Surrender // Steve Harrington x Reader

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐘-𝐓𝐖𝐎

STEVE'S POV. 

Steve was running on autopilot. He couldn't allow himself to think. To remember. Not when the danger was still so close to those he held so dear. He couldn't allow himself to think about you. What you'd done. Where you were right now. If you were even alive.

That singular thought hollows out his chest and smacks him in the gut as he rides his bike behind the others, a deliberate maneuver in case anything should be chasing after the group. He inhales sharply, blinking away the memories until his numbness consumes him. He had a job to do. He had to get Nancy, Robin and Eddie out of here. He had to protect those that still needed it. 

So he takes that pulsing ball of grief and tucks it away on a faraway shelf at the back of his mind, closing the door on it for now until he had the chance to let it sink in. He does this because, if he lets it take over, he'd be nothing more than a catatonic wreck on the ground, a heap of pure, searing anguish.

 He rides until he reaches the trailer park, coming up behind Eddie and the others and quickly hopping off the bike. Robin was still crying, not even bothering to try and hide it as she swipes the wetness away with the back of her grubby hands. 

Steve pulls her into a quick hug, then holds her at arms length. "Come on, Robin. We gotta get out of here, okay? Dustin's waiting for us. We need to get to safety." 

"She-- She's gone, Steve. A-And she was with him? The whole time?! She knew what was going on, she--" Her croaked voice stammers and stumbles over its words as she lets out a fresh sob. She looked and acted as Steve felt on the inside. But he couldn't let it show. "Robin-" He begins, though his voice cracks so he takes a moment to regain himself. "We need to go. Okay?"

He can't answer her questions. Can't let himself think on it. 

She nods weakly and lets him guide her inside the trailer, where Eddie and Nancy were staring curiously at a pulsing, glowing rift on the ceiling. "That's where Chrissy died. Like... Right where she died." Eddie gulps and looks over at Nancy by his side. His eyes looked tired and wide. He was afraid.

All of them were eager to get out of the hell they were currently in. Dejected and defeated, their minds and hearts broken by your betrayal. Even Nancy looked furiously sad. Like she couldn't believe it, and didn't want to even now.

"There's something in there..." Robin comments through her sniffles and Steve's attentions return to the rift, where something long prodded at it from the other side, trying to pierce through. 

It retracts and then comes blasting through, taking everyone by surprise as they jump back. A squelching tear opens up in the ceiling, a wooden stick thrashing wildly around in attempt to push away what was left of the fleshy membrane. Steve approaches first and is overcome with a shattered relief to see Dustin, Max and Lucas on the other side. The gate looks down on them, as they look up at him. Weird.

On their end, they fetch Eddie's dirty mattress and place it beneath the hole. Steve didn't understand the physics of what was about to happen, but Dustin assured the four of them that it should work. A string of bedsheets and rags had been tied together to act as a rope to the other side. Almost there. Steve thinks to himself, almost home.

And yet... He couldn't help the devastating realisation that it didn't even feel like going home really. While the others worked, his treacherous mind worked against him, filling with thoughts he couldn't bare to process.

Before you, he'd come home to an empty house every night. No lights on. Parents away. Most nights he'd microwave himself a T.V dinner, if he could even be bothered to, and fall asleep on the couch before another shitty day at Scoops. Another emptiness after Nancy that he couldn't fill no matter how many girls he slept with.