Chapter 58: Struggle Forward
"Steve there has to be a reason she stood you up?" Robin says, wiping down the counters after Scoops had finally closed for the night.
It'd been the longest shift of an especially long weekend, but it felt even longer due to Steve being a complete gray cloud the entire time. She'd tried to be supportive of a down-in-the-dumps friend and avoid saying anything remotely mean to him, but that was hard on its own. The world was out of balance and Robin hated it. She knows that he's crushed about Mia not showing up to their date on Friday. He's barely spoken to her or said anything stupid all weekend, which is also concerning to her. She had attempted to give him some teasing jabs about other things, but he didn't fight back at all or even roll his eyes. He'd just take it and ignore her. It hurt her to see him so crushed. His ego had taken many beatings since he'd lost his "king" status after high school and while it had humbled him a lot, the fact that he couldn't manage to get a date or find any meaningful romantic relationship obviously weighed heavily on him. Deep, deep down, Robin had hoped that this relationship would work out for him and Mia seemed genuinely interested in him… sadly it wasn't meant to be.
He sits in a nearby booth, picking at a melted ice cream sundae after they've served the last customer. He'd made it to try and make himself feel better, but it was as sad as he was. It also irked Robin that she was doing all the clean-up work while he sat there feeling sorry for himself.
She'd finally ventured the topic with him now that they had the privacy to do so.
"Yeah right," he mutters. "What reason could that be?"
"A family emergency? Maybe her car broke down? Maybe she got sick? Did you consider any of these things?"
"Not really," he shrugs. Deep down, he's kicking himself for not considering these possibilities, probably due to his broken emotional state. "She still stood me up. Didn't even try to find me after to explain. Or call."
"Steve it's been three days. If it was a family emergency, maybe she's still dealing with it. Or if she's sick, she's actively avoiding people."
"Sure, but now she'll probably avoid this place like the plague."
"Dingus don't say that…"
"What's the point? Guess I'm destined to be alone forever."
Robin tries not to roll her eyes at the pity party he is having for himself.
"The first girl since Nancy who's actually said yes to going on a date and she never even shows up."
"Yeah, I know you've mentioned it a bunch of times already. I know that it sucks, but you can't keep beating yourself up over it."
"Can't I?" Steve groans.
"No, you can't Dingus. Your ego might have taken a beating, but it's not the end of the Goddamned world. You've been rejected by tons of girls, and believe me, I've seen it and kept score. And it's barely phased you… why this girl? Why of all the girls in this town… no better yet the state… why her?"
Steve shrugs, unsure how to explain it. "I don't know. I guess I thought she might be different. We'd run into each other a bunch of times and it feels like we could be something if we had a chance."
"Like… the universe was pushing you together?" Robin says sarcastically.
"Yeah sure," he shrugs. He'd never believed in fate or anything like that, but he did want to get to know Mia as they'd met several times and barely had the chance to talk.
"Well, maybe she'll come around and explain what happened. Plus, you didn't exchange numbers so how could she have called you?"
He opens his mouth to say something else but realizes that Robin is right about that.
"Did you do something to scare her off? Walk me through it."
While not wanting to play therapist, Robin bites the bullet and does what she can to help her friend.
"No. We talked for a little while. She did a little Shakespeare which was so cute."
"Adorkable, yes," Robin says with faked enthusiasm and tries not to roll her eyes. "Did you say something to offend her?"
"No, she then told me of how her grandparents used to act out the plays when there was no power in their farmhouse."
"Sounds boring, but go on," she comments.
"It was pretty sweet," He argues. "She then talked about her job tutoring El and then she mentioned the weather and then the lights went out."
"Doesn't sound like a long enough conversation for you to screw it up and scare her off."
"Exactly," Steve snaps. He gets up, grabs his sad sundae and tosses it in the trash. He then grabs a cloth and spray bottle and begins wiping down the tables, much to Robin's relief that she wasn't cleaning this sea-themed dump alone.
"Then what happened? When exactly did you ask her to go to the movies?"
"After the lights went out and before I had to rush off and help you do damage control to save the ice cream."
Robin flashes back to that afternoon and how it felt like the whole mall erupted into chaos. People either talked loudly or started screaming and rushing around, like the world was ending. It was honestly really disheartening that all it took was a power outage to have people descend into semi-anarchy. She remembers barely being able to hear herself think and she begins to wonder…
"Here's a thought… Do you think she actually heard you?" Robin asks.
This causes Steve to stop what he's doing as the realization dawns on him. She had nodded when he'd asked, but maybe she thought he'd said something else.
Seeing his hesitation, Robin knows that she's hit the nail on the head. She puts her face in her hand. "Oh Dingus… You're such an idiot. Maybe next time when you ask a girl on a date, you make sure it's not in the middle of a blackout and that she heard you."
Steve looks absolutely mortified. He sits down in the booth he's cleaning and puts his head on the table. Now… now Robin will never let him live this down. She was right and he felt like an idiot.
"It's also a good idea to follow up and confirm that the date is actually happening."
"Okay, I get it!" Steve snaps. "Next time I see her, I'll talk to her. Let's just finish here so we can go home."
Happy that the mystery has been solved and that soon the normal Steve will be back, Robin respects his wishes and won't rub any more salt on the wound… at least for today.
"Been waiting for you to say that" she says, grabbing the mop and beginning to clean the floors.
…
After shutting the metal security gate, the two Scoops employees head towards the exit.
"You sure you don't need a ride?" Steve asks, fishing his keys out of his coat pocket.
"Naw, I'm good," Robin says, preparing to get her helmet on.
Suddenly, a loud noise echoes through the empty mall. It sounds like a crash of some kind. Not a window breaking, but of something falling over. It sounded like the clanking of metal.
Both freeze in their tracks.
"What was that?" he asks in a low voice.
"Probably someone else closing up," she shrugs, putting her helmet on.
"We're the only ones here," he reminds her. "We're always the last ones here, except the movie theatre crew, but they closed early tonight."
He turns and glances back into the semi-dark mall. Most of the shops were dark and appeared like eyes staring at them. Black voids that were going to swallow up any light or anything unfortunate enough to be close. Neon and coloured lights above the darkened places still glowed through the empty building, but did little to help Steve's discomfort. It felt like something was out there and after Russians were discovered hiding under the mall over the summer, no one could blame him.
"Come on Dingus, let's go," Robin says. "I'm tired and I want to go home and fall asleep in front of the TV before having to get up for school."
"Okay," Steve says and the two go through the employee exit out to the parking lot.
"Night," she calls him as she goes for her scooter.
"Night," Steve replies before heading for his car.
…
Unbeknownst to the two as they part ways in the parking lot, a strange substance bubbles and gurgles in a nearby ventilation duct. Now that the two other beings were gone, it began trying to fit through the grate of the vent. Its first attempt had caused the clanking sound, but after the substance composed of blood and other anomalies including chemicals realized that it was not alone, it waited patiently.
It was a struggle to fit through the thin slats of metal, most of it slicing and dicing the living organism and causing great pain. It persisted until most of it had made it through. Its quest then takes the thing across the tiled floor, leaving a trail of blood and goo in its wake. It needed to get out of this place. Yes, it would be weaker away from the crack between the two worlds, but there were not enough living things to consume. So far, only three rats could be found and used for the being's new Earthly form, but it needed more… much more.
The substance continues its journey until it comes to the door. It slowly begins to flatten itself to fit under the crack. Again, it takes much strength and the loss of some organic matter to make it happen, but soon it was in the cool night air. A luxury that it would not have been rewarded with if it had moved during the day or earlier in the month. The late and lingering heat of summer had kept the creature down in the destroyed lab where it was cool in safe. But now, with the humidity breaking and a cold fall chill overtaking Hawkins, was the time.
It had to find a new place where it could grow stronger. It crawls along the rough pavement until it reaches the smooth grass, providing relief to the organism from another dimension. The will of its master is still very strong… strong enough that it will push on and find a place where there is more living matter to be consumed and assimilated into itself.
The mass from the Upside Down continued crawling through the grass that was tall enough to conceal it as its journey began.
A/N: Two chapters in two days. I was developing both at the same time so please enjoy them. This chapter is short, but things are learned. Particularly for Steve who realizes that Mia didn't stand him up the way he thought. We also see something moving in the shadows, straying away from Starcourt in search of new matter to absorb and we know what it will eventually turn into.