Teenage Kicks - Steve Harrington

Thank you.

We must've been walking through the woods in silence for hours. The sun had set and the sky was pitch black, adding to the eeriness that seemed to cover this town at night. Nancy stopped walking suddenly, making Jonathan and I turn around to her. "What, you tired?" I asked her before Jonathan could say something. "Shut up." She snapped back at me, looking around for something.

"What?" Jonathan asked as Nancy's mouth formed a O shape, in shock I presume. "I heard something." We all stayed quiet for a second and heard a indistinct whimper. We looked at each other, all sharing the same worried and scared expression. The whimpering continued, with the illusion of it getting louder.

Nancy was first to follow the whimpering without a second thought. Then, Jonathan. Then, I, because I was being dragged by Jonathan. "I don't like this." I whispered, loud enough for only Jonathan and Nancy to hear.

We walked for only about 30 seconds, until we saw a corpse of a deer covered in blood. Like it had been eaten by some predator. "Oh, god." Nancy mumbled as we shone our torch's on it. "You don't think the thing from the wall did this?" I asked both of them, hoping that we not actually in the woods with my new biggest fear.

We kneeled down beside the deer, to inspect it. "No.." Jonathan said, not sounding very certain of his answer, as Nancy stared at the dear. "It's been hit by a car." Nancy pointed at a large wound on the dears torso. "We cant just leave it." Nancy looked as Jonathan and I hopelessly as I just gave her a sad smile, knowing that it would be best to put it out of its misery.

Nancy pulled out Jonathan's gun and pointed it at the dear. I looked away, not wanting to see the innocent deer die. "I'll do it." Jonathan said, making me look at him with a skeptical look as he stuck out his hand for Nancy to give him the gun. I was tempted to remind him that he cried a week after killing a bunny, he will probably cry for a month after killing a deer. "I'm not nine anymore." Jonathan told us, nodding at me, clearly understanding my facial expression.

Nancy handed him the gun and we all stood up and took a step back. He aimed the gun at the deer, and this time, both Nancy and I looked away, squinting our eyes in fear.

I heard the leaves rustle as if someone was rolling around on them and when I opened my eyes and I saw deer being dragged away. By what I couldn't see. "What was that?" Nancy gasped as we all took a small jump back. We guided our torches in the bloody path that the deer was dragged in and followed it slowly, careful where we step.

"Where'd it go?" Nancy asked as we all were spinning around in circles trying to see every possible direction. "If I knew that. I'd tell you." I snapped quietly. I normally get mad when I'm stressed, Nancy just doesn't know that. It's truly nothing personal. "Sorry." I mumbled, nodding to her, she nodding back whispering a quiet "it's okay."

Nancy and I followed one path, while Jonathan followed the other. I heard a noise that sounded like a tap dripping and looked at Nancy, who seemed to hear it too. We followed the sound, which lead to a little hollow hole in a tree. A dark red liquid dripping from the top of the hole. We both crouched down to get a proper look at it to see what's inside. Some bones that seemed to make a pattern like a small rib cage covered in blood lay at the front of the hole. "What the-" I whispered, looking up at Nancy who matched my worried expression.

Nancy took off her backpack and we both leaned in further, noticing that the hole seemed to be getting bigger and bigger the more you go into it.

We ended up crawling through a slimy narrow tunnel together in silence, both not knowing words that would suit this situation. After army crawling through the narrow gross tunnel, we reached a large area which was slimly everywhere. At first, i thought we were in a cave, then I realized it was the woods. But, not the woods we were just in. Well, it was the woods we were just in. But it was as if someone turned down the AC and covered a sticky slime all over the place.

Our torches started flickering, which terrified me, leading me to grab onto Nancy's arm, and she didn't seem to mind. "Nancy.. let's go back.." I whispered, clinging onto her, trying to find the tree stump we just came out of. Everything in this variation of the Hawkins woods looked the same. I tried to tell myself this was a dream, but the fact that if might not be terrified me.

We both heard some snarling which I instantly recognized as the monster that came out of my wall. I found myself wanting to be by my moms side more than ever now. I quickly went into panic mode and froze along with Nancy, still by her side, holding onto her arm. My warm tears free fell down my face as I stared at the beast eating a deer.

Nancy and I took a small step back, then another one, then another one, which ended with us stepping on a twig. The monster suddenly turned around and opened its face..mouth.. whatever it was. It had a lot of teeth. It made a deafening growl and Nancy and I both screamed, dropping out flash lights and running for our lives.

We could hear Jonathan calling out our names as we ran away frantically. We both screamed back at him, "Jonathan!" repeatedly as he did the same. "Just follow my voice!" Jonathan's scream turned into a echo, making it extremely hard to follow his voice, but Nancy led the way.

Nancy led us right to the monster...by accident. And it saw us and let out it's horrific growl again. We started sprinting in the opposite direction, hoping it was where Jonathan is. She pulled me in front of her, practically attached to her stomach as she put her back to a tree. If this situation wasn't a life or death situation I would've definitely made a joke about how original and bad this hiding place is. But it was the only hiding place we could see.

We heard the monster stomp at the other side of the tree and Nancy put her hand over my mouth to stop my heavy breathing while I did the same with hers. We heard Jonathan shout "follow my voice!" Once again, and saw where it was coming from. The tree stump we came out of, and it wasn't even that far away, about 2 meters, max. When the monster gets bored of looking for us we will make a run for it, was there silent plan we both agreed on by just looking at each other and nodding over at it.

We heard the monsters stomps get quieter so we both made a run for it and climes through the tunnel. I went first, Nancy following closely behind. Jonathan helped us both out of the tree stump eventually and we all lay down on the ground outside the tree stump once it closed up, Nancy and I both teary eyed. When we got up, I instantly brought Nancy into a hug, muffling a "thank you" into her shoulder, for her letting me cling onto her and for her bringing with me to her hiding place behind the tree. I don't think she  quite knew how much I appreciated that.

(Steve is going to be in the next chapter guys don't worry!!)