[ 𝚂𝚞𝚗 & 𝚁𝚊𝚒𝚗 ] ~ 𝙹𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚗 𝙱𝚢𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚡 𝙾𝙲

XVIII - Skin Crawls

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- Content Warning - 

Graphic Depictions of body horror/gore/things under the skin.

I assume that the majority of you have watched the show in it's entirety, and this is the scene at the beginning of Season 3 Episode 8.

Unlike other scenes that have been a bit graphic and not gotten warnings, this one made me a bit uncomfortable to write and if these themes are an issue for anyone please skip ahead!! This will be the entire chapter.

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A grunt and a thud echoed in Justin's ears and she snapped her head around. Twelve was on the floor, blood coming from her nose and her eyelids dark and puffy. "Oh shit- What the-"

"Woah, woah, woah-" Steve panted. The short girl was next to Twelve in an instant, she was faster than Justin expected. The rest of them ran over.

"El! El! El!" Mike worried, crouching beside the girl, rolling her onto her back. "El!"

"What's wrong with her?" The snarky six year old asked.

"What's wrong? What's wrong?" Mike rushed out the words.

"My leg- My leg-" Twelve whimpered.

"Her leg, her leg- Okay-" Jonathan nodded.

"Yeah! We heard her, Jonathan." Justin huffed, grabbing the bandages and trying to unwrap them. The stupid redhead had done too good of a job. "They won't budge-" Justin said, her tone peaking. Was that. . .fear?

Rylie tapped her on the shoulder with something cold, Justin looked back to notice she had her pocket knife from earlier, still bloody with flesh monster goo, held out to Justin. She grabbed it, cutting through the bandages and ripping them away.

The wound was bulging, the size of a tennis ball at least. All the kids let out a groan of disgust. Out of nowhere, the injury started squirming under her skin. Something was in there. "Shit- Shit-" Justin shook her head as Twelve started making noises of clear pain.

"El! El!" Mike yelled, holding her shoulders and looking down at her. "El! El, are you okay? El! El! El!" Twelve screamed.

"What do I do! Do I cut it out?" Justin shook her head, her voice high and sharp. The girl kept screaming, starting to cry. The thing kept moving, it looked like thick tentacles spreading under her skin.

"What is that?" The youngest girl gaped.

"There's something in there." Mike huffed out.

"No fucking duh!" Justin gruffed, still clearly panicking.

"No!" Twelve yelped.

"Jesus christ-" Dustin breathed out.

"Keep her talking, keep her awake, okay?" Jonathan instructed as he got up from the floor.

"Where the fuck are you going!" Justin yelled at him.

"To get a knife!"

"I have a knife!"

"A bigger one!" Jonathan yelled as he ran off.

"Jesus christ- Jesus christ-" Dustin repeated.

Justin kept staring at Twelve's leg, not knowing what else to do.

"Hey, hey, hey- Stay awake, stay awake." Mike spat out, shaking Twelve as her eyes started to close. "Let's get her on this side, on this side." Mike nodded, starting to move her with Dustin's help.

"Woah- Easy, easy, easy, easy." Steve stepped behind Dustin, moving to Justin's side.

"It's uh- y'know, it's not actually that bad. There was a- The goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire, this other girl slid her leg, and like the bone came out of her knee, six inches or something, it was insane."

"Robin." Steve said flatly.

"Yeah?" She turned, looking at him.

"Not helping." The girl in blue shook her head, Justin noticed she was biting at the corner of her lip.

"I'm sorry-"

"Jonathan!" Justin yelled when she saw him running back over with a knife in one hand and plastic food safety gloves in the other.

"Okay." Jonathan slid slightly, stopping right next to Justin. "Alright, El? This is gonna hurt like hell, okay?" He told her.

"Okay-" Twelve said through sobs. Justin grabbed her hand, holding it loosely as to not hurt her.

"I need you to stay real still." Jonathan nodded, putting the thin gloves onto his hands. "Here, you're gonna want to bite down on this, okay?" Jonathan held out a wooden spoon which Mike took and put between the girl's teeth.

"Holy shit, holy shit-" Dustin panted, watching as Jonathan got ready to cut Twelve's leg open.

"Do it." Nancy jr. gave a nod.

"Okay. . ." Jonathan pushed the knife down into Twelve's skin. She screamed, holding so tight onto Justin's hand she thought her fingers might lose blood circulation.

"Oh shit-" Dustin gasped, grabbing Lucy and turning her to look away from the scene. The girl in blue's eyes went wide and she squeezed them shut, shaking her head. The girl with skating pads on covered her eyes, turning away.

"Just do it, Jonathan-" Justin said through grit teeth as she watched him hesitate to pull whatever was in Twelve's leg out. He closed his eyes, pushing his fingers under her skin. Twelve screamed out in pain, and Mike let out an exclamation of disgust, everyone who watched flinched, grimacing at the sight.

"Jonathan!" Nancy shouted in his ear.

"Stop talking!" He yelled, shifting the way his hand was going into Twelve's leg. She screamed, grasping Justin's hand even harder. "Goddamn it!" Jonathan remarked as the thing slid further into her.

"No!" Twelve shook her head, spitting the spoon out. "Stop it!" She screamed. "No!"

"Jonathan-" Nancy put her hand on his bicep, stopping him from moving his arm.

"Stop! Stop!" Twelve sobbed. Jonathan pulled his fingers away from her injury. Twelve sat up, still crying and talking through her whimpers. "I can do it. . .I can do it." She dropped Justin's hand, Mike kept his gentle hold on her shoulders. The girl panted, reaching her hand out toward her ankle. She contracted her fingers, squeezing them together. The thing under her leg squirmed, a squelch sounding from it. "God!" She kept squeezing her hand, fighting against whatever was under her skin. She screamed out, the glass behind the group shattering. Everyone let out a noise of surprise, ducking away from the glass shards. A writhing. . .thing, like the arm that had grabbed Twelve's leg in the first place shrieked as it flew out of the girl's leg and toward her hand. It floated in the air and Twelve threw it. It started crawling, trying to run away, but a man Justin had never seen before stepped on it, crushing it under his boot. Behind him were Joyce Byers, and a strange looking man that Justin wouldn't trust with a rock.

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Word Count - 1002

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Published - May 17, 2024

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