Stranger Things: Beyond the Silver Rainbow

[31] (Nancy)

One, Nancy heaved the table up a split second behind Steve, tipping it sideways along the way, spilling coasters and other kipple to the floor. Two, they swung it back in unison. "Hey, hey!" Three, Tommy hooked Nancy's elbow from behind, yanking her nearly off her feet, so that on the forward swing Steve pulled the table right out of her hands. Her corner hit the floor with a bang beside Steve's bare foot, then his corner fell from his hands and banged down too, but he kept his momentum, turned it around, bypassed Nancy and slammed it right into Tommy.

Tommy fell onto the sofa with a hand on his face. With both hands on his face. Then where was the―

Click-k-k.

As theatrical as Charlie's fourth angel, Carol flicked her hip to the side above parted feet and aimed at Steve. "Play nice. You okay hon?"

Tommy nodded while holding his wrist under his nose, smearing blood, but didn't stand up. His eyes were watering. "You wanna square this now? We're long overdue."

"Gimme another rain check," Steve said, rubbing his hand. "You know what I want."

Nicole looked on from her corner blocking the front door, spellbound. When she noticed Nancy staring at her she pulled her camera from her bag and hid behind it.

"Carol." Steve chopped both hands down to hold her attention. "There's only so much pissing on a guy's grave I can take. You can't change our minds, you won't teach us any lessons, so―"

"Don't tell me you believe it too." Tommy raspberried, doubling over. "What the f―"

"It's all true." Steve shut his eyes and braced himself for the next part: "Everything Nancy said is true."

Nancy registered the sound of laughter along with the sight of falling snow on the list of beautiful things she would never enjoy again.

"My shoe!" Steve gestured wildly out the window. "There's a reason I'm only wearing one. You must have seen the other one in the road when you were messing with my car. I crushed a bug tonight and it burned a hole right through it and it's all connected. This town is screwed up in ways I can't explain but I'll prove it to you at some point. I'll prove it if you could just chill out."

"There's no shoe out there, Stevie. Are you seriously this messed up? What the hell did they do to you? Hypnosis? You need some sense beaten into you or what?"

"No. Tommy. Damn it. How many have you had? This is taking way too long."

"The Byers Crazy really is catching." Carol threw her head back and sighed, holding the elbow of her gun arm. "First he screwed it into the princess, then he beat it into Steve and now they're breaking into houses."

"Where is that lunatic, anyway? Hiding in his lair while you do his bidding? You screwing him too Steve?" Tommy got to his feet and chattered his teeth under a bloody Chaplin moustache. "Didja-didja catch queer?"

Steve was disgusted. "That doesn't even make sense. Is he screwing Nancy or is he queer? Losers."

"Maybe he's both," Tommy said, poking Steve in the chest. There was no room for Nancy to get between them. "Maybe he's just." Poke. "That." Poke. "Weird."

"Yeah what if he was?" Steve shot back, "So what?"

Tommy fell away holding his head while Carol spewed a whistling laugh into her hand. "They are  screwing," she said. "They're all screwing! It's like some perverted B-and-E sex cult."

"Ha!" Tommy bounced up to Carol on wobbly legs and humped her hip. "Break and enter. They break into houses to screw in. That's what it is. You cracked the case, you cute little genius." He planted a big kiss on her cheek and left a red smudge.

"A queer sandwich with a syrupy slut centre." Carol honed in on Nancy. "You people are messed. Up." She lowered the gun and strolled so-casually forward. "And you know," she added, grabbing Nancy's chin and wagging it, "She does look kind of like a man, so..."

Nancy slapped Carol's hand away. "All you do is talk crap," she spat. "You and Tommy talk crap and assume the worst about everyone else, even the people you think you care about, so you never have to look at yourselves." She shrugged Steve's hand off her arm. It was time for this to end. She could end it herself. "You think hating everyone else means you love each other but the only thing you really love about Tommy is that he makes you feel good about yourself, because―because―you know what you are, Carol?"

"Hey uh Nancy what if you didn't―"

Carol cut Steve off by poking him with the gun, stinging him and giving Nancy a silent heart attack, then hummed phony sympathy and pointed down at the floor again. "This is going to be suuuper interesting, since you're such a smart special girl and all." She chomped her gum like a cow and waited for Nancy to make good.

Nancy's heart pounded against Barbara's glasses. "You're a bitch." Carol didn't react. "You are a nasty, mean, judgmental bitch."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah," Nancy said. "Why don't you go fuck yourself?"

Carol giggled. "Well you know what I think?"

"What."

"I think that's a really cute necklace, princess."

Carol fired.

It didn't hurt at first. It was only a blunt kick, so that on the way to the floor Nancy wondered where Carol had gotten such big loud feet, but what Nancy fell into was softer than the floor, higher than the floor, had to be Steve, Steve putting her to rest amid a flapping rain of softly ransacked books.

"Carol." Tommy was not laughing. "What did you just do?"

A hot current flowed down Nancy's shin and into her mom's shoe while Steve spittled a panic attack a foot away, "―how could you do that to her oh my god how could you shoot her my god you dumb bitch―" and the blood was soaking through her jeans, dripping from the cuff to the carpet, and Steve was, what? Was he washing his hands in it? "―you dumb bitch she just wanted to get him back you dumb bitch and you― you― you― stupid pointless psycho bitch―"

Carol's gasp was shrill and lengthy. "I didn't mean it! I didn't mean to, I was just trying to scare her! It was an accident! I was aiming for the space between her feet, you know, to... make her dance."

"―you bitch you bitch―" Steve tore denim as if it were paper.

"Babe like holy―Like holy, holy―What?  Now what do we do?"

"―you bitch you fucking bitch oh my God Nancy Jesus you're crazy why are you so damn stupid okay I got it, I think. I think." Steve found the hole under Nancy's bent leg in her calf and, pinning her foot with his knee for leverage, plugged it up using the heel of his hand. "I got it." Then  it hurt. Nancy yelled at him and tried to pull him away but he didn't listen. "You're okay!" He fought off her frantic hands and caught them both in one. "You're okay. Stop."

Outnumbered, Carol placed the gun on the floor and backed away from it. "I'm... sorry?"

A bright white flash filled the room, and then another, extending long shadows from the front door. The dim light over Nicole's head flickered. She took another picture. The power went out and came back on.

A gust of ethereal wind picked Carol up, blew her across the room and hammered her to the wall by the kitchen, pinning her along the seam at the ceiling. Her feet kicked thunder into wallpaper and stucco as she grabbed at her throat, and the lightning of Nicole's photojournalism flashed on and on.