"𝑵𝒐 𝒄𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒇 𝒅𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐𝒅𝒂𝒚."
➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶
One Month Later
The December air was nipping at the passerby, but Halley was tucked away safely in the Wheeler household.
Jonathan had dropped her and Will off before going over to the store for some last minute Christmas shopping. He claimed it wasn't for gifts, like he usually did, but Halley knew that like every other year, he procrastinated to the very last minute. They were very similar in that way.
Will was down in the basement with Lucas, Dustin and Mike. Just like they had done for years before. There was something so extraordinary in the total mundanity of it all.
Though, unlike previous times, Halley wasn't there for the boys. Instead of hanging out behind the scenes of their campaigns and doing whatever she could to annoy them, she sat upstairs, hopelessly third wheeling Nancy and Steve. She wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
The couple was sitting on the couch, snuggling together under a blanket while Halley sat across from them on Ted's recliner; it was one of the rare times the man wasn't occupying it.
"No, Halles, you don't understand," Nancy huffed, "I completely bombed this test."
"Bullshit, the lowest grade you've ever gotten was like a B+, and that was when you were out sick for over a month with pneumonia." Halley rolled her eyes, looking to Steve for support, he nodded.
Nancy shoved at her boyfriend, mocking betrayal, "It was a B-."
"My point exactly." Halley crossed her arms over her chest, trying to stop herself from laughing. This was what she had missed. Normality, obviously, but Nancy. After nearly seven years without her, Halley had almost forgotten just how much she needed Nancy in her life. It was a change—a good one—not having her brothers as her only friends.
A cry of excitement came from the basement, interrupting the teens' conversation.
"Did they win?" Nancy laughed, looking at Halley. The girl in question shrugged. She knew a little bit about dungeons and dragons—from what Will had tried to teach her, but she had no idea how to 'win' the game.
Another eruption of cheers came the same time as the doorbell rang. After waiting a beat, and noticing that Nancy was making no move to get up, Halley stood. "No, no, you stay here, I'll get it," she teased, earning a kick from the girl as she walked by.
Opening the door, Halley found Jonathan just about to ring the bell again. "Hey." she gestured inside as she yelled over to Nancy who it was. "Will's downstairs with the boys. I'll meet you outside?" she said. He nodded already making his way to the basement stairs.
Just as Halley was about to open the driver's side of the car, Steve called out her name, and came chasing out after her.
"Oh, shit, sorry," he said, taking a step back before she could turn around and smack into him. "Karen wanted Nancy for something, and I figured it was a good time to give you something."
Halley quirked her eyebrow, watching as he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small rectangle-ish shape covered in snowman wrapping paper.
"I, uh, I kinda suck at wrapping stuff," he shrugged, a lopsided grin playing on his lips. She smiled back, accepting the gift. It was light— and familiar.
"Is this a tape?" she asked, picking at the paper.
Steve's nose scrunched in response, his hand going to the back of his neck. "Yeah, I picked out things I thought you would like. I don't know." he laughed awkwardly, trying not to make eye contact. "I wanted to say sorry. For the whole..." he struggled for words,biting his lip as he tried to come up with something.
"The whole beating up my brother and calling my family fuck ups?" she supplied. Though, her tone wasn't harsh.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm uh, sorry about that." he said, finally looking up. Halley was smiling looking down at the tape in her hand, then back at Steve. Was what he did a fucking lowblow and exceptionally dickish? Yes. Absolutely, even. But he was offering an olive branch. Sure, it didn't make up for everything he and his parade of morons had done throughout their school years, but it was a start. And she was just as willing to bury the feud.
She shoved his arm, "didn't take you for a softie, Harrington," she teased, but then, in a more serious voice: "thank you. It means a lot."
Nerves seeming to be behind him, he gave a laugh, "yeah, well, I didn't take you for a lot of things."
The door opened behind them, and Will trotted down the stairs with Jonathan in tow. They were talking about the campaign, and Jonathan always did understand their game more than Halley.
"I'll see you around, Byers." Steve said, giving Jonathan a friendly nod before stepping past him and back into Nancy's house. Halley brushed her thumb over the poorly wrapped gift: an excessive amount of wrinkles in the paper, and never ending pieces of tape. There was a part of her that wanted to preserve the effort put into it.
She slipped it into the inside pocket of her jacket, it was the largest and, therefore, the safest.
Halley slid into the back seat, surrendering the front to Will. Still, she sat hung over the space between her brothers, seatbelt forgotten as they drove through the roads they knew by heart.
"Can I open it?" Will asked, and Halley finally noticed a neatly wrapped box. It was covered in wishes of Noel and bright red and green designs, not to mention the precise edges that screamed Nancy Wheeler.
Jonathan smiled, "yeah, sure." and the paper was off nearly the moment he said yes.
"Woah." Will said, glancing down at the box in his hand, "pretty cool." He turned the box so Jonathan could see it.
He chuckled, and Halley watched him glance back. "Yeah." He adjusted his hands on the steering wheel, trying to hide a smile as he kept driving, "yeah, pretty cool."
Halley could feel her own smile spreading, and despite the multiple jokes she could use to tease her brother about the new, shiny camera now sitting in their car, she kept her mouth shut. It was about time he got to be happy.
It was nearly morning. Bright pink and orange shades were beginning to paint the sky, and Halley was wandering around in the woods.
There was no particular reason, not consciously. She had a strong feeling in her stomach urging her to continue. It was a ruthless game of hot and cold, and her legs weren't about to let her lose.
Rushing water clued her in pretty quick to where she was. Now, even though she knew Will didn't actually drown, and that the whole thing had only been a ploy by Dr. Brenner and the rest of his government cronies, the sight still made Halley's heart lurch.
The same weird flash of what felt like memories kept pushing its way into her mind. The same thing she had seen and felt with El.
When she looked up, she found herself standing near the edge of the quarry. But the scenery was changing. The sun's pastel colors were darkening, dark neon streaks of light peppered the sky in a way that made Halley nauseous.
There was a voice around the corner. She was still hidden by a fair share of large pine trees, but a few feet in front of her, she knew, there would be a clearing, leading to the edge of the quarry.
Halley inched forward, peeking out from behind an especially large trunk. It was Mike.
"El? El!" he was shouting, aimlessly wandering around the clearing. "Eleven!" there was a desperation in his voice that Halley hadn't heard from anyone other than her mother.
A rustling came from bushes, and for a moment, Halley thought it was only a deer. Though, it looked like Mike's hopes spiked. "El!" he cried running forward, only to stop in his tracks when met with an older man with nearly white hair and a suit. When he reached Mike, he seemed to grow taller and taller, until he was towering over the middle schooler.
"You're never going to find her, Micheal." His voice boomed around them. "Experiment Eleven belongs to me." Mike was backing up, trying to keep a distance between himself and the man who was slowly stepping forwarding. Working directly against Mike's attempts. "Do you really think you can do this?"
"St-stay away," Mike said, holding out his hands. Halley was kickstarted into action as she noticed just how close he was getting to the cliff.
She revealed herself, stepping into the clearing and shouting out to him. "Mike!" he turned to her, and as his attention broke from the man in the suit, he wavered into nothingness, like he was nothing but a mirage.
"Halley? How are you— what are you doing here?" he said, his defense building up more.
She had no idea what he was talking about. The real question should be what he was doing out here. "I wasn't about to let him run you into the quarry. No one would be able to save you this time." the last words were unintentional, she didn't know she was going to say them until she did.
The falling figure. The yelling. And Eleven.
"No cliff diving today." her words were breathless, as images of Mike walking off the edge ran through her mind. Dustin was to the side, and Troy. It was all so real, but how could it be? It couldn't be.
"What the—" his eyes were wide and wild, and next words calculated but terrified, "how did you know I jumped off that cliff?"
She felt her stomach drop. The images were coming in faster: Mike was falling, and falling and falling, until— Eleven was behind Troy, her arm out, and blood dripping from her nose, Mike stalled, glitched in mid air.
He was back on the ground, back with Dustin. Eleven's attention was toward Troy now, her arm out, and an angry expression on her face.
A loud, deafening crack.
Halley bolted up in her bed. Gasping for breath and grasping at the air around her. She was shivering, covered in a thin layer of sweat. Her stomach churned.
"Fuck," she muttered, kicking off what little blanket was left over her, and rolling herself up. As soon as he pushed herself up, feet on the ground, her head spun. She lurched for the door, her body operating on autopilot.
She stumbled down the hallways, and her hand swatted at the lightswitch when she finally reached the bathroom. Inching the door closed with the most stealth she had the entire time, so as not to wake the others.
White-knuckiling the sink, Halley tried to get herself under control. "Keep quiet," she whispered to herself. She didn't want to disturb anyone. Will was having a hard enough time sleeping as it was, and he didn't need Halley fucking it up.
But the feeling wasn't going away. She was going to be sick.
She was sick, she realized too late. She retched into the sink before she could drop down to the toilet, feeling bile rise in her throat. She hadn't eaten much dinner, thank God. But the stomach acid that stood in place of food stung.
She winced, glancing down at the off yellow goo in her sink. Except, it wasn't all that sickly color. There was a mass of something. It was dark, with black and brown spots. Did she throw up mold?
This couldn't be dealt with that right now, her mind was already going a mile a minute and she didn't need mold poisoning to top it all off. She turned on the faucet to wash everything down. But there was something off, something strange.
Halley could have sworn she saw the mass move.
𝙴𝚗𝚍 𝚘𝚏 𝚂𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚘𝚗 𝙾𝚗𝚎