Our Never Ending Story | Steve Harrington x Reader

[5] The thing

Jonathan says I can spend the night at his house so we drive over and once we get in, Jonathan freezes. It was his dad.

"Hey, kid. This your girlfriend? Nice." He laughs.
"What's going on?" Jonathan asks.
"Your dads, uh, gonna stay here tonight. On the couch." Joyce stammers.
"Yeah, I'm here as long as you need me, okay?" Lonnie says, "how you holding up?"
I notice the big sheet hanging up on the wall. I walk over and look under it.
"What happened?" I ask.
"Don't worry about that, darling." Lonnie says. I put my middle finger up at him and stand behind Jonathan.
"Mom. That thing you saw before, did it come back?" Jonathan asks.
"Jonathan, that's enough." Lonnie says.
"Can we talk? Alone?" Jonathan asks Lonnie so they go in a different room. I sit by Joyce and give her a big hug.

When Lonnie comes back I go into Jonathan's room and look in his closet for something to say.
"Your dads a creep." I say.
"I know. His girlfriend is like 10 x younger than him." Jonathan says.
"Gross."

In the morning, I go back home and grab a black dress and go back to Jonathan's. It's Will funeral today. I see Jonathan trying to tie his tie and he doesn't know how to do it.

I grab his tie and tie it and smile at him. He smiles at me back. It's going to be a tough day for him and his family.

At the funeral I ignore what's going around me.

I wake up in that red place again. But it's more developed. Red fog is everywhere. I hear squelching behind me. I look behind me to see a creature. Half human and half... something.
"What are you doing here, Elizabeth?" The thing says and I wake up back up in the funeral.

"Are you okay?" Jonathan whispers to me and I nod.

After the funeral me and Jonathan meet up with Nancy. We look at a map.

"So this is where we know where it's been for sure, right?" Jonathan asks.
"Yeah, so that's..." Nancy says.
"Steve's house." I say.
"And that's the woods where they found Wills bike and that's my house." Jonathan says.
"It's all so close." Nancy says.
"Yeah. Exactly. It's all within a mile or something." Jonathan says.
"So this thing... it's not travelling far." I say.
"You want to go out there." Nancy says.
"We might not even find a thing." I say.
"I did." Nancy says, "and if we do see it... then what?"
"We kill it." Jonathan says.
Jonathan gets a gun out of his car and goes home and changes.
"Nance, can I borrow some of your clothes? I'm not supposed to be out and my dad will kill me." I say and she nods and we both go to her house. I change into some of her clothes and she starts swinging a bat.

"Jesus careful." I laugh.

Steve comes and almost gets hit by nancy.
"What are you doing here?" I say getting up.
"What are you doing?" Steve asks Nancy.
"Nothing." She says.
"I hope that's not meant for me." Steve jokes.
"What? No. I was just thinking about joining softball." Nancy lies.
"Well, listen, I'm really sorry. I mean, even before you threatened me with the baseball bat." Steve says.
"Okay..." nancy says.
"I panicked and I was a total dick." Steve says.
"Yeah, you were." Nancy says, "did you get in trouble with your parents?"
"Totally, but who cares? Screw them. Any news about Barbara?" He asks. For goodness sake. I ruined everything by kissing him.
"No." Nancy says.
"Why don't we catch a movie tonight, you know? And pretend everything's normal for a few hours." Steve says. He kept glancing at me to make me jealous or something.
"I don't think I can. I've been really busy with this whole funeral thing and with my brother. It's been really hard on him." Nancy says.
"Yeah. Sure, yeah." He says and walks off. We meet with Jonathan at the field trying to shoot down the cans.

"You're supposed to hit the cans, right?" I ask laughing.
"No, actually, you see the spaces in between the cans? I'm aiming for those." He jokes.
"Ah." I say and take the gun off of him.
"You ever shot a gun before?" He asks me.
"My dad is the chief of Police. Of course not." I say.
"Yeah, I haven't shot one since I was ten. My dad took me hunting on my birthday. He make me kill a rabbit." He says.
"Jesus." I say.
"A rabbit?" Nancy asks.
"Yeah. I guess he thought that it would make me into more of a man or something. I cried for a week." He says.
"Christ." Nancy says.
"What? I'm a fan of Thumper." Jonathan says making Nancy laugh.
"I meant your dad."
"I guess he and my mother loved each other at some point , but... I wasn't around for that part." Jonathan says.

I aim the gun.
"I don't think my parents ever loved each other. I mean, when they had my older sister Sara. I guess they were forced to be together. Then they had me a year later. Sara was the one holding them together. Then she died and my mother left. She started a new family with this guy named Bill. She forgot about me. Didn't speak to me and whenever I called her, she just yelled at me and then hang up. Screw that." I say and shoot down the can.

We go to the woods and walk around for a while in silence.

"You never said what I was saying." Nancy says.
"What?" Jonathan asks.
"You said I was saying something and that's why you took my picture." Nancy says.
"Oh, I don't know. My guess, I saw this girl, you know, trying to be someone else. But for that moment it was like you were alone or you thought you were and you know, you could just be yourself." Jonathan says.
"That is such bullshit." Nancy says getting mad.
"What?" Jonathan stammers.
"I am not trying to be someone else. Just because I'm dating Steve and you don't like him..." Nancy says.
"Oh my god." I groan.
"You know what? Forget it. I just thought it was a good picture." Jonathan says walking off.
"He's actually a good guy." Nancy says.
"Yesterday, with the camera... he's not like that. At all. He was just being..." Nancy says.
"A dick?" I ask.
"Protective."
"Yeah, that's one word for it." Jonathan says.
"Oh, and I guess what you did was okay?" Nancy asks.
"Shut up!" I shout at them both.
"I never said that!" Jonathan says.
"He had every right to be pissed." Nancy says.
"Okay, all right. Does that mean I have to like him?" Jonathan shouts.
"No." Nancy says.
"Listen, don't take it so personally, okay? I don't like most people and he's in the vast majority." He says and walks off.
"You know, I was actually starting to think that you were okay." Nancy says.
"Yeah?" Jonathan says.
"Yeah. I was thinking, Jonathan Byers maybe he's not the pretentious creep everyone says he is." Nancy says.
"Nancy..." I say.
"Well, I was starting to think you were okay. I was thinking, Nancy Wheeler, she's not just another suburban girl who thinks she's rebelling by doing exactly what every other suburban girl does until that phase passes and they marry some boring one-time jock who now works sales, and they love our a perfectly boring little life at the end of a cul-de-sac. Exactly like their parents, who they thought were so depressing, but now they get it." Jonathan says.
Too far. He walks off and scoffs.
"Jonathan!" I shout, "Nance don't listen to him, he's just hurting."

We walk around for a while and it gets dark. It's just an awkward silence when Nancy stops.

"What are you tired?" Jonathan asks.
"Shut up." Nancy says.
"What?" He asks.
"Seriously, don't start again." I say.
"No, shut up." Nancy says, "I heard something."
We hear whimpering and screeching in the distance. We all look around and spot a deer dying.

"It's been hit by a car." Nancy says feeling bad, "We can't just leave it."
Nancy gets out a gun to shoot it when Jonathan takes it off her.
"But I thought you said-"
"I'm not nine anymore." He says and aims to shoot it when it gets taken away quickly by something.
"What was that?" I ask and follow the trail of blood. We loose the trail when I look over and see a tree. It's like a portal or something. I hear Nancy calling my name from inside. I leave my flashlight and gun outside and go inside.

I see this other place. It's sticky, white stuff flying everywhere. Every where I go it's sticky. I hear a low growl and look to the side and see this thing. It's eating something. It's the deer. I hide behind a tree and see Nancy there too. She goes to say something and I put my hand on her mouth. The creature growls at us and it had a million teeth and no face.

"Jonathan!" Nancy screams and we both run.