"I didn't need a hero, Billy." Darian sneers, dusting off his coat, eyes glaring.
Billy only smirks, reaching over and untangling one of Darians dark curls, quickly catching himself, pulling his hand back. "It didn't seem like that a minute ago." B...
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Hawkins, Indiana
July 1985
。.✦ ☾
Starcourt
。.✦ ☾
EL is still sprawled across the hard floor, screaming in pain, as the others struggle to help. El's leg starts bubbling. With wide eyes, Erica looks up to her brother. "What is that?" Erica asks, but her question goes unanswered.
Mike runs his hands through El's hair as he tries to comfort her as the others inspect her leg. "There's something in there." Jamie breathes "Jesus Christ." Dustin says, gagging to himself. Jeffery quickly stands. "Keep her talking. Keep her awake, okay?" Jeffery orders as he runs off toward the food court.
"Where are you going?!" Jonathan calls out, sighing when his brother doesn't answer.
Jeffery hops over the counter and he begins to rifle through the drawers.
Opening a drawer, Jeffery finds a wooden spoon. "Okay." he whispers and pockets the spoon and he continues to look through the drawers. Then, he finds a box of plastic gloves, he takes out two.
Opening the final drawer he finds a chef's knife. Jeffery swallows down his nerves, forcing himself to grab the knife and turn on the burners of the gas stove. Jeffery hovers the blade over the flame, watching as it starts to glow blue.
Jeffery looks up and sees Mike trying to keep El awake, forcing her to her side. "Come on, come on." Jeffery whispers, slightly jumping on his feet, anxious.
....
Finally, Jeffery runs back to the group and he sides to El's side. "Okay, alright, El? This is gonna hurt like hell, okay?" Jeffery says, putting on a brave face. El nods. "Okay." El says
"I need you to stay real still." Jeffery says and puts on the gloves, handing El the wooden spoon. El stares at it confused, meeting Jeffery's eyes. "Here. You might wanna bite down on this, okay?" Jeffery says "Jesus Christ." Dustin says
Mike grabs the spoon and brings it to El's mouth. She bites down. Jeffery readies the knife above El's throbbing wound, his face grimacing and his throat jumping the closer he brought the knife down. "Holy shit, holy shit." Kurt breathes
Mike nods to Jeffery. "Do it." Mike orders
"Okay." Jeffery whispers to himself and pushes the tip of the blade into the wound. Blood and puss oozing out. Jamie grimaces and looks away, her eyes meeting Robins who has an equally grossed-out face. Jeffery continues cutting - making a three-inch incision down El's tibia as El screams around the wooden spoon, struggling in Mike's arms.
Finally, Jeffery drops the knife. Dustin and Mike react with horror when they see Jeffery slide two fingers under the cut. "Jeffery!" Jonathan exclaims with a gasp. "Stop talking!" Jeffery barks, trying to focus. Jeffery can't find that thing in El's leg. "Goddamn it." He curses
El spits out the spoon, grunting. "No! Stop it!" She orders
Quickly Jeffery drops the knife, raising his hands. El whimpers. "I can do it." She says as she sits up. "I can do it." She whispers
As everyone looks on, El begins to use her powers to draw the thing out of her leg. She strains, causing her nose to begin to bleed. Slowly the thing comes closer and closer to the surface of El's leg.
El screams, causing the glass windows of the gap store to shatter. The thing within her leg is a chunk of the Mindflayer. Still using her powers, the Chunk of Mind Flayer floats before her, struggling to break free from El's powers. With one last "push", El flings the Chunk of Mind Flayer.
With a splat, the chunk lands and slides to a halt nearby. It morphs and begins to crawl away; slowly at first then faster. Just then, a tick boot stomps on the chunk.
