Chapter Six:
Softie Harrington
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

R

amona groaned, her feet dragging across the dirt of the train tracks. The bite on her arm throbbed, causing a dull aching pain to spread from the wound to the tips of her fingers. The piece of fabric ripped from both Steve and Ramona's shirts was stained red from the amount of blood seeping from the teeth marks on her upper arm. Ramona had never seen this much blood loss from herself in her life, not even when she completely broke her arm in seventh grade. She was honestly surprised she was still somewhat lucid.

Steve had his arm around her shoulders to keep the drowsy girl upright instead of face down in the dirt.

"Harrington, if this gets infected and I die.. I'm gonna haunt your ass." Ramona's voice was quiet as she focused on walking and keeping her feet straight. "¡No quiero morir, realmente no quiero morir!"

Steve stopped in his tracks, turning Ramona to face him. "Hey, hey, hey. I told you I wasn't gonna let you die, and I'm not, alright? I promise."

Ramona nodded, sluggishly continuing her pace with him. "Hope you know, this'll be the only time you're this close to me, Harrington. Still strongly dislike you."

"And I still strongly dislike you, García." Steve countered, "Hey, Jesus, be careful! Don't trip over that rock."

"Oh, thanks." Ramona mumbled, blinking slowly as she avoided the rock.

Max and Lucas shared a look with each other, having a silent conversation with their eyes. Max did not buy that either of them strongly disliked each other.

Silence fell over the small group, Ramona occassionally muttering curses under her breath if she nearly tripped. Steve kept her close, not wanting to feel the wrath of Nancy if she were to get anymore hurt.

"So, you're positive that was dart?" Lucas broke the silence.

"Yes! He had the same exact yellow pattern on his butt." Dustin descended, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"His butt?" Ramona laughed, "Tope a lagarto."

"He was tiny two days ago." Max huffed.

"Well, he's molted three timed times already."

"Malted?" Steve's voice trailed off, glancing over at Ramona.

"No, molted, stupid head." Ramona mumbled, "Animal shedding."

"Right, molted." Dustin agreed, "Shed his skin to make room for growth like hornworms."

"When's he gonna molt again?"

"It's gonna be soon, and when he does, he'll be fully grown or close to it and so will his friends."

"Yeah, and he's gonna eat a lot more than just cats." Steve said, tightening his grip around Ramona's shoulders.

"And human flesh." Ramona shrugged, wincing as Steve reached over and tightened the tied fabric around her arm.

"Wait, a cat?" Lucas froze in his tracks, turning to look at Dustin. "Dart ate a cat?"

"No, what? No." Dustin shook his head rapidly.

"What are you talking about? He ate Mews." Steve said, stopping in his place but keeping his arm firmly around Ramona so that she wouldn't fall.

"Mews? Who's Mews?" Max asked, confusion flashing across her face.

"Dustin's cat." Steve answered, shrugging. Ramona sighed, shaking her head at him.

"Steve!" Dustin gasped, squinting at him.

"I knew it! You kept him!" Lucas shouted, forcing Dustin to look at him.

"No! No.. No, I- No, I.." Dustin stammered, looking around at the group frantically. "He missed me! He wanted to come home."

"Dustin, I-" Ramona huffed covering her face with one hand. "I just-"

"Bullshit!" Lucas called out, pointing at the boy. "Bullshit."

"I didn't know he was a Demogorgan, okay?" Dustin defended himself.

"Oh, so you admit it?

"I don't think we should be shouting, guys." Ramona warned, her ears perking up at the distant screeching.

"Yeah, guys. Who cares? We have to go." Max agreed with Ramona, "We shouldn't be drawing attention to ourself."

"I care!" Lucas shouted, "You put our party in jeopardy! You broke the rule of law!"

"So did you!" Dustin's voice came out strained.

"What?" Ramona rolled her eyes, wincing as she tried to cross her arms, but inevitably deciding against it.

"You told a stranger the truth!" Dustin shined his flashlight in Max's eyes.

Max scoffed, "A stranger?"

"Damnit, red." Ramona muttered, rolling her eyes and puffing out her cheeks. Steve shook his head, letting his arm slip from Ramona's shoulders as he rested his hands on his hips.

"You wanted to tell her, too!"

"But I didn't, Lucas, okay! I didn't tell her. We both broke the rule of law, okay? So we're even. We're even."

"No! No, we're not even! Don't even try that."

"Guys." Ramona said loudly when the distant roaring grew louder.

"Your stupid pet could have ate us for dinner!" Lucas shouted, shoving Dustin back.

"Guys." Ramona said louder, groaning when they continued their shouting match.

"Guys!" Steve shouted, causing the three children to silence.

"Cállate y mueve tus traseros!" Ramona pointed at each of them, taking small steps towards Steve before he slid his arm around her and helped her keep a fast paced walk.

"Guys! No, no, no, no. Guys, why are you headed towards the sound?" Max'a voice became faded in the forest. "Hello?"

The dense fog provided an eery atmosphere as the sound of leaves crunching under the groups feet aiden in Ramona's anxiety about the situation.

After what felt like hours to Ramona, the group stopped on the top of a hill overlooking the town of Hawkins. The sound of the howling and screaming in the far distance was enough to send chills down Ramona's spine. "What is it?"

Lucas pulled the binoculars from his eyes, "It's the lab. They were going back home."

"The lab? Wait.. Nancy and Jonathan told me.. that's.." Ramona's voice trailed off, "We have to go!"

~~

"Steve?" Nancy's voice was shocked as she locked eyes with him.

"Nancy.." Steve shook his head, knitting hit eyebrows together and removing his arm from Ramona's shoulders.

"What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" Steve countered.

"We're looking for Mike and Will." Nancy answered.

Dustin turned his eyes towards the large darkened building. "They're not in there, are they?"

"We're not sure." Nancy said slowly.

"Why?" Jonathan's eyebrows knitted together. When he realized that Ramona and Steve had arrived together, not bickering or in a shouting match, he felt even more confused. He thought that they hated each other's guts.

The sound of the monsters wailing in the distance caused all of them to look towards the lab. Ramona inhaled sharply before speaking, "That's why."

"Ramona?" Jonathan shook his head, "Wha- Are you bleeding?"

"Jonathan!" Nancy scolded, smacking him on the chest.

"No! I-I meant.. Look at her arm!" Jonathan defended, pointing at Ramona.

"Holy shit!" Nancy cursed, her eyes widening at the sight of her. "What happened?"

"Well.." Ramona's voice trailed off. "It's a long story."

"Lucas is shit at telling her where the monsters are coming from. So one got her and she was bleeding a lot." Dustin answered her. Lucas scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"There was a lot of blood, though." Max agreed.

"It hurt like a puta and now I'm gonna have these teeth scars all over my arm!" Ramona huffed as the others began to bicker behind her.

Jonathan's eyes softened as he slowly raised her arm to look at it. He didn't even bother to peel back the stained fabric, not wanting to cause more blood loss and pain to the girl.

"García." Ramona hummed, turning her head at the sound of Steve's voice.

"What?"

"Your arm okay?" He asked, stepping past the bickering children momentarily.

"All's good, Harrington. Hope you're not getting all soft on me." She snickered, raising an eyebrow.

Steve scoffed, "Of course not."

"Good."

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

{ A/n:
Stamona: i strongly dislike you.
also stamona: *literally does this* }

{ Translations: I don't wanna die! I really don't wanna die!, Lizard butt, shut the fuck up and move your asses!, bitch }

{ Edited: No }