he'll kill us

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

  After watching the two cars head in separate directions on their mission to save the world, Gabriel Burton decided to do something long overdue, and so it was that he found himself heading to the living room. He picked the phone off of the ground and typed in a couple of numbers on the keypad to see if it would work. Although it was a little scorched, the top of it blackened a little from Alina's energy, it still seemed in working use, so it was with bated breath that Gabe dialled his home phone number, his heart hammering in his chest. As he listened to the ringing, he tried to figure out which option was worse—the option where his grandparents picked up the phone, or the one where they didn't. But when the first option occurred, Gabe found out that he'd have quite preferred the second one.

"Hello?" his grandma's voice creaked out of the phone. Dolores Burton was a woman who didn't take anybody's nonsense. She'd been grossly mistreated in her past, with an abusive ex-husband, but instead of the story ending badly, as one might've expected for a woman like her, a woman who seemed, at least on the surface, very naïve and doting, it instead ended with Thomas Friar being found unconscious in a dumpster after being smacked over the head with a frying pan. So she was kind of a badass.

Gabe didn't respond for a moment, his breath catching in his throat. He didn't want to speak, didn't want to hear the screaming that would most likely come out of the phone when he said anything. But he swallowed and forced himself to do it anyway.

"Hi, grandma."

"Gabriel Jacob Burton, where in the hell have you been?!"

And there it was, and the full name, too, which meant that he was really in trouble. Gabe tried to get out an excuse—something feeble like how he'd lost track of time—but Dolores was already shouting. "Your grandfather and I have been worried sick about you! We thought you might've gotten kidnapped or mugged! Why didn't you think of calling us and telling us where you were going?! We raised you better than this!"

Gabe was tempted to say something like "well, actually, you didn't really raise me" but he didn't think that would give him any points in his grandmother's book. Instead he just gave a sheepish "I'm sorry."

"Sorry isn't gonna cut it, Gabriel! You better get home right now!"

Gabe clenched the phone, his heart dropping, but he didn't hang up, even though that was what his instincts were telling him to do. "I can't," he said instead. "Grandma, I'm sorry... something's going on right now. With my friends. I have to help them. I have to stay here. Please, grandma. Let me stay."

Her voice softened. She seemed to understand that something was happening by the tone of his voice. "You better be back by morning, Gabe. And you're grounded, so don't expect TV for the next month."

"Yes, grandma."

"I love you," said Dolores eventually, her voice tinny over the phone. "Don't you go forgetting that, okay? I'm glad you're okay."

Gabe's stomach felt like it was going on a roller coaster, and guilt flooded through him. "I love you too," he said. "I'll be home soon, okay?"

"You better." And with that, Dolores Burton hung up the phone, leaving only static on the other end of the line. Gabe listened to it for a moment before hanging up as well.

Letting out a sigh, he made his way into the kitchen, where he found quite the bizarre sight indeed. Dustin and Steve were elbow-deep in the fridge, grabbing anything and everything they could find and tossing it all on the floor. Jars of jam, ketchup, milk cartons and jugs of orange juice all found their way in this mess, as well as the shelves, and Gabe groaned at the sight of everything on the ground.

"Alina's not going to be happy," he said, gazing around at the ruined house. With Will's drawings pasted to every available wall, the ruined state of the rest of the kitchen from the supply grab for the shed, and now the fridge, there was going to be a lot of cleaning up they had to do when all of this was said and done. If all of this ever got to be all said and done. Gabe didn't know for sure. And he already hated waiting.

He'd thought that the adults would have more faith in them. After all, they'd survived being attacked by around a hundred Demodogs in the junkyard! And everything with Alina's abilities—she was practically a Demodog fighting machine! But nope, they were stuck at home, and with a babysitter, no less. No matter how cool Steve was, it was still pretty humiliating. Especially since Gabe had expected he'd actually play a part in the whole world-saving thing, which was why he'd decided to stay in the first place.

"Did someone say my name?" Speaking of the devil, just then, the front door opened, and Alina Fairgrieves poked her head inside. Gabe started when he caught sight of her. Her brown skin was ashy and almost grayish, there were dark circles under her eyes, and veins seemed to bulge out of her neck and forehead. Sweat was beading on her face, already having soaked through her collar, and her curls, usually full, were limp, hanging around her shoulders like pulled-out Slinkys. But before he could say anything about her condition, Alina caught sight of the mess the boys were making.

"What the hell are you two doing?"

Dustin didn't look up, instead raising his hand in a wave. "Hi, Al. We're trying to find a place to put this Demogorgon!" with a flourish, Dustin gestured to the dead Demogorgon in Steve's hands, which he'd wrapped snugly in a blanket, reminding Gabe of a hideously deformed baby in desperate need of rocking.

Alina pinched the bridge of her nose, seeming to ignore Gabe's stares. "And you chose our fridge?! Seriously, I am losing my mind here." She mocked looking around the area for her missing mind. "Where did it go? I can't find it. Who knows, but it definitely won't be here." Shaking her head, she began to walk out into the living room, but Gabe stopped her, lunging to grab onto her arm.

The girl had no time to protest before she was pulled unceremoniously into her room, where Skywalker was currently sitting, licking his paws. "What?" she hissed, after Gabe had closed the door. He looked into her eyes. The pupils were dilated massively, and she strode over to open a window, letting the cold air into the room. Gabe shivered, but Alina didn't, her eyes looking flat and uninterested.

"Is everything okay?" he asked. "I mean, you don't look good. Not at all. You're... you're sort of reminding me of Will."

Alina blinked, and her eyes returned to normal. "Will?" she coughed. "No. I'm fine. I've just... just been getting a little sick. I think I caught something from that asshole Daniel Tree."

Gabe laughed. "Tell me about it. But you're sure you're alright?" his eyes flickered over her. "I mean, you can tell me if something's up. I know you saw the Mind Flayer back at the field, and what if it—"

Alina waved him off. "I'm fine, Gabe. Seriously. You don't have to worry. I would definitely let you all know if something was up. Especially when it has to do with that."

Gabe worried anyway. He was a motormouth and a loser who dressed up for Halloween when no one else did, he was a freak who wore dress shirts and read newspapers in old junkyards, but he was also Alina Fairgrieves' friend, and he would always worry about his friends. He knew that there was something she wasn't telling them, something that burned in the back of her mind that made it impossible for her to meet his eyes. And he needed to find out what it was. And soon.

The two headed into the living room, where Lucas and Max were sweeping up the pieces of broken glass from the window. Alina smiled at them and began to help, picking up things they'd strewn about while covering up the shed and putting them in their proper positions. The walls were still papered with Will's drawings, but nobody felt like taking them down yet. Just in case. So Gabe helped Alina and watched Mike pace around.

He was obviously worried out of his mind for Eleven, who only had her own abilities and Hopper to protect her from the hundreds of Demodogs (the name did sound pretty badass, Gabe had to admit) that roamed the halls of Hawkins Lab. Gabe couldn't help but feel worried, too. He'd just met Eleven (well, not really met, but had watched from the shadows) and he didn't want her to die. He didn't want anyone else to die.

Gabe could see the echoes of death in everyone's eyes from last year. What had happened in Hawkins Middle last year had apparently been so traumatizing that, when the others told him the story, they'd told him only the basic facts, which were these: Eleven had killed some agents from the lab. The rest of the party had been captured. The Demogorgon temporarily bought them some time. Eleven had 'died' but had managed to kill it. The Demogorgon had killed Alina's dad.

Now Bob was gone, too.

Mike kept pacing, and Alina finally seemed to notice. "You're going to leave an imprint if you keep doing that," she remarked, wrinkling her nose.

"Yeah, Mike," said Lucas. "Would you just stop already?"

Mike stopped. "You weren't in there, okay? That lab is swarming with hundreds of those dogs."

"Demodogs!" Dustin corrected from the kitchen, causing Max to roll her eyes.

"The chief will take care of her," said Lucas reasonably.

"Like she needs protection," muttered Max, still smarting from Eleven's rudeness from earlier.

Dustin and Steve came into the living room, obviously overhearing this argument. "Listen, dude," Steve began, "a coach calls a play in a game, bottom line, you execute it. All right?"

"Okay, first of all, this isn't some stupid sports game," said Mike. "And second, we're not even in the game. We're on the bench."

"Right—so, my point is..." Steve stayed quiet for a moment as all eyes turned to his expectantly, and he swallowed. "Right, yeah, we're on the bench, so, uh, there's nothing we can do." And with that, he threw the towel he'd been holding over his shoulder, evidently considering this meeting adjourned.

Alina sighed. "This is why I never joined any sports teams."

"Hey, that's not entirely true," said Dustin thoughtfully. "I mean, these Demodogs, they have a hive mind. When they ran away from the bus, they were called away."

"So if we get their attention..." began Lucas.

"Maybe we can draw them away from the lab," finished Max.

"And clear a path to the gate!" added Mike.

"That's brilliant," Gabe murmured. By drawing the Demodogs away from the gate, they'd be able to both help the others and possibly save the world, and those were too things Gabe very much wanted to do right now. But someone wasn't having it.

"Yeah," said Steve, "and then we all die!"

"Well that's one point of view," said Dustin.

"No, that's not a point of view, man. That's a fact."

Mike suddenly let out a gasp, and pushed through Dustin and Steve. "I got it!" he cried, turning into another room and kneeling before one of Will's drawings. "This is where the chief dug his hole," he said. "This is our way into the tunnel. So..." he stood up, and the others followed as he made his way back into the living room, gesturing at one of the thicker drawings on the floor, a section that all the tunnels seemed to connect to. "Here, right here. This is like a hub. So you got all the tunnels feeding in here. Maybe, if we set this on fire—"

"Oh yeah?" asked Steve. "That's a no."

Alina shook her head, but the others continued like the two hadn't reacted. "The Mind Flayer would call away his army," realized Dustin, his eyes widening.

"They'd all come to stop us," said Lucas.

"Hey," said Steve. Everyone ignored him again.

"Then we circle back to the exit," said Mike. "By the time they realize we're gone—"

"El would be at the gate," finished Max.

"Yeah," said Gabe, inspired. "And you said all the tunnels feed into the hub? Well, they all branch off. So we can possibly get back to the exit a different way. Then we won't have to come across them at all."

They all were nodding, proud of themselves, until Steve's voice brought them back into reality. "Hey." He clapped his hands to get their attention, then put his hands on his hips, reminding Gabe of an overprotective mother. "Hey! Hey! This is not happening."

"But—" Mike tried to say.

"No, no, no, no, no," said Steve. "No buts. I promised I'd keep you shitheads safe, and that's exactly what I plan on doing. We're staying here, on the bench, and we're waiting for the starting team to do their job. Does everybody understand that?"

"This isn't a stupid sports game!"

"Al can protect us!" said Lucas, turning to the girl, who to Gabe was looking like she'd rather be anywhere else right now.

"Yeah," Gabe said anyway, because he'd be damned if he let Steve boss them around, "you're not our babysitter!"

Before anyone could say another word, however, Steve's frown contorting as the teenagers spoke, there was a revving of an engine outside. Everyone exchanged curious looks—surely they couldn't be back already—and Max and Lucas ran to the window. Max gasped. "It's my brother," she said. "He-he can't know I'm here. He'll kill me." She turned to look at Lucas before her eyes moved to Gabe and Alina. Chewing on her lip, she said, "He'll kill us."

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

a/n: a long(er) chapter! we finally met gabe's grandma, delores, who definitely seems like a force to be reckoned with! she's a pretty minor character, as well as her husband, but i really love family scenes, so,,, there they are.

anyway, gabe, at least, seems to realize something's up with alina. she's definitely getting worse, isn't she? 

also, in the next chapter, we have billy!! or the hot psychopath, as commenters have called him lmfao. i'm not going to romanticize or woobify billy, because in my opinion, he doesn't deserve it. and do you really think alina and gabe are the type of people to forgive someone who does that easily?

i'm probably going to put a whole disclaimer in paroxysm lmao, because that's especially where the billy "hatred" comes in. it's totally justified, though, but just in case people decide to hate or whatever the fact that i made a racist asshole... a racist asshole. so, yeah :)

'till next time!