Let The World Go By || Steve Harrington

It's his lizard!

Steve was full of surprises today. Secrets, assuming the kid is pulling pranks, but the biggest one? That easily had to be the fact he keeps a baseball bat full of nails in his trunk. He just grabbed it like it was the most normal thing to have in your trunk. Walking to the storm cellar's doors in the ground I couldn't hear a sound.

"Are you sure it's in there Henderson?" I asked, breaking the silence a bit.

"I swear to God if this is just some sort of belated Halloween prank Dustin."

"It's not." Dustin planted his feet firmly on the ground, shoulder width apart.

"You got the keys then?" Steve asked hitting the door with his bat to see if there was any movement behind it. Dustin unlocked the door and Steve and I both moved to check the stairs.

"He must be further down. I'll stay up here, in case he tries to escape."

"Ah yes the lookout you know you could-" Steve started before I just tapped his shoulder.

"Better to let the 12 year old watch the door." I tried to whisper so the kid wouldn't think I was calling him a coward.

"I'm thirteen" Dustin just had to chime in.

"My bad. Better to let the child watch the door, I've got your back."

"It's his lizard!" The annoyance was evident in Steve's tone and I just furrowed my brow at him. Looking in his eyes I'd think he was scared if I didn't know better.

"And he's a scared kid. Come on, let's find the cat eating lizard." I say and motion for him to go first. He's got the weapon, I don't. Best I can do is yell for Dustin to close the doors and hope to god there's something I can work with in the cellar.

Steve and I make our way downstairs, slowly with me close behind him. Steve has the bat and I've got the flashlight so he can be ready to swing at the drop of a hat. At first we don't see anything but as he's looking around at eye level I spot something on the floor. "What the fuck?" I point the flashlight directly at it to draw Steve's attention to it too. Steve pulls the cord so the cellar light is now on before he notices what I'm pointing towards. He picks it up with his bat and I realize just how big this thing has gotten. Steve and I look at each other before his head snaps to the left.

"Steve? Lucy? Guys? What's- what's goin on down there?" I damn near jump out of my skin hearing Dusting call down the stairs. I point the flashlight up at Dustin and Steve pokes his head back into the opening for the stairs.

"Get down here." Steve then moved out of the way for the kid before holding up his bat, it still had the dead skin hanging off of it like the world's worst curtain.

"Oh shit." I then pointed my flashlight at what Steve spotted before Dustin scared me, a massive hole in the wall that the thing Dustin had been feeding and nurturing must have gone through. "Double shit."

The boys moved to immediately start following the tunnel and I just looked at them like they were insane. "Wait a goddamn minute." Steve stopped immediately turning toward me. "What the fuck are you two doing? Just going to chase it down? Is there a game plan? Is there any idea of what you're up against? Is there a weapon of some sort I can grab?" I heard Dustin's footsteps stop too. I take a breath before I continue "it's almost midnight. Let's go back to a safe location and figure out a game plan."

"You're in though?" Steve looked at me half hope and half dread.

"Harrington you dragged me into this mess, I'm gonna help you solve it." I said trying to get him to come out of the goddamn tunnel. It was too late for this at this point, we needed to regroup and figure out what the fuck to do. The thing is already done.

"Henderson dragged me into it." Steve literally pointed at the 13 year old and I just rolled my eyes.

"I don't care who started it, we're gonna solve it."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Buckets of chopped up raw meat, that's what we got to pull from Steve's trunk this morning. Dustin was talking to one of his friends on his walkie talkie. Kept saying he thinks it's a baby demogorgon, hence all the raw beef.

"So I know everything is hush hush and trust me I don't want to know more than I need to but I need to know some of what the hell is going on." I whispered to Steve and he grabbed his bag again. I'd found one of Dad's old pry bars from when he used to fix cars as a hobby in the '60s. Thing was pure steel and as long as my torso, so definitely could pack a punch.

"Lucy I will tell you everything when we get this situated I promise."

"Does this have to do with what happened to Barb?" It was the only question I would ask, he could tell me on his time, but it felt like all of this was pointing back to Nancy and him.

"Yes, yes it does." He then looked me in my eyes for a second and I realized just how scared he was. He was putting on a brave face for Dustin but he was terrified. I gave his forearm a gentle squeeze, a reassurance that it was gonna be fine. It had to be fine, because it was Steve and this wasn't how his story would end. Absolutely not.

~~~~~~~

Walking to the junkyard dropping meat chunks with two boys was not how I would typically want to spend a Saturday, but it only got worse hearing Steve give Dustin advice about girls. Dustin asking how this advice applies to Nancy and Steve just sighed. Went on about how she's different from the usual girls and then asking if Dustin was falling in love. Then saying not too, it'll only break him and he's way too young for that shit.

"What about Lucy?"

"What about her?"

"What kind of girl is she?" Dustin tried to whisper it and I couldn't help but cut it off with a laugh.

"The kind that will punch you in the mouth if you try anything kiddo. A crush can be cute but I'm way too old for you." Steve just looked back at me, throwing chunks of meat on the ground in my attempt to back him up with this chaos which I'm already regretting.

"Age is just a number." Dusting crooned and I couldn't help that I laughed again. I wasn't the dating type, I liked minding my own business too much for all that mess.

"Focus on this age appropriate new girl Dusty."

With that we came around the final bend to the junk yard and started setting up. There was an open clearing where we put the remainder of the meat we had so there was a space to work with. Then Dustin's friend showed up with a girl.

"Who's she?"

Dustin just stared at the pair, fuming and hurt. I put the pieces together. "Oh that's the girl he was asking for advice about."

"Wow dick move from Sinclair." Steve whispered back and I just shook my head.

"Come on everyone, we've got shit to do and we were losing the light. Let's move." Thankfully with that Dustin seemed to snap out of it and everyone branched off to set up and barricade for whatever the fuck was going to follow that meat trail.