THREE

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03| car radio — embers

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03| car radio — embers

           THE TWO TEENS SAT IN SILENCES AS they drove through the dull streets of Hawkins Indiana. The only noise filling their ears was the soft murmur of wind coming from the window and the radio on low volume playing the soft tune of the music. Sage was used to the silence because that's all the girl ever known. Steve on the other hand—not so much.

"Are you going to tell me who those guys were?" Steve finally said, unable to bear the silence any more.

Sage looked over to him from the passengers seat with a straight face, "Nope," she spoke, popping the end of the word.

"Why not?" Steve asked in a childish tone. He had been to hell and back for girl who he didn't even know. Why he was doing this? He was still trying to figure that out. He couldn't help but think this was his way of copping with his breakup with Nancy.

"Because you won't believe me," Sage huffed crossing her arms against her chest, "Also once you know I'm automatically putting you into danger and I will never let anyone get hurt because of me."

"Really? Because that wasn't your attitude when you told me to run those guys over with my car about twenty minutes ago!" Steve shot back, waving a hand up in the air.

"Fine let me rephrase that—I will never let anyone who I relatively like get in danger because of me." Sage snickered, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Well if you are so sure that I'm not going to believe you then I don't see why it matters if I know or not." Steve shot back, his face full of determination, "I think you owe me this—you know for saving your life and all."

Sage sighed and sunk down into her seat. Steve watched her as she stared out the window like she was contemplating with herself on what to do. She slithered her way back up into upright position and stared Steve right in the eyes.

"When I was seven years old I was taken by those bastards and put into this demonic world called the upside down. This creature called the demogorgen possessed me and now i'm basically it's little puppet because it possesses me whenever the hell it wants too, trying to get into this world to probably kill the human race." Sage explained, her voice void of emotion.

"I'm basically a ticking time bomb that can go off at any minute so being with me is basically a death wish because once i'm taken over theres no turning back—" Sage paused from her rambling and took a deep breath, "I'm talking to much and probably scaring you aren't I?"

Steve blinked taken back by her statement. Sage was expecting Steve to freak out, but he calmly pulled to the side of the road and sat back into his chair. Sage furrowed her eyebrows as she watched him fumble in his pocket.

"What the hell are you doing?" Sage asked, her face showing concern not knowing what the boy was doing.

Steve pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number with a straight face. Giving Sage a slight look if concern, he pulled the phone to his ear. The phone let out a buzzing noise for a couple not seconds until a female voice who sounded agitated answered.

"Hey—I'm coming over—no this isn't about last night—Seriously Nancy?" Steve huffed over the phone, "Listen I'm coming over—so what if your parents are home? Fine, then you, your brother and his friends come to my house. It's urgent—Oh, and Nanc? Bring some extra clothes you don't want with you."

Steve hung up the phone and put it into his side pocket one again. Sage's heart was beating out of her chest, her blood went cold. Who was he talking too? Was he taking her back to the lab? All of these thoughts whirled around her head—her brain starting to get foggy. Sage reached for the door handled and tugged at it with all of her might.

"Let me out! Let me out now!" Sage screamed tugging harshly on the locked door handle.

"Hey—hey! What are you doing?!" Steve exclaimed, reaching over Sage and grabbing her hand from the handle.

"You're going to take me back aren't you? That's why you were on the phone—you're taking me back!" Sage shrieked her voice full of panic, "I should have never told you—Why am I so stupid?!"

"Sage, calm down—look at me," Steve commanded the girl in a gentle voice, "I'm not going to take you back. I'm taking you somewhere where you will completly safe. As long as you're with me those bastards won't touch you—you just have to trust me."

"Wh—why are you helping me? For all you know I could be making all of this up." Sage whispered, her face flushed with redness.

"Because believe it or not my friends and I have actually dealt with this whole upsidedown shit," Steve sighed recalling what happened a year ago, "Listen, I'll explain everything once we get to my house—just please try not to get possessed in the meantime."

"Who's Nancy?" Sage questioned from hearing the name, her curiously getting the better of her.

"Nancy, she's my uh girlfrie—she's my friend." Steve stuttered our awkwardly not really knowing how to reply to that.

"Girlfriend? I thought I was girlfriend. That's what you said back at the hospital isn't it?" Sage asked, not knowing the full meaning of the term.

"No—no! You're not my girlfriend I just said that to convince the nurse to let me stay," Steve explained his eyes widening at her comment, "You do know what a girlfriend and boyfriend are right?"

"No, I've remember hearing the term when I was little but I don't know the meaning of it—I don't know the meaning of a lot of things." Sage confessed embarrassed that she was clueless to the world around her.

Sage knew not much about the outside world. She spent every single day for ten years stuck inside of a lab room being tested on—the only words she really heard was gibberish about her condition and her screams of distraught. With all of the chemicals and beatings Sage took her memory of her childhood has perished—her memory faded.

"You're asking the wrong person to explain this to you—but it's basically when a boy and a girl are attracted to each other so they mutually agree that they wanna be with each other and do lovey dovey stuff and then boom—you're boyfriend and girlfriend." Steve explained to Sage in the most basic way he could.

"How do you know your attracted to them?" Sage continued to questioned, intrigued with the subject.

"Well uh—for example your heart will race rapidly whenever your around them or every time you see them—it feels like your whole world has stopped..."

Sage watched the boy intently clearly sensing the pain in his voice. Steve coughed uncomfortably before turning towards the wheel and hitting with the palm of his hand.

"We should go you know just in case those guys catch up to us." Steve suggested starting the car engine again.

"Yeah, I um think that would be a good idea." Sage replied, directing her attention back towards the car window watching the world pass in front of her.

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gif credit : calisunbee !!

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