resonance

05

You ran through the forest, teleporting to various spots you'd visited with El in an effort to catch up.

She blocked your attempts to find her in the void. You had no idea how she was able to, and you weren't too proud to admit you were a little jealous, albeit pissed that she was sending you into a frenzy.

You slowed to a stop once you realized an hour of searching had already passed with no sign of her. I'll have to ask how she did it when I strangle her later. "Shit!"

Breathing heavily, you placed your hands over your head and looked around, realizing you were on a familiar path, one the two of you had run along before. You decided to continue walking along the railroad track, trying to figure out what the hell you were gonna do while you flicked a wisp of hair out of your face.

I don't even know where her mom lives, you thought, growing frustrated all over again. An exhale left your nose, pushing hair out of your face again with a huff. You hadn't had time to braid it back before you stormed out earlier.

The sound of a familiar chittering in the distance broke your musing and kicked your ass into high alert. You squinted and swore again.

You'd forgotten to tell Hopper about the noise yesterday.

Carefully, you trailed it as quickly as you could, cursing yourself for not bringing a hair tie with you. Fighting with your hair down was not optimal, no matter how cool movie stars looked while doing it. You at least had a more practical outfit on to chase a creepy headless monster in the shadows; a pair of jeans with a thick black turtleneck sweater, a black leather jacket, and your comfortably stretched-out boots.

Trying to get the upper hand on it, you began teleporting further ahead in the woods, attempting to catch the creature before it got too far. What you'd do once you actually caught up to it, well, you weren't quite sure.

Nah, you thought with a small, vicious smile. That's a damn lie.

From the stories you'd been told about the beasts Hopper and crew fought last year, you were fairly certain it had to be something from the Upside Down. El said the noise wasn't the same as the one she fought last time, the demogorgon. So another critter must have found its way into this dimension one way or another.

There would be no time for hesitation. It's not like a monster from an alternate dimension would.

It probably wasn't very morally good of you to be so full of adrenaline, so excited, at the thought of fighting something, but you couldn't help it. Training while on house arrest only allowed you to spar at a fraction of your full potential. It was nothing compared to fighting against a real threat, much less an actual monster.

A creepy, gross, monster.

Yeah, you snorted. You were excited.

Continuing your journey, you teleported for miles, swearing you were closing in on it. Until you heard voices.

Human voices. You halted.

"All right, so let me get this straight," a boy's voice trailed from further down on the tracks. With a start, you frantically looked for somewhere to hide, throwing yourself behind a tree to observe the intruders who were most definitely not a monster.

Peering around the large tree, you could barely make out what they were saying. "You kept something you knew was probably dangerous in order to impress a girl who you literally just met? Did I get that right?"

A second voice, a younger boy, you realized when they came into view, scoffed. "All right, that's grossly oversimplifying things." Your lips quirked at the attitude the kid had. All too quickly, however, they dropped at the sight of what they were tossing on the ground.