My adrenaline induced body instinctively chooses flight in this fight or flight situation. My vision tunnels. Everything around me is a blur. The only sound I hear over my pounding heartbeat is Nancy screaming for Jonathan.
Both of us panic. We run farther and farther, getting turned around and lost. But we have to get away. We have to get out of here. Or else we'll die.
"Jonathan!" Nancy screams. Neither of us stop for a second, too afraid that if we did we'd get eaten.
There's a far away, echoey voice that belongs to Jonathan. He shouts our names.
"Where is he!?" I yell, on the verge of tears from fear.
"Nancy!?"
"Jonathan!" She yells through her heavy panting, looking around wildly.
"He's got to be here!" I say. "Jonathan!?"
"Jonathan, we're right here!" She screams.
"I'm right here!" His voice says. "I'm right here! Just follow my voice!"
We take off in the direction of his voice. He keeps talking. "Just follow my voice, y/n and Nancy! I'm right here!"
Red lightning streaks across the sky. We walk around a cluster of trees, still searching for Jonathan, when we're met with the monster. It stands way taller than us on two legs. Its head turns to us and it snarls.
Again, we take off running.
My calves burn, feeling like they're going to give out at any moment. Running isn't something I was made to do, I hate running—but here I am, running for my life.
Nancy grabs my jacket and pulls me behind a tree with her. Our backs are firmly pressed to the cold bark, the ridges digging into my spine more with each heavy breath I take.
From behind us, the thing lets out a low growl, on the prowl for us. Its heavy footsteps seem to shake the ground.
I hold my breath, tightly screwing my eyes shut and biting down on my bottom lip so hard the metallic taste of blood taints my tongue. Nancy keeps a firm grip on my hand as if I'm the only thing keeping her grounded.
The monster grows closer. Its low grumbles come from the other side of our tree.
"Follow my voice. Y/n, Nancy, follow my voice!" Jonathan's voice comes from the tree to our right.
The monster lets out a loud bellow, but sounds like it's farther from us now. Nancy and I meet eyes and she mouths the word, go. We run to the tree and drop to our knees in front of the hole. I push her in first. She starts crawling through quickly and I follow behind her.
Heavy footsteps sound from behind us, the monster charging at the tree. The dirt beneath my hands shake. "Nancy, go!" I scream. "It's coming!"
She breaks through a thick layer of goo and rolls out of the tree and right into Jonathan's arms. I tumble out next. She lies on his chest, panting heavily while he cradles her. I sit up and look at the hole we just came through, still hearing the low rumbling from the beast on the other side.
The mucousy membrane begins healing over. The bark on the tree shifts around until the hole completely disappears, leaving the tree looking like the portal never existed.
I am in way over my head now.
The three of us head back to Nancy's house. Since none of us are too keen on being separated right now after that, a sleepover is the mutual agreement.
Nancy attempts to climb up the side of her house first, not wanting to wake her family and them find out she's been out past curfew. She seems to know where the footholds are as she scales the walls, making me wonder if either she's done this before... or has seen someone else do it. I climb up next, then lastly Jonathan.
Her room is light and girly—the walls are pastel pink and white striped with white trim, her curtains a very pale shade of green. A ballerina jewelry box sits on top of her chest of drawers. On the wall above her nightstand hangs a Tom Cruise poster. Of course she would have that.
"Do you mind if I call my parents?" I ask.
"No, of course not," she says, taking a seat on her bed and bringing her arms close to her like a hug.
I spin my finger around the rotary of her phone, dialing the home phone at my house. "Hello?" My dad picks up.
"Hey, dad. Um, sorry it's a little late, but I had forgotten to tell you guys that Nancy asked me to spend the night with her. I'm at her house now."
"Who's Nancy?" He asks. He can never remember any of my friends' names. Not even Robin, who he's known since I was in middle school.
"Nancy Wheeler. Lives down the street...?"
"Honey, you know a Nancy Wheeler?" He calls back to my mother. "Okay," he says to me. "Your mother says as long as you are safe at her house, you can stay. Just don't leave until it's time for school in the morning."
I let out a breath of relief. "Thanks. Goodnight. Love you."
"Love you, too. Goodnight." He hangs up. I turn around to face Nancy. Jonathan sits next to her on her bed rubbing her back comfortingly.
"I'm going to get a shower," I say, and Nancy nods her head, eyes still cast to the floor.
Slime and dirt washes down the drain in a swirl. My hair had hardened in strands from the goo in that tree tunnel. I scrub hard, wanting to get every piece of whatever that place was off of me.
I lift my face towards the shower head to rinse the soap from my face. A picture of the monster flashes through my head. The little spouts pouring water out of the shower head resembles the teeth of the monster, and the shower head looking like its opened mouth.
I rub my eyes harshly, trying to erase the image from my mind. I look back up at the shower head. That's all it is, I tell myself. A simple shower head. It can't hurt me.
Once I finish showering, I dry off and get dressed into some of Nancy's pajamas she's letting me borrow, then head into her room. She's already in bed, her hair wet from the shower she got in a different bathroom. She pats the empty space in the bed beside her. "You can sleep here."
"Thanks," I say quietly, carefully stepping over Jonathan, who lies on a pallet on the floor beside the bed.
Nancy leaves the lights on and none of us tell her to cut them off. I'd much rather sleep with them on, anyway. I lie awake, staring at the white popcorn ceiling above and thinking about what happened. It's not like I could get my mind to stop thinking about it if I wanted to.
The monster is a loner, doesn't have a pack of any sort. It must live in that place Nancy and I were in. My biggest question is why did it only just now show up in our world? What brought it here and why now? And also, how does it travel through those riff things in the trees? Does the monster open them? Or are these riffs already there, opening naturally and the monster just finds them and takes advantage of it?
✶
I never would've thought that I'd be going into the small army surplus store in Hawkins, but here we are, buying all different kinds of weapons.
There are shotguns, pistols, revolvers, bear traps, bait, and a bunch of other stuff. Some knives hang on the hooks of a shelf. I run my finger over the one with an eight inch blade. It's one of those heavy duty bushcraft knives a survivalist would use deep in the wilderness. I get two and put them in my shopping basket.
Jonathan, Nancy and I meet back up at the register and set our items down—some knives, a bear trap, mallets and stakes, a big red can of gasoline. Nancy continues to set down more things you wouldn't want to see three teenagers buying.
The cashier stares at us, his face saying, please, just try not to blow anyone up.
"And I'll have four boxes of the .38s," Jonathan says.
Please, no, the man's face seems to say, but he still walks over to a shelf and gets the bullets, placing them in front of us. "What you kids doin' with all this?"
"Um..." Jonathan looks at Nancy.
"We're..." I begin.
"Monster hunting," Nancy says casually.
"Huh." He rings us up with no more questions asked.
We tote our boxes of weapons out to the car. "'Monster hunting'?" Jonathan asks, grinning at Nancy. He opens the trunk and we start putting everything in the back.
She bites her lip to hide her smile. "You know, last week... I was shopping for a new top I thought Steve might like. It took me and Barb all weekend. It seemed like life or death, you know? And... and now—"
"You're shopping for bear traps with Jonathan Byers and y/n y/l/n," Jonathan finishes.
"Yeah."
"What's the weirdest part? Me, y/n, or the bear trap?"
"I think we all know the answer to this one," I say.
"You," she says, looking at Jonathan. "It's definitely you."
"I can agree with that." I say, and the both of us chuckle.
A car drives by and honks, slowing down just a little bit. "Hey, Nance!" Reed hollers out the rolled down window, him and his friends not bothering to stop. "Can't wait to see your movie." They drive on by, laughing their asses off.
"What was that about?" I ask.
Nancy's eyes follow the car as they disappear from our view down another street. "I don't know." She turns around and looks down the street the boys came from and takes off running.
"Nancy, wait!" I shout, Jonathan and I running after her. "Where are you going?"
She runs across the street and stops in front of the Hawk Theater. The big marquee says ALL THE RIGHT MOVIES. Written in red spray paint below that, STARRING NANCY THE SLUT WHEELER.
She stops in her tracks and stares up at it, her brows pinched up and tears pooling in her lashes. Her mouth hangs open in disbelief.
"Damn," I mutter, my hand on my head as I look up at the sign you can't miss. People stare as they walk by, muttering things.
Nancy takes off again, disappearing into an alleyway beside the theater. Jonathan and I once again follow her. We round the corner to find Steve Harrington standing there with some of his cronies.
"Aw, hey there, princess!" Carol says in a sassy, enthusiastic tone as Nancy marches towards them with fire blazing in her blue eyes.
Nancy steps up to Steve and slaps him across the face, making Steve's faux friends go, ooooh.
"What is wrong with you?" She demands.
"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you?" Steve asks. "I was worried about you." His eyes fall to the ground. "I can't believe that I was actually worried about you."
"What are you talking about?" She asks.
"Wouldn't lie if I were you," Carol says, scrunching her face up and walking closer to Nancy. "You don't want to be known as the lying slut now, do you?"
I give Jonathan a side look and we start walking down the alleyway towards them. The brick wall they're all gathered by is also spray painted with big red letters, JONATHAN BYERS IS A PERV.
"Speak of the devil." Tommy hops down from a step and stalks closer to us, his eyes zeroing in on Jonathan. "Hi."
Carol's brows furrow when she sees me. "Looks like we're going to have to dig up some dirt on y/n now since she hangs out with the slut and the perv."
Tommy takes a step closer to me, a creepy grin on his freckled face. "Yeah, what should we name her..." he strokes his chin, attempting to think. Thinking looks painful for him. "Y/n y/l/n The Coward? The Creep?"
"Or maybe y/n y/l/n The Stalker?" Carol offers. "I saw you watching us in the parking lot the other day. It seems fitting."
"Maybe if you guys weren't making such a big scene, I wouldn't have been watching," I say.
Nancy turns back to Steve, having had time to think about why Steve might be mad at her. "You came by last night?" She guesses.
"Ding! Ding! Ding! Does she get a prize?" Carol asks sarcastically. Tommy puts his arm around her shoulder and she blows a bubble with her bubble gum.
Nancy ignores them. "Look, I don't know what you think you saw, but it wasn't like that."
Steve watches Jonathan from over Nancy's head. "What, you just let him into your room to... study?"
"Or for another pervy photo session?" Tommy snickers. "Was y/n lurking around outside, secretly watching?"
Carol gets a kick out of that. "Or maybe she joined in?"
I fight back the urge to full on attack them. I don't think I could take on both Carol and Tommy. Carol, maybe. But not both.
"We were just..." Nancy tries, but pauses, not knowing how to finish the sentence.
"You were just what? Finish that sentence.
Finish the sentence." Steve waits, but she never finishes. She can't finish it. She can't tell him the bizarre truth of what we went through last night.
"Hey, Harrington." I step closer to him, clenching my fists in the pockets of my jacket. A surge of confidence I rarely get suddenly courses through my veins. "I was there, too. It wasn't just her and Jonathan."
Carol lets out a delighted shriek. "An orgy! This is better than I ever could've imagined!"
Steve look at me with a raised brow. "You expect me to believe that? They were sitting on a bed together and alone."
"Because I was in the shower," I say. That was the only time the two of them were left alone without me. That would've had to be when he showed up. "Now lay off her and Jonathan."
Steve looks down at her. "Go to hell, Nancy."
"Come on, Nancy, let's just leave." Jonathan gently pulls her away from Steve and the two start walking towards the exit of the alley.
"You're an asshole, Steve Harrington," I spat at him before following Jonathan and Nancy.
"You know what, Byers?" Steve runs his hand through his hair and stalks closer to Jonathan. "I'm actually kind of impressed. I always took you for a queer, but I guess you're just a little screw-up like your father." He shoves Jonathan. "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah." He shoves him again, a little harder this time.
Jonathan keeps his back to Steve and ignores him, but the comments are burning him up inside. He balls his fist and bites the inside of his cheek, trying his best to restrain himself.
"Yeah, that house is full of screw-ups," Steve continues. "You know, I guess I shouldn't really be surprised. A bunch of screw-ups in your family."
"Jonathan," I say in a low warning tone, "let's go."
"I mean, your mom..." Steve keeps going, "I'm not even surprised what happened to your brother."
That comment hits me hard. It's one thing to talk about Jonathan, but to drag Joyce and Will into this, too? When Will is still missing? No. "Hey, you're 'bout to cross the line Harrington," I warn, jabbing my finger at him.
"Steve, shut up!" Nancy demands.
"I'm sorry I have to be the one to tell you, but the Byers," he hits Jonathan in the back, "their family," he hits him again, "it's a disgrace to the entire—"
Jonathan whips around and punches Steve in the face so hard he falls against the wall of the building. Steve wipes the blood dripping from his nose and looks at his red stained fingertips. Steve tackles Jonathan, throwing him on the hood of a car.
"Steve!" Nancy shouts.
"Get him, Jonathan!" I yell. "Beat him up!"
Steve throws Jonathan on the ground and gets on top of him. The two boys roll across the pavement, throwing punches. Each tries to get the upper hand.
"Kick his ass, man!" Tommy yells at Steve.
Jonathan gets the upper hand, but not for long. Steve knees him in the stomach and slips from his clutches.
"Stop! Steve! Knock it off, you guys!" Nancy shouts.
"Get in there, he's going to hurt himself!" Carol tells Tommy and he jumps in the fight between the two boys.
"Easy, easy!" Tommy holds his hands out like a cowboy trying to tame a wild horse.
"Hey. Hey! Get out of here!" Steve tells Tommy, shoving him out of the way.
Jonathan swings another punch, but Steve dodges it and lands one on Jonathan instead. Jonathan punches Steve, almost knocking him to the ground.
Nancy tries to break up the fight, but the boys ignore her. Jonathan throws another punch, hitting Steve in the jaw, this time knocking him to the pavement. He climbs on top of Steve and begins punching him repeatedly.
I stand and watch. There's not much I can do. Even Tommy couldn't break it up, and neither can Nancy. Somebody is finally putting King Steve in his place. He deserves this. I'm proud of Jonathan for getting the revenge he deserves.
A siren begins wailing in the street behind us. The police car pulls over and two officers get out, running over to break up the fight. One of them attempts to pull Jonathan off of Steve, but Jonathan accidentally punches the deputy in the nose.
The deputy clutches his bloody nose in pain, staggering backwards. "Ow, my nose!"
The other deputy manages to pull the out of control Jonathan off Steve and slams him against the hood of a car.
Tommy drags Steve off the pavement and the little dickhead posse runs away, despite being perused by the other deputy. "Get back here you punk!" The deputy shouts, chasing them.
The one remaining deputy here handcuffs Jonathan's hands behind his back. "I got this one!"
Nancy rubs her eyes in frustration and groans, her voice wet from crying.
I really didn't think it was going to go this far. If I'm being totally honest, I didn't think Jonathan had it in him to beat Steve up. But Steve didn't even have a chance.
The cops take Jonathan back to the station and give Nancy and I a ride there. We wait in the break room with Flo, the secretary, while she gets some ice cubes out of the freezer.
"Do you think we'll be out of here soon?" Nancy asks. We've already been here a little while.
"You two, yes. Him, no. He assaulted a police officer."
"Well, how long are you gonna keep him?"
"You and your boyfriend have big plans, do you?" Flo places a few ice cubes in a towel and wraps it up.
Nancy crosses her arms and chuckles nervously. "He's not my boyfriend."
"I think you better tell him that."
"What?" She asks cluelessly.
"Only love makes you that crazy, sweetheart." She hands her the ice pack. "And that damn stupid."
Nancy leaves, taking the ice pack to Jonathan for him to put on his bruises.
I sigh and lean back in my chair, putting my hands behind my head and looking up at the ceiling. At least we shouldn't have to wait here much longer.
Flo walks over to the table and takes a seat. "She'll figure it out someday."
"Yeah..." I say. "I guess it's just hard to see that someone cares for you when it's someone you never payed any attention to in the past."
"Damn right." She takes a sip of her coffee. "You seem to be third-wheeling those two love birds. Where's your boyfriend? Was he one of the punks who took off?"
I shake my head and laugh. "God, no. I have much higher standards than those assholes."
"That's what I used to say." She looks at the wall with a fond, nostalgic smile on her lips. She must be recounting her teenage years. "Always thought I'd end up with a guy who had a good, steady job; went to college, maybe." She looks over at me. "Life doesn't ever work out the way we think it will."