chapter thirty-four
dracula's teeth

🖤

HAWKINS WINS THE GAME, THANK GOD — which means Ruby's night is already off to a fantastic start.

This is what Robin realises, as she arrives to the party thirty minutes late (she had to change from her band uniform into something a little cooler — and wait for Dustin). Steve drove her and Dustin here, alongside Stacey Sirko, a girl he went on one date with last month, and then randomly invited her to the game. Robin tries not to panic about the plan — but, when she sees Stacey's disappointment when Robin and Dustin climb into Steve's car, Robin knows this couple is already doomed.

They all jump out of the car when they arrive to the party. Dunne, the guy they saw with the keg yesterday, is throwing the celebrations with his twenty-one-year-old big brother, their parents out of town. Robin and Dustin give each a nervous look, as Steve throws his arm around Stacey, walking her into the party.

As they step into the house, the smell of beer and cigarettes hits Robin's nose. They keep on walking through the place, past the living room and towards the kitchen, where the drinks are. Steve gets himself and his date beer. Robin looks around, spotting the makeshift dance floor. Elton John's The Bitch is Back blasts through the speakers, a rogue choice for the basketball team.

"Is this still going to work?" says Dustin to Robin, watching Steve cosy up with Stacey.

And, just like that, Robin spots Ruby in the middle of the dance floor, her hips swaying, and Dunne's older brother talking into her ear.

Robin looks back at Steve, his head frozen watching Ruby.

"Oh, this is so going to work," says Robin, with a grin.

🖤

BRAD DUNNE'S OLDER BROTHER, a wannabe guitarist called Sam, quickly introduces himself to Ruby, saying he recognises her. She smiles and tells him, "Of course you do, I'm Ruby Brenner." She isn't interested in anything like that — but he's cute, so she'll entertain it for now.

But, she finds herself stood outside, letting him talk her ear off about the band he's in. Ruby nods along, finishing her drink — a cup of punch that's two parts vodka, one part mixer. If she closes her eyes, she's drinking a Cosmopolitan in a Los Angeles bar, with a fake ID that calls her Rose.

Ruby keeps on thinking about the joint she rolled for herself earlier on. She leaves it a little longer, so she can drink some more without worrying about the joint sparking a paranoid episode. She remembers when her and Harrington were friends, and that old rhyme they'd say. "Beer before grass, you're in the clear. Grass before beer, you're on your ass." That's how she thinks it goes, anyway.

A cold chill washes over her, everything going quiet for a moment. She swears the sky turns darker, a midnight blue tint brushing over her surroundings. Part of her thinks she sees dust particles in the air, like the Upside Down; she shakes her head, and it all disappears.

Who would've thought she'd be back here, this soon? She was expecting to wait years before returning to Hawkins. She thought Harrington would be married with a baby by the time she returned. Her brain drifts back to that girl he's hanging out with — and although she doesn't notice it, the house lights flicker slightly, as if her body's pang of jealousy has been personified.

Anyway.

"I'm bored," she says, turning around.

As she walks back inside, Sam Dunne quickly takes her hand, leading her over to the cassettes. He brags to her that he's in charge of music. Which means I am now, Ruby thinks giddily, sorting through them.

She's flicking through the cassette tapes, trying to find some music she likes. Most of it is trending pop he claims belong to his brother, a measly two records left over after that. She looks at the compilation tapes, all listing popular songs from certain months. As her eyes dance from one song to the other, she swears she reads Ruby, Baby, the song the Mind Flayer once played to taunt her. Her body freezes, but as she double-checks, she realises she misread a Billy Idol song. Thank God.

"You know, if you're ever modelling in Chicago..." Sam Dunne says, trailing off, his fingers brushing against Ruby's waist. She knows if she looks up, he'll kiss her. So, in an attempt to curb this, she shoves the tape in her hands into the stereo, changing the song. You're So Vain by Carly Simon begins to play.

"Oh my God! I love this song!"

(She isn't even lying. She's just been through a break-up, this song was her life last fall.)

She darts away from the horny boy to start dancing again. As she does, Lucas appears in front of her, and she grins at him, giving him a hug.

"You've grown!" she says. "You're taller than me now, oh my God!"

"I'm on the basketball team now!" he tells her, drunkenly grinning.

And Ruby drunkenly nods. "I saw! Ahhh! I'm so proud!"

She looks to her side, where a couple of the basketball players are looking at Ruby talking to Lucas, a freshman, with surprise. Ruby turns to Lucas.

"Hey, you make sure they know we're friends," she tells him, suddenly speaking very seriously. "You'll be at the top of the food chain."

Lucas smiles happily. "You're the best babysitter."

Ruby looks across at Harrington — who's been staring at her since he arrived — and she smiles at Lucas. "Oh, I know."

🖤

"SAM DUNNE," SAYS STEVE, GRIMACING. He looks at Robin, who's quietly sipping on a cup of beer. "Sam Dunne? That guy's such a manwhore, why is she even going there—?"

Robin shrugs her shoulders. "He's cute, I guess..."

"I can't believe this," says Steve.

And he can't. He even moved rooms at one point to ignore her. Out of sight, out of mind. But the second he had to come back for another drink — he's a few deep now, wishing they'll make him forget his ex — he couldn't move. Ruby Brenner, his Ruby, once the love of his life, talking to the most popular guy from two grades above them.

"Hey," says Stacey, walking back up to Steve. "I'm gonna go see my friends..."

"Oh, uh." Steve forces himself to turn away from Ruby, and picks up his cup. "I'll come with—"

Stacey looks at him awkwardly, shaking her head. "Uh, just stay here..."

"Oh," he says, and she shrugs as if to say, what did you expect?

As Stacey walks away, Steve groans.

Goddamned Brenner, he thinks, finishing his cup of beer. He pours himself something stronger — the two-thirds vodka, one-third mixer Sam fucking Dunne must've made for his little brother — as the song changes. He doesn't think much of it (why would it? You're So Vain plays on the radio at least once a day)...

... Until he looks up, and sees his ex-girlfriend laughing and singing along.

She's got her hand curled into a fist, pretending it's a microphone. Her and Lucas are giggling and dancing around together.

"You had me several years ago, when I was still quite naive..."

Steve finishes his drink in one go.

"But you gave away the things you loved, and one of them was me..."

"She broke up with me!" Steve says to Robin. "This isn't my fault, I should be singing this song, not her! She's so vain! This song is about her! Ruby Brenner with her perfect hair and face and ass and—"

Robin grabs his arm, dragging him away. "Let's go somewhere quiet to calm down!"

He's too drunk to fight back, so he's pulled along, up the stairs to one of the bedrooms. He sits down on the bed, and Robin turns back to him.

"I'm gonna get you some water, OK? Stay here."

Steve nods, sulking to himself.

🖤

"HEY! HEY, RUBY!"

Dustin grabs a hold of Ruby, as You're So Vain trickles into a Madonna song. (Sam Dunne must be grovelling for her still.) She looks at Dustin, raising an eyebrow.

"What?" she says.

"... Can you come with me for a second?" he says.

Ruby gives him a look. "Not without a reason?"

Dustin pauses for a second. "Uh, someone upstairs didn't believe me when I said we're friends," he says, awkwardly. "Could you, uh—"

"See, this is why I'm cooler than Eddie fucking Munson," she says, glaring. "His name won't stop you getting bullied, but mine does. The world fuckin' revolves around me. Show me the guy, let's go."

She doesn't even notice that Lucas and Dustin don't speak. Instead, she happily marches off with Dustin, who goes upstairs. She's too drunk to question why Dustin was even upstairs — everyone knows people only go upstairs at parties to fuck — but he opens one of the doors, and tells him the guy's in there. Ruby steps past him, entering the room with drunken gusto—

—And then she sees Harrington.

"What... are you doing here?"

He frowns at her. "Where's Robin?"

Ruby hears the door close and lock behind her.

"Oh, for fuck's sakes," she says, trying the door. "It's locked. They've locked us in here together."

"No, they have not," says Harrington, who walks past her, trying the door himself. When he realises she's telling the truth, he grumbles, hitting the door. "Come on! Robin, let us out!"

"Not until you both settle this!"

Ruby crosses her arms. She knows she could use her powers to get out of here, but she isn't allowed to use them in Hawkins. She walks towards the bedroom window, glancing outside. It's a straight drop outside, she can't even jump out that way. Fuck.

"I bet you want to get back to Sam Dunne, don't you?"

She turns around to her ex-boyfriend, already pissed off.

"How's Stacey Sirko, cradle snatcher?" she snarls. "Gonna curl up in her moving boxes when she goes to college next fall?"

"What's Han Solo gonna think, when you get back to Hollywood and he realises you cheated on him with some loser from your hometown? Does he even know of your hometown? Or are you too cool to even mention Hawkins anymore?"

Ruby can feel her blood boiling. The light above her flickers.

"He didn't know about Hawkins, we were too busy screwing to talk about that sort of thing," she lies. "But you know who does know about Hawkins?"

"Who?" says Harrington.

"My last boyfriend, one of the guys from Motley Crue," she says.

"You're lying," he says.

"I am not," says Ruby. "Next time you hear Girls, Girls, Girls, you better remember—"

"You're such an asshole," he says.

"And you're a dick," she says.

By now, they're less than a metre apart. Ruby's chest is rising, up and down, up and down, her entire body enraged. She looks at her ex-boyfriend, at his stupid perfect face, at his stupid perfect hair, at his stupid fucking lips... She doesn't even notice the lights start to flicker.

But Robin and Dustin do.

Outside, in the hallway, the lights are violently flickering. Robin rushes to the window, the entire street having the same effect. The music feels as if it's getting louder downstairs, and Robin looks to Dustin, panicking. Is this Ruby?

"I hate you," says Ruby, seething.

Steve steps closer to her. "No, you don't."

"Yes, I do," she says, having to look up at him, they're so close.

He cups the side of her face with his hand. "Brenner, come on..."

And that's when the lights turn off.

The music downstairs stops, and the house is plunged into darkness. Ruby hears the confusion downstairs, realising the party's gonna be over soon, thanks to this random power cut. She hears Robin and Dustin unlock the door, and Ruby grabs hold of Steve's hand.

"What are you doing?" he says.

"What do you think? Come on, it's dark, they won't know."

And he follows suit; Ruby slips past the two, shocked by her stealthiness in spite of her drunkenness. She hears Robin and Dustin panickedly shout out for them both upstairs, and Steve laughs, the two running out of the house.

Don't ask Ruby how they got back to her grandpa's. Don't ask her what happened, the two stumbling into the bedroom she claimed the night before. For the first time in almost a year, she doesn't stop to think about the consequences, about how stupid she's being. She lies back on the bed, her ex-boyfriend on top of her.

And, in another home on the other side of Hawkins, someone's lifted into the air by an invisible force — a force who was just given their gate back in, thanks to Ruby's lapse in control.

🖤

WHAT A STUPID GIRL.

She thought he was gone, just because of a little fire? Please. He's so much bigger than that — so much stronger than that. And yet she ran away, scared.

His plan's evolved, though, since little Ruby. He doesn't need someone's body to take over this world anymore. He can do it, all from the comfort of his world. He just needs a gate back into their world, for Ruby to return to Hawkins, and then his reign of terror can begin...

"Come on! Robin, let us out!"

A voice that isn't Ruby's rings around him. He knows it to be the boy she loves, which makes him sneer, patiently waiting for the lapse in judgement. His little pawn, under his nose this entire time? Did she think she could hide from him, not using his powers? Did she forget how passionately her body runs? As if she'd go a day in this town without sparking her abilities.

"I bet you want to get back to Sam Dunne, don't you?"

"How's Stacey Sirko, cradle snatcher? Gonna jump in her moving boxes when she goes to college next fall?"

Come on, Ruby, he thinks, eagerly waiting.

"What's Han Solo gonna think, when you get back to Hollywood and he realises you cheated on him with some loser from your hometown? Does he even know of your hometown? Or are you too cool to even mention Hawkins anymore?"

And that's when she gives in.

Her abilities shut off the power on one street — but that isn't his concern right now. He ignores his favourite pawn, he'll come back to her later, and instead, he sets his sights on a new target. She can't stop him if she doesn't know it's him.

In a trailer on the other side of Hawkins, a blonde girl is lifted into the air, the first step of his evolved plan. Her bones crack, her energy begins to transfer itself to its new host, the Upside Down's ruler — and without his greatest threat suspecting a thing, he sinks his teeth into the world he wishes to conquer.

ruby let vecna through whoops

(steve and ruby are not getting back together any time soon btw. this is not the end of the steve x ruby angst hehehe)