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CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR | THE TUNNELS
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there's a room inside of me. floors creaking under the weight of my heart, walls coated in blood and grease, rifts drifting my rips apart. the lights flicker on - then off. and i spill and i spill - until I bleed.
-home // r.m
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Jackie Hanlon was sure she was going to hell. What else would happen to someone that lugged her unconscious, beaten half to death boyfriend ( God, was he even her boyfriend? What was Steve to her, anyway?) into a car that would be driven by a thirteen year old girl towards certain death? So, yes — Jackie would be venturing down to hell very soon she was sure.
Jackie sat in the back of the car, between Dustin and Mike. Steve was kind of sprawled across all of their laps, but his head was resting in hers and she had an ice pack pressed to the spot where Billy smashed a plate on him.
When they were about three minutes from the tunnel sight, Steve's eyes slowly opened.
"Jackie?" he mumbled out quietly. He groaned, lifting his hand up to his face. Before they'd left, Jackie had haphazardly put bandaids over the worst of the cuts, but it was more for her own sanity than his. She had to think she was doing something for him.
"No, don't touch it," she whispered, slowly pushing his arm down. "You're fine."
"Hey, buddy," Dustin said quietly, grinning down at Steve. "It's okay. You put up a good fight. He kicked your ass, but you put up a fight. You're okay."
Now that he was awake and moving, Jackie felt a little bit better, but she still didn't like anything about this. However bad he'd looked when she first met him after his fight with Jonathan, this was easily twenty times worse than that had ever been. The entire left side of his face was puffy and cut up. His lip was swollen and split, and blood was crusted around his nostrils.
"Okay, you're gonna keep straight for half a mile," Lucas directed from the passenger seat, keeping a flashlight trained on the map. "Then make a left on Mount Sinai."
"What's going on?" Steve asked, sounding terrified for his life. "Jack, what— oh, my God!"
"Just relax," Jackie whispered, smoothing his hair back. He needed to stay calm. "I can't drive and she's driven before."
"Yeah, in a parking lot," Mike said snidely.
Shooting him a look, Jackie kicked her foot into his ankle. His annoyance with Max's entire existence was not helping the situation at all.
"That counts!" Lucas defended.
"They were gonna leave with or without me," Jackie told Steve, keeping a palm firm on his chest. "I couldn't leave you with Billy and I couldn't let them go alone. I didn't have a choice."
