╭ ╮
━━━━  " 📂 "

𝙋 𝘼 𝙍 𝘼 𝘿 𝙄 𝙎 𝙀

╰ ╯

DUSTIN HAD SLEPT IN SADIE'S ROOM THAT NIGHT. They hadn't quite been able to get rid of... whatever the hell that thing was when Claudia was in the house, and so the siblings had spent most of the evening convincing their mom that Mews was just lost somewhere or hunting as she did sometimes, the daughter keeping up her promise to search the neighbourhood as her mother made the casserole like she had intended to before the lack of return from their cat.

Dustin had darted in and out of his room once during this time, retrieving absolute necessities before pulling the door closed and retreating to Sadie's side with news that 'Dart', as he liked to call it, was sat beside what was left of their cat and fast asleep. She had almost wanted to throw up again but didn't quite manage it. Instead, she dug out the roll-out mattress from the bottom of her closet and arranged the bed for him to sleep on overnight.

She hadn't slept a whole lot, too preoccupied with every single little sound that came from the room next door, and with the fact that Dustin kept wittering stuff in his sleep. But when the alarm muffled by her pillow woke her up, she didn't mention it to him as they slipped out of their room to make breakfast for their mom before she woke up, hoping to distract her from Mews until they could put their very quickly thought-out plan into place.

Which was why, whilst Sadie was washing the dishes and pans from the fry-up she managed to put together, she was watching Dustin fake a call to the McCorkles on the other side of town during which Claudia stood looking hopeful as she came in from shaking one of her favourite toys around.

"Thank you so much,Mr McCorkle." Prompted by the sound of the opening door, Dustin launched into action. "Thank you so much. You are a true lifesaver... All right, this was great. Thank you. All right. Have a good one. Bye-bye, now. All right... You, too." He placed down the receiver, considerably skilled at holding up a fake conversation over the phone as he turned around. "All right, great news." He said.

"They found her?" Their mom replied, clutching her hands together.

"No." Dustin shook his head and the woman visibly deflated. Sadie shot him a glare, placing a soaked plate on the drying rack, reaching for the towel to dry her hands. "...But they saw her wanderingaround Loch Nora." He quickly added.

Claudia had never looked so relieved, and Sadie felt more guilty about this than she did about anything else. Placing down the striped towel she slipped out from behind the counter, a smile on her face as she wrapped her arms around her mom. "How did the poor babyget all the way out there?" Claudia exclaimed, facing her eldest with pooling tears in her eyes.

"I don't know." Dustin shook his head. "Lost, I guess.But they're gonna look for her. And I'll stay here,just in case they call again, Sadie can look around the house, and you're gonna go help look? Yeah? Yeah?" He said pointedly, and Sadie nodded rapidly.

"Yeah, we've got this, Mom." She just had to remember this was the far less cruel way of doing things. If Mrs Henderson actually knew the fate of her cat, she would be heartbroken. "You go and find her - give me a hug. A proper hug, and you Dusty." For a moment she was free and all of a sudden she was stifled, grateful arms wrapped around her middle.

Claudia pulled away and Dustin quickly followed, managing to look only slightly embarrassed that he had listened to her. Sadie's hands found their way around her mother's forearms, fingers brushing against her watch strap. "Go and get her. You're gonna find her, alright? She won't have gone much further, just got lost, right? And you can find her."

"Okay. We can find her." Claudia nodded, Sadie's arm reaching behind her at an extremely awkward angle to retrieve the brown leather purse sat on the counter. "We can find her."

"We can find her," Dustin repeated again, as Claudia took the bag and found her sunglasses within, sliding them over her nose. "Okay? I love you."

"I love you," Sadie added. "We love you."

"I love you both," Claudia said back to them as she headed towards the door. "So much. I love you."

"We love you." Dustin nodded, sticking his thumbs up. "Okay, go and find her, Mom, bring her home!"

They watched with the same encouraging smiles as the door swung closed again, and stared at it as they heard the engine of the car start and then pull out of their driveway. As soon as it rumbled away, it was like the pressure on their shoulders halved entirely and let out sighs of relief. But getting their mom out of the house was only one plan, and they still had the rest to come up with.

Dustin backed up into the armchair, sitting down in it whilst Sadie found herself on a counter stool. Both were silent, trying their hardest to think of something, anything that could help. Finally, Sadie spoke up. "I think I have something." She announced.

"Shoot," Dustin replied, sitting up.

"We have to get him out of the house first, right?" Sadie watched as he nodded. "So..." She paused, turning in her seat and reaching to the door next to her, pulling keys and a torch out. "Storm cellar."

"I forgot we had one... does it still open and shit?" Dustin asked, standing up and following her through the house and out into the backyard, coming to a stop in front of the faded red doors. They tried the handles first, in case it had been kept open, and then Sadie slid the key into the slot and twisted it, and together they dragged it open. Moments later and they had made their way down the concrete stairs, torch in hand, and stared around the cellar. "Yeah." Dustin nodded. "This'll work. I think."

"It should do, right?" Sadie looked only a little proud of herself. "I mean now we know he eats meat and... Three Musketeers bars which makes your name choices strikingly clever now - we can be pretty confident that he won't eat all the crap we keep down here." It wasn't crap. It was some of their dad's old furniture they had no room for. But it was covered in tarp and in boxes anyway, so Sadie knew it would be alright.

"Thanks, and yeah." Dustin nodded. "We just lure him in here and lock the doors, then we can get Mews from my room and... how do you get blood out from fabric and carpets?"

"One part detergent two parts cold water," Sadie replied monotonously. "It's dried now so it'll be easier. Hey - look, a shovel." She reached over and picked it up, turning towards him. "...What's with that face?"

"I didn't expect you to actually know how to do it." Dustin wrinkled his nose. "That's kinda creepy."

"Well, what would you have done?"

"Bleached it. Put a box over the stain."

"And when Mom decides to spring cleaning day on us like she did last year and finds it there?" Sadie rose an eyebrow.

"I'll say it was juice or something. Wine."

"Why the hell would you have wine?"

"I don't know!" Dustin exploded. "Maybe I just did, and I spilt it, and that was how the marks got there... why do you know?"

"I found out for Mrs Byers last year." Sadie shrugged. "We can use what's left of the bacon and the sandwich meat in the fridge to lure him out. Go and put on your hockey... shin guards and everything as well, just in case. I'll get started on the grave, give me a heads up when you're coming out."

Dustin nodded and headed back into the house with only one purpose in mind. He was going to get Dart out of the house, and then they were going to bury their cat and keep up the pretence that she was missing. Cats went missing all the time, and Sadie had dug out some flower seeds to plant over the grave to remind them in the future, even if their mom would never know.

They were awful children, but they were saving her a whole world of pain.

✧

Their plan had been meticulously thought out, and although there was the minor haphazard here and there, including Dart almost discovering them hiding out on the old treehouse before Dustin scared him into the awaiting cellar, it played out that way. Perfectly, without major fault. Except, with Mews now in an early grave and a scattering of tulip seeds - they were the only thing on hand that could handle an early-November planting - and Dart in the storm cellar, the pair hadn't quite figured out what to do next.

And now they were back to square one, sitting helplessly in the living room with several candles burning around them to try and get rid of the soapy smell wafting over from Dustin's room. They most certainly hadn't thought this through.

"Are we planning to kill him?" Sadie asked.

"What?" Dustin was on his feet in an instance. "No - we can't kill him.. although I suppose we have to." He paused for a moment and Sadie didn't say anything, not wanting to interrupt his thought process. "I mean... I was the one who kept him. I was the one who fed him and let him grow and didn't tell anyone I had because he was my discovery. He's my responsibility. And if he grows big enough to eat a cat, who's to say he isn't going to get bigger and eat me?"

Sadie didn't reply instantly, her mind tracking over the memories of the past hour. "He looks like a Demogorgon." She said eventually. "You know with the mouth being all... well that's horribly inappropriate."

"What?"

"Its mouth opens like a tulip. I suppose it's ironic." Sadie muttered. "It comes with the season, I guess." She blinked several times before swallowing and bringing herself back. "It's mouth is like an opening and closing flower. And so is Dart's."

Dustin stared, mouth open. "You don't think-?"

"I do think." Sadie nodded, horrified. "I think Dart is a baby Demogorgon."

"Oh geez. Oh god... yeah. We have to kill him. But I can't kill him - I'm too attached. I couldn't even try to kill him." Dustin rounded on her, pointing his finger at her. "And you can't kill him.. and Lucas isn't picking up on his TRC."

"Why can't I kill him?" Sadie frowned. She was clearly offended and made a point of saying how she could hold her own on several occasions. She wasn't afraid of taking on the Demogorgon once before, and she wasn't afraid of standing up to guys way bigger than her, so why couldn't she try again. "That thing ate my cat, I'm pretty sure I could kill him."

"You couldn't kill him."

"Yeah, I could."

"Look me in the eyes and tell me you could kill him."

"...I couldn't kill him." Sadie came to a halt, sighing. Dustin fiddled with his walkie-talkie again, lifting it to his lips and trying harder to get an answer. This time Erica answered, and turned it off for good. "No luck, huh. That kid's attitude is getting worse. You know it actually used to be pretty cute?"

"Cute?" Dustin rose an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Hey - the times you came over when I was babysitting you spent all the time with Lucas at Mike's." Sadie shook her head. "But we definitely need someone else to help. Mike isn't home.. neither is Lucas... From what I've heard Joyce has taken Will to the Lab?" Dustin confirmed this with a nod. "Nancy and Jonathan skipped fourth period two days ago and now we have no idea where they are. So that leaves...."

"Steve Harrington." Dustin finished. Sadie hoped he hadn't noticed how she froze slightly at the mention. It was just that she hadn't exactly realised that he was the last viable option for them. "He's around, right? He's always around."

"I don't know if that's a good idea," Sadie replied, standing up from her seat and moving around the room, pacing. He hadn't called yet either, which she was taking as a sign. It was for the best anyway; Steve was Nancy's ex-boyfriend. She chose her best friend over everything, even if this was the first time she had ever felt... anything remotely different about someone. "It's probably a really bad one, actually."

"Come on, it has to be him." Dustin waved away her comments. "He helped you with the Demogorgon at the Byers right? And he knows about all this shit."

That was correct. Steve was the only remaining person who did know about Demogorgons and the Upside Down and could potentially help them in absolutely any way at all. He wasn't afraid, at least not in any way that Sadie had seen.

"Fine." Her pacing came to a stop by the phone. "I'll call him and... ask him to come over and help with Mews." That would be the key to it. She still heard the same buzzing every time she picked up the phone that she had picked up the phone in the past year. There was no time for Dustin to question anything before she had picked up the receiver and dialled the number, holding it to her ear.

"Hello, Patricia Harrington speaking."

Damn. "Mrs Harrington? Hi, it's Sadie Henderson." She replied, shifting so that she leaned against the small side table it was sat on. Dustin watched curiously. "Yes, from Halloween." That admission made his jaw drop. "I was wondering if Steve was around."

"Yes, he is." Mrs Harrington replied, the sound of her breathing growing muffled as she placed a hand over the receiver. "Steve!" She shouted. "Steve - someone on the phone for you!" There was a pause. "He'll just be a moment, Sadie darling. But how are you? You didn't seem to be feeling the greatest that morning, hangover right?" There wasn't a chance for her to reply before she continued. "Ah, Halloween wasn't as big as it was when I was a child, so I imagine it must be a pretty exciting aspect to- Steve!"

There was some shuffling, and suddenly it wasn't Patricia anymore. "Steve." Sadie blinked, ignoring the stares of her brother. "Hi."

"Sadie... how are you?" Sadie couldn't quite identify his tone, but there was something almost relieved about how he spoke.

"Oh, I'm fine, I just-"

"I'm sorry for not calling earlier, I was trying to figure out a good place to study because I think we can both agree here wasn't the best place, and I thought maybe the library but then-"

"Steve." Sadie cut him off quickly. "That's whatever, I don't care about studying. Um, listen, I was wondering if you would mind coming over and helping me and Dustin look for Mews. She went missing."

There was a prolonged lapse of quiet. "Your cat?" His tone was far from relieved now. It was utterly bewildered, unable to believe what she was saying.

"It's an emergency. Bring your baseball bat."

"What?"

"See you soon." Sadie hung up before he could ask any more questions, turning towards Dustin as she set the phone down. "He's coming. I left him with enough intrigue that he won't be able to help it now. We should wait out front. He only lives a quarter of an hour away."

Dustin narrowed his eyes, following her out the door. "How are you so sure?" He asked. "Actually, scrap that - what the hell happened on Halloween? Didn't you go to that party or something and you didn't go home... which means that-"

"It doesn't mean anything, Dusty-buns." Sadie simpered, turning her attention away.

But that didn't stop Dustin, no way.

✧

In fact, it didn't stop Dustin to such an extent that he was still bartering on at her about it when the far too familiar BMW made its way down their street, turning up onto their drive and coming to a stop several feet from where they were stood, where Claudia's car had been several hours before (it had been a lengthy process with interruptions including lunch, a call from their mom at some payphone to check if Mews had turned up, and the countless amount of tries it took to get the blood out of the carpet).

Steve pushed the door to his right open, his eyes on the blonde girl leaning against the door frame without even a glance at her younger brother. "Sadie, what's going on?" It was no surprise he had questions, the words punctuated by the sound of his door slamming. "Is this about what happened on Halloween... or last night, because-"

"No, it's not about that." Dustin interrupted, and for the first time, Steve looked his way. The Harrington paused, adjusting his stance and crossing his arms. "Did you bring the bat?"

"Yeah, I kept it under my bed for ages." Steve shrugged as he replied, turning back to his car and opening the trunk, closing it seconds later with the wooden baseball bat in hand. "So is your cat trapped or something?"

"Its not about mews either." Sadie waved her hand dismissively, pushing open the front door and holding it open as she ushered them all in. "Besides we had to bury her, and I planted tulips over the grave which was perhaps not the best idea considering the whole cause of death thing, but you know-"

"What? Steve's eyes widened, a curl of hair falling down in shock. "Sadie - what's going on?" The three of them came to a stop in the middle of the living room, Sadie making sure that the phone was set firmly on the receiver and Dustin closing the door, the pair rounding back to face the newcomer.

"Dustin, are you going to tell him or am I?" Sadie looked towards her brother, who was watching the two teenagers in front of him with a rather particular look of interest written in his expression. The kind that didn't appear all that often. The kind that made Sadie want to reach out and smack him over his little curly head.

"I mean I can.. but you two seem to have a pretty good conversation going." Dustin grinned, and that made Sadie actually hit him over the head, her arm moving swiftly and colliding as he yelped. "Hey!" He shook his head. "Fine. The other night I came back and found this creature in the trash... I thought it was a new species of terrestrial pollywog.. because we're not in South America or India obviously."

Steve's face was blank, despite this being somewhat of an easy conversation for the siblings in front of him. He turned towards Sadie. "What's a pollywog?"

"Tadpole.. larval stage in the life cycle of an amphibian, most are aquatic but there are a couple that aren't." She replied. Steve look confused. "...Baby frogs or toads, they come out of frogspawn and are they're a weird shape. I'll show you a book later. It kinda looks like a slimy oddly-shaped lizard. And seeing as it was supposed to be a terrestrial pollywog and they love the sun because they're ectothermic - cold-blooded - they love the heat. But Dart didn't."

"No, it hurts him."

"Which reminds you of..." Sadie looked to Steve, who seemed to be experiencing some kind of dawning.

"That creature. The - the Demogorgon from last year." He filled in, smiling when Sadie nodded her confirmation.

"Exactly." Dustin replied. "And then he got bigger, and got bigger legs and well... I came back from school yesterday and he broke out of the cage and ate Mews."

"Which was when he decided to tell me." Sadie glares at her brother, who gladly returned the gesture. "The idiot - I could've figured this out ages ago. Ages ago, I tell you."

"I believe you." Steve nodded rapidly. Sadie paused, a smile briefly crossing her face as she knitted her fingers together.

She rocked back on her ankles for a moment, before coming to a stop and wrapping her arms over her stomach. "Well, at least last night is when I found out, seeing as he was acting totally suspicious all yesterday morning and I walked in to find my cat dead on the carpet."

"You're not gonna let that go, are you?" Dustin frowned. "I was going to tell you! I just didn't realise it would get this bad!"

"So what's happening with Dart now?" Steve asked, bypassing the bickering that clearly had been going on all day.

"We locked him in the storm cellar." Dustin broke off his own argument, turning towards the older boy, frowning when he saw the certain glances made between the two other people in the room. "Hey!" He clapped his hands and Steve finally directed his attention back to her. "And you have to help us with him."

"Okay... I guess... What do we need to do?" Steve questioned, looking between them.

"Get him away from the house." Sadie replied almost instantly "If he keeps getting bigger it could become a Demogorgon for all we know. Or possibly injure him. Or kill him. Neither of us could kill him, we figured that bit out." She said, the memory of their previous argument still fresh in her mind.

Steve nodded slowly, twisting the bat in his hands. He didn't quite want to ask why it had been him that they ended up calling, but he wasn't going to ask. Besides, it gave him quite the chance to talk to her after the absolute mess of the day before. He had been thinking, and maybe now he could-

The phone ringing interrupted their conversation, and neither boy could decipher exactly why Sadie jumped so hard at the sound. Being the closest she picked it up first, balancing it under her ear.

"Henderson house, Sadie speaking." She answered. She couldn't help being a little suspicious, considering the timing of it.

"Sadie." The voice greeting her wasn't familiar. "It's Keith, did Lucas tell you yet?"

"Keith." Sadie blinked, ignoring the curious gazes. "As in Keith from the arcade?" There was a grunt of acknowledgement. "Huh. Right, I see. What was Lucas supposed to tell me? You sure he didn't get me mixed up for Dustin again? He gets a little confused when he's been staring at colourful screens for several hours on end - just walk past and give him a hard pat on the shoulder and tell him it was from me. I'll slip you an extra five every time I'm around."

"No - he definitely didn't get you mixed up with Dustin... he's a total wastoid that can't beat a girl on Dig Dug."

"What did you just say? Who says a girl can't be good at Dig Dug?"

Steve stepped a little closer to Dustin. "Does your sister always have weird conversations with Keith from the arcade?" He asked.

"Nope." Dustin shook his head. "This is a first. What happened at Halloween? Sadie won't tell me."

"Nothing much." Steve replied, digging his hands into his pockets.

She pinched her brow, unaware of the conversation occurring behind her. "Keith - what did Lucas want to tell me?" She asked.

"About what happened with that Mad Max girl. You know these kids always promise to get me a date and it never happens." Keith drawled, the rustling behind him no doubt his usual pack of chips. 

"You know what Keith.. I'm sort of busy right now. If you wanna schedule our date for sometime in the future go ahead." Steve's head shot up. Dustin noticed. "I can't promise I'll be there and I can't promise that you'll ever see Lucas again but you set that up. But right now, my cat is missing and-" There was a buzz in her ear and the line fell, dead. Sadie turned, seeing Steve standing behind her and pushing down the button. "Thanks." She offered him a smile. "I was kind of going on a tangent."

Dustin shook his head, dumbfounded and utterly furious at the thought of things. "First Mike and now Lucas?" He exclaimed, hurriedly muttering something under his breath that sounded an awful lot like threats.

The frown on Sadie's face eased, the wrinkle between her eyebrows disappearing. "I don't care about that. Steve already knows what happens when a guy is interested in me. I'll just breakdown the composition of Cheetos or something. They get bored very easily."

Except for him, it seemed. Steve couldn't exactly interrupt her to say it though, but he had gotten the idea of what he looked like when he did hear another one of Sadie's incredible facts because Carol had poked him in the side once during class half a year ago and began to make comments about something to do with a moon thing, which Sadie later explained the meaning of. Steve knew he found it interesting, far more interesting than anything else he learnt, and he found her interesting as well. Not that he would ever voice it, ever. Instead, he would question things he didn't understand and hope that his questions based on a lack of understanding didn't come off as totally idiotic.

"Please don't ever break down a Cheeto, I like them too much to hear it." Sadie grinned and nodded his way, clicking her tongue. "Back to Dart." He added, steering the conversation back towards where it needed to be.

"Right. So you found this thing in the trash, and it was... how big?" Steve asked. Dustin answered with his hands, holding them the slightest thing apart. "And then...?"

"He got bigger. I took him to school to show the others and Will... I don't know what he felt exactly, but he knew it was from the Upside Down, so everyone wanted to kill him but then he escaped. I found him and brought him here, but he kept - er - getting bigger. Now he's about the size of... a pretty big dog."

"And that's in the space of four days." Steve nodded slowly, before coming to a stop. His eyes were on a rogue paper-thin slice of turkey. "...Wait, how big?"

"Dog. You know what they are, right?" Dustin asked, snarky.

"I swear to God, man, it's just some lizard, okay?" Steve shrugged. "It'll be fine. It'll just wither away in the cellar."

"Please, it's not just some lizard." Sadie retorted, standing up straighter. "It's not a lizard, Steve."

"Yeah, open your tiny mind." Dustin jeered, glad that - finally - he wasn't watching his sister with wide unfamiliar eyes as she shared almost playful conversation with some douche who had spent half his life alongside people who would bully people like her. Although... after the events of the previous year, Steve was, admittedly, rather cool - in his estimation anyway.

"How do you know it's not just a lizard?" Steve was sceptical, but only really because he didn't really want to believe that the Hendersons had a Demogorgon growing in their storm cellar.

"Well, first of all - we both saw it," Sadie replied, eyebrows raising as she saw some kind of glint in his eye. "And second, its face opened up and ate my cat."

"Our cat." Dustin correct. "And Dart's a he."

"How do you know?"

"What?"

"How do you know he's a boy?" Sadie continued, prodding and poking at his statements. Steve watched with almost cautious interest. He didn't want to overstep by him being there, but with Sadie and Dustin, there happened to be a level of competition rising between them, something which he hadn't seen with anyone else. And that was interesting.

"First he was like this." Dustin held out his thumb and index finger out, about the length of a small rat between them. "Now he's like this." There was now a gap between his hands that could fit many rats, and possibly his abandoned turtle as well.

"Alright. Fine. Maybe it is a continuously growing lizard monster." Steve threw his arms up in the arm, before they came to rest on his hips. "So go on then, where's this storm cellar? Maybe you can show me."

"Okay." Sadie jumped up, reaching her arm out and dragging Steve from the rather comfortable position he had found himself in, out of the front door and taking the bat with her. Dustin followed with a torch, none of them realising just how long it had taken to bury Mews and clean up the stain and explain everything to Steve in the first place. But now the night was falling and they only had limited time before Claudia inevitably returned home and they had to figure out what to do. "Here."

"You didn't lock it again?" Steve frowned, seeing the rope tied around the metal handles, ending up in a bow. "You know, I was in boy scouts for a a month or something before my dad got me into basketball and baseball and everything... but I'm pretty sure that this wouldn't be very secure." He gestured at it.

Sadie shrugged. "It looked nice." She hummed. "Should we just open it?" The three of them shared a look, which the Henderson took as her answer, reaching down and pulling it loose. Together, they heaved the doors open and stared into the depths. "Steve?"

"Yeah?" His head shot towards her, before he got the message. "Fine. If you're so convinced. But I swear to God, if this is some practical Halloween joke you've decided to play on me then-"

"Just go in, idiot." Dustin pushed the torch and bat into his hands. "It hasn't come jumping out at us, so you're probably fine."

"Fine. Have me killed. Fine. Fine!" Steve glanced towards Sadie before taking a step in, and then another, and another, until he had reached the bottom and disappeared from sight.

It was silent for a moment, and the siblings couldn't help but be a little worried. How were they to know whether Dart had grown or not in the past few hours? He was certainly growing at startling rate, so there was the possibility that he had shed his skin once again and popped into some sort of lion-sized creature. Or maybe, the next time it grew it would end up in the result they feared; a full-grown Demogorgon.

There was a pause. Then the floor was illuminated by the single bulb in the center of the room. But still, there was no reply from the boy. Dustin glanced towards Sadie. "Steve?" He called, peering down the steps. "Hey - Steve! Steve! What's going on down there?"

They jumped out of their skins when he appeared again. But instead of looking somewhat terrified of their discovery like expected, he looked confused. "Steve?" Sadie repeated his name for the hundredth time. "Is everything alright?"

"Get down here." He said, and without hesitation they followed. On the end of Steve's bat, a familiar, much larger slime-covered skin was attached.

"Oh shit." Dustin muttered, staring at it.

The torch flashed over to the corner of the room. Sadie's eyes travelled over the beam of light, eyes searching the sight of the rather large hole in the wall. "Oh shit." She exclaimed, eyes wide. It was leading out of the cellar, which meant their ultimate goal of locking it in there was completely devoid of reason. "Oh shit." She repeated, because their wasn't much else to say.

They had fucked up. And now they had a bigger problem on their hands.