"Hey, you remember what I said last year, right? We're Zombie Boy and Ghost Boy. I'm not ever gonna leave you."
"Promise?"
"One hundred percent."
***
In which Alistair fights the monster that possessed his friend alongside his friends, while trying...
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Chapter Thirty: The Bite
(The Battle Of Starcourt)
***
Alistair didn't think he'd ever forget El's agonised screams for the rest of his life.
They were imprinted into his mind, rattling inside his skull, a noise he would always hear forever. He stared at El, his friend, someone he considered as a sister, as he held her hand tightly, seeing her face screwed up with pain from whatever was inside her leg.
It has to be a piece of the Mind Flayer from when it bit her, he thought as Erica asked, "What is that?"
"There's something in there," Mike noted as they all leaned in for a better look at the twitching thing inside El's leg.
"Yeah, no shit, Sherlock," Rowan fired back, but even her sarcasm sounded frayed as she kept staring at El's leg.
The thing inside twitched and El cried out, "NO!" Alistair's heart lurched, holding her hand tighter as Mike cradled El in his arms.
"Jesus Christ," Dustin muttered.
"Keep her talking. Keep her awake, okay?" Jonathan ordered before he sprinted away from the group, heading for one of the food court restaurants.
"Okay. Okay, we can do that," Cami said, looking at Alistair. He got the hint as he looked at El and said, "El, stay awake, okay? We're gonna get it out, okay? Just hold on a little longer."
El gave a tiny nod, her face screwed up with pain.
"Jesus Christ," Dustin muttered again, and out of the corner of Alistair's eye he saw his sister move closer to Steve, grabbing his hand. Neither of them let go, fingers instead interlocking.
Alistair's eyebrows raised at the apparent new development between his sister and Steve, before he turned back to El, worry coming to the forefront as Mike gently commanded, "Hey, hey, hey. Stay awake. Stay awake, okay?"
He looked up and said, "Let's get her on this side, on this side."
Alistair nodded as Rowan and Steve let go and moved to help him, Mike, Nancy and Dustin help adjust El's position so she could be more comfortable, or as comfortable as she could be, trying to be gentle as possible as they moved El and not aggravate El's pain any further.
"Easy. Easy, easy, easy," Steve muttered as they finished adjusting El's position, as Mike stroked El's hair back from her face and Alistair looked at her in worry.
"It's, uh... you know it's not actually that bad," Robin chimed in, her voice trembling as they all looked at her and she rambled, "There was a—the goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg, and the bone came out of her knee, six inches or something, it was insane."
