chapter 011 ♰ Dad

  This wasn't how Sydney usually spent her Saturday nights. 'This' meaning: building a sensory deprivation tank out of a kid's paddling pool and salt in a middle school gymnasium, with her father, the chief of police, Joyce Byers, Nancy Wheeler, Jonathan Byers, a kid she used to babysit and his friends, and a willowy girl with telekinesis. Who, of course, was going to use aforementioned sensory deprivation tank to contact the boy she was supposed to be babysitting, via a kind of purgatory in her mind, into a parallel dimension. But, when in Hawkins...

  After the paddling pool was full and a suitable temperature, Hopper, Matt and Jonathan started severing the bags of salt into the still water. Dustin ━━ a boy genius, apparently ━━ kept checking the water density with eggs. If they sunk, they'd empty another kilo of salt granules. When the egg finally floated, Dustin, Lucas and Mike exchanged vigorous handshakes and excited smiles. Sydney shared an amused glance with Toby, who was already rolling his eyes at their childish enthusiasm.

  "I can't believe this is happening," Toby muttered to her. They were both knelt by of the pool, and Mike was now tuning a walkie-talkie so the static was loud enough white noise for El. "Like ━━ what would we usually be doing right now?"

  Sydney delicately traced a pattern in the water with her fingernail. "Catching a movie ... listening to music so loud Matt screams at us ..."

  "Much more normal."

  "You gotta admit," said Sydney, head moving to nod reassuringly at Eleven as she fixed a pair of goggles over her head ━━ Joyce had stolen them from the lab and ensnared them in layers of duct tape. "This is pretty cool."

  Toby watched as El stepped into the water. "That's one way of describing it."

  Eleven submerged herself into the water, the pink smocked dress billowing around her lithe body as brandished her arms out like a crucifix martyr. Everyone fell into an apprehensive silence, kneeling round the circular pool with bated breaths. El was barely in there for 10 seconds before a surge of electricity sent the gymnasium's lights flickering and extinguished them with a volatile hiss.

  Bathed in darkness, Sydney looked across to the opposite end of the pool where Matt was already staring at her anxiously. A seepage of blood had risen to the fibres of his bandage again, like little, red berries on the gauze. Sydney wondered if Jonathan had apologised for fracturing Matt's nose when they were both grabbing the sacks of salt from the middle school storage.

  "B-Barbara?" stammered El hesitantly.

  Nancy leaned forward eagerly, fingers clutching at the pool's edge. El's breaths got ragged ━━ frightened. Her little head started to twitch and panicky whimpers wrenched out her lungs. In tandem with her hyperventilating, the electricity started to oscillate again ━━ as if the lights had a pulse in the same vein as Eleven.

  "What's going on?" demanded Nancy.

  Mike's shoulders rose, his features twisted in concern. "I-I don't know!"

  "Is Barb OK? Is she OK?" Nancy asked fretfully, rising up on her knees.

  "Gone... Gone, gone, gone..." mumbled El, like a mournful prayer. "Gone..."

  Choking on a sob, Nancy brought a palm up to her mouth and bottled it in, eyes glistening with tears. As if a reflex, Toby snaked an arm out and engulfed it around her wracking shoulders. Nancy let her head thump against his. Sydney's head dropped ━━ Barb was dead. She didn't know her well, but that didn't matter, did it? Most of Hawkins hadn't known Chris, but her death left a prominent scar on its suburban, postcard fallacy. It was like the first warning sign ━━ hell was empty, and all the devils were in Hawkins. Now Barb was gone.

  Beseechingly, Joyce grabbed one of El's hands. "It's OK, it's OK, honey, hey ━━"

  "Gone!" El screamed, throat raw.

  "We're right here, honey, it's OK," soothed Joyce, knotting her fingers with El's, brushing her lips against the girl's damp knuckles. "Right here... Don't be afraid."

  As Joyce's soft, maternal voice coaxed her along, El's breathing got less frantic ━━ aching wheezes becoming more sporadic until eventually her pants levelled out and the room fell still again. Sydney felt numb. None of this made any sense ━━ logically. How could Barb be dead? How can this little, sylphlike girl be buried in some hollowed out corner of her fragmented mind ━━ one dainty foot in another dimension? How was any of this possible? How was Barb gone?

  "Castle Byers," whispered El.

  Hope stretched across Joyce's face as it turned to Jonathan, whose entire body jerked at El's murmur ━━ this meant something. Hope.

  Sydney met Matt's eyes again and he didn't look as sure as the others. His expression was grim ━━ like he didn't want to expect too much. Like this slither of silver lining wasn't enough to convince him. Matt caught Sydney looking and he tried to muster a smile for her, but it ended up mutilated and morose ━━ half a frown. Sydney appreciated it, though. She appreciated Matt.

  "Will," Eleven muttered.

  Joyce's breath hitched. "You tell him ━━ tell him Mom is coming."

  "Your mom is coming," El said softly, distantly.

  The next voice came through the statics of Mike's walkie-talkie ━━ aching and feeble and tired. "Hurry."

  Will. It was Will.

  That was all Matt had needed to meet Sydney's gaze again, this time with determination. With fucking hope. He smiled just as she did ━━ Will was alive. Will wasn't gone. Like Barb. Like Chris. He was lethargic and scared and homesick and needed his mom, but he had survived whatever torment had haunted him in the upside down.

  "OK," croaked out Joyce hoarsely, gripping onto El's hand tight. "Listen, you tell him to ━━ to stay where he is. We're coming. We're coming, OK? We're coming, honey."

  "Just hold on a little longer," El mumbled, far off again ━━ like her words were being siphoned through a narrow tunnel. "Will. Will?"

  Tick. Tick. Tick.

  Sydney's brows furrowed at the walkie-talkie. "D'you hear that?"

  "Hear what?" demanded Hopper, pale.

  "I swear I heard a ━━ a clock?"

  "Will!" El then screamed.

  Her buoyant limbs started to violently thrash in the water, and the chiming of a clock trickled into Eleven's pants and whimpering. Lungs rattling with a hoarse cry, El wrenched the goggles from off of her and sat bolt upright, heaving.

  Immediately Joyce caught her, wrapping her motherly arms around the girl's saturated and gaunt body. "I've got you. Oh, it's OK ━━ I got you, I got you, honey. You did so good."

  Splintering, a sob shook El's body as she hugged tightly onto Joyce's arm that was embracing her chest. The girl was hysterical. Sydney's chest throbbed ━━ how could someone so young and good have such a ravaged life? Hunted like cattle. An innocent lamb in a slaughterhouse. She was treated like a government experiment ━━ not like a girl. That's probably why she clung so tightly to Joyce. Joyce was a mother in her bones ━━ she had those instincts in her veins, and she loved so ardently. Without conditions or restraint.

  Would El cling the same to Christine? Would she fell safe in Christine's arms ━━ just as she felt safe in Joyce's?

  Chris's love was kind of like a bruise of honour. She loved Sydney when she achieved something ━━ a hug for a spelling bee, a cheekbone kiss for a race won, a glass of wine for ignoring Matt in the supermarket even though he kept calling her name. When the mayor draped that gold medal round Sydney's neck like a talisman ━━ after she got 1st in the county in a marathon, back when she cared about those things: like keeping healthy and making Mother proud ━━ Christine's hug was bruising. Rib fracturing.

  "I want you to know," Chris had murmured against the shell of her ear. The whole town was watching, they had Sydney up on some frivolous podium and they were applauding and Christine relished in it. Matt wasn't there. "Mother truly, truly loves you."

  She never said "I truly, truly love you,"; as if Mother was a separate entity which Christine didn't fit into. Incompatible bones and blood which would fail a transfusion. Sydney thinks of Mother and Christine has exit wounds that don't bleed into each other. Parallel lines which never met.

  Sydney blinked back to the present as soon as the sound of water seeping out of the fabric of El's dress splashed back onto the surface, and she looked up to see Matt and Joyce both helping her step out of the pool. Mike was springing to his feet in an instant ━━ Dustin and Lucas in tow. They all swarmed round El as she cradled her arms, beckoning her over to the bleachers. Sydney didn't even realise her knees were still on the polished floor until Toby's hand extended out to help her up from it.

  "Thanks, Tobes," she muttered, letting him lift her up.

  Sydney glanced around the gymnasium. The boys were all surrounding El protectively, her head drooping on Mike's shoulder as Lucas draped a towel around her. Her heart warmed ━━ they were good kids. Lovable and loving. She turned again, and saw Hopper, Joyce, Matt and Jonathan talking in urgency. Nancy was nowhere to be found.

  "I'm gonna go find Nance," said Toby.

  Sydney nodded numbly. "Yeah. This ━━ it's probably all really hard on her."

  "Will you be OK?" he asked, craning his neck down slightly, so he was closer to her level ━━ onyx eyes startlingly sincere and worried.

  "Yeah, I've got my kids," she tried joking weakly.

  Toby smiled, fondness stretching out over his face as he looked over his shoulder at them. He turned back to Sydney and he felt like he had swallowed a pebble or a rock. Shuffling forward, Toby cradled her jaw, and tentatively lifting it up to place a lingering kiss on her forehead. Sydney's eyelids fluttered shut and she savoured the feeling ━━ his lips both heavy and light on her skin, and touch a sweet haunt. The kiss probably lasted longer than it should've. Neither wanted to move.

  It was the sound of the heavy, backdoor of the gymnasium almost shattering off its hinges which ripped a chasm between them, and sent Sydney staggering back. Her eyes went to where Matt had just been standing with Joyce, Hopper and Jonathan, finding a hollowness instead.

  "Fuck," said Sydney darkly, the feeling in her ribs brittle. "Toby, I gotta ━━"

  His arms hanging loosely at his sides, Toby nodded. "I know."

  Guilty, Sydney nodded and hastened after the others. She almost slipped on a puddle of water El had left, but kept running until she was basically crashing through the door. The cold, night air hit her like an onslaught of harsh wind, knocking her back. She had clearly got there just in time, because Hopper and Joyce were both easing into his truck, Jonathan was traipsing back toward the school with his head hung in resignation and Matt's hand was cranking open the backdoor.

  "Matt!" she exclaimed.

  "Syd, go back inside," said Matt severely, not even sparing a glimpse at her.

  "What ━━ you were going to go out there without saying goodbye?"

  As Matt's head fell earthward in regret, Hopper narrowed his eyes at her. "Sydney, go inside."

  "I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to him," she sneered. "You don't even know what's out there ━━ if you'll even come back! And you weren't going to say anything?"

  Matt grimaced under the malice of her glare. "Syd, I'll come back."

  "You can't promise that," said Sydney scathingly. "You don't exactly have the best track record."

  "That's just ━━ that's not fair," stammered Matt.

  Sydney felt like crying, a sting festering through her, like a million little thorns. "This isn't fair! Why do you have to go out there? Let me come with you, at least ━━!"

  "No fucking way," Matt scoffed derisively, laughing at with a meanness as if what she had suggested was the most hilarious thing he had ever heard. "You think I'd let you do that? It's bad enough that you're here ━━ I don't want you anywhere near this, Sydney. Now, listen to me for once, and go inside."

  Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. She felt like a kid. Like love was punch and a kick and the heart was a knife. So small under his glare ━━ but it wasn't like Christine's. His voice held no spite. He didn't speak with animosity. Matt hadn't went for the jugular, like Christine. It came from somewhere unchartered and visceral ━━ a place of love. He wanted to protect her.

  Contemptuously, Sydney swept an angry knuckle against her cheekbone and collected a stray tear. "You can't just leave me here!"

  "I'm not leaving," insisted Matt, slamming the door shut and storming towards her. He grabbed her shoulders and shook her ━━ maybe a bit too hard. She felt like her bones rattled about her skeleton. Like he was trying to shake some sense into her. "I'll be back, OK? Listen, I know about your babysitting arrangement with Joyce."

  Sydney's lips parted. She had forgot all about her trying to keep that a secret from him. To protect his dignity ━━ so he didn't feel like Sydney was greedy for wanting more.

  "I ━━ I didn't mean ━━"

  "She said you wanted the money so you could help out," interjected Matt. His eyes, dark and frenzying, bored into hers vehemently. "I don't want you to think I'm this ━━ this lowlife who can't keep you safe. Who can't feed you or protect you or be a father to you ━━ I can. I'm going to find Will. And I'm gonna come home. We're gonna order a pizza, with mushrooms, and watch Only Fools & Horses until we fall asleep, and in the morning we're gonna talk about all of it ━━ about Eleven, and the lab, and the monster, and Steve, and Toby, and us. I'm gonna be a father to you ━━ a dad. And we'll be OK. You'll be OK."

  Sydney felt dizzy, his hands heavy on her shoulders the only thing keeping her conscious. Her arms rose from her sides and she flung them round his shoulders, grasping him fatally tight. Matt hugged her back without missing a beat ━━ nothing but his daughter mattering. She held onto him like this was oxygen and she was starved of it. Sydney Sommers was so hungry for love and for belonging that she could've nestled here always ━━ his love wasn't in exchange of anything. She didn't need to run until her muscles ached or study until her fingers were blistered or carve herself open to get Matt to love her.

  Matt and Father weren't separate entities. Matt was her dad. He was rotten and clumsy at it. Unforgivably, he had walked out on her before she could string together a sentence. His liver was probably decaying with all the chemicals it had to neutralise ━━ more scar tissue than healthy cells. His lungs blackened by tar. He had destroyed Christine ━━ ate her heart out and left her with a mass of rot, so all that she had to mother their child was a cancerous enmity. But Matt never severed himself from the role of Father.

  "Dad, please come back to me," cried Sydney, a tear blotching onto the collar of his jacket. Matt's body stiffened against her. She called him Dad. DAD. "I can't lose you, too."

  "You ━━ Syd, you ━━"

  "You're my dad ━━ you're my dad and you can't die. If you don't come back ━━"

  "I will." His hug returned empathetically. "I'll come back. I promise. I fucking promise, kiddo."

  Sydney nodded belligerently. "I'll kill you if you don't. I'll tear the upside down apart and I'll kill you myself."

  "I promise."

  Hopper aggressively started to honk the horn of his truck. "We're on a bit of a tight schedule, McConnell."

  Matt muttered something derogatory about Hopper before peeling back, squishing Sydney's face in his touch so her cheeks were deflated and pinched. "Be safe. I'll see you soon."

  "You will," said Sydney, assertive.

  She watched as Matt scrambled into the backseat of the truck, and stood idly as they were swallowed up by the teeth of darkness. Sydney felt as though she could've stood there with her feet rooted in the asphalt all night until Matt came back ━━ like she could wait in the cold moonlight and the volatile gushes of wind until he returned with Will, so they could go home, order pizza, watch television and be a family. She might've, if it wasn't for the door violently opening again ━━ Nancy stalking right past her with a vengeance about her toward where Toby's car was parked, Jonathan and Toby briskly following after her.

  "Um, where are we going?" asked Sydney bluntly.

  "We're killing this thing," Nancy snarled. She looked at Sydney, and in the amber glow of a streetlamp, she could see that the girl's eyes were swollen with grief. "We're finishing what we started."

  Sydney blinked between her, and the two boys. "Right. Well, I'm down, but ━━ what about the kids? And, well ━━ how the fuck are we gonna kill it?"

  "Just how we planned," said Jonathan. "We've got the weapons. We lure it out, trap it ━━ then we... "

  "We improvise," interjected Toby, tossing his keys up in the air and catching them.

  Sydney nodded. "Great. And the kids?"

  "They're safe here," assured Jonathan.

  "El has powers, right? We all just saw it," gritted out Nancy. "The chief, Matt and Joyce don't know what's out there ━━ we need to distract the monster so they can find Will. Eleven can protect them."

  "And who's gonna protect her?" Sydney challenged. "She's just a kid, too!"

  Toby put a placating hand on her tense shoulder. "They'll protect each other."

  Anaesthetized, Sydney gave a dull nod. "Fine. Let's go trap a monster."

Her Saturday night kept getting stranger. Assembling a bear trap in the Byers' bungalow, dousing the carpet in gasoline and practicing swinging an axe was never a part of the traditional weekend agenda ━━ but there Sydney was. It took a solid half-hour, but eventually the place was ensnared with a yo-yo booby trap and the 4 of them felt as prepared as 4 teenagers could be for inveigling and slaughtering an interdimensional monster. Jonathan hammered a blitz of nails into a baseball bat, whilst Nancy made sure the gun they had stole from Lonnie Byers' car was fully loaded with ammunition. Meanwhile, Sydney had stuck by her axe ━━ not trusting herself with bullets ━━ and Toby had somehow emerged back into the house after leaving for 10 minutes with a fire extinguisher.

  Sydney stopped hacking at the air with the axe's blade and squinted at him. "Where'd you get that from?"

  "The station," he shrugged.

  "You stole from a police station?" exclaimed Nancy, slamming her revolver down on the coffee table.

  "Sydney's dad is deputy, and best friends with the chief," said Toby, rolling his eyes. "Besides ━━ if the plan is to set fire to this thing, do you really want you house to be burnt down, Jonathan?"

  Jonathan looked between Toby's wry grin and Nancy's blatant affront, and rolled his shoulders. "He's right."

  "So, are we all ready?" asked Sydney, leaning the axe against the armchair. "Because, if so ━━ time's precious."

  Toby tossed the fire extinguisher aside. "I am."

  "Me too," said Nancy adamantly, a muscle flexing in her jaw.

  "Alright then," asserted Jonathan, brandishing out a silver night from his sleeve. It caught one of the bulbs from Joyce's Christmas lights, an effervescent, vibrant reflection bouncing off of it. He then retrieved 3 more from his pockets, extending each of them out to the others. Sydney took hers and stared down at her distorted reflection in the silver, features mutilated. "Do we all remember the plan?"

  "Straight into Will's room. And ━━"

  Jonathan nodded bleakly, interrupting Nancy when she winced. "Don't step on the trap."

  "Wait for the yo-yo to move..."

  "Then ━━" Jonathan flicked open his zippo lighter, the flame dancing ephemerally until he swept the lid back on.

  "We end it," said Sydney staunchly.

  "Got it," Toby contended.

  The 4 of them had fashioned a makeshift circle, one hand nestled around the handle of a kitchen knife, the other palm-up and waiting to be split open like a dissected corpse.

  "On three," declared Jonathan. "One... two... " Exchanging overwrought looks with the others, he shook his head, "We don't have to do this ━━"

  Nancy grimaced. "Jonathan, stop talking."

  "I'm just saying, we ━━"

  "3!"

  Sydney incised a clinical slash down the middle of her palm with the blunt hilt of the knife. It stung. She elicited a pained hiss as it dug across her skin and split open a wound, blood immediately oozing out. The sound of flesh tearing filled the fluorescent room and Sydney instantly flexed out her fingers in an unconscious response.

  "Ow, fuck," she seethed.

  Droplets of blood started to hit the carpet ━━ hers, Toby's, Nancy's and Jonathan's intermingling in a staining puddle of vermillion monster-bait.

  Shivering, Nancy dropped her knife, and it hit the floor with a tinkering clatter. "That should be enough, right?"

  "We'll just have to wait and see," said Jonathan gravely.

  Nancy and Jonathan took the couch. He had found out some old, threadbare gauze from under the sink his mom used to have to use a lot when Will was in his tree-climbing phase of getting torn knees and scraped elbows and other boyish wounds. As they bandaged each other's cuts, Toby and Sydney did the same for each other on the opposite side of the room, speaking in hushed, privy voices as if the Demogorgon eavesdropped on adolescent talks.

  Toby's thumb caressed distracting circles on the inside of her wrist as he swathed her wound with the flimsy linen. Blood soaked through it instantly and he wrapped another layer. Sydney had already bandaged his, so the rough material kept scratching against her skin. Not that she minded ━━ she just kept her eyes fixed on his meticulous movements. He handled her so delicately. Like she was glass and he didn't want her to get cut on her own shards.

  "Are you worried about him?" Toby murmured. "Matt."

  Sydney swallowed thickly. "Of course I am."

  "He'll be alright," he said, tucking the last bit of gauze in and brushing a chaste kiss against the covered gash. "He's kind of a badass."

  "I called him Dad," she admitted.

  Toby smiled at her. "You did?"

  "Yeah..." Sydney cracked a grin of her own, albeit weakly. "It meant a lot ━━ to both of us, I think."

  "It's a big deal," concurred Toby.

  Sydney's own thumb started to trace the linen of his dressing. "Yeah, well... I just hope he lives long enough for me to appreciate it."

  Toby intertwined their fingers. "He will."

  "You're ━━ I'm glad you're here, Toby," said Sydney, hand feeling limp in his. Cold against his warmth. His flesh was rougher, because of working and playing guitar and a lack of moisturizer. Yet his touch was still softer. "Really. I don't think I'd be so ━━ ready for this, if you weren't here."

  "Yeah?"

  "Yeah. You're my ... You make me feel safe."

  Toby faltered. He was fighting a bellicose war with his own mind. Torn between staring at their tangled hands or her pretty eyes and being hero or being hers.

  "Listen, Sydney, I ━━ there's something I need to tell you," he blurted out, voice coming out strangled. "Something I ━━ I've been wanting to tell you for... Well, I haven't wanted to. I've needed to. I guess, what I'm trying to say is ━━ fucking hell, this is harder than they make it seem."

  "Toby, calm down ━━ it's just me."

  Toby yearned. "It's never just you, Sydney. You could never be a just."

  "I don't understand ━━"

  She did. She understood. In her bones she did. In her blood.

  "Sydney, I'm in ━━"

  Belligerent, frantic knuckles started to knock on the Byers' front door and the 4 of them startled out of their intimate conversations to stare at it. Sydney's hummingbird heart fell out of flight in horror.

  "I don't suppose that the fucking monster developed manners, do you?" she choked out. "Or, just ━━ learned how to knock?"

  "Jonathan!"

  It was Steve.

  Something ruptured in her chest ━━ like the concrete of a dam fracturing and all the water eddying out in a maelstrom.

  "Are you there, man?" Steve shouted hoarsely. "It's... it's Steve!"

  "Are you fucking kidding me?" scoffed Toby to Sydney, but she was already tearing her hand out of his and bringing both of hers up to cradle her arms.

  "Listen, I just want to talk!"

  The onslaught of knocks kept coming until Nancy finally decided to stand up, unhooking the chain from off the door and opening it a slither. "Steve, listen to me ━━"

  "Hey, Jon━━ Nancy?"

  Sydney couldn't see him but she could imagine the confusion plastered across his mangled, bruised face.

  "You need to leave," Nancy said scathingly.

  "No, no, I'm not trying to start anything, OK?" he said desperately, wrenching a bit at the door to pry it open further.

  "I don't care about that," she snapped, urging it shut. "You need to leave."

  "No, no, no ━━ listen, I... I messed up, OK?" Steve stammered, knocking his knuckles against the mahogany. "I messed... I messed up. OK?"

  His voice was so small, so desperate. Gruff, too. Like it hurt him to admit it ━━ or to talk at all. Sydney wondered if it was because of his wounds or his pride ━━ or if there was much difference between the two at all. It made her heart ache either way.

  "Really. Please," he implored. "I just wanna make things right. OK? Please. Ple ━━ hey," Steve interjected himself softly. God, even his voice was pretty. "What happened to your hand? Is that ━━ is that blood?"

  Sydney watched as Nancy snatched her bandaged hand behind her back. "Nothing. It was an accident."

  "Hey, what's going on?"

  "Nothing!"

  "Wait a sec..." He started to fight against her hold on the door again. "Did he do this to you?"

  "No!" exclaimed Nancy.

  The struggling continued. "Nancy, let me in ━━"

  "No. No! No, Steve ━━"

  Against her protests, Steve barged into the bungalow, and before he could notice any of the outlandish weapons or traps or even the radiant Christmas lights, Steve noticed Sydney. He paled, absolutely mortified to see her scrambling up to her feet and burying her own hand in her dungarees' pocket just in case he asked any more unanswerable questions. His face fell even more ━━ murmuring utter nonsense. He stepped closer to her, reaching out, but Sydney recoiled back, stealing her hand further into the depths of her pocket.

  An ugliness had been tearing him up since that afternoon when he talked to her like that. The dullness throbbing in his cheekbone and swollen eye didn't compare to how shit he felt about making her look at him so resentfully. Steve had fucking adored their night together yesterday ━━ if he could relive any day of his life over and over in some kind of Sydney-hazed purgatory, it'd be that one. Like he said, she was a drug. And drugs make you act out ━━ viciously and out of character. Its some kind of dwindling, mercurial high she had him on. Now, she was stood in front of him with a venomous stare and keeping her hand hidden and she obviously wanted him gone, but all Steve could think about was whose jumper was she wearing? Because it wasn't his.

  "Nicks, what ━━ what are you doing here?" When Sydney didn't reply, Steve made another attempt at approaching, and this time successfully grabbed her wrist, snatching her hand out of her pocket. She flinched as he accidentally brushed the wound through the gauze and Steve dropped it in alarm. "Sydney, what ━━ are you OK?"

  Sydney held it to her chest. "Get out of here, Steve."

  Steve was crestfallen and lost. "I don't understand. Why are you both ━━" He glanced at Toby, at Jonathan, and then at the nailed baseball bat discarded on the coffee table. His pretty face ━━ stained with blood and Jonathan's rage ━━ was consumed by fear. "What is... what the..."

  "You need to get out of here," urged Jonathan, grabbing a fistful of his jumper.

  "Whoa, wait. What is all ━━"

  "Didn't you hear him?" yelled Toby, shoving him back. "Get the fuck out of here, Harrington. We're not asking."

  "What is that smell?" demanded Steve. "Is that ━━ is that gasoline?"

  Sydney yanked Toby away from him and grabbed Steve's hand, trying tugging him back toward the door. "Steve, please ━━ leave."

  "Not without ━━ Nicks, what's going on?"

  "Steve, get out!" bellowed Nancy.

  When Sydney turned, Steve's hand limp in hers, Nancy was pointing her revolver at his chest.

  "Nancy, Jesus!" she chastised.

  "Wait ━━ what?" Steve yelled, gripping onto Sydney's hand vehemently now, almost crushing her bones. "What is going on?"

  Sydney tugged on him again. "Steve, please."

  "Is this a joke?" he screamed. "Like, Sydney, if this is a joke, just ━━"

  "Guys," said Jonathan.

  The lights started to flicker. Radiant orbs pulsating round the living room and sending chills along Sydney's spine.

  "3... 2..."

  Nancy was counting down like she was actually going to send a bullet to Steve's heart, all whilst he kept trying to move Sydney behind him ━━ but her feet were rooted firmly where she was as she looked around at the lights, remembering what Jonathan told them earlier. They acted as like some kind of alarm ━━ chemical messengers from the upside down, mirroring what was here down there.

  "No, no, no, no ━━ Nicks, tell her, do something!"

  "Nancy, the lights!" Jonathan roared. He started scrambling for the baseball bat.

  Sydney gulped. "It's here."

from dani!

omg uhh shittest ending of all time.
however i had to split this chapter in
half bc otherwise it's like 12k words..
so dw i have the next one prewritten
in advance!!! i hate this so much cuz its
action, and so's the next chapter...
ugh. but the chapter after next is like..
my fav. officially 2 chapters (pushing 3
if the one after this gets too long,
which honestly it might bc i adore it)
left of season 1!!!! also matt & sydney
are actual members of the byers/hopper
family. REAL !!!!!