CHAPTER 18
YUCKY

WHEN Veronica leaned away from Steve, she felt the static electricity still lingering on her lips. She touched them, immediately turning away from him as she contemplated her decision. Her mouth practically burned from a simple kiss, and the butterflies in her stomach wouldn't fucking cease. It was so annoying.

"Oh, god," Steve muttered, facing away from her and running a hand through his hair. "I knew I should've put on chapstick."

Veronica glanced to him with a confused expression. "What?"

"Were my lips chapped or something?"

She wrinkled her nose. "No, I just ..." She exhaled heavily and folded her knees to her chest. "I think I like you, and it's making me feel ... yucky."

Steve's mouth opened, but no words emerged for a moment. "Yucky?"

Veronica's hair covered her face, and she was fine with it. Now Steve couldn't see the blush creeping onto her cheeks. "Yes, yucky."

Before he could question her once more, Chief Hopper and Edward Moreda burst through the door, followed by Joyce, Jonathan, and Mike. Veronica and Steve shot up from their spots on the kitchen floor, sprinting after the adults that crowded around the dining table. The kids in the living room soon followed. "What happened?" Dustin asked with interest.

"Something weird," Edward muttered, handing Chief Hopper a pen and paper when he sat at the table.

Hopper tapped his pen and began to scribble. "We think he's talking. Just not with words."

Veronica narrowed her eyes as Hopper dragged his pen across the sheet of paper. Her head began to hurt as she squinted her eyes to read his handwriting. God, she could use a cigarette right now. As Veronica leaned in, she noticed that Hopper wasn't writing words; he was writing symbols. He made four dots, a space, and then another dot. He paused for a moment, and then made another space for a dot, long dash, and one more dot. There was another space, followed by another dot.

"What is that?" Steve asked with a scrunched brow.

"Morse code," the children answered together.

Veronica peered over Hopper's shoulder. "But what does it stand for?"

Hopper wrote down the letter that each symbol stood for. "H-E-R-E ..."

"Here," Mike whispered. Joyce sent Jonathan a worried glance before turning back to Hopper. The police chief scratched his chin as he said, "Will's still in there. He's talking to us."

"Then that's good news, right?" Veronica asked when Jonathan ran out of the room. She watched him grab a few tapes and a stereo from his room. Her brow furrowed as he walked out of the door with Joyce, all the while Veronica repeated, "Right?"

Steve slowly put his arm around Veronica's shoulder, awkwardly patting them with his sweaty hand. "Right, right," he replied, earning a confused expression from her.

Hopper explained to them that they were going to continue trying to get through to Will. They'd communicate from the shed to the house by radio, where Edward would send them the code that Will was interpreting and the kids would have to write it down. The teenagers sat at the table after finding a Morse code alphabet in the study room. Nancy had a sheet of paper in front of her with a red crayon, and she found herself cautiously glancing over at Steve from time to time, who kept trying to lay his arm across Veronica's chair. She knew something was going on between them, but in all honestly, they two were so opposite that she almost couldn't believe it.

Within minutes, Edward sent in the first round of code. "Dot, dash, dot, dash," Lucas said as Dustin wrote. "Which letter is that?"

Veronica skimmed down her alphabet. "C," she told Nancy, who wrote the letter down quickly.

More code rang in. It was hard to keep up with getting a new round every thirty seconds. Veronica struggled to find some sentences, seeing as the letters within Morse code were similar. But they eventually got a full word, then a full sentence. Will was communicating to them through his only means necessary. When the sentence was complete, Veronica looked over to see it was only two words. The whole party gathered around Nancy as she held up the paper.

It said: CLOSE GATE.

Before anyone could ask what it meant, the home phone began to ring excessively. Dustin ran for it, screaming, "Shit! Shit! Shit!" He immediately hung up the phone, but then it rang again. Nancy took the phone from Dustin and tore it off the wall, throwing it on the carpet.

Steve grabbed his bat and handed Veronica her hockey stick, which she leaned on for balanced. "What was that all about?" She whispered loudly. "Do you actually think that was the fucking monster calling?"

Dustin turned on his heel, sending Veronica a bewildered expression. "Uh – yeah!"

Nancy breathed heavily, staring at the phone as it hit the floor. Max then asked, "Do you think he heard that?"

"It's just the phone," Steve assured. "It could be anywhere ... right?"

A roar was heard outside. It was a loud, screeching wail that pierced right through Veronica's ears. She put hands over the sides of her head, feeling tears sting at her eyes from the sound. Their group approached the window in the living room. Dustin gulped, "That's not good."

"You're joking," Veronica muttered. When the kids turned to look at her, she repeated, "You're joking."

"Does it look like he's joking?!" Lucas exclaimed. "We're gonna be eaten alive!"

Veronica swiftly held up her hockey stick, almost knocking Steve in the face. The boy in question soon said, "Everyone, just calm –"

Veronica whipped her head in his direction, smacking her blue hair in his face. "I AM CALM!"

Hopper rushed through the back door with Edward by his side. Joyce and Jonathan carried an unconscious Will, who hung in their arms soothingly. Edward unlocked his pistol at the same time Hopper did, and the chief picked up the rifle that was hidden in Joyce's kitchen. Another roar sounded as he entered the living room, seeing the kids lined up in front of the window. "Hey!" He called out. "Get away from the windows!"

They all moved back as Hopper turned to Jonathan, holding out the rifle. "Do you know how to use this?"

"I can," Nancy offered, who then cocked back the rifle when it was given to her. She pointed it directly at the window, like she knew exactly what she was doing.

Veronica stood beside her father and Steve, holding up her spiked hockey stick high. She gripped the handle tightly, as if her life depended on it – and technically, it did. The stick was slowly slipping from her hands, and she knew it was because she was nervous. She watched Steve's arms begin to shake beside her.

The kids moved in back as a silence ensued amongst the house. All Veronica could hear was breathing. Then there was a rustling. The bush outside were moving. There was a slight chip, and then a branch breaking in two. Veronica held her breath in her throat. Another roar, this time closer.

A gurgling sound was heard from the doorway. The party gasped and suddenly pointed their weapons in that direction. "What are they doing?" Nancy asked through heavy breaths.

"There's a game in the wild between predator and prey," Veronica muttered, holding her weapon close. "The longer the predator toys with their prey, the better they will taste."

A loud screech echoed outside, causing the bushes to sway from side to side. Joyce suddenly grasped both her sons in a tight embrace, holding her breath as she did so. The screeches became louder, and they came from both sides of the house. The ground below Veronica's feet began to shake, or was that just her entire body? Probably the latter.

If she had to die tonight, she was happy it would be by her family, and the one boy who finally gave her butterflies.

Silence came again. Veronica swallowed hard. She almost felt safe for a moment, but then a Demodog flew through the glass window. Steve shrieked, immediately jumping on the couch with his weapon pointed out. Hopper shouted for everyone to get behind him, and he shot one bullet before he realized the Demodog wasn't moving. The body stayed completely still, and dark maroon blood oozed from the opened head.

It was dead.

"What the fuck?" Veronica whispered before turning to glance at Steve on her right. "Was that you screaming beside me a few seconds ago, or a little girl?"

Steve swallowed and sent her an awkward grin. He waved away the matter with his hand. "What? Me?" He laughed nervously. "You must have me confused with ... with Max."

The young redhead sent Steve a glare. She watched Hopper approach the body and kick it with his foot. "Is it dead?"

Hopper nudged his foot on it more. He kicked the flaps that would have opened the Demodogs mouth and found them to be completely still (and covered in slime). Hopper released a soft sigh, lowering his gun slightly. Veronica watched the dark blood seep from it's leathery skin, and she smelled a strong odor wafting from the body.

The door began to creak.

They all spun quickly, hearing the lock jiggle. The first lock switched to unlock. Hopper, Edward, and Nancy directed their guns directly at the entrance. The second lock slid undone. Veronica pushed some of the kids behind her as she lifted her hockey stick with Steve by her side. They slowly stepped towards the door, watching it ever so slowly push itself open.

But what stepped inside the Byers' home wasn't a Demodog, nor was it a monster at all.

It was a girl.

( made by JustSav )