HAVEN - stranger things.

ix. PINK WATER.

ix. steve finds out!

the group of, now seven, had settled on the wheeler house to hide out for the time being. wendy carmichael needed to use the bathroom, but that hadn't gone well. wendy stood in front of the mirror, staring at her reflection.

"you're not cursed, you're not cursed." she muttered to herself as she twisted the knob to turn on the hot water.

wendy used some soap and stared down at the sink, seeing the water pool together. a singular red drop fell into the water, and wendy's eyes widened as she felt her heart rate pick up. her gaze snapped back up to her reflection and she gasped, blood trailed down from her nostril.
"fuck!" wendy cursed as she reached over to grab some tissues.

the girl wiped the blood from her nose but more came out slowly and a blood droplet fell onto the wheelers' bathroom counter. wendy wiped it up and leaned over the sink, letting the blood mix in with the water.

steve harrington had sat down after his conversation with lucas and dustin, he heard the water running in the bathroom. there was no way wendy could've been taking that long to pee. sighing, he walked over to the door, knocking on it.

from inside, wendy jumped. she opened the door and pulled her boyfriend in. her nose had stopped bleeding, but the water hadn't gone down the drain just yet. steve's eyes gawked at the pink tinted water—holy shit.

"wendy...why is the water pink?" steve hissed and looked towards his girlfriend. he could see the skin under her nose was red, likely irritated from her rubbing it.

"steve." wendy's voice broke.

"why is the water pink?!" he was freaking out as everything was starting to fall into place.

if wendy died, steve didn't know what he would do. this wasn't nancy, or max, or dustin, this was wendy. his best friend since he was six years old. he didn't remember life before wendy, he couldn't picture life after her either.

"it's...it's happening. b-but please don't tell them, okay? i don't want them to freak out." wendy was crying now. she didn't want to die, she knew that it had to happen at some point, but she didn't want to die at eighteen.

she hadn't graduated yet, she hadn't married steve yet, they didn't have their happily ever after.

"wen...wendy." steve felt tears in his eyes as a lump grew in his throat.

"no. you can't cry on me. we're gonna go out there and act like nothing is wrong. do you understand me?" wendy stared into steve's eyes, and he knew that she was serious about every word she was saying.

she wiped her tears and set her hands against steve's face—he hadn't even realized that he let his tears fall until he felt wendy's thumbs swipe under his eyes.
"we're gonna stop this. i swear on this entire earth, we're gonna save you and max." steve whispered and he leaned forward, pressing a kiss to wendy's forehead.

he didn't know the timeline of how vecna's curse worked, but he knew that wendy carmichael was not going to die. he refused to let that happen.

wendy and steve left out of the bathroom, and dustin was the first to question them.
"why were you both in there?" he asked bluntly.
"what?" wendy stared at the kid.