Invisible- Stranger Things Fanfiction

Chapter Forty Three: The Storm Cellar

*Dustin's POV*
We were all pretty shocked to see that Pretty-Boy Junior Dude was our savior, but we didn't have much time to dwell on it.
"Come on, we've gotta run." Liam jogged around the monster's body to us, grabbing Mon's hand with his free one as he led us all in the opposite direction.
"Why should we listen to you?" Mike asked snootily.
I rolled my eyes. "Because he just saved our asses. Let's go before we all end up Purina Demogorgon Chow."
Mon glanced back at me, utterly gobsmacked. I simply raised an eyebrow at her and kept going.
   "How the hell did you find me?" I heard her ask him.
   His smirk was visible from where I stood. "Magic."
   "Bike break down?" I asked as I kept running.
   He rolled his eyes, ignoring my question to ask his own. "So, what the hell exactly is this thing I just took out for your little friends, Harrington?"
   "Um... well, I-"
"How about we explain after we're away from the big ugly killing machine?" I suggested, pushing them both toward the storm cellar we'd all just come across.
Liam was hesitant to go through. "Whose place is this?"
"The hell if we know, just go!" Will shouted.
Mon grabbed his hand and ran down the concrete steps of the cellar, her eyes determinedly focused and her hands steady as a rock. How was she so brave right now?
Once we were all in, Mon started grabbing whatever she could to barricade the stairway. The cellar only locked from the outside, so we had to brace ourselves for the inevitable moment the monster opened the door to get at us.
"Dude." As Mon, Will, Sarah, and Lucas stacked old file cabinets and laundry baskets, Mike pulled me into the corner of the cellar, the only light coming from the flashlights we all luckily packed. (Except Liam, who was staying very close to El and her light.)
"What, Mike?" I hissed in a whisper. "Are you gonna crack a joke about Mon's boyfriend being here? If so, hold on until I've figured out how to most satisfactorily kick your ass."
Mike held his hands up in defense. "I was just gonna ask what the plan is for... him."
"Plan?"
"Yeah, plan. He's obviously not allowed in the party-"
"Oh, hell no."
"Let me finish," Mike hissed back. "Since he's not allowed in the party, what do we tell him about this thing?"
I scoffed. "The truth, dumbass! It's not like he'll actually believe us."
   Max smacked my shoulder. "So, you're cool with telling this guy the truth, but when I asked, you waited forever?"
   "Did you believe us when we told you?"
   Max shook her head.
   "Exactly. He won't believe us even more than you didn't. He doesn't have your brilliant mental capacity, Madmax."
   Max's lips began to curl upward, but I saw her biting them back down. "Fine. Tell him, kissass."
   Liam and El were talking in the corner, watching everyone else. When they saw me coming over, El shut right up.
   "What's goin' on over here?" I asked, trying to be casual, ignoring the totally suspicious looks I was getting from both of them.
  Liam cleared his throat. "El here was just, uh, tell-telling me about your little, uh... friend group."
   "Party."
   "Right, party." He continued: "She told me you guys have some sort of... monster you're hunting?"
   I glared at El for a second, then remembered she probably wouldn't understand why I was so pissed. "Yeah! It's all a game, really." I began explaining so thoroughly, talking so quickly, even I couldn't remember what I said. When I stopped speaking, both Liam and El were gaping at me.
"Uh, so, that thing... it wasn't real?"
"Oh, it was real," I replied. "It's just... an animatronic!"
Liam looked at me as if trying to understand, obviously not understanding. "An amin- tranonic..."
"Animatronic," I corrected. "Hey, if Walt Disney could make 'em, we can too, right? They're like these puppets, but they're animated, sort of. And- and, well, since we watch a lot of sci-fi and know about the Machine Uprising, we're just trying to be prepared for when we have to take 'em out for real."
Well, there goes the truth option...

"Wait, wait, wait." Liam shook his head, clearing his brain's Etch-a-Sketch to make room for more bogus information. "So, you built this thing... just to kill it?"
El nodded, finally understanding the concept of Playing Along. "Yep, that's what we did," she replied with a smile.
"Right." Liam stood up, calmly straightening himself out before running to Mon.
El wiped her brow dramatically. "That was close."
"What did you tell him?" I groaned when El flashed an evil little grin. "Eleven, I swear to God-"
"Dustin," she said, cutting me off. "Relax. I told him we were a Party, and that just because he was here didn't mean he was a member."
   I sighed. "You had to have told him more than that, El."
   "Well, I told him some weird shit was probably going to happen, but he shouldn't question it because we probably wouldn't be able to tell him anyway."
Good. "El, do you trust him?"
   "Yes," she answered almost immediately.
   "Why?"
   She shrugged. "Nikki does."
Yeah, but when we trusted Max, she used her freaky mind power to throw her off her skateboard.
"Guys," Mon hissed. "Guys, shut up."
We all stopped where we were, listening to hear whatever the Harrington girl had heard. A muffled voice. Footsteps approaching. Footsteps seemingly too soft to be a monster, but who knows? After all this, I wouldn't even be surprised if the Demogorgons were trained in ballet.
Thud.
Something had fallen right on the door of the cellar, making most of us jump. Mon stood firm, steady as a rock near our only way out, focused on destroying this thing.
"Mon, get over here!" Liam whisper-shouted from his spot near the corner.
"I'm not going anywhere."
Grabbing my hairspray and lighter out of my bag, I stood next to her, my back to the rest of our friends (and Liam) was I attempted to "cover her."
"You sure about this?" she asked, referring more to my help than our plan (which we didn't even have).
I looked at her, then the door. "Absolutely not."
As the cellar door opened, the late afternoon light hitting our faces, we prepared for the worst. I was ready to fire up my makeshift blowtorch when I heard a voice above me.
"Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my storm cellar?"

A/N: Hey, everyone! Thank you sooo much for reading, I love you all. I'm so sorry this update took ages to publish, everything's been a bit hectic. I'm thinking of ending this story soon because Stranger Things 3 is out relatively soon and I want you guys to imagine what YOU think will happen in the new season. Thank you all again for reading and sticking with me through my agonizingly slow updates. ❤️