— CHILD OF THE MOON
season two — episode eight

CHAPTER EIGHT

OLIVER WAS SAT ON the floor of the Byers' kitchen, helping Max cover a chair with cardboard. Mike had this idea that they would turn their shed into a little hideout spot. But that meant that they had to cover everything and move everything out, too. But Oliver was willing to do the work if that meant getting to take a break and have a nice little nap. The rest of the group was currently out in the shed, covering it from head to toe in whatever they could.

      Max help up a long piece of duct tape while he rolled a piece of cardboard around a leg of the chair, holding it closed while she taped it down. Beside them, Mike dug through the cabinet underneath the sink, looking for bleach.

      Max unrolled part of the duct tape, glancing over at Mike. Oliver wasn't really sure what happened between them, but they seemed to have some sort of bad blood. "I get why El was your mage now." El? Oliver furrowed his eyebrows. Oh. He clicked his tongue when he realized that 'El' was Eleven. Probably a nickname. Mike turned around, setting down a bottle of bleach next to him. "What?" He questioned.

      "Lucas. He told me all about her." She tore off another piece of tape and Oliver turned his attention back to the chair, folding over some cardboard around the back of it. "Yeah, well, he shouldn't have." Oliver licked his lips before pushing his tongue to the inside of cheek. "And just because you know the truth, it doesn't mean you're in our party." If Oliver didn't have an injured leg he would've grabbed the boy by his hair and dragged him out of the room. "You do know that, right?"

      Disheartened, Max only nodded and muttered a soft, "Yeah, I know." She took in a sharp breath and Mike turned back around, digging through the contents beneath the cabinet once again. "I mean, why would you want a stupid zoomer in your party anyway?" Mike looked back at her and just as quickly turned around again.

      "I'm just saying, El? She sounds like she was really awesome." Oliver had to agree. He could only imagine seeing this small child beating the shit out of some older guys with her mind. He smiled softly at the thought, quickly shaking his head to forget about it.

      "Yeah, she was," he slammed the cabinet doors shut and picked up everything he had taken out. "Until that thing took her," Oliver's face fell. "Just like it took Bob." Almost every bad thought he had about the younger Wheeler disintegrated momentarily before he saw the saddened look on Max's face.

      As soon as Mike left the room, Oliver reached over and gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "Listen, I'm not sure what a 'party' is, but if you want to be in one so bad, screw theirs, let's make our own." Max laughed softly, nodding her head and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

      "You know, you're actually really cool." She said, looking up at him with a bright smile. The corners of his mouth tugged upward and soon, he was smile too. "When Lucas told me we were meeting up with you, I didn't know who you were. The only explanation he gave me was 'his mother had an...'" She looked up and watched as his face turned cold and quickly shook her head. "Whatever, you know what I'm talking about and I'm sure you don't want to relive that." He nodded and smiled gratefully at her.

      "But then you ended up actually being really cool." He felt his cheeks heat up from the compliment. He wasn't used to compliments so he wasn't really sure what to say or how to react. The only one's he had every really 3 were from his Grandma. "Like the way you fought that thing? Awesome!" Her eyes sparkled as she emphasized how cool he was, taping down another piece of cardboard. He laughed, an weird mixture of awkwardness and actual laughter.

      She settled down and looked back at him, her admiration for him had grown so much in the span of a few hours. She had a feeling it would only continue to grow. "Thank you." He said quietly, giving her the most genuine smile she has ever seen in her entire life. Her eyes flickered down to his leg — which seemed to be doing quite well — and frowned. "How's your leg?" She asked and he shrugged, pursing his lips.

       "As best as it can be for almost getting torn off." She nodded and scratched the back of her head, tearing another piece of the silver tape. "When this is all over, you should probably get it look at. Just to make sure, y'know?" Oliver laughed softly and nodded his head, ruffling her hair a little.

      "Don't worry. I will." Suddenly, Dustin came running into the room, scaring the absolute life out of both Max and Oliver. "Holy shit, Dustin! I'm going to fucking gut you! Come here!" He tugged his knife from his pocket and flipped it open, starting to push himself off the ground.

      "No, sorry!" He shouted, throwing his hands up in surrender while Max just watched in amusement, her shoulders shaking from laughter. "I was just coming to see if the chairs were ready yet? 'Cause everyone else is done with their stuff." He looked over at the one they were working on and then the one that was already covered in cardboard that was sat up next to Max. Max slapped down the last piece of duct tape and stood up, leaning up against both chairs with a cheeky smile. "Your chairs, my good sir." She slid them over to him and he cut them, tucking one under each arm.

      "Great, thanks!" He shouted as he ran back out the door, one of the chairs banging against the door frame. Max and Oliver turned to each other with a confused look before they laughed, Oliver leaning up against the table as he pretended to wipe tears from his eyes. "God, what am I gonna do with him?" He muttered, more to himself.

       "You sound like his father." Oliver turned to her with a bewildered look, mouth open in shock. She stared back at him with a goofy smile, arms crossed over her chest. "I do not!" He thought for a moment, recalling what he had just said and his face fell. "I do, don't I?" She snickered and reached over, patting his shoulder. "Come on, the others will be in here soon."

      A little too true to her words, the others came running inside and sat around the table with whatever remaining chairs they had. Jonathan walked over to the couch, where Will was currently passed out, and threw him over his shoulder, leaving the house almost as quickly as he came in. Joyce, Hopper, and Mike followed after him soon after that, wires in Hopper's grip.

     Oliver sat down on the couch with his jacket covering the majority of his body as Steve practiced swinging his bat in front if him, making sure he was far enough a way from him so that he didn't accidentally hurt the boy. Steve looked over at him and saw how exhausted he looked, his face softening almost immediately. To be honest, he regretted dragging him into this. Because of him, he had to fight one of those dogs. Because of him, he ended up getting hurt. Because of him. . . He shook his head and trudged over to the couch, taking a seat next to him.

      "I'm sorry about all of this." He muttered after a few moments of silence. Confused, Oliver looked over at him with a raised eyebrow. He smiled awkwardly and shook his head. "What are you talking about?" Steve looked over at him with saddened eyes, his lips pressed together in a thin line, shrugging.

      "I just. . ." Oliver looked over at him expectedly, waiting for him to continue. He shifted his body so that he was facing him, now leaning up against the back of the couch. Steve sighed and ran a hand through his hair — which miraculously still seemed to be perfect. "Because of me, you got dragged into this whole thing and even ended up getting hurt protecting me when I should've payed more attention. And I just know that you would rather be—." Oliver grabbed ahold of his face to keep him from talking, something he had noticed worked when he had done it in the bus.

      "Steve. Please just shut up." He laughed, somehow not noticing that Steve really wasn't paying attention to his words and was only paying attention to his lips. His beautiful carmine lips. "I've had more fun today than I ever will." He assured him, giving him a smile. Steve's nodded and quickly tore his gaze away from him before he could noticed how his cheeks were starting to warm. Oliver frowned at this and lowered his hand, turning back to the front while he played with his hands. Had he made him uncomfortable?

      Steve noticed this immediately and his gaze flickered toward his now fallen hand. He bit down on his lip as he thought for a moment, wondering if he was going to regret was he was about to do. He took in an inaudible sharp breath and reached over, clasping Oliver's hand in his. Oliver looked over, almost in shock, as a small smile settled on his face.

      So they sad there in a comfortable silence, hands intertwined together with small smiles on their faces, a very faint blush on one's cheeks while the other was almost as red as a tomato. That was until Hopper, Mike, Joyce, and Jonathan came crashing into the house, slamming down what seemed to be an empty envelope onto the table. Oliver got up quickly and raced over to the table, watching as he wrote down a series of dots and dashes. "Morse code?" Oliver asked himself and looked at the sequences. "Here." The group looked over at him quickly, some holding looks of bewilderment. It had taken him at most 2 seconds to figure out what the word was, Hopper hadn't even written out the letters yet.

      Hopper quickly shook his head and proceeded to say what he was thinking. "I think he's talking, just not with words." He finished up writing the letters and clicked his pen, placing it back into his pocket. "Will's still in there. He's talking to us." Hopper took the envelope and threw it onto the counter before he tossed the cardboard backing of a sketchpad and a red crayon over to Oliver. "I'm gonna send signals through the com, I want you to figure out what he's saying." He pointed at Oliver — who nodded quickly and sat down, getting ready to write.

      Jonathan rushed into Will's bedroom and came back out with a cassette player, running back out into the shed. The three that were with him before followed soon after, making sure that Oliver understood what he was doing. It was actually quite aggravating. He was smarter than they thought. A LOT smarter. He grabbed ahold of the com that was on the table and moved it closer to him, everyone else in the room circling around him as he fixed his grip on the red crayon.

      _•_• 'C'
      •_•• 'L'
      _ _ _ _ 'O'
      ••• 'S'
      • 'E'

      _ _• 'G'
      •_ 'A'
      _ 'T'
      • 'E'

      "Close gate." The surrounding teenagers muttered when he finished writing the last letter. Oliver was seriously confused by what that meant, but he didn't think it was very good. Suddenly, the phone started ringing and a horrible feeling started to grow in his stomach. Dustin raced over and lifted the phone off of the hook before slamming it back on. They let out a short sigh until it rang again. Just as Dustin was about to do it again, Nancy ran up from behind him and tore the entire thing off of the wall, throwing it down to the ground with a shout. Oliver would be lying if he said she didn't scare him a little.

      "Do you think he heard that?" Max asked, standing behind the chair that Oliver was still sat in. Steve shook his head, trying to reassure himself more than anyone. "It's just a phone. It could be anywhere, right?" He asked and Oliver frowned, knowing that some phones rang differently. He knew that they were probably screwed now. His suspicions were confirmed when monstrous screeches tore through the air. "That's not good."

      "No shit, Henderson." Oliver pushed himself out of his chair and walked over to the counters that were behind him. He tugged the drawers open, slamming them almost as quickly when he didn't find what he was looking for. Finally, when he started to think that maybe they didn't have one — which was weird — he found a chef's knife laying underneath some old rags. He dug through the drawer and pulled it out, the light in the room reflecting onto it.

      He smiled and flipped it around, catching it by it's handle. "Woah! Woah! Woah! Be careful with that thing!" Steve shouted from across the room just as the one's outside came running in, setting Will onto his bed instead of on the couch this time. The younger teens — who were curious — ran over to the couch and peered out the window, trying to see where they were. Oliver pulled out his pocket knife as well and held it in his other hand.

      "Hey. Hey, get away from the windows!" Hopper shouted. The teens quickly backed away, falling behind some of the others that were crowded in the room. Steve held his bat full of nails and Lucas was preparing his slingshot. Max stood behind Lucas and Mike was pathetically holding a candle holder. Hopper turned to face Jonathan and held out the shotgun he was holding it his right hand. "Do you know how to use this?"

      "What?" He asked immediately, taken off guard by the questions. Hopper sighed and shoved it out towards him again to see if he would understand this time. "Can you use this?" He asked again. Nancy raised her hand from beside him.

      "I can." She said sternly. Hopper didn't even bother to asked questions as he tossed her the shotgun. She caught it with ease and got it ready, aiming it toward the front of them. Hopper fell into the group and aimed his own gun at the front. Steve looked over at Oliver for a quick moment and frowned, a little terrified by how he looked. He had disheveled hair with two knifes in his hands, and a wounded leg, of course. He looked like he came fresh out of a horror movie.

      The room fell silent, the only sound they heard was the occasional sound of clothes rubbing together and the roars of the monsters. It was so quiet that you could probably hear a pin drop. Oliver swallowed thickly as his eyes flickered back and forth from the front door and the window in front of them. He couldn't decipher which way they were coming from. "Where are they?" Max asked, terrified, and rightfully so.

      This was absolutely nerve-wracking. The only people who had actually fought one of these things were Steve and Oliver. And they almost died from around five of them. Now, they were with the rest of the group, but there was also way more of the monsters as well. There was no way that they would be able to win that fight. It would end up with all of them dead and a possessed Will taking over the world.

      A loud thud caused all of them to turn to the right, aiming their weapons toward the window as if that were the real enemy. They actually looked quite hilarious and if it were any other situation, Oliver would've laughed. But this was life-or-death, so how they looked honestly did not matter one bit. "What are they doing?" Nancy asks, wondering why they were taking do long to attack. Of course, nobody really minded that they were taking forever, but it was strange.

Oliver furrowed his eyebrows and tilted his head to the side ever-so-slightly when he saw a shadow move quickly across what was most likely the Byers' porch. He kept his eye locked on the door while the others turned back around at the sound of another growl. Oliver bit down onto his lip and followed the rest of their gazes, now looking at the window on the left side of the room. The monster there let out a pained growl before it went completely silent. This was enough for Oliver to know that something else was out there. Or someone.

From what he had gathered, there was really only one person who could fight these things without getting insanely injured or killed. Eleven. His eyes widened when he realized who was out there and lowered his pocket knife, pushing it closed. He kept the other knife in his hand just in case, but he kept it pointed downward.

The group let out a series of shouts when one of the monsters came flying into the house, but it was unmoving and only rolled to the other side of the room, stopping when its back hit an end table. Oliver held his knife out to it since it was closest to him and studied it from where he was. It was dead, it had to be. Hopper walked forward and kicked it with his shoe, put nothing happened, it only laid there. Oliver let out a sigh of relief.

The sound of the lock clicking brought all of their attention to the front door. Eleven had incredible psionic abilities, so Oliver was pretty sure that unlocking a door was a walk in the park for her. He watched at the chain fell from the door and swung from side-to-side for a moment. Soon after, the door creaked open and the first thing he saw was a girl with beat-up white, baggy jeans with the ends rolled up, one sock pulled over one of the rolled up ends, a black t-shirt, and a black overcoat. Tied around her wrist was a bandana and her hair was slicked back like she was in some sort of 'cool guy' movie, dark eyeshadow surrounding her eyes messily.

It was Eleven. It was most definitely Eleven.

there's only two chapters left of part one!! ( season 2 ) this chapter is a lot shorter than the others because not much really happens in this time span. however, the next chapter will most likely be the longest since a lot of shit happens after this 😭