Chapter Text
The red fog seemed to be clearing from the gym floor of Hawkin’s High. And there she was. Nancy Wheeler, in a disheveled heap on the floor. Steve ran to her.
Falling to his knees in front of her, she didn’t look up. She hid her gaze from him, even as he gently touched her knee to shake her from this.
“You’re not real, you’re not real.”
Steve felt a cold ache in his heart. She didn’t think this was real. She didn’t think she was being saved.
She continued to whisper this mantra to herself, keeping her eyes shut, head bent towards her knees that were drawn up to her chest. Steve reached for her again. His fingers brushed hers, closing his hand around hers.
“Nancy. I’m here.” He said gently.
He wasn’t sure what it was about how he’d said that but she lifted her head, finally making eye contact.
“Steve?”
He smiled and wrapped his arms around her. She fell into his embrace, clinging to him for the first time in years. His smell, his sweater, his heartbeat in his broad chest— it was all the same as she remembered it.
She pulled away, her eyes not leaving him as he helped her to her feet.
“Let’s get the hell out of Dodge now, yeah?” Steve said smirking, taking her hand but he felt a small pull. He looked back at her.
She reached for him and she was kissing him like she had back in Senior year. He wanted to stay like this forever. But there was no time, they needed to go.
Steve…
His heart dropped. He opened his eyes, pulling away from Nancy to see— two empty, bleeding sockets staring back at him.
Steve jumped, still clutching onto her for dear life.
“N-Nance— Nancy?!” He shook her lifeless body but it was as if she’d been gone the whole time.
She’s gone, Steven. You’ve been abandoned again.
Nancy’s limp form was being dragged from his grasp by some invisible force.
Her bones crunched, her body contorting in the most unnatural way.
Steve tried to shield his eyes but they were being forced open by that same invisible force.
The red mist flooded his vision as wooden tendrils broke upwards through the gym floor and weaved their way through the bleachers. They hooked around the backboard and through the basketball hoop. Two more limp bodies were being pulled from beneath the now splintered open court, broken and bloody as Nancy.
The first was— his mother. Her face was coated in blood and hysterical tears as she clutched her wedding ring, desperately. The second— his father, had no such wedding ring in sight. His mother sobbed desperately. His father’s demeanor was as stone cold and unfeeling as it’d always been, despite the empty sockets where his cold gaze usually rested.
“What’re you gonna work in retail the rest of your life, Steven?” His father said sternly.
Steve opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by his mother’s agonized wails.
“Steven!! You’re going to end up just like him!”
Steve’s heart dropped and he visibly shrank a few inches. Hunched down, bowing his head because he didn’t want to see it anymore. Didn’t want to hear it anymore. It wasn’t real.