Don't Stop the Devil / Steve Harrington 1

Chapter 27

"They're right." Joyce says from behind us. We all turn to look at her and I give her a sympathetic smile seeing her tear stained cheeks. I couldn't imagine loosing anyone else close to me. After my mother left Billy and I only had each other. If I lost Billy I don't think I could make it.

"We have to kill it." Joyce says sounding more confident than before. "I want to kill it." Joyce says angrily. "Me to, me to Joyce, okay, but how do we do that?" Hopper asks as he approaches her. "We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here." Hopper says and Joyce sighs.

"No, but he does." Mike says as he looks at Will. "If anyone knows how to destroy this thing it's Will." Mike says as he walks towards his sedated friend. "He's connected to it. He'll know its weaknesses." Mike says as we all walk into the living room.

"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore, that he's a spy for the Mindflayre now." Max says from beside me. "Yeah but, he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is." Mike says with an idea clearly sparking in his mind.

Mike explains to us that if Will doesn't know where he is then the demodogs won't come for us. We decided that the Byers shed would be the perfect place to interrogation Will. Hopper goes to clear out the shed while the rest of us look for tarps, tape, paper, and staplers.

Once Hopper had finally cleared out the shed Steve and I decided to start hanging up the tarps and covering the inside walls of the shed. I tear off pieces of tape while Steve staples the top of the tarp to the wall of the shed.

"Hey." Steve says when he finishes with the tarp. "Yeah?" I ask as I look at him. "How's your arm?" He asks as he points to my injured arm. "It's still sore but I've had worse." I say and quickly wince as the words leave my mouth.

"What?" Steve asks as he gives me a questioning look. "Nothing." I say quickly and go back to tearing off pieces of tape. Steve walks over to me and takes the tape out of my hand. I refuse to meet his eye until he hooks his finger under my chin, forcing me to look into his brown eyes. "Bell, you can talk to me." He says using my nickname.

"Is it Billy?" He asks after a few seconds of silence. "No, no, God no. Billy would never lay a finger on me. I can't say the same for Max." I say the last part quietly. "Is it your dad?" He then asks and I feel tears form in my eyes. Steve, seeing me get emotional, wraps me into a hug and I instantly relax into his arms. "He's always been that way to Billy and I. Ever since Billy and I's mom left he's gotten progressively worse. If Billy or I do the slightest thing wrong-" I say before I cut myself off with a sob. Steve hugs me tighter and runs his fingers through my hair as he quietly shushes me.

"I'm sorry." I say as I finally calm down. "Hey never apologize for something that isn't your fault." Steve says as he places his hands on both sides of my face. "Please don't tell anyone." I say quietly and he hugs me again. "I won't." He says as we break away. I smile slightly and Steve hooks his fingers under my chin again and we stare into each others eyes. We lean closer to one another but before our lips can connect the shed door quickly fly open and Steve and I instantly break away. We look to the door to see Nancy, Mike, Max, Dustin, and Lucas come in with more tarps, paper, foil, and tape. I give Steve a small smile and walk over to Max. She lifts a brow and I roll my eyes.

I help her hold up a tarp and Steve comes over to tape it. I give him a small smile and he returns it. Max clears her throat and I quickly turn around to help her with another tarp. I feel Steve's eyes still on me but I try to ignore it.

Max and I place the two chairs that are going to be used for the interrogation across from each other in the center of the shed. We all step back and admire our work as Jonathan brings a still sedated Will into the shed. I hand him some rope and send him an encouraging smile to which he nods in appreciation. Everyone goes back into the house except for Mike, Jonathan, Joyce, and Hopper.

Dustin stays in the kitchen, looking out at the shed, while Max and Lucas go to the hallway and sit down. Nancy stays in the kitchen as well proped up on the wall while Steve and I go to the living room. I sit down on the couch as Steve grabs his bat with nails in it. Steve practices swinging his bat and I smile sadly remembering when Billy was learnig to play baseball with our dad. I frown at the memory and shak my head to clear my thoughts.

Steve seeing this comes over and sits beside me. "You okay?" He asks and I nod. "This is just a lot to take in." I say with a small smile. "Yeah, I know how you feel." He says with a small chuckle clearly remembering the events from last year. "Do you think everything's going to work out?" I ask after a few seconds of silence. "It always does." He says with a smile. We look up as the lights start to flicker. Steve and I quickly get off the couch and go into the kitchen and look out the window at the shed. Steve and I share a worried look as Nancy and Dustin join us.