What Lurks in the Mist
by Gilt Vampire Fox
Warnings this chapter: arguing, disassociation
Chapter 3: Haunted
It wasn't long after the pizzas had all finished cooking that there was a knock, impatient and loud, at the Harrington's front door.
"Your kids are here!" Robin chirped at Steve, grinning at the man's groan of dismay. The two of them were still in the kitchen, sitting at the counter on a couple of the barstools as they waited for the pizza's to cool.
Steve thought long and hard about just pulling out a beer and letting that soothe his headache, but he just knew at least one of the kids would insist that they get one and Steve had no intention of encouraging them to start drinking at such a young age, even if it was hypocritical of him.
"I need coffee." Steve decided instead, lurching towards where his parents always kept their fancy coffee beans (no instant shit in this house, according to his dad.)
Robin laughed, pushing her stool back and standing up, "Fine, you hide in here and I'll go let your pack of feral children inside so they don't freeze their asses off."
"They'll be fine." Steve waved the concern away with a floppy hand, "But I'm going to need this caffeine if I'm going to even try to keep up with all of them."
Why did he think getting drunk the day before he knew all the kids were going to be staying the night was a good idea? This was going to be a disaster. A hangover sounded like pure torture if he had to endure all of the children's high energy and loud voices for the rest of the night.
"Just kill me now, Robin!" He begged before she had even made it to the archway leading out from the kitchen, "Please, put me out of my misery. I'm begging you."
Robin's barking laugh rang the gong in his head again and he groaned pitifully "Fuck you too." He hissed at her retreating back as she disappeared into the hall.
"Stop spamming the doorbell you little heathens!" He heard her yell at what had to be the top of her lungs, she had to be doing that on purpose "I'm coming."
"I hate you so much!" Steve called after her. He winced as a particularly strong throb lanced through his brain, where the hell had he left his painkillers? They seemed to be wearing off.
A few minutes, and several pills later, and armed with his cup of coffee, Steve could hear the sound of socked feet slapping against the hardwood floor seconds before a full gaggle of wild teens descended on the kitchen looking for food.
Dustin went straight for the bowl of chips, which Steve expertly intercepted. He snatched the bowl out of Dustin's reach with a stern, "Not before dinner you little monster."
"Yes mom." Dustin snarked, snickering to himself as he loaded his plate with five large slices of pepperoni, each one stacked on top of another. He turned and tried to dart past Steve, who didn't hesitate to swat him on the back of the head as he went past. Dustin yelped in surprise before chuckling to himself as he scurried out of range.
"Are you going to tell us what we're playing yet?" Lucas asked as he started piling up his own plate, eyeing Mike quizzically as he waited for the answer.
Mike, in reply, just rolled his eyes. "If you really can't wait another hour, the book's in my bag." He said, motioning to the backpack he had dropped by the door.
Lucas immediately abandoned his food, Mike had been working on this game for at least a month and he had been keeping it to himself for just as long. Said he wanted it to be a surprise.
Dustin trailed behind his friend and peered over the boy's shoulder as Lucas pulled open the bag. "Is that what I think it is?" He asked in awe as Lucas pulled out a dark teal colored book with a large picture of a castle and a man who looked like Dracula, printed on the cover.
"Ravenloft." The boys said together, voices hushed in reverence.
"What's so great about this book?" Steve asked, eyeing the module curiously.
"It's only the best adventure to come out, it's about this vampire, Strahd -" Dustin starts, only for Will to slap a hand over his mouth, muffling whatever he was going to say.
"Stop spoiling the game." Will said, but he was smiling, softening his words. Dustin pulled away with a sheepish look.
"Sorry."
Lucas was still holding the book in front of him, staring at the cover with a sad look on his face, "Max would have loved this." He said forlornly, "She'd asked about it a couple times and I know she wanted to play it."
This dampened the mood for everyone in the room, the boys staring sadly at their friend, not really knowing what to say. Dustin was the one to break the silence, "Maybe we can play it again when she's better."
"Yeah! Definitely." Mike agreed easily. Lucas smiled sadly and replaced the book in the backpack before standing up and going back for his food.
He seemed to shake off the depression quickly, striking up a conversation with his friends as Will started pouring everyone drinks.
Steve looked around at all the boys and realized that they were missing someone. "Where's Jane?" He asked, crossing his arms and looking at Mike expectantly.
"Hopper wouldn't let her come over." Mike pouted, a sour scowl set on his face.
"They went to dinner today." Will interrupted, "Hopper's been extra busy at work lately. Probably because of all the missing people." The boy explained, carefully picking out a slice of cheese pizza, and a small handful of baby carrots. Steve had gotten those for himself, so he was a little surprised any of the kids were eating them. "He wanted to spend some time together while they could since he had the night off. He said he would drop her off later."
Missing people? Steve felt that pit in his stomach get deeper and he shot a quick glance over at Robin, suddenly hyper aware of just how dangerous walking home last night had been for her.
He felt nauseous. Robin could have disappeared last night and he would not have known.
"People are going missing?" He asked, 'again' went unsaid. How had he not known about this? He felt like that was something he should have been informed of. He always felt like he was the last one to know that something weird was going on.
The rest of the party didn't seem interested in the conversation and headed into the living room to eat, Robin trailing behind them with her own food.
Will didn't look to be in a hurry to join them, still carefully placing bits of different foods onto his plate while he contemplated how to answer Steve's question. "Yeah, I guess." Will said slowly, picking his words as carefully as he was picking his food. "Just a couple guys from high school. Everyone thinks they ran off together."
That was possible, kids ran away all the time. But they were also kidnapped all the time too. And then there was the whole upside down thing-that had made more than a few people 'disappear'.
"Hopper doesn't think it had to do with the..."Steve began, casting a nervous look out the window as if expecting to find someone lurking in the bushes spying on them, "you know."
It was almost an unspoken rule that they do not talk about the upside down unless something horrible was happening. At least, that was Steve's experience. No one except Dustin ever really talked about it, at least not with Steve. And Nancy had always shut down any attempt at a conversation he'd made unless it was about Barb and how it was their (his) fault she was dead.
"I don't think so." Will said, but he didn't sound sure of himself and Steve noted the younger man unconsciously grabbing at the back of his neck, eyes staring into the distance, haunted. "Though, you would have to ask El, to be sure." Steve nodded, making a mental note to do just that, and drained the rest of his coffee in one go. He grabbed a slice of pizza for himself, a water bottle off the counter, and followed Will into the living room to eat.
He had barely stepped through the hallway into the den when he was confronted with a new situation. "Stop lying!" One boy yelled. Two of the teens were standing toe to toe in the middle of the room, food long since forgotten in the heat of their argument.
Robin edged around all of them as she tried to exit the room, looking absolutely done with all of it. She paused long enough to tell Steve, "They've been at it for a few minutes now and I can't get them to stop. They're your kids, you deal with it." Then she retreated towards the room they had set up for the game, abandoning Steve to deal with whatever it was he had walked in on. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration before sweeping his hand up through his hair and focusing on what was going on.
"I'm not lying!" Dustin yelled back at Lucas, who must have been the first voice.
"Yes you are! There is no way you actually saw him! He's dead. Get over it already." Lucas snarled right back, toe to toe with the other boy who looked almost small next to Lucas who just kept hitting growth spurt after growth spurt.
"Woah, woah, woah!" Steve cut in, sliding his way between the two of them and forcing them both to take a step back, away from each other. "What is going on here?" He asked the room in general, sharp eyes sweeping around to pin every one of the teens with a severe look.
Will hadn't made it far into the room, and was standing awkwardly against a wall as he stared at his friends with wide eyed alarm. Mike was just sitting on one of the couches watching the whole thing happen like it was some sort of sporting event, eyes darting between the different players as they each took their turn with the ball.
Lucas was standing back now, his posture still shockingly aggressive, fists clenched and eyes blazing as he kept his gaze on the other teen. Dustin was hunched a little into himself, which was unusual enough to set off alarm bells in Steve's head.
Whatever they were talking about, this wasn't the first time they had fought over it. Lucas looked like he was about to say something and Steve just knew by the look in his eye that whatever was about to come out of his mouth was not going to be nice. "Dude, chill." Steve snapped at him, causing the younger man's mouth to snap shut. Lucas looked away bitterly, but didn't try to start anything further. "Good. Now, someone tell me what the hell is going on, because if this is how you are all going to be acting tonight, you can go home right now. I don't want to deal with it."
Will made a distressed sound from his place against the wall, but he didn't actually protest. Mike did, and loudly, "What?! No! You can't do that!"
"It's my house." Steve leveled the younger boy with a pointed stare, "If all you are here to do is fight then I have other things I could be doing." He really didn't, but the boy's didn't need to know that. "Now, explain."
Neither Dustin nor Lucas looked to be in the mood to actually explain and the longer the silence stretched on the more fidgety Mike got until he finally burst, "Dustin said he saw Eddie yesterday!"
That single sentence punched Steve straight in the gut and he shot Dustin a quick look, noting how he seemed to pull even further into himself with every word out of his friend's mouth.
"He's acting like he is the only one who misses him! He's being selfish and taking these...delusions...too far!" The teen continued, as if he was unable to control himself and just spilled every thought he had about the matter, and Steve's heart ached for Dustin.
If anyone could understand what it feels like to be haunted by the dead...it would be him.
Dustin squared his shoulders and shot Mike a dirty look, "But I did see him! He was standing in the trees behind my house!"
"That's so stupid!" Lucas interrupted, "Even if he was real, why would he be stalking your house. He had other friends!"
Steve wasn't so sure of that, Eddie may have known everyone, but he had had a very small friend circle. It wasn't a circle that Steve had much contact with, but he was at least vaguely aware of them. After all, a group named the 'Hellfire Club' was pretty conspicuous and more than memorable. Most of them are gone now, off at college like Nancy.
But that was neither here nor there, especially when Lucas tried to crowd into Dustin's space again. Steve stopped him with a hand to the chest, gently pushing him back with a firm pressure. "Enough! You don't get to bully someone because of how they grieve, dipshit. Things like this affect everyone differently."
When exactly did Steve sign up to be a counselor again?
"I'm not bullying him!" The younger teen protested, immediately offended by the suggestion.
Steve eyed him up and down, unimpressed, "Continually antagonizing someone over something they cannot control, is bullying. I can tell just by looking at you all that this is not a new conversation. Being a nerd does not somehow make you incapable of bullying someone."
"I'm not like that! -it's not like that!" Lucas exclaimed, anger now focused on Steve, " I would never pick on anyone like y-" He cut himself off, clearly uncomfortable with the direction things had been headed, his eyes widened and he looked like he'd just sucked on a lemon.
Steve crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back slightly, eyeing the other boy dispassionately, "Like ...who, Lucas? Come on, you can say it. We all know you were thinking it." He waited patiently for a few drawn out moments, but when it became apparent that the other boy wasn't going to say it he sighed and dropped his stance and stepped forward to settle a solid hand on Lucas' shoulder.
"I may not be that person anymore, Lucas. But I was, there's no denying that. Nothing I do will ever change that. It's a slippery slope, and you won't even know you're sliding until it's too late. You've been acting like a dick lately.
"Things got real for you last year, I get it, man. You lost someone really important to you, and I know you're hurting. But lashing out isn't going to fix things. Is it really worth losing your friends over?"
"I didn't lose anyone." Lucas said tightly, refusing to look at anyone else in the room.
"But you did." Steve said as softly as he could, "You may not have been as close to him as Dustin, but Eddie was still your friend. And Max is-"
"Max is fine!" Lucas bit out, finally meeting Steve's eyes with a fierce look Steve had never seen on the boy before. The other boy pulled himself out of Steve's grip with a sharp tug, stepping back a couple paces, "I'm fine. Look, can we just play? That's what we're here for isn't it?"
"Don't we need to wait for El?" Will asked, tentatively moving further into the room.
Lucas turned to look at him, holding the smaller boy's eyes for a moment before huffing, "Tch, fine. Whatever. I'm going to get my stuff ready." Then he stormed out of the room.
Steve looked between the three remaining boys, feeling like he had failed somehow. He watched Will cross the room and sink down into the large armchair that sat kitty corner to the couch that Mike was on.
The boy picked at his food for a few minutes while Dustin returned to where he'd been eating his own stack of pizza on the floor like the weird little gremlin he was.
Steve sighed, running a hand through his hair in frustration, exhaling heavily, "Look, just...be nice to each other. You are all hurting, don't turn your backs on each other. Not now, after everything you've been through together. And Lucas will come around, just give him time."
Steve knew he was going to stress about this encounter later, But they were all good kids and they had a solid friendship. They would work it all out eventually, even if he had to box a few ears to make them see reason.
The remaining boys all fell into a contemplative silence, and Steve knew they were all feeling a bit raw from all the high emotions that had been abundant today. But they had weathered worse conditions than this, and he knew that if given time they would come out of this stronger for it.
He ate in silence, wondering if he should say something else, but he didn't know what.
It was getting dark by the time the doorbell rang, signaling the arrival of their last party member. The kids had calmed down some by then, even if Lucas had not bothered to come back into the living room with the rest of them. Robin had found her way into the seldom used music room and Steve could hear the gentle notes of the piano drifting through the rest of the house.
The second the doorbell went off Mike was up and out of the room like his ass was on fire before Steve was even able to put his pizza down, much less get up from his place on the couch. Dustin started snickering.
Steve dragged himself to his feet and trudged out into the entryway where Mike was already yanking the door open and dragging Jane into the house, blatantly ignoring Hopper's menacing scowl and dark look aimed his way.
The two kids darted around Steve, Jane clutching a plush purple bear to her chest with one hand; the other encased in Mike's much larger one.
Hopper dropped El's bag on the floor by the door and turned his glare on Steve once the kids were out of sight. "She's already eaten. Bedtime is at nine, she's only allowed to share a room with Robin, and there will be no boys in their room at any point tonight. No kissing, no funny business, no-"
Steve rolled his eyes, "Chief! she's going to be fine, like she is every time she stays the night. And you know as soon as the game starts the boys will be so caught up in their own little world that kissing will be the last thing on Mike's mind.
"Also...it's the weekend, Hop, she's 16, she's allowed to stay up late and have fun. Now, shoo." Steve said, waving his hands at the chief and ushering him out the door, "Don't you have a date or something to keep you busy?" He asked knowingly, amused by the slight flush dusting Hopper's cheeks.
The big man's face twitched, and one of his hands clenched into a fist, as if he was imagining slamming it into Steve's face.
Not an unusual reaction, unfortunately.
Steve plastered a fake smile on his face and tried to disguise the way his breath hitched, and his eyes tracked that fist. He was being ridiculous, of course. This was Hopper. He wasn't going to hit Steve, but Steve's past experience with large angry men and their fists over the last few years had left their mark.
Telling himself that Hopper was harmless didn't really help to banish his growing anxiety as the bigger man continued to stare him down. After a moment Hopper turned away from him with a grunt of farewell.
Steve remained standing in the open doorway long after Hop drove away. It took a great deal of effort to ease the tension from his shoulders and turn his plastic smile into something that at least mildly resembled sincere. Only then did he head back towards where the party was gathered.
By the time Steve got back to the living room, everyone seemed to have settled down a bit. Dustin waved him over to sit by him on the floor, but there was no way Steve was going to be doing that. He scooped up his pizza from the table he had abandoned it on, and dropped onto a cushion next to Jane.
The little girl beamed up at him from her seat, already taking a large bite of pizza, a bit of sauce smudging across the very tip of her nose. He snorted, raising an eyebrow at the girl, "I thought you'd already had dinner." He remarked in amusement.
The girl shrugged, unable to verbally reply with her mouth stuffed full of cheesy goodness. A couple moments later she informed him, "I'm always hungry."
Steve chuckled and shook his head, "Well, there's more than enough food in the house, so you better not be going to bed hungry." He teased her, within minutes of him sitting down she had decimated the slice of pizza she had and had turned her sights on a new one.
Steve watched as she began eyeballing the extra slice sitting on Mike's long abandoned plate, still held in a limp hand, a few inches from her.
Steve's eyebrows shot up in surprised amusement as she slowly transferred the slice from her boyfriend's plate onto her own, while he was in a heated discussion with Dustin and not looking in her direction.
The young man never saw it coming.
The girl sat back against the cushions behind her, a small smug smile sitting sneakily on her face. El looked up and locked eyes with Steve as she sank her teeth into her newly acquired prize, a pleased sparkle in her wide brown eyes.
Steve grinned back at her, and with a shake of his head, returned to his, now cold, pizza.
Steve had hoped that might be the end of the drama he would be forced to deal with tonight, and for a while it was. But a sharp jab in the ribs by Eleven's pointy elbow disavowed him of that thought half an hour later. "Ow! What?" He gasped out, rubbing at his bruised side and eyeing the girl with suspicion in case she attacked again.
El widened her eyes and jerked her head to the side as she twitched her shoulders up and down like a bird trying to fly. Steve stared back at her in bafflement. What was she doing now?
"Steve!" She hissed at him lowly when he didn't seem to be understanding her weird brand of communication, "Behind you."
Steve obediently turned his head to the side, wondering what on earth she could be talking about, until he caught sight of Will curled up in his chair and staring blankly ahead of himself. "Fuck." He grunted to himself as he rose to his feet.
"Alright, all of you pipsqueaks clear out." Steve said, motioning for everyone to get up. "don't you all have a game to play?"
Mike glanced over at Will, more than ready to drag him away to play their little game, only to freeze as he too took in his friend's distressed state. He glanced back at Steve with wide eyes, not sure what to do, but not wanting to leave him like that.
"Just go. He'll join you in a few minutes." Steve reassured them. And as long as Steve was able to take care of this quickly and somehow manage to not send the boy spiraling into a panic attack it would be true. But that would be easier to do without an audience.
When it appeared that the boys would continue to argue, El got to her feet and planted her small fists on her hips and glared at the two of them. "Steve said go." She informed them sternly, and when that still didn't do anything she huffed dramatically and grabbed both of them by the wrist and dragged them to the door. "Go play, Steve can do this."
Steve appreciated the vote of confidence. It was nice to know at least one person believed in him.
Dustin stared intently at Steve for a few moments before Steve reluctantly met his searching gaze, allowing the boy to hold his eyes for an uncomfortably long stretch of time before Dustin nodded in satisfaction and turned on his heel to leave.
Mike and El were now the only two remaining children aside from Will, so he decided to let them figure things out by themselves while he focused on Will. Steve could see the two of them talking in hushed whispers, before El shoved her boyfriend into the hall, and Mike rolled his eyes but finally left.
Will hadn't moved at all, still curled up in his chair staring at a fixed spot somewhere ahead of him. He looked unnaturally pale in the harsh light of the lamp standing a couple feet away from him. He looked washed out, like he had wanted to be a vampire for Halloween and had caked on a ton of that cheap white paint on his face.
Steve felt a pang of concern rip through him, and crossed the few feet separating them.
"Hey." He said, keeping his voice low as he crouched down next to the boy's chair, not wanting to startle the kid. From here he could see Will was staring blankly out the sliding glass door that led to the pool. Steve shot a quick, nervous look outside, but all he saw was the cat curled up on one of the lounge chairs taking a nap. He turned back to focus on Will, "You doing okay?" He asked, and when the boy didn't react he became more concerned. "I'm going to put my hand on your arm, alright?" He cautioned, knowing that he wouldn't receive a reply at this point, but wanting to at least try and warn the kid.
Beside him he could feel Jane move closer, but he kept most of his attention on Will, gingerly placing a couple fingers on the boy's arm.
It wasn't much, but the kid's head twitched towards him, "That's good, Will. Focus on me. You're safe Will. You're safe." He assured the boy, sliding his hand down to pick up Will's much smaller one and give it a gentle squeeze.
Minutes passed like this, until Will's eyes finally focused on Steve's face, and his brow wrinkled in confusion. "Steve?" He asked, voice low before slowly scanning the room behind the other man. Steve could feel how the boy's hands were trembling ever so slightly. He gave them another squeeze before pulling away.
"Yeah. Yeah it's me, buddy. You're at my house." He didn't know if the kid was out of it enough to not remember, but it was better to get all the facts out there so the boy didn't freak out any more than necessary. "All your friends are in the other room waiting for you." He paused for a second before asking, "How are you feeling?"
Will shrugged one of his slender shoulders. "About the same, I guess." He said, avoiding Steve's eyes and not looking at Jane at all.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Steve asked, not really sure he was prepared for dealing with all of Will's trauma on his own, but willing to give it a shot if it would help.
"It's stupid." Will said.
"It's not stupid if it's bothering you this much. Sometimes it helps to talk about these things" Steve said, and on a hunch he asked: "Does it have anything to do with the upside down?"
Will shrugged, the movement still a bit jerky, "It's nothing, really." he insisted, which Steve thought probably translated to a 'yes' but he didn't want to push the teen too far, so he backed down.
"If you're sure. I'm here if you change your mind. Are you ready to go join the others yet?" Steve asked.
"I don't know...could I stay here for a little longer?"
"Sure. Take all the time you need." Steve said, ruffling the boy's hair as he stood up and turned to El who was still standing in the doorway where Mike had left her. "And what are you still doing here? I thought you would be in with the rest of them."
"I wanted to ask you a favor." Jane told him, no beating around the bush.
Steve looked a bit surprised, "Alright: Shoot."
"Shoot?" Jane asked, confusion coloring her words.
"He means: ask your question." Will explained.
Eleven brightened with her understanding. "Oh. I was wondering if you could take me to visit Max on Monday."
"Yeah, of course, but couldn't you get a ride with Lucas?" It would make sense, but maybe Lucas couldn't go on Monday.
But his question sparked a very negative reaction in El, who scowled openly, anger glittering in her dark eyes. "Lucas hasn't been to see Max in weeks." She said, her voice dripping with venom. "I won't leave her there all by herself!"
"Woah, woah, woah. Slow down. What do you mean Lucas hasn't visited Max in weeks? Maybe he's going to see her when you're not there." He suggested. He felt like he was running interference for these kids every two seconds. And why was Lucas the one everyone seemed to have beef with?
El folded her arms across her chest and glowered at him, "He hasn't." She said definitively. "He just stopped going one day and he ignores me anytime I ask if he wants to go with me. He doesn't care anymore. No one does! Everyone else abandoned her, but I won't. I can't leave her there by herself."
That was strange. "I'm sure that's not true. Lucas is head over heels for that girl, but sometimes seeing someone you love struggling can be hard on you. It can be difficult to keep your hope up when nothing ever changes. Give him time. I'm sure he'll come around."
Lucas took a little more time to process things then the others and he usually had to do that alone, but he had always come back. Dustin had plenty to say on the matter, and Steve had been forced to sit through all of it.
Jane didn't look like she believed him, but she had stopped arguing about it, and looked more thoughtful than angry now. "I don't mind taking you, but why don't you ask Hop, I'm sure he'd be more than happy to. Or Mike, even, doesn't he have his license now?"
El rolled her eyes, "Dad's busy. Work stuff. And Mike doesn't have a car."
Ah, right. That makes sense.
"Hey," Will interrupted, catching both of their attention. Will had scooted to sit on the edge of the chair, fidgeting with a loose string on his shirt and looking nervous, "Would it be okay if I go too? I hadn't realized it had been so long since I went to visit her."
El perked up instantly, "You want to come with? Really?" It was quite obvious that it had bothered her that no one was visiting their friend. Steve didn't go see Max very often himself, he hadn't been close to her so it felt weird to do so. But he had been keeping tabs on her condition.
Will smiled shyly back, nodding. Steve beamed back at the two of them, "Great. I'll pick you up after school and we can go straight there. And if anyone else wants to join us they can."
El made a face at that. "I don't think so. They have their club meeting after school."
Steve bumped her shoulder to get her to look up at him, "Hey, it doesn't hurt to ask. They could surprise you."
Eleven looked pensive for a moment, "I'll ask." She agreed.
"Well, now that we have that settled, why don't you two go play your game. I'll just finish cleaning up here and then I'll join you." Steve suggested.
Will looked around the room, taking in the mess the boys had made in the short amount of time they had been there. "We can help." He volunteered.
"You really don't have to do that. It shouldn't take me very long. "Steve told them as he too scanned the room. It wasn't bad, honestly. And if he cleaned it up now that would be one less thing he would need to do tomorrow.
"Good." Will said, sliding to his feet and, for a split second, Steve could see Jonathan in the way Will was standing, hear him in the tone of Will's voice. Then the moment passed and he was just Will again. "That means it'll be done two times as fast if we help." A look at El and she was nodding her own determination to help, so Steve shrugged his shoulders, sending them a thankful smile.
"Alright, alright." He conceded, "El, why don't you clean up the couch and pick up all the pillows off the floor. And Will, you go grab a garbage bag out of the hall closet while I pick up all this trash."
The kids jumped into action with enthusiasm and Steve smiled to himself and shook his head in bafflement at their excitement to clean, of all things.
Steve was well acquainted with cleaning up messes made at impromptu parties at this point; had been doing it long before he became friends with the kids and with much worse messes, so he made short work of stacking all the plates and utensils on the coffee table before going around the room and picking up all the scattered cups.
Why the hell were there plastic cups everywhere? Had they all been playing dodgeball while he was in the other room? It took a little more time to collect all of them, and he ended up over by the floor to ceiling windows that looked out onto the pool. The last of the cups had rolled right up against the glass of the sliding doors and Steve's breath fogged up the glass when he bent down to pick it up.
Movement from the yard had Steve freezing in place, heart skidding to a halt in his chest. He squinted at the door, trying to make out what it was that had caught his attention, but the foggy glass and the full cover of darkness that had descended upon them at some point in the last hour, obscured everything.
Anxiety climbing, Steve slowly rose to his feet, eyes obsessively scanning the pool and patio for anything unusual.
And there. Standing by one of the lounge chairs, pale as the moon above, was a slender woman with short red hair. She glared directly at him with hate filled, accusing eyes. A drop of black liquid oozed from the corner of her mouth, slid down the porcelain curve of her dainty chin, to splash onto the cold concrete below her bare feet.
The plastic cup he had just picked up screamed as his fingers clenched into a fist around it, his breathing coming fast and sharp as he stared back at the ghost in his yard, unable to tear himself away.
"Steve?" An uncertain voice broke through the rushing in his ears. His head snapped around, eyes open unusually wide, skin blanching fast enough to leave him slightly dizzy. "Steve? What's wrong?" El. It was El talking, his gaze found her and locked with wide dark eyes.
Steve opened his mouth, assurances on the tip of his tongue...but nothing came out. He felt like he was a balloon that had been filled too full and he might explode under the slightest amount of pressure.
"Is there something outside?" Will asked, and Steve's eyes bounced over to the boy, standing just behind the couch, black plastic bag clenched tightly in one hand as he eyed Steve with concern. The boy craned to one side, trying to see past Steve and into the yard beyond. When that didn't help, El took a step closer to try and see what had freaked the man out so much.
Steve, as if her sudden movement had snapped him out of a trance, spun back around to frantically scan the patio and the pool.
But she was gone.
Silence hung in the air, awkward and filled with a nervous kind of tension for a long moment before Steve gathered himself enough to talk to the kids without scaring them.
"It's nothing." Steve brushed it off trying to act like he hadn't just freaked out for no reason. He really didn't want to upset Will and send him into another attack if he could help it. So Steve forced himself to turn his back on the doors, even though every instinct inside him was screaming at him not to. "It was just the neighbor's cat. Its eyes flashed and startled me."
It was pure torture for Steve to pretend he wasn't shaking apart at the seams, or that he was feeling like he was falling to pieces. But pretend he did. Steve didn't want them to worry. It was fine. He was just seeing things again. It wasn't like he was actually being haunted by all the people he had gotten killed. He was just seeing things.
Neither of the two teens looked like they believed him as Steve stiffly crossed the room to stand in front of them again. He carefully disposed of the trash he had picked up in Will's bag, before steering them both around and out of the room ahead of him.
He could not stop himself from glancing back over his shoulder one last time, though.
The blue light of the moon shimmered through the white mist crawling out of the dense black line of trees that bordered the property. Everything looked deceptively serene.
No haunting specter anywhere to be seen.
Everything was just fine.
AN: So, no Billy this chapter, but he will be back next chapter. Anyway, let me know what you think. I love hearing all of your theories and suggestions so don't hesitate to let me know.
Thank you for everyone reading, and a special thank you to everyone who left me reviews.