𝐒𝐢𝐱⊰᯽⊱┈──("𝐼𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑡 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑙𝑦𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑠 𝒉𝑒𝑟𝑒.")
⊰᯽⊱┈──╌❊ ¤ ❊╌──┈⊰᯽⊱
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐈𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐀𝐆𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆.
It was already far after sundown, and Elias had yet to see or hear any signs of a slimy monster slug. If all of this turned out to be one huge prank, he was going to kill someone then himself.
Okay. Considering what he had done before, Elias probably wasn't the type of person to have been making suicidal jokes, if it even was a joke.
Sitting next to him in one of the ratty bus seats was Bridget, because of course it was. For the most part, he tried ignoring her and tried focusing on the way Steve was playing with his lighter.
Dustin paced in the most annoying way possible, Max— the redhead who was apparently Dustin's crush— was slumped on the seat next to theirs. Both Yoshi and Lucas were on top of the bus, keeping watch for the monsters, and Elias was so incredibly bored.
After the, honestly, ridiculously spun tale Bridget narrated to him a few hours ago, Elias was expecting this monster hunting experience to be more exciting, with less sitting around and more running for their lives. He felt like he was wasting time with these people. He was bored. He was bored and he needed to go home now.
"Alright. That's it," he declared abruptly, startling everyone in the bus. "I'm out of here. This is a complete waste of time and I'm still convinced that this a fucking joke."
"Yeah," Max added in support. "Are you guys totally one hundred percent sure that it wasn't a bear or something?"
Dustin stopped his pacing and faced Max. "Shit, don't be an idiot, okay? It's not a bear. Why are you even here if you don't believe us. Just go home."
Max shook her head in slight disbelief. "Yeesh. Someone's cranky." She stood up and took a step towards the ladder leading to the top of the bus. She gave Dustin a look. "Past your bedtime?"
And up she went.
Steve looked at Max as she went up, then at Dustin with small grin. "That's good," he said, nodding in approval. "Show her you don't care."
"I don't."
Steve winked at the poor boy, and Elias couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Why are you winking Steve? Stop it."
Elias was ignored, and so he sunk back into the seat with despairing sigh. Morons, the whole lot of them. He considered leaving the bus without a word, because it seemed like whatever he had to say was not important at all.
Bridget nudged him with her elbow, and he turned to look at her. "What the hell was that about?" Bridget asked without looking at him.
He saw her eyeing Steve and Dustin judgementally, and he could wholly agree with that sentiment.
"I tried to stop him you know," he said to her, his tone coloured with regret. She looked at him and quirked an eyebrow in question. "He's trying to give him girl advice, and he's actually doing a shit job."
Bridget rolled her eyes and smiled a little. "Of course he is. I don't think your typical straight white guy knows exactly how girls work," she replied, and her choice of words made Elias pause his train of thought. "That's to say, most straight guys of any race hardly know anything about the subject at all."
Elias parted his lips in mild surprise, and he went to speak and ask what she meant by that, but he was interrupted when Yoshi climbed down from the roof. He paused in between Steve and Dustin, smiled at the younger boy but then scowled at the older one. The slight bored look on Steve's face was wiped off clean, and he instead seemed a bit sheepish.
"Harrington," Yoshi acknowledged, his voice just the slightest bit clipped. Elias frowned at the interaction, and he went to see Bridget's reaction. She merely rolled her eyes, but that was hardly anything to get him in the know. Yoshi then walked away without waiting for a response from Steve.
Elias didn't think they knew each other, at least personally.
Yoshi walked over to them and he sat himself where Max previously was. Bridget held out a fist and Yoshi bumped it absent mindely, almost as if by instinct. "How'd look out go?" She asked him.
Yoshi shrugged one shoulder. "Fine. Had to leave though, 'cause I was starting to feel like I wasn't supposed to be there."
Elias didn't understand what the fuck he meant by that, but Bridget apparently did, because she whistled lowly. "Damn, so it's like that?" Yoshi nodded. "Good for them I guess, but that won't bode well for some people."
Yoshi waved a hand. "Pish posh, Bridgie. I doubt Weaver can tell her what to do. He might be pissed at Lucas though, but you know he can't stay mad at him for long."
Bridget hummed. "He's not the only one though," she said, casting a meaningful look in Dustin's direction, and then suddenly, Elias kind of understood what they were talking about.
Yoshi laughed a little. "Nah, he'll get over it." He paused and turned to smile at Elias. "Well, hello there, pretty boy. Haven't got the chance to introduce myself officially, but as you may know, I'm Yoshi Nakayama."
Elias had three ways to go about this. One, sputter in embarrassment, because what the fuck is he supposed to do when someone like Yoshi calls him 'pretty boy' like he's flirting with him but at the same time teasing him for it?
Two, roll his eyes and ignore him in favour of jumping ship because this is just bullshit he cannot deal with.
Three, brush it off and say something equally as embarrassing and flirty, but in a way that doesn't seem like he's flirting, but like he's teasing, and then change the subject quickly.
He chose number three. "Like you're one to talk," he shot back. "So, is monster hunting a favourite past time for you guys or something?"
Yoshi and Bridget glanced at each other, and then they did some kind of communication with their eyes that left Elias guessing. "Of course. It's a twice in a lifetime experience that's absolutely free, and the only thing required of you is your sanity and the ability to sleep peacefully for more than one night. Would you like you sign up?"
Yoshi smiled again after saying all this, like he was rattling off the details of a vacation destination instead of potential death. His optimism was mildly terrifying, all things considered.
Elias pressed himself into the seat and exhaled quietly. "I think you're all fucking insane," he replied, remembering how everyone else seemed excited for this whole thing instead of the normal reaction.
Bridget nudged him with her elbow again. "It comes with the job descriptions," she said to him. "No monster hunter can ever be sane, because sane people would actually be running away from this instead of actively trying to seek it out."
Yoshi leaned forward, the edges of his smile sharpening. "Yeah, which then means, you're just as insane as the rest of us," he whispered, like it was some kind of secret.
Elias nearly scoffed. Oh, you have no idea, he thought to himself.
And that was the last bit of conversation, because things escalated from that point onwards.
First, Elias felt that hair prickling sensation on the back of his neck, and a sudden chill washed over him. His eyes widened as his hand flew to that spot, and then the most horrifying screech known to man kind infiltrated his ears
Everyone was on alert in an instance, almost like it was routine. Bridget and Yoshi quickly rushed to the front, standing behind Steve and Dustin as the two boys looked through the small opening.
He quietly stood up and joined Bridget and Yoshi in their spot. "You see him?" Dusitn quietly asked.
"No," came Steve's reply.
Yoshi pulled the sleeve of his long sleeve t-shirt and bit the edge of it with his teeth anxiously. Bridget calmly pried them off, then she looked up through the opening. "Anything going on out there, Lucas?!" She asked.
"Hold on!" Said boy yelled back.
Elias held his breath as they waited for...whatever. He looked down and he saw his hand wrapped tightly around Bridget's wrist. He quickly let go, wondering how the hell he even missed that, but he ignored it because she wasn't even looking at him.
"I've got eyes!" Lucas yelled again, and at the same time Elias jumped and felt the chill again. "Ten o'clock! Ten– ten o'clock!"
"Fuck," he whispered to himself, starting to panic so hard that he almost missed Steve's very soft 'there' as be pointed in the direction Lucas gave them.
"What's he doing?" Dustin asked Steve, his breathing getting heavier by the minute, and holy hell, Elias could actually relate to that.
"What–what's going on?" He asked no one particular, his voice shaking.
"I don't know," Steve replied, to both their questions, Elias supposed.
Then he shook his head. "He's not taking the bait. Why's he not taking the bait?"
"Haven't you been leaving trails of beef for him? Maybe he ate it all and he's just not hungry any more," Yoshi suggested.
Steve was quiet for a moment, until he said, "Maybe he's just sick of cow."
Steve, that motherfucker. He was going to use himself as bait.
"Are you out of your fucking mind?" Yoshi hissed at him through his teeth exact same time Dustin asked him what he was doing.
Steve turned to them and gave Elias a meaningful look. "Just get ready," he said as he tossed his lighter to him.
Elias barely caught it, because he was starting to shake. He looked at Steve, his eyes still wide in panic. "What the fuck? No! You're going to get yourself killed, you idiot!"
His heart was hammering against his chest in an unpleasant way, and there was just something awful in his ears, like a shrill ringing—or maybe it was just his mind replaying the screech from earlier with horrifying clarity.
Steve, the utter idiot, held his bat out and smiled with a surprising amount of confidence given the situation. "Don't worry. Pretty sure I can handle it."
Before anyone could say anything else, he opened the door slowly and stepped out tentatively. Elias quickly rushed to the opening and looked through it. He was pretty sure he was sweating enough to fill an entire bucket. Dustin joined him after closing the door.
"He's insane," he whispered. "He's literally fucking mental."
There was soft snarling, and it didn't sound like it came from just one monster slug thing. "Are you sure it was only one monster you had?" He asked Dustin, who was breathing heavily from beside him.
"Positive," he replied, and he sounded just as spooked as Elias felt. It was too foggy for Elias to see anything from that distance, so he just hung on the hope that Dustin was right and it really was only one.
Steve started whistling tauntingly, and it took everything in Elias not swear loudly and order him him come back to the bus.
Elias heard Max's voice join the conversation, but he barely paid attention to her as he kept his eyes on Steve, waiting for anything to jump him. "Come on, come on," he mumbled to himself.
Then he saw it. It looked like a dog, a slimy, emaciated dog with black leathery skin and no face. Elias felt like he was going to the throw up.
The fog cleared out on Steve's left, and Elias saw another one. "Oh, no," he mumbled, still nauseated, and momentarily petrified.
"Steve– Steve!" He tried calling out, but his voice failed him.
"What's wrong?" He heard, Dustin ask, and it was enough to snap him out of it.
Before he knew it, he was handing the lighter to Bridget, grabbing one of the shovels he brought along and stepping out of the bus. He heard Lucas screaming his head off from the top of the bus, warning Steve.
Elias was about to go for the second one, when he heard a very frantic "Three o'clock!" and there was suddenly another jumping on top of a car in that very direction.
Elias wasn't exactly sure what happened next. A monster jumped at him, but Steve hit it before it could reach him. Another came behind Steve, an Elias hit it with a strength he didn't know he possessed and it skidded far, far away from them.
"Abort! Abort!" Dustin was shouting from the bus, and both boys turned around to do so, but another one jumped on Elias's back.
He yelped as he fell to the ground, and then he was screaming in agony because the thing on his back was so cold that it burned him. Sharp teeth sunk into his shoulder, and he screamed louder. The weight was off his back in the second, and suddenly Steve was there, grabbing him and helping him into the bus in a very frantic manner.
His skin was crawling, and everything in his body felt like it had been turned inside out. When Steve shoved him into the bus, ripped himself from his hold and fell to the metal floor.
Someone tried touching him, and it felt like his skin was being cut by a thousand knives, and so he screamed again, and he pushed himself back.
There was a lot of noise, and the buzz was rattling so much that Elias felt like he was going to throw up.
"Okay, Elias. I don't know what's happening with you right now, but we need to head to the back right now, alright?" Bridget said to him. He couldn't tell when he had stopped screaming, but he was now crying and sobbing and then Bridget was dragging him to the back of the bus. He felt like he was burning whenever anyone tried touching him.
And so he grit his teeth, and he let her take him all the way back there.
It was chaos. Steve was trying to keep the door shut, Dustin was yelling into his walkie talkie for back up, Yoshi was trying to shield Lucas from potential harm, Max was just as confused as he was, probably a bit less though.
The rattling stopped, but then it got so much worse.
Something landed on top of the bus. Elias, through his sobbing and shivering, managed to look up to the roof the same time as Max and Bridget did, and they all realised the same thing.
It went quiet, and then Max screamed.
⊰᯽⊱┈──╌❊ ¤ ❊╌──┈⊰᯽⊱
dun, dun, duuuuuuuun!
good–whatever time of day it is where you are you beautiful people!!!
How's it going??? Me?? I feel like shit, but that's hardly anything new.
I don't have much to say, i just hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Bye~
-🙈💜