Chapter Text
The first thing that told River something was wrong was the screeching she heard from across the street. The game of street hockey she’d been playing alone went completely forgotten the moment she heard it. It filled her with a sense of dread and made her stomach drop. She knew that sound anywhere, and it terrified her all over again. What was worse was when the screeching suddenly grew quiet.
Gripping her hockey stick tightly, she brought herself to walk over and investigate. She didn’t quite know the people who lived across from her, but she’d talked to Mrs Henderson once. She seemed nice enough, as did Dustin.
If that sound was coming from their house, River needed to make sure they were okay. She would hate herself if she didn’t. Part of her also hoped she’d been mistaken. But what else could make such a harrowing sound like that?
River knocked on the door. All she heard from the other side was someone yelling (Dustin, she guessed), followed by a string of curses. When the door opened, Dustin stood in the doorway. He cleared his throat and tried to act casual, for whatever reason, which only made her even more worried.
“Hey. If you’re looking for my mom, she’s not here right now,” he said.
River shook her head. “No. I just heard something, and I thought I’d see if you were okay.” She peered past him, checking for anything unusual.
“Nope. Everything’s fine. You must have heard Mews. He’s my cat.” He frowned a bit as he said it, but she wasn’t quite sure why.
“Are you sure? Because that definitely did not sound like a cat.”
Dustin sighed. “Shit,” he mumbled. “Okay, look. This is gonna sound crazy, but just bear with me for a second.”
River had a horrible feeling she kind of knew where this was going. And if that had been what she thought she heard, how was this kid even alive? She leaned against the doorway. “Try me.”
“Okay, so I may have a weird creature stuck in my cellar right now, and I don’t really know what to do about it now,” he explained. “You’re an adult, right?”
“I’m eighteen, so technically yes.”
“Good enough for me. I need to figure out what to do, and the older kids usually know what to do,” he said. Dustin joined her outside and closed the door behind him. River had no idea what he was talking about, but she knew the screeching had to have been one of those creatures the scientists from Hawkins Lab were so obsessed with, and it must be what he had trapped in the cellar.
Dustin was already taking off down the street. River sighed and followed after him.
“Wait, more people know about those things?” she asked.
Dustin nodded. “Yeah. Wait.” He turned to her. “You know about the Demogorgons?”
If she was going to help, she might as well explain herself. At least a little bit. “Um, If that’s what you’re calling them, yeah. I mean, I don’t know a whole lot, but I know a little.” That was the truth of the matter, because she’d only seen one maybe once before.
The gears in his head seemed to turn as he tried to decide what to make of that. Clearly, he had some questions, and that was what worried her. Maybe she should have stayed out of this. “How the hell do you know about all that?” he asked, leading her away from his house.
“I just do. It’s not really important right now. Where the hell are we even going?” She was blindly following him at the moment with no clue where he was going, or if he had a plan.
“The Wheelers’ house. Nancy and Mike might know what to do.”
While River didn’t exactly know Nancy Wheeler personally, she knew Jonathan was friends with her. Seeing as Jonathan was her only friend, she’d seen Nancy around, though she was usually accompanied by Steve Harrington. How she was going to help, River had no clue, and at this point, she didn’t really feel like asking. It sounded like it might be a long story.
For now, River followed him. Dustin at least seemed to have some idea of what he was doing.
When they arrived at the Wheeler household, she stood behind Dustin as he rang the doorbell. She was going to let him do the talking. He could explain things far better than she could.
“Your line has been busy for over two hours, Mr Wheeler. Do you realize that?” Mr Wheeler sighed and nodded, seemingly used to this kind of judgement from Dustin.
“Yes, I do.”
“Is Mike home?”
Mr Wheeler turned and yelled for his wife. “Karen, where’s Mike?”
“Will’s!” she answered from inside the house.
“He’s at Will’s.”
Dustin sighed and shook his head. “No one’s picking up there.”
River hadn’t been able to get a hold of Jonathan earlier, so she wondered if that had something to do with it.
“What about Nancy?”
Mr Wheeler called out to his wife again, who told him Nancy was at a friend’s house. River sighed. Clearly this wasn’t going the way Dustin had planned it, which meant they needed a new plan.
“Son of a bitch. You’re really no help at all, you know that?” Dustin started to walk away. River waved at Mr Wheeler and ran after him.
“Okay, so what now?” she asked. “Your plan didn’t really work out.”
“Yeah, no shit.” As he seemed to be thinking of a new plan, he looked over when a car pulled up nearby.
River was a bit surprised to see Steve step out with a bouquet. Although he was dating Nancy, it made sense when she actually thought about it. He seemed to be talking to himself (maybe working out what to say), when Dustin intercepted Steve before he could reach the door.
“Are those for Mrs Wheeler?” Dustin asked.
Steve raised an eyebrow. “No.”
“Good. She’s not home.” Dustin took the flowers and threw them back into Steve’s car. River honestly tried not to laugh, but she failed, letting out a snort. Steve rolled his eyes and went back to his car.
“What the hell?” he exclaimed.
“We have more important things than your love life,” Dustin insisted. He turned back to River. “This is my neighbor. River, right?” she nodded. “River, this is Steve. Steve, this is River.”
River waved, not even bothering to explain that she knew Steve. Maybe she’d never talked to him, but everyone knew Steve “The hair” Harrington.
“Now that that’s out of the way, allow me to explain a bit,” he continued. “I thought I had found a new species, so I kept it in my room. But then it kept growing. And now it’s locked in my cellar, and I need your guys’ help.”
“Maybe it’s a lizard,” Steve suggested.
“Dude. It ate my cat.”
River’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry, you kept a Demogorgon in your house?” That part she didn’t know about, but the idea alone made her shudder. How could he keep something like that without either getting killed or freaking out?
“I think it was a baby Demogorgon,” Dustin explained. “I knew Dart was growing way too quickly, but I guess I didn’t think about it.”
“You named it Dart?”
“Yes, Steve. Keep up. His name is Dart, short for D’artagnan.”
River shook her head. She didn’t understand Dustin, but she definitely admired his ability to talk so nonchalantly about something so terrible.
“Do you still have that bat?” he asked Steve.
“The bat?”
“The one with the nails in it.”
“Uh, yeah.”
Dustin started to get in the car. “Good. You’re gonna need it.” He gestured for them to get in the car with him. Sighing, Steve and River shared an exasperated look and followed.
As she should have figured, the car ride mostly consisted of questions. Mainly from Steve.
“Okay, explain to me how the hell you know about any of this,” he said.
River sighed. She anxiously pulled at her sleeve, trying to decide exactly how to tell them without giving too much away. Which was difficult the more she thought about it. She had to give them some sort of answer, didn’t she?
“Trust me. I don’t really think you’d believe me if I told you,” she answered. “It’s a long story, and I’m not even sure if I’m supposed to tell you.” Besides, telling anyone wouldn’t only affect her, but it would also affect her brother. And while Hawthorne wasn’t here, that didn’t mean she could risk anything.
They were already pulling up to Dustin’s house. “We’ve been through a lot,” Dustin said. “I’m sure anything you tell us can’t exactly be more surprising than finding out about Demogorgons and the Upside Down.”
Maybe he had a point, but that didn’t exactly mean River could tell them. “Let’s just say that I don’t know a whole lot, but it might be enough to help you,” she sighed. “In fact, I might be way more helpful than you’d think.”
Steve parked outside the house and gave her a confused look. “Whatever the case, you know about things we thought only we knew.” She could tell he seemed a bit suspicious, and she didn’t really blame him for it.
River sighed and got out of the car, following Dustin across the lawn. “Sorry that I don’t exactly feel like spilling my life story to a bunch of strangers,” she mumbled. He only shook his head and followed along.
Dustin led them out to the cellar. Steve had his bat ready, and all River had on-hand was her hockey stick. It wasn’t as good a weapon, but it would have to do.
“So you trapped that thing down here?” Steve asked.
Dustin nodded. “You guys take a look, and I’ll stay behind,” he said. “Just in case.” Steve shook his head and slowly opened the door. Scared that Dart might jump out at them, River readied her weapon. Steve led the way, seeming to notice how eerily quiet it was just as she did. River was sure they’d notice if there was a Demogorgon by now. When they didn’t spot anything, Steve took a look around and pointed at a hole in the ground.
River paled as realization started to set in. It wasn’t here, and that was somehow a whole lot worse.
Steve crouched down to look at the hole. “I think your little friend dug his way out.”
River heard Dustin rush down to take a look for himself. He cursed, clearly realizing the horrible situation they were in. River let out an exasperated sigh and started to pace around the room.
“Okay, so what now?” she asked. “There’s literally a baby Demogorgon on the loose, which I didn’t even know was a thing. And now I have to help a bunch of strangers find it because who knows what could happen if we don’t find it.” She was mostly rambling to herself.
Steve stood again and placed a hand on River’s shoulder to stop her nervous pacing. “We’re gonna find that thing,” he assured her. “How hard can it be to find a weird-lizard-thing?”
River shrugged. “A lot harder than you think.”
“Actually, I might have an idea,” Dustin cut in.