Complicated • Stranger Things

25 - The Battle of Starcourt part 1

El continued screaming and crying in pain as we all stared at her leg.

"What is that?" Erica asked as she looked at the thing moving inside El's leg.

"There's something in there," Mike stated.

"Keep her talking. Keep her awake, okay?" Jonathan said as he stood up and took off running.

I was running my hands through her hair, trying to comfort her, but it didn't seem to be working, understandably so.

"Let's get her on this side, get her on this side," Mike said. We all helped turn El's body and sat her up a bit so she was leaning against Mike.

"You know, it's not actually that bad. There was a...the goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg, and, like, the whole bone came out of her knee, six inches or something, it was insane." Robin rambled.

"Robin," Steve said.

"Yeah?"

"You're not helping," Steve told her.

"I'm sorry." She said. Jonathan then came running back with a knife, wooden spoon, and gloves on.

"Okay. Alright, El? This is gonna hurt like hell, okay?" Jonathan told her. I had an idea of where this was going, and I didn't like it. I grabbed onto El's hand and she held mine tight, almost digging her nails into my skin.

"Okay." El sobbed.

"I need you to stay real still. Here, you're gonna want to bite down on this, okay?" Jonathan held out the wooden spoon. Mike took it and placed it into El's mouth.

Jonathan hesitated for a moment before digging the knife into El's skin. El tightened her grip on my hand as Jonathan continued. Once Jonathan reached his fingers through the cut he made, I had to look away.

"Stop it! Stop! Stop!" El began screaming. Jonathan stopped and El tried to sit up, Mike and I helping her. "I can do it. I can do it."

Once El was sat up, she reached her hand out towards her leg. She was going to use her power to pull the thing out. As she started to pull it out, she began screaming. The glass wall next to us shattered, causing us all to jump. Once she got the creature out of her leg, she threw it a few yards away. I watched as the creature began to crawl away, only for it to be stepped on. I looked up at the person to see my dad, with Joyce and a man who looked vaguely familiar standing next to him.

The three of them ran over, and after we finished catching up, we moved somewhere else to come up with a plan.

"The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world," Mike explained.

"And it almost did," Nancy added. "That was just one tiny piece of it."

"How big is this thing?" My dad asked from beside me.

"It's big," Jonathan replied. "Thirty feet, at least."

"Yeah. It sorta destroyed your cabin." Lucas said. Well, that's great. "Sorry."

"Okay, so, just to be clear, this...this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic...weapon?" Steve asked.

"Yes," Nancy confirmed.

"But instead of like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon...with melted people," Steve stated.

"Yes, exactly," Nancy replied.

"Yeah, okay. I-yeah, I'm just making sure." Steve said.

"Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?" Joyce asked.