Chapter Text
“Hey, kid, what are you doing?” I call out. The redheaded girl whips around, the sheet of metal she was dragging falling over as she lets go.
“Uh,” She hesitates, peering around the side of the abandoned bus before turning her attention back to me, steeling her gaze. “What are you doing?”
I raise an eyebrow, crossing my arms as I give her a look. “I asked you first.”
She shrugs. “My friend told me a story and said he had proof.”
“Yeah, that doesn’t explain why you’re dragging around scrap metal, kiddo.” I mean, I don’t really have a reason for questioning her, but I’d just been wandering around and stumbled upon this place. It’s not like there’s much else going on.
She rolls her eyes, returning to her prior task. In a more exasperated manner than her, I roll my eyes as I watch her struggle before jogging over. She stares at me as I lift the sheet of metal, taking most of the weight off her. When she doesn’t keep walking, I gesture widely. “Lead the way.”
We don’t need to walk far, it seems. “Hey, what’s your name?” I ask the girl. She glances momentarily at me, seeming almost suspicious.
“Max.” Is her simple answer.
“Cool. I’m Y/N.” I tell her my name in return.
As we prop the sheet of metal up against the rusting bus, a clang followed by a familiar voice announces the presence of someone else. “Hey! Dickheads!” It’s not directed at us, that I can tell. “How come the only one helping me out is this random girl?”
The one and only Steve Harrington gestures in the direction of Max and I. At my unexpected appearance, he does a double take. “These random girls,” He corrects himself, confused. “I thought there was only one?”
He shakes his head, brushing off my presence.
“We lose light in forty minutes. Let’s go,” He continues, directing his scolding towards two young boys. When they don’t move, also apparently taken aback by my being here, he raises his voice a bit. “Let’s go, I said!” This earns a chorus of unenthusiastic complaints from the two boys he was addressing as they follow him.
“Steve Harrington, fancy seeing you here.” I say, grinning at the approaching guy as I prop my hands on my hips.
“Yeah. What the hell are you doing here, Y/N?” He questions, almost mirroring my stance.
“I was bored. Was walking around when I stumbled upon this little party,” I tell him. “What about you?”
As he opens his mouth to answer, the curly haired boy cuts him off. “Don’t.”
“Why not? She’s already helping.” Max interjects. I smile at her thankfully.
“Party rules. We don’t tell anyone.” He says resentfully, before adjusting his cap and moving on.
And so I let it go. For now.
“What are your plans for all of this?” I ask, gesturing to the growing pile of discarded metal.
“Reinforce the bus. You should leave.” Steve tells me, expression completely serious as he brush past. I exchange a look with Max, who simply shrugs. I sigh and head off in search of more scraps.
I notice a number of old tyres, and figure they could be put to use. I haul one to it’s side, and notice Max has followed me. Wordlessly, I push a tyre in her direction, and we get to work rolling them back to the old bus.
“So, what’s their deal?” I ask the younger girl, nodding in the direction of the other two middle-schoolers.
“Dunno. They kinda stalked me when I arrived in Hawkins. Dustin was nice, but Lucas told me their ‘story’ and now he’s all pissy.” She briefs me. I hum in acknowledgement.
“What was the story?” I push a little harder for details. “Also, they stalked you?”
“I just moved here. I beat their high score at the arcade,” She smiles proudly at me, and I chuckle. Her face falls emotionless again. “I don’t think I should tell you what Lucas told me, though.”
I nod, understanding. “I won’t pry then.”
The next few trips we make in silence.
At some point, Max discovers a ladder, giving us both a way onto the roof of the bus and a plan.
“You sure you got it?” I question, straining under the weight of the tyre as we hoist it onto the roof. “I’d kinda prefer you not drop it on me.”
“I said I’ve got it!” She yells back. I look up to see it disappear over the side of the bus, rolling my shoulders to release the tension. I can feel eyes on me. Glancing out of the corner of my eye, I see Dustin and Lucas.
“Why are you helping us?” Lucas asks.
“I’ve got nothing better to do.” I shrug.
Behind us comes the sound of liquid splashing against the ground. Having doused a pile of questionable meat, Steve brings the trail of gasoline to the doors of the bus.
I push away the nervous knots in my stomach. Nothing about this is normal. I should know what I’m getting myself into.
Nonetheless, I don’t ask questions when I lock eyes with Steve. Instead, I clench my jaw and keep my mouth shut.
And as time marches on and the daylight fades to black, I realise there isn’t anything quite as unnerving as sitting in a decrepit junkyard at night, surrounded by mere acquaintances as you wait for what is unknown only to you.
We wait in silence, broken only by the faint hoots of owls and the clicking of Steve’s lighter.
I lean back, and continue to wait.
“So you really fought one of these things before?” Max asks Steve, attempting a conversation. Her questions gets my attention. He nods. “And you’re, like, totally, one hundred percent sure it wasn’t a bear?”
“Shit, don’t be an idiot, okay? It wasn’t a bear.” I raise a brow at Dustin’s annoyed words. “Why are you even here if you don’t believe us? Just go home.”
Max stares at him.
“Geez, someone’s cranky. Past your bedtime?” She mutters, standing to climb the ladder. She’s hiding it, but she’s hurt.
Dustin resumes his pacing.
“That’s good. Just show her you don’t care.” Steve says approvingly. I shoot him a glare.
“I don’t,” Is Dustin’s response. A pause. “Why are you winking, Steve? Stop.”
Steve shrugs off the comment, playing with the lighter again. I watch him for a moment, deciding to put in my own two-cents.
“No offence, Harrington, but that’s some kinda shitty advice,” I speak up for the first time since we began our wait. I turn to Dustin. “If you like someone, you should be making sure they know you care.”
I rest my head back against the wall of the bus. I don’t expect a reply. I don’t get one.
Click. Fwish. Click.
Click. Fwish. Click.
Click. Fwish. Click.
Click. Fwish. Click.
Click. Fwish.
Roar.
My eyes snap open, meeting Steve’s opposite me.
Click.
“What the fuck was that?” I ask, scrambling to my feet. The noise didn’t sound like anything I’ve ever heard before. Hell, it sounded like something straight out of that Jurassic Park movie that came out last year. Dustin and Steve whip around, ignoring me as they look out of the small cracks in the metal covering the windows.
“You see him?” Dustin asks.
“No.” Steve responds.
“Lucas, what’s going on?” Dustin calls up to the other boy. I join them by the window, peering out to catch a glimpse of whatever it is they keep talking about.
“Hold on,” Lucas shouts back. Moments pass before calls out again, his voice breaking at moments. “I’ve got eyes! Ten o’clock! Te-ten o’clock!”
“There.” Steve points at something. I follow his line of sight, watching as something emerges from the thick fog.
“What the fuck is that?” I swallow thickly, the murk obstructing our view.
“What’s he doing?” Dustin questions.
“I don’t know,” Steve replies. “He’s not taking the bait. Why is he not taking the bait?”
“Maybe he’s not hungry?” Dustin suggests.
“Maybe he’s sick of cow.” There’s something in the tone of Steve’s voice that puts me on edge. This feeling is reinforced as he takes a step back from the window, contemplating something.
“Steve? Steve, what are you doing? Steve?” Dustin sounds nervous.
“Just get ready.” He tells Dustin, tossing him the lighter as he holds a baseball bat in the other hand. Why Steve even has a baseball bat with a few dozen nails driven into it is beyond me, but it’s another question I doubt I’d get an answer to.
“Listen, I’ve been left in the dark as to what’s going on at the moment, but even I can tell this is a pretty shit idea,” I say, placing my hand on Steve’s chest to get him to pause for a moment. He opens his mouth, likely to argue, but I continue before he can speak. “I’m not going to stop you. Just, try not to get hurt, okay?”
He nods, and I let him go.
The creak of the door sliding open is almost painful.
I watch through the cracks as Steve whistles, softly swinging the bat from side to side, urging the strange animal to take the bait.
The ladder creaks behind me. “What is he doing?” It’s Max.
“Expanding the menu.” Dustin answers. I bite my lip, anxious.
“He’s insane.”
“He’s awesome.”
The eerie atmosphere is broken by a panicked yell from Lucas, causing my heart to drop. “Steve! Watch out! Three o’clock! Three o’clock!”
Shit.
Dustin pulls open the door of the bus, shouting. “Steve! Abort! Abort!”
The teen doesn’t get the chance to return to the safety of the bus. Looking like a fanged flower bud, the creature’s face opens up and it charges at him.
I feel sick at the sight of Steve dodging out of the way, the growls and screeches of these monsters filling the night.
The group of us scream at Steve to hurry, watching helplessly at he swings his bat at the beasts. Steve sprints back towards the bus, the creatures hot on his heels. I pull him in as someone swiftly slides close the door, the monsters slamming against it.
Everyone is yelling, a clawed limb bursting through the metal as the bus shakes. Overcome by adrenaline, I barely register the vague pain in my leg as we scramble away from the door. On one end of the bus, Steve is utilising the bat, while on the other side Dustin is desperately pleading for his friends to pick up through a walkie-talkie. Lucas’s previous reassurances that they can’t get in are lost on me as I remember our lookout post. As I glance up the ladder, another bang rocks the bus.
Silence falls across us as we watch with bated breath, every step this creature takes echoing throughout the vehicle and denting the roof. I notice Max’s closer position in relation to the ladder and protectively push her behind me, just as a slimy, clawed appendage rests on the top rung.
It shows it’s face, opening up and giving a low, threatening growl.
Max screams.
“Nope!” I jerk the ladder upwards, catching the creature’s leg and neck and shoving it backwards. Steve appears by me, wielding the baseball bat as the monster bounds back towards the hatch, screeching, enraged.
It catches itself at the last moment, something pulling it’s attention away from us. The bus shakes once more as the beasts cease their assault, and suddenly their roars are nothing but an unnerving, distant noise.
The silence is painstaking.
Slowly and cautiously, we take steps outside, too scared and confused to make any sound.
They’re gone.
“What happened?” Lucas voices the question we were all asking.
“I don’t know.” Max murmurs.
“Did Steve scare them away?” Dustin tries.
“No. No way,” Steve says, certain of what he’s saying. He turns to face us, bat propped up on his shoulder. “They’re going somewhere.”
I take a deep breath, rubbing my face as I process what just happened.
“You all okay?” I ask the group, regaining my composure. They nod and hum in response. “Good, good.”
I cast my gaze downward and notice something. “Oh, shit.” I mumble at the sight of a gash on the side of my left calf. That’s what the pain was - that one creature that almost broke through the door must have caught my leg.
I groan in discontent at the inconvenience of it as I crouch to get a better look at it. Pulling out a torch, Steve shines a light on the wound. It looks like the thing ripped through my jeans, which sucks, but luckily the cut itself doesn’t seem too serious.
“Hey, you good?” Steve asks me, crouched down to my level as he rifles through his bag for something.
“Eh, I’ll live.” I shrug, cracking a weak smile. He apparently packed a first aid kit, since he passes me a bandage and a tiny thing of disinfectant.
“It’s all I’ve got with me.” He says, and I smile gratefully at him.
I make quick, albeit messy work of fixing my leg up best I can with what I’ve got. It hurts like a bitch, but there are more important matters to attend to. “That’s gonna leave an awesome scar.” Dustin grins as I stand back up.
“Glad I got something out of it,” I joke, before turning my attention to more serious matters.
I shine my light around the group, brow furrowed slightly. “Okay, I think you all owe me an explanation.”