the unexpected | steve harrington

the hellfire club

part two

Daphne drove home by committing many felonies that night, feeling rattled and scared, a sinking feeling all the way home.

By the time she got home, her mom was in the kitchen making her nighttime brew, dressed in a floral nightgown and dressing gown over the top.

"How was Max, Daphy?" Ms Henderson asked, knowing it was Daphne before she even turned around.

"I- uh, yeah, she was totally cool," Daphne shrugged, still feeling panicked and unable to meet her mother's eyes, but relieved to walk through her door. She couldn't get the sound of screaming out of her ears. And that snap; it sounded like twigs breaking.

"You seem- on edge, Daphy, are you okay?" her mother came in to her face to inspect it, resting a hand on her cheek. "Daphy, you look like you've seen a ghost."

"Heard one, actually," Daphne corrected her mother, who rolled her eyes at her daughter, Daphne wasn't quite sure it was a joke.

She made her way straight to Dustin's room, who was reading a comic in bed, and as she didn't knock, made an exaggerated gasp at her rudeness.

"Dusty," she began, knowing that Dustin will tell her that she is being stupid, "I feel all weird." she shook visibly at the thought filling her mind again, Dustin raising an eye brow.

"You didn't already?" he questioned, sarcasm laced in his voice.

"No, idiot," she mumbled, "coming back from Max's, I- okay this is going to sound stupid. I think I heard a ghost."

Dustin smirked at his sister, putting down his comic book. He couldn't help but think she was joking or being dramatic, but then, he remembered all the shit that he had seen beforehand. He nodded for her to continue.

"Okay, so, I was coming back and driving, singing along to-"

"To Don't You by Simple Minds," he finished her sentence and she nodded with a downward smirk at how impressed she was. "Don't you, forget about me," Dustin hummed, almost distracting Daphne, but just before she joined in she shushed him, forcing Dustin to act fake-hurt.

"And all of a sudden, the radio went off, like a static," El, he thought. "So then my lights started flashing on my car," the other side, he thought. "So I try to tune my radio and I hear this- almost like-" Daphne struggles to think of how to describe it, motioning with her hands as she tries to think.

"Daphne!" Dustin hurries her and she smacks him over the arm.

"I guess it was like— was like a please?" she guessed, "almost like she was begging."

"It was a girl?" Dustin asked, confused.

"Pretty girlish boy if it wasn't," she shrugged, "then, snap," she paused for effect, "snap, snap, snap," she dramatised, causing Dustin's face to grimace. "Like twigs."

"That... is mental." He commented, secretly thinking about The Upside Down

"Tell me about it," she collapsed backwards on Dustin's bed, sighing. "Honestly, dude, I'm so freaked out right now. So I scream, slam my breaks, and Eddie fricken club guy, speeds past me."

"Eddie, as in, Eddie Eddie?" Dustin asks, confused.

"Oh yeah, he was with a cheerleader. How about it huh? Eddie hanging with a cheerleader." She was impressed that he'd been able to break the status quo, but Dustin was confused. Dustin knew that Eddie wasn't friends with cheerleaders - so far from it. As well as how cheerleaders were definitely not friends with him.

"Daph, think," Dustin ordered his sister, "where were you when this happened?" He was trying to pinpoint the exact area, wondering if one of the gates had been re-opened. But if they had, no one other than El had ever heard through static, or been able to receive messages. Only through light.

"Uh, I don't know, the road coming out of Max's," Daphne sat up, "Does it matter?" she watched as her younger brother's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, the cogs turning in his head and she gasped as she pointed to him. "Do you know something? Did I hear a ghost? Am I haunted? No, that'd just be the worst. You know how The Shining ends. Not cool." Questions buzzed through her head and outloud as she sat up and crossed her legs.

"Shit," Dustin muttered, "What? No, I don't know anything." He saves himself. But not really.

"Such bullshit!" Daphne grins at her brother, "Do we have a gift?" Dustin rolls his eyes at his sister.

"No, nothing," Dustin scratched his head, offering a fake yawned to his sister, which she tutted at, "I'm getting tired, bye Daphne,"

Daphne squinted her eyes at her brother, who was obviously kicking her out, grabbing his comic book and throwing it at his face.

"You get weirder by the day, Dusty," she muttered as she stood up, turning slightly to him, "Better watch out, I'll put a curse on you, woo," she joked, laughing as his face turned serious.

"Not funny!" he yelled after his sister.

Truth was, both Henderson's felt a tremendous pit in the bottom of their stomach, worried about what had actually happened. And what was potentially to come.