Invisible- Stranger Things Fanfiction

Chapter Two: The Displacer

   "What the hell is a Displacer?" Steve asked.
   "Shouldn't you know? You just fought one."
   "Shut up, Dustin." Steve smacked the joking boy upside the head, making me smack my brother in response.
   "No hitting," I scolded.
   Dustin laughed. "Damn, you're more of a mom than he is." We both smacked him in response. "Ow! Watch it, assholes!"
Lucas laughed, then straightened out his face. "Guys, we need to be serious," he said. "Will, how did the Displacer get into Hawkins?"
   "I..." Will trailed off. "I don't know."
   Looking around, I noticed that the others were weirdly calm about this. "How are you not more freaked out by this?" I asked incredulously.
   "Well, it's not like we haven't dealt with this before," Mike responded with a duh look on his face.
   "What?"
   "Shit." Dustin smacked Mike's arm, everyone else glaring at the Wheeler boy.
I crossed my arms. "What the hell do you mean, you've 'dealt with this' before?"
"Well, you see," Dustin started. "Will was taken by the Demogorgon in seventh grade, then got possessed by a Mind Flayer just before last Christmas. Let's just say that we're experienced in the monster field."
   I stared at everyone, their blank faces giving away nothing, and started laughing. "You guys are so convincing! I mean, that whole story, the monster costume. You're a little too dedicated to pranks, if you ask me."
   "It's not a prank!" Lucas insisted. "Ask your brother!"
My brother?!
I turned to Steve, my heart beating like a rage-filled drum. Steve stood up, sensing my anger and preparing himself for my wrath. I grabbed his shirt collar, pulling him down to my much shorter height.
"This whole time, you knew about this and didn't tell me?" I shrieked.
Steve looked right back at me. He was used to me being upset, but I hadn't been this angry since his former friend Tommy intentionally tripped me while playing a game of backyard football when I was in seventh grade. His eyes were wide, his breath unsteady; he was genuinely afraid of his little sister.
   "I'm waiting," I hissed in a soft and dangerous tone.
   "Look, Nik, I wanted to tell you, but-"
   I lifted my free fist and punched him as hard as I could across the face. "But nothing!" I screamed. "You didn't tell me, and you probably wouldn't have told me if that... that thing hasn't tried to attack me today!"
   "Nikki-" Dustin began, stepping forward.
   I spun around on my heel to face him, still gripping my brother's shirt with one hand. "What?"
   Dustin cleared his throat, avoiding eye contact as he stuttered out a response. "We-Well, we didn't want to tel-tell you be-because we didn't exactly know about you- well, I did, but only because Steve talks to me about you a lot. The others, they don't know you, and it was hard enough letting Max into the party-"
   "Hey!"
   "Not now, Max," he said to the redhead. "Anyway, Monica, it's not Steve's fault-"
   I cut him off. "No, it is Steve's fault." I turned back to my big brother. "You could have told me. I thought we told each other everything. I told you when I saw your girlfriend Amy Carter kissing Tommy H. when she was dating you when you were in tenth."
   "Nikki-"
   "I told you when I heard Mom tell Dad she wanted to send you to military school. I even packed your suitcase in case you had to run away for a few days. And you know what, Steve?"
   Steve looked me in the eyes, and I could see his heart breaking through his pupils. "What, Nikki?"
   I let go of his shirt, tears filling my eyes, and pushed him away from me. "I packed my own bag, too. Because I didn't want to live in that house without you. Because you were the only person I could talk to." I turned away from him, walking back to the stairs. "I guess I'm not that person for you."
   Dustin started to walk toward me. "Nikki-"
   "Let her go, man," Lucas said, pulling his friend back.
   I walked quickly and quietly up the stairs, walking out of the Wheelers' house and preparing to walk home.
   "Hey, Monica?"
   I turned around to see the littlest one of the group, Will Byers, standing at the Wheelers' door.
   I wiped the tears I didn't even know were falling from my cheek, looking at the boy. "Yeah, Will, what's up?"
   Will cautiously walked toward me, keeping his distance but also coming comfortably close. "I'm sorry."
   "For what? You didn't do anything wrong," I breathed, trying to be as nice as possible to this kid. He had always been nice.
   "For... everything," he mumbled, looking at his shoes.
I gave him a confused look. "And by everything, you mean...?"
"Well, ya know... elementary school, the party... this."
"Will, you don't have to apologize for anything," I said, walking closer to him and putting a hand on his arm. "But thank you."
Will nodded. "We should hang out more. Like old times."
"I would like that," I said with a smile. "Bye, Will."
Will looked at me. "I should walk you home, you don't want to be alone after a monster encounter. Believe me."
"Okay."
We walked in silence for a while, then heard footsteps behind us. I stopped short, grabbing Will's arm and stopping him. The footsteps skidded to a halt.
I turned around to see another party member. "Dustin, what the hell? How long have you been following us?"
Dustin smiled at me, showing off his new prosthetic teeth. "I just felt like tagging along."
   "Okay, cool," Will shrugged, continuing to walk.
   Dustin fell into step next to me. "What happened in elementary school?"
   Will and I exchanged glances. "Not important," I replied, avoiding eye contact with Dustin. He hadn't moved here until the fourth grade.
   "Oh, come on, guys-" He stopped. "Wait- you guys knew each other?"
   I nodded. "We did, but that was a long time ag-"
Grrrrr.
   "Guys?" I asked, gripping both of their arms. "What was that noise?"
"I don't know," Dustin whispered, steeping slightly in front of me. Dang, he's protective.
Grrr.
I heard the noise right behind me, but was too terrified to move.
Rah!
Will, Dustin and I jumped as the spider-bear-cat thing appeared in the woods by my house. The noise was still coming from behind us, and the boys were obviously freaking out.
"It's the Displacer!" Will exclaimed. He reached into his back pocket, making both Dustin and I stare at him in confusion.
   When he pulled out a knife, the Displacer was out of my thought process. "Holy shit!"
   Will brandished the knife, holding it close enough to himself, but far enough away that he didn't stab me.
   "Dustin, what do I do?" I asked, grabbing the arm of the boy in front of me.
   Dustin didn't even turn around. "Don't move. It can make itself appear in a place that it isn't, making itself invisible to us."
   "That monster and I have a lot in common," I whispered.
   The growl came from in front of us, but the beast appeared next to Dustin. I then remembered the one thing my parents had given me that I actually could use: mace.
   "Close your eyes," I whispered to each of the boys next to me while shaking the small bottle. They obeyed and also ducked, and as soon as they did, I went off, spraying in every direction so that I got the beast wherever he was.
   "What are you doing?" Will asked.
   "It sounds like she's using pepper spray on it," Dustin observed with his eyes still closed.
   I smirked, still spraying the little bottle. "That's right. I'm blinding the son of a bitch."
   I heard a loud, piercing shriek from the beast, so I knew I had at least made it blind for the present time. I grabbed each of the boys, pulled them up, and began to run. "Come on, guys! Back to my place, now!"
"Hold on!" Dustin rummaged through his bag, his shaky hand eventually grabbing a walkie talkie. "Mike," he said into the little thing, "Nikki, Will, and I found the Displacer. Be wary. Over."
Will and I heard another growl as Dustin and Mike were communicating. I tried to step in front of Will, but he pulled me back, brandishing the knife and stabbing it every way except at me and Dustin.
"Damn, you're going to town," I commented as he frantically stabbed the air.
"These things are not. Hurting. My. Friends." Each word was said with a stab. At one point, I saw the knife get stuck in what seemed to be midair, but then I noticed the silvery-crimson substance on the blade- Will had just stabbed the Displacer.
"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God," I squealed as Will and I ran to my house, Dustin following closely behind.
"Is it dead?" Dustin asked.
"I saw a lot of blood," Will replied, "but that could mean it's just wounded. No one can tell for sure, and I'm not sure I want to. Let's go." Leading the way, Will quickly walked back to my house as Dustin and I followed suit.
"Are you okay?" Dustin asked, checking to see if I was hurt.
I checked myself. "All limbs remain intact. You?"
"Yep, I'm good," Dustin said. "How'd you think to use pepper spray so quickly?"
"It's for defending myself, and if this wasn't a time where I needed to defend myself, I don't know what the hell would be."
Will laughed from in front of us, smiling as he looked back. "So, you guys don't know each other that well, huh?"
"I technically just met her this morning, so no," Dustin replied.
"Yeah..." I avoided eye contact with both of them.
Thump, thump, thump.
More footsteps.
"Oh, shit, not again," Dustin sighed.
I grabbed my pepper spray and turned around with it in the air, only to see a terrified high school graduate and four equally terrified freshmen hiding behind him.
"Hold your damn horses, Nikki, it's just us," Steve said.
I rolled my eyes, still pissed at my brother. "I knew it was you- why do you think I was so ready to mace you?"
Steve gave me a saddened smile, everyone else watching awkwardly. I shook my head, spinning around and continuing to walk.
"Coming, dipshits?" I asked the others. "Unless you want to be Spider-Cat food, we should get a move on."
Everyone picked up their pace at my last comment, speed walking toward the Harrington residence. I opened the door, ushering them all inside. Steve was last, and he just stood on the doorstep, staring at me for a minute. I desperately wanted to talk to him, but I didn't. He kept this from me for a whole year, and I was not forgiving him that easily. I walked back inside, going straight to my room to fix my probably very messy hair. Steve wasn't the only Harrington worried about his locks; we all had a thing about having great hair. It's literally the first part of our last name!
Trudging up the stairs, I looked at the pictures on our wall; Steve and me on my first day of kindergarten (he was in fourth grade), the two of us at the county fair, our family trip to Disneyworld in '81. Back then, the biggest secret he could have told me was which girl he liked or which spelling test he had managed to cheat on. Back then, those things were important. Now, that all seemed like child's play.
As I got into my room, I grabbed my brush and started aggressively ripping through my tangled bird's nest of hair when I heard voices from outside. Lucas and Max had found one of our old footballs, and Mike, El and Will were chasing them for it. Steve ran out and stole it from Lucas, resulting in a huge dog pile with the two of them on the bottom.
Look at that, Nikki, my mind said to me. He's having more fun with them than he does with you.
That wasn't entirely true. Steve and I had had a great time the night of the Snow Ball...
*flashback to six months earlier*
I got up from watching The Year Without a Santa Claus on the couch to check the clock for the sixth time. 10:03. Still no Steve, and our parents were already off to the airport for their skiing vacation to Colorado for the holiday. Steve was supposed to be back from dropping that Henderson kid off at the Snow Ball over two hours ago. Where the hell was he?
Sighing, I went upstairs to put on my pyjamas. No, I didn't go to the Snow Ball. Why? Well, A: because I didn't have anyone to hang out with, and B: I didn't want anyone to hang out with. The kids in Hawkins sucked, and I didn't want to deal with them any more than I had to. Instead of fretting about my way-overpriced dress or my fake nails, I spent the night watching Christmas movies and getting fat off of eggnog and gingerbread cookies. My elder brother was supposed to have joined me in these festivities, but instead chose to take some random kid to this stupid middle school dancing, where Steve himself was no doubt gawking at the one and only Nancy Wheeler, his former girlfriend (for whom, by the way, I always thought he was too good).
I had finally given up on waiting for Steve and was just about to climb into bed when I heard a faint tap, tap, tap on my window.
Speak of the devil.
There he was, Steve Harrington, in all of his idiotic post-Snow Ball glory, throwing pebbles at his little sister's window. What a dork.
I walked over and opened my window just as he had thrown his last pebble, which ended up hitting my eye. "Ow!" I shrieked. "What the hell, asshat?"
"Shit, sorry, Nik," he said apologetically. "But watch your language."
"Hell no."
"Nikki."
"You're late," I pointed out.
Steve laughed. "Yeah, I know. And I tried to get in, but the door was locked, and I left my key here."
"I know," I said with a smirk. "But, ya know, my older brother was two hours late coming home and I didn't want to get taken by a villainous vandal or a persistent Mormon or-"
"Look, kid, I'm sorry," Steve interrupted. "Dustin didn't have a ride home, so I waited up for him. I didn't realize he'd be there so long. Would you just please open the door? I'm freezing my ass off!"
"Language," I mocked him, making him roll his eyes. I walked away from my window, closing and locking it, before running downstairs to open the door. I was annoyed, but that's no reason to inflict pneumonia on my brother.
Steve rushed in, taking off his leather jacket and hanging it on the coat rack.
"You'd be a lot warmer if you wore an actual coat instead of that douchey jacket," I laughed.
He ruffled my hair, which I had just spent thirty minutes French-braiding. "Whatever, Squirt."
I fixed my hair frantically. "Asshole," I muttered, punching his shoulder affectionately. "Mom bought us a shit ton of eggnog, and I only went through half a carton, so have a ball." I started indignantly heading back to my room before Steve grabbed my arm.
"You're leaving me?" he asked.
I nodded, looking away from him in fake anger. "You left me alone for two extra hours, so I'm going to bed."
"Well, I guess it's a good thing I'm so much bigger than you." Without a single struggle, Steve picked me up, threw me over his shoulder, and carried me back into the living room.
"Put me down, asshole!" I said, smacking my fists on his back.
"You really shouldn't swear so much, Nik. It's not ladylike."
"Yeah, and all the guys are after me for my femininity," I laughed sarcastically.
Steve scoffed. "Maybe they would be after you if you talked to people."
   "Maybe I would talk to people if they didn't all suck," I countered.
   My older brother switched the channel on the tv, revealing The Karate Kid, a relatively new movie.
   "Oh, hell yeah!" I said, grabbing another cookie from the coffee table and sitting down. I loved Ralph Macchio. He was a freaking stud.
Steve laughed, taking a blanket from the drawer of the tv stand and sat back down. "Love you, kid," he said, putting the blanket around the both of us.
I put my head on his shoulder. "Love you too, loser."
*End of flashback*