Chapter Text
He hears the wind through the trees, softly whistling.
Steve rushes out of the house. He doesn’t care about his feet getting cold, he doesn’t care about the frosty air biting at his arms. All he can see is the indent in the snow.
Max is right there by his side, with Dustin shadowing them to get a close look. Max kneels down next to the paw print, hand hovering above it. Her hand looks small and fragile in comparison.
“Jesus,” Dustin exhales. “There are so many of those.”
“Is this what I think it is?” Steve wishes the evidence wasn’t so glaringly obvious. He heard the noises, he felt the danger oozing from the forest. Everything was so hushed, holding its breath, trying not to make a sound that would attract the killer.
Hargrove saw it during the night, Steve didn’t lie when he told Hargrove he believed him.
And now they can all see where the creature walked, where it stalked them, lurking just round the corner.
“Yeah, man. Fuck. Just look at them claws, rrrr,” Dustin holds up his hand in a claw-like position.
“Demodogs don’t have claws,” Max objects.
Dustin lets his hand drop, balling it into a fist. “I know that.”
“We should… we should get back inside,” Steve tries, casting a cautious look around the garden. It can be anywhere. It can be prowling along the far back line of threes. It can be hiding beneath the low hanging branches. It can be about to attack and they’re just standing there in the open without any way to defend themselves.
“I mean,” Dustin says, peering down into the snow, “you can easily tell by the size of its paws that it’s a huge one. See the way the set of marks is even on both sides? It was walking comfortably, without any hurry.”
“The spacing is even,” Max agrees.
“We should follow the trail to see where it went.”
“No! We most definitely shouldn’t,” Steve interjects. “What we should do is getting back into the house.”
“Would be smarter to regroup and come back when we have a plan,” Dustin allows. “Good thinking, Steve.”
That’s not what Steve meant at all but hey, small victories. “Right. Let’s get back inside.” Before Hargrove realizes nothing is stopping him from slamming the front door in their faces and leaving them out there for the demodog to gnaw on.
“So the good news is that it is a demodog,” Dustin says.
“That’s the good news?!” Steve looks at the kid, trying to keep his mouth from falling open in disbelief.
“Yeah. We already know what we’re up against.” Dustin nods, giving him a toothy smile. “Plus, we have until the sunset to figure out how to gank them. Poor babies don’t like the sunshine.”
“Just let’s get back inside, Dustin.”
Hargrove is still standing in the hallway like nothing’s happened. He slurps tea from his mug, making obnoxious sounds.
Steve has to squeeze past him by walking sideways. It makes Hargrove smile.
“What?”
“Nothing,” Hargrove drawls, then jerks his chin to point outside. “What’s that?”
“The marks in the snow?”
Hargrove nods curtly.
“Probably from that thing you saw earlier.”
“From the, uh, demodog?”
Dustin, who is closing the door, goes still. His voice is barely a whisper. “He knows?”
Max puts an arm on his shoulder and makes a face. “Yeah.”
“He knows?! Are you – fuck this, you’re all crazy, people!” Dustin starts pacing.
Hargrove watches him with his big, focused eyes. He’s hiding his smirk behind that stupid mug with tea that he continues sipping, holding it with his both hands, fingers wrapped around it, as if he was too cold and was trying to soak as much warmth as possible.
Max kicks the door shut. “I’ll take him upstairs,” she whispers to Steve and then grabs Dustin and forces him to follow her.
“Try to get in touch with Lucas. If he’s still nosing around your house…” Steve trails off.
“Yes, sure. I’ll try to get him to come over here instead.”
“Sure.”
“It is cool with you, right?”
“Of course, Max.”
Hargrove doesn’t move from his spot in the hallway. With that stupid mug and that stupid smirk, Steve feels like punching him.
Dustin is still spluttering when Max drags him up the stairs. Their voices are beginning to fade when suddenly Steve hears Dustin burst out, “Of course we were worried!”
Their voices pick up volume again. Max is quieter but Dustin’s voice carries loud and clear.
“All we could hear was static! We thought something happened!”
“So you thought sending Lucas to go check on me in my house was a good idea? I told you to stay away from that house,” Max snaps back.
Hargrove slowly nods his head a few times, as if pleased that he taught Max well, and then he takes another slurp of his tea. Steve is glad Max is already upstairs and can’t see her brother because he is sure she would punch Hargrove herself.
“Lucas went to get you, I biked here to see what’s up with Steve. It would have helped if you were answering your walkie talkie, you know.”
“I don’t have it here.”
“Lucas thought you were a goner, man,” Dustin huffs but his voice is getting quieter again. “We tried calling Steve but like I said, it was all static.”
There is a moment of silence, or perhaps they are talking in low voices now, Steve muses.
A few seconds later, Max’s head appears on top of the staircase. “Steve?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you press the talk button and let it transmit through the night?”
Steve remembers taking the walkie from Max’s hand and putting it on the night stand. “I might have?”
“You’re an idiot, Steve!” Max bellows and with a swish of her hair she disappears into the bedroom, slamming the door.
“Hey!” Steve calls out but he’s not really mad. Hell, they’re all freaking out and trying to pretend they aren’t freaking out. He can understand her behaviour.
“She’s a charmer,” Hargrove quips.
“Shut up,” Steve mumbles. Hargrove’s behaviour, on the other hand, he can’t understand.