In The Stars / Steve Harrington 3

Chapter 16

We get back to the Wheeler's house and we all go to the basement. Everyone agrees that they'll take shifts watching me while everyone else sleeps. It finally gets to Dustin's turn to watch me and a few minutes in he falls asleep. I take this as my opportunity to sneak upstairs.

"Morning Bella." Mrs. Wheeler says cheerfully. "Morning Mrs. Wheeler." I say with a smile. "How'd you sleep?" She asks as she fixes some pancakes. "Good." I say lying. "Well that's good. Is everyone else still asleep?" She asks. "Yeah, we were all really exhausted." I say as I sit down at the dining room table. "I bet." She says with a smile.

"Hey Holly." I say with a smile seeing the youngest Wheeler kid. "Hi." She says quietly. "What are you drawing?" I ask her seeing the paper and crayons on her side of the table. "A rabbit." She says with a smile as she holds up the drawing. "Well that's very pretty." I say with a smile. "Do you mind if I draw with you?" I ask her as an idea sparks in my mind. She nods her head and hands me a piece of paper. "Thank you." I say with a smile. She nods and I grab some red crayons.

I decide to draw out what I saw when I was under Vecna's curse to try and help the others see what I saw. After a few minutes I feel a hand on my shoulder. I look up to see Steve staring down at me. "Shouldn't you be asleep?" I ask him. "Shouldn't you?" He asks back. "That's fair." I say with a nod.

"What are you doing?" He asks. "I'm drawing out what I saw yesterday." I say and he nods. "Is everyone else still asleep?" I ask him. "Yeah." He says with a nod. He then looks over at Holly and then back to me. "You know I didn't expect you to be so good with kids." He says with a smile. "You saw that?" I ask embarrassed. "Yeah, it was cute." He says and I look away to try and hide the blush spreading across my cheeks. "Well I've had practice." I say referring to watching out for Mike, Max, Lucas, Dustin, and Will. "Yeah." He says with a chuckle. Steve pulls up a chair beside me and watches me draw.

Corey's pov

"Dustin, can you hear me? Dustin?" I hear Eddie ask through Dustin's walkie-talkie. I quickly sit up and go and grab the walkie. "Earth to Dustin." Eddie says. "Hey it's Corey." I say into the walkie-talkie. "Sinclair, hey um, I'm gonna need a food delivery like real soon unless you want me going out into the world." Eddie says and I sigh. "No, no, no don't do that. Just stay where you are. We'll be there as soon as we can." I radio back to him.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, listen um, can you pick me up a six pack?" He asks and I sigh. "I know it's stupid as shit, drinking right now, but uh, a cold beer would really calm my jangled nerves." Eddie says and I turn around to look at Bella on the couch but when I turn around she's no where in sight. "Uh, hey I'm gonna have to call you back." I say quickly and turn off Dustin's walkie-talkie.

I get up and run over to Dustin. "Dustsin!" I yell as I hit his shoulders to wake him up. "Huh, what?" He asks as he leans up to look at me and then puts his head back down, hitting it against the TV. "Aren't you supposed to be on Bella watch?" I ask urgently. "Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, sorry." He says as he rubs his eyes. "Okay then where is she?" I ask getting progressively more worried about my best friend. "She's right there." He says as he points to the couch and he then looks at the couch and his eyes widen in shock. "A second ago. I swear I just dozed off for, an hour." He says and both of our eyes widen.

I quickly get up and so does Dustin. We quickly walk up the stairs and walk into the Wheeler's kitchen. I sigh in relief seeing Bella and Steve sitting with Holly at the Wheeler's dining room table. "Morning guys." Mrs. Wheeler says with a smile. "Everything okay?" She asks. "Yeah, yeah everything's okay." I say in relief as Bella looks back at me and smiles.

"I think it is so sweet that you guys are sticking together like this." Mrs. Wheeler says as she puts some pancakes on a plate. "Try sticking together at a different house for a change." Mr. Wheeler says. I ignore him and walk over to Bella.

Bella's pov

I continue to color while I listen to 'Fade To Black' on my Walkman and I lightly tap my foot along to the beat. Corey sits down beside me and I look over at her. I pause my Song, take off my headphones, and look back over to her.

"Hey." I say to her. "Hi." She replies with a smile. "You okay?" She asks. "Just couldn't sleep. People kept blasting music in my ears for some reason." I say with a smile as I look between her and Steve. She quietly chuckles and Steve smiles. "But Holly let me borrow some of her crayons and we've been having a fun morning. Right Holly?" I ask her. She smiles and nods and goes back to drawing.

"Is this what you saw last night?" Corey asks as she looks at my drawings. "It's supposed be." I say with a shrug. "I thought it'd be easier to draw it out then to explain it but, not so much." I explain. "Is that?" She asks as she pulls forward my drawing of Fred and Chrissy. "It was like they were on display or something." I say as I remember what I saw in Vecna's layer. "And then there was this red fog everywhere." I say as I gesture to all of my red drawings. "It was like a dream, a nightmare." I say getting emotional and Steve grabs my hand. I give him a grateful smile and he nods.

"Do you think Vecna's just trying to scare you?" Corey asks me. "With Billy yeah. But, when I made it here, I don't know something was different. He seemed surprised almost, like he didn't want me there." I explain to them as Dustin joins us at the table. "Maybe you infiltrated his mind." Dustin suggests. "He envaded your mind right? Is it that big of a leap to suggest that you somehow wound up in his?" Dustin asks and Steve, Corey, and I share a look. "Like Freddy Kruger's boiler room." Dustin says with a smile. "Freddy Kruger?" Holly asks. "He's a super burned up dude with razors for fingers and he kills you in your dreams." Dustin explains to her. "Dustin, seriously?" I ask him to try and get him to stop talking. "Sorry it's a movie, it's not real." Dustin apologizes to Holly.

"Just think about it." Dustin says as he turns back to Corey, Steve, and I. "What if you somehow unlocked a back door to Vecna's world." Dustin continues to explain. "Like maybe the answer we're looking for is somewhere in this incredibly vague drawing. God we need Will." Dustin says as he picks up one of my drawings. "Yeah no shit but I tried them again this morning and it's the same busy signal." I say with a sigh.

"Is this a window?" Corey asks as she takes the drawing out of Dustin's hand. I look at the drawing and nod. "Yeah, stain glass with roses." I say. "Yeah, see I'm not so terrible after all." I say to Dustin and he shrugs. "Yeah well it helps that I've seen it before." Corey says and I turn my attention to her. She starts taking my drawings and folding them. She puts the folded drawings together and grabs a sharpie. She outlines the drawings and they fit together to make a house. "It's pieces of a house." I say and she nods. "Not just any house. It's Victor Creel's house." Corey says in realization as she stands up. "Where are you going?" Dustin asks with a mouth full of pancakes. "Waking the others." Corey says and Dustin, Steve, and I quickly get up and follow her.