They trailed through tunnel after tunnel, pausing long enough for Steve to look at the map Will drew before leading them on towards what Mike called a hub. The place where it was all coming from. Something was moving in his peripheral and it had Dustin looking up at what he could only describe as a throbbing zit.
"Looks like an asshole," Billy muttered, still bringing up the rear.
Dustin stared at him through the snorkel he wore to cover his eyes from the dust floating around them. "See a lot of those?"
Billy's eyes narrowed looking down at the kid. "You're probably not old enough yet for that answer." He clapped Dustin on the shoulder and he stumbled forward. "I'm not coming back if you get lost."
It left Dustin looking at his back as he followed their little group. Dustin stepped forward but he glanced back up at that thing above them, just in time for it to open into his face. The moment he started screaming Billy tore back through the opening feeling Max coming up beside him grabbing the back of his shirt as his other two friends yelled for him.
"What happened?" Steve yelled shining the flashlight in his face.
Dustin was keeled over spitting on the ground. "It's in my mouth! Some got in my mouth! Shit!" he shrieked, losing all sense of logic as panic took over.
He coughed trying to spit it up and a rough hand slammed down on his back stealing the air from his lungs. It forced him to suck in a big breath of air, and then another, and another until he was breathing again. The sense returned to him and sat back on his knees looking up at the five staring down at him. "I'm okay," he told them, he told himself.
"Are you serious?" Max exclaimed under her breath the same time Steve muttered, "very funny man." None of them were amused.
It was quiet again, but not the empty kind of quiet. His screams had echoed through the dark passages and an unearthly growl echoed back. They stared around them like any second something was going to jump out of the shadows. "Max?" Billy breathed, his stomach sinking.
"Yeah," she whispered back, "that's her."
There went the worry of how they'd find her in all this, Dustin had led her right to them. "Way to go, man," Mike hissed.
Before Dustin could defend himself Steve spoke over them. "Stay close guys, she's pretty quiet when she wants to be." He didn't think that was the sound of a girl trying to find her little sister, that sounded like a warning. It sounded like something now smart enough to taunt its prey before stalking it.
They turned back the way they'd come crashing out of, and Dustin flailed trying to find his balance when a hand grabbed his backpack and jerked him upright. "On your feet, shithead," Billy grumbled pushing him forward. Suddenly the ax in his hands didn't feel like enough.
After what felt like forever they found Mike's hub, the place all the tunnels seemed to lead to. They moved around the center of it dumping gasoline, spraying pesticides, anything that was flammable. When they were done and their canisters spent they stood back and waited, hearing the faint sound of something dragging along the ground getting louder. Coming closer.
Billy watched, eyes wide with terrible understanding, as she emerged through the tunnel across from them. He had no idea what they'd meant when they called her a monster, he still pictured Ronnie but with her eyes black and hateful. This thing was like a mutant spider, its legs sharp weapons and its body elongated ending in a tail that twitched behind it like a cat ready to pounce. The light from one of the flashlights ran along its long body and his eyes narrowed, catching the shadowed shape of something hiding within its soft underbelly.
"Harrington?"
Steve stepped up behind him lowering his backpack to the ground. "Yeah, I saw it."
The air reeked of gas as she crept closer, her tail swishing behind her. Once they moved there wouldn't be a lot of time, especially not after they lit this place up. "Sinclair," Billy said without turning to the boy somewhere behind him. "No matter what happens you get Max out of here."
"Billy, no," Max said trying to push her way to him, but Lucas held his ground in front of her keeping her back. "She might not recognize you. Lucas move."
Steve looked down at the ax Billy extended to him, knowing this was the only way. "Wait til I get her turned around then you swing like hell."
"Got it."
Taking a steadying breath Billy stepped out into the wide opening with his palms held up showing her his hands were empty. "Hey beautiful," he told her like he used to whenever he saw her. He used to say sweeter things to her, used to bring her little things because he thought of her when he saw them. As she circled around the left side keeping her eyes on him, he was struck by how much he'd been letting her down.
That tail slid a few feet away from where Steve stood still in the tunnel. He tightened his grip on the ax, wielding it like a baseball bat, as he crept past the entrance closer to where she was turning her back on him.
"Eyes on me," Billy told her before she tried to turn back to see Steve getting closer. "It's just you and me baby."
She grew still as though recognizing that softened voice, this boy who didn't know how to be gentle but tried to be gentle for her. There was a quiet rumbling chitter that came from her throat, a gentle response. And then Steve swung.
He hadn't expected it to go through that thing's tail so easily, like it was only soft tissue made to detach. He swung hard and it sliced through flesh and embedded itself in the hard ground. His body went down still following his momentum.
She turned screaming and he rolled out of the way of one of the legs that stomped down where his chest had been. "Shit," he cried trying to get to his feet.
"Steve," Dustin yelled as she stepped forward. But without the lower part of her helping to keep her body up she stumbled and fell, the ground beneath them trembling with the weight of her.
Billy darted back around to where the others were before she remembered he was there, that he'd tricked her. "Light her up," he yelled as Steve dragged the end of the tail back to the tunnel.
"No!" Max threw herself against Lucas begging them not to.
Pulling the lighter from his pocket Steve flipped it open and threw it against the other side of the wall, trying to buy them more time. Flames rose quickly ignited by the fuel coating the wall, and she wailed as heat scorched the tender flesh underneath her. Steve and Billy hauled what was left of the tail back into the tunnel, their backs scorched from the flames cracking behind them.
"Jesus," Steve exclaimed in a thick breathless voice as he all but fell to the ground. "You better be right, Hargrove."
"How could you?" Max cried against Lucas. "She recognized you." What was left of her sister had stopped screaming and lay in a curled up heap blackened by the fire.
Billy's hands pulled at the slick outer flesh, snatching the pocket knife Mike held out to him and cut it away. "What the hell is that?" Mike muttered taking a step back.
Dustin moaned, "oh god it's her eggs."
With its skin cut away they could see the fluid filled sack it'd been containing. The light from their flashlights didn't show anything more than a cloudy yellow.
Max had grown quiet and still, enough that Lucas let her walk past him as she moved to crouch beside Billy. The others yelped and cursed as he cut open whatever that thing was and fluid spilled along the ground around them, jumping back like it was acid.
But Billy and Max knelt watching the opaque liquid drain from the amniotic sack until they could see, so very clearly now, the girl they'd come all this way for.
"Ronnie," Max said in a soft breathy voice, like a desperate prayer.
Billy wiped to fluid from her face, tracing the shape of her jaw. "There's my girl," he said in a quiet sigh.
Steve stood over Billy and Max with his back pressed against the wall, watching this terrible boy look at this girl like everything was finally right in his world. "We need to move."
Billy nodded as he got an arm around her back and the other behind her knees and stood, looking down at her upturned face as her head lulled back. Her body was loose and pliable, like there was nothing in there. It honestly scared him how limp she was.
"Holy shit, she's really naked."
Billy turned on the moppy-headed kid scowling. "You eyeing my girl, shithead?"
"No sir," Dustin was quick to say. "Just, you know, making an observation."
Lucas pushed him back the way they'd come before Billy could decide how angry he wanted to be about that "observation." Max followed behind him frowning just as deeply as Billy had. "Seriously Dustin, checking out my sister?"
They bickered as they trailed the way back to the car, Steve this time bringing up the rear as he held his nail studded bat. He watched the way Billy would look down at her slack face every so often before shifting his hold on her, like he was trying to hold her tighter. "Is she breathing?"
"No."
Steve cursed under his breath not knowing what that meant. What were they supposed to do for a girl that'd been birthed out of the monster she turned into? He opened his mouth to say something he meant to be encouraging, because he might not like Billy but he had liked Veronica. Before he could say anything the ground beneath them trembled as something deep beneath the earth began to shake.
Billy fell hard on his right knee as he kept his hold on Veronica, waiting for the shaking to stop. He climbed back to his feet wincing, shifting Ronnie higher up his chest for a better hold on her. From behind them came a deep guttural roaring, they could just barely make out the different tones. There were a lot of them.
"Run," Mike yelled.
Doing away with gentle carrying, Billy threw Veronica over his shoulder and raced down the tunnel outpacing half of them. The sound of snapping jaws and pounding feet was growing louder as those things gained ground quicker than they could outrun them.
"There!" Lucas yelled catching sight of the rope still hanging where they'd left it.
Behind them Steve was yelling urging them forward, seeing Billy jump for the rope and hauling him and Veronica back up top. Billy dropped Ronnie the moment he'd pulled himself out and turned reaching for Max. Steve was under her pushing as Billy pulled and she was out. He then turned grabbing Lucas, then Mike, and the two older boys got them out in an impressive amount of time. And for a moment, forgetting his still aching head, Steve was almost glad he was there.
Billy shoved Mike out of the way and turned back to the last two, hearing nothing but those things howling, feeling the earth shaking beneath him. "Give me the kid, Harrington!"
But they heard the snapping of jaws, close enough they heard the thick squelch of saliva. Steve grabbed his bat off the ground and stood a little in front of Dustin as a hoard of demodogs threw themselves around the corner. His grip tightened on the neck of the bat waiting for the first one to lunge, but they ducked their heads shooting past them. Steve turned grabbing Dustin and planted his feet, the way Billy told him ironic as that was, and held them steady as the last of the pack raced passed as they ran from something.
"Come on, shitheads."
Dustin tipped his head back to where Billy was crouched around the hole waiting for them. "You know, I don't think I like him."
Setting the bat down he turned back to the kid that had dragged him into all this and nodded. "Yeah, well, join the club."
Topside Max had moved to where her sister lay forgotten in the dirt, wanting to tell her everything that'd happened and for Ronnie to finally tell her what's been going on. But her eyes were still closed and she lay on her side with arm outstretched where it'd fallen. "Ron?" Max shook her shoulder and watched her head fall to the side. Panic rushed in as Max hovered first over her sister's mouth then her chest not hearing or feeling her breath. "Billy," she called to him, getting her hands around both of Veronica's shoulders and giving a rough shake. "What's wrong with her?"
He pulled her hands away from Ronnie and looked down at her crumpled body, his eyes tracing the scars on her chest. "I don't know," was the only answer he had. The monsters, fine he could accept that. The underground passageways to hell, whatever. But he didn't accept this, not when he'd finally gotten her back.
Steve pulled himself out of the hole, by himself, in a fit of heavy breathing. "Thanks, man, so glad you're here to help," he muttered mostly to himself as he stood dusting himself off. Letting go of an irritable breath he turned finding Billy had Veronica in his arms again. "How's she doing, any better?"
The only answer he was given was the rough shake of Billy's head as he began making his way back to his car. Steve stared at the back of him seeing Mayfield's head slumped on his shoulder, seeing in the small steps Billy took he was not only tired but he was worried.
He shooed the kids after him ready to go back to the Byers house and put this night behind him. The headlights from Billy's car suddenly glowed bright as sun and they turned their heads away to shield their eyes. Just as suddenly as it started they dimmed, as if to say that it was finally over.
"Billy?"
That soft breath had him turning to find Ronnie's green eyes blinking heavily at him. He sank to his knees cradling her to his shaking chest. "Hey baby."
She stared up at him trailing the tips of her fingers over his smile. "You came for me." After the terrible things she said to him, he was right here where she'd needed him.
His arm was wrapped tight around her shoulders, his head bent low enough the tip of his nose brushed hers, staring hard at her as he told her in a low voice, "always." He saw her soft smile, relieved, then he saw the tears. "Apologize tomorrow."
With a quick nod she sat up throwing her arms around his shoulders, feeling the rumble of his laughter beneath her chest. Without warning another pair of arms circled his neck as Max crashed into them, and he sat there holding his girls up while the four boys stood back letting them have their moment.
"I don't hate you," Max told her in a rush, so fast and mumbled it didn't really make sense.
"Oh honey," Veronica laughed reaching a hand to her sister's head, "I know."
Max had her face pressed against the warm curve of Veronica's neck, and she sniffed trying to hide her tears. She really thought she was gonna lose Ronnie. That couldn't be the last thing she said to her, Max wouldn't have survived if it had been.
They both felt her shiver against the chilled November air. Billy didn't give Max a choice in letting go as he stood bringing Ronnie with him. "Here." Billy turned to find Steve holding out his jacket, he gave a wordless thanks in a quick nod before wrapping it around her sticky shoulders.
Veronica could feel it dripping slowly down the length of her, and she looked at her legs seeing it was some kind of yellow goo from the bright glow of the headlights. "I tried to eat you guys," she said softly, still trying to make sense of it all. It had felt like a dream at first, like she'd wake up at any point and everything would be normal again. But then she saw Max in the bus, then Billy in the tunnels, and somewhere in her mind she knew nothing could ever be normal again.
"Yeah, that was a fun time," Dustin told her a little too firmly, still not happy about her trying to eat them back at the junkyard. But his mouth fell open when she turned to him and he got his first real look at her.
Lucas was quick to wave him away. "It's good. The way Max talks about you we know you're okay. I'm Lucas, by the way."
She returned his little wave, and followed his finger as he introduced her to Mike and Dustin. Billy ducked his head putting his mouth by her ear. "That's the kid into Max."
She leaned back enough to find his hard eyes. "Were you nice to him?" She didn't buy the way he shrugged giving a nonchalant, sure. "Were you at least nicer to him than you were to Steven's face?"
To the right of them Steve gave a quiet, "thank you," glad someone was addressing it.
Billy looked down at her serious face and chuckled. "You tried to eat them, I don't really think you're allowed to give me a lecture right now." Before she could say anything more, because he knew the look she was giving him and she had a lot she wanted to say, he started nudging her toward the car. "You're driving, Harrington. You little shits are in the back."
Veronica stood by the back window while the kids climbed behind the passenger's seat Billy had pulled forward to give them room. Dustin stopped beside her and looked up. "Your boyfriend's kind of a dick."
Billy rolled his eyes as the kid climbed in the back knowing he was gonna hear it from Ronnie later. But he looked at her seeing the gentle smile curled on her mouth as she leaned against the car watching him. "You can't look at me like when there's kids in the back of the car," he told her, his voice lowered to gravel.
The look she gave him had him grinning as he pushed the seat back. He got in and snaked an arm around her back to pull her into his lap, checking to make sure her legs were clear before shutting the door. "Don't wreck my baby, Harrington."
Steve rolled his eyes at the warning, regretting it immediately as pain shot to the back of them. The adrenaline was quickly leaving him and his head was really starting to kill him.
Veronica was half asleep when they pulled back up to the Byers' house, her body jolting as Steve hit the brakes a little too hard. Her forehead was warm against Billy's cheek, his hands held steady around her middle. He had to push her out of the car from how stiff her legs still felt and she swayed a little before she found the side of the car. He at least remembered to pull the seat forward before he got a hand around her back and helped her into the house.
"I'll find her something to wear," Steve told him heading for the kitchen to get something for his head first.
"Bathroom's down the hall there."
Billy followed the point of Mike's finger, his arm tight around Ronnie's middle anchoring her to his side.
Dustin came in after him, then Lucas, then Max. It was hard to believe an hour ago Billy had almost killed Steve, or that Veronica had still been a monster that wanted to eat them. Dustin was staring after Veronica, her long legs the color of milk. "Did you know they made them that pretty?" he asked Lucas with a grin.
Lucas was doing everything he could not to look at the older girl. It was a good thing too, because Max leaned around him glaring at Dustin. "Stop looking at my sister."
In the bathroom Billy leaned against the wall by the shower watching Ronnie rinse herself off, his eyes following the trails of water running down her soft curves. There'd been a time when he knew her body better than his own. He reached a hand to her chest tracing the scarred lines he was only now seeing had been carved there. The wet pad of her thumb grazed his top lip cleaning the blood that had dried there, and something inside him yielded to the familiarity of her love.
She stepped closer to him feeling her skin raise at the sudden cold outside the shower spray. His hand trailed from her chest up the expanse of her neck and settled around the back of her head. "There you are," she said on a soft breath when his warm eyes met hers. "I know you."
The sigh that left him had him bending to her, his forehead against hers and their noses touching. Lately he'd been feeling like he lost her too, like when Neil brought her back from the clinic she hadn't come back all the way. Like he was constantly running to catch her before she fell. But she was warm, and she was here. "I missed you."
It had a smile lifting the corners of her mouth. She stepped into the warm of his chest winding her arms around his shoulders, feeling his arms circling her back to hold her. He didn't care that she was getting the front of him wet. He pressed a firm kiss to her shoulder and shifted his hold on her to pull her closer.
A throat cleared behind them. Steve awkwardly shifted on his feet not really wanting to break up their moment, but one half of the others had just gotten back and the other half was on their way. "Clothes are by the sink, here's a towel." Steve crept forward extending the towel he'd found in the closet.
Billy's hand shot out grabbing it, and he turned sharing a long look with Steve before the other boy backed away. It was the closest thing to an apology Steve knew he'd get, and though he thought his head might kill him he took it quietly.
Cutting the water Billy waited as Ronnie wrung her hair out before he stooped down and ran the towel up her legs catching the water dripping down them from her shoulders. She toweled off her hair while Billy grabbed the sweatpants and white shirt Steve had found in Jonathan's room. He led her back into the living room, keeping an arm around her as he sized up the people who just got back.
Steve stood off to the side glancing between Nancy and Jonathan, his eyes falling to their bound hands. He just wanted to go home. A hand on his arm had him turning to where Veronica now stood beside him and he returned her small smile. "Here," he said throwing Billy's jacket around her shoulders. "Glad you're okay, Mayfield." Before they could get too chummy Billy's hand was flat on his bruised face pushing him back.
"Are those my clothes?"
They turned at the soft voice to where Jonathan stood eyeing Veronica. "Who the hell even are you?" Billy demanded.
Ronnie tipped her head back looking up at his irritable face. "Five minutes, that's a record."
Steve waited for another gritted response, for Billy to tear his arm from around her and demand she take care of herself. But he huffed rolling his eyes and pulled her closer.
Still grinning Veronica turned to Jonathan; a boy Steve had told her about yesterday when he explained what happened last year. "I'll wash them and send them to school with Max to give your brother."
Headlights cut through the window as the last of their party made it back, and Mike ran from the house to meet Eleven. Billy was just turning to Max to tell her to come on when Jim Hopper walked in. He turned first to Jonathan to ask where Joyce was, but his face slackened with surprise as he turned to the red-headed teen on the other side of the room. His mouth opened a good five seconds before any words came out. "I have your autopsy report on my desk."
She nodded like that made sense. "I've had a long night. If you don't mind, maybe we can talk about who killed me later."
"Yeah," he said with a nod, still staring at her like he expected her to disappear again. Before he could give her a time, which was going to be first thing in the morning, Joyce yelled for him from Will's room. He stepped around where she stood by the hall. "We're not done," he told her, a finger aimed at her as he walked passed.
She looked up at Billy and whispered, "we should go before he comes back." He was quick to agree and she turned looking for her sister and finding her sitting on the couch next to Lucas. "Anyone need a ride?" She chose to ignore the look Billy shot her.
Max looked up at her sister, catching her knowing grin, and turned back to Lucas. Dustin stepped in front of Ronnie's field of view with a wide smile. Before he even got his mouth open Steve's hand clapped down on his shoulder. "Easy there, tiger, you're with me."
Lucas and Max climbed in the back of Billy's car while Dustin grumbled to himself as he got in the front of Steve's. "Yeah, yeah, I know," Steve said waving his complaints away as he backed out of the driveway.
Veronica looked from the kids in the backseat to where Billy was pushing his seat back and climbing behind the wheel. Something brushed against her side and she turned looking down at a small girl with short hair and big brown eyes staring up at her. Her head tilted just slight trying to place why she knew her. It wasn't until El's hand curled around hers that Veronica understood. That she recognized her.
"Thank you," Veronica told her softly, tears springing to her eyes, "for taking the pain away." El felt her own eyes grow wet as she nodded. She hadn't really understood what Louis had been doing to her, not listening when Hopper told her not to find the missing girl. But she had found her, lying naked on her stomach in the dark. El had laid herself beside her hearing her sob every so often, her eyes shining with pain that drained away when El took her hand.
"Ron?"
Veronica squeezed her hand a last time before she let her go and got in the car. The night might be near over but nothing else was. She still didn't know how to control whatever this was, didn't know what her life was supposed to be now. Leaving was still the obvious answer.
Billy turned to look at the dark street behind him as he backed out of the driveway. But his eyes moved to where Lucas was sitting behind his seat. "Keep your hands to yourself."
"Yes sir," Lucas was quick to tell him.
In the passenger's seat Veronica laughed, and Billy leaned into the hand she raised to his cheek as he drove them home. She sat back in her seat feeling Billy's hand settle over the thick of her thigh and a light pull on her hair as Max played with the ends of a few strands behind her. Maybe this wasn't the life she wanted, but that didn't make it any less good.