I had only been to Dustin's house a couple of times before since Mike's was usually the place to hang out for the party. So when I heard my walkie talkie frantically going off with the sound of Dustin's voice, I knew it wasn't good. He told me to get to his house immediately and that he'd explain everything once I got there. So now I was at the Henderson's house.
"It ate my cat." Dustin told me the second I walked in through the door.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait. What ate your cat?" I asked, looking around the house. Dustin hesitated before he mumbled, looking away from me.
"Dart."
"Dart? How did he eat your cat?" I noticed on the floor was some laid out pieces of bologna. "Wait a second, you kept Dart?"
"We had a connection!" He defended himself and I shook my head. "Turns out he's actually a baby Demogorgon."
"Seriously, Dustin? That's super irresponsible of you! What if Dart hurt you? You could've at least told me, you know I would've kept it a secret for a little while unless something happened."
"I'm sorry. I didn't think he would eat my cat!" Dustin apologized and I sighed. "He's in my room now. I need to get him into my basement before my mom gets home."
"Alright, so what's the plan?" I asked.
"I already set up the trail. As soon as I open the door, we start running outside and to the shed. Dart will follow the trail, and when he's close to the basement, you slap him inside with a hockey stick." He explained. I looked over towards the couch to see a hockey stick laying on top of it. I glanced back over at Dustin.
"Seems easy enough." I shrugged and the two of us continued setting up the trap for Dart. Dustin began putting on what he liked to call "armor" so Dart wouldn't hurt him. He gave me some knee pads and an old life vest for my protection, which I appreciated. Needless to say, Dustin was covered head to toe in protection, but I'd rather get eaten than watch him get hurt. The two of us looked around to make sure we weren't missing anything. I held the hockey stick by my side. The two of us headed over to Dustin's room, and Dustin called out to him.
"All right, Dart. Breakfast time." Thankfully his door slid open so it was a bit easier to get Dart out of the room. Dustin opened it quickly and began hopping down the hallway, his armor making him too stiff to run. He began letting out a series of "oh, my God"s and "shit"s and didn't stop the whole way to the shed. I ran behind him protectively but also trying to be quick so Dart wouldn't catch up to us. We followed the meat trail all the way outside and to the back of Dustin's house where a green shed stood. We ran inside and shut the door behind us, and only then did Dustin's cries stop.
We began peeking through the cracks of the shed where the wood was separated. "Come on. Come on, I know you're hungry." Dustin whispered to himself before gasping lightly as Dart rounded the corner and appeared by the front door.
"Yes. Yes, yes, yes." I joined him as the two of us watched the creature. It was clearly a small Demogorgon now, and the monster began eating up the bologna slices one by one. It walked on all fours and had a tail, and it was a bit scary to see one now after trying to forget all about the Upside Down the last ten or so months.
"Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes." Dustin whispered and began panting a bit in nervousness. Dart came up closer to the shed, swallowing the slices without chewing. Dustin let out more "yes"s, and I quickly smacked his arm to get him to be quiet. Dart stepped up to the basement doors, peering in before it stopped in it's place. It turned, staring directly at Dustin and I. "Shit!" Dustin quickly let out in a hushed tone as he took a few steps back from the boards, and I did the same.
A second passed before I decided to check again. Only this time, it was closer than before, and was still staring directly at me and Dustin. We quickly put our backs against a different wall, breathing heavily. We knew this wasn't going as planned, and I clutched the hockey stick close to my chest. I could hear Dart chittering outside as he drew closer to the shed. I chewed on my lip, shutting my eyes tightly before I threw open the shed door and began chasing after Dart, shouting loudly. Startled, it began screeching and running back towards the basement. I brought up the hockey stick and swung it back down, hitting Dart. The baby Demogorgon flew back, hitting the door to the open basement before falling inside and down the wooden steps. Dustin ran out of the shed and quickly shut the large doors as Dart tried to run back up. He laid down on top of them and let out a grunt.
"I'm sorry. You ate my cat."
~
Dustin and I began getting rid of the evidence for when his mom got back home. I saw the scene of his cat, and it made me cringe and feel upset at the sight of it. I reluctantly grabbed it and brought it outside for us to bury so Dustin wouldn't have to do it himself. Dustin had already dug up a hole for the cat to go into, so all I had to do was place him in there. Dustin began piling back on dirt in the gravesite while I tried to call everyone else on his walkie. I had already been trying ever since we got Dart into the basement, but no one was answering.
"Guys, this is (Y/n) again. Does anyone copy? This is a code red. I repeat, a code red!" No one answered, of course, and I sighed as I looked at Dustin. He wiped sweat off of his forehead and I went to go clean up the blood from Dustin's floor. Dustin informed me that there were cleaning supplies underneath his sink in the kitchen, so I went searching for some carpet cleaner in there. "I really need someone to pick up here." I tried the walkie again but to no avail. "Hopper's MIA, and We've got a code red." I began putting on some rubber gloves.
I went into Dustin's room with handfuls of cleaning supplies and a brush to help scrub the blood off. A little ways into cleaning I tried the radio once more. "All right, it's (Y/n) again. Seriously, we have a code red." I scrubbed at the blood harder, and when I heard a voice on the other end, I just about jumped.
"Could you please shut up?" A little girl demanded from the other end. I recognized it as Lucas's little sister, Erica.
"Erica? Erica, is Lucas there?" I asked her, getting hopeful. "Where is he?"
"Don't know. Don't care." She responded.
"Is he with Mike?" I questioned.
"Like I said, I don't know and I don't care." I could hear her eye roll from here.
"Please tell him it's super important, would you? Could you tell him that we have a code--" I began but was cut off by the little firecracker.
"Code red?"
"Yep, a code red. Exactly." I nodded with a grin.
"Mmm-hmm." She responded sassily. "I got a code for you instead. It's called code shut-your-mouth." She spoke into her walkie talkie before all I could hear from my end was static.
"Erica?" I asked before sighing to myself. I completely understood how her and Lucas were siblings.
~
I told Dustin about how no one was responding to the code red, so we decided to ride our bikes to their houses instead. It was seriously weird that no one was responding, though. We hit Mike's house first, and when we got there, Dustin began ringing the doorbell over and over again. It took a while for one of them to respond, but when someone did, it was Mr. Wheeler.
"Your line has been busy for over two hours, Mr. Wheeler. Do you realize this?" Dustin informed him and the man nodded.
"Oh, I do realize." He said in a grumbly voice.
"Is Mike home?" I asked and he quickly responded.
"No." He shook his head.
"No? Well, where the hell is he?" Dustin questioned. Mr. Wheeler turned away from us and yelled into the house.
"Karen, where's our son?"
"Will's!" Mrs. Wheeler shouts back. Mr. Wheeler turns back to us as if we hadn't heard Mrs. Wheeler from inside.
"Will's."
Dustin sighed. "No one's picking up there." Mr. Wheeler started to shut the door before I spoke up.
"Nancy. What about Nancy?" Mr. Wheeler turned back into the house again.
"Karen, where's Nancy?" I heard an audible sigh before Karen shouted back, annoyed.
"Ally's!"
"Ally's." Mr. Wheeler repeated in a monotone voice. "Our children don't live here anymore. You didn't know that?"
"Seriously?" Dustin scoffed.
"Am I done here?" Mr. Wheeler asked us.
"Son of a bitch. You're really no help at all, you know that?" Dustin and I turned away from the house and began walking back towards our bikes. Mr. Wheeler took a step out and scolded us.
"Hey! Language." I rolled my eyes and the two of us sped walked over to our bikes and hopped back on them. Before we could take off, though, a brown familiar car pulled up to the house.
Steve stepped out, talking to himself as he began walking up to the Wheeler's front door carrying a bouquet of flowers. Dustin and I looked at one another before we jogged over to Steve. "Steve!" Dustin grabbed his attention, causing him to stop walking. "Are those for Mr. or Mrs. Wheeler?" Dustin asked.
"No." Steve responded, confused, and I grabbed the flowers from him.
"Good." I said, and began walking towards Steve's car while Dustin followed behind me. Steve began following in confusion.
"Hey. What the hell? Hey!" He called out to us, and I turned back to him.
"Nancy isn't home." I shrugged.
"Where is she?" Steve asked, and Dustin spoke up.
"Doesn't matter. We have bigger problems than your love life." Dustin opened the passengers seat of the car before I shooed him away, forcing him to sit in the back. Dustin rolled his eyes in protest before opening the backseat door.
"Do you still have that bat?" I asked Steve as I leaned on the passenger's door.
"Bat? What bat?" Steve shrugged.
"The one with the nails?" I elaborated.
"Why?" Steve questioned. I sighed, motioning for him to follow.
"We'll explain it on the way." I helped myself into Steve's passenger seat.
"Now?" Steve asked.
"Now!" Dustin shouted, and Steve jogged over to the driver's side to get in. If no one else could help out, then at least we had Steve.