THE TUNNELS WERE COLD AND FILLED WITH ASH. Sar hadn't been in an atmosphere like this since she'd gone into the tree after Nancy. It was so cold, so silent and so eerie. Sar can't imagine Will having been stuck in it for a week, and then having to live through flashes of it through another year.

     Their flashlights reflected off the slimy walls of the tunnels. Sar and Steve walked ahead, following the trail on the map.

     The kids were following glumly behind them like a group of munchkins, each equipped with a set of gasoline. Dustin was attempting to explain a story vividly to Max—something about slugs which Sar knew Max had no interest in, but the red-head girl still nodded her head in faux agreement. As Dustin was waving his arms around he hit Mike, who in turn hit him back and so and forth. Katie just watched the idiots with faint amusement, pottering along with a can of gasoline that was way too oversized for her body.

     Sar held a tank of gasoline in one hand and Steve's spiked bat in the other—which she loved and he'd smittenly agreed to let her take. She was swinging it between her fingers lightly, a smile playing on her face. She winced along with it. The bruises on her face from bursting veins had begun to settle to yellow, but now she had a red blotch against her cheek from Billy's fist. It ached with each smile.

     She and Steve walked side-by-side. Their shoulders brushed by occasionally, and once their fingers, but otherwise they went by in tentative silence.

     Steve was watching Sar—the way her blue eyes reflected like the moon in the torchlight, the way her lips curved delicately and how her eyebrows curled with the slight forlorn expression on her face.

     There was a splatter of blood in a line across her eyebrow, and a cut below to accompany it. Steve was staring at it in the barely lit light. "Billy did that to you?" he asked her.

     "Yeah," she said, raising her fingers to touch it lightly. Steve saw her wince at the contact and protective anger flared up inside him again. "After he knocked you out." Her voice was very serious, something usually out of character for her. "Thought you were going to die," she told him, looking over to meet his gaze. She swung his bat loosely in her hands. "It scared me," Sar admitted as she looked away, voice unusually small. The bat dragged along some twisted vines trailing on the ground. He was staring at her with a peculiar expression on his face. The girl had her gaze focused on the ground. "A lot." Steve knew her well enough to notice the tremor in her cheek meant she was trying not to cry.

     Steve didn't know what to say. His face ached and his jaw felt like he'd been hit by a sledgehammer. Practically his whole body was on fire, and he doubted if he got hit by a car the pain would be much different. But his copper eyes were only for her, watching as her skin shimmered silver from the pulsing light around them. Her eyes were an ocean full of sadness and he watched her forlorn expression.

     "Did I ever tell you about One?" she asked, and squashed a squirming vine with her shoe. It squealed and died.

     Steve back looked over at her, eyebrows furrowed. The girl hardly ever talked about her past and she avoided it whenever any of them pressed. "No," he said.

     She kept her eyes focused on the ground, his bat swinging in her fingers. He couldn't deny the fondness that welled at her using his bat, he knew she liked it. But her fingers were clenched tightly around the base. Sara's lips were pressed in a thin line.

     "He was the oldest. He had brown hair. Anyone who looked him in the eyes died. It was a horrible affliction. They made him wear a steel eye-mask, so he could never see any of them, or us, for that matter. He was like an older brother to all of us." She let the nails of the bat drag along the vines on the ground. "He had a plan to escape. 'I'm going to escape,' he'd told us. 'And I'll come back for you. Just wait for me.'" She seemed to stiffen slightly. One of her hands curled around her other arm. "They caught him; dragged him back inside, threw him down in front of our cell. It was a lesson, I guess. To teach us to never try to escape." She swallowed again. "I've never seen someone beaten as bloody as him. They just... kept hitting. His face just caved and he couldn't get a hand in. There was so much blood it ran on the floor. His nose had been broken so badly it was crushed through the bone. When they finally dragged his corpse away, his face was purple and swollen, and the eye-mask had sliced through his cheeks. His neck was broken, his jaw and cheekbones were broken. You couldn't even recognise him." She looked up at him for a second, for the first time in minutes, "Thought that was going to be you."

•°•☆•°•


     "DUSTIN, I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU FALL BEHIND AGAIN AND COME ACROSS ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE WALL-MOUTH THINGS, I'M GOING TO LEAVE YOU THERE," Sar commanded as she jumped over a creeping vine.

     "Hey, that's not fair!"

     Sar looked back at the curly haired boy—once again falling behind. "Well then keep up!"

     He cursed to himself. "That was one time!"

     "Yeah, like two minutes ago, and you're already behind again!" She walked side-by-side with Steve, having swapped the gasoline can for a flashlight. Sar peered over Steve's at the poorly drawn map. Dustin swore and jogged to keep up with them again.

     "Can we have a D&D campaign when we get back?" Katie sighed, jogging alongside them. "Like a 23 hour one? I'm sick of monsters and demogorgons. I just want to be a wizard again!"

     "We are going to have a 3 day campaign when we get back," Mike sighed in relief. "I'm not joking."

     Katie leapt forward and wrapped her arm around Max's arm. "And Max is invited!" Max's eyes widened as she looked at Katie, as if surprised to be involved in something. Katie just grinned. Mike sighed audibly and both Lucas and Dustin hit him.

     "Mike, don't be a dick!" Sar called, without having to look back at them. Steve smirked from beside her. Sar slapped his waist. "You can't talk. You were a dick too."

     He covered his face with a hand. "Don't remind me."

     Sar threw her eyebrows up. "I mean, you were friends with Tommy and Carol."

     Steve pointed at her accusingly. "Don't even mention that."

     The two slowed to a halt, letting the others kids bring up the rear behind them Steve's flashlight faded away in the vastness of the clearing.

     The ground fell away to reveal a cavern lined with pulsating vines and slime dripping from the ceiling to the floor. Living vines slowly inched across the walls. Bones littered across the ground—sheep, fox, bird and rabbit—none of them wanted to think about what the other types were.

     "Alright, Wheeler," Steve said. "I think we found your hub." Sar stood beside him, arm resting bent on his shoulder casually. The spiked bat hung loose in her hands, pressing against the ground to support her as she stood bent towards Steve.

     Mike nodded. "Let's drench it."

     Sar's boot crushed a sheep's leg-bone and she balanced on top of an animal skull. Her jacket ruffled around her shoulders from a draft in the tunnels.

     "Oh man, I'm going to be so behind on my Chemistry assignment after this," Sar hissed, before she lifted the gasoline to spray it at the ceiling. The vines dripped with gasoline, and the room stank of it, Sar could smell it even behind her bandana. All the others were doing the same, spraying their cans of gasoline across every inch of the cavern.

     Sar lifted stood on her tiptoes and lifted one leg in the air to try and reach the peak of the ceiling. She just couldn't quite extend herself.

     "Need some help reaching that, Sar?" Steve teased, gesturing to where the gasoline pipe fell short, despite her standing on her toes.

     "Oh fuck off," she said, shoving his shoulder lightly. Sara heard him chuckle from beneath the cloth and hid a slight smile. Sar wasn't short, but she was shorter than Steve—and it showed every time he pulled her against his chest for a hug, or threw his arm across her shoulders, or lifted her off the ground, kicking, to throw her into a pool.

     He sprayed the spot for her while she stood with her arms crossed, teasing. They drenched the rest of the room: Max and Katie tag-teaming to cover the most ground possible while the boys sloshed their cans of gasolines at the wall and floors.

     When the cavern had been done, they all perched on the edge of the tunnel, Sar and Steve at the front. Katie leant on Sar from behind, her blonde hair a mess.

     "Alright, you guys ready?" Steve asked.

     Dustin nodded and Lucas said, "Ready."

     "Light her up," Dustin said.

     Steve flicked the cap off the lighter as Sar leant beside him, elbow on his shoulder. "Oh, I am in such deep shit," Steve murmured. His finger clicked the lighter on, and with a swift movement of his arm he threw the lighter as far as he could away from them.

     The vines burst into flames and reared into the air, screeching. Light burst in front of them and Sar raised her fingers before her face to shield herself from the heat.

     "It's done!" Mike yelled.

     Steve hauled Sar up by the hand and threw his arm towards the tunnel. "Go! Let's go! Let's go!"

     They took off down the tunnel, leaping across vines as their jackets whipped across their bodies. "Go, go, go!" Sar was yelling, dragging Max along. Katie ducked under their arms and sprinted ahead, leaping across the writhing vines on the ground.

     Sar heard as the flames roared up the walls, engulfing more vines. A familiar throbbing sensation burst back into her head and she felt across the land again. Visions rose up before her gaze as her eyesight split again.

          Will, beads of sweat on his forehead, thrashing and screaming——

          Smoke smashing through the cabin door and rising towards the stars——

          Demo-dogs screaming and thundering through tunnels——

          A bigger figure, made of smoke and darkness, rising up beyond a red opening, and Eleven watching it from within——

     "Oh, fuck," Sar hissed, grabbing Steve for support. His fingers clawed around her waist as he helped pull her along. "Ow, fuck! Will and the Mind Flayer— fuck, I see them! And Eleven... God, it's happening again!" Her fingers pressed against her skull. "Fuck, what is happening to me?" Sara yelled. None of it made sense—it just didn't make sense—in the matter of time, it couldn't all be happening now—

     Steve kept dragging her along as she stumbled. "It's okay, I've got you. Come on, Sar! We have to go. We have to go, Sar!"

     His voice broke her from the cascade of visions and suddenly she felt weak. Her legs trembled as she regained her footing. She managed to keep running without stumbling, though her mind was a mess of jumbled thoughts.

     "Let's go! Let's go!" Steve yelled. The kids had dropped their gasoline cans long ago, and now ran with just their flashlights—casting different beams of light through the darkness. The tunnels ahead split off into different paths. Steve looked back down at the shitty map, flashlight in hand. "This way, this way!" Steve yelled, running along the tunnel.

     "Shit, shit, shit, shit!" Dustin chanted.

     "Holy shit," Katie was dragging out, and Sar would have thought about telling her to mind her language if they hadn't been running for their lives. Steve, Katie and Dustin ducked through the tunnel in front of Sar and she followed close behind, helping to tug Max through.

     Mike yelled behind them and Sar spun on the spot, long hair flying around her face. He was on his back, kicking his legs at something Sar couldn't see. "Help! Help!" he yelled, still muffled by the cloth around his face.

     "Mike!" Sar yelled, bolting towards him. A vine was curling its way up to his stomach. The others quickly followed in her suite, yelling his name. Steve spun the bat in his hands and raised it, bringing it down on the vine.

     Sar pulled at Mike's shoulders, dragging him away. When he stumbled onto his knees Sar threw her arms around him tight, letting him recover from his fear with his face in her shoulder. Steve hit the decapitated vine with the bat again, for good measure.

     "Shit," Lucas said.

     "Guys we gotta go, we gotta go—" Dustin's muttering was broken off by a roar behind them. Sar spun herself around, arms still wrapped around Mike's shoulders.

     A demo-dog stood there, perched on the tunnel entrance. Its chest rumbled with a growl as it stared them down.

     All of them shuffled back, Mike and Sar still knelt on the ground. Steve reached his hand out to grab Dustin by the shoulder, urging Dustin to get behind him. Sar grabbed Dustin's ankle in an attempt to do the same, other hand pressing in the slimy vines.

     "Dart?" Dustin asked cautiously, and Sar slapped his ankle hard, gesturing at him fast with her hand. When he stepped forward, she scrambled on her hands and knees to try to grab his legs again.

     "Dustin, get back! What's he doing, get back!" The cave was a murmur of worried hisses.

     "Shhh, shhh," Dustin hissed at them. "Trust me. Please." He raised a hand in silence.

     "Dustin I swear to God I'm going to leave you down here!" Sar hissed, climbing onto her feet and stepping forward. Steve grabbed her hand in protest, Dustin already out of her reach. "You bitch, get back here right now."

     He ignored her as the demo-dog stepped forward. "Hey... hey, buddy," Dustin cooed, as if it were a dog. He lifted his goggles off his head and slipped his mask down. "It's me, it's me. It's your friend, it's Dustin, alright?" Dustin knelt down to the demo-dog's level. Sar's fingers tightened around her pistol and she slowly drew it from her pocket, flipping the safety off. "You remember me?" Dustin asked. The demo-dog crawled forward again, growling softly. "Will you let us pass?"

     The monster growled, face opening up. Mike jumped about a foot in the air and grabbed hold of Lucas' hand and Sar's wrist. Sara's arms shot up to aim the pistol at the demo-dog, quivering. "Dustin, get away from it," she warned.

     He shook his head at the demo-dog. "Okay, okay. I'm sorry about the storm cellar. That was a pretty douchey thing to do. You hungry? Yeah?" He reached into his backpack.

     "He's insane," Lucas muttered.

     "Don't," hissed Mike.

      "Shut up," hissed Max. Lucas made a face.

     Dustin took a candy bar out of his pack. Of course he packed candy. "I've got our favourite. See? Nougat." The monster lowered its defensive stance, to Sar's surprise, and inched its way to Dustin. Its growl was gentle and it hovered before the boy, waiting cautiously. Dustin lowered the food to it and the demo-dog ducked its head to eat the chocolate bar. "Eat up, buddy. Come on. Come on." The demo-dog made no move to attack, eating passively just out of Dustin's reach.

     Sar's face seemed to soften slightly, eyebrows crumpling. She lowered her gun. "They're not all monsters," she murmured in realisation, and Steve shot a glance towards her.

     Dustin waved at the others to move. "Let's go," he hissed.

     They crept carefully past the monster, Katie in the lead. She leapt over a vine and put her hand out for Max. With a soft smile, Max took it and let herself be pulled around the demo-dog. Sar and Steve took up the rear, turning back for Dustin.

     "Dustin, come on," Sar whispered.

     Dustin slung the backpack over his shoulder and pulled his goggles back down. "Goodbye, buddy." The demo-dog bobbed its head back to rumble at him gently.

     "Let's go, let's go!" Steve hissed, and then they were off again.

     The tunnels were dark, illuminated only by small pulsing glows inside the walls. Katie and Steve were in the lead, shoes squelching in the vines.

     The ground shook around them and Sar slammed into the wall as chunks of dirt fell from the ceiling. Katie looked around, wide-eyed, cloth having fallen from around her mouth. "What was that?" she asked.

     Monsters screamed from down the tunnel. Sar's head shot up, eyes nearly black in the darkness. The sounds echoed down the tunnelways. "They're coming!" Sar yelled.

     "Run! Run!" Mike called. They all took off, feet stumbling over vines and slime, the walls flickering past them in a blur.

     Sar shoved them from behind. "Go, Lucas!" she yelled, throwing her head back over her shoulder every few seconds. "Come on!" Her head throbbed and her throat burned but still she ran. Her hand found Katie and she pulled the younger girl along.

     "There!" Max yelled, pointing at the rope which hung down through the hole. Car headlights shone down it as the group ran towards the opening.

     "Go, go, go, go, go, go, go!" Steve yelled. "Come on!" Sar made it first, still holding Katie's cold, frightened hand. Sar dropped her arms, getting next to Steve and putting out her hands to help the kids get up.

     "Go, Kate!" Sar thrust her up with the help of Steve. The young girl took hold of the rope, crawling onto the ledge. Max went next, feet pressing bruises into Sar's hands. Katie helped to pull her up. Then Lucas and Mike, who kicked dirt down onto the older two. "Hurry up!" When he was through, it was just Dustin left. "Get up!" she yelled at Dustin, forcing his feet up as Steve pushed him further. His friends caught hold of the boy as they yanked him through the opening above, feet scrabbling against dirt.

     "Sar!" Steve exclaimed, gesturing to jump on his arms. She ran up to him, a hand bracing on his shoulder and ready to climb onto his hand. The first scream wailed out through the tunnels. Sara stopped immediately, hand finding Steve's hand instead of his shoulder.

     She could hear their screams now—so, so close. The demo-dogs cried out against the cold of the night and it reverberated all around them.

     "Get up, Sar!" Katie was screaming, reaching her arms down. "Sar! Get up! Get up!"

     "Guys!" Dustin yelled.

     The demo-dogs were too close. Too, too close.

      Sar looked over at Steve, terror on her face. He'd already been looking at her. They both had that same, fear-fuelled desperation in their eyes. His eyes were pools of copper and cinnamon, as if the earth had loved him so much it had poured itself into his eyes, she'd never seen anything quite like his eyes—and they were looking at her so softly; as if she was good, as if she was filled with goodness and not corruption, and as if she'd never killed anybody or never been an experiment in a lab; as if she was really, truly good. He looked at her as if she was a lightness in the world.

     "Steve—" she said.

     She saw the shadows pass on the far corner wall and snapped her head towards them. Katie was screaming at them.

     With one arm Steve drew Sar close, raising the bat with his other. She took up a fighting stance, palm outstretched and ready to use any of the little powers she had left. Her other arm was secured around Steve's middle as he lay his around her waist. His fingers played against the curve of her hip.

     They were going to die. It struck her in a very blank thought. The fear was making its way in a chill up her spine. But they were together.

     Surely if they were together, everything was going to be alright. Her cheek came to rest on his shoulder. She thought she felt the presence of tears burning her eyes.

      It's not like Lune.

     They were together.

     She could see the demo-dogs now, rounding the corner with petal-like moths open to reveal the hundreds of rows of teeth. Their screaming burned her ears, mingled with the kids' cries from above.

     They were going to die.

     But he'd never know... "Steve," she said, glancing up at him. She ignored the presence of the monsters, focusing on only his face. "I—"

     And then he was spinning them around, his back facing the oncoming demo-dogs and curling his body in front of her. All Sar could think was no, and she raised her hand past him, ready to sneak into their minds. Even though her mind hurt—hurt so, so much. But no powers came.

     His eyes were closed in anticipation against her neck.

     She felt the sob rise past her lips. Not again,  she thought. Not again, like Lune. She wanted to scream and cry because she was always the one left behind.

     If they got to him first, she could escape. She could climb up to the kids, or make a break for it. She could escape. That was his plan. He wanted her to live. No. No.

     Her fingers clawed tighter around the neck so they melted together, as if they were one. His breath was warm against her skin and she sobbed. She wasn't letting him go. Their bodies were arched together like some kind of Greek sculpture, like Aphrodite and Ares.

     And as the demo-dogs breaths reached them she let out a sob into Steve's ear, her tears pressing against his face. Because they were going to get ripped apart as the kids watched and she couldn't do anything about it—her powers had faded in her blood.

     But the demo-dogs ran straight past the two, thundering past them in all their fear. A blast sounded throughout the tunnel and the dirt from their side displaced, shattering around Steve and Sar like rain, as they held each other. Katie had her hand outstretched, but her powers had missed the demo-dogs. They'd ignored them completely.

     Sar twisted her head around, moonlight illuminating her tears.

     They watched the demo-dogs disappear down the far tunnel, the monsters' cries fading with them. Sara dropped her grip around Steve's neck as they turned to watch. The footsteps faded, and the tunnels were silent.

     Steve was still standing there, bat loose in hand as he watched the tunnel they'd gone down. And then Sar threw her arms around him, shoving her face into the base of his neck. He let out a shudder of a sigh and hugged his arms across her back, dropping the bat. She had hers tucked beneath his biceps.

     The cloth had slipped off her face and her mouth and tear-stricken cheeks were pressing against his skin. Sniffles wracked her body. She dug her face lower into his chest in a soft cry. Don't do that, she wanted to say, but found she couldn't because she was just so damn relieved he was alive. Don't do that. She pulled herself closer to him, sobbing as the inhaled the scent of faded cologne and dirt and sweat. Her eyes were squeezed shut. Tears dampened his sweater. Steve just held her closer for a while, face pressing into the vanilla-scent of her hair and lips lingering there. Just for a while.

   •°•☆•°• 

wow gabriella wilde who plays sar is beautiful! also every part of this chapter has me shook, sar and steve are in love, one makes me sad, katie is a sweetheart and i love everyone in this story with my whole heart thank you.

word count: 4,002

30/07/2018