A/N: Content Warnings: Fear, Language, Disturbing Content, Death.
Jonathan opened a kitchen drawer and pulled out two steak knives. Turning to Nancy, he handed her one of the blades. "Remember…"
Nancy began to recount, "Straight into Will's room. And-"
"Don't step on the trap," Jonathan warned. He knew neither of them would be strong enough to unlatch it if they stumbled into it.
"Wait for the yoyo to move," Nancy continued through their plan.
"Then…" He lit the lighter he held in his hand. "All right. You ready?"
"Ready," Nancy nodded, clearly fighting through her nerves. It was do or die. Standing opposite from one another, they held out their right hands, palms up. They placed the sharp edges of their knives over their palms.
"On three," Jonathan started the countdown. "One…" He looked up at Nancy who was already cringing and trembling from what she was about to do. "Two…" He continued to stare at her face, before shaking his head, unwilling to see her in pain. "You don't have to do this-"
"Jonathan, stop talking," Nancy interrupted .
"I'm just saying, you don't have to-"
"Three." Together they pressed the knives into their palms, sliding the sharp edges through their skin. Dark, red blood spilled out from the deep cuts.
"Guys, guys! This is crazy. We can't just wait around," Mike said to Dustin and Lucas. He had been trying to convince them to leave with him to help his sister, but his friends had been very resistant. The only one who hadn't voiced an opinion was Eleven, who now sat behind him wearing the chief's shirt and watching them with her knees pulled to her chest. He sighed heavily as he realized his friends weren't going to budge.
"Mike, in case you forgot, we're still fugitives," Lucas replied, exasperated. "The bad men are still looking for us."
"Yeah, and we don't even know where your sister is," Dustin pointed out.
Okay, but they had a method for locating Nancy and Jonathan right there! Something Mike argued. "El can find them." Why did they not understand? His sister and Jonathan were going to fight the Demogorgan. They were in danger.
"Mike, look at her." Dustin gestured at Eleven and Mike turned back to glance at her. He watched Eleven rotate her head on her knees to blink at them, seeming to be lost in thought. "I still think we should stick to the chief's plan."
"Exactly," Lucas nodded. "We stay here, keep El out of sight and keep her safe. That's the most important thing, remember? Besides, she's okay. She's with Jonathan."
"Yeah, and she's kind of a badass now, so…" Dustin shrugged and, turning away from the rest of the group, he sauntered toward the gymnasium exit.
Mike blinked rapidly. Hadn't they just shot his idea of leaving down? "Well, where are you going?" He called after his friend. "You just said stick to the plan!"
"I am!" Dustin called back. "I'm just gonna go get some chocolate pudding. I'm telling you, Lunch Lady Phyllis hoards that shit."
"Are you serious?!" Mike threw his hands up, biting down a string of expletives.
Lucas began to follow after Dustin, the latter answering, "El needs to be recharged!"
Mike pivoted to check on Eleven again, seeing her standing up as if unsure what to do. With another heavy sigh, he turned back and stared after his unreasonable friends.
Valentin sat silently, listening to the sounds of Steve's anxious heartbeat as his friend slowly drove the BMW down the path leading to the Byers' house. Steve took a deep breath and turned to look at him. "Maybe, uh…" He nervously chuckled, "Maybe you should wait in the car."
He tilted his head. "Why?" Had they not just discussed him being there for support?
"I just need to talk to Byers 'Mano a Mano'," Steve replied. "If I'm gonna be a better person, I have to be able to handle my own mess."
Valentin blinked a few more times before nodding. He did not actually understand, seeing no direct correlation between Steve apologizing alone and being a better man. He also hadn't known that Steve spoke Spanish, which was quite a surprise.
"Okay. I will stay here." If Steve wanted to be alone, he would listen. Friends were supposed to listen.
"Cool!" Steve nodded, before joking, "I'll come get you if I need you." Valentin watched as he stepped out of the driver's side, turning around quickly with his hand on the door to look back at him. "If you, uh, if you hear yelling, that can be your signal it went south." He nodded again and Steve quietly closed the door, making his way up to the Byers' front porch.
If things went south, he could always make Jonathan accept Steve's apology.
Valentin followed the brunet with his eyes, watching as his friend lifted his hand and knocked. The day had actually been going quite well. Likely the most productive day he had experienced since he first came to Hawkins. Suddenly, a terrifying and familiar sensation shot up his spine. Before Steve could even finish knocking, Valentin was out of the car and moving to the front door.
All was quiet as Jonathan watched Nancy wrap his hand with an Ace bandage. He had insisted on wrapping hers first, so her wound was already covered. The porch swing creaked loudly outside and Nancy quickly glanced up, her eyes roaming the living room for any sign of the monster. He forgot that most people weren't used to the sounds outside of the suburbs.
"Did you hear that?" Nancy asked. He listened with her, but didn't hear anything other than the noises of his own home.
"It's just the wind," Jonathan replied. She turned back to him and their eyes met for a second before she resumed wrapping his hand. "Don't worry. My mom, she said the lights speak when it comes."
"Speak?" Nancy's brow raised.
"Blink," Jonathan clarified. "Think of them as alarms."
Nancy nodded and tied off the end of the bandage. "Is that too tight?"
"No, i-it's fine. Thanks," he stuttered as she secured his hand with medical tape. He looked down when he felt Nancy's fingers caress the palm of his hand. When they stopped, his own fingers began to enclose hers.
He had never felt so calm, which was saying something considering what they were there to do. He looked up at her and for the first time allowed himself to really appreciate how beautiful she was. There had always been a spark between them, but he knew she'd never go for him, so he had buried that thought away long ago.
Somewhere far where it couldn't hurt him.
But now, with a monster on its way, and possibly a gruesome death with it, he may never have another chance to tell her exactly how he felt about her. This might be his only opportunity.
"Nancy?" Jonathan started softly.
Her wide eyes darted to his face. "Yeah?" She was staring up at him, looking... he thought hopeful? He wasn't sure, but he suddenly found his words stuck in his throat. Working up the courage he opened his mouth to speak again.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Jonathan and Nancy leapt apart in fright at the sudden loud noise, their heads snapping toward the front door where someone, or something, had just pounded on the wood.
"Jonathan? Are you there, man? It's...it's Steve!"
He turned his eyes to Nancy's with a bewildered glance, both of them gulping loudly. This could not be happening.
"Listen, I just want to talk!"
Steve knocked again, more insistent this time, leaning his right hand on the door frame. He knew Byers was home! All the lights were on… and a family on a budget didn't just leave all the lights running all night long when they were out. He suddenly heard footsteps behind him and he whipped around to see Valentin staring at him with an expression he couldn't quite place.
"Woah, uh..." Steve appreciated the support but, come on, they had just talked about this. "You were supposed to wait in the car." Before Valentin could respond the door cracked open. He frowned at his friend and turned back to see someone looking at them both.
"What the…." Her eyes darted from Valentin to him, her brows pinching together. " Steve, listen to me…"
His confusion with Valentin had turned into confusion at the entire situation when he finally registered that Nancy had opened the door rather than Byers. Despite this not being her house.
"Hey. Nancy, what-?" Steve tried to ask.
"You need to leave," Nancy interrupted him. "Both of you."
"I'm not trying to start anything, okay?" Steve replied quickly, a wave of remorse flowing through him. He glanced at his friend and saw Valentin look around, face still covered with that strange expression .
"I don't care about that," Nancy snapped. "You need to leave." Steve turned back to face her and rested his hands against the frame of the front door, frowning. Why was she being so pushy?
"Steve, we need to get-" Valentin started to say but Steve just barreled through his friend's words.
"No, no, no. Listen, I-I-I-I'm, I messed up, okay? I messed…I messed up." This was why Steve didn't talk about his feelings much. He struggled to voice his emotions. He so badly wanted to make her understand how sorry he was.
How he had thought of nothing but how he had treated her and Byers. How stupid he felt that he had really believed she was cheating on him with Byers at such a time, when her best friend was missing and his kid brother was dead. How too late he had realized she must have turned to Byers for help finding Barb, probably believing her disappearance was connected to Will's.
It was so clear, and yet at the time he had been too selfish to see it. But he was going to change. Now, thanks to his new friend, he knew what he had done and he wanted to make it right.
"Okay? Really. Please. I'm trying to make things right. Okay? Please. Plea-" Steve stopped in his tracks when he suddenly noticed Nancy's hand from where it was trying to push the door closed. "Wh...hey, what happened to your hand? Is that blood?" He tried to grab her hand to take a closer look but Nancy snatched it away. He pulled back his own hand to examine it and found that it had been blood.
"N-nothing," Nancy very obviously lied. "I-it was an accident."
"Yeah, what's going on?" Steve asked, frowning at her. Loud alarms were blaring in his head. She was lying, and she was injured. At someone else's house...
"Nothing," Nancy repeated, looking between him and Valentin - who was standing silently next to him. She flashed the blond a look that screamed 'help me out here'.
"Steve-" Valentin tried again, sounding more urgent than before.
But Steve suddenly had tunnel vision. Nancy was in the Byers' home, answering the door, with a bloody hand. She had just signaled a stranger with her eyes, and she was trying to avoid telling him what had happened. That could only mean...
"Wait a sec. Did he do this to you?" He narrowed his eyes, suspicion creeping in his voice. Valentin tried to grab his shoulder, but he shrugged the hand off and forced his way into the house, ignoring Nancy's protests.
"No. no! No, Steve!" Nancy shoved back at him, trying to keep him from entering.
"Nancy, let me in!" Steve shouted and sidestepped her, stumbling into the Byers' living room. His eyes landed on Jonathan. The other boy was standing by the couch and staring at him with a look of disgust.
However, he soon forgot about Byers. His eyes instead began to travel over the rest of the house and he grew more bewildered as he took in the sight of an alphabet painted on the wall behind the couch, a baseball bat lying on the coffee table with nails sticking out of the end, and Christmas lights dangling from the walls and ceiling.
One thought stuck out in his mind above all others - What the hell was happening here?
Valentin followed in behind him, glancing at Nancy, who had backed up into the living room. Steve heard him shut the door before his friend too turned to take in the surroundings. The blond was apparently not as alarmed as he was by the state of the home.
"What is...what the…" Steve's words were lost, his jaw dropping as countless theories formed in his mind.
Jonathan rushed forward and pushed him back toward the door, the other boy's eyes turning and locking with Valentin behind him. "You two need to get out of here."
"Whoa." Steve used his greater strength to hold against the pressure, struggling to understand what he was seeing. "What is all-"
"Listen to me." Jonathan continued to try to force him away. "I'm not asking you, I'm telling you, get out of here!" That was when he smelled it.
"What is that smell?" Steve shoved the shorter teen away from him as his senses began to pick up more. "Is that...is that gasoline?" He looked over at his friend again, finally recognizing the expression on the blond's face.
Fear.
So he wasn't crazy, Valentin was just as alarmed by what was happening around them as he was. Valentin's eyes stared intently at him, his whole body rigid. He started to move over to him when a sudden clicking sound drew his attention and he turned to see Nancy holding a gun by the coffee table.
"Steve, Pierrot," she shouted, pistol aimed directly at them. "Get out!"
"Whoa!" Steve's jaw dropped and Jonathan leapt out of the line of fire. He stepped back with his arms raised in front of him in surrender, shifting so that he was partially blocking his new friend. Valentin had nothing to do with whatever they had stumbled upon. And... sure, neither did he, but he had been the one to insist that they come here in the first place.
"W-w-wait! What!?" Steve loudly stuttered, eyes - well, eye, one was still swollen - bulging. "What is going on?"
Nancy cocked the trigger. "You have five seconds to get out of here!"
"O-o-okay, is this a joke?" His mind was going wild and he waved his hands. Why he was being held at gunpoint? He didn't do anything wrong! "Stop! P-put the gun down."
"I'm doing this for you," Nancy replied, sending him for a bigger loop. How the hell was she doing it for him? How could he possibly benefit from taking a bullet?
"Nancy," Jonathan muttered.
"Wait. Is this a...what is this?" Steve asked. He glanced around the room as the lights started to flicker, some type of power issue happening or something. From behind him, he heard Valentin take in a sharp breath.
"Nancy," Jonathan tried again to get her attention.
"Three!..." Nancy counted down.
"No, no, no!" Steve yelled, voice breaking. He was going to die, gunned down by the girl of his dreams.
"Two!"
"No, no!" Steve insisted forcefully. He noticed movement out of the corner of his right eye but kept his gaze locked on the barrel of the pistol. He wondered if he could dodge a bullet if need be. Because it looked like the need might just be.
"Nancy!" Jonathan yelled this time. Nancy's attention finally diverted and she glanced away. "The lights!" Nancy spun on the spot and stared at the dancing lights that were going haywire all around them. Byers rushed forward and snatched the bat from the coffee table. "It's here!"
"Wait." Relieved that Nancy had finally lowered the gun, Steve looked between the two and demanded to know, "What's here?" That was when he noticed that Valentin had moved from behind him and was now standing near the corner, staring up at the ceiling as stiff as a board.
"Hey… Val?" Steve said cautiously, paying no mind to the nickname he had just created as he started to inch closer to his friend, "You okay, man?"
Nancy paid him and Valentin no attention, instead focusing on Jonathan. "Where is it?"
"Where is what? Whoa!" Steve turned from looking at his friend and noticed that Jonathan was wielding a bat and spinning wildly. The bat with nails coming out of it. "Easy with that!" Byers and Nancy were now back to back, circling in place as they searched the walls around them. What could they be looking for on the wall? He had never been more confused in his entire life.
"Where is it?" Nancy shouted again, voice revealing an extreme level of fear.
"I don't know! I don't see it!" Jonathan replied, equally panicked.
Steve was clearly getting nowhere with them. They were somehow being terrorized by a short circuit. He quickly shot an alarmed look at Valentin, who was now staring back at him and breathing heavily. Abruptly the blond turned back around and looked up at the ceiling, as if waiting for something.
He was growing frustrated. Something insane was clearly happening and Valentin was clearly being freaked out by it. Not that he blamed his friend, cause so was he. When Valentin gasped loudly, he decided he had finally had enough.
Steve stomped over to his entranced friend, going to grab his arm as he called to the other two, "Where is what? Hello? Will someone please explain to me what the hell is going-!" The words died instantly in his throat as a thunderous crashing erupted from the ceiling above where he currently stood. The plaster started crumbling and breaking away, sending Steve backward onto his butt, reflexively pulling his friend on top of him.
He stared in horror at something not human forcing its way through the ceiling. As he and the others watched, a faceless head emerged from the forming hole. Nancy quickly recovered from her shock and began to shoot at the hideous beast.
"No!" Jonathan shouted and wrapped his arm around Nancy's waist, dragging her back. "Go! Go! Run! Go! Get out of here!"
This could not be happening! Steve felt his adrenaline spike, and he hurriedly jumped to his feet, grabbed Valentin's arm and pulling him away from the hideous monster. He looked up to see Byers and Nancy darting back into the hallway. He stumbled with Valentin in his haste to follow and shot a look back over his shoulder as the creature fell from the ceiling, landing on its feet. He felt like puking and screaming and crying when its face opened up to reveal countless rows of drooling teeth.
It roared and, at that moment, Steve was pretty sure he might have pissed his pants. He turned his attention back to the hallway that he had just entered, lit by colorful strobing lights.
"Jump!" Jonathan yelled as first Nancy and then he leapt over a bear trap on the carpet.
Byers' command had barely registered in Steve's mind. His instincts must have taken over because he found himself hoisting a still unresponsive Valentin over his shoulder and following suit, leaping into the air above the contraption.
"Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!" Steve chanted as he sailed over the trap and landed on the other side. He carried Valentin into the back right bedroom that the others had run into, kicking the door shut as soon as he crossed the threshold.
"Jesus! Jesus!" He yelled, placing his still catatonic friend down onto the bed and turning to stare at the door. "What the hell was that? What the hell was that?"
Nancy and Jonathan spun to face him and yelled simultaneously, "Shut up!"
Steve bounced on his feet anxiously, casting a look over to his friend who now sat on the bed staring with empty eyes at the door. Valentin had clearly broken. And he was close to breaking himself.
A monster had just fallen through the ceiling and attacked them. A freaking monster! He felt his heart beat faster as said monster roared again. He watched Byers lift the spiky bat and light a cigarette lighter as Nancy aimed her gun at the door. The only sound in their room was the panting of their breaths.
He waited for the end. But it didn't come.
"What's it doing?" asked Nancy, the house falling silent.
"I don't know," Jonathan replied.
Steve watched the two stare at a smiling yoyo on the back of a chair, as if waiting for it to move. The flickering electricity surged one last time before becoming stable once more. He gave each of the other occupants in the room an uncertain glance.
"Do you hear anything?" Nancy whispered.
"No," Jonathan shook his head an Steve saw him release the starter on the lighter, the flame going out.
That was when he suddenly noticed Valentin move forward off the bed and head to the door. "Hey, hey-" Steve reached out to his friend to stop him. They all watched with bated breath as Valentin opened the door to Will's bedroom. The blond looked out into the hall for a moment and turned around, shaking his head.
Steve let out a sigh of relief. That meant the monster must have left, right?
Byers moved to the front and led the way out of the room, bat raised high, ready to strike. Nancy followed close with the gun held tight in her hand. Steve looked at his friend in concern, seeing Valentin nod again at him, and the two followed the others down the hall. His eyes were wide as he searched for the monster, but all he could see was the untouched bear trap on the carpet of the dark and empty hallway.
Somehow, that didn't make him feel as safe as he thought it should.
Joyce and Hopper strolled uneasily across the decaying ground of the Upside Down. Everything about the place screamed death and horror. Hopper noticed something lighter than the rest of the rotting trees around him, pacing over to examine the object. It appeared to be the abandoned shell of a very large egg or cocoon about the size of his chest.
Further past Hopper, Joyce searched for the twisted copy of her son's fort. She couldn't make out any structures between the trees. Her flashlight roamed over the ground, suddenly illuminating an American flag crumbled beneath debris. She scanned the pile of rubble and found the sign titled 'Castle Byers'.
With a jolt, Joyce lurched forward in panic. "Will! Will!" Hopper found the dirty remains of a stuffed lion covered in dirt and slime. He tore his gaze from the stuffed toy and watched as Joyce screamed out again, "Will!"
Hopper stood and joined her in calling out into the dark. "Will!"
Valentin had never experienced overwhelming terror like he just had. It was like his mind had misfired. And he wasn't sure if it was entirely his own terror or the combined terror he had sensed from the other three overriding his brain. That was why, instead of trying to help - instead of stopping the monster - he had just watched as it emerged from the ceiling.
Luckily, Steve had revealed that he had the heart of a hero and had carried him to safety. Once inside the back bedroom, he had quickly adjusted to the fear, pushing it back down. The thing about new emotions, particularly strong ones, were that they could incapacitate him. But once he had grown accustomed to them, they didn't bother him as much.
Which left the current dilemma.
He knew that the monster would be coming back. But using his abilities to stop it would open him up to a plethora of other issues. His power took more energy to use on those with a strong willpower, and that creature was nothing if not the strong will to kill personified. On top of that, he would likely not be able to kill it and make sure the others wouldn't prove to be a problem.
And Valentin couldn't reveal his true nature to them. That was the entire reason that he had kept isolated all these years in the first place. The entire reason for creating the persona of Valentin in the first place.
He followed Steve into the living room behind Jonathan and Nancy. Steve was crouched low, and he could hear his friend breathing erratically. Jonathan looked up at the ceiling where the creature had come through, where he had been standing before Steve rescued him, but the boy found that the surface was now whole and undamaged.
"This is crazy," Steve muttered out. He could see his friend was losing it. He did not blame Steve. It was a lot to take in. Especially if you were a normal, defenseless human like Steve was.
"This is actually crazy. This is crazy. This is crazy. This is crazy. This is crazy! This is crazy! This is crazy!" Steve's mutters quickly became a hysterical chant and he snatched the phone off the wall. Valentin frowned as the brunet attempted to dial the emergency number, but Nancy walked over and yanked the phone from him and threw it to the floor. "What are you do- what are you doing?" Steve demanded. "Are you insane?"
Valentin contemplated manipulating his new friend's psyche into a euphoric bliss, but this friendship was intended to be an educational experience. He needed to learn to deal with things like this the old-fashioned way.
"It's going to come back!" Nancy scowled at Steve. "So you need to leave. Right now."
Steve blinked nervously at her, then turned to stare the madness that was the house, then at Jonathan, and finally at him. He looked back with a blank expression. Seconds later, Steve burst out from the front door, dragging him along behind him. The door slammed shut behind them and Steve sprinted for his car, gripping Valentin's arm with vice-like strength.
It appeared that he had greatly underestimated Steve's need to protect others. Steve was moving so quickly that he actually had to skid to a stop by his car, causing him to bump into the boy as he stopped too. He tilted his head when Steve fumbled in his jean pockets for the BMW's keys. The brunet pulled them out successfully but his trembling fingers dropped them in the dirt. He stooped and hastily retrieved them.
"Steve," Valentin said faintly. He had seen in Steve's mind before that he hated pity, so he attempted to remove the artificial pity from his voice. Steve abruptly stood and looked all around them, almost as if he felt the very forest would come alive and attack. The teen turned to look into Valentin's eyes, becoming frustrated with what he must have seen.
"H-h-how?!" Steve yelled, eyes wide. "How are you not shitting yourself right now?!"
He did not question why he should be defecating at that moment. He knew that Steve was terrified. He could feel it. See it in his mind. And people said nonsensical things when they were afraid. He was afraid too, but after seeing that Steve had indeed been the right choice for his first friend, he felt less afraid than he had before.
"When I used to read fairy tales, I fancied these kinds of things never happened," Valentin replied, thinking of the book on the edge of his bathtub. Of Alice and how frightening Wonderland must have been. "And here I am, in the middle of one." Steve wasn't exactly a fairytale prince but the sentiment remained the same. His very own adventure with his very own friend.
It was enough to help soothe any anxiety he might have had.
He could feel the conflicting emotions coursing through his friend. Amusement, sorrow, anger. Steve's thoughts were clear.
Steve didn't think they were in a fairy tale. He thought they were in a nightmare. A real monster with razor sharp teeth and the ability to tear through walls had just tried to eat them and he was annoyed that Valentin was pacifying it.
Valentin sighed, leaving Steve's mind and turning around. Maybe he had been wrong. Maybe he should have chosen Jonathan. "Well, good luck with that," He heard Steve say dryly, "It was nice being your friend for the day."
It hadn't sounded so much like, 'we are no longer friends' as it had 'it is a shame you are about to die'.
Steve clumsily unlocked his car door and began to climb into the cabin. Valentin heard him stop, however, before he had even gotten one foot into the vehicle. He watched as the lights flickered and blinked wildly in the windows of the Byer's home, and he knew Steve must have seen it too.
"And so the beast returns," Valentin announced.
He had a choice. Go inside and let Steve leave, or convince Steve to stay. But what was the right path? What would a friend do? His mind went to Mike, Lucas, and Dustin. To the times he had seen them search for Will.
He quickly turned to Steve and grabbed his shoulders. "Steve, you are many things but you are not a coward." Valentin stared intensely into the teen's eyes as he spoke. "I chose you to be my friend for a reason."
In his friend's mind, he heard Tommy yelling. "Run away, like you always do." He felt the anger course through Steve. The brunet brushed his hands off and slammed the car door, turning to fix him with a glare. Valentin met his friend's angry gaze with one of curiosity. What would Steve decide?
"This is your fault." Steve stalked over to him, battered face turning bright- red. "You tracked me down, you made me agree to be your stupid friend, made me bring us to some shitty nuthouse…"
Valentin listened to Steve rant and watched as the teen began to stomp back and forth. Steve's focus landed again on the flashing lights of the Byers home and his friend clenched his fists.
"And now…" Steve trailed off as he turned to look at him once more, an anxious grin replacing his angry scowl. "Now, I'm gonna have to kill this fucking monster."
And so was he proven correct. He had made the perfect choice.
Jonathan scanned the room with wide-eyes as he stood back to back with Nancy, both of them breathing heavily and rotating on the spot, searching for the beast.
"Where is it?" Nancy asked. The lights had begun to freak out again, which meant the monster had come back for them.
"Come on. Come on, you son of a bitch," Jonathan muttered, eyes jumping from empty space to empty space. "You see it?"
"No. Where-?" Nancy started to answer before stopping.
Jonathan tried to focus, clinging to the bat with all his might, but the lights blinked so fast that it was too difficult to see anything for very long. "Come on. Where are you? Come on!"
Suddenly, the lights cut out completely and a frightened whimper escaped Nancy. A low growling sound appeared from somewhere behind them. Nancy spun around to face him, eyes bulging. "Jonathan!"
He had just managed to turn when the creature leapt on him. He groaned loudly as he landed hard on the floor, the impact causing him to lose his grip on the baseball bat, which rolled out of reach. The creature leaned down, drool spilling from the folds of its mouth and onto his face.
"Jonathan!" Nancy screamed. "Jonathan!"
The creature's faceless head opened inches from his face and his eyes widened as his field of vision was dominated by row after row of sharp teeth. He smelled blood, meat and rot on it's breath. The smell of death.
His death.
He was about to be eaten. This had been a horrible idea. Jonathan closed his eyes tight as gunshots rang out, Nancy trying to shoot at the creature again.
"Go to hell, you son of a bitch!" Nancy hollered, trying to distract it with loud noises.
Angered by the gunshots, the creature stood and faced her. It roared at her as Jonathan rolled over and vomited from the overwhelming stench. He could hear her shooting again, but from the sounds of it the bullets had little to no effect against the tough skin of the creature. It roared once more at her. He struggled to get up as the monster pursued Nancy.
Jonathan was suddenly hit with the realization that she was going to die. Nancy was going to die. He was too far away to help. There was nothing he could do as the beast leapt forward to brutalize her.
"Swing away," Jonathan heard someone say, slowl turning to see the nailed bat sailing through the air.
Out of nowhere, Steve suddenly appeared between Nancy and the monster. He caught the flying bat and struck the creature with the weapon as hard as he could, burying the nails into the thick skin of the beast. It spun, distracted by the entrance of the new enemy, and Jonathan could have cried in relief.
"Steve!" Nancy's jaw dropped at the sight of him.
Jonathan watched with bated breath as the monster lashed out at Steve, but Steve ducked as if he was in a boxing match. He backed away and led the monster slowly toward the bear trap. Steve swung the bat again, aiming for the creature's midsection. The monster roared in pain as the nails dug deep once more. Steve grunted as he made a few wild swings while keeping distance between himself and the monster. Then, lit by the flickering of dozens of lights, Steve twirled the bat easily in his hand as if it were a baton.
Show off. Jonathan huffed, standing to his feet. He heard an empty chuckle, finally noticing that Valentin was standing near him in the living room. He turned back to see Steve grin maniacally at the blond and tightening his grip on the bat. And, like it was nothing more than striking a home run , Steve hit the beast hard. It recoiled and screeched, backing away from him and the deadly weapon he wielded. However, the angry roar suddenly transformed into agonizing shrieks as it stepped directly into the beartrap.
Jonathan's mouth went agape. He did it! Steve had executed the plan!
"He's in the trap!" Steve yelled back at the others. "He's stuck!"
"Jonathan now!" Nancy screamed. He fumbled around on the floor, searching for his mom's lighter, but he couldn't find it anywhere!
"I can't find the lighter!" Jonathan announced as he desperately continued to search, heart going into overdrive. The plan hadn't been executed after all. It was going to fail... because of him.
He lifted his gaze away from the floor toward Nancy and Steve - the latter still holding the bat high and ready - and watched as suddenly Valentin appeared in front of them. The boy turned his head back to the pair, lighter raised in his hands. His mom's lighter.
Valentin must have found it when he came back inside.
"Need a light?" Valentin asked calmly, clicking the lighter and flinging it forward onto the saturated carpet. Sparks ignited over the gasoline and the monster exploded into flames, shrieking as its flesh began to burn.
Jonathan shielded his eyes, hoping that when he opened them next the monster would be dead and gone.
A/N: I watched M.Night Shyamalan's Signs recently, and the one thing that stuck out in my head was when Mel Gibson's character used the line "Swing Away" to signal to his brother to fight the monsters. Which coincidentally looks similar to the Demogorgan. So I used it as an Easter egg when Valentin tossed the bat to Steve.
Until our stars next align.