World's Best Babysitter | Stranger Things

3 - Hole in the Wall

The cellar doors swung open with a squeak as Steve bent down and peered into what looked like the abyss. He picked up his bat and took the flashlight from Dustin and flashed it down the basement, still not being able to find anything.

"He must be further down there." Dustin proposed. "I'll stay up here in case he tries to... escape." He said. Which in other words meant: I'm not going down there.

Steve slowly turned his head to look at the curly-headed boy in disbelief. Dustin looked back at him for a moment before Steve looked back down the cellar and shook his head in frustration. Steve got off his knees and made his way down the cellar stairs, bat in one hand, flashlight in the other. As he searched, he tried to find a lightbulb or at least something that would give him some other source of light other than this stupid flashlight.

He was soon met with a lightbulb hanging from the ceiling and a string dangling from underneath. He pulled the string and turned on the light, not doing too much. It illuminated the small area of shelves and the floor around Steve.

He looked down at the rough off-white floor and scowled in disgust, suddenly getting the feeling of nausea at the sight. On the floor was a translucent, lime green, skin looking substance covered in some sort of slimy substance. It was a decent size too, probably the size of what Dustin had said.

A cat.

He poked it with his bat before scooping it up with the nails to get a closer look at whatever the hell this thing was. Now that it was closer to his face, he wanted to throw up. Sure, it looked bad, but it smelled worse. It gave off the stench of rotten meat.

Absolutely despising the sight and smell, Steve looked away from the bat and looked ahead, only to be greeted by more green slimy skin trailing across the floor and into a long dark hole in the brick wall. He sighed and sagged his shoulders in a mix of disappointment and horror.

The horrid memories of the demogorgon flashed in the back of his mind. Was this really happening again? And based on the amount of skin that was laying on the ground, was there more of them?

He never told anyone, but, after what happened last year, he was pretty traumatized. The sound of a small twig would be enough to make him jump out of his skin. If a light turned off for so much as a nanosecond he'd get ready to fight whatever demon would be running his way. And even if he could tell someone, who would believe him when he said he fought a demon? If anything, he felt kind of embarrassed. Well, he didn't have to worry too much about anyone seeing him get scared over a broken stick. Ever since Billy Hargrove moved to Hawkins, Steve's popularity went down the drain.

Back up at the entrance of the cellar, Dustin stood and waited for some sort of call or something. At least an update, maybe. "Steve?" He called from the entrance. From where he was standing, Steve wasn't visible. And when Dustin got no response, he began to feel a bit anxious. "Steve, what's going on down there?" He shuffled closer to the stairs. He was suddenly met with a bright light shining directly at his face. He flinched and stumbled back, almost falling onto the ground.

"Get down here." Steve demanded, his voice echoing throughout the cellar.

Without a question, Dustin made his way down the stairs. Steve slightly lifted his bat and showed Dustin the skin that had been laying on the ground.

"Oh, shit." Dustin frowned, sounding like he knew exactly what had happened.

Steve looked at the boy, whose face was covered in a face of shock and somewhat guilt, and slowly shined the flashlight at the hole in the wall. More translucent green skin dangled from shagged points of concrete reflected light off of the flashlight. This won another 'oh, shit' from Dustin, but this one was filled with more surprise than knowingness. They slowly made their way closer to the hole, and the further Steve shined his light into it, the further the hole seemed to go.

"No way," Dustin groaned. "No way."

Steve shook his head and stood up straight. He shook the slimy skin off of his bat, which almost landed on Dustin's shoes. Dustin hopped back just in time. "This is on you, man." Steve sighed as he made his way back up the stairs.

"How was I supposed to know it was a baby demogorgon?" Dustin fought, following Steve up the stairs.

"Do you not have common sense?" Steve spat. "If you don't know what it is, leave it in the trash!"

"But he was cute!"

"Cute? Didn't he eat your cat?"

"He was cute before he ate my cat!"

Steve scowled at him. "That makes no sense!"

"It makes perfect sense!"

"How?"

"If you found a little homeless kitten on the street would you pick it up?" Asked Dustin.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want rabies!" Steve hollered.

"But wasn't it cute before it had rabies?" Dustin opposed as he tried to make a point.

"No! It was probably hairless!"

Dustin rolled his eyes in defeat and kept quiet, not wanting to argue anymore. Steve stormed away from the smaller boy and headed back to his car. Dustin called for him as he chased after but got no reply. Steve threw the bat into the trunk and slammed the door before dropping back into the driver's seat. Dustin soon made his way into the passenger's and pouted at Steve.

"What, are you deaf or something?" He raised his voice. "I asked you what you were doing like five times!"

Instead of answering Dustin's question, Steve asked, "You have my keys?"

Dustin put his hand in his right sweatshirt pocket and pulled Steve's keys out, dropping them into Steve's hand. "Now, where are we going?" He slowly and impatiently asked.

Steve turned the keys and started the car. "We're getting bait." He said.