IT LIVES AGAIN

GRAYSON REALIZED THAT HE ABSOLUTELY HATED WAITING. Especially when they were being chased and hunted by a creature that crashed through the ceiling and had no face. They waited anxiously, the lights flickering and all of their weapons prepped. Steve was holding onto Grayson as tight as humanly possible while Grayson held out his knife, waiting.

In a shocking turn of events, the lights stopped flickering and the electricity seemed to stabilize.

"Do you hear anything?" Nancy asked, breaking the nervous silence. It was dead silent past that door, which somehow made things worse.

Jonathan shook his head and put his lighter away, "No."

"I don't like this one bit," Grayson spoke, his voice chilling and unsure. The uncertainty in the air and the sweat beads forming on his forehead were screaming at him not to get too comfortable right now and rightly so. The monster, whatever it was, may be gone now, but there was no telling when it was going to return to terrorize the teens.

The Byers boy went first, gripping the nail-ridden bat as he opened the door and peered out into the ghastly hallway. Carefully and quietly, they all followed. The hallway was empty and somehow that made the sickening feeling in Grayson's stomach worse. There was no way the creature would just disappear without the means of an encore. The boy would prefer it to be here and dead than out there and alive.

They tiptoed around the corner, all of the teen shaking with their weapons out. Much to their surprise, the house was empty except for their own fear. For the first time, Grayson felt like he could breathe.

"This is crazy. This is crazy," Steve began to mutter. Grayson began to rub his back softly in an attempt to calm him down. It didn't really work as the boy ran to the phone and presumably began dialing 9-1-1 before Nancy came and ripped the phone out of his hands. "What are you doing? Are you insane?"

"It's going to come back!" Nancy yelled, probably trying to knock some reason into the boy's head. "So you need to leave. Right now."

"I'm okay with that," Grayson intruded, "Steve we can mess with the apology, us and shit later, but right now, I don't wanna be here when that thing, whatever it was, pays the Byers household another visit, okay?"

Steve looked around, dazed and confused before he finally ran out the door, pulling Grayson with him. He was so happy to be breathing fresh air and to be out of that haunted house, he couldn't even relish the fact that Steve was holding his hand. They were about to leave when they turned to face the house. Grayson sighed. The lights were flickering again, the electricity pulsating with life meaning the creature was most definitely back. They looked at each other, trying to figure out what they should do. With a deep sigh, Grayson nodded and they both sprinted back into the house. Of course, the one time Grayson had good morals was when it involved life and death instead of normal teenage drama.

When they ran inside, Jonathan was on the floor with the thing on top of him. It was so close, Grayson could see the creature's saliva dripping on top of him. Nancy was shooting it, but that was only making it angry. The creature stood up and stalked over to the girl. He had to hold back the vomit, but Steve surprisingly lept into action. He grabbed the discarded bat and jumped in front of Nancy, attacking the monster.

"Steve!" Nancy and Grayson both yelled while he attacked. At one point, he flipped the bat hit the monster so hard and Grayson had to admit he was a little impressed. He knew the boy played baseball, but this wasn't really all that close to baseball besides bat usage.

The monster's foot finally landed in the bear trap and it snapped shut.

"It's in the trap!" Jonathan yelled, "He's stuck!"

"Jonathan, now!" The Wheeler girl screamed and Grayson was left to wonder what their plan was. Although, he figured it out soon enough when Jonathan tossed a lighter onto a gasoline-soaked floor and engulfed the monster in flames.

They had to shield themselves from the unbearable heat, Grayson cowering behind Steve. After a moment of the fire burning, Jonathan ran and grabbed a fire extinguisher. Finally, the room darkened once again. All of them were coughing, trying to regain their breath after brief smoke inhalation. When the smoke cleared, the monster was gone.

"Where did it go?" Nancy asked.

The Byers boy sighed, "No. It has to be dead. It has to be."

Dead or not, Grayson was happy for a brief moment of relief. However, it didn't last long when the Christmas lights above them began to light up one by one.

"If that fucking monster is back, I swear to God," Grayson muttered, praying the lights didn't mean what he thought they meant. He really needed a break after this. Thankfully, no monsters came crashing through ceilings just yet. They followed the trail of lights as it traveled throughout the house, getting more confused by the moment.

Staring at the lights, Jonathan asked strangely, "Mom? Is that you?"

"How would it be—" Grayson began to ask, but was shut up by Steve hitting him softly on the arm.

"Shush," Steve instructed, causing the boy to roll his eyes. However, it was hard to be mad at Steve when they had just gone through all of this.

Jonathan received no answer, but when they stepped outside a street lamp was flickering much like the lights inside the house had been.

"Where's it going?" Nancy asked, peering over the boy's shoulder.

After a moment, without breaking his gaze on the lamp, Jonathan simply said, "I don't think that's the monster."

"Can you give one straight answer like literally ever, Jonathan? Tell me that," Grayson asked, causing Steve to struggle in holding back a laugh. The two boys just shared a look but didn't say anything else.

"I think my mom went into the Upside Down, she's looking for Will."

"Yeah, okay, and what the fuck is the Upside Down?" the Mills boy asked again. Now that the monster was gone, he really would like some explanation. "Can someone tell us what's going on now that we're not in any immediate danger? It would mean a lot, thanks."

Steve nodded, "What he said."

"All right," Nancy spoke after a moment, "We, we have a lot of explaining to do. But first, why did you come here in the first place? I mean, you could have stayed out of all of this, why were you here?"

"Well, to be fair, I didn't know there would be a bloodthirsty monster out to get us when I came here," Steve sighed, "but I wanted to apologize. For the way I treated you, for cheating on you, and for not appreciated you or trusting you. Those were some douche moves and all they did was hurt me. Literally, thank you for that Jonathan."

The Byers boy just shrugged, muttering a brief, "Sorry."

Nancy just smiled, "It's okay, Steve, you were obviously conflicted, I mean—" She gestured to Grayson, "You must have been repressing some shit. If you liked boys, you could have just told me instead of all of this."

"Well, I like girls, too," Steve explained, "Just, right now, I only really like one boy. I, I hope you'll be okay with that? Sorry, I'm bad at breakups."

The girl only laughed, which caused Grayson to sigh with relief. He was glad the girl was able to be kind even after everything that happened. "It's fine, Steve. Something tells me we weren't really built to last, anyway."

Steve smiled, "Thank you."

yay happy ending! the next chapter or two will likely be the last thirty minutes of episode eight and then i'll do the events leading up to Christmas and then finally a little Christmas chapter and an epilogue!