"TRICK OR TREAT!" Caroline and the boys yelled as the woman opened the door. Will had his camera pointed up in the woman's face like a dork.
The lady chuckled. "Oh! Well, aren't you cute? The little exterminators."
The party looked among themselves in disgust and there was a silent agreement. One by one, but took as big of a handful of candy as they could and took off.
Lucas groaned as he searched through his bag with one hand, still holding Caroline's hand with the other. "If I get another 3 Musketeers, I'm gonna kill myself."
"You brought beef jerky, though," Caroline said teasingly. She knew Lucas hated the stuff. "You can have some."
"What's wrong with 3 Musketeers?" Dustin demanded.
"What's wrong with 3 Musketeers?" Lucas repeated, looking at his friend incredulously. "Dustin, no one likes three musketeers."
"Yeah, it's just nougat," Will chimed in.
" Whoa." Dustin held up a hand. "'Just nougat' ? Just nougat? It is top three for me."
Mike mimed vomiting. "Top three? God, give me a break."
"Seriously, I can just eat a whole bowl of nougat. Straight up."
"What about beef jerky nougat?" Caroline's eyes went wide at the same time as Dustins. "Yes! Genius!"
Lucas gagged. "That's an abomination against God-"
Suddenly a figure jumped out of the dark, bellowing. Caroline slipped and fell into Lucas, who was squealing like a little girl as the rest of the party screamed.
The figure took of the Michael Myers mask, revealing Max Mayfield, her fiery red hair flaming all over the place. She was laughing brightly. "Holy shit! You should have seen the look on your faces. And you?"
Max looked at Caroline's intertwined fingers and smirked at Lucas. "Who screams like that? You sound like a little girl. Hey, you guys coming or not? Oh, I heard we should hit up Loch Nora. That's where the rich people live, right?"
Dustin looked like he was on cloud nine. "Yeah!" He ran after her close behind, like a lost puppy.
Mike sighed deeply as the rest of the party followed.
For the remainder of the night, Dustin was glued to Max's side, the two of them talking like long-lost best friends. Lucas and Caroline hung back a bit to give them their space, grinning at Dustin's happiness.
"Another full-size. Like, seriously, rich people are such suckers." Dustin looked at Max in horror. "Wait. You're not rich, right?"
Max shook her head. "No, I live up Old Cherry Road."
"Oh."
"No, it's fine. I mean, the street's good for skating."
"Hmm. Yeah, totally tubular. What? Did I say that right? Or is it, like, tubular."
Caroline reached forward and flat tired Dustin, making him stop. "No, Dusty. It's, like, totally tubular."
Dustin mimicked her surfer dude voice. "Totally tubular."
"What a gnarly wave, dude," Lucas joined in.
"Totally brodacious, bro!"
Max was laughing. "Stop! My ears are hurting."
Behind the laughing party, Mike leaned over to Will, looking bitter. "Did you agree to this?"
"What?"
Mike was glaring at Max. "To her joining our party."
"It's just for Halloween," Will pointed out.
Mike still looked angry. "You should have checked with me."
Caroline sighed and made Lucas hang back with her. She turned to her curly haired friend. "Mike, first of all, you aren't in charge of the party, okay? Second, leave Will alone, I invited her. Dustin wanted me to talk to her, and she helped me out in the locker room. She even saw my scar, and she didn't care."
Mike looked at her incredulously. "You let her see your scar? Callie, what the hell?"
"Mike, calm down," Will lay a hand on his friends shoulder, pulling him back from his sister protectively.
"Why do you care?" Caroline asked, ignoring her twin. "It's my body. And besides, it was an accident. It's not like she knows anything."
"You can't tell people about it, Caroline!" Mike hissed. "That shit is top secret, you could get us arrested! You could get us killed!"
"You think I don't know that, Michael?" Caroline said angrily. "I was the one who got shot in the stomach and died."
"Yeah, well you didn't watch the only girl you ever liked turn into dust," Mike was up in Caroline's face now, "by some inter-dimensional monster, right after promising her things would get better!"
Miked got dangerously close to Caroline, who stared up at him with gritted teeth. He jutted a finger out and started pressing her shoulder, hard. "You were reckless and selfish like always, and it was your blood that got her killed."
That was enough for Lucas. He shoved his Mike backward, making his friend stumble. "Shut up, man!"
"Lucas," Caroline said warningly. She watched as her boy's fists trembled with anger.
MIke's face screwed up in rage, but instead of lunging at Lucas, he started shouting. "You know I'm right! It's her fault! El is gone, forever, and it's her fault!"
Caroline's eyes were burning with tears. Mike was only saying the truth, which made it that more painful. It was her fault. No matter how many times she tried to fight it, it just was.
Suddenly a pang of fear struck her chest.
"Oh, Will," she whispered. "Another episode, now?"
She turned to find her brother, but it was too late. When she looked up, all she saw was the monster.
Its limbs loomed over Hawkins, staring down at the Upside- Down version of Caroline's home, covered in vines and ash and the occasional skeleton decoration from the real world. Suddenly, halloween wasn't so appealing.
"Mike?" A voice shouted from somewhere ahead.
Caroline could hear her brother faintly, from the front of the cul-de-sac.,She wanted more than anything to run to him, but she was swallowed up by her own fears, her own nightmares-
She took one step forward and fell onto the slimy, ice-cold ground.
"No, god, please." She began to cry like a little girl as the monster stared at her from miles above. "Please, leave me alone, I just want it to stop."
Caroline could have sworn it was mocking her now. Who was she to try to defy it? It knew everything about her, it had powers she could never dream of.
In the end, it would win.
It always won.
The energy had drained from her now, and her limbs had had enough. She collapsed onto the ground and, for the millionth time that year, sank into unconsciousness.
"Why do you always have to scare the shit out of me?"
Caroline's eyes shot open and she sat bolt upright, gasping. She was laying on her living room sofa, covered in a blanket.
"Woah, woah, woah," Lucas's arm jutted forward and he pushed her back. You're okay. But Jesus, Callie what is it, like, the fifth time you've passed out in the last year?"
Caroline wiped her sweaty forehead, looking in confusion at her hand when she didn't see any white makeup come off. "Yeah, it's a lot of fainting. Did my mom take off my makeup? Is she home?"
"No," Lucas shook his head. "She must be at Bob's house."
"Olivia? Jonathan? There's no way they actually went to that party."
"Nope. It's just the two of us." Lucas said. "I wiped off your makeup and stuff cause I couldn't tell if you'd hit your head or something. I'm thinking it was just cause you had another episode, though, cause Will started spazzing."
"Oh, god, Will," Caroline looked around. "Where is he?"
"He's with Mike at the Wheelers," Lucas said softly. "Mike was really insistent about it. You should have seen him after you went down; he felt terrible. Started taking back everything he said."
"Son of a bitch," Caroline muttered. "I know he was right, but... still."
"Hey," Lucas lay a hand on her shoulder. "He is not right. You can't blame yourself, okay? We... we all had a part in it. It's not like you asked to get shot."
"I mean... I kinda did. I stared that lady in the face and blocked her from her actual target." Caroline sighed. "I just... I want this to be over."
Her eyes started burning but she didn't have the energy to hide her tears right now. "Jesus. I mean... my brother gets kidnapped to an alternate dimension, I find out we have so weird psychic connection, my dad shows up at now I have to have a damn restraining order against him 'cause he sold me off to his friends for half the time he lived with us, and now I'm seeing some giant monster in the sky?"
"Hold on," Lucas said slowly. "A... what, in the sky?"
"Shit," Caroline cursed, laying back down. She covered her eyes with her hands. "Just forget it."
Lucas laughed nervously. "I'm not sure I can just forget about that."
"It's not a big deal," Caroline cupped his cheek with her hand. Her brows furrowed when she saw the dark circles underneath his eyes, darker than the rest of his gorgeous skin.
"Hey," she said softly. "Are you alright?"
Lucas sighed and rested his head in her hand. "I'm so just so tired, Callie."
Caroline wanted to kick herself. She had been so caught up in her own problems, being self-centered, that she hadn't even thought about what it would have been doing to Lucas.
"Talk to me, Luke."
Lucas looked her in the eyes, focusing on their deep blue. "I don't want to scare you."
Caroline laughed hollowly. "Trust me. There's nothing that can scare me anymore."
"Fine." Lucas said quietly. "I'm worried about you. And Will. And your episodes. And I can't get the image of Eleven out of my head, how I hated her so much in the beginning, and then I watched her turn into dust. I'm sad, every time I look at Mike, because I know how he felt about El.
"And if it was anything close to how I feel about you, he must be destroyed inside right now, because I can't imagine not having you around. And the nightmares..."
Lucas squeezed his eyes shut.
Caroline felt the same way about all of it, of course. But... she got to go to talk to Dr. Owens every week. She hadn't even thought about what her friends had been going through...
"What nightmares?" she asked softly.
Lucas's lip was trembling. He stared at the ground as a tear dripped down his chin.
"You... getting shot. It's like it happens in slow motion. Your blood all over me, everywhere. There was so much. It had an awful smell, like old pennies. I watched you choking because you couldn't breath. The feeling when your heart stopped beating.
But the worst part is... in my nightmares, your heart doesn't stop beating again. It's just... that's it. You're dead. Gone. Forever."
Caroline choked as she watched him break down in sobs.
"God, Callie, it's awful."
"I'm so sorry," Caroline rasped. She sat up and cuddled him to her.
For once, she could be his anchor.
Suddenly a pounding on the back door interrupted the moment. Caroline jumped in surprise.
"Must be Jonathan," she sighed. "I'll get it."
But when she opened the door, it wasn't Jonathan standing there. It was Nancy's boyfriend, Steve Harrington.
"Steve?" Caroline said in surprise. Then she noticed her sister cradled in his arms. "Olivia! What the hell happened?"
Steve sighed tiredly. Caroline noticed that his eyes were rimmed with red. He must have had a fight with Nancy. "Hey, Caroline. Is Jonathan here?"
"Uh, no," Caroline stammered. "I thought he went to the party."
"He did," Steve said bitterly. "He kind of left Olivia there. Can... I come in?"
Caroline was shaken out of her trance. "Yeah, yeah. Of course."
Caroline led him to Olivia's bedroom, where Steve lay her down in her bed with so much sweet gentleness that Caroline was shocked.
"What happened?" Caroline repeated. Lucas stood in the doorway of Olivia's bedroom with her, watching Steve take off her sister's shoes and tuck her feet under the covers.
Steve took a moment to bury his face into his hands before looking up at the ceiling. "Her and Nancy got drunk. Liv's obviously a lightweight, and she took in way more than she could handle."
"Who let her get drunk?" Caroline hissed. "Son of a bitch, Jonathan. He was supposed to be with her the whole damn time! Where was he?"
"No clue," Steve said bitterly, staring at Olivia, who was muttering in her sleep.
"Wait, where's Nancy? You didn't leave her there, did you?" Caroline asked.
Steve shook his head again, harder this time. "We got in a fight. It was better to give her space. Apparently, she doesn't love me."
"Doesn't love you?" Lucas echoed. "But... that's crazy!"
Steve stood up and ushered the kids out of Olivia's bedroom, closing the door gently behind him.
"Steve..." Caroline looked up at the older boy, taking in his testy eyes and droopy, yet still fantastic, hair. "Are you okay?"
"Ah, don't worry about it, kiddo." Steve clapped a hand on her shoulder. "You won't have to worry about heartbreak, at least for a long ass time. I mean, look at you two."
He gestured between Lucas and Caroline, who were casually holding hands without even realizing it.
"You're adorable as shit," Steve muttered. "Jesus... I need to go home."
"Hey," he turned to Caroline, "Make sure Olivia has a ton of water when she wakes up, alright? And a shower would be good too. God knows what she drank, so... prepare yourselves for a lot of vomit."
"Vomit," Caroline said weakly. "Oh, yay."
Steve laughed darkly. "Yeah... don't ever get into drinking, kids. Not worth it."
"Believe me, I know." Caroline thought of her drunkard father, who she had finally gotten justice on, thanks to Hop.
As Steve Harrington pulled away in his fancy car, Lucas turned to her. "Do you think he really meant it?"
"Hm?" Caroline responded, distracted.
"About us being adorable?" Lucas asked eagerly.
Caroline looked in his eyes. "Lucas, nothing in this world is more adorable than you."
Hello, beautiful people! Lots of Lucaline here and a little snippet of Steve and Olivia that we didn't get to see in Pulses, which was super fun to write! I'll be updating this book a lot more to catch up to the Pulses timeline, so watch out for that!
Comment, vote, and share! Thanks for your support!