'tis the damn season

Thirteen: Afterglow

"Put you in jail for something you didn't do, I pinned your hands behind your back, thought I had reason to attack, but no" 

Hours had gone by and we were still stuck inside the elevator. Robin, Erica and Dustin were asleep, laying on the floor. Luckily Dustin had a watch we were able to tell time with. It was three thirty in the morning now. I hadn't slept at all. I just sat with my back against the shelves, wondering how the hell we got into this situation. I knew Steve was on the roof of the elevator still. I didn't know if he was awake or not. He and Dustin had gone up there a couple hours ago to see if they were able to climb back up to the surface, but we were way too far underground for that to be a possibility.

We were trapped. I hadn't a clue how we were supposed to get out of here.

I've always been pretty good at keeping my composure. I rarely let anyone see if I'm struggling with anything. But now that everyone was asleep and I was essentially alone, I could feel my heart beating faster than it ever has before.

There were only two options of escape in my mind, and they both ended in death. Either the door opens and the Russians see us and immediately kills us for knowing about their secret, or the door never opens, and we all die of starvation.

We checked all the boxes earlier. There was no food, or water. Erica had said if it came down to it, that she would drink whatever the green stuff was in those bottles, but I had a feeling that wasn't going to be safe.

I stand up, pacing the length of the room back and forth. Joyce was probably going to wake up in the morning and I wouldn't be there, and with everything that happened to Will, she was probably going to be terrified. And then what if I really don't come back home? I could seriously die down here. We all could. I didn't want to die.

All of my muscles were tense as I walked in circles around the piles of boxes in the room. Pacing was something I did when I was nervous, I found it helped to centre myself, but for some reason it wasn't working as well as I would have hoped right now.

I could feel tears sliding down my cheeks but I kept quiet. I didn't want to wake anyone up and worry them even more then they probably already were.

My breath started to get shallow and quick the more my mind raced about the future.

"Laur," I hear whispered from somewhere. My eyes snap over to Robin, Erica and Dustin, who are all still fast asleep. At first I think I'm hearing things; But when I hear my name a second time, I realize it's coming from Steve on the roof. I can see him looking down from where the vent over used to be, waving at me to come up there.

Embarrassed, I look away and wipe the tears off of my cheeks. I never cry. I hated that that was the second time he's seen it.

Reluctantly I decide to climb up there. Maybe it would be distracting, and I could get my mind off of dying. I pull myself up the shelving and through the ceiling of the room. I hadn't been up here yet. We were so far underground I couldn't even see an opening when I looked up. I looked as if the elevator shaft never ended. It made me dizzy looking at it.

"Are you okay?" Steve asks, as I sit down in the middle of the roof.

"Are you?" I chuckle.

I wanted to find humour in the situation. Was I seriously trapped in a secret Russian base a mile underneath the mall with Steve Harrington?

Steve nods in disbelief, smiling, but not with his regular happy smile. He was smiling because, what the fuck else were we supposed to do?

"I'm sure Hopper will have a search party start looking for us by the morning," he says, as if he's trying to reassure me.