the upside down:
❛ CARDIGAN ❜↷ stranger things
❝ I love you ❞

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Clary did feel a little guilty about leaving the kids all alone in the school. But in her defense, she thought that they were perfectly safe there. Why the hell would the bad guys look for them there if they weren't even supposed to be there?

A part of her wished that she stayed with the kids to babysit them because the tension in the car was unbearable. Jonathan was in the back seat while she and Nancy were in the front of the car. Nancy refused to look up from her hands that were laying in her lap and Jonathan was awkwardly looking through the window like Hawkins was the most fascinating town in the world.

Clary quickly realized that the kiss they shared must have been bad. She should have felt bad about being amused by it. But, who could blame her? Her brother had the audacity to kiss the girl who her ex-boyfriend cheated on her with.

(Okay, that was a lie. That was not the reason that Clary was annoyed by the kiss. But, she told herself that so she could feel better about what she actually felt when she saw them kiss.)

She pulled up in front of her house and the three of them quickly got the weapons out, before they rushed inside.

They fixed the Christmas lights that Joyce previously took down and set up a bear trap in the middle of the hallway. Their plan was pretty bad but it was the best that they could do. If they brought the monster there, they could keep it away from everyone else and possibly kill it.

Clary and Nancy loaded their guns while Jonathan took a bat and stuck a bunch of screws to it. They poured fuel across the floor and Clary took the lighter from her room and placed it in the pocket of her jacket.

"You guys remember the plan?" Clary asked as they gathered into the living room, knives in their hands.

Nancy nodded, "Straight into Will's room. And──"

"Don't step on the bear trap." Clary finished and watched the girl swallow nervously.

"We wait for the yo-yo to move."

Clary nodded with a confident look on her face. "Then we light him up."

"All right." Jonathan sighed and looked between the two. "Are you ready?"

"Ready." Nancy responded while Clary simply nodded.

"On three." Jonathan muttered as each one of them placed a knife above the palms of their hands. "One, two..." He looked at Nancy's distressed face and assured her, "You don't have to do this."

"Jonathan, stop talking." Nancy snapped while shaking her head.

"I'm just saying, you don't have to──"

"Three!" Nancy exclaimed and cut her palm. Clary's eyes widened at the outburst but she was quick to copy her movements, Jonathan doing the same thing a second later.

-

They put bandages over their hands a couple of minutes later and then sat down on the couch in complete silence.

Clary examined the white cloth around her hand. She frowned at the blood still coming from the wound and staining the cloth. Something creaked and Nancy immediately jumped.

"Did you hear that?" She asked them, her eyes wide in panic.

"It's just the wind." Jonathan assured her from the other side of the coach.

Clary, who was sitting in the middle of them, looked at Nancy and said, "Don't worry. The lights will tell us when it comes. And we set up so many traps that it will be a miracle if he doesn't die."

Nancy squinted at her. "They will tell us when it comes?"

"Yeah." Clary shrugged with a ghost of a smile on her face. "My mom said that they blink when it gets close."

Nancy looked around, still looking extremely uneasy. Clary let out a soft sigh and grabbed her hand which did not have a bandage on it. She squeezed it with the type of tenderness that she could never imagine directing toward her. Nancy's eyes briefly widened in surprise and she looked away from the lights to meet her eyes. Her wide and panicked eyes softened and she managed to return a barely-there smile.

The moment was ruined by a loud knock from the front door.

Nancy jumped and let out a quiet gasp while Clary's eyes widened and she immediately reached for her gun on the table.

"Clary!" 𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘷𝘦? "Are you there? It's Steve! Your window was closed and I know that you don't want to talk to me but I really need to talk to you." He kept banging on the door and, after recovering from her shock, Clary got up from her couch and placed her gun back down.

"I'll get rid of him." She told Nancy and Jonathan. "Stay here."

She walked towards the door and opened it to see Steve standing there. His face was bruised and Clary almost felt bad for the damage she did to it.

"Steve, listen to me. You need to leave."

"Clary, listen──" He stuttered.

"No, you listen." She cut him off, "You. Need. To. Leave."

Steve gave her a pleading look and said, "I'm not trying to start anything, okay?"

"I don't care." Clary snapped, trying to think of what to tell him to make him leave. "I don't want you here."

"No, no, no. Listen, I messed up, okay? I messed up. I messed up." He leaned against the doorway, looking completely miserable. "Really. Please. I just want to make things right. I never wanted to hurt you as bad as I did, Clary. I──" He faltered a little and hesitated before he blurted out, "I love you."

Clary felt like a complete idiot. Because, if it wasn't for the monster that was about to attack them, she would have let him inside. He made her weak and she hated the fact that she was supposed to hate him.

"I don't──" She swallowed when she heard how hoarse her own voice was, "I don't trust you. Not anymore."

His face fell and the crestfallen look adoring his face made her feel just a little bit guilty. She raised her hand to shut the door, hoping that he would get the hint and leave as fast as possible. Instead, Steve's eyes immediately fell on the bandage around her hand.

"What happened to your hand? Is that blood?" He muttered softly, worry filling his eyes.

Clary sighed and moved her bandaged hand to the doorknob so it would be out of sight. "It's nothing. I bruised my knuckles earlier──"

Before she could finish her sentence, Steve pushed the door open more and stepped inside. "What's going on?" He scanned her features and his concern only grew. Clary did not look annoyed or angry. She looked scared. "Did somebody do this to you?"

"No." She shook her head and tried to keep him from walking into the house.

"No, let me in." He exclaimed and pushed his way further inside. He looked over her shoulder and his eyes immediately fell on Nancy and Jonathan on the couch. Then, he scanned the living room. His confusion grew. 'Messy' was not even the term he could use to express how terrible the room looked. "What is...what the──"

Jonathan got up to his feet and pushed the shocked boy. "You need to get out of here."

"What is all of this?"

"Listen to me. I'm not asking you, I'm telling you; get out of here!" Jonathan snapped, gripping his shoulder.

"What is that smell?" Steve asked and tried to get out of his hold. "Is that gasoline?"

"Steve, get out!" Nancy's exclamation made everyone go silent.

Clary's eyes comedically widened when she saw her aiming a gun at Steve.

"Wa─ wait. What?! What is going on?" Steve stuttered out, eyes wide in panic.

"You have five seconds to get out of here." Nancy told him solemnly.

"Okay. Is this a joke?" Steve exclaimed, waving his arms around frantically. "Stop. Put the gun down."

"I'm doing this for you." Nancy said and, in the middle of her sentence, the Christmas lights around them started to flicker.

"Nancy." Clary started, her voice laced with panic as she looked at the lights. She drowned out the sound of Steve's rambling and snapped, "You need to get out of here. Right now." Her eyes narrowed when he didn't move a muscle and just kept staring between her and Nancy's gun. "I'm not kidding."

"Three." Nancy counted and Steve kept chanting 'no' while waving his hands but still didn't look like he was going to leave. "Two."

"Nancy!" Jonathan yelled. "The lights! It's here."

Nancy gasped and lowered her gun while Clary rushed to get hers. Jonathan grabbed the bat while Steve looked between them in confusion, "What's here?"

"Where is it?" Nancy asked.

"Where is what?" Steve asked and gasped when he noticed the weapons that the Byers siblings were holding. "Easy with that!"

"Where is it?" Nancy asked, subconsciously moving closer to Clary.

"I don't know." She huffed.

Jonathan added, "I don't see it."

"Where is that?" Steve repeated loudly, but he was ignored. "Hello! Will someone please explain to me what the hell is going on──" He was just off by a loud crash coming from the ceiling.

Clary looked up with wide eyes to see something trying to crawl the the crashing ceiling. The monster. Nancy raised her gun and started shooting at it. Clary grabbed her wrist to stop her and tugged her toward the hallway, while her brother yelled.

"Run! Run! Go!" Jonathan grabbed Steve's wrist and ordered, "Get out of here."

Clary cringed at the sound of the monster roaring from the living room and rushed to Will's room. She faintly heard Jonathan telling Steve to jump over the bear trap which was followed by Steve's panicked screams.

Steve slammed the door of Will's room shut behind him and yelled, "What the hell was that?"

"Shut up!" Nancy groaned, her annoyance painfully obvious.

She and Clary aimed their guns at the door while Jonathan raised his bat and took Clary's lighter before he lit it up. They panted in anticipation and heard footsteps on the outside.

"What is it doing?" Nancy asked nervously.

"I don't know."

They stayed silent for a couple of moments, waiting for the doors to open so they could kill the monster in the house. But the monster never came.

"Do you bear anything?" Nancy whispered softly.

Jonathan turned the lighter off. "No."

Clary's eyebrows furrowed in confusion and she hesitated before she opened the door. She ignored Steve's complaints and stepped into the hallway with her gun in her hand. Nancy and Jonathan followed and, with much hesitance, Steve did too.

The monster never stepped into the hallway because the bear trap was untouched. There was a possibility that it saw it and turned back. Maybe, somehow, the monster was not as stupid or inhuman as they thought.

They carefully stepped into the living room and realized that the monster had disappeared completely. Other than the hole in the wall, there was no sign that it was even there, to begin with.

"This is crazy." Steve muttered, his body shaking anxiously. "This is crazy. This is crazy. This is crazy. This is crazy! This is crazy! this is crazy!"

Clary watched him reach for the phone on the wall with narrowed eyes. He dialed a phone number but Nancy snatched it from his hand and threw it on the floor.

"What are you doing?" Steve shouted. "Are you insane?"

"It's going to come back." She shot back. "So you need to leave. Right now."

Steve swallowed and looked behind her shoulder at Clary, then back at Nancy. He hesitated. He didn't want to leave her alone because there was a strong possibility of her dying if that...thing ever came back. Eventually, his fear of dying got the better of him and he left running. Like he always did when it came to Clary.

-

A couple of moments after he left, the lights started flickering again. This time, they were much more aggressive. The trio was in the middle of the room with their weapons ready.

Suddenly, all the lights were out. The house was pitch black. Due to the moonlight, Clary could just barely see the outline of the monster appearing behind her brother.

Her eyes widened. "Behind you!"

She gasped when the monster grabbed him and pushed him to the floor. It hovered above him and Clary did not hesitate to start shooting the monster. She didn't care that she was wasting bullets. She could not lose another brother. There was no way that she was going to go through that again.

The monster grew angry as the bullets hit its body. Clary soon realized that the bullets didn't do any actual damage. They just made it angry. Nonetheless, the monster got off of Jonathan and started moving towards Clary. Clary kept shooting until she had no bullets left.

"Nancy!" She exclaimed when it got way too close to her and, just as the Wheeler girl was about to start shooting, Steve jumped out of nowhere and used Jonathan's bat to hit the monster.

"What's the fuck──" Clary gasped as Steve kept fighting the monster with nothing but a bat that he was waving around like a madman.

He led it toward the hallway and, a couple of seconds later, called over his shoulder, "He's in the trap! He's stuck."

"Jonathan!" Clary yelled and her brother quickly grabbed the lighter. He lit it up and threw it on the ground, beneath the monster's feet.

Seconds later, it went up in flames and Jonathan reached for the fire extinguisher. He turned off the fire and smoke filled the room. Soon enough, the lights turned on to reveal that the monster disappeared from the hallway.

"Where did it go?" Nancy asked.

Clary squinted at the place where it used to be and shrugged, "It's supposed to be dead. Maybe it just disappeared after it died. We have no idea how it works."

She walked back into the living room and the others followed. All four of them were still extremely wary and the Christmas lights turning on only made them more uneasy. But instead of flickering like they did when the monster was coming, they just stayed on.

"Mom." Jonathan gasped in a mix of relief and confusion. "Is that you? Mom?"

"Jonathan."

Clary had no idea if that was actually her mom's voice that filled her ears or if it was just a figment of her imagination. Either way, she knew that her mom and Hopper were doing something that was not according to plan.

-

Eleven was gone and despite feeling terrible that the girl who did everything she could save her brother disappeared, Clary tried not to think about it too much.

Not that she had that much time to do so since Will was finally home.

Her mom quite literally went to hell and back to find him and Clary could not thank her enough. She was finally able to hug her little brother after what felt like months. She barely left the hospital. Which meant that she also barely saw Nancy...and Steve.

Steve was definitely out of the picture since she shot him down and told him that she did not have time for relationship drama. Will came first.

Nancy, on the other hand, was grieving her friend, so Clary decided to give her some space.

When Will finally came home, she did not expect to see Nancy and Steve getting back together. She felt bitter but decided not to comment on it. After everything that she and Nancy went through together, she decided that it was best to bury the hatchet despite how annoyed she was at the fact that they got back together.

By Christmas, Will was back on his feet and running around Hawkins with his friends. Nancy had Steve and their relationship which was still pretty tense. And, Clary? Well, Clary had Robin.

Explaining how she and Nancy became friends again was hard and she could see that Robin was still skeptical about "little miss perfect". Shockingly, Robin chose not to judge her too much.

Clary used some of the money that she saved to buy Jonathan a new camera and Will a new comic book. She usually only got presents for the two of them since she could never save enough to buy her mom something. And, she only ever got presents from her mom, so she was more than surprised when Steve came through her bedroom window on Christmas Eve with a gift in hand.

"It's not much." Steve explained awkwardly. "It just felt fitting."

Clary squinted at him and an involuntary smile tugged at her lips when she tore the badly wrapped wrapping paper off. She let out a breathy laugh at the small black notebook. Her old diaries had terrible quality, so that notebook was definitely an upgrade. She let her fingers trace the gold letters in the corner of the notebook.

"C. Byers"

"I love it." Clary admitted, a softness in her eyes that Steve did not see in a while. "Thank you. But you know you didn't have to get me anything."

"I wanted to." Steve quickly said, "And I never expected anything back. I just wanted to give you something to remind you that I still care."

His words made her smile falter. She sighed and shook her head, "Steve...I already told you how I feel. Or how I don't feel. You can't be pining after me. Not if you have a girlfriend. And you also can't date Nancy if you have feelings for me. It only proves how bad of a person you are."

"I like Nancy. I do." He assured her and sighed in frustration. "I just─ I love you."

Clary shook her head, now already getting annoyed. "Maybe you should have thought of that earlier. Do whatever the hell you want to do. Just don't break Nancy's heart. She does not deserve that."

She would have felt much more protective over Nancy and would probably tell her about Steve's feelings for her if she didn't know about Nancy's feelings (or her lack of them). Maybe the fact that they were using each other to get over whoever they had to get over was not the worst thing in the world. So, she was not going to stop them.

And if she felt sick to her stomach when she would see them holding hands or kissing in the hallway, then that would be her own personal problem.