Ṫḧë Ṡöüṅḋ öḟ Ṗëṛïḷ (M. Wheeler)

𝑪𝒉. 8 | 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒕

Hey everyone! Sorry it took me so long to update, school was a pain in the ass that took up all my free time, and then when it ended, it somehow STILL took up my free time because I had to start applying for jobs so I could fund the program I'm going to next year. And then of course there was my dog having health issues, me having health issues, the fact that this chapter was so angsty and annoying to write cause angst pisses me off, my parents on my ass about jobs and school, yada, yada. Anyways, I'm sorry.

BUT I HOPE YOU LIKE IT!!

Btw, check out the gorrrrgeous  art my good friend drew for this fic up above! It's a scene that features in this chapter :)

Anyways, without further ado, here's the beginning of episode eight. Enjoy!

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El screamed, letting out a pained whimper while Dylan hurled up more blood from beside her, groaning lowly. The group exchanged panicked glances, not knowing what to do. The things in in there legs were moving about and it was making things a lot worse; every time they moved, El would scream and Dylan would throw up. It was awful.

"What is that??" Erica questioned, looking at their legs with a perturbed look on her face.

"There's something in there," Mike murmured, grimacing as Dylan spat up flecks of blood onto his own shirt.

"Jesus Christ," Dustin muttered as El shrieked again, crying from the pain.

Jonathan suddenly stood up. "Keep em talking, keep them awake, okay?" He said hurriedly before dashing off who knows where—but considering he seemed to be the only one with a plan, no one questioned it.

"Hey, hey, hey, stay awake, stay awake," Mike murmured to the two of them. "Let's get them on this side, get them on this side." Steve and Dustin helped move El while Max helped Mike move Dylan.

"Easy, easy, easy, easy," Steve muttered as he settle El down as gently as he could. It didn't matter regardless though because the girl was still sobbing in pain.

"It's uh....you know, it's not actually that bad," Robin said in a light voice, trying to be reassuring, "there was uh, the goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg and like the whole bone came out of her knee, six inches or something, it was insane."

The group have her blank looks as she rambled, wondering how on earth that was supposed to be helpful. Dylan grunted and threw up some more blood beside himself and Robin grimaced.

"Actually no..." she murmured, looking at the boy with a haunted expression, "no, this is way worse, isn't it? Like way, way, way, way—"

"Robin," Steve said.

"Yeah?" She asked shakily.

"You're not helping."

"I'm sorry."

Dustin ran his hands against his hat, looking at Dylan in concern. "I don't get why Dylan is throwing up blood and El isn't," he said a bit frantically. "Shouldn't they be in the same state?"

The boy did have a point. It didn't really make any sense, and no one knew what to say until Mike suddenly snapped his head up in realization.

"The bites...." he murmured and Dustin looked at him with wide eyes.

"The what??" He asked wildly.

"El and Dyl were bitten by the monster," Max said, realizing where Mike was coming from.

"Monster??!" Steve exclaimed, looking both scared and shock.

Per usual, everyone ignored him. Max made wary eye contact with Mike. "When they were bitten, a piece of it must've gotten inside of them," she surmised. Then she paled. ".....And Dylan spits up bloody bile every time he's near the flayed."