( songs for the chapter )
⋆ blue bayou // roy orbinson
⋆ live and let die // paul mccartney
NIGHT CAME FAR TOO QUICKLY and the five of them were still stuck on the school bus. Lucas was keeping watch at the top of the vehicle while the rest of them stayed inside. Steve and Kate sat next to each other one the floor with Max sitting ahead of them, as Dustin nervously paced up and down the aisle.
"So you really fought one of these things before?" Max asked the brunette.
He nodded, pointing over to Kate. "She's alive because of me."
Normally, she would roll her eyes at such a cocky response. But, while he wasn't exactly being humble, he wasn't lying either. If he hadn't ran back in that night in 1983, Kate probably wouldn't be there with them right now. It was a crazy thing to think about.
"And you're, like, totally, a hundred percent sure it wasn't a bear?"
Before Steve could respond, Dustin blurted, "Don't be an idiot. It obviously wasn't a bear... Why are you even here if you don't believe us? Just go home."
The two girls shared a shocked look before Max suddenly stood up. "Geez. Someone's cranky. Past your bedtime?"
She climbed up the ladder to sit with Lucas.
"That's good," Steve praised the curly-headed boy. "Just show her you don't care–"
Kate shook her head. "No, not good. Dustin, you're being an asshole."
"You have to pretend you don't care, so they'll want you."
"I don't care," Dustin affirmed with a shrug.
Kate rolled her eyes before standing, looking down at Steve. "And that's working so well with Nancy right now, huh?"
Steve shrugged before smirked. "I don't care."
She walked towards the latter like Max had just moments prior, catching the brunette winking at Dustin. "Why are you winking, Steve? Stop."
Kate climbed at the rungs of the ladder, seeing Lucas and the redhead sitting beside each other. The blonde took the binoculars that were idly sitting next to the boy, looking around for a moment.
"So," Max started. "Are you dating my brother now?"
Her question couldn't have came at a worse time. She'd been trying her best not to think about Billy at all; there was too much on her plate for her to spend all her time thinking about a boy that didn't even matter. But she still found herself terribly upset. Kate thought that he might be the first boy to actually like her. But, of course, she could never get that lucky.
"No," she answered.
"He talks about you all the time."
Kate sent her a tight-lipped smile. "I'm sure he does."
Max could practically feel the anger and sadness radiating off the girl in front of her. And the look on her face was one that was far too familiar to Max; 'the fake a smile and pretend everything is okay' face.
The redhead furrowed her brows. "What'd he do?"
"It doesn't matter now," Kate shrugged. A few moments of silence passed before she looked over at the younger girl. "He treats you like shit, doesn't he?"
"He's always been a dick, but now he's just angry... All the time," she shrugged as she began to tear up. "And he can't take it out on my mom, so..."
"So he takes it out on you?" Lucas finished.
Max nodded before shaking her head. "I don't even know why I'm telling you this. It's just... I know that I can be a jerk like him sometimes–"
"You're not like him, Max," Kate told her.
"Yeah," Lucas agreed. "You're cool and different. And you're super smart. And you're, like, totally tubular."
The three of them laughed before a distant roar echoed in their ears. Lucas quickly grabbed the binoculars and looked around the area. "I've got eyes! Ten o'clock!"
Kate quickly descended the ladder to Steve and Dustin. "He's not taking the bait. Why is he not taking the bait?"
"Maybe he's just not hungry," the curly-headed boy responded.
"Maybe he's just sick of cow," Steve muttered before backing away from the window. He stood for a moment as he thought, before turning and grabbing his bat.
"Steve?" she asked but got no response. "Steve, what are you doing?"
The boy turned around suddenly and the two were almost chest-to-chest. He grabbed her hand, putting a small metal lighter in her palm. "Just be ready."
Everyone watched as Steve climbed out of the bus, Kate was practically shaking with worry. He held the nailed bat tightly in his hands as he scoped the area; he couldn't see anything but could hear the distant chittering of the demogorgons.
"Steve! Watch out!" Lucas yelled.
"Little busy here!"
"Three o'clock! Three o'clock!"
Steve slowly turned to look at his side, seeing that another demogorgon had perched itself on the pile of metal next to him. Kate opened the door of the bus as she yelled: "Steve! Abort! Abort!"
He began to fight the army of small demogorgon as he made his way back to the bus. He climbed the steps, barely dodging the one that was seconds away from jumping on his back. Everyone clambered behind Kate, as she pulled out her gun and shot at the demogorgon before it could get further inside. She shut the door, and Steve leaned against it so the other humanoid creatures couldn't get in.
Dustin, Lucas, Max, and Kate ran to the back of the bus and Steve gazed at the blonde with a look that could only be described as admiration. Fortunately enough for him, she was far too occupied with keeping everyone else alive to worry about how he'd been staring at her.
The bus began to sway slightly as something jumped on top of it. With each step the demogorgon took, the ceiling of the vehicle caved. Kate swore under her breath, as none of them remembered to actually cover the opening in the ceiling. Max screamed as the demogorgon roared in her face.
The blonde raised her gun to the monster, pressing her finger of the the trigger. But nothing happened. Because she'd wasted all her ammo on the demogorgon that nearly killed Steve.
"Out of the way! Out of the way!" the brunette yelled as he protectively pushed himself in front of Kate, sending her toppling into the back wall of the bus. "You want some? Come get it."
As the demogorgon screeched, Kate found herself in another world. She was back in the abyss she'd been dreaming about for the past year. From a distance, she could see Will in his hospital bed, with his mom leaning over her.
"It's too late," he cried. Those three words echoed loudly all around her, causing her head to pound with an oncoming migraine.
She heard hurried footsteps to her right. Kate whipped her head to the side and saw her dad running towards her, accompanied with Dr. Owens and a few other doctors she didn't know. They all ran right by her, though. It appeared as though they were all running to Will.
But Kate wouldn't know, because she was suddenly being shaken awake by Steve. Her vision came to and she saw his face only inches away from her own. He stared at her with wide eyes filled with worry, and the kids stood behind him – all sharing the same gaze. Kate looked around, finding that the demogorgon that was perviously there had gone away.
Something wet trickled down from her nose. She wiped it with the back of her hand, finding blood smeared on the skin.
"Are you okay?" Steve asked, his voice dripping with anxiety. "What the hell happened to you?"
"Wha–"
"I turned around and your eyes rolled back and you were just standing there," he rambled with fret. "I didn't know what the hell happened to you."
"What happened to the demogorgon?" she asked, disregarding the panicked boy ahead of her.
"It ran off," Dustin told her. "They all did."
Kate squeezed her eyes shut as her head continued to pound. "We have to go."
"Wait, what?" Steve stopped her. "We're not going anywhere, right now, okay? We're safe here, and you obviously aren't feeling well–"
"Steve, listen to me," she stopped him affirmatively. "The demogorgons are going to Hawkins Lab. Everyone there is in trouble."
"Who's there?" Lucas wondered worriedly.
"Will, and Mike, and Joyce, and my dad–" she rambled before taking a deep breath. "We have to go, now."