𝗨𝗚𝗟𝗬 // 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗼𝗻

048

There's a grotesque sound in the distance, high frequency animalistic yelling and as we turn our heads we see several bats flying our way.

"Fuck!" I shout, grabbing a branch nearby as Steve grabs one of the oars that fell with me into the upside down.

"Ruby! Behind me!" He jumps in my way, shielding me as what seems like thousands of bats start to swarm us.

After a while of fighting them off I feel breathless and stumble, Steve's rough hands grazing my own as he fails at catching me by just a centimetre, trying to focus on the bats threatening to bite us at the same time.

Before I know it, I feel a sharp sting in my leg, "ouch! What the fuck?" My eyes gaze down, the animal staring at me with its beady eyes as it bites a chunk out of my skin.

"Oh this is so gross," complaints fly out of my mouth as tears sting my eyes and Steve is promptly hitting the bat away from me, his attention drifting for just a moment long enough for a bat to bite the side of his exposed chest.

"Ahhh!" He screams through gritted teeth, barely making a sound, more of a gargle.

This is it. We've come so far only to be mauled to death by bats.
Really not the date night I had planned in my head.

"GET OFF HER MOTHERFUUCCKERR!" A familiar scream charges towards me before the bat is taken out and my eyes lift to see Eddie, Nancy and Robin have joined us.

Once the bat had been killed, lying dead on the floor and Eddie mumbling something about Ozzy Osbourne, he finally stares at me, unblinking and wide eyed.
"What the fuck was that?"

"Vecna." Steve answers before I can, now holding his side and stopping the blood, "this whole fucking place is vecna."

"Steve!" Heartbeats quicken, I'm running over and ripping a long enough shred off of my sleeve and wrapping it around his wound. 
"Thanks, my nurse Ruby," as he speaks he kisses the top of my forehead and my heart calms down, now filled with bliss, but when we move away and I stare up at him I can tell he's gazing elsewhere, almost possessively.

Eddie coughs behind us.

"So what now?"

***

It feels like we've been walking for years, carefully stepping over every long winding red branch as to not awaken the beast.

As we wander, my mind goes on its own adventure, filling with the usual angst I've grown so accustomed to. Anxiety is a horrible monster that eats at your brain, I hate how much worse it had been lately.

"You ok? You're brooding." Nancy sneaks up behind me, placing a careful hand on my shoulder.

"Yeh- I.. it's complicated."

"This is all complicated, but I get it, you don't have to talk." She walks besides me in silence for a bit as we watch Robin who's a tiny bit in-front of us, playing with her torch which is most definitely broken from the dive.

After a while, the silence is comforting and I feel the words fall from my mouth before I can stop them, like my subconscious takes over.

"Ive been lying to Steve."

Her eyebrow quirks up.

"This whole time, I've been telling him I'm fine, because it's easier to convince myself I'm fine if I tell someone else, ya know?" I shake my head, knowing how ridiculous I probably sound, but the same calm hand on my shoulder assures me she understands, "when Steve got pulled down, I realised how 'not fine' I am, more importantly I understood how he must be feeling. What Robin feels too."