HAWKINS, INDIANA — 1985.

     IT WAS NINE O'CLOCK, AND THE MALL was closed for the night.

Theresa returned from the library with a stack of books, eyeing Erica as she stood in the back of Scoops Ahoy wearing a bicycle helmet with two flashlights attached.

"Alright, are you sure that you know where to go?" Tess questioned, Erica giving her a look.

"Oh please. I'm not stupid."

Theresa closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She handed Erica her backpack, chewing her inner lip anxiously. Tess was still unsure about this. She did not want endanger her little sister by involving her with a bunch of Russians.

"Be careful."

Erica pursed her lips. "Aren't I always?"

Theresa gave another sigh, turning to Steve, Dustin and Robin. She followed them out of Scoops Ahoy, the four of them heading to the roof. They were going to keep a lookout while Erica traveled through the vents to open the door hiding God knows what behind it.

"You're quiet," Steve muttered to Theresa as he squatted beside her, elbowing her softly.

Tess clenched the walkie-talkie tighter in her hand, keeping her eyes trained toward the large metal door.

"I just... kinda have a bad feeling."

Steve was about to reply when Erica's voice came over the walkie-talkie.

"You nerds in position or what?"

"Yes," Tess replied. "We don't see anything, so you've got the green light."

"Green light, roger that. Commence Operation Child Endangerment."

Theresa halfway rolled her eyes. "It's not child endangerment."

"How do you know?"

"Because I said so," Tess quickly shot back, pursing her lips.

Erica paused. "Whatever. See you on the other side. Nerds."

They sat around for a few minutes, waiting on Erica to give a response. Tess was growing more and more nervous by the second, tapping her fingers anxiously on the ledge.

"Alright, nerds," Erica's voice picked back up. "I'm there."

Theresa let out a relieved sigh, responding, "What do you see?"

"Just a bunch of boxes."

"Guards?"

"Negative," Erica responded.

Tess pursed her lips. "Alright, do you think you can get in?"

There was some commotion on the other end for a moment, Erica grunting as she did something.

"I'm in."

Steve covered his face with his hands. "Oh God."

They waited a few more moments, when suddenly the giant metal doors swung open. Erica walked out, placing a hand on her hip as she looked up at the four of them.

"Free ice cream. For. Life."

They quickly got down off of the roof, meeting up with Erica and the entrance to the storage room. As they walked in, Tess saw that Erica was telling the truth; it was nothing but boxes.

She placed her hands on her hips, drawing in a breath. "Great. So where do we start?"

Steve pulled out a pocket knife and flipped it open, the group all gathering around him as he sliced open a box. He turned some kind of lever, removing the top to whatever object was in the box.

"That's definitely not Chinese food," he muttered.

Tess reached her hand in to pick up whatever was in the box, but Steve quickly stopped her.

"Hey hey hey!" He grabbed her wrist, Theresa giving him a look.

"What?"

"What if it's something dangerous? I don't want you to get hurt."

She threw her head back with an eye roll. "Oh please."

Tess forced her arm away, picking up a cylindrical glass object that contained a strange green liquid.

"What in God's name is this shit?"

Before anyone could begin to answer Theresa's question, the walls and floor alike gave a jolting shake. She looked up, blinking.

"Was that just me or did the room move?" Dustin asked.

"Booby traps," Erica whispered.

There was a sound of mechanical whirring, the entire room shaking again.

"Oh no, we've gotta go."

Still holding the unknown green liquid, Theresa rushed over to the control panel and pressed the button. Nothing was happening as she pressed them all.

"What's going on?" Steve ran over, pressing the same button Tess was.

"I already pressed that one, dipshit!"

"Well let me try another one–"

"It's the 'open door' button, nerds!" Erica cut in, Theresa ignoring her.

She smacked Steve's hand away, Dustin finally walking over and squeezing his way between them.

"Dustin, quit it–"

He smacked a button and there was a loud bang, Tess lurching forward while the room started to move. The lights flickered in and out while Robin, Erica and Dustin screamed, Theresa grabbing onto Erica as they continued to move down at rapid speed.

"Everyone calm down!" Tess yelled over their screaming, but they were not listening to her. Dustin continued to frantically push buttons but nothing was working, Theresa trying to gather her thoughts but unable to with how she was panicking in the moment.

The room came to an abrupt halt, Theresa losing her balance and hitting the floor with Erica falling on top of her. Her elbow collided with Tess' ribcage, both Sinclair girls groaning.

"Is everyone okay?" Robin questioned, Steve pushing a box off of him while climbing to his feet.

"Yeah, I'm great, now that I know that Russians can't design elevators!" Steve's voice cracked as he yelled, trying to press buttons again.

Theresa got up, moving her hair out of her face. "Steve, the buttons do not work!"

"They're buttons, they have to do something–"

"Yeah, if we had a keycard," Robin interjected, gesturing to the control panel.

Steve turned, confused. "What?"

"It's an electronic lock," she continued, walking over. "Same as the loading dock door. If we don't have a keycard, it won't operate, meaning–"

"We're stuck in here," Dustin finished for her.

Tess closed her eyes, taking a deep breath.

"Just so you nerds are aware, I'm supposed to be spending the night at Tina's, and Tina always covers for me," Erica chided. "But if I'm not home for Uncle Jack's party tomorrow and my mom finds out who all's responsible, she's gonna hunt you down, one by one, and slit your throat."

"Erica!" Theresa pinched the bridge of her nose. "We don't care about Tina right now! There are more important things to be worrying about, mkay?"

Erica narrowed her eyes, Tess turning around and twisting her fingers while she racked her brain for an idea.

"Jesus, okay– there's gotta be another way out of here. We went down, so..."

She slowly raised her head, seeing a latch on the roof of the elevator. Theresa's face lit up.

"We can climb back up."

Steve argued that he should go first, but Tess was not listening to him. She made him boost her, Theresa lifting herself up as the others followed.

Looking up, Tess placed her hands on her hips once more in defeat.

"Shit."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"THIS IS A CODE RED, I REPEAT, THIS IS a code red. Does anyone copy?"

Tess leaned her head back against the wall while Dustin paced back and forth above the elevator with his walkie-talkie, trying to get any kind of communication.

"We are innocent children and we are trapped under Starcourt Mall," Dustin continued. "The Red Army has infiltrated Hawkins, and if we are found, they will torture and kill us."

"Hey!" Steve climbed up. "Gotta take it easy on that thing, gonna drain the battery."

Theresa checked the time on her watch. It was opening time for the mall. It didn't look like she would be making it in to work today.

"Jesus Christ, it has been eight hours," she exclaimed, finally standing up. Steve had disappeared to the top of the elevator with Dustin, leaving the girls in the storage room.

Robin looked up at Tess as she walked back and forth, finally climbing to her feet.

"So, have you come up with a super awesome plan to get us out of here yet?" she asked lightly.

Theresa shot her a look. "If I had then we wouldn't still be stuck here, now would we?"

Robin's smile fell slightly. "R-Right."

Looking at her for a moment, Tess sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm just– really stressed out right now."

With another smile, Robin gave a nod.

"I understand."

They both raised their heads just then as they heard a weird noise, seeing something trickling down the side of the wall.

Tess' mouth fell open with putrid realization. "Steve, are you taking a fucking piss?" she called, standing horrified.

"I can't help it!" he defended, Theresa wrinkling her nose in disgust.

"God, dudes are so gross," she muttered, Robin giving a laugh.

"I'm with you on that."

To her left, Erica suddenly began banging something against a metal barrel, Theresa's eyes going wide when she saw what she was doing.

"Erica, stop that!" She rushed over, snatching the glass container of green liquid from Erica's hands. "This stuff could be dangerous!"

"Or it could be useful," Erica countered.

Tess fought the urge to roll her eyes. "How? How the hell is this gonna be useful?"

"We can survive down here a long time without food, but if the human body doesn't get water, it will die."

"Yeah I know that, I'm not an idiot. But this," Tess raised the container, "isn't water!"

Erica pursed her lips. "No, but it's a liquid, and if it comes down to me drinking that shit or dying of thirst, I drink."

Robin snapped her fingers just then, grabbing the two girls' attention.

"Hey, listen."

Tess hurried over, pressing her ear against the wall where Robin stood. She heard a faint sound of sirens blaring, taking a step back.

She climbed up to where Steve and Dustin were. "Hey, we've got to hide!"

They did as she said, helping Erica and Robin up above the elevator while they waited out. The doors to the storage room lurched open, a man walking in while they all watched with baited breath.

Steve held a finger to his lips absentmindedly, turning his head to Erica as he noticed the container she was still holding. It gave him a sudden idea, Steve taking it from her.

Once the men were gone and the door began to slide closed again, Steve jumped down and swiftly dropped down to jam the door with the glass container.

The others quickly hurried down, wiggling under the door as fast as possible while the container began cracking. Tess was the last one, the glass giving way as she rolled over and got to her feet.

There was a sizzling noise, all of them watching in amazement as the green liquid seeped into the floor.

"And you were gonna drink that shit?" she questioned to Erica.

They all turned at once as Dustin mumbled something to grab their attention, Theresa's mouth falling open slightly. There was a tunnel in front of them, so long that it had no end in sight.

"You've gotta be shitting me," she whined. "I hate walking."

Robin turned her head with an amused expression. "I think that was the most informal sentence I've ever heard you say."

Tess knit her brows. "What do you mean?"

"You just always– talk so proper," Robin shrugged.

She narrowed her eyes briefly, then dismissed it. "Alright. I guess we better start walking then. This is gonna be my workout for the whole week."

Theresa began walking, and the rest of them followed. There was literally no end in sight as they continued along for what seemed like ages.

"Oh my God, this is torture," Tess remarked with exasperation, blowing her hair out of her face. "I really should've joined the track team or something."

"Well to be fair," Robin replied, "I don't think this tunnel was designed for walking. I mean, think about it, they designed the perfect system for transporting cargo."

"It all comes into the mall like any old delivery," Dustin agreed.

Robin continued, "And then they load it up onto those trucks and nobody's the wiser."

Steve furrowed his eyebrows. "You think they built this whole mall just so they could transport that green poison?"

"That's not poison," Tess replied. "It's definitely something radioactive. If I had to guess it comes from the cerium family, so maybe promethium. Unless it's not cerium, in which my guess would be radium–"

She stopped abruptly, not realizing that she was sort of rambling out loud. Dustin ogled at her in amazement, while Steve blinked with confusion.

"I don't understand a word you just said, but yeah. Totally."

Robin laughed in disbelief. "Who would've thought that Theresa Sinclair would be so... nerdy?"

Tess quickly whipped her head to the side. "Don't ever call me that. You got it?"

Steve rubbed his nose to hide his smirk, walking along. Robin raised her hands in mock surrender.

"Anyway," Tess huffed. "Whatever chemical that was, I don't doubt that it's being used to make something. Or, I don't know, power something? Like a nuclear weapon."

"Totally," Robin agreed.

Steve threw his hands up. "Walking towards a nuclear weapon. That's great, that'd be great."

Theresa tapped her chin. "I just don't understand. Why would they want to build a weapon here?"

Grabbing her arm, Steve stopped Tess and pulled her back while the others continued walking.

"Do you think the Russians know?" he asked her.

Theresa frowned. "About what?"

"You know," he made a face, mouthing, "the Upside Down."

She tilted her head back, shrugging. "It's a possibility."

Steve pursed his lips. "Well then. That's wonderful news."

They continued walking after a moment, Steve looking up at the others and then back to her.

"By the way, I think it's really cute when you ramble," he remarked, Tess sending him a sideways glance.

She scoffed. "Is that so?"

Steve nodded. "Duh. I think if I could have at least half of your brain, I'd be set for life. I probably would've even had a chance at getting into tech school."

Theresa pulled her lips in, her smile dimming. "So... you're not going to college?"

He hesitated for a moment, then shook his head. Steve laughed a little, trying to brush it off casually.

"No, I'll probably just– keep working. You know, aside from the uniform, Scoops Ahoy isn't too bad."

Tess winced a little. "I hate to break it to you, honey, but I don't think you're gonna have a job at Scoops anymore after this."

Steve hung his head as he realized what she said was true, sighing.

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

She nudged him after a few seconds of silence, hard enough to make him stumble a little. Steve scoffed, pushing her back as she laughed.

"Once we get out of here, I'll help you go job hunting, yeah?"

Steve reached down, intertwining his hand with hers.

"You're the boss, Sinclair."

notes.
volume 2 made me fucking SOB

no spoilers in case any of you haven't seen it yet, but JESUS CHRIST I DIDN'T THINK I WAS GONNA CRY SO MUCH. I'VE NEVER CRIED SO MUCH OVER A TV SHOW OR MOVIE EVER???!!!??!?

i feel so empty at the moment. but at the very least, the loml survived and i couldn't be happier, otherwise i was going to literally spiral. not even joking

so so so so so so so so SO excited to write season 4 now, theresa and steve will be in their old married couple era <3 i can't express in words how much they mean to me, i never thought i would have become so attached to them because they're all i think about. all day, all night

the way robin is in love with tess 😍 this is a joke i swear, anyway i'm making ronance happen in this book bc i can

can't wait for steve, theresa, lucas and max double date (because i am the #1 lumax shipper)