Chapter 7: The Missing Monster and How To Not Start A Conversation
Steve had no idea what was going on. All he knew was that this 13-year-old was ordering him around and somehow Tali Henderson knew about the strange events of last year that still plague his thoughts from time to time. As he started the car Dustin leaned forward from the back seat, "Okay you need to drive to my house it's on-"
"Milton street, green house. I got it, Henderson," Steve cut him off, turning the car out of the Wheeler house's street.
"Wait, why do you know where my house is?" Dustin asks.
"Because he dropped me off on Halloween," Tali answered from the passenger seat. She turned on the radio but made sure it was on at a low volume so Dustin could tell Steve what was going on. "Hey, you're listening to HCR," she reached over and bumped Steve shoulder, "Nice, Darren's on too, he plays the good stuff".
Dustin looked in between the two of them, shy smiles on both their faces, "You two are friends?"
"Uh,"
"Um,"
The two high schoolers take an awkward glance at each other not really knowing what to call their friendship just yet. "Whatever. We have a code red situation," Dustin brushes off the obvious awkwardness focusing on the issue at hand.
"Meaning?" Steve questions.
"Meaning, I found what I thought was a lizard, but was actually a baby demogorgon,"
"The monsters from last year?" Steve questioned taking a quick look at Tali who sat beside him. She looked a little more on edge instead of her usually cool demeanor, but you can only tell if you look closely enough. Her hands bawled up into a fist and her shoulders tensed.
"Yeah, and it's okay, she knows. His name was Dart," Dustin tells him.
"You named him," Steve raises an eyebrow at the boy through the review mirror
"It was his pet," Tali adds.
Steve's eyes go wide, "You kept it?"
"I didn't know it was a demogorgon. Jesus," Dustin says frustrated that no one seemed to understand him, "Let me explain. I kept him in my room, and he got bigger and ate our cat-"
"Hence the flower for our cats grave," Tali mentions holding the flower up in her hand. Her ring finger slightly pricked from one of the rose's thorns.
"We managed to trap him in the cellar, but we could use your bat because we obviously can't keep him there," Dustin says finishing the explanation. Steve looks out into the road deep in thought. The sun had gone down by then and the road was illuminated only by streetlights.
They sit in silence as Steve tries to comprehend what he was just told, "Wait a sec. how big?"
Dustin leans forward showing the creatures size through hand measures, "First it was like that. Now he's like this."
"I swear to God man, it's just some little lizard, Okay?" Steve told him. He didn't want to believe it that monsters were back in Hawkins, again. They still cloud his thoughts on dark nights like tonight, despite how hard he tries to forget them.
"It's not a lizard," Dustin assures him.
"How do you know?
"How do I know it's not a lizard?" Dustin jeered.
"Yeah, how do you know it's not just a lizard?" Steve demanded, "And then you got your sister into this shit".
Tali rolls her eyes. "I think I would know if it's a lizard, and she's my sister. I wouldn't have told her about it if it wasn't a demogorgon," Dustin fumes in the backseat. Today wasn't his day, if the rest of the party would have just answered their walkies.
"Okay enough," Tali snaps, "Want to know why we know it's not a lizard," she turns toward Steve, "Because his face opened up and he ate my cat".
That was enough reason for Steve to stop his questions and continue driving. Once they reached the Henderson house, Dustin got off first, as Tali tried to open the door, but Steve grabbed her wrist, "Hey,"
"Yeah?"
Steve's face softened for a moment despite his worried mind, "I'm sorry about your cat. You know you don't have to help us with all this, I mean if I were you, I'd just forget about it. I'll help, Dustin".
Tali furrowed her eyebrows and reassured him with a smile, "That's nice of you, but I've already had to wack that sucker into our cellar, but I'll try my best to keep up with the 'professionals' like you guys". Steve chuckles astonished. Even knowing about the monsters and everything that happened last year, Tali Henderson still remains the most relaxed person he knows. "Plus, I'm not leaving my little brother to fight monsters without me there," she quips.
Suddenly Dustin bangs his fist on window, "Are you guys coming or what?"
They emerge from the car with night upon them and the stars are out. But there was no time for stargazing. At the back of the trunk sits the legendary bat of nails. The haunted look Steve has making it obvious that fears of that night remain. Tali's eyes soften, she's already had a break down and she had only seen thing once, when it was supposed to be smaller than the actual monsters last year.
Steve grabs the bat and twist it in his hand before closing the trunk. The trio slowly creeps toward the cellar. The eldest Henderson sibling taking a moment to lay the red rose where Mews was buried.
Once she was back with the two boys, she held a flashlight for Steve as they stand in front of cellar, "I don't hear shit," he remarks.
"Maybe it's asleep," Tali suggests. The two boys give her a look, "What? Monsters need energy too, I'm sure he's just asleep," she shrugs.
"He's in there," Dustin croaks from behind her.
Steve taps lightly on cellar door. The howling breeze shuffling the autumn fallen leaves around them. He tries again tapping louder. No sound can be heard coming from the deep underground where the siblings had trapped the small monster.
"Alright, listen, kid," Steve demands turns toward the younger boy, "I swear if this is some sort of Halloween prank". Tali points light in Dustin's face, "Your dead alright".
"It's not a prank," Dustin assures him. "Get it out of my face," he tells Tali referring to the bright light that blinds his eyes, "You know it's not a prank, stop that".
"You got a key for this think," Steve asks turning to Tali.
She flails her arms around at her pocketless sweats, "Dustin's the one with pockets," she says pointing to her brother, who is fumbling with his vest and pants pockets looking for the cellar key.
"Yeah, haven't had a chance to comment on that," Steve gestures to her floral kimono she was still wearing, "Nice robe," he quips. His smile is cheeky, his lips curling upward.
"Shut up," Tali rolls her eyes and pulls at the hem of her robe, embarrassed that this is the outfit she's in to fight monsters with, but she hadn't exactly had time to change.
"Found the key," Dustin exclaims, holding between his thumb and index finger the copper key that opens the cellar. Steve diligently works to unlock the chain lock. He takes a deep breath before opening the cellar door.
The rusty old door creaks as he pulls it open. Tali stood slightly to the side carefully illuminating down the stairs with the flashlight. Dustin stands shakily to the side, "He must be further down there," he notes, "I'll stay up here just in case he tries to escape," he tells the older teens.
Tali is equally as unsettled by the mystery of where the creature is hiding as Dustin. "Yeah, and I-I'll hold the light behind you," She stammers to the boy beside her. "Because you're the one with the bat," she adds pointing to the weapon in Steve's hand.
Sighing and shaking his head, Steve fixes the grip he has on the bat. He's just as scared as the siblings behind him, but he knows someone has to go down there. He steps cautiously down the steps, Tali following behind him with the flashlight.
The steps creak and bend at their weight. When Steve reaches the bottom, he flicks on the hanging lightbulb so they can search around the cellar. But there's no searching to be done, it's empty. He scoffs, it was prank, he thinks. But before he can yell at Dustin, he spots it. Slimy reptile like skin has been shed and sits in a pile in front of him. He picks it up with bat and examines it closer.
Tali cringes at the gooey skin but her eyes glance behind it. "What's that?" She questions pointing toward hole in wall. Carefully she ducks her head lower to see inside, tunnels.
"Steve...Tali..." Dustin calls, "What's going on down there?"
Entranced by the hole in the wall Tali's eyes remain glued to it. Steve glances quickly and grabs the flashlight from her hand. He walks toward the stairs and points the light at Dustin's face as Tali had done before, "Get down here," he orders.
As Dustin jumps down the last step, Steve holds up his bat that's still entangled with Dart's slimy shed skin. "Oh shit," Dustin mutters.
"And hey," Tali calls pointing to hole in the wall.
"Oh shit!" Dustin exclaims. They all take a step forward, Steve shinning the light into the tunnel. "No way. No way".
☾ ☾ ☾
"What do we do know?" The eldest Henderson sibling asks as they still crowd around the new open tunnel in their cellar.
Steve shrugs and glances at Dustin whose hand is on chin in deep thought. "Well to lead Dart out of my room we used meat... So, let's lead him out of the tunnel and somewhere else,"
"We trap him again," Steve says, "We'll circle the meat around and then light it on fire, no more monsters. Do you know a place?" He asks.
"Yeah, we can lead him to the abandon junkyard off the woods," Dustin answers. Steve nods and then ushers the Henderson's up the stairs. "We're gonna need meat though," Dustin adds, "We used up everything we had at home getting him in the cellar".
With that the teens set off in Steve car once again closer into town. Luckily, Dustin pocketed some extra allowance and with a little that Steve could chip in they would have enough money to buy some meat at the grocery store. The early morning sun rises slowly as they approached the store. Dustin softly drifting to sleep leaned up against the backseat window. The older teens staring intently at the road ahead of them from the front seats of the car, the radio playing softly as the morning radio host spoke through the speakers. Both feeling like they should say something, but not knowing what.
Once they reached Hawkins grocery store, Dustin quietly snores in the back of the car, his breaths fogging up the window. Tali glances back at him her eyes softening at the sight. She can hardly still believe her brother once fought off weird killer monsters with his friends. She turns toward Steve and whispers, "Let's just leave him here, you and me should be able to grab enough things".
Steve nods in reply and the pair make their way inside the store. Tali grabs a metal cart and begins pushing it toward the meat aisle. Steve walks off telling her he's going to grab some extra things. The brunette girl piles up as much meat as possible into the cart and the brunette boy returns with three buckets. "Smart," she remarks at him.
"Last year must have been crazy, huh?" she says trying to make conversation. The quietness getting to her. She regrets her words the moment she says them. She knows she shouldn't have brought it up seeing the look on Steve's face.
"Yeah, it was," he tells her. She should have just put her Walkman on, why else does she carry it around for.
Chuckling trying to avoid the awkward air around them she attempts to joke, "Here I was thinking Hawkins was boring".
Steve offers her an obvious fake smile, "It is, I wish it was more boring so we wouldn't be here right now". The girl frowns Steve Harrington obviously had plenty of better things to do then this, Tali thinks, and he definitely doesn't think we're friends. But as she pushes the cart toward the stocked-up freezer isle Tali notices Steve's eyes seem darker than what she remembers them to be from that night not too long ago.
"This will work," she assures him, nodding her head. The events of last year still loom in Steve's head, but for a moment he believes Tali's words of encouragement. Just for a second as he looked at her crooked smile, he thinks they would get through it and be fine.
As they place all the meat onto the conveyor belt the cashier raises an eyebrow at them, waiting for an explanation for why they needed so much of the raw substance. "What?" Tali snaps scowling at the man, surely, they didn't have to explain themselves.
"It's for a party, barbecue," Steve told him politely smiling as Tali handed over the money she had balled up in her hand. They pack the meat into the buckets evenly and pop them in the trunk.
When they're ready to go the Henderson sister shoves her brother lightly so he can tell Steve where to drive. Hopefully he could also defuse all the awkwardness around the older teens as well. As they drove off Tali wondered why she ever considered the possibility of having an actual friend. She had spent years without them, and she was fine, plus she would avoid having to think of things to say and uncomfortable silences.
━━☆AUTHOR'S NOTE
Is it just me and I'm terrible at making friends but I always feel very awkward in that stage of 'were somewhat acquaintances but I've told you too much so are we friends?'
Nope, probably just me. But I feel like Tali would kind of be like this because she knows people around school but she doesn't have friends. And the friends she did have when she was younger were terrible so she's like what is friendship?
Also where did Steve and Dustin just get buckets of meat from? I can't be the only one that's thought of this. No one has that much meat in their house, come on.
Side note timeline of this season takes place in like a week, but when Dustin gets Steve from the Wheeler house it was day time. Then the drive to Dustin's house it was dark and then when they unload the buckets from Steve's car it's day time again and they're wearing the same clothes so wtf is time ya know.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯