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CHAPTER NINE : THE GIRL UPSTAIRS
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nancy and jonathan trekked through the woods. darkness was upon them as the silver moon was shining through the trees and the yellow of their flashlights lit the path of leaves and twigs on the forest floor. night birds and crickets chirped in the distance, but their footsteps were far louder as the browned leaves crunched under their feet so easily.
the pair was silent as they occasionally shot glances at each other, wondering eyes searching more than the wood before them.
nancy halted in her tracks. she looked around them as jonathan was quiet to turn around and question the brunette girl, "what, are you tired?" the bat came off of his shoulder as he now just held it in his hand.
"shut up," nancy replied her eyes wide and her mouth slightly parted.
jonathan rolled his eyes, "what?"
nancy was quiet for a few moments before answering solomly, "i heard something." right after the girl had said that a whimpering noise came from a few yards away. they started walking towards the source as the whimpering grew louder and louder as they approached it. nancy and jon walked cautiously at first, but once they saw what was causing their heart rates to pick up they immediately started walking towards it. "oh, god."
a deer was laying on the forest floor as blood covered it's neck and it's stomach. it whined as nancy got on her knees and approached it, jonathan following in suit.
"it's been hit by a car," nancy whispered as her voice had a hint of pity for the injured animal. she turned to jonathan after petting it softly, "we can't just leave it." he stared at her blankly, not knowing what to do or how to respond. nancy picked up the revolver and clutched it in her hand as her eyes started to water at the thought of the dead animal.
jonathan quickly glanced at her and made up his mind, "i'll do it."
nancy furrowed her brows, "i though you said-"
"i'm not nine anymore," jonathan replied with no emotion in his words. he took the gun from nancy as they both stood up and looked at the poor deer. the tension was thick as jonathan finally cocked the gun as nancy closed her eye only to look back seconds later. it seemed as if minutes had passed as they stared at the deer, waiting for the inevitable outcome of death for the bloodied creature.
in one swift motion the deer was dragged backwards as both jonathan byers and nancy wheeler jumped back and gasped in shock. the movement was so abrupt and uncalled for as it came out of no where and the teen had no idea what had caused it.
"what was that?" nancy questioned, still trying to catch her breath. she scanned her flashlight beam over of leaves and broken branches that had red blood smeared over them in an unruly fashion. slowly the blood trail they were following thinned out as nancy once again turned to jonathan, "where'd it go?"
jonathan took as deep breath, "i don't know. do you see anymore blood?" he had a flashlight in one hand and the gun in the other, both raised and pointing into the darkness of the forest.
"no," nancy shook her head as she continued to search for the animal and it's trail of blood. she walked in one direction with a bat in her hand and jonathan took the other direction with gun, both hoping to get to the bottom of this. then the beam of light that came from nancy's flashlight found the oozing portal of darkness.
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saturn, joyce, and hopper all sat in the byers house as jim had brought articles and newspaper clippings of the lab and showed them to saturn and joyce. saturn's eyes skimmed over the articles, she could pick up a few words here and there, but her reading skills were that of a young child seeing as the lab didn't really specialize on children's education but more children experimenting. her vocabually was better than most of the kids at the lab, mostly because of 006.
he was taken at an older age than most of the kids that were at the lab and being saturn's 'roommate' he taught her almost all of her basic knowledge. she was also more of a listener than a talker, meaning the guards weren't very paranoid at what the girl would do with the information they talked about.
hopper watched as the girl furrowed her eyebrows and scrunched her nose at the words. she glanced up from the text and met hopper's eyes. "here," he held out his hand as she placed the paper in it. he skimmed it once more, as if he hadn't read this a million times, before summarizing it. "it says how dr. brenner and his team got busted for testing a bunch of kids. how it was unsafe and unconstitutional." she nodded and shot him a light smile. he sighed as he looked at the young, blonde teen, "they didn't teach you anything in there. did they?"
"only how to kill," she murmured under her breath, making sure only hopper could hear her. his eyes went wide at her confession. "did you see any kids?" she looked up at him with hopeful eyes, "at the lab?"
"sorry, kiddo," he watched her eye fall down as she nodded slowly. his mind was restless as he tried to figure out who this girl was and where he had seen him before; of course the obvious was at benny's and the odd sightings of her in town, but he knew her from somewhere else, somewhere he couldn't explain.
they all continued to look through the articles again as joyce came back over with a coffee pot and three mugs. she set them down on the table and began pouring it for all of them. hopper took a sip as saturn watched the man down the black liquid. she shrugged and picked up the mug, following hopper's actions.
she took a big swig from the white and purple poka dotted mug and promptly spit it out. her mouth filled with a bitter taste and the steaming liquid also burning her tongue for the few seconds that they came in contact with each other. the black drink sprayed over the table as a few droplets got onto the articles, but most missed as the headed towards the floor and walls. saturn scrunched her nose and opened her mouth in disgust as if she was trying to get the reched taste to leave her mouth.
to her right the two adults had very different reactions.
joyce watched wide eyed as the whole thing happened and put a hand over her mouth in shock.
jim, however chuckled lightly at the girl's reaction to the beverage and he smiled lightly at her face of disgust.
"what-what is that stuff?" saturn said as she took her bare hands and tried to them over wipe her tongue as she then switched to jonathan's clash shirt that she was currently wearing.
"coffee," jim said with a light smile, "takes a while for most people to warm up to it."
"i am never drinking coffee again if i can help it," saturn lightly pushed the mug away from her as joyce stifled a laugh. the trio all smiled lightly at each other and the moment that they wold never forget, but it was cut quick by saturn.
her face turned to stone as she looked at the two adults. "oh no," she said in a breathly voice. blood ran fro her nose as jim and joyce looked at her puzzled. flashes of the monster were going through her head. she heard screams of a girl and calls from a boy. "nancy," she whispered as blood now dripped from her eyes. images of jonathan running around in her head, "jonathan."
joyce looked at the blonde girl worried, "saturn, what's happening?"
no answer from the girl, just more blood. this time from her ears.
"sweetheart, we need to know what's happening to you," joyce pleaded.
no answer, but instead saturn collaped from her chair onto the ground.
jim placed her head in his hands and joyce came to her side. both of their voice slowly fading as her eyelids got too heavy to hold, feeling as if they weighed one hundred tons. then she was gone.
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"just follow my voice," echoed through the wrong forest. whisps of white floated through the air and dark blue and black trees surrounded saturn as she sat up from her spot on the ground.
"jonathan," a much clearer voice yelled as saturn perked up and got to her feet as she quickly relised where she was and what might be here.
"follow my voice , nancy, i'm right here!" the echoing voice yelled again, "nancy!"
nancy wheeler ran through the forest, panting and heart beat racing as she quickly whipped her head around, trying to find the older byers boy. she turned a corner and was met with the most horrifying creature she had ever seen. it's hand were huge and it's fingers looked more like claws that could rip anything to shreds, it's head was filled with rows of spiked teeth as it open like a flower, it's long body was tall and stood strong. this thing seemed ungodly, like lucifer had created it himself.
the creature clicked at her as she gasped and ran off deeper into the forest. nancy quickly hid behind decaying tree as she breathed heavily.
saturn spotted the girl and saw the creature about to attack her, when suddenly she made a split second decision. "hey!" she yelled at the monster. it turned towards the blonde girl and screatched at her as it completely forgot about nancy. the blonde locked eye with the brunette, "go!"
nancy heard jonathan's voice from besides her and saw the same tree with the gaping hole in the side of it. she turned back to the blonde girl as the creature stocked towards her as it finally made it's leap and pounced on her. nancy gasped as she gripped her bat tighter and watched as the monster was sure to kill this girl. all of her body told nancy to leave, get out of there, save herself, but she couldn't she was too frightened, too scared, too shocked.
saturn flipped the monster over as it's claws dug into the grooves of her shoulders. she let out a pained cry as pounded relentlessly on the thing's chest. her small fists worked faster and harder as they became bloodied and the skin inbetween her knuckles were split open and begged her to stop, but she kept punching until the monster had ceased moving and had a gaping hole in it's chest, much like the one of the tree.
the blonde girl looked to her side where she saw nancy standing with her mouth slightly open and her eyes wide, then she dropped to the ground besides her, laying next her latest kill. nancy rushed to her side and dragged the girl through the few feet between them and the tree.
she kicked her foot back into the tree and jonathan jumped back at the movement. "pull my feet! hurry!" she pleaded as jonathan set down the flashlight and gun and quickly gripped her ankles where on the other side of the tree, nancy grabbed saturn's wrists as she began to fell jonathan pull her through the tree.
once the brunette was out she continued to pull on saturn's small wrists. jonathan looked at her puzzled, but then began to help as he saw what she was dragging through. saturn's body made it through the tree right as it closed up. her eyes shut and her breathing faint.
"saturn?"
5.12.20
STEVE HARRINGTON