The Devil's Gift/The Bloody Handed

3

Eventually we reached what Nancy called her house. We all rush in and block the door with our dead weight. I close my eyes tight and squint in pain. I had been thrown on this exact arm yesterday and now it just hurt much much worse. I wasn't sure how Steve could handle being attacked like that so well; unfortunately, he's probably used to it more than anything.

The pounding on the door eventually came to a halt after a couple of minutes and I started to hear the relieved breaths of everyone.

"Everyone alright?" Robin asks. Yes, Robin. Yes. I just nod in response.

"Oh my God Clarissa, your arm!" Robin gasps.

"Please just all of you call me Clary at this point." I huff out of breath. "It's a pain hearing you say that name everytime." I laugh and shake my head looking at my arm. "I'm fine I promise. Just a bite."

"We need to find a way out of here." Steve says.

"We can't go back the way we came in?" Eddie asks. All eyes were on him.

"Did you not see the swarms of demobats coming from that area?" Steve gestures.

"Leave him be, he's new just like me." Steve puts a fist on his forehead and the other hand holding his stomach. "Here let me help you with that."

"You know how to bandage?" He says shocked.

"I.. actually took a few courses." Just in case my mother needed me. Steve and I go into the kitchen area and he sits down. I start to scavenge in the drawers for any cloths I could use to bring up some of the residue. I eventually find a small brown one and run it under water.

"Nancy, can you bring me a first aid kit please?" I hollar. I hear footsteps immediately move fast, presumably the stairs.

"You know you're pretty bad ass," Steve nods approvingly.

I shake my head. "I can take a few blows I guess."

"Nah, for someone who's a rookie like you you've done great. Like a natural. You should have seen me when I first started." He grins shaking his head. I apply the cloth a little more firm and he hisses in a deep breath.

"It's going to hurt a little. I want to bring up as much as I can." He nods and looks down.

Nancy runs in with the first aid kit and drops it at the table. I open it and grab out gauze, a rolling bandage, and peroxide.

"This is going to really suck Steve. I'm sorry in advance." I say holding up and shaking the peroxide.

He closes his eyes and looks to the side. "It's fine. Do what you have to do." I apply some of the peroxide onto gauze and lightly pat his wounds on his side. His cheeks blow up with frustrated air and his breathing becomes heavier and labored. I do the same with his arm and he does the same pained expression.

"It's nice to know we got another caretaker of the group." He laughs.

"Caretaker?" I was utterly lost. But he could be speaking from the pain.

"Yeah, Nancy. She always is helping everyone and anyone she can." His voice gets low and he sighs.

"You know she jumped in the water right after you, right? I can tell she cares, even if it's just as a friend." I smile and he nods slowly.

"I doubt it. We have both moved on by now." By now? So they did have a thing. I start to apply the extra gauze and start to roll the tape around his body. "Well, thank you Clary. It's nice to see another pretty face." I look down trying to focus on what I need to do.

"Be careful. They aren't big enough for stitches but they will bleed quite a bit if you irritate them in any way. I have gauze on top of every wound and I have them rolled and secure. He smiles and nods at me, then walks out of the kitchen. I grab open the aid kit again and start to bandage and clean myself. I hiss when the peroxide hits my open and still fresh wound. I watch as the bubbles crowd and outnumber the red.

Another figure walks in, which I knew from anywhere. Robin.

"I'm glad you're safe. I was worried Jason got to you guys." She frowned.

"Over my dead body. He thinks I'm a criminal now too." I laugh and she laughs with. I start to apply pressure on the gauze, seeing blood leak through.

"I see you and Munson hit it off pretty well." She whispers and leans towards me.

"Hit it off? No. He's just a friend. Platonic. Completely. Platonic, Robin. Definitely didn't hit anything off." She rolls her eyes and gives me an uh huh kind of look. I didn't see Eddie in that way. He was just one of those people you felt easy around but got annoyed with just as easily. I roll the bandage around my arm three times and tear it off with my teeth and pat the sticky fabric.

"Clary, I am no fool. Do not take me for one. I like boobies, so that means I know how people with boobies act. I think Steve might.. be into you too?"

I scoff and roll my eyes. "Immediately, no way. No way. None of these boys here are into me nor am I into them. Not happening in any universe, including this one."

"Alright if you say so." She winks and exits the kitchen and I follow suit. Everyone was congregated in the living room, discussing what the next move was. Outside was too swarmed to even move a quarter of a quarter of a mile, and inside of here wasn't the safest option either.

"Wait," Nancy muses. We all snap our heads in hopes that she originated a plan. "I have a gun. A Remington 870. It should be up in my room." We all go upstairs and she reaches the top of the shelf in her closet, pulling out a box. She fumbled around the items and starts to panic. She tips it and goes back into her closet, dragging things out. "It's not here." She looks around frantically. She picks up a stuffed animal. "And I sold this two years ago." She pauses and looks up at all of us. "We aren't in the right time period."

"Oh, wonderful." Eddie throws his hands up. "If that means I'm not considered a murderer I'll take it." I try not to hit him for his remark and instead nudge him.

"We need to find a way to communicate with Dustin and them." I say. "You guys know about this stuff. How can we communicate here?"

"Light fixtures!" Robin exclaims.

"Yeah, Will used it to communicate with Joyce through lights." Steve realizes.

"Down here." Nancy leads us down the stairs and to a chandelier. Around it were floating white particles. Did all lights have these strange aura around it here? Like some energy source? We all reach our hands up and wave them inside of the white particles. Each time our hand got near or far, the light lit accordingly.

"Woah," I muse. I look at Eddie besides me who is as amused as I am. He looked like a kid as he looked over to everyone and smiled. His brown eyes lit up and his mouth was dropped. "Hi!" He screams. We all look at him and shake our heads.

"Does anyone know Morse code?" Robin asks.

"Does.. SOS count?" Eddie asks. The room falls silent. "Is that... is that good?"

"I know how to do it. Does anyone know if Dustin knows morse? I ask eagerly. "If he's at the house maybe he can answer and help us. We've been gone for way too long. We can send that SOS then." I say. They all look at me.

"He does," Steve says. "Smart thinking Clary."

Eddie looks over at me and for some odd reason, gives me a weird glance. I shake my head. "Okay on my count," I say. I move my hand. 1. Then we take our hands back. Again. 2. It glew again. One more time, 3.

We sit back and wait for any response.

"We need to make sure it's Dustin communicating back." Steve says. The lights start to flare again and echoes sound.

"Okay- seriously?! How many times do I have to be right on the money before you trust me?!" Dustin tells.

"Jesus Christ, this kids gotta get his ego in check." Steve breathes.

"It's his tone, right?" Eddie leans forward.

"We need something better." Nancy says. She rushes up the stairs and we all follow her. From under her bed pulls out a Lite Brite. I always wanted one of those. With luck, we got it to light up snd communicate. Nancy wrote "stuck" and immediately, Dustin wrote back.

"He's gonna find a way for us to get back." Nancy says.

"He has to break through where the portal opened in the first place." Robin looks at Eddie and I. The trailer.

"Back from the place hell started." Eddie says.