»Melanie Martinez, Tag, You're It.«
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If everyone has one moment in life where they are angriest, this is Joyce's. Her eyes are nearly black and her face is beet red. The Sherrif's waiting room is stuffy and claustrophobic. I feel my lungs tighten more by the second.
An officer forces someone through the frosted glass front doors. The noise makes me flinch and look up from my lap. Steve struggles against the officer, Converse squeaking against the tile floor.
"Hey man, ease on the grip!" Steve whines.
"Shut it, Harrington, before I can your dad," the officer mumbles.
As if sensing my gaze, Steve looks at me.
"Hey, that's her! She was there too!" Steve screeches. He turns against the officer to shout back at me. "You broke my nose, psycho!"
My heart sinks.
"Quiet!" The officer yanks on Steve's cuffed wrists tighter, tossing him around a bit.
Steve's jaw slacks as I give him a shit-eating grin. I flip him the bird right before he rounds the corner out of view.
"That kid's a real shithead," Joyce remarks quietly.
I gasp and clasp a hand over my mouth to stop myself from laughing at her immature insult. Joyce realizes what she's accidentally said aloud and giggles.
"Oh, God. I'm sorry," she squeaks, running her hands over her face. "I'm a little stressed,"
"It's alright," I laugh breathily. "me too,"
"I'm glad you were there. Jonathan has a hard time controlling his anger. If someone wasn't there to stand up, we might be dealing with a lot more than assault charges."
I shrug. "Glad I could help."
"Y/N," she suddenly leans forward, taking my left hand in her right one. "Thank you. From the bottom of my heart. I don't know how Jonathan would handle all of this without a friend like you."
I open my mouth to say something but don't get the chance. Hopper appears from his office and beckons for Joyce to slip in through the barely cracked door. She gives me a look as if asking permission to leave me alone. I smile and nod, grateful to get an out of the sentimental conversation. Joyce fades into the background as I settle into my thoughts.
A friend like you.
I think of the Monster. Lanky, sickly, and pale. It's rows of sharp teeth on expanding petal-shaped head flaps. The sickening slurping as it devours it's victims, it's hiss when it searches for prey.
I am forced to come to terms with a harsh reality. The monster under the bed, the beast in the woods your parents warned you about, the creature in that one dark hallway closet...
They are real.
And they exist in a world with a veil between ours and theirs so thin that anyone can crawl through its walls. In a dimension so sinisterly similar yet different to ours, a fractured mirror of the real world.
If monsters are real, and there are other people like me, such as Eleven, what else is there out there?
"Hey," Nancy says, placing a soft hand on my shoulder.
I jolt, frightened. She immediately apologizes but urges me to stand.
Rushed tapping of tennis shoes on tile floor, inconsistent shuffling of coats being pulled on.
"We gotta go," she tells me, linking our forearms. Jonathan is at our side at once, Hopper and Joyce close behind. They murmur something between them.
"What's happening?" I say, voice cracking accidentally.
"It's okay," Jonathan reassures softly. His warm hand gives my shoulder opposite to Nancy a light squeeze.
"Go straight to the school. We'll meet you there," Hopper instructs.
"The school?" I question. Nancy lightly pushes me forward while Jonathan opens the doors.
"The body's not real," Nancy whispers to me once outside the station.
"What?"
"Will's body. It was fake. He's in that place," her hushed voice is rushed and trembling. "You were right. It didn't make sense. I can't believe we missed it."
"I don't think I want to be involved in this anymore," I add meekly.
"Y/N, please. We need your help. Both you and the girl," Jonathan pleads.
"When did you find out about Eleven?" I inquire as I open the back door to his Ford.
"When were you going to tell us you already knew about her?" he counters. The three of us don't even take the time to buckle our seatbelts. Jonathan floors the gas, screeching out of the parking lot and leaving black streaky tire marks in his wake. The stench of burnt rubber fills my nose and I scrunch my face in disgust.
"You're connected to that place somehow, you both are," Jonathan speaks, mindlessly swerving in and out of traffic.
"It's no coincidence that Will and Barb went missing shortly after you two got here," Nancy adds.
"Are you saying I brought that thing to Hawkins?" my throat closes, and I can barely get the words out. Have I caused all of this?
"No. Hopper thinks your supernatural presence woke something up. Kind of like when you throw something in a volcano and it reactivates,"
"You told Hopper?" I snap.
"We had to," Nancy tries.
"What part of 'don't tell anyone' was confusing for you two?"
Trust no one.
"Him and mom can help," Jonathan assures.
"Oh, fantastic! You told Joyce too! Want to give out my social security number while you're at it? I give it three hours before the CIA is trying to capture me for experiments,"
"We won't let anything bad happen to you," Nancy tells me sternly.
"Yeah, " I scoff, crossing my arms and slumping against the leather seat. "I've heard that before."
Trust no one.
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The middle school is dark, with no sign of anyone occupying the premises besides Jonathan's car. We slink around the school's exterior until I find a door barely propped open with a rock. I wander the empty halls of Hawkins Middle School, tiptoeing around corners and keeping my back to the wall. I hear faint commotion from the gymnasium and go to investigate.
"Shit!" Dustin exclaims loudly. I peer through the windows on the gym doors. Lucas and Dustin are rolling something out onto the floor.
The mischievous older sibling in me takes over, and I reach for the walkie in my back pocket. I turn it on and whisper into it with a grave voice,
"Does your mother let you use that kind of language?" Lucas jokes.
"Ah! What the fu-" Dustin screams like a little girl, flailing about.
I burst through the doors. "Dusty! Language!" I fake-scold. Dustin just about shits his pants.
"You scared the shit out of me!" he complains.
"Then don't talk like you're an adult. You're like five," I reprimand.
Lucas laughs hysterically, clutching his stomach and bending over.
I grin like a total idiot. Even in all this chaos, everything that could go wrong, I still have Dustin. I still have my little brother, the only person I've ever called my family.
Trust no one,
Except Dustin.
"Don't laugh. It's not funny!" Dustin whines.
I look around. "What exactly is happening?"
"Eleven can find Will," Dustin tells me.
"And Barb," Nancy adds.
My heart flutters in excitement. Could we really be close to having our friends back? Will the evil I brought to this sleepy town be extinguished?
I fantasize about roughing up Will's thick hair teasingly as he boasts about the latest Dungeons and Dragons campaign. I make a mental list of every book I've read that I think Barbara will enjoy so that I can share them with her when she returns.
Hopper, Joyce, Jonathan, and Eleven join us in the gymnasium. Joyce holds El's hand protectively. The girl perks up when she sees me. She smiles faintly.
"Are you sure she can handle this?" Hopper asks Joyce, hands on his hips.
No one speaks. Eleven's brows furrow and her face scrunches up in offense.. "She can do it," I say confidently. I'm unsure of where it came from. I've only seen her use her powers once, and I have barely spoken to her. Yet I feel connected to her, like family, in a twisted way.
Eleven looks up at me, giving a grateful look. I kneel down, knees on the cold, hard gym floor. I give El's arms a light squeeze. "You got this," I tell her. "And I've got you."
We set up the pool. Joyce informs me that the lab Eleven came from used sensory deprivation to concentrate her abilities. I bite the inside of my cheek and think hard. Sensory deprivation pools... would that work for me, too?
While pouring the salt into the pool, I get some in the cuts on my knuckles, causing them to tingle. I think about how good it felt to punch Steve in the face, even if it busted up my hand a bit. Shortly after that, my mind wanders to how good it also felt to be tightly pressed against him in that alleyway...
"Y/N," Jonathan grabs my attention. I snap out of my trance, realizing I haven't moved from my spot on the sidelines of the basketball court for a while. "It's time," he tells me, reaching out my hand. I bite the inside of my cheek and take his offer to help me.
Eleven lays in the shallow pool, floating on her back. Her eyes are covered with goggles wrapped in duct tape. I sit on the ground next to Joyce, watching intently. Electricity surges throughout the room, startling us.
Eleven is silent, as if in a dream-like state. We wait in dead silence for an excruciating eternity.
"Barbara?" she finally whispers. My attention is drawn to this. The lights hanging from the ceiling sway and flicker. Eleven begins breathing heavily.
"What's going on?" Nancy asks frantically.
"I don't know," Will admits.
"Is Barb okay? Is she okay?"
"Gone." the young girl cries. "Gone."
The world around me shatters into trillions of pieces, so microscopic in size that they can never be put back together. Not in the same way. My stomach twists into knots. I cover my mouth with my hand to muffle the ugly cry that escapes my cracked lips.
I stand on wobbly knees, dashing out of the gym doors and down the hallway. I don't want anyone to see me cry. Tears flow uncontrollably down my cheeks. I make it a few classrooms down the hall before my body gives up, and I collapse into the wall. I tuck my knees into my chest, sobbing into my hands loudly.
Barbara can't be gone.
This is all my fault.
I could have protected her if I had just gone with her that night. This wouldn't have happened. She would be here helping us find Will rather than being one of the people we've been looking for.
I'm the reason she is dead. I killed Barb.
Someone's arms wrap around me. The familiar perfume lingers in the air. It's Nancy. I grip her jacket tightly. We hold each other for an undisclosed amount of time, crying. I wonder if Nancy blames me, too. She should.
"I'm so sorry," I snuggle.
"Me too." she whispers.
We pull away from each other, leaning back against the brick wall. I wipe my face with my sweater sleeve and take a deep breath. I rest my head on Nancy's shoulder.
Jonathan approaches us from the darkness of the hallway. He sits down next to me without a word.
I sit squished between my only two friends, their body heat just enough to stop me from freezing up. Pressed against Nancy's side, I can feel her heavy heartbeat.
Rule Number 3: Don't do things you'll regret.
"I want to kill it." I break the silence. They both look at me. I straighten up. "I can do it."
"Are you sure?" Jonathan says.
I nod. "With help, I'm sure of it. I won't let it hurt anyone else."
"What it that just pisses it off more?" Jonathan counters.
"So what?"
"So what? Are you serious? My little brother is still trapped with that thing,"
"Let's do it." Nancy urges, ignoring Jonathan's protests. Our eyes meet. "For Barb."
"Nance," Jonathan cautions.
"You want it to kill more kids or do you wanna kill it and save your brother?" Nancy snaps.
Her face is cold and pale. Not a scratch of a smile or a hint of joy to be found. She's devastated, masking it with anger. For the first time since meeting Nancy, I feel like I'm looking at a mirror when I see her.
Jonathan shrinks back into his big coat. He's quiet for an uncomfortable length of time. Finally, his thin voice cracks the stone cold air.
"Let's take this thing down."
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I turn the kitchen knife over in my hand a few times, lightly pressing the sharp side into the pads of my fingers. Jonathan, Nancy, and I spent the entire car ride back to the Byers' house producing a plan.
I told the boys to stay with Eleven in the middle school while Joyce and Hopper find Will. I've apparently missed quite a bit in the past week. After Hopper uncovered that Will's body was fake, he broke into the Hawkins lab. He found more than he bargained for.
Will is trapped in a secondary dimension to our own. A darker, sinister copy of life as we know it—the Upside Down. And the gate lies in the basement of Hawkins lab.
I think back to the gate Nancy and I entered in the woods. Is the biome of the Upside Down itself sentient? I recall how it sealed up on its own, casing the monster inside. Did it close up willingly, or was it the result of some sort of biological window of time we narrowly avoided? Would my friend and I have been trapped in that horrible place if we had been gone just a minute longer?
"Are you sure this is going to work?" Jonathan questions, clutching a knife tightly in his right hand.
"Absolutely not," I answer honestly from the couch. "But it's all we've got,"
I study my surroundings. Holes in the wall are boarded up, doing little to stop the cold from leaking in from outside. Jonathan has done his best to repair the damage Joyce did to the house in her search for Will, but there is only so much he can do.
Joyce has also done a fair share of redecorating. If one could call it that. Christmas lights are strung up everywhere, including lining the wall messily painted with the alphabet. Joyce has been exploiting the anomaly that connects the Upside Down and the natural world: lights. The Monster triggers the lights in the real world at its location in the Upside Down. The system is far beyond my current comprehension, but Jonathan did his best to explain it to me with limited time. Will can also communicate with us through the lights by flickering them. He turns certain lights on and off to spell words.
"We'll be okay," Nancy says shakily. I can tell she doesn't believe her own words. Jonathan sits next to Nancy on the couch. I scoot over to give them more space, but they choose to sit close together.
I don't verbally question this. I don't need to. I am sure Jonathan has a crush on Nancy, and I'm starting to believe she feels the same way. They'd be great together, honestly. It seems all well and good until I remember the problem. Steve Harrington. I don't know where Nancy and Steve's relationship lies after the cinema. Hopefully long gone, so I don't have to deal with him as often.
The traps have been set, Nancy's gun is loaded, and gasoline fills the house with pungent, nearly unbeatable air. Jonathan wields a bat he hammered an entire box of nails into.
We go over the plan countless times. We discuss our options if any possible thing goes wrong.
"Straight into Will's room. And don't step on the trap. Wait for the yoyo to move, then..." Jonathan flicks his lighter. "we light the bastard up."
"Are you ready?" Nancy asks us. I nod reluctantly.
We each press our designated knives to our palms, slicing them open. I grit my teeth against the pain, tossing the knife away when I'm finished.
Drops of blood trickle onto the carpet. Jonathan reaches for a first aid kit on the coffee table, and we take turns helping each other bandage up our wounds. I tie the gauze around Nancy's palm when a thunderous knock makes the front door shutter.
"Jonathan?" Steve shouts from the other side of the door.
"What the fuck is he doing here?" I ask Nancy. She shakes her head in disarray. This was a kink in the plan that we did not account for.
"Are you there, man? It's... It's Steve! Listen, I just wanna talk!"
"You have to get rid of him!" I whisper-shout to Nancy.
"If he finds out I'm here, he'll never leave," Nancy argues. She trembles slightly. I look at Jonathan with a pleading look. He also shakes his head.
I groan, jumping off the couch and opening the door. I press my body tightly between the door and the doorframe, blocking his view inside.
"Steve." I deadpan.
"Y/N? What are you doing here?" Steve furrows his brows.
"Listen to me. You need to leave." I snap, avoiding his soft gaze.
"No, no, I'm not trying to start anything," Steve says calmly.
"I don't care. Leave," I try to close the door, but he forces it to stay open.
"Okay, I messed up. Please just let me in. I just want to apologize. I want to make things right," Steve begs. It's the only time I have seen him near tears. "I'm sorry, okay? I'm not even mad you broke my nose. I deserved it," I cock my head to the side a bit. I broke Steve Harrington's nose? Score. "Hey, wait... what happened to your hand?" Steve's voice softens as he reaches for my bandaged hand. "Is that blood?"
"Nothing, it was an accident," I lie, pulling away from his grip.
"Did he hurt you? Did he hurt Nancy? Is she here?" Steve accuses. I shake my head frantically, desperate to regain control over the situation. "You know what, no. Let me in!"
"Steve, no-"
He forces all his weight onto the door, knocking me back a bit. He runs into the house. Steve looks around at the destroyed room. The Christmas lights strung up on every inch of the ceiling, the alphabet painted on the central wall of the living room, and the weapons on the coffee table.
"What the... what is all this?" Steve mumbles.
"You need to get out of here," Jonathan cautions, grabbing Steve's shoulders aggressively.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm not asking you; I'm telling you, get out of here!" Jonathan says assertively, shoving Steve towards the door.
"What is that smell?" Steve sniffs the air. "Is that gasoline?" Steve shouts, ignoring Jonathan.
The click of a gun's safety being taken off sends a shiver down my spine. "Steve, get out!" Nancy threatens, pointing her gun at him. "You have five seconds to get out of here."
"WHAT?!" Steve screams.
"Nancy, put that down!" I tell her. "Jesus, don't point that at someone unless you intend to shoot!"
"Oh my God, please don't shoot me!"
"Steve, just leave!" I tell him, trying to force him towards the door. He's sturdier than me, though, and he doesn't budge. I debate using my powers to push him out, but it'll cause more problems than it solves. Steve can't know.
"What the hell is happening here?" Steve howls.
The lights flicker, plunging us in and out of the darkness. My heart drops into my stomach, my fingers tingle, and I feel lightheaded. Dread consumes me, and fear and anxiety overtake my mind. "It's here." I blurt out, getting in front of Steve. He is the only one of us without any means of protection, and though he may be an ass, he doesn't deserve to die.
"Where is it?" Nancy asks me.
"I don't know yet," I admit, frantically searching around.
"Where is what?" Steve demands. "Hello? Will someone please explain to me what the hell is going on--"
"The roof!" I suddenly get an epiphany. It's too late, as the ceiling begins to cave in. The Monster crawls out. Nancy aims at the beast. She puts three bullets in it, but it doesn't flinch. Steve squeals a mess of words I can't bother to pay attention to as I grab his hand and guide him into the safety of the back of the house.
"Jesus, what the hell is that?" Steve shrieks as we jump over the bear trap in the hall. The monster stomps close behind, nearly grazing Nancy with its massive claws as it swings at her. I guide Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve into Will's room and slam the door behind me.
We all watch the yoyo intensely, waiting for it to do anything. There is nothing to smile about right now, stupid yoyo! I hate that foolish smile it has.
"Do you hear anything?" Nancy asks.
"No," Jonathan replies.
"Maybe it's dead," I offer.
"From three shots? Not likely." Jonathan denies.
I'm the first one to leave the room to investigate. The others sneak close behind. To my surprise, the hallway is empty. Thick, dark blood is all that remains of the creature that attacked us moments ago.
"Where did it go?" Jonathan wonders aloud.
I crouch down to examine the blood: my head swarms, images of the second dimension flickering intensely.
"It went home," I inform them. "I think it's looking for Joyce and Hopper. We can't let it find them," I say, standing up. "You need to leave," I tell Steve. "we need to lure it back if it doesn't come on its own."
"This is crazy... this is crazy... THIS IS CRAZY!" Steve mumbles to himself like a lunatic. He grabs the phone off the wall and dials 911. I rip the phone from his hand and crush it under my boot.
"What are you doing?" Steve scolds me.
"It's going to come back. Get out. Right now!" I shout. His body flails about, stumbling away from me. I stare at him, bewildered.
Nancy cautions me, "Don't hurt him, Y/N, be careful!"
I stare at Steve as he trips out the door, and it slams behind him with powerful force.
The electricity begins pulsating again. The three of us stand with our backs pressed to one another.
"Where is it?" Nancy cries breathlessly.
"Come on, you son of a bitch," Jonathan growls, clutching the bat tightly. "Do you see it?"
"No, where-" I begin, but I can't get the words out. I'm too tired to spend the energy.
The lights go out, surrounding us in darkness. A high-pitched squeak of the monster tells me it's in the room. In the blink of an eye, the beast has Jonathan pinned to the ground.
Nancy begins firing into the creature. Bullet after bullet, it does minor damage. Eventually, Nancy runs out of ammunition. I throw myself in front of her and hold my hands out, but nothing happens. I've exasperated all of my energy.
Steve emerges from the darkness, swinging the bat into the Monster's torso. For once, I'm grateful he didn't listen, or I would be monster food. Nancy dashes away to ensure Jonathan is okay, leaving Steve and me to fend off the creature. I run down the hallway, hoping that it will chase me if I catch its attention and land in the trap. Steve swings at it a few more times, the squelch of skin bursting underneath the nails filling the air.
Time slows to a near stop. I look at Nancy and Jonathan, cowering in the living room but trying to appear brave in the face of death.
I take a deep breath. If any of us can survive a supernatural monster from an alternate dimension, it's me. Eleven did it; if I'm like her, I can do it too. I just need to think. Even if I don't survive, giving the three of them enough time to escape will be a success for me.
The creature slithers closer, not enough to step on the trap, but enough to reach me with its long arms.
Just a bit closer... If I antagonize it, it'll come for me.
I think quickly, focusing on the small table at the end of the hallway behind me. Sensing I have no other option, I spin and hold my hand out to the object. It levitates in place.
"Duck," I tell Steve.
"Wait... what?" he shouts down the hallway.
"DUCK!" I repeat as I swing the table over my shoulder and into the beast's face. This earns a plethora of confusing rants from Steve. It charges me angrily, shrieking so loud that it shakes the house.
"Yeah, that's right, come at me, you ugly bastard." I hiss. It doesn't get the chance to enact its revenge, though, as it gets snared in the bear trap Jonathan and Nancy had laid out earlier. It roars at an implausible frequency, thrashing about.
"It's in the trap!" Steve tells Jonathan. Jonathan rushes to the hallway, flicking open the lighter and tossing it onto the carpet. The hallway lights up in flames. I duck into Will's room, covering my ears as the monster's shrill screams of pain pound against my eardrums.
"Get back!" I hear Jonathan instruct. I hear a flamethrower being deployed, and the crackle of flames swiftly dies down.
I emerge from the room carefully. The Monster is nowhere to be seen.
"It has to be dead; it has to be..." Jonathan says, defeated. "Where did it go?"
"Y/N... you're bleeding," Nancy says, worried.
Now aware of the dripping sensation down my face, I reach for my nose. Blood pours out of my nose and in between the cracks in my lips.
The Christmas lights above our head light up softly, illuminating us in florescent blues and pinks. The others tense at this, but I feel oddly at peace.
"It was hurt..." Hopper's voice echoes in my mind.
"Hopper?" I whisper. The trio turns to me in questioning. The lights illuminate a pathway across the house. "It's Hopper and Joyce," I tell the group. "They're here, on the other side,"
I can see the wheels in Steve's mind turning, trying to put together what is happening.
"Mom?" Jonathan whispers to the lights.
"She knows we're here," I say, walking outside. The others follow me. We watch as the streetlight just outside the house flickers. "That is not the Monster. It's them. They're close to Will. I can feel it,"
"So, what, the New Kids got superpowers?" Steve asks, in denial of what he has witnessed. I roll my eyes and ignore him. Nancy shakes her head at him disapprovingly.
I walk to the light, standing under it. I close my eyes, focusing on Will. I search for him in every corner of my mind. Static fills the air. I see Castle Byers. I see Will. I see Hopper kneeling on the ground and compressing Will's chest. "Will..." I whisper. "wake up."
Joyce begs for her little boy to awaken, promising him the world if he'd just give life one last shot. She tells him that he is the most important thing in her life and that she will protect him fiercely. If he just comes back to us...
Will intakes a sharp breath, sitting up and coughing.
A cold brush of wind hits my chest and I stumble backwards.
I feel a warm hand on my shoulder. I know it is Jonathan's by the comforting presence it brings.
My eyes shoot open, burning against the illumination of the streetlight. My body goes numb, completely depleted of energy. My vision fades in and out of darkness, my eyelids feel heavy, and my legs give out underneath me. I start to fall, but Jonathan catches me just in time, helping me to the ground softly. I lay against his heaving chest, in between his legs, and wrapped up in his arms.
Nancy scatters up to us, kneeling on the ground and brushing strands of hair off my sweaty forehead.
"He's alive," I choke with tears rolling down my cheeks in relief. "they found Will."
Jonathan squeezes me tightly, and I feel his body begin to shutter against me as he cries. Nancy pulls me away from Jonathan for just a moment, hugging me tightly. I hug her back. I've never felt safer than I do in between them. My best friends, the only people in the world I would trust with my life besides Dustin.
Steve overlooks from the background, giving us the space we need. Eventually, the three of us pull away from each other.
I look at Steve and smile. "How are you doing over there, Harrington?" I laugh.
He shakes his head. "I got my ass kicked by Jonathan Byers. Monsters are real. New Girl's got superpowers..." he gulps, shoving his hands in his jean pockets. "I'm a little... confused?" He rocks back and forth on his feet.
"We'll catch you up on everything," I promise. "Welcome to the circus."
"What now?" Nancy asks me kindly.
I don't need to contemplate my answer. "I want to go home and see my little brother."