people are strange ♔ steve harrington x oc

• 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟑 •

~ 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄𝐆𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐃 ~
𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐘, 𝟏𝐒𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐉𝐔𝐋𝐘 𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟓

The mall was sweltering in the heat. Rain had been scheduled in the afternoon, and though Jenny couldn't see the outside, the humidity was enough to confirm that it would be coming. The fact she was stuck next to the popcorn machine wasn't helping either, and she swore if she didn't stop breathing in butter-laced air, she was going to faint. Her face was flushed and she felt like she had swelled at least two dress sizes.

"Hey, can you do a bin run before your break?" Her coworker asked, reading off a clipboard.

"Sure thing."

As gross as dragging two steeming industrial bins through the long corridors was, at least she would get a taste of fresh air when she had to dispose of them.

The clattering noise of the wheels echoed through the empty hallways as she went; she was like a walking alarm. Her coworkers had warned her of the rats that roamed the halls, and though she had yet to run into them, she still felt a slight fear creeping up the back of her neck.

She paused for a moment to open one of the massive doors separating the mall sections, squishing herself between the bins and the door. It opened wide and allowed three of the biggest rats Jenny had ever seen to bolt down the hall away from her.

She screamed in terror, watching as the creatures ran in nonsensical patterns down the hall, colliding with each other and the wall. That wasn't normal, she thought, as horrid as they were, rats were intelligent.

Cautiously, she pulled the bins through the doorway, following from a good distance behind the rats. Without warning, the animals let out terrible, blood-curdling screeches and collapsed to the floor. They writhed violently, their limbs failing around as if being compressed by The Force.

All of a sudden, they burst from the inside, squelching and shaping into abstract mounds of flesh. Jenny yelped in horror as the fleshy puddles joined together and sludged towards a drain, disappearing without a trace before she could even take in what had happened.

"Oi!"

Jenny screamed again, practically jumping a foot in the air when someone called out behind her. She whipped around to look at the person and almost screamed again.

A terrifying, Terminator-looking man was quickly approaching her, his heavy boots pounding the ground as he walked.

"What is your purpose here?" He spat, halting barely a foot from her and glaring down.

"Bins?" Jenny stuttered, she wasn't quite sure what kind of an answer he would want.

He looked her up and down with a fierce scowl, clearly seeming to recognise her uniform.

"No bins today," He said. His English was not solid. "I will take from here. You will go back."

Jenny looked towards the door at the other end of the hall, and back through the doorway she had just come; she had been so close to a taste of the outside. If only she could just refuse...

She wasn't, however, going to play chiliary with this man. If he wants to take the bins; take them.

She looked back to the man and nodded vigorously, turning her gaze to the floor and marching off orderly back to the cinema.

The appearance of the man distracted her from the rats until she was signing out for her break when the image came back in a hideously Alien-style way. Beforehand, Imperial Panda sounded like ambrosia compared to the cinema food, but now the thought of eating at all sent her stomach churning.