• The Best Hargrove • Steve Harrington x Reader •

Chapter Twenty

"Dude, I'm telling you, you're taking us the wrong way!" Steve faltered as Dustin navigated the group through the forest. "It's North, I'm positive I checked the map!" Dustin insisted as he held up the map to Steve's face. "You do realize Skull rock is like a super popular make-out spot, right?"

"Yeah, so?" Dustin continued leading you through the forest. "Yeah well, it wasn't popular until I made it popular, alright? I practically invented it" Steve spoke proudly, pressing his hand against his chest. "We." you corrected. Moments later, Steve went off the trail and into the woods, to which you all hesitantly followed. "I guess we're going this way now.." you spoke to the others, signalling to them to follow you.

After a while of walking, skull rock came into view through the thick bushes. "Bada bing, bada boom, there she is, Henderson. skull rock!" Steve pointed an open hand at the giant figure. "In your face, in your coky little face.."

"It doesn't make sense.." Dustin takes a good look at his compass and then looks around. "Yeah yeah, even with it staring at you right in the face, you can't admit it! You just can't admit that you're wrong, you little butthead.." Steve joked, making a talking motion with his hands.

Some ruffling in the bushes made you all turn towards where the sound was coming from. "I concur, you, Dustin Henderson, are a total butthead.." Eddie spoke as he took a big breath of air. "Jesus, we thought you were a goner!" Dustin pulled Eddie into a tight hug. You couldn't help but smile, they were such good friends.

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"When I got to the shore I tried calling you guys, but uh.. My walkie was busted, man.. drenched, so I did the thing that I do now apparently, I ran" he stated with a huge fake grin on his face as he sipped on his beer. "Do you know what time this was? The attack?" you interrogated. "Yeah, no I know exactly what time it was, because my walkie wasn't the only thing that got soaked" he confirmed before removing his broken watch and tossing it to you.

You checked the time written on the watch, and it read "9:27" you said out loud. "Same time our flashlights went kablooey" Robin added. "Which.. means what exactly?" Steve queried with his eyebrows knotted together. "That that surge of energy was Vecna attacking Patrick."

"Well, one step closer, we know how Vecna attacks" Nancy spoke. "And where he attacks from" Lucas continued on, placing his hands on his waist. "So, now we just need to sneak into his lair in the upside-down and drive a stake through his heart.." Max asserted. "If he even has a heart.."

"A stake, is he vamp- is he like a vampire?" Steve wondered, looking at Max for answers since she was the only one who knew what he looked like exactly. "It was a metaphor" she confirmed. "A bullet should work on him, right?" Eddie proposed, still kneeling over the ground. "I say we chop his head off" Lucas challenged.

"Yeah, I'd say all of the above, but we can't do any of that until we find a way into the upside-down" you sighed. "We really need El to get her powers back.." Max hoped. "Everything was like way easier. We had this girl, she had superpowers-" Eddie cut Steve off mid-sentence. "Superpowers, yeah, you mentioned her."

"Hey uh, Henderson's not cursed.. is he?" you all looked over to Dustin who was pacing back and forth and looked into the nothingness of the woods. "Cursed? No no, he's fine. Mental?.. Absolutely.." Steve corrected.

"Boom!" Dustin's voice echoed unexpectedly throughout the forest, causing you all to jump. "Bada, bada, boom" he pointed a finger at Steve as he slowly approached him. "I was right! Skull rock was North!" he spoke proudly, to which Steve simply rolled his eyes in frustration.