TWENTY-TWO: THE BAD MEN

"THIS IS WEIRD, RIGHT?" Steve asked, looking at the two girls, "I mean, apologizing to someone about a fight over my girlfriend with two other girls next to me?"

Heather and Veronica looked at each other and shrugged before Heather turned back to Steve, "We're moral support and also, I'm here to kick Jonathan's ass in case he's making a move on your girl, don't worry."

Despite her big, aching crush on Steve, neither Heather nor Veronica were going to purposefully sabotage Steve and Nancy's relationship. Heather helped Steve get the swelling on his face down and had cleaned up some of the blood before Steve confessed that he wanted to apologize to Jonathan. So, naturally, she went back over to her house, meaning to say to her brother and Veronica that she would be right back only to find Veronica watching TV alone and her brother nowhere to be found. Now, this was a pit stop before Veronica and Heather were going to hunt down Daniel. Just normal Saturday night activities for two seventeen-year-old girls.

"Besides," Veronica sighed, "We're just gonna ask if Jonathan knows where the boys are and then we're outta here. So, it's all, you buddy."

"Gee, thanks," Steve said with a small, nervous laugh. Heather can't remember the last time she saw Steve get nervous. The boy took a deep breath and raised his fist to the wood of Jonathan Byers's house. He knocked on the door rather violently, causing both girls to jump back slightly.

"Jonathan?" he shouted when no one answered right away, "Are you there, man? It's... it's Steve! Listen, I just wanna talk!"

Nancy opened it. Heather and Veronica shared an unsurprised look.

"Steve..." she drifted off when she saw the girls, "Heather and Veronica?"

"Moral support," Veronica shrugged, tossing dark hair behind her shoulder.

Nancy shook off the look of confusion and continued, "Well, listen to me."

"Nancy, hey," Steve started before the girl cut him off.

"You need to leave."

"No, no I'm not trying to start anything, okay?"

"I don't care about that. You need to leave."

"No can do, sis," Heather exclaimed, pushing past Steve and successfully pushing the door open. What she expected to see was a rustled, possibly shirtless Jonathan Byers. What she definitely didn't expect to see was a house decorated with what had to be hundreds of Christmas lights with writing on the walls. Not to mention the various weapons lying around the room. "What the fuck?"

"Wait, wait, no, get out," Jonathan rushed to the door, but the three were already in the house.

"I just wanna make things right," Steve sighed before his face scrunched up as he looked at Nancy's hand, "Wait, what happened to your hand? Is-is that blood?"

"Hey, Johnny boy's got one too?" Veronica grabbed Jonathan's hand before he yanked it away, "What are you two? Blood brothers now?"

"Okay!" Heather shouted, getting everyone's attention, "Someone is going to tell me what the fuck is going on here and they are going to tell me now!"

Jonathan started to decline, but the dark-skinned girl cut him off with a glare, saying, "I. Wasn't. Asking."

It was then there was the sound of a gun cocking and Nancy had it aimed at Steve. "Get out," she said.

Heather, who had been through this before on an otherwise lovely trip to New York City, went silent and held up her hands. Steve, however, just started stammering, "Wait. What is going on?"

"You all have five seconds to get out of here!" Nancy demanded.

The dark-skinned girl shared a look with Veronica, "Are all white people fucking crazy? Sorry, Steve, I'm outta here."

She began to make her way towards the door when all the lights in the house began to flicker. Jonathan began trying to get Nancy's attention while Steve was still stumbling over his words.

"It's here," Jonathan said, grabbing a bat with nails embedded in it off of the table.

"Where is it?" Nancy asked, leaving the three of them in even more confusing.

"Where is what?" Steve asked while Veronica reached into her bra and pulled out a closed switchblade, snapping it open.

Steve looked over at her with furrowed brows while she just shrugged. "A girl's gotta be prepared."

Heather nodded, pulling a swiss army knife out of her boot as if this were the most normal thing in the world. The lights were still going on and off.

Steve was still yelling, but no one was giving him the time of day. "Hello? Will someone please explain to me what the hell is going—"

There was a loud noise like a crash. Heather jumped but quickly stabilized herself before she fell, her head turning towards the direction of the noise. Pieces of the ceiling began to fall and there was a noise, something animalistic, as it broke. Nancy aimed her gun at it, firing random shots. Everyone began to run down the hallway, but Nancy stayed so Veronica ran over to her and helped Jonathan get her to move with them.

"Jump!" Jonathan instructed and they leaped over a bear trap as they ran.

"Oh my god, oh my god," Steve kept screaming as they all crowded into what appeared to be Jonathan's room. "Jesus, Jesus, what the hell was that?"

"I should be at home watching shitty rom-coms on TV right now!" Heather mumbled to herself before getting Steve's attention, "Hey, since we're gonna die, Steve! I know you're all hung up on Nancy, but I think I'm in love with you, so take that how you want it!"

"What?" Steve shouted before they were all told to shut up by Nancy and Jonathan. Steve looked over at Heather with wild eyes, but she just shrugged, not worrying about his reaction right now. Jonathan and Nancy waited by the door with the nail-bat, a lighter, and a gun. Veronica and Heather had their knives out while Steve just looked kind of lost.

"What's it doing?" Nancy asked once whatever was outside that door got quieter. It was still most definitely there, though.

Jonathan's only answer was, "I don't know."

Suddenly, the lights stopped flickering and everyone waiting in an anxious silence.

"Do you hear anything?"

Closing his lighter, Jonathan shook his head, "No."

He opened the door and Heather gasped, "Are you guys fucking crazy? What if that thing is still out there?"

"Shush!" Nancy said as they all followed Jonathan out the door.

"In love with me?" Steve muttered, his voice a whisper.

Veronica smacked him on the side of the head, "Bigger things to worry about, buddy."

They all walked out into the hallway and main room of the house, all dead silent.

"This is crazy," Steve began mumbling repeatedly, "Monsters, Heather loves me, what the hell?"

"Dude, shut up," Veronica spat, pointing her switchblade at him, causing him to gulp and go silent.

Steve just looked at her before running to the phone and presumably dialing 9-1-1. Nancy ran over, grabbed the phone, and threw it across the room. "What are you— what are you doing? Are you insane?"

"It's going to come back!" she yelled at him with a fire Heather nor Veronica had ever seen before, "So you need to leave. Right now."

As any sane human would, Steve ran outside. Heather and Veronica, however, didn't budge. Nancy turned to them, "That applied to everyone here."

"Listen, Nance, I'm sure your heart's in the right place, but my people went through centuries of white people telling them what to do and I don't plan on following in their footsteps," Heather spoke with a condescending smile, her hand still gripping her swiss army knife, "I'm not moving. Neither is Veronica."

"Heather, Steve was our ride," Veronica mumbled, but quickly backtracked once Heather sent her a glare, "Or we can walk home. Once this is all over."

It was then that the lights started flickering again. Heather sighed and held her knife out, her eyes flicking to every possible place something could come from.

Nancy had her hand on her gun again, looking around wildly, "Where is it?"

"Come on," Jonathan spat, "Come on, you son of a bitch. You see it?"

"All I see are Christmas lights," Veronica sighed, her blade out in front of her as she slowly spun around, her eyes surveying every part of the room. Then, the lights stopped flickering and went out.

"If any of you make a joke about not being able to see me, I swear—" Heather began to say before there was a low growl that practically echoed throughout the room.

"Jonathan!" Nancy yelled as he turned around. Veronica screamed and threw her switchblade.

She cussed as it got stuck in what looked like the neck of the creature, "Shit! I need a new knife!"

Nancy screamed his name as the monster, who completely ignored Veronica's attack, tackled Jonathan. Heather pushed Veronica behind her as they backed up into the hallway, ready to run but being careful not to step in the bear trap.

"Go to hell, you son of a bitch!" Nancy screamed, firing her gun at the creature. The monster got up and started heading towards the girl who had just run out of bullets.

Veronica pushed past Heather and grabbed the bat Jonathan had dropped. "Here!" the voice of Steve Harrington shouted, running at her. He was closer to Nancy so she carefully tossed the bat to him. He caught it with ease and slid in front of Nancy, beginning to beat the creature with the bat.

"Get out of the way!" Steve shouted at Heather as he began to beat the monster in the direction of the hallway. Veronica grabbed the girl's hand and pulled Heather onto the ground next to the entrance to the hallway as Steve hit the monster one last time. It stepped right into the trap and it snapped shut.

"Jonathan now!" Nancy yelled as the boy ran in front of the hallway and tossed his lighter in, sending the creature up in flames. The monster disappeared along with the flames, but everyone still looked around cautiously. Steve held the bat carefully, backing out of the hallway with Nancy and Jonathan behind him. Heather helped Veronica get up since the dark-skinned girl had practically landed on top of her.

The lights, which had gone out, began to light up one by one.

"Mom," Jonathan spoke softly.

"What the fuck is he going on about?" Heather mumbled before Veronica elbowed her and motioned for her to be quiet. There was no other noise, so the five people filed out of the house. The streetlight was flickering too before it stabilized.

"Where's it going?" Nancy asked.

Jonathan stared at the light, "I don't think that's the monster."

"Steve," Heather began quietly since she was standing next to him, "About what I said—"

"H, I love you, but I don't think this is the time. Your brother's missing, remember?" Veronica cut her off with a soft look, "You two can talk later. Do you guys know where Daniel is?"

"Actually," Nancy sighed, "Yes."

"MIKE! I FOUND THE CHOCOLATE PUDDING!" Daniel heard Dustin shout from the kitchen. He laughed to himself while Mike just rolled his eyes.

"Okay!" he shouted back, before turning back to Daniel, "Hey, um, I know I can't like, ask you to the Snow Ball because like, yeah, but I want El to get to be normal and do uh normal stuff so would you be mad if I invited her? I mean, like, I totally don't have to—"

Daniel laughed at how red Mike was getting in his cheeks. "I get it. She's uh, she's starting to grow on me. As much as I kinda hate to admit that. She should be there, she's part of the party now, isn't she? The party always goes to the Snow Ball together."

Mike smiled brightly, kissing Daniel on the cheek and resting his head on the curly-haired boy's shoulder, "Speaking of, what do you think they'll say about us?"

"That depends, are we an 'us?'" Daniel asked with a small smile, wanting to do nothing more than kiss him. When Mike didn't have an answer, he just chuckled, "Why don't we save Will first, all right? Now, go ask El if she wants to go with us, okay?"

Mike rolled his eyes but nodded as he got up. Daniel watched as he spoke to the girl. He looked like he was about to ask when there was the sound of a car pulling up. Mike said something to Eleven and got up, running outside.

Dustin and Lucas came back out, releasing piles upon piles of chocolate pudding onto the table. "This'll charge your battery right up, I'm telling you," the boy said as he handed one to Eleven. Daniel came running over, grabbing a pudding for himself. "Hey, Daniel, are you and Mike okay?"

Daniel nodded, biting his lip to keep from smiling too big, "Yeah, yeah we're okay."

"Guys, guys!" Mike came running back in, panting.

"What's wrong?" Daniel asked at the same time Lucas said, "What is it?"

"They found us!" the dark-haired boy exclaimed, out of breath.

There was a beat of silence before they all sprinted. Mike grabbed onto Daniel's hand and pulled him in the direction they needed to go. They rushed out into the hallway, all panting and trying to figure out where to go.

"How did they find us?" Lucas spoke, his voice rushed.

"I don't know," Mike began, "but they knew we were in the gym."

"Lando!" was all Dustin had to say, going back to his argument from earlier in the day. The doors in front of them opened and men flooding in, causing the group to sprint in the opposite direction. However, they were met with more men. they turned around and went another direction. Daniel's hand gripped Mike's tightly for fear of losing him. They stopped in their tracks once they saw more people. They were completely boxed in with nowhere to go.

An older woman with blonde hair cocked her gun and aimed it at them, specifically at Eleven. Then, the men's flashlights began to flicker. Daniel gagged as blood started to come from their eyes. He was never one for violence. Then, everyone surrounding them dropped dead. Mike, who could probably tell Daniel was about to puke, held him tightly and ran a comforting hand through his curls. He pulled away when Eleven collapsed and they all ran over to her.

"El, are you okay?" Mike asked worriedly, shaking her, but she wasn't moving. "El! Something's wrong."

"She's just drained," Dustin argued.

"No, no, she won't wake up!"

Daniel, for once, was actually worried. Her breathing was shallow, but it was there and that was what mattered. He put a hand on Mike's shoulder, "Mike, we need to keep moving. We can bring her with us."

"How?" he asked, not letting go of Eleven.

It was then there were footsteps. There was an older man with a few soldiers behind him. It was the same man in the coat Daniel saw before they rode off on their bikes. That felt like a million years ago, but the man was here.

"Step away from the child," he demanded, getting closer. Unlike the blonde woman, he appeared unarmed. The thought didn't comfort Daniel.

"No!" Mike exclaimed. All four boys got up and formed almost a wall in front of Eleven, "You want her? You'll have to kill us first."

Daniel scrunched up his face, not quite willing to go that far. These men had big guns and they could easily get through four pre-teen boys.

"That's right!" Dustin shouted, which was followed by "Eat shit!" from Lucas.

It was then that men came up from behind and grabbed the four boys. They all shouted and Daniel reached out for Mike, but he couldn't get to him. Daniel struggled for a moment, watching as the man cradled Eleven in his arms and whispered something.

"Papa?" Eleven said, confusing Daniel. He chose not to focus on that, instead focusing on getting out of this man's grip and getting to Mike.

"Let her go, you bastard!" Mike shouted.

The man said more stuff to Eleven, but she only looked at him and said, "Bad."

In that moment, Daniel was strangely proud of her. He brought his leg back and kicked the man that was holding him in the crotch, causing him to let go of the boy and keel over. He lunged for Eleven, but the man pushed him back, causing Daniel to land on the cold tile.

"Daniel!" Mike shouted, still trying to wrangle himself free. "Are you okay?"

He was about to respond when the lights started flickering. Everyone went silent when Mike said, "Blood."

"What?" Lucas asked, none of the boys really fighting anymore.

"The Demogorgon," Daniel mumbled, "It's attracted to blood."

"So you do pay attention to our campaigns!" Dustin exclaimed before he was shushed by Mike.

The brick wall at the end of the hallway began to break as if something was pushing against it from the inside. The monster broke through and the boys were pushed off of the men as they all got their guns out. The man, who was occupied with firing a gun at the creature, let go of Eleven. Dustin scooped her into his arms as they all ran down the hallway.

They ran into an empty classroom, Lucas closing and locking the door behind them while Dustin placed the semi-conscious girl on a table in the back.

"Just hold on a little longer, okay?" Mike comforted.

"Everything's gonna be okay," Daniel reassured, holding her head up slightly as a sign of comfort, "We're gonna be okay. That bad man won't be able to get to you after this."

Mike nodded, "He's gone, the bad man's gone."

"Promise?" Eleven said, her voice weak and her nose bleeding heavily.

"Promise."

They all jumped as the monster screeched, sounding closer than before. Then, the rapid gunfire stopped.

"Is it, is it dead?" Dustin stammered. The door fell off of its hinges as the monster clamored into the room.

"No, but we are!" Daniel exclaimed, wanting so badly to cry. He had to stay strong, for Eleven.

"Get the wrist rocket now!" the curly-haired boy shouted as Lucas emptied out his backpack onto another table, "

"Get the rocks, get the rocks, get the rocks!"

"Getting the rocks!"

Lucas hit the Demogorgon on the face with a rock, which only seemed to make it angrier. God, they were so screwed. Suddenly, the monster was slammed back against the chalkboard with so much power that it cracked beneath it. Eleven pushed past the boys, on her feet again. Daniel grabbed her wrist, trying to hold her back, but she pushed him off and stepped forward.

"Eleven stop!" Mike shouted, running after her, but she pushed him back. He slammed against the cabinets and Daniel immediately knelt next to him, making sure he was okay. They all watched in horror and confusion as she stepped up to the monster.

She looked back at the confused boys with a solemn look on her face, "Goodbye."

Daniel, who hadn't realized he was crying, noticed tears falling from Mike's eyes as well. With that final look, Eleven turned back to the monster.

"No more," she said before she held out her hand. The monster began squealing and trying to break free, but it was no use. Eleven screamed as the monster began to fade, piece by piece. After what felt like a century, the monster was gone. Eleven with it. The lights stopped flickering.

"El? El?" Mike screamed into the empty classroom but stopped when Daniel put a firm hand on his shoulder.

"She's gone."

Once they truly realized Eleven was no longer there, they ran outside where authorities were waiting. They placed all the boys in the back of an ambulance where they just performed checkups and made sure everyone was okay. Physically, they were okay, but they weren't, not really.

Daniel watched from the curb as Mike's mom found him and pulled him into an embrace.

"Daniel Robert Jacobs, you have some explaining to do!" his mom came up to him, her voice commanding and stern. She looked at him for a moment before sighing and pulling him into a tight embrace, "I love you, so much. I'm glad you're okay. Do you know where your sister is?"

"Mom!" Heather's voice rang out as she got out of what looked like Steve Harrington's car. She ran over to them and joined in on the hug.

"Heather!" Daniel exclaimed, hugging his sister tightly, "I-I wanted to call, but they wouldn't let me. They, they didn't know who was in on it, so I couldn't."

"It's okay, it's okay," she shushed as he cried into her arms. She pulled away and looked into eyes, "Do you want Steve to drive us to the hospital? We can wait for Will to wake up!"

"They found him?" Daniel asked with a furrowed brow.

Heather nodded enthusiastically, "They found him, they found Will."

"Do you want me to meet you two at the hospital? Or do you want me to wait for you at home?"

"Shouldn't you get back to work? They probably need you," Daniel asked with a sigh, knowing his mother probably couldn't stay for long.

His mom scoffed, "Yeah, no, my kids were both targeted by a shady government and almost killed, I'm taking the next week off! So, I'll meet you at the hospital."

Daniel laughed through the tears as he nodded, "Yeah, yeah."

"All right, then let's go," Heather nodded towards the car, "Steve's waiting."

They got up and as soon as their mom walked away, he leaned down to whisper in his sister's ear, "Hey, out of all the bad things that happened tonight, one good thing did happen. Mike and I, well, we kissed. Like, multiple times. On purpose."

Heather practically squealed, which was quite the contrast to the solemn mood everyone outside had, "I'm happy for you baby bro! Now, come on, let's go see Will, okay?"

"Hey, little man," Steve greeted as they got into the car, "I don't think we've met, I'm Steve. Daniel, right?"

"Yeah, aren't you the reason my sister is in this whole mess? Last her and I spoke, she was going over to your place."

Veronica snickered, giving Daniel a quiet high-five. Heather scoffed whereas Steve just stammered, "Uh, hey, let's got see Will!"

When they got to the hospital, everyone was pretty much already there. Daniel took a seat next to Mike, who smiled, despite tearstains being prominent on his cheeks, and squeezed his hand. They didn't need words, not right now. Especially not with Mike's mom right next to them. They waited, and waited, and waited.

After a few hours, Mike and Daniel fell asleep on each other. Mike had his head on Daniel's chest while the curly-haired boy's head was atop his. The room was dead silent as everyone was exhausted and had pretty much passed out.

It was then that Jonathan opened the door to the waiting room with a small smile on his face. The noise alerted Daniel, which woke up Mike. The Wheeler boy, who was suddenly filled with energy, shook the other two boys awake.

"Guys, he's up, Will's up!" he exclaimed, "Guys, Will's up!"

All the boys got up and ran into the room.

"Byers!" Lucas shouted while Mike ran over and pulled Will into a hug.

"Be careful with him!" Joyce warned, but there was a smile on his face as the boys pulled Will into a group hug.

"Guys, guys!" Jonathan said with a laugh, re-entering the room, "Go easy on him."

Lucas, with a huge smile on his face, said, "You won't believe what happened while you were gone, man."

"It was mental!" Dustin shouted.

"You had a funeral," Lucas recalled. Dustin made sure to add that Jennifer Hayes was crying.

"And Troy peed himself!"

"In front of the whole school!"

Then, Will started coughing and the smiles faded from their faces.

"You okay?" Mike asked gently, Daniel squeezing his hand worriedly. Will furrowed his brow at their hands before Mike shrugged, "I'll explain later. Are you okay?"

Will shrugged, going quiet, "It got me. The Demogorgon."

"We know," the Wheeler boy nodded, "it's okay. It's dead. We made a new friend. she stopped it. She saved us. But she's gone now."

"Her name's Eleven," said Dustin.

"Like the number?" the boy asked.

Lucas shrugged, "Well, we call her El for short."

"She was so cool!" Daniel exclaimed, surprising everyone, "She flipped a van! With her mind!"

Dustin nodded, "She's basically a wizard."

They all launched into passionate retellings of different things Eleven had done with her powers.

Then, even with Eleven gone and Will confined to a hospital bed, for the first time in a really long time, things felt like they were going to be okay.

END OF PART ONE

( note! )

this was 4.2k words Y'all better appreciate me for this! also, uh, it'll probably be like 1-2 weeks before I update this again because I need to figure out where imma start off for part two and all that jazz but uhh yay mike and Daniel are happy and heather is vv close to being with Steve while Veronica is still quietly pining for nancy lmao rip!! anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed and I'll see you in a week or so!! (meanwhile, Y'all can catch me updating my other stranger things fic, Like I Can!!) also, yara shahidi turns 18 in 6 days so like catch me making her the face claim for heather again in 6 days lmao