Always Be There For You ~ Dustin Henderson x Reader

Chapter 26: The Battle of Starcourt

"There's something in there," Mike stated, watching as something squirmed in the skin underneath El's leg.

    "Jesus Christ," Dustin muttered, tightly clinging onto my shoulders.

    "Keep her talking. Keep her awake, okay?" Jonathan ordered as he ran across the food court. Mike leaned over El and held her hand reassuringly.

    "Hey, hey, hey. Stay awake, stay awake. Let's get her on this side, on this side," Mike instructed. Dustin and Steve assisted Mike in getting El propped up.

    "You know, it's not actually that bad. There was a goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg, and the bone came out of her knee, six inches or something, it was insane," Robin fearfully rambled.

    "Robin," Steve interjected.

    "Yeah?"

    "You're not helping."

    "I'm sorry." Jonathan ran back over to us with a wooden spoon and a kitchen knife.

    "El, this is gonna hurt like hell, okay?" Jonathan informed her while putting on a glove, "I need you to stay real still. You're gonna wanna bite down on this." Jonathan handed Mike the wooden spoon and he placed it in El's mouth. Jonathan lifted the knife and reopened El's wound, causing her to scream in pain as she bit down on the spoon. Dustin's hand found its way into mine and he gripped it tightly.

    Jonathan slowly pushed his fingers into El's wound causing her to scream whilst everyone else shrieked in horror. I watched intently as Jonathan dug inside her would, attempting to pull out whatever was inside of her. Dustin buried his face in my hair, and I held the back of his head reassuringly.

    "Stop!" El screamed, spitting out the spoon. Jonathan removed his hand from El's leg and El attempted to sit up.

    "I can do it," El insisted. Dustin removed his head from my shoulder and we both watched as El lifted her hand. She groaned as she attempted to pull whatever was inside of her leg out with her mind. She shrieked loudly, using all her might to remove it, causing the glass near them to shatter. Dustin and I protectively held onto each other, not wanting either one of us to get hit by the glass.

El screamed and screamed as she lifted what looked like something from the Upside Down out of her leg and into the air. El swung it across the room and let out a deep sigh. The thing started to scuttle away but was crushed by the steel-toed boots of our favorite police chief; Ms. Byers and a man with a big beard named Murray standing by his side.

    Apparently, the thing inside of El's leg was a piece of the Mind Flayer. The Mind Flayer was back; this time in the form of a monster made out of the melted flesh and organs of Hawkins residents. The Mind Flayer had also been mind-controlling people, such as Max's brother Billy. Billy was already terrifying before, but the idea of him now being possessed by the Mind Flayer made him even more horrific.

    "Yoo-hoo!" Murray shouted, swinging pieces of paper in the air. We all dashed over to him as he set out the pieces of paper to form a familiar map.

    "So, this is what Alexei called 'the hub'," Murray pointed to a spot on the map, "Now, the hub takes us to the vault room."

    "Okay, where's the gate?" Hopper asked.

    "Right here," Murray pointed to another room on the map, "Now, I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe like fifty feet or so."

    "More like five hundred," Erica corrected, "What, you're gonna just waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?"

    "I'm sorry, who are you?" Murray asked.