KAT

"ARE WE SURE ABOUT THIS, STEVE?" Kat asked, nervously fiddling with her glove.

"...What do you mean?" Steve asked quizzically, turning to face her. 

"Erica. And Dustin, and Robin. We could be dragging them into danger," Kat said.

They were prepping for the night. Kat had already closed the Jazzercise, and with a brief stop back home for dinner, they were back inside the mall once more. Kat was still wearing her Jazzercise outfit, though, since she had forgotten to change. Yet, the pockets of her tights had a few mini granola bars in them in case she got hungry (which she did, a lot).

"I mean- now you put it into perspective, it is sorta risky. But it's the right thing to do,"

Kat rolled her eyes uneasily. "That's exactly what Robin said,"

"Hey-" Steve said, and placed both hands on Kat's shoulders. "If you're worried about Robin, or Robin and me-"

"No, Steve," Kat said, breaking into a shocked miniature smile. "I'm not worried about you and Robin. God- no, I'm worried about Dustin and Erica,"

"What? They'll be fine, we're gonna look after 'em," he said reassuringly.

"These are Russians, Steve. Armed, dangerous Russians," Kat said clearly.

"I can throw a punch," Steve grinned.

"No, you can't. And neither can I, or Robin. This- this is a bad idea,"

"Hey, don't say that," Steve furrowed his brows. "We'll be fine. Look- I get it why you could think this is a bad idea, I know you got a really bad scar last time. But this is totally different-"

"Totally different?" Kat said incredulously. "We're going on a mission we barely know anything about, with kids. We're not American Heroes, Steve, we're teenagers!"

And she believed she was right. Kat had turned eighteen only a few months ago. They weren't Captain America spying on Nazis, they were just kids. And the haunted world breathing alongside them had cursed them to the bone, twisting their morals into a wicked sense of conquer or be conquered.

And if their argument couldn't get any bit worse, the lights of Scoops Ahoy lit up Steve in a way only reminiscent of picture books. His hair, and Kat hated to admit it, looked really hot. And Kat's right hand tingled from the time she, Steve, and Dustin had driven from the movie theater and she'd mussed it up. And his blue shirt had a wide neckline, giving view to his collarbones and a small valley where his skin disappeared into shadow. Kat tried to keep her gaze looking into Steve's eyes, but it was rather distracting. 

"Katie-" Steve said, frustrated now, and saying her name in one rushed breath. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but you're...kinda overthinking,"

"What?" Kat said angrily.

"No- no, I take that back. Just- think of this from a different perspective, huh? People are counting on us, actually, to be brave. We're not cowards, and we've saved Hawkins before. We can do it again," he said steadily, his eyes shining at her with determination as he smiled.

"What if we can't?" Kat whispered, looking at Steve harshly. "Who knows how many Russians are there? We barely won last time, and maybe this time-"

"-Katie. You know why we're doing this," Steve said, looking firmly into her grey eyes. Steve glanced away for a second, as if preparing himself. "I won't be mad if you bail. But I'm gonna get to the bottom of this, no matter what. I just, I have to,"

Kat looked at him with wide eyes, as his stubborn, brave, streak of a heart blazed in heroism. He always was the head of the line, the first raised weapon. He'd throw himself into a fire if it meant keeping her warm. And it hurt him, Kat could see it. But oh, he was always the sacrificial lamb, the one leaping headfirst into darkness. And he had to touch the nights before returning home, she knew she could never change that. But someday, and Kat knew it, in the valleys and hollows in his golden-brown irises that he never paid attention to, that his curiousity, his bravery and self-sacrifice and all that bullshit, was gonna get him killed.  And that was why she was there- to prevent that from happening.

"Okay," Kat said, though her eyes whistled with the hail of blizzards and the fury of a thousand snowstorms. "This isn't over,"

"Okay," Steve murmured, and looked down at her briefly with remorse before letting go of her shoulders, Kat feeling the cool touch of the room once more.

"Steve, Kat! We're leaving!" Dustin called faintly from outside. 

Kat took one more opportunity to look at Steve, the way his hair parted slightly at the side and once at the middle, a few locks tumbling down to his forehead. His eyes ran with ichor, set against brown, with buried secrets uncovered like seeds of the earth. And whenever he turned his head, they'd flash against the poor electrical lights above and explode into pure gold, a direct reflection of the sun he was. 

"Hustle, people!" Robin yelled from the Scoops entrance. Kat looked down, hoping Steve hadn't noticed how long she'd been staring at him, and hastily left the back room.

"Come on, the sun's set by now," Robin continued as they locked up Scoops for the night, though the left the key with Erica, who went inside the back room after them.

After Erica had opened the doors to the room, they'd all scrambled down from the rooftop and into the space alongide her. Steve, ever the spirit, volunteered without words to slit open one of the boxes, the rest of them peering anxiously around him. A silver box was inside of the cardboard one, a stainless steel that screamed shady government weapons. And inside of that, four tube-like thingies that had an eerie glow.

"That's definitely not Chinese food," Steve mumbled to himself, before turning to them and sharing uneasy look.

Maybe there was some sort of bomb in there. Steve looked around them, before making a few pushy gestures specifically towards Kat. "Uh, maybe you guys should stand back," he told them, though he looked straight at her.

"Steve, be careful," Kat murmured as she took half a step towards the wall. Steve nodded, before noticing how Dustin was still next to him.

"No," he said stubbornly.

"Just step back, okay?"

"No, no!" 

The four of them looked impatiently at Dustin, surprised at his outburst. "You die, I die,"

There was a bit of awkwardness as the resolute settled in Kat's bones. Robin shifted uncomfortably beside her.

"Okay,"

Steve reached into the top left tube, loosening it before pulling the thing out slowly. It was a fat test tube, filled with some sort of green, bubbly liquid, like Mountain Dew on steroids.

"The hell?" Kat muttered, and as her eyes traveled deeper and deeper into the liquid's contents, they took her mind with them.

Her vision swayed for a bit, lost among her current line of sight, and Kat felt her feet come undone from her legs before knitting themselves back together. She mumbled a 'whoa', and gripped onto the edge of the box for support, before a sudden heaviness took over her body. "Shit," It wasn't like soreness from playing a sport, it was like her body was a balloon and somebody popped it, initiating slow but certain soreness from all parts of her.

"Whoa, whoa, Katie," Steve said, frantically putting down the test tube and supporting her back as she sank to the ground. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah-" Kat's head swam with stars, messily drowning in the chaotic pools that were Steve's eyes. She tried to draw breath, but she could only do it halfway, leading her to cough a bit. The sore turned into an ache that, in an instant, attacked every part of her. She groaned in pain, maybe she'd eaten the wrong Pad Thai for lunch? But fortunately, she wouldn't see if that was true. For she was being protected. Even as the room shook, like broken hinges on a swing, and Kat's hand tightened around Steve's.

"Is it just me, or did the room move?" Dustin said softly and slowly.

"You know what, let's just grab that and go," Robin made a nervous face, taking the tube and Erica's backpack. The latter began to work on the boxes, while Steve crouched down to her eye level.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked gently.

"Yeah- yeah, I'm just sore as hell right now-" Kat said, before the room suddenly shook, and Kat was taken back to the bus in the junkyard. Dustin was talking to Erica about buttons, but Kat was struggling to comprehend. She could breathe just fine, but all of her senses, they were numb, and she could barely see Steve's silhouette among the room's lights.

"Okay, we're gonna get outta this creepy-ass room, okay?" Steve told her, and grabbed both her hands to lift her up. Kat made a face, the sudden movement causing an unwelcome stir in her stomach, not just from Steve's touch. As Steve went to argue with Dustin about buttons, Kat leaned all her weight on the table, trying to steady her already-stable breathing as the ache turned into a sting. It spread from nowhere to everywhere, curling around her insides and spitting venom on her nerves. Kat grit her teeth, the urge to call out for help almost overwhelming. 

And she did call for help. Only it was for naught, as the room had started shaking, she'd fallen to the ground, and everybody else had started screaming. 

Until they stopped screaming. 

Everybody hit the ground with a tumble and a thump as the room shook to a stop. The adrenaline had swallowed Kat whole, so much so that her body didn't hurt anymore.

"Shit!" Kat tried to get up, before a Kaufman Shoes box fell straight onto her stomach. It sent a dull blow to her chest as she wheezed out the air pushed upwards. 

"I got it," Robin said breathlessly as she lifted the shoes box with ease up a bit so Kat could tuck her arms in and roll out of the way. Kat nodded a thank you to her, before standing up.

The pain had vanished. The crippling feeling from not two seconds ago, as if her insides were poisoned through, had blown away with the room. It only left a strange tingle, a feeling that all the tips of the hairs on her body were standing still, the very edges being slowly electreocuted. Yet the pools of green ick had gathered at the bottom of her stomach, and Kat feared for the hour it could spill over.

"Is anyone hurt?" she asked, looking over Steve, Dustin and Erica.

"Yeah, I'm great, now that I know that Russians can't design elevators!" Steve screamed in a huff, slapping his hands against the fabric of his Scoops shorts. He ran past two boxes and leapfrogged over another to frantically press at the 'open door' button, the little plastic thing not doing much.

"I think we've clearly established that those buttons don't work," Robin said, rubbing a patch on her head.

"They're buttons. They have to do something," Steve said, the pure hysteria in his voice making him sound pissed off. It sent disturbing tremors into Kat, knowing that he was actually terrified. The wild in his eyes, dark next to the poor silver lighting, glowed with adrenaline of stray forests and gleaming gazes, as he frantically looked around. "God, Katie, what happened?"

"I- I don't know!" Kat said, her eyes beginning to swell with tearwater in panic at, one, that she was basically seizing a second ago, and two, that they were probably stuck in the elevator. "It just hurt, so much, and now it's gone!"

"But are you feeling okay, here and now?" Dustin said authoritatively, and Kat nodded. "Okay. Well- it's an electronic lock, so you'll need a keycard. Meaning-"

"-We're stuck here," Robin said, and flopped onto a box.

"Just so you nerds are aware, I'm supposed to be spending the nightat Tina's, and Tina always covers for me. But if I'm not homefor Uncle Jack's party tomorrow, and my mom finds out you three, especially Kat, are responsible, she's gonna hunt you down, one by one, slit your throats, and use Kat's limbs to make soul food," Erica ranted.

"-I don't care about Tina!" Steve yelled before Kat could open her mouth. "Or Uncle Jack's party! Your mom's not gonna be able to find usif we're dead in a Russian elevator!"

Steve's words were a harsh reality check, as Kat frantically glanced around them for anything they could use to get out besides boxes.

"Hey. What if... we climbed out?" Dustin said slowly, pointing at the hatch above their heads.

Thankfully, there were no screwdrivers needed, and Dustin was the first one to poke his head out of the elevator. Steve followed, and they were up there for a long time before they went down again.

"Uh, bad news, guys, we're, like, fifty miles underground," Dustin said hesitantly.

"What?" Kat's eyes went wide. "Underground? As in, the elevator went down to oblivion?"

"Yeah. Uh, until maybe someone opens the door with a keycard, we're stuck. Actually stuck," Steve said blankly, placing his hands on his hips.

"Fuck me," Kat hissed, as she turned to droop her body over an Imperial Panda box. 

━━author's note ━━

indeed, kat started hurting as the sauna test was performed! but she didnt get any of the nasty black veins all over her for reasons explained in the future ;)

also the next chapters gonna be a big one and i think yall are gonna like it