Nightmares - Lucas Sinclair

The Nina Project (Part 1)

Hey, Dustin, this is Eddie the Banished. You there? a static voice filled the silent room as people were trying to catch up on sleep from their eventful day. Nikki, however, wasn't sleeping. She had been up throughout the night trying to figure out how to take the bracelets off, or if that wasn't going to happen, how to protect Max without her powers. Dustin, can you hear me?

Nikki sat up careful not to wake anyone around her, looking for whoever's radio she could get a hold of.

Dustin, the voice came through again as Nancy sat up and found a radio. Earth to Dustin.

"Hey, it's Nancy," Nancy responded, giving Nikki a polite smile before going back to focus on Eddie's words.

Wheeler! Hey! Um, I'm gonna need a food delivery, like, really soon, unless you want me going out into the world.

"No. No, no, no. Don't do that," Nancy cut him off. "Stay where you are, and we'll be there as soon as we can."

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen, um... can you pick me up a six-pack? Nancy looked back at Nikki both of them raising their eyebrows at Eddie's request. I know, it's stupid as shit, drinking right now, but a cold beer would really calm my jangled nerves.

Nancy looked back to the couch to check on Max, only to find her spot empty. "Hey, I'm gonna have to call you back." Nancy spoke frantically as she looked at Nikki, hoping she would have an idea as to where the red head went. She turned off the radio as Nikki finally found some words.

"I don't know where she went, she is really quiet and it wasn't my turn to keep watch," Nikki said, quickly coming to her own defense.

"Who's turn was it?" Nikki looked over at a sleeping Dustin, letting Nancy know without directly telling on him. Nancy stumbled over to Dustin as Nikki stayed put, watching from afar. "Dustin! Wake up!"

Dustin sat up, confused as to why he was being woken up.

"Aren't you supposed to be on Max watch?" Nancy asked as Dustin rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"Yep. Yep, yep, yep," Dustin answered quickly. "Sorry."

"Then where is she?"

"She's right there," he pointed at Nikki, mistaking her for the wrong girl. Quickly, he realized he was wrong. "Oh, hi Nikki."

"Morning," Nikki said, trying to bite back a laugh.

"She's right there," Dustin tried again, pointing to the empty couch. "A second ago. I swear I just dozed off for... wha-? An hour."

Nancy looked at Nikki with a plan in mind. "Okay, we'll go check the house, you stay here and wait to see if she comes back here."

"I can help look," Nikki offered.

"No, everyone outside of this group, thinks you're still dead. They don't need another reason to believe that there are dangerous devil worshippers here, killing to bring people back from the dead."

"Is that what people think?" Nikki's eyes widened, thinking Lucas left out the last past of the story he had told here when they were going to the school.

"Not yet anyway. But we don't need a reason for them to begin thinking that," Nancy turned to Dustin and nodded her head, getting them to go up the stairs to start their search. Leaving Nikki with the rest of the sleeping crew.

Back in silence, Nikki laid back down on the floor next to Lucas and rested her head on his chest. She knew she shouldn't even try to fall back asleep due to everything happening now that Max has ran off somewhere. Instead, she focused on the noise around her and listened to the heater kick on.

She looked at the bracelets on her wrists and tried to figure out who else would know how to take them off. She could only think of one person, and she wanted to go nowhere near him again.

"You alright?" Lucas's sleepy voice broke Nikki's attention from the bracelets.

She raise her head to look at him. "Yeah, just have a lot to think about."

"Yeah," Lucas sighed as he wrapped his arms around her. He still couldn't believe that she was here. Ever since she got back, he has been afraid to fall asleep due to the fear that this all could be a dream. If he were to wake up with her not here, he wouldn't know how to get over that.

"What if..." Nikki trailed off as she let her own fears run through her head. "What if I can't protect you guys, even if I get my powers back?"

"What do you mean?" Lucas looked at her, seeing the gears turning in her head.

"I mean, we saw what happened to Max," Nikki sat up to look up at him. "Nothing was there. She was just floating there. Nothing was there doing that to her in person. They were somewhere else, and we don't know how to get to it before it gets to Max. And what if we find a way to get my powers back. Will I really be able to help protect her when nothing is there? There is no person in front of her. How could I help her when she really needs help?"

"I don't know," Lucas shook his head, somberly. "If I'm being honest, I don't think any of us know what to do other than have Max listening to her music nonstop. This is something we never had to face before, but I know we will come up with something. And I know you will help us with or without your powers. And I think you've protected us enough to last a lifetime."

"I doubt that."

Lucas's eyebrows scrunched together. "Why?"

"Because if I protected you guys enough, then we wouldn't have to worry about any of this anymore. You guys wouldn't have to worry about the upside down or your life in danger," Nikki answered honestly.

Lucas shook his head. "No. This has nothing to do with that. Nikki you've thrown yourself into danger every time this happens, and you've stopped the monsters every time. But no one could've known about all of this. Hell, we thought it was only the Demogorgan at first, now look at where we are. No one could've protected us from this, no matter how hard they tried."

Authors note

Wow, this chapter has been a long time coming. So sorry I haven't been able to sit down and write for you guys. Apparently, being student director and working on two shows at once is a lot of role when you have biggish roles in both of them.

yeah, so, if you can't tell updates are going to slow down for a while, but that doesn't mean I won't be working on this book and trying to get the next chapter out as soon as possible.

Also just wanted to say, the Nikki and Lucas moments are the reason I BREATHE!! 

Anyways, see you guys on the next update

Love ya!!❤️❤️❤️