ENDGAME | STEVE HARRINGTON

( CHAPTER FIVE )

( CHAPTER FIVE )

"Morning Dart," Dustin greets his pet the next morning. Hailey stands aside, scowling as she folded her arms. She was still mad at Dustin. She watched as Dustin takes the lid off the cage. "Got you some breakfast. Your favourite." He puts some chocolate into the cage.

Dart hesitant and looked over at Hailey who was glaring, Dustin noticed this and gave Dart a kind smile. "Don't mind her, she's just mad," Dustin tells him.

"I'm not mad," Hailey snapped. "I'm furious."

"See that? That tone right there?" Dustin points at her. "That's why Dart doesn't like you."

"Fuck you, Dustin," she muttered under her breath. She hated how short-tempered she was nowadays. Anything that goes wrong she always snaps.

"I gotta go to school," Dustin continued to tell Dart. "But I'll be back soon. Sound good?"

"You know he can't reply right," Hailey bites out, Dustin sends her a glare.

"But he understands me," Dustin defended. "Unlike some people."

Hailey scoffed. "Fine, if you're not gonna kill it, then make sure it is contained, okay?"

Dustin's face lights up. The past 24 hours all he's heard from her was; we should just kill it and save the trouble, but Dustin always defended Dart whenever he could.

"Really?" The excitement in his voice was heard. "I promise Hailey! Dart will be under control, I'll train him!"

"He's not a dog," she muttered under her breath. Dustin beams happily and puts a sheet over the cage. Dustin then rolled his eyes, ignoring her comment and they both exit the household, biking towards school.

Hailey had a bad day.

Hailey barely saw any of her friends today, Nancy and Jonathan were gone and she barely saw Steve. Hailey slowly made it up to her driveway, her gaze fixed on the footpath in front of her.

"Hailey!" She stopped in her tracks and turned around, her little brother runs towards her with a wide smile. "Hey,"

She sighed. "Hey,"

"What's wrong?" Dustin asked, noticing the lack of, well, Hailey...

Hailey pursed her lips together. "I'm okay, Dusty." Dustin only nodded but doesn't believe a single thing she had said. He walked past her and she followed, they both entered Henderson's household.

"Mew-mews!" She heard Claudia speak as they both entered the house, Dustin was a little bit eager to see Dart. "Dinner's ready!" She noticed her children and looked up, she was bent over, putting some food into Mews' bowl. "Hey, Dusty and Hailes,"

"Hi," Dustin pants out. "Hey, Mum."

"Everything okay?" Claudia questions, noticing something different about her son.

"Yeah, everything's fine." Dustin nods. Hailey followed behind Dustin as he hurries into his room and she closed the door, locking it behind them. "Dart, I've gotta talk to you, buddy." Dustin throws his hat on his chair and shrugs off his bag, throwing it onto the floor. "It's about my friend, Will,"

Dustin grabbed ahold of the sheet that covered the cage and rips it from it. "I think..." Dustin continued but cuts himself off once they noticed the glass broken from the cage, some weird substance dripping from the remaining shards.

Hailey looked at the cage fearfully. "Dustin." She slowly said. "Where the hell is Dart?" Dustin doesn't reply and reached inside and picks up a piece of translation dead skin submerged into a puddle of mucus.

"What the hell?" He muttered under his breath. Hailey had flinched and jumped back when she heard a screech, they both whirled around to a corner of his room. "Dart?" Dustin called carefully.

Hailey's heart leapt, hearing the sound of chittering from the monster. Dustin starts to walk slowly towards the corner, they both noticed dark blood on his carpet. Hailey pressed her lips together again nervously.

"Dusty, don't go any closer," Hailey ordered. She gave him a warning glare and she decided she'd go and investigate what the hell was going on. She followed the dark bloodstains, it leads to the orange chair in the corner of the room.

Hailey peeks over the chair, more blood dripping down its wood back. She finds Dart now the size of a small dog eating Mews and her eyes widen and she gaps, her eyes welling up with tears.

Dart snaps his head up towards Hailey, his mouth opening and terrible flashbacks from the night her, Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve had stopped the Demogorgon. Dart opened his mouth up, screeching at her and she lets outs a scream, covering up her mouth and she stumbles backwards in fear.

"What is it?" Dustin asked her, noticing her fearful eyes. He had taken a stepped towards the orange chair, Hailey didn't stop him. Dustin peeked over the chair and his own eyes widen as he watched Dart stare up at him, Mews had been ripped into by Dart. "Oh, my God."