chapter twenty-three
ruby, baby

🖤

RUBY CANNOT STOP THINKING ABOUT the voice inside of her head. She keeps on thinking about her mom, and wishes she could've had a couple extra minutes with her. But as Steve gets dressed in the bathroom, needing to head out to work soon, Ruby rubs her eyes, exhausted. This is so strange. She knows her mom didn't have powers, that's why it was such a miracle when Ruby had them. The tests to make Ruby perfect hurt her mom's body, her grandpa wouldn't have lied, especially if it meant his daughter was less amazing than she actually was.

"Ruby... he lied to you," the voice says.

"But not about that," she says.

"I can show you the truth," he tells her.

She grumbles. "I know the truth—!"

Steve opens her bedroom door, wearing his clothes from the night before. She jumps to her feet, like a child caught doing something wrong. Steve's brows furrow, knowing something's wrong. But thankfully, now that Steve's here, the voice is gone. Ruby feels comforted.

"Are you OK, Rubes?"

Ruby nods, scratching her arm. Her fingers brush across the light scarring from last year, when the demodog clawed her. It all seems like a lifetime ago, the memory of her on the top of the old school bus, recklessly throwing herself in the face of danger to help those kids. Kids that she's since remained friends with, as weird as it looks to others. She'd say hi whenever they crossed paths outside of the high and middle schools, and the other teenagers would raise their eyebrows, wondering why the hell Ruby Brenner was friendly with middle schoolers. Even Eddie Munson thought it was weird.

"Yeah, I'm fine... How long is your shift today?"

"Nine 'til close," he says, and he makes a gun with his fingers, gesturing shooting himself. "Kill me now, right? What, uh, are you gonna do today?"

Figure out what this voice wants, she thinks.

"I don't know... Maybe I can come and see you?"

She waits for the voice to speak to her, to claim that Steve finds her annoying, but there's silence. Ruby finds that interesting. The voice is nothing but alive, and the second Steve's in the same room as her, it shuts up? Maybe Ruby needs to attach herself to him. In a not-weird-way, she'd happily do that anyway, but now, it isn't her being infatuated with her boyfriend, it's because his presence is the only thing keeping the voice quiet.

"Please do," he tells her. She's sitting on the bed still, and he leans down, giving her a kiss. Ruby feels like she's melting, she loves him so much. "Do you wanna come in with me now? Or do you wanna wait until that, uh, jazz... ercise class opens, and come then? And then you can go over to Scoops afterwards, and you can just sit with us all afternoon." This is why she loves him. He has no clue what's going on with her — she doesn't either, in all fairness — but he knows she needs help, and he's ready. Still, he looks worried, as if he's gotten too ahead of himself. "If that's what you want. Our boss is never in, so you won't get into trouble or anything."

"Are you sure you don't mind me there?" says Ruby.

Steve shakes his head. "You'll be the best part of my day."

Ruby starts to smile.

She gives him a kiss as he leaves for his shift, and she returns to her bedroom. If she can make it through the next three hours without hearing that voice, she'll be happy — then, she can spend the rest of the day with her boyfriend, and if anything is up, they can figure it out together. She grabs her Walkman, opting for the most invasive of audio equipment, and slips in a cassette. One she custom-made a while back, creatively called, SUMMER '85. She likes to make a new mixtape for every season, and although her favourite music will always and forever be electronic — the kind that drives her dad crazy, claiming it's not real music — this particular mixtape houses mostly 70s rock. She's always in the mood for retro rock in the summer. Something about warm summer nights puts her in the Jimi Hendrix spirit. The first song, Derek and the Dominoes's Layla, begins to play, and Ruby's listened to this cassette enough times to know that it's All Along the Watchtower (her beloved Jimi) afterwards, then White Rabbit, then Edge of Reality. She claims that Elvis fits the vibes, because he was considered rock once, but really, it's because she has nowhere else to put that masterpiece of a song.

The beginning of Bananarama's Cruel Summer is playing as she walks outside, only turning off the Walkman when she's sat in her car, able to quickly switch over to the car stereo. Cruel Summer fades into Psycho Killer as she drives down the street, rolling through the usual route to the mall. Everything is going to be fine, she decides, as long as she's (a) near Steve or (b) blasting music into her ears... She prays this voice goes away before she develops tinnitus.

Ruby claims the exercise mat closest to the speaker, hoping this'll do for the next hour. The usual instructor gives her a smile, before the workout class falls into motion. Keep the voice at bay, she tells herself, her task for now.

The usual Madonna-stroke-top-forty medley plays for the next forty-five minutes. Ruby follows the instructors moves, trying to ground herself in her body. She's never had to do this before, actively stop herself from stumbling into the Upside Down. She's had to make efforts to fall into it, or the In-Between Space, but never steer clear... It feels weird, doing the reverse of what she's good at. Quiet spaces and carefulness have become noisiness and chaos. She moves down into a squat, the feeling of her thighs burning keeping her safely inside this reality.

Ruby finishes the session and jumps straight into the place's showers. Normally, she avoids it and uses her own, but she'd rather not spend the entire afternoon smelling of sweat. But, she knows she can't wear her Walkman in the shower — unless she wanted to die by electrocution (... can she be electrocuted by batteries? She'll have to ask Dustin) — so she's at risk from the voice, meaning she'll have to be quick. She scrubs her body clean, and as the suds start dripping down her legs, the worst happens.

"You'll let me in eventually, Ruby..."

Ruby grimaces, and tries to wash the soapy water off of her as quickly as possible. She accidentally knocks the temperature dial, and she gasps at the sudden increase. But, the voice disappears. Interesting, she thinks.

She keeps the water on hot, and spends an extra five minutes in the shower. The water falls off her back, and she closes her eyes, blissfully alone. Maybe the voice is like everything else from the Upside Down, its weakness being heat... It scares her, the idea that the Upside Down is now in her head, and she thinks back to last year, that other monster they were talking about when Will was possessed... Ruby prays Dustin's at Scoops, so she can ask questions.

Ruby steps out of the shower, gets changed. She brought an extra outfit with her, but since her mind was focusing on staying un-possessed (is that a word? Ruby's decided it is) she didn't have any critical thought about her fashion choices. So, she chose the most basic, a vest top tight enough it doesn't require a bra, and jean shorts. She wears the same trainers, cream Reeboks with purple detailing, but changes her socks. Ruby undoes her ponytail as she walks out of the mall's jazzercise unit, promptly pulling her headphones onto her ears.

"There's my girl," he says as she walks in the store, luckily pulling her headphones off the second before. Thank God she did this, because she's never been able to lip-read, something that was a problem when they were in school and needed to communicate quietly. They got good at passing notes, though. (Ruby thinks her powers mysteriously hid the scraps of paper, whenever a teacher went looking for one.)

"Hey, sailor," she says with a smile, giving him a kiss.

"Ew." Dustin grimaces, leaning against the ice cream counter.

Ruby looks back at Steve, who must've been dealing with Dustin all morning, because he rolls his eyes. He looks down at the headphones in Ruby's hands, and takes hold of them to hear what she was listening to.

"You're my Cherry Bomb," he tells her.

Ruby smiles.

"Wait." He looks down at her chest. "Why's your skin so red?"

"Oh, uh, hot shower," she says, trying to brush it off.

Steve presses his fingers to her skin. "Were you trying to boil yourself alive?"

"Maybe," she says with a shrug.

She sits the headphones around her neck as she follows Steve towards Dustin. "Hey, Dus," she says to him. "Can someone die if they wore a Walkman in the shower?"

Dustin and Steve tilt their heads.

"Well, yeah, from the batteries?" he says.

Ruby shrugs. "I was unsure."

Steve looks at her, uncertain. "Why were you thinking about...?"

But before he can finish the question, the staffroom door swings open. Robin appears in the threshold, holding a piece of paper. Ruby thinks, fuck. Now she'll have to wait until later, to ask Dustin about anything, or even tell Steve something's wrong.

"I've got the next word."

Ruby frowns. "What next word?"

"Of our super fun riddle game!" says Dustin, loudly, looking around to make sure people can hear. They can, because he's yelling. Lucas' sister mouths something, which Ruby can only presume is loser or weirdo or... you get the idea, considering the look on her face.

"C'mon," says Steve, and he takes Ruby's hand, pulling her into the backroom.

As soon as the door closes, Ruby gives Steve a funny look.

"Super fun riddle game?" she questions.

"We think there's Russians—"

She raises an eyebrow. "In the world?"

"No — well, yes, obviously—"

"So what has got to do with super fun riddle games?"

Dustin breaks up the squabble by exclaiming, "We intercepted a super-secret Russian message!"

Ruby goes quiet, and glances back at the door into the store — and the window that slides open into the workstation. They can't be sound-proof. If the uniforms are this ugly, they do not have the budget for sound-proofing. She looks across at the others, who must've thought the same. About the lack of sound-proofing, not the ugly uniforms. Ruby sighs.

"You think there's Russians in Hawkins?"

"Maybe not in Hawkins, but it's definitely them." Steve sits her down for this, and he reaches his hands out, as if pleading she'll actually listen to this. Because it sounds crazy, and Ruby feels justified to be apprehensive about this. "We picked up this message on Henderson's big Walkie-Talkie satellite thing, and Robin can speak Russian—"

Ruby's jaw drops, feeling stupid. "You can speak Russian?"

Robin's cheeks go red. "I mean—uh—not really, but I speak other languages—like Spanish and French and Italian—so I kind-of, uh, understood it—"

Steve looks across at Robin, confused by something. Ruby wonders if Robin's always this awkward. "... Anyway — we know it's Russian," says Steve. "And we don't know where it's coming from, but it's Russian! So we're going to crack the code, become American heroes, you know, the works."

Ruby doesn't know what to say.

"I don't believe you," says Ruby.

"We've dealt with weirder shit than this," says Steve, which is true.

But Ruby glances awkwardly at Robin, who's clueless to what Steve means, thank God. She knows he'd never tell anyone, but Ruby, for a split second, had an awful vision of someone else accidentally hearing and finding out about her — it's not as if Dustin can whisper, is it? But Robin's in the dark, so it's fine.

"Yeah... but that was normal to me, so this is actually weird—"

"Jesus Christ," and Dustin plays the tape sitting on the table next to her.

A string of words in another language play. Ruby takes their word that it's Russian.

"I—I just don't get how you even picked it up," says Robin, to Dustin, her ability to form sentences returning.

"It was a big satellite," says Dustin with a shrug.

"Do you guys just wanna decode this message?" says Ruby. "Or, like, find where the Russians are?"

"Depends," says Steve, with a shrug.

"I don't think we can fight Russians," says Robin, concerned.

Dustin shakes his head. "Ruby could."

Ruby freezes for a second, but Robin doesn't believe him.

"How?"

"... By... emotionally destroying them," says Ruby, realising this isn't even a lie.

Robin doesn't even have to consider this before she agrees, which is fair enough.

"I can't help with translating Russian," says Ruby. "I struggled with Spanish class."

"Well, I'm staying out front so Robin can translate, so you can come with me?" says Steve, which Ruby prefers anyway. He grabs a spare Scoops shirt and hat. "No one will know you don't work here."

"I'm not wearing that."

Steve smiles.

🖤

AS IF SHE COULD HIDE FROM HIM.

He knows everything about Ruby. The little girl from the lab, the perfect girl — Doctor Brenner had the most powerful human in the world in front of him, and yet, he discarded him for the little girl that granted herself powers. They weren't even as powerful as his — her powers were all defensive, there was no power to them, no emotion. His came from his innate desire to disrupt the world. This girl just wants to win Prom Queen.

And here she is, thinking her boyfriend will keep her safe. Does she know who she's dealing with? If bullying won't work — if the intrigue of her mother won't work — he'll wait in the shadows. Lurking, listening, waiting for the perfect time to snatch her out of this reality.

🖤

SO SHE ENDED UP WEARING THAT.

Ruby leans against the counter, her arms crossed. She keeps on looking down at the branded shirt, and the stupid little waistcoat sewn to it, and tries to remind herself that she could also be wearing the shorts. That would be a travesty. She thinks she'd lose her place at Parsons if she wore the entire outfit. That, or be diagnosed with camel toe.

The past two hours, she kept on thinking about suggesting she visits the In-Between Space, to find these Russians and see what they're doing, but she remembered the voice in her head, and started to worry that that would "let him in." Whatever that means, she knows it can't be good. But it begins to dawn on her that without her powers, she's useless in these situations. What else is she, apart from having powers? And now that she can't even use them...

"Are you OK, Rubes?"

Ruby looks across at Steve. He's frowning, looking as worried as he was this morning, or the day before. Ruby knows she needs to tell someone sooner or later, but what is he going to do?

"Is it something to do with...?" He trails off, pointing towards the X on her wrist, which she once tried to disguise by stick-and-poking an O next to it.

Ruby nods, but she keeps on looking around, uncomfortable by the amount of people that could overhear anything more explicit.

"Tell me tonight," he tells her.

Ruby smiles softly. "I love you."

Steve kisses her forehead, before returning to work, greeting the next group of customers. Ruby slips into the staffroom, remembering to speak to Dustin about that other monster.

"Hey, Robin, Steve needs you out-front," says Ruby.

"What's he done now?" says Robin, grumbling as she gets to her feet. Ruby thought it would take more persuasion than that.

"OK, Dus, do you remember that monster you guys were talking about, last year?" says Ruby. "Be quick, in case Robin comes back—"

"The Mind Flayer? Why do you wanna know about the Mind Flayer—?"

The door swings open. Ruby spins around, panicked, but sighs when it's Steve.

"I got Robin on the cashier, what's wrong?" he says.

In any other situation, it would make Ruby swoon that he went along with her lie, wanting to make sure she was OK. Instead, her mind is clouded by something else.

"The Mind Flayer," says Ruby, to Dustin. "What do you know about it?"

"Uh, I know everything," says Dustin.

"That's not helpful!" she argues.

"The Mind Flayer?" Steve frowns. "Wasn't that the thing from last year?"

Dustin nods. "Yes — it's a creature from another dimension, but it's so ancient it doesn't even know where it is — and it enslaves races from different dimensions by taking over their brains..."

Ruby puts her hands over her face. "Fuck."

"Hey, uh, guys? Is something going on?"

Robin's standing in the doorframe, but she pauses, seeing Ruby about to curl into foetal position, Steve and Dustin their eyes wide. Ruby doesn't look up, focusing on what. Dustin's just said. Taking over their brains. That's exactly what this voice wants! It's the fucking Mind Flayer talking to her! It's her monster but worse! It's the Upside Down, finally finding the way to kill her — the demogorgon didn't work, the demodogs didn't, it's created it's personal demon to possess her. How is she going to survive this? By handcuffing herself to Steve? By blasting music into her ears until she goes deaf? But what if Steve gets fed up of her, what if her deafness means she has no way to not hear the voice? She's fucked, she's fucked, she—

"Are you pregnant, or something?"

Ruby cries, "I wish!"

There's a pause. Robin and Dustin look at Steve, who's equally stunned. He knows she doesn't mean it like that — to her, dealing with a pregnancy and the subsequent abortion would be traumatic, but preferable to this, because an aborted foetus wouldn't possess her trying to take over the world — but still, it takes Steve off-guard.

What Ruby doesn't understand is why this Mind Flayer has chosen her. Out of everyone, why is she the first human to get possessed? Is it because of her powers — because if that's the case, why not El? Or anyone else from the lab? She knows El met one of them last year, surely there's more out there? What is it about Ruby that's made her number one?

"I didn't mean that," says Ruby, looking up at Robin. "I... exaggerate sometimes."

"I... figured?" says Robin.

"I hoped," Steve says.

Ruby gives him a look, because that's a lie.

"I'm fine," says Ruby, straightening her posture again. She takes in a breath, in, out. Everything's fine. Everything's fine. She can get through this, if she doesn't let her emotions get the best of her — which will be difficult for her, her body has burned down buildings because of her emotions before — but she can try. And Steve will be there, if there's a problem. It'll be fine. She's got Steve, she can do this.

"Let's go out front," says Steve, and he takes hold of Ruby's hand, squeezing it tightly. "We will talk properly after work, I promise."

Ruby nods.

The day begins to move by, and Ruby starts to feel better, helping Steve make the sundaes as Robin stays in the back. Ruby realises she isn't so bad at talking to customers, realising her lab-given charm lends itself in these situations, too. After a while, she becomes the one going back and forth between the backroom and the register, relaying the newest word to Steve, for the two of them to mull over as they wait for the next string of customers. She even goes for a couple of walks around the mall, testing to see if the voice comes back whilst she's away from Steve. It doesn't, which makes her relieved.

By the end of the day, they have a whole sentence. "The week is long, the silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west." Ruby tries to use her analytical skills to think it through, but all she can figure is that "west" could mean America. "Blue meets yellow" could be green, the colour that's created when blue and yellow are mixed, but Ruby feels as though all of her ideas are too English class-esque for them to mean anything in the real world. She wants to give up, feeling like all of her skills fall down to her powers. Even in the area where she's smart, she still has no clue. But if they needed to light something on fire? She's got it.

"I'll take this," Steve says as Ruby hands him the Scoops Ahoy shirt and hat. "You looked pretty cute in it, I've got to say."

"You wear it better," she says, smiling.

Steve shakes his head. "It's the hat, it ruins my best asset," he tells her, taking the sailor hat off. He uses his fingers to try and fix his hair, as she shrugs her shoulders.

"I think your face is your best asset," she says.

He smiles back at her.

The four of them leave Scoops Ahoy as the whole mall is closed, the staff members of other establishments having already left. The metal rail securing the ice cream parlour rolls down behind them, as they start walking out of the food court, towards the parking lot.

"Well, so much for being American heroes." Steve lets out a sigh, walking alongside Ruby. She does feel better, feeling a lot more comforted now that her boyfriend partially knows what's wrong — plus the fact that the voice hasn't piped up all day. Her ego feels bruised, sure, because she can't help with this message, but that's another thing. She'd rather focus on this weird Russian telegram than the Mind Flayer. "It's total nonsense."

Ruby nods, agreeing with Steve, but Dustin frowns.

"It's not nonsense, it's too specific," says Dustin. "It's obviously a code."

"What do you mean, a code?"

"Like a super secret spy code," says Dustin.

Ruby glances over as Steve rolls his eyes. "That's a total stretch," he says.

"I don't know." Robin looks back at Steve and Ruby; she exchanges a glance with Steve, but her eyes barely flicker over to Ruby, as if she's nervous to look at her. It makes Ruby feel a little left out. "Is it?"

Steve's unconvinced. "You're buying into this?"

"Listen, just for kicks, let's entertain the possibility that it is a secret Russian transmission," says Robin. "What'd you think they were gonna say, "Fire the warhead at noon"?"

Dustin pipes in, "Exactly!"

"And my translation is correct, I know that for sure, so... "The silver cat feeds." Why would anyone talk like that unless they're trying to mask the meaning of their message?"

Dustin, again, goes, "Exactly!"

"Why would anyone mask the true meaning of their message unless the message was somehow sensitive?"

"Exactly!" Guess who said this.

Robin gestures to Dustin. "So I guess that confirms your suspicion."

Dustin nods. "Evil Russians."

Robin lets out a huff of disbelief. "I can't believe I'm about to agree with this strange child, but, yeah — totally evil Russians."

"But even if that's the case — isn't this kind of weird?" says Ruby, who can't seem to let go that, somehow, they've intercepted a message coming from Russia. There was a secret government lab in the woods for years, she knows there's creepy government people that would've caught this, if they managed to. "Not the message, but the fact that Dustin could even pick it up? Even if he had that big walkie talkie... Russia's a long way from Hawkins, and everyone and their mother is spying on them. Wouldn't someone in the government find this, too?"

Robin turns around to look at her — and for the first time all day, looks Ruby long enough in the eyes for Ruby to think they're actually having a conversation. "Maybe the message will tell us that? Hopefully if we translate the rest, they'll be a pattern to it."

Dustin nods. "Like maybe "silver cat" is a meeting place?"

Robin says, "Or a person."

"Or a weapon."

Ruby frowns, still unsure. For someone with little faith in the government — thank her grandpa for that one — she still feels as though there must be a secret part of the government translating this, and understanding it. They're kids. A middle schooler, a seventeen-year-old, and two eighteen-year-olds. They're not exactly the most intelligent, especially compared to an American James Bond, right?

"It's probably gonna take a super genius to crack it, but..." Robin trails off, looking to Ruby's side. "Where's Steve?"

Ruby glances to her side, and feels bad she didn't notice he stopped walking. She turns around, finding him next to one of the kids' rides, a little horse that rocks back and forth for a quarter a minute.

"What are you doing?" says Ruby.

"Do you have a quarter?" he says.

Robin snorts. "Sure you're tall enough for that ride?"

Ruby looks across at Robin and smirks, but Steve rolls his eyes, putting his hand out for the loose change. "Quarter!" he demands.

"Uh, what's the magic word?" says Ruby, giving him a look.

Steve groans. "Just give me a quarter, please!"

Ruby hands the quarter over, and Steve takes it — snatches it, even. She exchanges a look with Robin, who's just as confused. Steve pushes the quarter into the horse's coin slot, as it begins to rock on its stand, the nursery chime playing.

"You need help getting up, little Stevie?" says Robin, which makes Ruby laugh.

"Shh!" He says, raising his index finger to silence them. "Would you just shut up and listen?"

Ruby waits for a moment, brows furrowed as she listens to the horse's music.

"Holy shit," says Dustin, who hurriedly searches through his bag, pulling out the cassette player. "The music, the music!"

Robin looks at Ruby, who's equally confused. "I don't understand..."

"It's the exact same song on the recording," Dustin explains, and he starts to play the cassette. And, just like that, the same little tinny tune plays out.

"Maybe they have horses like this in Russia?" says Robin.

Steve points to the ride's name. ""Indiana Flyer"? I don't... I don't think so."

Ruby wants to argue that this could just be a generic mall ride, only renamed for different areas — but, the fact they even discovered this message makes sense that it was coming from here. That must've been why Dustin picked it up in the first place.

"This code, it didn't come from Russia," says Steve, looking up. "It came from here."

Ruby feels a little anxious, now that they're standing in the same place this message came from. She looks down at her hands, and remembers what she said earlier. I could fight them. She takes that back. Not because she couldn't — she most definitely could — but because she doesn't want to. She didn't sign up to become a war hero.

"Hasn't this town had enough?" says Ruby, heaving out a sigh.

She starts walking towards the parking lot, a little annoyed, a little glad that this is the main concern in her life now, the voice a distant memory. Steve catches up to her, but as the four of them reach the parking lot, Ruby spots her car. She forgot she came here on her own.

Steve must've forgotten, too, because he looks at her car, and then his, a five minute walk the other direction. She hasn't heard the voice all day, so she hopes it's gone away now, but still, the thought of the drive home alone, and the wait for Steve to drop off Dustin and Robin (who must've taken the bus this morning) before heading to hers, makes her uneasy.

"We can leave your car here overnight," he suggests.

"I'm not sure you can," says Dustin, who points to a sign that says, all cars left overnight will be towed.

"I'll be fine," says Ruby, trying to convince herself. "It's a short drive."

Steve raises his eyebrows, and he remembers that Robin is close enough to overhear, so he takes Ruby's hand, pulling her further away. "Are you sure...?"

"Yes," she says, trying to convince him. "I've gone all day without hearing him. And earlier, I blocked it listening to music... I can do it." He looks worried, and Ruby takes hold of his hand. "I promise I'll be OK. And then you can come over after, and we can talk it all through. I'll be OK."

"OK," he says, apprehensive still.

"I love you," she tells him.

"I love you, too," he says back.

She kisses his cheek before walking back to her car, deciding to leave her headphones around her neck for now. If the voice comes back, Steve's still near to help her out. But, as she gets to her car and turns it on, the voice is yet to return. She puts the mixtape into the car stereo, and glances back at Steve, who's stayed in the same place, waiting for her to drive off.

Ruby feels guilty, that all he does is worry about her. It didn't use to be like this — there'd be days back when he didn't know about her powers, and she'd act up, and he'd be worried for a little while, but she'd be able to reassure him after a while. Now, he'll be fine, and she'll have one weird day and he won't leave her side. It used to make her feel better, but now she just feels guilty, because a normal girlfriend wouldn't be like this. He didn't spend every waking minute worrying about Nancy. It's just Ruby. Ruby the weirdo.

She starts the drive back to her house, deciding to take the shorter route. Steve's house is the other direction this way, but Ruby thinks she'll be better off, taking the shorter drive and holing herself up in her house, headphones blaring. (Don't Fear) the Reaper is keeping her company right now, and she thinks it's doing the trick.

Coming up on her right is an abandoned mill, and Ruby wonders how long it'll be until it's bulldozed, making way for a gas station perfect for mall-goers. Her eyes move back to the road ahead, but weirdly, the stereo cuts off her mixtape, changing to the radio. That's weird, she thinks, and she reaches to change it back—

But the song takes her by surprise.

"Ruby baby, how I want you..."

That's even weirder.

"Like a ghost I'm gonna haunt you..."

It's just a song. It's just a song. There's nothing supernatural about this song choice.

"Ruby baby, when will you be mine?"

A deer jumps in front of Ruby's car. She screams, the car screeching to the side of the road, crashing in front of the mill. She stumbles out of the car, and looks back — but she can't see the deer anymore, so she presumes it ran off. Her eyes return to the mill, as the song somehow continues to play from her car. She wishes she risked getting it towed at the mall, everything is making her feel uneasy.

"I'm gonna steal you away from all those guys..."

Ruby looks down, realising that her front tyre's wrecked, the air pooling out, looking as though her car's melting into the broken tarmac. She looks over at the mill, where there's a truck parked in front, and car parts. No tyres, but maybe they'll be one inside...

"Made a bet that I would get you..."

Despite feeling nervous, she slowly walks toward the entrance, a wooden door whose beams have since fallen off, making a man-sized hole in the entrance. Ruby steps through it, and looks up. The roof has mostly fallen through, so she's guided by the moonlight — this does, however, allow her to see the rats on the floor. She almost jumps out of her skin, and a ring of fire surrounds her, making the rats screech in fear.

"Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, baby..."

Ruby feels her body warming up, as she extends her hands to stop the flames. She hates rats but she is in an abandoned building, what did she expect? Butterflies and Bambi greeting her? She looks down, trying to concentrate on extinguishing the fire — but before she can, she looks up, the orange light of the fire revealing the thing in front of her.

She's in shock. It's huge, a massive black monster with legs like a spider. She can't make out a face, just it's awful legs — the texture of the demogorgon, or the demodogs; the weird slimey, veiny skin. There's a low growl, as the fire's blown out, but not by her, but by the beast. The Mind Flayer.

"Did you think you could out-smart me?" the voice asks her.

The voice isn't inside her head this time. It booms around the guts of the mill, the beast lingering in front of her. She can't see it, except for one leg, revealed slightly by the moonlight. Ruby puts her hands out, trying to start the fire again.

"You wanna possess me? Is that it?"

He tells her,"Your body will be at much better use with me..."

Ruby steps backwards, planning to run.

"You won't get away with this."

"Who cares about that? By the time anyone realises, they'll already be doomed."

Ruby turns to run, but the Mind Flayer raises one of its legs, grabbing her. She's forced up into the air; she tries to scream, but her body is paralysed. She tries to move her legs — she uses all of her strength — but nothing moves. She tries to move a toe, and yet there she is, frozen. Her entire body feels like it's out of her control, and this voice has taken over completely. Her mind is panicking, but her body is tingling, like she's about to faint.

No. She tries to fight against it, knowing the second she loses consciousness, she's lost completely. But how does she even fight this? With pure stubbornness, and hope he gives up first? Part of her wishes that Steve finds her, but then she knows he'll get hurt, too. She tries to think of her boyfriend, to keep herself grounded in this world. She thinks of his stupid hair, of his smile, of the way he holds her whenever she's close. She thinks of all of the nicknames he gives her. She thinks of his warm voice, the nonchalant charm to his greetings. "There's my girl," she remembers him saying this morning. She keeps on thinking about him. Steve, Steve, Steve. About how he's always been there for her. How they went a whole year without speaking, and yet there he was, wanting to be friends again, wanting to be there for her. "The only person I'd go into a burning building like that for... is you."

Burning buildings.

Burning buildings...

... What if this is how she dies?

What if this thing goes straight for Steve? For Eleven? For her dad?

The thought takes her by surprise, and if she could, she'd cry.

And this is when he snatches her.

Ruby's body stings at the pain, of someone else trying to control it. It tries to fight back — it tries to help her where her mind can't — but it's no use. The voice, the Mind Flayer, has his grasp on her now. The wormy ends of the monster's leg dig into her sides, holding onto her tighter, almost piercing her.

Her irises roll to the back of her head, the whites of her eyes pure porcelain in the moonlight. The last of Ruby's being — of her thoughts, of her stubbornness, of her recklessness, of her emotions and love and values, of her determination and drive, of her hopes and dreams, of her fears and anxieties — wash away, unimportant. Her body isn't hers anymore, it's his.

Ruby's body is placed back on the floor. Ruby's body stands still, her eyes returning to normal. There's a coldness to the neutrality of her expression, her body unable to fully conceal the menacing nature it now possesses. Quietly, in the back of its head, it hears the original host's cry.

But instead, Flayed Ruby listens to someone else.

"My, my, who shall we choose first?"

In the distance, the car stereo sings, "Ruby, baby, when will you be mine...?"

this is long whoops

but i hope u enjoyed! eeee lmk your thoughts!<3

also the song at the end is 'ruby baby' by the drifters! it's what inspired the old title of this fic! glad i could use it in the most traumatic experience of ruby's life! xoxo