Strangely

Chapter Three: Thesselhydras, Zombies, and Love Triangles, Oh My!

"Nance?" Steve repeated from the other end of the phone line. Nancy had been abruptly silent for a little too long.

"Yes, I'm here, hello?" She stuttered, a little nervously.

"Hey, you said you'd call later, and it's later," he said, laughing a little, but a bit of confusion lingered in his tone.

"Right, right," she stalled, "I was a little busy with Mike and the boys, sorry..."

"The boys?" Steve questioned, a little suspicious.

"Yeah, you know, Mike and his little D&D buddies," she replied, waving her hands around, thinking of answers as fast as her mind could let her. She felt as if she had just been caught in the middle of a crime.

Moments earlier, she'd been kissing Jonathan Byers. Knowing Steve and his temper, she was doing her best to keep the "little" secret from him. She didn't need another fight between the two of them.

"Like who?" Steve prompted. He knew that if Will was there, there was probably another Byers there at some point.

"Oh, you know, Lucas, Dustin, Will... The usual, really," Nancy coughed, and glanced at the Thesselhydra peering at her from atop her dresser. It was so endearing, almost like it was calling to Nancy.

"Will. Will Byers, huh?" Steve scoffed. "Did Jonathan show up?" He tried playing it off like it was no bid deal whether Jonathan was there or not, but Nancy knew.

"Yeah, only for a second, dropping of Will's tooth-"

Whoosh.

Nancy jumped from the bed, dropping her landline on her (thankfully carpeted) floor.

The Thesselhydra.

It was levitating. Directly at Nancy's eye level. Without taking her eyes off the floating figurine, she knelt down, feeling around the floor for her phone.

"Steve? Steve?" She gasped, glaring at the Thesselhydra. Steve had been saying something to her prior to her dropping the phone, but she hadn't heard it.

"Nance?" He exclaimed, irritated. "Answer me. Did he talk to you or not?"

The Thesselhydra didn't move, it was completely still, hoisted by some unseen force. Nancy tried to speak, but no words came out.

Was this a message?

"Steve, I'm..." She stepped a little further back, "I'm going to have to call you back."

Steve exhaled, exaggerating it, and quickly retorted, "whatever, Nance," and promptly hung up the phone. Slowly, Nancy did the same, then stepped closer to the game piece.

She wanted to touch it. She rose her finger up to it, and gently, oh so gently, tapped the Thesselhydra's eighth head, and-

"NANCY," bursting through the door came a befuddled Mike, slamming it behind him. Nancy sprung up, and the levitating Thesselhydra quickly fell to the ground, as if it had never been doing anything it shouldn't have.

After the adrenaline wore off, Nancy rolled her eyes, and stuck her hand out. "What, Mike?" This question, however, was useless, as he was already digging around her room, in search of the answer himself.

"What do you want, Mike?" she repeated.

"My Dungeons and Dragons book. The Monster Manual. I'm trying to write more for the campaign, and I need it..." Mike explained, perusing her drawers and desk.

Nancy, annoyed, stomped over to her desk, where she had put it, opened the drawer and handed it to him. "Here," she scoffed, "now please leave."