Halley's comet | Steve Harrington

xvii. excuse me, what

"𝑭𝒖𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕."

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"Shit." Jonathan missed, yet another, one of the cans lined up about twenty feet away from the two siblings. Halley stood a couple steps away from him, holding a gun of her own. An old carving knife sat sheathed at her feet, just in case.

The knife she had snatched from the shed, long forgotten and a little rusted, but the gun had been a little harder to get. It was of the few things her mom had kept from when she and Lonnie had been married, even though she didn't know the first thing about shooting one. It was kept for home security, though none of the kids were supposed to know about it. Halley had only stumbled upon it when Joyce was sick about three years prior, and she had been taking care of her.

Halley had snuck into her mother's room while she was preoccupied in the living room, yelling at Lonnie. It was just like when she was younger. Except this time she picked up on what the argument was, and it was nearly impossible for her not to also jump in. That son of a bitch really only came back to Hawkins to try and get money from his youngest son's supposed death.

Still, she didn't want either of them to know what was being planned, so she kept herself together, tiptoed into her Mom's closet, and grabbed the gun hidden in an old shoebox. In the same box was the ammo, still in its case. She tucked both things into her coat, after checking the safety lock was on, and ducked outside to Jonathan.

It was looking like they weren't going to need two of them though, because her brother would end up shooting one of them before the monster.

"You're supposed to shoot the cans, right?" Nancy said, walk up dressed in a warm looking caramel colored coat.

Jonathan turned at her voice, a small smile pulling at his lips. "Oh, uh, no, actually. You see those spaces between the cans? I'm aiming for those." He gestured toward the space the last bullet had flown through, as he emptied the shells. "You ever shot a gun before?" he asked her, once she was now face to face with them; Halley and abandoned her gun for the time being.

Nancy scoffed, "Have you met my parents?" Halley thought about Ted wielding a pistol. The image couldn't even form.

"Yeah," Jonathan chuckled, "I haven't shot one since I was ten. My dad took me out hunting on my birthday; made me shoot a rabbit." Halley remembered that day vividly. She had puked after seeing the corpse, and after making sure she was alright, her mother had told her to take Will away before he choked on his tears.

"A rabbit?" Nancy asked, eyebrows furrowing as she tilted her head just slightly.

"Yeah, I guess he thought it would make me more of a man, or something. I cried for a week." Jonathan said, loading more ammo into the gun.

"Jesus."

"What? I'm a fan of Thumper," He said defensively, cracking a smile.

Nancy shook her head, "I meant your dad." She spared a glance over to Halley. Nancy really only knew the surface of Lonnie Byers, her supply of information being cut off years ago.