Legendary | s. harrington (18+)

chapter thirty two

"WHAT were you so scared of?" Evelyn and Steve sat on his bonnet, parked on the cliff that towered over the city away from Hawkins, the buildings twinkling on the horizon from the sun. Steve brought their sandwiches out from the car, having stopped at a drive-through for drinks on the way here, and unwrapped them on their laps. The sun was delicious and caressing, warming their skin as they lay there, sat in the place they'd first had a good conversation. Halloween a year previous, when Nancy had told him she didn't love him anymore. But now, with Eve, he felt completely different.

Eve shook her head, sipping on her coke and spinning the ice around the cup.

"It's silly." She whispered, looking out to the view.

"Tell me." His hand slipped to her thigh and he swore she stopped breathing. After a long moment she nodded but couldn't bring herself to look at him. She stared at her food, nibbling the lettuce that had fallen out of her sandwich and on to the paper in her lap.

"There was some part of me, that was terrified he was taken." Steve placed down his drink, shocked. A guilt swirled inside him. How could he not think of that?

"Evie, we beat them. They're not coming back." But a Steve said it, he remembered the fear on her face; the desperation and pain to get Will back. The way she'd thrown herself in front of death countless times to save the children and to save him, without even a second thought. He bit his cheek.

"I know." She winced, biting her sandwich before adding, "but I worried that maybe he'd disappeared and we'd never stopped it. And then what if Will had been taken again, too?" Her voice broke and she screwed up the paper, shaking her head.

"Is this what you dream about?" Her eyes pricked with tears and her lip trembled.

"Sort off." Steve paused, sipping his drink and sliding the slightest bit closer to her, disregarding the crusts of his lunch.

"What else, then?" He said it as softly as he could manage, scared the tears would fall or that she'd shut down on him. Please tell me, he begged silently, let me help you. As if she heard, she cleared her throat.

"I think about my mum and dad." She started, hands starting to tremble. "And I think, what if they didn't die in that crash - what if they were taken? What if they were stolen and left in the upside down and died there. What if...they were in the upside down this whole time and I could've saved them, and I had absolutely no idea. What if I was too late, and they waited for me. What if they were waiting to be found and no one ever came." Her eyes were wet and her chin dimpled with strain, trying not to cry. Salt water fell down her face and Steve swore. He placed his drink down and wrapped an arm around her. She sighed, guilt eating her and she could feel it like spiders crawling over every inch of her skin. She grit her teeth and Steve felt her tense.

"It's not your fault, Evie." He said it aggressively, so harshly that he hoped she would believe him. "Billy is fine. The upside down is closed. Eleven would've seen your mom and dad, wouldn't she? Surely. She would have found them for you. She found everyone. They weren't in the upside down and it's not your fault." She cried, quietly in to his shoulder and Steve kissed her head, brushing her hair with his fingers. "Will is safe. Everyone is safe, okay? No one is in the upside down." They barely spoke of it, completely ignored it ever happened. And here, at the edge of Hawkins, they both felt ripped open and exposed. Steve remembered the fear of loosing her, of losing any of them, and held her tighter as if she too, might disappear.

No matter how much he told himself they'd won, he still feared it was a lie. He was terrified the upside down would open again, and this time they wouldn't survive it.