"You're late," Mike snapped as he answered the door to the basement.
"Well, excuse me," Steve said as he entered, stepping aside so that Robin could come in behind him before the door was shut behind them. "Some of us have jobs and shit." They were the last to arrive. The only ones in the party who weren't there were Will, El, and Jonathan. There wasn't any point in telling them. It wasn't like they could do anything from Indianapolis.
"This is important, Steve," Nancy chided him.
"Yeah, it looks like the whole gang his here, Nancy Drew," Robin teased before she found a seat, ruffling Erica's hair before she did so.
"Please don't call me that," Nancy groaned, still not entirely over the patriarchal bullshit at her old summer job.
"Is anyone going to tell us why we're here or am I just going to have to die of boredom before we find out?" Erica asked.
"Are you sure you don't want us to call them?" Nancy asked Mike, pulling him aside and keeping her voice low.
Mike looked back at the group. In some ways, they were a whole, but they weren't all there. He wanted to talk to El and tell her what they'd seen. He was itching to talk to Will. Nancy probably wanted to tell Jonathan what they had seen. Still, their reasoning for not calling them was sound. There wasn't anything that any of them could do from where they were. Shaking his head, Mike said, "It's time."
Will was doing his homework at the kitchen table when his mom arrived. She yelled out, asking if anyone was there, and he said that he was in the kitchen. He and El were almost always home. They both had trouble making new friends in the city, so they ended up sticking together and not ever doing much of anything. There were no woods to explore
"Hey sweetheart," Joyce said as she crossed the room to him and gave him a kiss on the forehead. "How was the AV club?"
Will shrugged, "It was fine, I guess. I'm pretty sure Sam and James still don't like me."
Joyce pursed her lips together and tussled his hair before saying, "I'm sorry, sweetie. I'm sure they'll come around. Are El and Jonathan here?"
"I think El's in her room and Jonathan's at work," Will answered.
"Maury called."
Will and Joyce both jumped, surprised by El's sudden appearance before heaving a shared sigh of relief. "Maury called?" Joyce repeated. "Did he say why?"
El shook her head.
Joyce heaved a sigh. She and the kids had been in the city for more than a year, and there were more than enough things for her to worry about. Her new job didn't pay as well as the general store back in Hawkins did, she had another mouth to feed, and Jonathan would be leaving for college after summer was over. The last thing she wanted was a call from Maury Bauman.
"I'll call him back later," Joyce said. "I'm starving. How do you guys feel about pizza?"
Neither El or Will were convinced by Joyce's attempt to maintain her composure, but they all agreed that pizza for dinner would be good.
"Lucas," Mrs. Sinclair said as she entered her son's room. "Do you know what's gotten into your sister?"
Lucas looked up from his math homework and fixed his mom with a look. "What're you talking about?"
HIs mom gestured towards the window and into the backyard and said, "She's making something in the backyard. She said she 'has to build it.' Do you know anything about that?"
His blood went cold, remembering what El had said about Billy building something for the Mind Flayer. "She's probably just being weird, I don't know," he said, trying to keep his voice as nonchalant as possible.
His mom wasn't convinced, but she left anyway. After enough time had passed to remain inconspicuous, he rushed out of his room and into the backyard. What he saw made him stop dead in his tracks. "Erica, what the hell!"
"How is this not freaking you out?" Robin asked as she and Steve patrolled the roads. They'd agreed to go around the first night, and Nancy would patrol with Mike tomorrow. Not that any of them expected to see anything. It was still day out, and the Demogorgon or demodogs only ever came out at night.
Steve shrugged and said, " I don't know. I guess it should. I'm kind of just used to it at this point."
"I guess after what happened with Starcourt our normal is pretty fucked up," Robin said.
"Your version of normal," Steve said. "My normal has been screwed way longer than yours has."
"It's not a contest, Steve," Robin snapped.
With a smirk, Steve replied, "But if it were, I'd totally be winning."
Robin abruptly hit Steve on the shoulder to get his attention, pointing to a spot on the edge of the road. "Harrington. Blood."
Steve slowed down but didn't pull over, giving the blood stain a passing glance. "Yeah, it looks like someone hit a deer or something."
"Then where's the deer?" Robin countered.
Steve wanted to argue that the deer probably wasn't far off the road, but he also knew that things weren't always what they seemed. With an irritated moan, he pulled off the side of the street. There was a brief argument about Steve getting to wield the spiked baseball bat and not having a weapon for Robin, but it was quickly brought to an end when Steve told Robin if she wanted a weapon she should have brought one, so Robin ended up manning the flashlight.
They followed the trail of blood about ten yards into the woods before the path abruptly stopped. There was another pool of blood, but there was no deer.
"That doesn't make any sense," Steve said, looking around for something. "Whatever got hit should be here. That's where the trail ends."
"Yeah, dingus, but there's nothing here," Robin said as she bent down to inspect the blood a little closer. "Harrington..." she began, her tone serious. "The blood's still warm."
Before Steve could inspect it himself, a Huskey burst out of the brush ahead of them, snarling and barking at them. Steve and Robin both tried to cajole the dog, but it wouldn't cease its aggressive behavior.
Steve raised his bat to swing at the dog, but Robin stopped him. "Dude, that thing's for monsters, not puppies. Let's just get out of here."
Steve reluctantly followed Robin back to the car and left. Neither of them saw the girl hiding in the brush with blood on her hands and dripping from her nose.