Stay or Go

Chapter 16

We arrive back at Jonathan's house which is eerily quiet now that no one else is here. I wrap my jacket around me to keep the warmth in and follow the other two up the steps to the front door. Once inside we get to work, making sure all of the lightbulbs in the Christmas lights work. We also start making traps for the monster we want to kill. Since we don't know what will kill it we try a little bit of everything. Nancy and I load our guns efficiently, I have two. Once with normal bullets and the other with bullets that can kill someone like me while Jonathan hammers nails into a baseball bat. He is definitely creative I'll give him that.

We have a solid plan by the time we regroup in the living room almost an hour later. Jonathan disappears for a second before reappearing with three kitchen knives, he hands one to each of us and says "remember...." We starts to go through the plan. "Straight into Will's room-" Nancy says and I add, clutching the knife tightly in my hand "don't step on the trap." The atmosphere in the room is so tense you could cut it with a knife.

"Wait for the yo-yo to move." Nancy continues, Jonathan nods his head "then..." he says before flipping open the lighter. The last step of the plan insinuated with the action. I move from side to side with nerves and as the two others "you guys ready?" and we start counting down. When we reach three we all cut into our palms, Nancy and Jonathan hiss in pain but I only wince slightly. I've had worse injuries than this.

After we have let the wounds air out for a dew moments we wrap them up. Well, I wrap my own up and Jonathan helps Nancy. I sit on the floor, the others on the sofa when we all hear a slight creaking sound making us all turn our heads in its direction. "Did you hear that?" I ask and the others nod "it's just the wind." Jonathan assures as he finishes wrapping Nancy's hand. "Don't worry." I hear my friend say gently, placing a hand on my shoulder "my mum, she said the lights speak when it comes."

Nancy pulls her hand away "speaks?" She asks and I pull my legs up to my chest, gun in hand "blink." Jonathan clarifies "think of them as alarms." Nancy starts bandaging Jonathan's hand when he sucks in a breath "is that too tight?" She asks concerned and Jonathan shakes his head stuttering nervously "no, its fine. Thanks." I smile and turn away. Honestly they would make a cute couple. If we make it out of this I will convince Nancy to let Jonathan take her out.

"Nancy?" The boy asks after a moment, the girl speaks so quietly I can hardly hear her as she replies "Yeah?" I stand up and stretch my legs, walking around the coffee table. Before anyone ca say anything else there is a bang on the door making us all jump. "Jonathan?" A familiar voice shouts from behind the door "are you there man? It's..... its Steve! Listen I just wanna talk!" We all look at each other confused.

He continues banging on the door and I make for it before Nancy stops me "I've got it." She says and opens to door a little bit. "Steve." She says her tone cold "listen to me. You need to leave." I hear Steve panting as though he ran here.. "I'm not trying to start anything ok?" He insists and Nancy replies "I don't care about that. You need to leave." Steve starts stammering from behind the door "no, no, no. Listen, I messed up, okay? I messed... I messed up."

I move around to stand by Jonathan who is also stood now. "I just want to make things right." Steve says sadly and I look down at my shoes. Steve continues talking for a moment before trialing off, "what happened to your hand?" He asks "is that blood?" and I realise he has noticed Nancy's bandaged hand. She pulls away from him and answers "nothing, nothing. It was an accident." There is a long pause, I keep my eyes on the lights around us.

"Whats going on?" Steve asks sounding more concerned now, Nancy steps back slightly "nothing." She answers confidently. I hear Steve move closer "wait a sec." He says "did he do this to you?" I watch as Nancy shakes her head rapidly and assures him "no." And then Steve bursts in. He stops when he enters the living room, his eyes falling on me and then the baseball bat on the table. "What is... What the..." He seems to be in shock and Nancy comes back over looking furious "you need to get out of here." Jonathan orders angrily but Steve keeps muttering so he goes to repeat himself when I stop him.

"Leave Harrington." I warn "seriously." He starts laughing crazily, throwing his hands up in the air and looking around says "or what? This is insane!" I sigh and pull out my gun, pressing the cold barrel to his temple. Steve freezes before asking "do you even know how to shoot that thing?" In answer I load the gun and he goes white. I tilt my head and press it further into his head "want to find out?" I ask and he shakes his head. He throws his hands up in the air "just put the gun down."

I clutch it tighter "I'm doing this for you." I say gritting my teeth and gently, more gently then I have ever heard him before he says "Lorelei, please." Then the lights start to flicker. Oh Shit. "It's here." Jonathan muses and we fall into a circle. Steve looks around in front of me confused "wait, what's here?" He asks. Nancy and I have our guns trained in front of us while Jonathan raises his bat. "Where is it?" Nancy asks completely ignoring her boyfriend who starts loosing his shit. Steve then shouts "Where is what? Whoa!"

We all look around crazily "I don't know." I say through gritted teeth "I don't see it." The lights are still blinking rapidly and Steve repeats his question angrily. "Hello!? Will someone please tell me what the hell is going-" he starts ranting when something falls through the ceiling. Nancy starts shooting at it and Jonathan pulls her by her waist along with the rest of us. "Come on!" I shout to Steve, grabbing his hand and leading him through the house.

"Jump!" I order as we get to the bear trap in the hall as Steve clasps tightly onto my hand "oh, my god! oh my god!" He keeps repeating. If a monster wasn't currently chasing us I would shout at him to shut the hell up. We get into Will's room and slam the door shut. Nancy and Jonathan stand in front of us, Steve clutching me tightly "what the hell was that?" He asks sounding panicked and the two people in front of us whirl around and shout "shut up!"

We can hear the monster screeching outside, Nancy holds her gun up while Jonathan holds the lighter. Steve clutches my arm so tightly his knuckles go white and I pant deeply clutching my own gun in my hand. The lights are flickering and we hear its footsteps "what is it doing?" I ask and between pants Jonathan replies "I don't know." We all watch the yo yo until the lights stop flickering and we all look confused.

"Do you hear anything?" Nancy asks we shake our heads, I move in beside them. I open the door and we all start to creep slowly out. The house is silent again.