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𝗕𝗘𝗧𝗧𝗬

chapter eight:
nancy drew

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NANCY AND JONATHAN hadn't said anything else. All they did was rush back up the stairs, leaving no choice but the others to follow. Serenity heaved the bat back up to rest against her shoulder, leading the rest of the kids back up the stairs. They walked outside only to find that Nancy and Jonathan were approaching Nancy's car.

She unlocked the car, and Nancy slid into the drivers seat, settling herself down. Jonathan took passenger, of course. Eleven and Max immediately headed to the backseat, and Serenity followed after them, sitting on the other side of Max, who had gotten in in the middle. That just left Mike, Lucas, and Will to the very back of the car.

"Seriously?" Mike complained.

Lucas shook his head. "No way."

Will sighed. "Welcome to my world."

"Renny, why couldn't you have driven, too?" Mike asked as he got into the back.

She glanced back at him. "Because it doesn't make sense. If we all fit in here, it's fine."

"Seatbelts," Nancy ordered, putting her hair back in a clip.

Serenity rested the bat against the drivers seat for a moment before reaching back and pulling on her seatbelt. Once it was on, she grabbed the wooden handle again and held it close, the top of it on the floor, so it wouldn't roll around while Nancy was driving.

Nancy started her car and reversed fast, knocking over all the bikes that had been there. She then sped up the driveway, leaving the house totally behind. Serenity sighed and looked out the window, once again letting lost in her thoughts.

The past twenty-four hours had been completely hectic, and Serenity didn't really know if she was keeping up that well. First, Mike had called, telling her and Max and Eleven to come to his house because they had an inkling that the Mind Flayer was back. Then, they had tested it out to see if Billy was really the news host, which he was, and Serenity had completely whacked him across the head with a metal pole to get him to stop choking Eleven. And when Serenity had tried to find her boyfriend, the one she knew could keep her calm even as something as batshit crazy as this, he was missing.

(Serenity would like to admit that the last one was really fucking with her, because where was Steve?)

Overall, she was really failing to understand why all of this was happening again. Couldn't the Upside Down just live in peace by itself? And why did it want to bleed into Hawkins? What was the Mind Flayer's goal?

All of the questions that Serenity had were spinning in her head, and it was quite honestly making her pretty dizzy. Her confusion about everything, mixed with her fear about everything, mixed with her exhaustion from everything, was just making her want the Earth to open and swallow her whole.

(Not into the Upside Down. That would be, like, worst case scenario.)

Nevertheless, she was doing what she always did — putting on a brave face. The kids were scared, and even though they might've tried to hide it, she knew they were. They were trusting her to look after them like she had always done. And maybe that wasn't true, but it was more of Serenity's own feelings about this. She loved these kids like they were her own, which they practically were, and she had promised them that she would always look after them, no matter what. Fighting a monster from a parallel dimension was definitely no exception from that — in fact, it only made that feeling more heightened.

Serenity looked down at the bat, focusing in on the nails and frowning a little bit. The nails were slightly tinted red with rust, unlike how they were before. When Serenity first saw the bat, the nails had been completely silver and glinting in the light. Her mind suddenly took her back to that night — the night that had changed the course of her life forever.

She remembered watching Steve twirl it around in his hand so effortlessly through the blinking lights in the Byers' house. That day seemed so long ago, and all of them had come so far since then — especially Steve. Serenity was so proud of him for giving up what she called his asshole days.

In truth, she really, really fucking missed Steve. She regretted not calling him earlier than this morning. Maybe if she had, he might've not been missing anymore. Call her stupid, but right now, this bat was the closest thing she had of him, besides his car in the mall parking lot. Those two things were the two indicators that Steve had left everything behind to do something Serenity didn't know.

So, in short, Serenity was basically a mess, and there was really nothing to do to fix it — well, besides getting rid of the Mind Flayer and finding Steve. But that was easier said than done.

Finally, they reached the Holloway house, and Nancy parked in their driveway. Serenity got out of the car, putting the bat on her shoulder again. She stared at the house for a moment. The last time she was here, she had noticed Billy and Heather were acting really strange, but now that she knew they were flayed, it just made her even more nervous. She shouldn't have brushed off their weird behavior as easily as she had.

Serenity walked up the sidewalk to the house, her gaze on the red door, the very same one Eleven had seen in her vision back at the pool. Nancy and Jonathan stood on the front porch, and Serenity stood behind them, still in front of all the kids, just in case. She had gotten pretty good at protecting all of them, and although she didn't know if she could use the bat as well as Steve did, she could damn well try.

Her grip on the bat tightened a little more when Nancy rang the doorbell, honestly anticipating the worst, because these were scary times. However, there was no answer. Nancy tried again, but just like last time, nobody answered. She looked over at Jonathan, and Jonathan looked at her, before they both looked back over Serenity's shoulder to Eleven.

Eleven stepped slightly out from behind Serenity's back. Her head dipped and her eyes narrowed, focusing on the door. She nodded her head, and the door immediately swung open. They all paused for a moment, staring into the house. Nancy and Jonathan were the first people to walk inside since they were closest to the door. Serenity let out a deep breath and walked up the steps of the porch, the kids following after her.

The house was dark — all of the lights were off, and the only source was the sunlight shining through the windows. Serenity glanced around for a moment and saw that one of the carpets on the floor was messed up out of place, unlike the last time she had been here, when it had been neatly set. Also, it was absolutely cold. Goosebumps immediately rose on her skin.

"Tom?" Nancy called. No response. "Heather?"

"Jesus, it's freezing," Max commented, crossing her arms across her chest in effort to keep herself warm.

Nancy suddenly stopped in her tracks, all of them standing in the living room. "Do you guys smell that?"

Serenity hadn't at first, but now that Nancy said it, she did. The air was filled with the scene of chemicals, more specifically, cleaning chemicals. Serenity's eyebrows knit in thought before she looked to the kitchen and — yep, there it was. The dishwasher was completely ripped out of the wall, a hole created in it. Multiple empty bottles of cleaning chemicals were scattered around the kitchen, and some were spilled over the side of the dishwasher. She slowly walked into the kitchen, glancing around in confusion. What was going on?

"Oh, God," Nancy let out. "More chemicals."

Jonathan picked up an empty bottle. "You think they're guzzling this shit?"

"Yeah, either that or they just went on a hell of a cleaning spree."

"But last year, Will didn't eat chemicals," Max insisted. She looked at him suspiciously. "Did you?"

Serenity's eyes widened and she looked at Will. "Did you? This shit is toxic, you know."

"No," Will cut in, and Serenity took an inward sigh of relief. "This is something new."

"Mr. Clarke, fifth grade," Mike stated. "Posit. What happens when you mix chemicals together?"

"You create a new substance," Lucas and Will chorused.

"What if they're making something?"

"In themselves?" Max questioned. "I mean, come on, if you drink this crap, it'll kill you."

"Yeah, if you're human," Lucas argued.

"Lucas is right," Serenity agreed. "I can only assume that you don't really think straight when you're possessed by an interdimensional monster."

Nancy's head then slowly turned around, and she walked off. Serenity was the first to follow her — Nancy always had a good intuition, and Serenity wasn't going to question it now. She went into the dining room, but at the sight of the scene in front of her, Serenity swore her heart stopped.

Dinner — the same dinner that they had been having that night Serenity, Max, and Eleven came here — was still on the table on their plates, left to get cold and rotten. Wine glasses and water cups were still half full. The same sheet of cookies that Heather had slightly burnt rested on the edge of the table. Red wine completely stained the tablecloth, turning the once white into a deep burgundy color.

Nancy continued to advance into the room. Serenity watched as she went to the carpet, inspecting it for a minute. The carpet was the same with the exception of a wine bottle and a red spot. She then crouched down and put her hand on the red spot on the carpet. That definitely wasn't wine, and Serenity had dealt with enough injuries to to know what the substance on the carpet was.

"Blood," Nancy announced. She then straightened up a little bit, obviously realizing something, and she looked at Jonathan, who had crouched down next to her. "Yesterday, Tom had a bandage on his forehead." She then reached over and slid the wine bottle towards her, only to reveal that the label had blood on it too. Serenity's eyes widened, and she watched as Nancy stood up, clutching the wine bottle. "He was attacked."

Nancy's eyes then set on the messed up carpet. Serenity could practically see her placing all the clues together in her brain — nothing short of a real life Nancy Drew.

She continued walking forwards, and all of them followed after her. Nancy stopped in front of a door, one that was slightly cracked open. Light illuminated through the crack, shining on the carpet to reveal yet another blood stain. She opened that door, only to reveal another door.

Nancy opened that door as well and peered inside for a minute before going through it. Serenity walked in after her, only to see that they were in the garage. It seemed normal at first — a work bench, an exercise bike, an extra freezer. But something else was wrong. Laying on the concrete floor was a rope, which Jonathan was inspecting.

"They must have tied them," Jonathan voiced, standing back up. "They must have taken them somewhere."

Nancy's eyes widened in realization. "Mrs. Driscoll. She kept saying . . . I have to go back. What if the flaying, it's taking place somewhere else? There must be a place where all this started, right? A source."

"Somewhere he didn't want me to see," Eleven added.

"If we can find the source, then maybe we can stop him. Or at least stop it from spreading or doing whatever the hell he's doing with those chemicals."

"How do we find it?"

"Mrs. Driscoll," Will interrupted.

Serenity's eyebrows knit in thought, and she turned to look at Will. She straightened her posture just the tiniest bit when she realized what he was insinuating. To show where the flaying was happening, they needed one of the flayed.

Will looked at all of them, determination settling in his eyes. "If she wants to go back so badly, why don't we let her?"

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well, the next chapter is . . . definitely interesting!