I felt really bad leaving Eleven and the boys alone, but we had to do this for Joyce and my Dad. And Jonathan was right, they'd lasted this long on their own.
We broke into the station, getting our gear, and a fire extinguisher before going back to Jonathan's house, where we began setting the bear traps and putting all the bulbs back on the Christmas lights. They pressumably unscrewed them all during my Dad's bug search.We loaded the guns, hammered nails in the baseball bat, and drenched the carpet with gasoline, and then we were ready to go.
Jonathan reached into the kitchen drawer, pulling out three knives.
"Remember..." He prompted.
"Straight into Will's room. And-"
"Don't step on the trap." I added.
"Wait for the YoYo to move."
"And then..." He flicked the lighter. "Alright. You guys ready?" We both nodded.
"Ready." We all lifted our hands, gently pressing the blade of the knife to our palms.
"On three. One...two...you don't have to do this."
"Jonathan stop talking."
"I'm just saying, you don't have to-"
"Three!" Nancy shouted, and then we all sliced our palms open and dripped blood onto the rug before Johnathan and Nancy sat down on the couch to bandage their hands and I bandaged my own. A creaking noise sounded from across the room. "Did you hear that?"
"Its just the wind." Jonathan said. "Don't worry. My Mom...she said the lights speak when he comes."
"Speak?"
"Blink," I clarified, "It'll be like an alarm."
She looked back down at the hand that she was bandaging, and Jonathan stared at her face. I rolled my eyes at the obvious crush these two had on each other.
I walked over to the wall by the door, leaning against it in an attempt to give them privacy. I was only there f9r about five minutes when a loud banging on the outside of the door made me jump.
"Jonathan! Are you there, man?! Its...Its Steve! Listen, I just want to talk!"
"Oh you've got to be kidding me!" I exclaimed, pulling the door open just enough so that he couldn't see inside. I fought the urge to cringe at just how bad his face looked, covered in bruises and cuts, one such bruise residing on his jaw that I knew matched the ones on my knuckles.
"Steve-"
"Riley..."
"You need to leave, right now." I said.
"I'm not trying to start anything, ok?"
"Yeah, that's really not important right now, go away."
"No, no, no, no, listen, I messed up, ok? I messed up, I messed up. Ok? Really, please, I just want to make things right, with you, with Nancy, all of it, ok? Please. Please..." His eyes trailed down to the bandage wrapped around my hand. "What happened to your hand?" He grabbed it off of the door, looking at it. "Is that blood? I know that's not from punching me in the face-"
"Don't worry about it! Go away."
"Did Byers do that to you?" I furrowed my eyebrows.
"What?! No, and if he did, why do you care?!" He began forcing the door open with an angry look on his face. "What the heck are you doing?!"
"Despite what you said earlier, I'm not scum ok? What I did was bad enough but its not ok to hurt girls-" He stopped talking as he pushed his way inside, seeing the state of the house with Jonathan and Nancy, the lights, the alphabet on the wall, the weapons everywhere. "What is...what the-"
"You need to get out of here!" Jonathan said, running over and putting a hand on his chest.
"Whoa, what is all-"
"Listen to me, I'm not asking you, I'm telling you, get out of here!"
"What is that smell?" Steve and Jonathan started shouting and pushing each other.
"Steve!" Nancy cocked her gun, pointing it at him. "Get out!"
"Whoa, whoa WHAT IS GOING ON?!"
"You have five seconds to get out of here."
"Ok, is this a joke? Stop, put the gun down." He said.
"I'm doing this for you."
"Whoa, whoa, hold on hold on-" Suddenly the Christmas lights started blinking and I grabbed Jonathan's arm.
"Guys!" I shouted. Jonathan looked up, noticing the lights while Nancy stayed focused on Steve.
"Three! Two!" Nancy began counting down.
"NO, NO, NO, NO!'
"NANCY!" Jonathan and I yelled together, drawing her attention to the lights. "The lights! Its here!" Jonathan grabbed the bat.
"Wait, what's here?" Steve questioned.
"Where is it?!" Nancy asked, waving the gun around.
"WHOA! EASY WITH THAT!"
"Where is it?!" The lights continued blinking rapidly and Jonathan and Nancy stood back to back. I walked over, grabbing Steve's shirt and pulling him over to us.
"Either get out, or shut up, those are your options!" I told him.
"I don't know, I don't see it."
"Where's what?! Hello!? Will someone please explain to me what the heck is going-"
It was at that moment that the ceiling collapsed as the Demogorgan broke its way through, landing a few feet in front of us. Nancy walked forward and began shooting at it, but it seemed pretty much inpervious to the bullets. Jonathan wrapped an arm around her waist, picking her up and pushing her back towards the hallway.
"Go! Go! Run! Go!" I grabbed Steve's hand, pulling him down the hallway.
"Jump!" I commanded, doing it first as we reached the bear trap.
"Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" He screamed, leaping over it as I yanked him into Will's room, shutting the door behind us. "Geez, Geez, what the heck was that?! What the heck was that?!"
"Shut up!" We all said in unison. We backed up, Jonathan in the front with the bat in one hand and the lighter in the other. Nancy and I had our guns at the ready, and I had one hand still clasped in Steve's in case we needed to make a break for it.
The monster screeched, sounding almost like a scratched record as it stomped through the house at a slow pace.
"What's it doing?" Nancy asked.
"I don't know." Suddenly, the lights stopped flickering and the house went silent.
"Do you hear anything?"
"No." Jonathan answered. They opened the door and I let go of Steve's hand, creeping forward and stepping into the hallway, my gun at the ready. The other three followed me to see that the Bear trap was still set, and the Demogorgan was nowhere to be seen.
We slowly crept into the living room, the three of us looking around every corner while Steve muttered to himself.
"This is crazy, this is crazy, this is crazy, this is crazy, THIS IS CRAZY! THIS IS CRAZY!" He ran into the kitchen, grabbing the phone and dialing 911. Nancy ran over, grabbing the phone off of the wall and chucking it across the room. "What are you do-What are you doing?! ARE YOU INSANE!"
"ITS GOING TO COME BACK!" She screamed. "So you need to leave. Right. Now." Steve looked away from her, his eyes skimming to Jonathan and I before running to the front door and outside again without a second thought. It wasn't long after that that the lights started flickering again and we walked to the center of the room, standing back to back and spinning around. "Where is it?!"
"Come on. Come on you son of a-"
"You see it?" I asked.
"No."
"Come on! Where are you, come on!?" It was at that point that all the lights went out and the creature appeared from the floor behind Jonathan.
"Jonathan!" Just as he turned around, the creature dropped him to the floor, collapsing on top of him and sending the bat flying across the room. It got down close to his face, and its own opened up into a flower shape. Nancy and I started shooting at it, which rather than actually hurting it, seemed to just make it angry. The lights began to flicker again and we both kept shooting until our guns made the clicking sound of an empty chamber.
I pushed Nancy behind me, fully prepared to take this thing on by hand if I had too when by some strange miracle, Steve Harrington jumped in front of me and hit the Demogorgan with the baseball bat.
"Steve!" Nancy exclaimed.
I watched in awe as he swung the bat, hitting the creature and luring it towards the hallway, expertly twirling it in his hands until finally, the Demogorgan stepped in the bear trap.
"He's in the trap!" Steve yelled. "He's stuck!"
"Jonathan now!" Nancy called. He ran in front of us, both boys forcing Nancy and I behind them as he threw the lighter onto the floor, engulfing the hallway and the monster in flames. It let out a horrifying screech, filling the house with the grotesque smell of burning flesh.
I ran over, grabbing the fire extinguisher and jumping in front of them, spraying it into the flames. When the smoke cleared, the screeching and the creature were gone and we were all left coughing.
"Where'd it go?" Nancy asked.
"No, it has to be dead." I shook my head, coughing into my sleeve.
"This thing is resilient. Its probably safe to never assume it isn't coming back." I said, looking on in disgust at the sight of the bear trap, covered in bits of bubbling, boiling skin.
It was at that moment that the lights started lighting up one by one, coming down the hallway towards us. We began backing up, but I held up a hand.
"No, its just one bulb at a time," I said, "I don't think that's the monster I think...that's probably Joyce and my Dad. They're here...in that version of here."
"What are you talking about?" Steve asked. Jonathan stepped forward.
"Mom?" He asked. "Is that you? Mom?"
The lights disappeared out the front door and we all walked out onto the porch as the street lamp outside flickered, indicating that they were walking past it. I sighed, turning to face them.
"Ok you guys stay here, just in case it comes back, and be ready for anything."
"Wait, where are you going?" Steve asked.
"What are you gonna do?" Jonathan questioned, ignoring him.
"I have to get back to the school and make sure the kids are ok." He nodded.
"Here, take the car. If we have to make a break for it, we'll take Steve's." Jonathan said, throwing me the keys. I nodded in thanks walking towards the car. I paused before I got there though, turning around to face them again.
"You did good, Harrington. Maybe you're not as bad as I thought." I said.
"Um...thanks?" I smiled, turning and running to Jonathan's car, peeling out of the driveway as fast as I could.