Here's chapter 16, hope you enjoy! I am so sorry this took so long, life's been hectic.
I do not own Stranger Things
His face was throbbing, a full day after he'd started the fight his face had changed colors impressively. The left side of his jaw had blossomed blue, his right eye was blackened, and his bottom lip had been split. He gingerly pressed the packet of frozen peas against the cut and let out a hiss of pain that was lost in the thunder that rolled overhead. The rain had started just as he'd gotten home from a solo day at Scoops, Robin being off for the day. The house was empty save for himself, darkened except for the kitchen where he sat with his frozen veggies...nursing the cut he knew his girlfriend could and would easily heal. Steve drummed his fingers against the bag, the sound of frozen spheres clinking inside the crinkly bag. He allowed the icy bag to numb his lip while he listened to the worsening rain hitting the sides of the house.
He'd thought about calling Odette during the day so she could heal the bruises marring his face..but who wanted their girlfriend to think they couldn't win a fight? He glared at the counter, wondering if he was being an ass...it was possible. He couldn't really avoid her until the bruises completely faded. She'd already called him just before their coven meeting, asking if he wanted to spend time with her on Thursday. He'd waffled, he could tell from how she'd responded that she'd been a little hurt by it. "Oh, that's ok...we can hang out this weekend if you're busy" her soft voice had only been a little crestfallen. It had still gave him a pang of guilt in his chest, worse than the throbbing of his face. Tremors from beneath his feet shocked Steve out of his silent thoughts. The glasses in the kitchen began to fall from the shelves, shattering as they did. He moved to get under the table when his eyes landed on the sliding back door to the pool. The concrete around the water began to crack...then it began to crumble. Steve's heart stopped as he watched it crumble, the pools water spilled from the basin into the chasm being created. The water turned to steam as it hit...lava. It hit lava. Steve scrambled out from under the table, the crumbling chasm spreading from the pool to the house. He vaulted over the counter and slammed himself down the hall, the sounds of splintering wood and granite signaling the demolition of his mother's kitchen. He managed to grab the keys from their hook by the door before he tumbled through it, the rain finally being drowned out by the destruction of the Harrington house.
Steve slipped and slid through the slick grass of the lawn and down to his car, his hair dripping in the downpour he found himself in. He dove into the drivers seat and slammed the keys into the ignition, he flew down the road, watching in the rearview mirror that the house had been swallowed by the growing chasm and into the lava below. He swore under his breath, not knowing what to do or where to go. Behind him the chasm was stretching still closer, almost following him down the road. Steve turned jerkily down another street, suddenly thinking of the kids. He tore down the next road, now heading for the Henderson house. He could hear the tear in Hawkins widening, although no longer following him down the road. Steve soon skidded as he turned down Dustin's street, wincing when he saw the crack had spread here too. The house beside Dustin's had been half crumbled, a family straggling out into the rain, the mother holding her screaming kid in her arms as the father seemed to be braving the house to get something. Steve slammed on his breaks as his eyes slid from their home to Dustin's. His had almost completely sunk into the new crack, smoke and steam streaming into the air. He choked on his breath, unable to comprehend the reality that could be sitting in front of him. He ran for the house, leaving his car door open and the vehicle running "Dust!" He stumbled over the slick steps but got to the door. It swung open and shattered hinges, hitting the floor with a dull thud, another rumble of thunder coming with it. Steve pushed his way through the rubble filled entrance to the living room. It was pitch black, save for the flashes of lightning out the window. "Dustin!" His voice reverberated through the room, rain pouring in through the shattered front window. He slammed his way to the stairs and took three steps up them before they began to collapse into the abyss below. Steve clung to the railing, panting as he pulled himself back up it. "HENDERSON!"
There was no noise from the dilapidated upstairs that he could hear, he looked around, trying to see if he could climb up the still intact railing when a hand pulled at the back of his soaked polo. "What the hell do you think you're doing kid?!" He allowed himself to be yanked back by the unknown man, stumbling when he hit the ground floor again. He didn't raise his eyes to meet Dustin's neighbor, didn't say a word as he was pulled from the house. Steve pulled his arm from the older man's grip, looking back to the ruined home...seeing no sign of Dustin's mother. Her car was gone...he allowed his mind to race. Had Dustin been home alone?! Or had she taken him with her...no not to a night shift...did she leave him with one of his friends for the night? He stood, frozen in the rain storm, ignoring the questions from the neighbor as he raked his eyes over the Henderson house, finally falling on the bush by the steps...his heart stopped yet again...then all at once it was thundering in his ears. He raced forward, wiping the rain from his eyes before snatching up the small mud sullied and sodden hat that read Camp Know Where '86
Eddie tumbled out of the trailer door, van keys in hand and a hoodie pulled on over the bleeding skin of his back from the shattered glass. "Get in! Now!" He shouted over the rain to the women and Will clambering out of the trailer behind him. Not so far off a chasm was beginning to spread, rain sizzling into steam as it approached the newly revealed lava. Eddie cursed under his breath, choosing not to look at what seemed to be the end of the world. "Now!"
Odette shoved El and Will into the back of the van as Robin frantically ran out of the house holding two backpacks. She threw them into the back of the van with the two teens then climbed in herself, slamming her knee on the metal of the floor as she slipped on the rain slickened floor. Odette slammed the doors shut behind her, Eddie had started up the van "Move it!" Eddie shouted as heavy metal began to play loudly. The trailer park was filled with the sounds of panic stricken residents as they woke to the sudden fracturing of the ground beneath their homes. "Go go go" Odette whispered, slamming the door behind her as she slid into the passenger seat beside her older brother. Eddie's van tore down the gravelly road, coming right along side the fissure in the ground, the heat from the molten rock reaching them even through the van. "Where do we go?!" Robin shouts over the music, her hair was soaked through, sticking to the skin of her face. Her pale skin looked almost gaunt with her eyes wide with fear.
"My mom and Jonathan!" Will suddenly shouts out looking worried but El's hand meets his arm "We'll get them!" Eddie made a beeline for the country road that would take them to the Byers house, only to hear the fresh sound of crumbling earth and trees creaking as they snapped like twigs. Far down the road, the eerie light of the newly forming pit glowed, growing closer as the rain turned to steam around it. "Shit"
Eddie drummed his fingers over the steering wheel, scowling as his head swirled with unspoken curses and thoughts. "How far down is the house Byers?"
"A mile...maybe two?" Will's voice was small. Growing fainter as the rain and crumbling of earth threatened to drown him out. El wrapped her arms around the male witch and began to whisper in his ear. "Eddie we won't make it in the van." Odette whispers, hoping the music that was still playing softly would drown out her voice.
Eddie turned to her, looking incredulous "Are you suggesting we walk?"
She shakes her head, nervously looking into the back seat where the three less trained witches sat staring at them. "No. I'm suggesting you give me a second." She pulls the bag of seeing stones from her sweater pocket. She shoots her gaze to behind the three people peeping in from the back of the van "Hand me that box" She says to Will, he shakily grabs the cardboard object and hands it to her looking curious despite his obvious fear. She pours a handful of stones from the bag into her hand, whispering into it in French, no one quite catching it before she throws the rocks into the box. She scans it with her eyes and curses softly. "Your mother isn't at the house. She's fine...I just don't see her." She turned to Will with a grave expression "But your brother is there. Alive. But there." She scoops up the stones and pours them into the bag again. Pocketing it, she unplugs causing her brother to shout "Oi! No!"
"What?!"
"You are not walking two miles while Hell splits this town open!" He waves his hands exasperatedly as he speaks, his wet hair shaking with his nerves. Odette narrows her eyes at her older brother "I'm going Eddie. I am not leaving someone when I can find them!" She nods back at the three in the back "Get them somewhere safe. Go see if you can get them to Lucas or Will's house."
"You can't go alone!" Robin pipes up, earning a glare from the metalhead "She can't go at all! No fucking way!"
Odette glares at him before shoving the van door open and stepping out into the rain. She slams the door shut and begins running through the muddy side of the road, straight for the split in the road. Eddie gets out, shouting after her "Detta this is fucking nuts!"
She turns, still walking although backwards now "Eds it's his brother, I can't sit by and do nothing." She reaches down the front of her sweater and pulls out a small necklace "I've got a protection stone! I'll meet you at Mike's house!" She keeps going into the rain, leaving her brother waffling on what to do. He gets into the van cursing, glaring at his sister. He spares her one final worried look before throwing the van into reverse "I'll go with her Eddie-" El started quietly but he waved her off "I'm the only adult left in the car, no way is a 13 year old go running around the woods."
El narrowed her eyes at the older man "I've done it before"
He shakes his head and heads back down the road, heading for Wheeler's house "Very metal of you but I said fucking no. Someone needs to listen to me today" As he drives a thunk from the back of the vehicle makes him jump in the front seat. "It's not broken!" Robin said quickly, making the metal head swivel his head briefly from the road to look in the back where she'd knocked his guitar case over. "Be careful with her, precious cargo Buckley!"
She mutters an apology before climbing into the front as he makes another turn. The car was electrified with the anxiety of Odette's absence, her trek through the woods to the Byer's house filling their heads with dread.
She ran through the road as much as she could before she crossed paths with the gigantic crack that had seemingly stopped, the heat from the magma rising up to meet her. She sloshed on through the mud and grass, her clothes now sticking to her like a second skin. She managed to make to where the Byer's house barely stood. Half of it had been consumed by the pit but it was off to the side where the crack had begun. Where the shed had stood was a gaping hole in the ground, it had split the ground in two, spreading like a disease to connect with the other cracks. "Shit" She ran closer, able to make it to the side of the house "Hello?" She called through the rain, taking only slight joy in the protection from the rain on the front porch. "Jonathan?!" She called again, pushing her way through the open door, searching the darkened house for the other teen. A crack of lighting briefly illuminated the room, revealing Jonathan who'd collapsed against the wall. His skin was paler than she remembered, the rain had soaked his hair so it now stuck to his head like cling film. She shoved her way through the wreckage of what once had been the sitting room. "Jon!" Odette cried, falling to her knees to inspect him, there were deep gashes in his abdomen and on his left leg, oozing blood onto the floor of the house. "Jon wake up" She smacked his face gently with one hand as she dug into her pocket. Out she pulled the only things she'd managed to save while getting El and Will out of the house, it hadn't occurred to her to grab one of the bags Robin had gotten...too late now. In her shaking fingers she held a pocket knife, the small jar of her healing salve, and a small bundle of soaking mint. She cursed softly and looked up at the rest of the house, the hallway was half gone, so Will's room wouldn't be there for her to raid for materials. She puffed out a breathless groan before she smacked Jon's cheek a little harder now. He still didn't move, her only comfort was the soft shallow breathing that made his thin chest rise and fall, if only a little.
She muttered a silent prayer for help as she shoved his t-shirt up to his chin, revealing the deep gashes in all of their horror, they were deep and bleeding fast. She cursed again and got up, the kitchen was thankfully still covered with a roof and mostly dry. She pulled the unconscious teen into the kitchen and laid him as gently as she could on the floor. A kitchen towel was now pressed to his stomach to stop the flow of blood and to dry him off ever so slightly. Once his wound was somewhat dry she rubbed nearly all of the salve she had left onto it, the action pulled a hiss of pain from him. He stirred slightly, his eyelids fluttering over the calf brown eyes. "Nancy?"
"Nope." Odette pushed him back down as he attempted to sit up. "Stay still." She grabbed another clean dry towel and covered the goop covered tears in his flesh and looked down at his face. He was grimacing and looking away from her. "Where's Will?"
"He's safe." Odette whispers, looking at the nearly empty jar of salve in her fingers. "We need to worry about you...and can you take your pants off?" She blushed, going even redder in the face when he looked at her shocked "To clean your leg! I can't see how bad it is."
"Can't you do your witchy thing with it...like Sinclair's nose?"
She shook her head a little worriedly "Too wet. And I don't have the materials...but I can do something else...I just really...really need you to trust me." He looked at her, wide eyed and still wincing at every throb of his leg and stomach. "Do I have a choice?"
She shook her head, trying to smile reassuringly but not successfully. She pulled the knife back out of her pocket along with the mint "This is going to be a little...gross." She takes the knife and slashes his pant leg open, revealing the thankfully less deep scratches on his thigh. She pulls the soaking mint from her pocket and grimaces before shoving a hunk of it into her mouth, chewing aggressively. Jonathan stares at her, open mouthed at the oddness of it all. She grabbed a bowl that had fallen from the shelf that hadn't broken, spitting the decimated mint into it. She then held her right hand over the bowl, the knife in her left, and began speaking softly in French. Prends de ma chair pour guérir" she sliced into her palm with the knife, allowing the crimson blood to trickle from the cut into the mint mush while Jonathan began to babble "What the fuck are you-"
She shoved her bloody hand into the bowl, mixing the mint and blood with her finger still muttering the same phrase. Her blue eyes shot up to his and she sighed "I know I know...but I can't carry you out of here...and we need to go. It's not safe"
He nods, his expression still shell shocked. "Ok...Ok..." He clutches his right hand into a nearby rug as she begins to smear the roughly mixed gunk into his open wound, still whispering the same phrase. Once it was totally covered in the green gook she began to spread what remained on top of the salve on his abdomen. "I'll look for something to wrap you up in...and we can wait 10 minutes to start walking out of here...I think your car is in the pit." Helps him to sit up, making him still hold his wet shirt up off of the wound.
She heads off into the rest of the darkened house, feeling her way around until she found a pile of laundry on top of the dryer off to the side of the kitchen. She pulled out several towels and rushed back to him, wripping the towels into strips to wrap him up with. "Why are you even here?" He mutters quietly
She doesn't stop her tight winding of the towel around his thigh "Will was worried...and I wasn't letting him come get you. They're...they haven't had enough training...not even El." She tightens it, giving him an apologetic smile at his hiss of pain. "It'll be better soon...arms up" He does as he's told, wrapping his fingers around the handle of the oven as she begins to wrap strips of towel around the deeper wounds. "What got you?"
"Demogorgon." He grunted, his eyes were screwed shut in pain "Popped out of a rip to the Upside Down...ran into me before I knew what was happening...passed out right after I saw the crack start"
"You're lucky" Odette says softly, thinking how fortunate he'd been that the whole house hadn't gone down, taking him with it. "There...I'll be able to do more when...when we're in a whole house...and not soaked." She stands up tiredly, looking drained from the work of healing him. "We'll go soon...rest." She began to rifle through the cabinets around him.
"What are you looking for?"
"Food...I'll pass out if I don't grab something before we go..." She grins gratefully when she pulls out a small half full box of twinkies. She tosses him one before unwrapping one herself and aggressively biting it in half. "Where's your mom?"
"Went off with Hopper yesterday I think? She was pretty off..."
Odette nodded thoughtfully, "At least she's safe too." She pulls out her bag of seeing stones at his questioning look "Not sure where...but she's alive." She says through a mouthful. She swallows before looking out to the outside where the steam of rain still hitting the lava met their ears over the finally easing storm. "We better head off...is there anything you need before we go?"
He grunted, sitting up further and grimacing "My camera bag...it's on the couch...and...and I think I'll need pants..." He smiled a little sheepishly "Thanks...for everything."
She smiles slightly "I don't mind...I'd rather have you around Jon." She runs to the couch, only partially covered by the roof that had caved in. She pulled the now dirty and damp camera bag from underneath the rubble, the camera inside had somehow survived intact, for which she was grateful. She feels her way back to the laundry basket and feels around for clothes inside. She pulls out a pair of jeans that looked way too small for Jonathan...then a pair that had flowers sewn into the pockets...his mother's, finally she pulled out a dingy pair of blue jeans. She goes back to the kitchen and blushes before mumbling "Do you need help putting them on?"
He shook his head, his own cheeks growing pink. She nodded, turning around so she wouldn't see him undress. "We're going to have to walk until we're far enough away from the crack Jon...do you think you can do it?"
"I'll do my best" He grunts, painfully dragging his pants up over the wrapped up wound. Although he had to admit, it had stopped bleeding as much, though it still throbbed something awful.
Steve still had the hat clutched in his right fist as he raced through the rain to check on the next kid on his internal checklist. The car skidded forward jerkily when he stopped abruptly in front of Max's house. He opened the glove box to reveal the small walkie sitting there amongst the registration papers. He pulls it out and clicks it to life "Max, you in?" He says in a soft voice, not wanting to alert her stepbrother to his presence, one fight was enough for now. "Come in" inside the house he could see the waving of a small light, a flashlight as someone entered a room. A few moments of painful silence, the now lighter rain pattering against the roof of the car the only breaking of it. "Steve?" Came Max's small voice through the speaker, he breathed a sigh of relief out before he clicked the microphone on "You doing ok in there kid?"
"The powers out...and my mom isn't home. Neil isn't either. It's just Billy and me" She whispers quietly through the walkie. "You ok?" her words are small and frightened as she speaks "I-" He almost said he was fine. The hat continued to drip water down his hand and onto the leg of his jeans "Shit. I'm shit kid." He croaks, trying not to let the emotion of what he was denying. The walkie crackles three times, as though she'd pressed the button but lost her words thrice. Finally on the fourth try she spoke "It wasn't just an earthquake was it?"
There were sirens in the distance, Steve couldn't tell how far away they were, but he was sure that there weren't enough of them. "Nope." He hits the steering wheel half heartedly "My house is currently in a pit of lava...maybe Hell finally opened up and swallowed us" He whispered, he didn't mean for it all to slip out to the walkie. He didn't mean to put all that on the young girl's head. He simply twisted the soaked hat in his damp fingers. There was silence on the other side, no crackling of the button being pushed. He was about to ask her if she needed anything before he left when the sound of the front door slamming caught his eye. There she was, fiery hair and pale skin peaking out of the hoodie she'd thrown over her head. She sprinted out to the car and yanked the passenger door open. She threw herself into the passenger seat and slammed the door behind her, gasping she looked at him, her dark eyes determined. "What do you mean about your house?"
Steve swallowed dryly, the crushed hat now laying in his lap "I just...the pool split open...and it just got wider and wider. They're all over town. Like cracks...Henderson's house is fucked too" He manages to hold back the crack that threatened his voice when he spoke the last bit. He felt the girl stiffen beside him, water trickling down her nose from her hair. "You've not seen him?"
Steve shook his head, clearing his throat before speaking "You should go back in. I..." He looks around, the tremors had long since stopped, he'd guessed that whatever was going to happen was done...at least for now. "I think it's done for now. I'll come check in the morning...I need to look in on the rest of the party."
Max played with the strings of her hoodie thoughtfully, then she abandoned them, pulling at the seatbelt until she had herself plugged into the passenger seat. "I'll come with you to check on them...I'm worried now." She shrugs, as though her voice hadn't wavered at first. She looked at him with a single red brow raised expectantly "Go."
Steve looked back up at her house "What about Hargrove?"
"Billy's asleep." She shrugs again "And I mean...he's a big witch...he can handle me being out for the night." She shoots Steve a grin "Besides, Odette will kick him out if he's a dick to you again." Against his better judgement he let out a bark of laughter, he looks back at the door one more time, but turns the key in the ignition. "When we pass the Wheeler's place call up Mike on the walkie."
"Yes captain" She said with a mock salut to the older man, grasping the walkie tightly in her other hand...but her eyes were steadfastly ignoring the hat Steve still had sitting on his leg.
Odette grunted a little as Jonathan's weight fell on her shoulders more than he'd been doing. They'd managed to walk most of the way down the road from his house, the crack was now behind them, the heat from it still on their backs. The rain had slowed to a trickle and then to a stop as they'd left. Jonathan had his arm around her shoulders as he limped heavily down the road. Wincing with each step although she could see he was trying his best to hide it. The reached the end of the winding road, a suburb within sight, there were still no lights save for those of an ambulance in the distance. "You ok?" Odette grunted as they continued towards the houses.
"I'm ok to keep going" Jonathan gives her shoulder a squeeze with his arm as their feet find more even ground. He manages to walk mostly on his own now, leaning on her slightly still. They'd almost made it to the closest house when a bike nearly slammed into them from around a corner. Jonathan winced as her arm tensed around his wounded side. "Guys! Thank god!" Dustin's slightly squeaky voice met their ears along with the crashing of his bike against the asphalt of the street. "What's happening?!"
Odette pulled jonathan to a lightpole, letting him lean against it before she turned to the younger boy. "Don't know...but it's definitely something to do with the Upside Down. Are you ok?!" She suddenly took in his appearance. He was panting from the exertion of riding his bike, his hat was long gone, his curls were wet and wild. His cheeks were covered in small scratches. He waves her off dismissively "I'm fine! But..." He looked back in the direction he'd come in "My house...my house is kinda...gone?"
Odette felt her heart drop slightly "We need to get a hold of Eddie. He can come pick us up, we've got to check on Steve" She says quietly, more to Dustin than to the wounded teen. "There's...at least one demogorgan out." She nodded towards the panting boy before continuing "Lucas's house is close" He points down the road to emphasize "He's got a walkie we can use!"
Dustin moves to start walking down the road, Jonathan's question after him making him halt "What about your walkie?" Dustin turns to grimace at the pair of them "It...it went down with my house." He looked like he was on the verge of tears. He picks up his bike from where he'd dropped it and held it out to the teenage girl "Can you push this? I'll give Jon a hand for a while" She grips the handle of the bike and watches as Dustin puts an arm gingerly around the older boy's middle and shouldered a bit of his weight to ease him off of the injured leg. The trio began to walk, soggy and distraught down the road, all of them without a home, unaware of their loved ones' fates.