Empty Voids (STRANGER THINGS//STEVE HARRINGTON)

The Upside Down (p. 2)

Jonathan drives Cassie and Nancy back to the police station. Nancy was able to sneak past the cops and grab the confiscated weapons. Because Cassie's bow and arrow were hidden in the back seat of her car, she follows them back to the Byers house once Nancy was able to leave the police station with the equipment they have acquired.

The three teenagers were screwing the Christmas lights back onto the strand. They decorate the house to act as a trap, with Nancy loading the bullets in the gun, Jonathan hammering nails into a bat, and Cassie putting the arrows within the quiver. Jonathan was setting up the bear trap while Nancy and Cassie were dousing the house with gasoline, with Cassie making sure that she had her lighter on hand.

Jonathan and Nancy carefully maneuver themselves away from the bear trap as Jonathan searches the kitchen for some knives, a means to lure the Demogorgon.

"Remember..." Jonathan begins to remind the girls.

"Straight into Will's room. And..." Nancy is about to say. "Don't step on the trap." Jonathan finishes.

"Wait for the yo-yo to move then set that sucker on fire." Cassie finishes, brandishing her lighter.

"You two ready?" Jonathan asks them. Cassie just nods in confirmation. "Ready." Nancy tells him.

Cassie mentally counts down from three and slices her palm. She grits her teeth as the pain surges through her hand, blood pooling out of the wound.

Now entails the waiting game. Cassie is bandaging the wounds on Jonathan and Nancy's hand. Nancy became confused. "How do you know all of this?"

"Something that I learned in California." Cassie briskly responds.

"Hey, you know you can trust us, right?" Nancy assures her, Jonathan just nods in confirmation.

Cassie presses her lips together, harshly. "I know. I-It's just...in California, I was someone different. Someone in my past used my trust as a means to manipulate and control me. It's a major reason why I came back and am living with my uncle.." Cassie vaguely explains.

"You don't have to tell us if you don't want to." Jonathan tells her. Cassie gives him a wry smile, as a means to tell him thank you.

She was ashamed of that naive girl that she once was, and she made a vow to herself that she wouldn't let anyone in like that ever again.

Yet again, her trust issues are going to be what's going to kill her.

Cassie decides to leave Nancy and Jonathan alone, so she was bandaging her own wound. It was all silent and then knocking scared Cassie out of her trance.

"Jonathan? Are you there, man? It's...it's Steve!" the familiar voice of Steve Harrington calls out.

Cassie's eyes bulge out of her head as she looks over at Nancy. "Why is he here?" she asks. Nancy looks just as confused as Cassie is. "I don't know."

"Listen, I just want to talk!" Steve continues. Though Cassie can sense the sincerity in his voice, the timing is very off.

Nancy gets up to answer the door, in hopes that she can persuade him to leave. However, it was proved to be fruitless as Steve manages to get himself into the house.

While Steve is in a minefield of confusion, Jonathan walks up to Steve, in hopes that he would leave.

"Get out, Harrington!" Cassie orders, drawing her bow and arrow.

Steve looked confused and a little bit scared when he saw that he was at the other end of Cassie's arrow.

"W-wait, what?" Steve asks, pure confusion rolling off of him. "What is going on, Cass?" he asks her.