"YOU'RE POSITIVE IT WAS DART?"
Ginny trudged alongside Steve at the head of the group, as they made their way through the dark forest back to his car. It was the fifth time Lucas had asked this question, and her head hurt.
She'd dabbed away most of the blood from the slash on her head with the hem of her sleeve, but it still ached with every step.
"Yes," insisted Dustin. "He had the exact same yellow pattern on his butt—"
"He was tiny two days ago," Max said.
Dustin sighed. "Well, he's molted three times already."
"Malted?" Steve asked.
"Molted," Dustin corrected. "Shed his skin to make room for growth like hornworms."
"Well when's he gonna molt again?" Max asked nervously.
Dustin shrugged. "Gotta be soon. When he does, he'll be fully grown, or close to it."
Ginny blinked. "That wasn't fully grown?"
Dustin shook his head. "The Demogorgon we knew was the size of a man, and walked around on two legs."
"The fuck...?" Ginny muttered, eyes wide.
"And so will his friends," Dustin finished.
Steve nodded. "Yeah, and he's gonna eat a lot more than just cats."
Lucas jumped in front of them, stopping suddenly. "Wait, a cat? Dart ate a cat?"
"No, what? No." Dustin answered awkwardly, caught.
Steve frowned, turning to look at them. "What are you talking about? He ate Mews."
Ginny made a cross over her chest. "Rest in peace, little guy."
Lucas scoffed, but Max still frowned. "Mews? Who's Mews?"
Steve shrugged, "It's Dustin's cat."
"STEVE!" shouted Dustin, just as Lucas shoved him.
"I knew it!" Ginny's brother cried. "You kept him!"
"No!" Dustin insisted, but he was not good at lying. "No! No, I... I... No... He missed me! He wanted to come home."
"Bullshit!" Lucas shouted.
"I didn't know he was a Demogorgon, okay?"
"Oh, so now you admit it!"
"Guys, who cares, we have to go!" Max tried, frustrated.
Lucas rounded on her. "I care!" He swerved back to Dustin. "You put the party in jeopardy! You broke the rule of law!"
"SO DID YOU!"
Ginny closed her eyes and sighed, resting on her hip. Her head hurt way too much to listen to her brother and Dustin scream at each other for no reason at all.
"You told a stranger the truth!" Dustin insisted, shining his light in Max's face to point out the stranger.
Max scoffed. "A stranger?"
"You wanted to tell her too!" Lucas said.
"Yeah, but I didn't, Lucas, okay! I didn't—"
"You told my sister! That's even worse!"
Ginny rolled her eyes. Next to her, Steve turned toward the tree line, frowning. She caught his gaze as the pre-teens argued behind them.
If she blocked out their voices and listened hard enough, she could hear it too— growling, roaring in the distance. She swallowed and met Steve's gaze.
"Guys."
The kids continued to argue, ignoring them.
"Guys!"
They stopped and looked at their older counterparts. Another loud roar echoed in the distance.
Determinedly, Steve swung his bat onto his shoulder and set off through the trees. Ginny followed, and the kids too, except for Max, who was obviously the only one with common sense.
"No, no, no. Hey, guys, why are you headed towards the sound?"
They ignored her, and eventually she followed. Their trudge ended when the trees opened onto a hilltop that overlooked the foggy town of Hawkins.
"I don't see them," said Dustin.
Ginny shook her head, the roaring continuing. Lucas lifted his binoculars to his eyes and gasped quietly.
"It's the lab." He lowered his arms. "They were going back home."
Ginny ran a hand through her hair, the gash on her forehead stinging.
"God, I could really use a cigarette right now."
｡･:*:･ﾟ★ ｡･:*:･ﾟ
GINNY'S NOT SURE HOW THESE KIDS ARE SO GOOD AT DIRECTIONS. She was lost the second they stepped foot in the treeline, showcasing how extremely directionally challenged she was— but the kids led them all the way to the lab at the edge of Hawkins.
A voice called out to them before they broke through the trees. "Hello? Who's there!"
Steve and Ginny poked their way through to see Nancy and Jonathan standing at the edge of the road. They lowered their flashlights.
"Steve?" Nancy and Jonathan said in sync and shock.
Steve blinked. "Nancy?"
Ginny shot finger guns at them. "Hey, Jonathan."
He just frowned. "Ginny?"
Steve set off toward the two, and Ginny had no choice to follow.
Nancy demanded, "What are you doing here?"
Something hot flashed in her chest, as Steve and Nancy neared each other. "What're you doing here?"
"We're looking for Mike and Will," she answered, her light eyes flickering between Steve and Ginny.
"They're not in there, are they?" Dustin asked nervously.
Nancy shook her head. "We're not sure..."
A sinking feeling pulled at her stomach again, and her sudden jealousy was forgotten when she saw the expression of terror on Jonathan's face. Wherever Will was, it's likely his mother was there too, his whole family.
He swallowed nervously. "Why?"
Another screech pierced the air, answering the question for him. This one was much louder and closer, sounding like howling ghouls— coming from the lab.
Jonathan raced toward the gate, faster than any of them. He pressed the button rapidly.
Ginny, Nancy, Steve, and Max waited at the gate, but nothing happened. Dustin wiggled his way into the booth with Jonathan. "Let me try."
"No," said the older boy. "Hang on—"
"Let me try, Jonathan." Dustin pushed him out of the way, but didn't do anything different. He pressed the button rapidly.
"Son of a bitch, you know what—!" he cursed when it didn't work.
Suddenly, the door buzzed and the gate slid open. Dustin giggled. "Hey! I got it!"
Jonathan ignored him and ran to join Nancy and Steve in front of their car.
"Do we just... go in?" Ginny asked, looking to Steve. "I feel like we should have a- a plan..."
"We don't have time for a plan," Jonathan grunted, throwing open the door to the car. Nancy ran around to the other side, and as soon as the gate was open, they zipped through, towards the lab.
Ginny crossed her arms as they waited for something to happen. It was almost morning again, and she was starting to feel lightheaded from lack of food and sleep.
Steve played with his flashlight, leaning next to her. Lucas and Dustin paced around, and Max—
"Max?" Ginny asked, seeing the girl staring at the lab.
Before she could answer, two cars swung around the corner of the building, honking loudly.
One raced past them— Jonathan, Nancy, Joyce Byers, Mike and Will— but the other screeched to a stop in front of them— A Hawkin police car.
The sheriff himself, Jim Hopper, sat in the driver's seat. "Let's go!" he ordered.
Steve yanked open the door and shoved the kids inside. "Get in! Get in!"
Dustin was the last to squeeze over the middle console into the back, before Steve ushered Ginny by her lower back into the passenger seat. He jumped in next to her, squeezing them both together, before slamming the door shut.
"Let's go!" he told Hopper, and the tires squealed when they pulled away.
｡･:*:･ﾟ★ ｡･:*:･ﾟ
THE SUN HAD YET TO RISE ON THE BYER'S HOUSE, BUT GINNY KNEW IT WAS DUE TIME.
She sagged tiredly against the kitchen counter, watching the tears fall on the kids' faces at the table. Will was sick, possessed— and Joyce's boyfriend had been killed by the demogorgons in the lab.
Ginny was sick to her stomach, when Hopper told them. She didn't even know Bob Newby, but it iced fear up her veins to hear of his fate. What if it had been Lucas in that lab?
The late night was getting to all of them.
Steve wandered into the kitchen, while Hopper talked to someone on the phone.
Ginny tried to block him out, because the sheriff was a loud man and her head was pounding. She had help with that when Steve settled at the counter next to her.
He eyed the gash on her forehead, his brow furrowing. She looked sallow, pallid. "Hey..." he said softly, brushing a piece of her hair to the side. The strand was sticky with blood. "Did you get someone to look at that?"
Even though she felt like shit, Ginny gave him a quiet, half-hearted snort of laughter, and cracked a joke. "Like who?"
"I don't know, man, these kids are pretty damn smart." He spoke lowly and warmly, looking over his shoulder at Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Max at the kitchen table.
Ginny smiled softly. "Yeah, they are... But none of them are doctors."
Steve lifted himself off the counter to face her completely, and Ginny did the same, shifint her hips to the corner, where countertops met.
"I'm not a doctor, either, but... You should probably clean it," he explained. "If the scratch goes deep enough, you might turn into one of those things."
This granted him a soft smile. She shook her head, that damn smile gleaming like moonlight. "They're not werewolves, you know that right?"
Steve made a face. "Do we know that, though? Like, really, are we sure?"
Ginny shook her head as she laughed quietly, and Steve couldn't take his eyes off of her— of the little crinkles at the corners of her eyes made when her smile grows, or the darkness of her eyes, the bounce of her hair as she laughed.
When their laughter died, Steve's voice got softer. "C'mon. Let me see it."
Ginny sighed and pushed her hair back the best she could. Steve leaned over to run a bit of cold water over a clean towel from the Byers kitchen drawer, before he faced her again.
Smiling softly at first, Ginny allowed him to take her face in his hands. She was surprised by his tenderness. Using his fingers, he tilted Ginny's head toward the light above them, so he could peer at the slash just below her harline.
Gently, he dabbed at it with the cloth. Ginny winced and he stopped instantly, meeting her eyes.
They were frozen like that for a moment, something buzzing between them.
Steve just had one of the worst nights of his life, but for some damned reason, he still really wanted to kiss the girl in front of him.
He fought the urge, though, for fear of ruining the moment and making the night worse.
Ginny wouldn't have minded though. She wanted to kiss him, too.
Their stare broke when Jonathan and Nancy entered the kitchen, hand-in-hand.
Though Steve's hand remains tucked along Ginny's jaw, the heel of his palm brushing her cheek, he turned to look at his ex-girlfriend.
Ginny felt a flash of hot over her face again, but it went away when her gaze focused on Nancy's hand in Jonathan's. She reached for Steve's and lowered it from her face to the counter beside them.
"Are you okay, Steve?" she asked lowly.
Steve blinked down at her. "What?"
"I just thought... Nancy and Jonathan... you okay?"
Something about the softness in her eyes made his shoulders relax, and he forgot Nancy was even in the room.
"Yeah, I'm okay. We made a pact, remember?" He prodded at her hand behind her on the counter with his pointer finger until she opened it and allowed him to push their fingers together.
Warmth spread on Ginny's cheeks. It had been a long time since a boy made her blush, and it was never, ever because of something as vanilla as holding her hand.
Steve Harrington was special, and if Nancy didn't see that, it's her fault.
"Yeah," she replied, smiling. "We did make a pact."
Ginny wasn't mad at Nancy for being with Jonathan now, and neither was Steve. He figured he should be thanking her.
Steve kept his hand firmly in Ginny's, even when they joined the kids at the kitchen table and Hopper slammed the phone into the wall.
Dustin sighed. "They didn't believe you, did they?"
Hopper turned around blankly. "We'll see."
"'We'll see?' We can't just sit here while those things are loose!" hollered Mike.
Hopper shifted on his feet. "We stay here and we wait for help," he ordered, oddly calm, before leaving the room— likely to go find Joyce.
Ginny swallowed thickly. She looked at Jonathan. "Do you think your mom would mind if I..." She gestured toward the pantry. "I think we should eat now, in case..." Her sentence died in her throat.
Jonathan smiled softly. "No, she wouldn't care... Thank you, Ginny."
Smiling in return, Ginny moved toward the cabinets to find something for all the kids. Steve followed, his hand tucked in hers still, and they gathered all the sandwich stuff they could find.
Soon enough, all the kids sat around the kitchen table, including Steve, Jonathan, and Nancy. Ginny stood behind Lucas.
Mike was the only one to not touch his sandwich. It sat in front of him as he laid his head down on his arms.
"Mike?" Nancy tried. "You should eat."
He ignored her and stood, making his way into the living area, where Will slept soundly on the couch. He picked a blue cube off the side table. "Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?"
Dustin blinked. "Really?"
Mike turned to them, nodding. "He petitioned the school to start it and everything. Then he had a fundraiser for equipment. Mr. Clarke learned everything from him."
He made is way to the table again, placing the cube onto it. "Pretty awesome, right?"
Dustin and Lucas nodded. Max stared at the table.
"We can't let him die in vain."
"Well what do you want to do, Mike?" Dustin asked sharply. "The Chief's right on this, we can't take the demodogs on our own."
Max scowled. "Demodogs?"
Dustin explained it slowly. "Demogorgon — dogs. Demodogs. It's like a compound."
Max obviously understood, but made a face because he was acting like she was stupid.
"Its a play on words—"
"Okay, I got it." Max rolled her eyes.
Dustin sighed, looking at his hands sadly. "I mean, when it was just Dart, maybe..."
"But there's an army now," Lucas finished.
Ginny watched them sadly. They shouldn't be this grown up already. It was weird and... sad.
Something dawned on Mike's face. "His army."
Steve looked at him. "What do you mean?"
"His army!" Mike repeated. "Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too!"
Dustin and Lucas shared a look, before all four kids raced off to Will's bedroom. Ginny sighed, and led the older kids to follow.
"The shadow monster," Dustin said, when they'd arrived. He held one of Will's drawings in his hand.
"It got Will that day on the field. The doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him," Mike explained.
Max nodded along. "So, this virus... it's connecting him to the tunnels?"
"To the tunnels, monsters, the Upside Down, everything—" Mike said fervently.
"Whoa, whoa, slow down," Steve said, confused. Ginny nodded with him. She was a little confused too; all of this was so new to her. What's the shadow monster?
Mike showed them the picture. "Okay, so. The shadow monster's inside everything— and if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will."
"And so does Dart," Lucas realized.
Mike nodded. "Yeah, like what Mr. Clarke taught us. The hive mind."
Steve frowned. "Hive mind?"
"A collective consciousness. It's a super-organism," Ginny and Dustin answered at the same time.
Steve narrowed his eyes at them, and Ginny shrugged.
"What? I took eighth-grade biology..." she muttered. She handed the drawing back to Mike, as he continued.
"This is the thing that controls everything," he told them, pointing at the shadow monster. "It's the brain."
Dustin's eyes widened. "Like the mind flayer."
Lucas snapped, pointing at him.
Now Ginny was even more confused.
"The... what?" she, Max, and Steve all wondered.
The boys took off through the house, gathering Hopper and everyone around the table again. Dustin slapped down his Dungeons and Dragons manual.
"The Mind Flayer."
a/n:
all capital letters are reserved for dustin's screaming only bc he is so passionate
also, rewatching season two, it blows my mind how Mike doesn't know Will is in love with him like : ) if season 2 mike treated me like he treats will, shiiiii I might be in love too
but mike made me so angry in season 3 in 4 :( literally NONE of them deserve Will, excluding his mom and jonathan. everyone is so mean to him and all he does is support them.
that's my rant for today lol. I have big plans for ginny in season 4 so ; )))
ta ta!