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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
extreme monster hunting
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( the upside down, pt. i )

• °:.☆ . ₊°• ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

SNEAKING INTO THE police station was not at the top of Laura's bucket list, but it's the only way to retrieve the box of monster-hunting supplies he and Nancy had prepared before they'd picked Laura up from work. The officers had confiscated it after the fight with Steve. Laura doesn't think that's fair considering the items in his trunk had nothing to do with punching Steve's face in, but whatever.

Luckily, the Hawkins police force is small. That means only one officer is at the station when they tip-toe inside. He's facing away from the door, listening to the crackly sounds of talk radio where two men discuss the Cold War. The scent of cigarette smoke fills the air from the pack he's slowly working through. He pays them no mind as they sneak into Hopper's office near the back of the station, too focused on the playing cards in his hand to notice them tip-toeing past.

The items inside clank loudly as Jonathan seizes the cardboard box on Hopper's desk. Laura glares at him for the noise. He shrugs, then walks back down the hall with it, cradling it in his arms to muffle any sounds. Nancy takes the fire extinguisher from the wall while they pass by.

Jonathan careens through the streets of Hawkins at dangerous speeds. There aren't any seat belts in his car, so Laura gets tossed around in the back seat at every turn. She can't complain because they reach his house in record time.

He drops the cardboard box onto the coffee table. They'd bought much more than Laura had originally glimpsed. Along with a bear trap and hammers, they have metal gas cans, boxes of nails, and... Nancy's wooden baseball bat?

"What is that supposed to do?" Laura asks. It's not like they exactly used it last time.

"You'll see," Jonathan replies cryptically.

After that interesting response, they get to work. Their first task is replacing all of the bulbs to the Christmas lights spread throughout the house. Laura finds this soothing—it eases her restless mind and prevents her from thinking about the monster they're luring straight toward them. It requires more focus than dumping the salt. Each colored bulb that she screws in place makes her feel accomplished.

Next, and perhaps the most dangerous, they set up the bear trap in the hallway. Jonathan secures it to the floor with nails. Nancy places her boot on the side to hold it down while he pries the metal claws open, gritting his teeth from the strain. It gives a heavy clink when it falls into place. Laura rotates the pin into the trap. Then, moving cautiously, they remove their weight, holding onto the walls to keep themselves steady. One wrong move and one of them might lose a leg.

Jonathan gets to work hammering nails into his baseball bat to make it more lethal. Laura has to agree that this does make sense. With one swing, the nails can be embedded in the monster's flesh, then torn out once the bat is ripped away.

Nancy loads the revolver, the bullets clinking into the chamber. Laura re-loads the rifle and wipes the old sludge from it. It's a good thing she'd brought the Mickey Mouse backpack wherever she went, or else she may not have had more than a few shots to fire.

Nancy's brows furrow when she recognizes the backpack. "Isn't that Mike's?"

"Yeah," Laura says, tossing a box of ammunition inside. "It's a long story. I baked brownies to try and bribe him into telling me what he knows, I met Eleven, and then the government started chasing us."

"Oh," Nancy says. "Do you think they tried talking to your parents, too?"

Laura hadn't considered this. Surely they had noticed the multitude of vans on the street that had appeared and disappeared in a flash. What exactly do these government agents know? Do her parents know she's a fugitive?

If they do, she is so getting grounded when she returns home.

For now, she tries to push that out of her mind. She can't worry about her mom and dad when she's getting ready to fight a monster.

Laura keeps the rifle strapped to her back for safekeeping. She and Nancy use the gas cans to dump the fluid on the carpet, ensuring it's heaviest near the animal trap, and trailing it into the living room. Laura's nose wrinkles at the potent stench. This poor house has been through so much already—she hates to think that it will only get worse.

They check that everything is in place, especially the smiley-faced yo-yo that Jonathan had rigged to the trap, then take their positions in the kitchen to make themselves beacons for the monster.

Jonathan retrieves two sharp knives from the cutlery drawer. Laura decides to use the one in her pocket. They each hold a blade in one hand, their other held out, palm up, shaking from fear and adrenaline.

"Remember..." Jonathan says, making them voice the plan they've gone over several times already.

"Straight into Will's room," Nancy finishes. "And—"

"Jump over the trap," Laura says.

"Wait for the yo-yo to move."

"Then..." Jonathan uncaps the lighter in one hand, allowing the small flame to dance for a second before flicking it shut. He puts it back in his pocket. "All right. You ready?"

"Ready," Nancy and Laura reply in sync.

They place the edges of their knives against their palms, angling them so the sharp edges rest against their skin. Laura is so warm from all this activity that the blade feels freezing. Shivers erupt down her spine. Her heart pounds, pushing more blood throughout her body, blood that will soon call the monster toward them.

She shoves her fear away. For Barb.

"On three," Jonathan says. "One... two..." Upon noticing that Nancy's face is scrunched in anticipation of the pain, he says, "You don't have to do this—"

"Jonathan, stop talking."

"I'm just saying, you don't have to—"

"Three."

Laura's knife slices across her palm, slicing open her skin. Stinging pain shoots down to her toes and back up again. She gasps, watching blood blossom from the wound form a thick puddle. Acting instinctually, she squeezes her hand into a fist to apply pressure, causing droplets to splatter onto the tile.

Their hands are covered in blood by the time they toss their knives into the sink and clean their wounds. Laura had no idea she would bleed this much. Even when they sit on the sofa, bandaging their wounds, their fresh dressings turn crimson again in seconds. It's in a place where the blood won't congeal easily. With every flex of their hands, they risk tearing it open again.

Good. Maybe it will triple their chances of the monster showing up if there's enough fresh blood.

Laura observes the white bandage wrapped around her palm with fascination. Nancy had done a much better job at packing the wound than Laura ever could. Even if some of it is starting to turn red already, they're not in danger of having blood dripping all over the place. This carpet, with all of its scorch marks and trails of gasoline, is already ruined enough.

Nancy is working on Jonathan's hand now. She moves with practiced efficiency, using the same technique she had with Laura. First some gauze, then bandages wrapped around their palms.

A thud from outside makes all of them pause.

"Did you hear that?" Nancy asks.

"It's just the wind," Jonathan answers. "Don't worry. My mom—she said the lights speak when it comes."

Nancy frowns. "Speak?"

"Blink. Think of them as alarms."

Laura remembers the night Will had gone missing. The power had gone out in the entire town, plunging the diner into darkness for a few minutes. She had thought it was strange, but not the work of the supernatural. Now it makes sense.

"Is that too tight?" Nancy asks.

"No, it's fine," Jonathan replies. She places an adhesive at the center of his palm to keep the dressing in place. "Thanks."

A moment of silence stretches during which Laura pretends that she doesn't notice Nancy's fingers lingering on Jonathan's, and also pretends that it doesn't send a punch directly to her gut. She's never thought of their time spent together as her third-wheeling. But if this turns out to be the case, she might just crawl into a hole and die.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The front door rattles with the force of the fist knocking against the glass. All of them jump, whipping toward the noise. The shadow of a hand is visible through the square of frosted glass near the top, but nothing else. It's not until the person speaks that their identity is revealed. And it's the last person Laura would have guessed.

"Jonathan? Are you there, man? It's... it's Steve! Listen, I just want to talk!"

The trio shares incredulous expressions. Laura hisses, "Steve?"

She's always thought he had bad timing, but this has to be the worst of all.

The banging continues. Nancy storms toward the door and cracks it open, cutting off the sound. "Steve, listen to me."

His voice is quiet but still audible. "Hey. Nancy, what—?"

"You need to leave."

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

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

Laura and Jonathan both stand. Jonathan's shoulders are tense in apprehension. After spending so much time with him, she's found it easier to discern his mannerisms, and can tell that he's trying to decide whether to shove Steve away from the house himself or let Nancy handle it. His whole body goes stiff like that when he's anticipating a confrontation.

His eyes flicker to her. "You think he's telling the truth?"

Laura shrugs. She has no idea what to believe about Steve anymore. He'd said awful things to Jonathan, slut-shamed Nancy, and befriended the worst people alive, but also... he'd kind of stuck up for Laura when Tommy had hinted at her sexuality and hurled a racial slur at her, and kept her secret.

"I don't know," she replies honestly.

Meanwhile, the situation at the door is not going smoothly. Nancy is still trying to get through to Steve, and Steve is seemingly picking the worst time to amend things.

"No, no, no. Listen, I — I — I messed up, okay? I messed... I messed up. Okay?" he fires the worst out in rapid succession, almost like he's trying to say I'm sorry but it won't come out in that order. Then he sighs. "Really. Please. I just want to make things right. Okay? Please. Please..." He pauses. "Hey, what happened to your hand? Is that blood?"

Nancy yanks her injured hand away from the door. "Uh — Nothing. It was an accident."

Steve's tone shifts in an instant, going from apologetic to concerned. "Yeah, what's going on?"

"Nothing."

"Wait a sec. Did he do this to you?"

He tries to open the door, ignoring Nancy's protests, and finally throws it open, bursting inside like a dog set free from its leash. He sprints five steps inside before stopping dead in his tracks at the sight of the interior. He looks at Jonathan, then at the nail bat, then at Laura, and appears more confused as he absorbs each one. His face still looks like shit, but less so than before—even if there's still significant bruising and dried blood, at least his eye is no longer swollen shut.

"What is...? What the...?"

Jonathan surges forward, trying to push him back toward the door. "You need to get out of here."

"Woah. What is all—?"

"Listen to me. I'm not asking you, I'm telling you, get out of here!"

Steve fights against his persistent shoving, his brows furrowing in alarm as more questions fire from his mouth. "What is that smell? Is that... is that gasoline?"

Fed up with the petty squabbling between the boys, Nancy points the revolver at them. "Steve, get out!"

Jonathan jolts back. Even Laura flinches in surprise.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. WHAT?" Steve throws his hands up in defense, his wild eyes darting between the three of them for answers they aren't about to give. "What is going on?!"

"You have five seconds to get out of here," Nancy warns.

"Nance, maybe you shouldn't—" Laura begins, taking a step toward her.

"Okay, is this a joke?" Steve asks. "Stop. Put the gun down."

"I'm doing this for you."

A flash of light in her peripheral vision causes Laura to freeze. Her gaze snaps to Jonathan, who has also gone stiff in realization.

"Nancy," he says.

His words fall on deaf ears. Steve and Nancy continue bickering, oblivious to the silent alarm signaling the monster's arrival.

"Wait. Is this a... What is this?"

Laura turns around. The lights flicker in the back corner of the room, illuminating it in a bright cluster of colors before winking out again.

"Nancy."

"Three. Two."

"No, no, no, no, no!"

"Nancy!" Finally, she looks at him. "The lights."

Nancy whirls around, staring at the blinking bulbs with her mouth agape. The time between each flash grows shorter each time. Soon, they flash constantly like strobe lights.

"It's here," Jonathan says. He snatches the bat from the coffee table.

Laura slings the rifle from over her shoulder and loads it, flicking the safety off. For Barb.

"Wait, what's here?" Steve asks.

The trio stands back-to-back in a triangle formation, their eyes darting around the room, scouring the shadows for any sign of the monster. Now the lights are flickering everywhere. It creates a swarm of sensory input that overloads Laura's brain. She tries to focus so she doesn't shoot when she doesn't have to, but it's impossible to do so with Steve still shouting.

"Where is it?" Nancy asks.

"Where is what?" When Steve notices the weapons in each of their hands, he screams, "Whoa! Easy with that!"

Nancy's panicked voice rises to a shriek. "Where is it?"

"I don't know," Jonathan replies. "I don't see it."

"Where is what? HELLO? Will someone please explain to me what the hell is going—"

CRASH!

For an instant, everything falls silent. Laura turns to see chunks of the ceiling falling to the ground, breaking into splintering pieces as they strike the carpet. The monster roars as it fights to get inside. Twisted limbs press through the foundation of the roof.

Laura fires. Reloads. Fires again. Nancy raises her pistol and shoots three times, but Jonathan snatches her around the waist and yanks her back. He grabs Laura next, then Steve, pulling all of them along while shouting, "No! Go! Go! Run!"

The last glimpse of the living room that Laura gets is of the monster landing inside the house, its gray skin and sickly appendages so much more revolting in the light. It releases an ear-piercing scream.

Steve is rooted in place. He stares at the figure, transfixed by his first sight of the supernatural, and Laura doesn't like him all that much, but she's not going to let him get eaten. She grabs one of his arms while Jonathan takes the other.

"Go!" Jonathan urges. "Get out of here!"

The monster growls at it reorients itself. Laura's heartbeat pounds erratically against her ribcage, her blood roaring in her ears. The wet carpet squelches under her feet as she sprints down the hallway.

"Jump!" Jonathan calls over his shoulder.

Laura and Steve vault themselves over the trap. He's still screaming at the top of his lungs, reminding her very much of Dustin. "OhmyGodohmyGodohmyGod!"

Will's bedroom door slams shut behind them. Steve catches himself on the bed before he face-plants. "Jesus! Jesus! What the hell was that? What the hell was that?"

"Shut up!" Laura, Nancy, and Jonathan shout in sync.

They turn toward the door with one eye on the yo-yo. Jonathan flicks out his lighter, raising his bat. Nancy and Laura point their guns in preparation to strike the monster as soon as it lands in the trap.

The lights continue flickering in and out. The monster screeches in the distance, but doesn't appear to be following them like they'd hoped.

"Rats," Laura hisses.

Nancy asks, "What's it doing?"

"I don't know," Jonathan replies.

More seconds tick by. Laura is sweating buckets under her jacket, her body temperature rising with each rapid pump of her heart and ragged exhale. The smiley face on the yo-yo continues to stare at them, undisturbed.

The electricity jolts. The lights stop blinking.

"Do you hear anything?" Nancy questions.

Jonathan closes the lighter. "No."

"It's gone?" Laura lowers her rifle, flicking the safety back on. "Why—?"

She knows that nobody will have an answer to her question, so she cuts herself short, thickly swallowing the rest of her words. They seem to get stuck on the way down and lodge painfully in her throat.

The door creaks when Jonathan nudges it open. Weapons still at the ready, they creep into the hall, which is dark in comparison to the warm light of Will's room. The animal trap lies untouched on the floor.

They share questioning looks. Jonathan leads them further down the hall, sharply turning the corner into the living room with his bat raised, only to relax upon realizing it's empty. After the cacophony of noise that had just filled the house having it be this quiet makes all of the hairs on the back of Laura's neck stand up.

Jonathan orbits the living room. Nancy's grip on her gun loosens. Laura relaxes hers as well, all of them coming to the same conclusion: the monster is gone.

Steve is now muttering to himself, his voice steadily getting louder until he's shouting. "This is crazy. This is crazy. This is crazy. This is crazy! This is crazy! THIS IS CRAZY!"

Laura slings her rifle over her shoulder. She seizes Steve by the shoulders and throttles him, his head shaking like a bobblehead from her movements. "YOU'RE NOT HELPING!"

Steve wrenches himself away and darts toward the phone on the wall. Just as he begins to dial, Nancy snatches it out of his hand and smashes it on the table.

"What are you do— What are you doing?" Steve demands, his voice tinged with hysteria. "Are you insane?"

"It's going to come back!" she exclaims. "So you need to leave. Right. Now."

Finally, Steve listens. He throws the front door open and tumbles out of the house like he can't move fast enough, tripping over his sneakers. The door slams shut so hard that the whole house rattles.

As soon as he's gone, the lights start to flicker again, making Laura's heart catapult into her throat. She holds her rifle tightly. The trio resumes their former stance of standing back-to-back, circling each other, working together.

Before, at least the regular lights had stayed on while the Christmas lights had blinked. But now, the entire house is plunged into darkness with each surge, turning them blind for a fraction of each second.

"Where is it?" Nancy asks.

"I don't know!" Laura cries. "I can't see anything!"

Jonathan mutters, his teeth clenched, "Come on. Come on, you son of a bitch. You see it?

"No." Nancy's voice is tight with fear. "Where—?"

"Come on. Where are you? Come on!"

The lights cut out. The darkness is almost entirely absolute except for tiny slots in the taped-up windows, offering Laura the barest glimpse of leathery skin and needle-sharp talons.

"Jonathan!" Nancy cries.

The monster tackles him, knocking the bat out of his hands. Laura instantly pulls the trigger. Click. Click. She reloads. Click.

The beast leans closer to the boy trapped under its weight, its gaping mouth open wide. A line of saliva drips down onto Jonathan's face. He struggles, limbs thrashing, as the monster screams at him.

Laura realizes belatedly that she had left the safety on. She flicks it off, straining to see where the monster ends and Jonathan starts. It's much thinner than she realized. She has a narrow window to strike it.

Bang! Reload. Bang! The blasts are deafening, the kickback from her shots almost knocking her off her feet. There's the sickening sound of flesh tearing. Then the monster screeches again, and something hard slams into her temple, sending her flying.

Laura hits the ground with an audible grunt, the rifle jamming into her stomach. She can't breathe. She can't breathe. It had knocked the wind out of her, and now she gasps for air on the foul-smelling carpet, her already impaired vision turning in on itself. Her lungs burn as they struggle to gain oxygen.

Bang! Bang! More gunshots fill the air. Laura rolls onto her back to see Nancy shooting at the beast, her face set in grim determination.

"Go to hell, you son of a bitch!" she shouts.

Noticing that Nancy is the bigger threat, the monster releases a low groan as it rises it its feet. Jonathan sputters from the floor. Nancy's eyes widen at the realization that the beast is now turning toward her.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Several bullets hit home, sending blood spraying from wounds that barely seem to slow it down. The monster's face opens to roar at her. Nancy's gun clicks with each turn of the chamber—she's out of bullets.

Laura can hardly breathe, but she grasps the rifle and loads it, aiming for the beast's legs so she doesn't hit Nancy. Gunfire explodes in her ears. The gun jerks back hard enough to bruise her shoulder from the awkward position she's in, still half-laying on the ground, her vision blurring in and out.

She will not lose another friend to this wretched thing.

And then the impossible happens again. Steve Harrington returns.

He releases a cry as he jams the baseball bat into the monster's side, knocking it back from Nancy.

"Steve!" she exclaims.

He ducks when it swings at him. Laura rolls out of the way to dodge the monster's reeling steps, sluggishly rising to her feet. She barely makes it to her knees before she drops onto her hands and vomits—but since she hasn't eaten since before her shift at George's, there's nothing in her system except acid and saliva. Bile burns the back of her throat.

Steve and the monster are a whirlwind of movement that makes her even more nauseous to watch. It seems that this is the one fight that he can win, swinging the nail bat so hard that it pushes the beast deeper into the house. Eventually, the telltale metallic CLANG! of the animal trap activating rings in her ears.

Laura can hardly believe it. They caught it.

"He's in the trap!" Steve says. "He's stuck!"

"Jonathan, now!" Nancy cries.

Laura pushes herself upright and wipes her mouth with her sleeve. She hobbles toward the hallway after Jonathan, who flicks the lighter open and tosses it down the corridor. As soon as it touches the carpet, it bursts into flames from the accelerant she and Nancy had poured, immediately engulfing the monster in ten-foot flames. It releases a screech so loud Laura feels the urge to sink to the floor again. The horrific sound of the beast burning alive grates against her ears like nails on a chalkboard.

The sight is both gruesome and mesmerizing. The thing thrashes, the metal chain clanking as it tries to wrestle itself free from the trap. Its skin appears to glow in the intense light of the fire.

Jonathan retrieves the fire extinguisher and yells, "Get back!"

He sprays the white powder down the hall before the fire can spread. Smoke billows through the air, trapping them all in a thick cloud before they're doused in the pitch black once again. Laura waves a hand in front of her face in an attempt to dispel the toxic fumes. Her lungs seize. The stench makes her double over again, her stomach spasming, trying to dispel contents from her already-empty system. Her skull throbs with each thump of her heart.

The lights return to normal, granting them sight. Through the blanket of smoke, the quartet peers down the hallway. The carpet around the trap is charred beyond repair, the usual brown color turned coal-black, smoke still rising from it. And in the trap is not the monster, but bubbling, fizzing scraps of flesh.

"Where did it go?" Nancy questions.

"No." Jonathan slumps against the wall, the exhaustion of the never-ending day finally catching up to him. "It has to be dead. It has to be."

Several of the Christmas lights above their heads come to life, moving closer and closer. Laura is too drained to bother retreating with the others. Steve grabs onto Laura and holds her upright so he can pull her with them. She fights against the urge to vomit again at the stench of steaming monster blubber burning her nostrils, her chin wobbling.

"Stay on your feet, Fairer," Steve tells her. Laura struggles to do so even with his aid. It's like every step she takes is the wrong one, making her clumsier than usual.

Then the lights stop narrowly in front of them, pause, and start illuminating toward the front door. But it's not an ominous flicker like before. Rather, the lights fade in and out gently.

When they reach the living room, Jonathan's face falls slack in realization. He observes the line of lights leading out the door with tears in his eyes. "Mom? Is that you?"

They follow the line of lights out onto the porch. Steve throws one of Laura's arms around his shoulders to hold her up, his hand that isn't holding the bat gripping onto her hip. If this had happened a week ago, she would probably shove him away. She would rather have fallen face-first onto the creaky wood than let him help her. But now she begrudgingly accepts it, blinking hazily at the flickering street light at the end of the driveway.

"Where's it going?" Nancy asks.

Jonathan shakes his head. "I don't think that's the monster."

He observes the light for a second longer before turning around. When he catches sight of Steve and Laura actually cooperating for once, he does a double take. "When... did this happen?"

"Believe me," Laura says, her voice weak. "I'm just as shocked as you are."

"Hey," Steve complains with an offended look. As he observes her haggard state, her skin pale and sticky, he grimaces. "Yeah, you're definitely concussed."

Laura doubles over and vomits on his shoes.

_______

a/n:

steve when he shows up and finds laura and nancy at jonathan's and then they all start yelling about an "it" while the lights flicker and nobody is explaining anything

if i see ONE comment like "i wanted laura to be more badass in this chapter :/" i will stomp you to death with my hooves. (i have gotten comments like this on my other fics where my OCs are injured in a way that incapacitates them, as if my readers expect them to be immune to injuries when the other characters aren't, and it makes me want to throw hands.) laura is a kid doing her best!!!!

also ps i attempted to draw laura in her finale fit but i didn't finish it and if it winds up looking okay then i'll post it, but if not i'll just pretend i never attempted and you'll never hear about it again😃

i had SO much fun writing this chapter and i hope you enjoyed it!! only one more chapter and then we're done with season 1! <3

— kristyn

( word count: 4.6k )