[1] A Song Of Ice And Monsters ➳ ST (S1)✔️

|18| Rescue Mission 101

Chapter 18 x

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"So this is the Demogorgon."

They were all squeezed into Jonathan's car, Hopper and Mrs. Byers up front while Christine, Nancy and Jonathan sat in the back. They were mostly sitting, anyway. Christine had half her butt on the door, and Nancy's hips were angled so she wouldn't have to be in Jonathan's lap. It was a tight fit, but they were trying to make it work.

Christine was more focused on the photo in her hands. It was mostly black, looking more like a distortion than anything concrete. But Nancy had traced out the figure with her finger—arms, legs, broad torso, a head that didn't seem to have a face. It loomed nearly seven feet tall, illuminated underneath by the eerie light of Steve's pool. It was right at the end of the diving board, right behind where Barb had been sitting...

She was relieved Barb had been cropped out of this copy. Christine wasn't sure if she could handle seeing it right now.

"The demo-what?" Nancy asked.

"It's uh...that's what me and the boys have been calling it," Christine said sheepishly. "I think it's from Dungeons and Dragons."

"Seriously?" Jonathan snorted from the other side of the car. "You're using a kids' game to name a bloodthirsty monster?"

"So what? It's so much more elegant to keep calling it 'that thing'? Besides, this whole thing—monsters and alternate dimensions and superpowers—kinda feels like Dungeons and Dragons to me."

"Do not say 'alternate dimensions'," Hopper instructed flatly from the drivers' seat. "I don't know what we're up against, but I don't want to hear you talking about 'alternate dimensions' ever again."

Christine raised a hand in surrender. He hadn't taken well to her explanation of the multiverse. Government conspiracies were fine, but apparently theoretical physics was right out.

"I still can't believe you've been with my brother this whole time," Nancy said. "That's...so weird."

"Yeah, and you've been fighting demons," Christine offered, handing her the picture once more. "Cause that's not insane."

Nancy laughed weakly. "Yeah, well...I guess neither of our weeks went that great."

Christine nodded. She'd only gotten the short version on Jonathan and Nancy's side of things. They'd glossed over the pictures, but it seemed like Nancy was overlooking the creepiness since it'd helped her figure out what happened to Barb. They'd gone looking for the Demogorgon after the funeral, running around in the same woods where Christine had been looking for Eleven. But while Christine was avoiding trouble, Nancy had run right into it—and into the Upside Down, from the sounds of it.

Nancy's description had been short. It was darker, but familiar. Cold and wet and slimy. She'd nearly gotten lost trying to escape the Demogorgon. That she hardly described at all. She just handed Christine the photo and let the picture do the talking.

Jonathan had managed to pull her out, and stayed the night so Nancy would feel safer. But they hadn't slept together. Nancy hadn't even slept at all. So Steve had seen them comforting each other—but it had Jonathan helping Nancy, and not the other way around.

Christine didn't have any words of comfort. She couldn't think of any that matched the gravity of the whole thing. They'd each been alone, thinking the other one didn't care, thinking their friend had ditched them over some boy when they were just trying not to die. She couldn't imagine what Nancy had been through in the Upside Down. And she didn't have any adequate way to apologize.