look at the wall," Steve replied dryly.
Lorelei followed his line of vision and she raised her flashlight to see that there was a Dart-sized hole in the wall. She decided to refrain from complaining, as it seemed like each time she did, something even more frightening happened.
"Dustin! Get down here!" Steve ordered.
The boy's footsteps were heard as he rushed down the cellar, his steps quick and breath labored with nerves. Lorelei and Steve both turned to Dustin, watching his expression turn from one of disgust as he looked at the skin, to one of pure worry and guilt when he saw the large hole in the wall.
"We better figure something out soon," Lorelei grumbled as Dustin and Steve kneeled near the whole "because I for one do not want to explain this to Mrs. Henderson."
The three gazed into the hole, following the trail of light from the flashlight as much as they could - but it was enough for the unlikely team to notice that Dart had surely escaped, and they were surely screwed.
"It went somewhere," Steve mumbled.
"No shit," Lorelei ran a hand through her hair and leaned against the wall "this is bad, this is very, very bad."
"And not only did it escape, it grew too," Dustin added in a hushed whisper.
"Again, no shit!" Lorelei replied in a panicked haze.
Dustin shared a worried glance with Steve before they both looked back at Lorelei, taking notice of how she paced around the storm cellar, the flashlight waving around in her hand.
"She's taking this well," Steve commented.
"Yeah, and how'd you take it?" Dustin scoffed "because if I remember correctly, Jonathan said you were a screaming mess."
Steve bit the inside of his cheek to refrain from saying anything else and he stood up from his position on the floor. Sure that the bat in his hands would only agitate Lorelei further, he placed it against the wall ahead of walking closer to her.
"Maybe you should sit down for a while," he offered, hand reaching towards her for a moment before he pulled it back.
Lorelei halted in her steps, turning to Steve and perceiving how he seemed to be apprehensive of talking to her as if she would snap at any minute - as if she were weak.
"I don't need to sit down," she shook her head forcibly "but I do need someone to help me come up with a plan to fix this mess."
"Dustin and I can handle it, Keller," he replied carefully "you should go home to your father, I'm guessing he's worried."
"My father isn't home!" Lorelei spat, her chest heaving as she took quick breaths "at least, he hasn't been since yesterday morning."
Dustin and Steve looked taken back at her explosive reaction, and they both took a step backward, feeling intimidated by the fire in her eyes.
"So if you two shitheads would stop treating me like some porcelain doll and help me come up with a goddamn plan, maybe I'll be able to find him," she seethed.
"Damn," Steve murmured to himself.
"Um- alright then," Dustin nodded, leaning against the wall "my guess is that Dart is still nearby, so we have to act quickly if we want to get him - tomorrow morning at the latest."
"I know you have some weird little connection with him, but we have to trap it and deal with it, you know that right?" Lorelei insinuated, her brows raised.
"We will trap it," Dustin replied, ignoring her last comment "the best thing we can do is grab some bait and set a trail to somewhere."
"Fine," Steve nodded "where then, Henderson?"
Dustin mulled it over for a moment, the gears in his head visibly turning as he tapped his chin and narrowed his eyes at the floor. A moment later, he lifted his head and a proud smile graced his face.
"I have an idea," he walked out of the storm cellar, Lorelei and Steve following closely behind him "but I need to plan it out - so you two should go home for the night, my mother will be suspicious if you both are here when she gets back."
"And you're sure about this plan?" Lorelei confirmed, her shoes tapping against the ground "we aren't wasting time or anything?"
Dustin shook his head, certain that the creature that had been living with him for the past few days would not stray far. He couldn't have, not when Hawkins was the very place that started all of this.
"I'm certain," he replied "Steve will just pick us both up tomorrow morning and we'll go, I can plan out the route tonight."
"You better," Lorelei scolded "this is your mess."
"Don't remind me," Dustin huffed "I'm going to fix it, Lora, really."
"I know you will, Frizzy," Lorelei ran her hand through his curls, smiling down at him as much as she could.
As angry as she was at the fact that he had dragged her into this whole mess, he was still a kid - a kid she was quite fond of, for some odd reason. So there was no way that Lorelei Keller could be angry at Dustin Henderson, not for long at least.
"Come on," Steve nudged Lorelei's shoulder carefully "I'll take you home."
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