Edge of Seventeen • Steve Harrington

prologue

Her heartbeat was hammering against her chest as her feet carried her towards unearthly shrieks and sweat was gathering against her skin as the fear ate her alive.

Wendy Hargrove had lived with a monster for seventeen years but the monster that was in the middle of Starcourt Mall was something that would plague her nightmares for months to come.

Fear was something that Wendy Hargrove could live with as she had lived her life in a constant state of fear from her father, but the pure terror that overcame her body at the sight in front of her was something that she never wanted to experience again.

She could see Billy standing in front of Eleven, the sweet teenager in tears on the floor as they both looked up at the Mindflayer. She could see the determined set of his shoulders as he looked up at the thing that had been in control of his mind for weeks now.

As if he could feel her presence, his eyes darted towards her own. Eyes that they shared and inherited from their mom, eyes that their father damned them for as it reminded him of the woman who had left him with two kids that he really didn't care for.

Something in the back of her mind prepared her for what was coming. It settled into the pit of her stomach and clenched her heart to the point that it was hard for her to breathe.

Billy and Wendy Hargrove were twins, two sides of the same coin but with differences like night and day. Billy was reckless and full of vengeance and people believed he was a monster for things that he had done when the monster inside of him was the creation of their father. Wendy was full of anger but there was a gentle side of her that endeared her to the likes of Steve Harrington.

Steve Harrington who was bloody and beaten from his torture from the Russians, but who cared enough about Wendy Hargrove to chase her through Starcourt Mall as she fought tooth and nail to get to her brother. Steve Harrington who could see that sense of determination on Billy Hargrove's face that would completely shatter the girl that he had come to love.

His hand was wrapped around her wrist before she could even comprehend that he was forcing her to stop her dash towards her brother. It didn't matter though as her knees gave out the moment that her brother reached up and held the Mindflayer back.

Her knees hit the cold floor and her heart shattered in her chest, an unearthly shriek escaping her lips as her world crumbled around her once again.

"BILLY!"

Wendy Hargrove was seventeen years old when her world was flipped upside down.

Wendy Hargrove was eighteen years old when her world crumbled around her and went up in flames.

Wendy Hargrove was eighteen years old when her heart was broken and for the first time in a long time, Steve Harrington had no idea how to piece back together the heart of the girl that was sobbing in his arms.

Seventeen was brutal, but eighteen, eighteen was the year that Wendy Hargrove lost a piece of herself that she would never get back because she had stepped foot into Hawkins, Indiana.