My World / Stanger Things (Book 1)

The Battle of Starcourt Pt. 1

"What is that?"

"There's something in there," Mike says.

"No!"

"Jesus Christ."

"Keep her talking. Keep her awake, okay?" Jonathan says. I nod and he runs off towards one of the food court shops.

"Hey, hey, hey. Stay awake, stay awake. Let's get her on this side, on this side." We move El over a little bit and she whimpers.

"You know it's not actually that bad. There was ... a goalie on my soccer team. Beth Wildfire, the other girl slide into her knee, the whole bone came out of knee - 6 inches or something, it was insane." Robin says.

"Robin."

"Yeah?"

"You're not helping."

"I'm sorry."

"Okay, El. This is gonna hurt like hell, okay?" Jonathan comes running back. El nods and grips my hand.

"Okay," she cries.

"I need you to stay very still. Here, you're gonna want to bite down on this, okay?" He hands me a wooden spoon and I help El put it in her mouth so she can bite down on it. Jonathan pulls out a kitchen knife and hovers it over the wound.

"Holy shit, holy shit," Dustin whispers beside me.

"Do it," Mike says. Jonathan looks down and nods. He takes the knife and cuts a slit in El's leg. Her screaming fills the mall and we all gasp as we watch.

He sets down the knife and lifts his hand. He puts his hand in El's wound and we all gasp. El starts screaming. She spits out the spoon and yells.

"Stop it! Stop. Stop!" Jonathan stops. El sits up and whimpers. "I can do it." She lifts her hand over her leg and starts to scream.

I cover my ears as El continues to scream. The glass behind us shatters and we all duck. El lifts her hand and a small creature covered in blood is thrown throw the air. We watch as it starts to crawl away. It gets crushed by a boot and we look up to see Hopper and Joyce, along with another man we have never seen before.

~

"The mind flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her, and pave a way into our world," Mike explains to the group.

"And it almost did. That was just one tiny piece of it," Nancy adds.

"How big is this thing?" Hopper asks as he holds El in his arms.

"It's big. 30 feet at least," says Jonathan.

"Yeah, it sorta destroyed your cabin. Sorry," Lucas shrugs. Hopper doesn't look like he cared in the slightest,

"Okay, so just to be clear, this....this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic weapon?" Steve asks.

"Yes," Nancy confirms.

"But it's made out of the flesh and bones of the people that it took over?" I ask.

"Yes, exactly," Nancy says.

"Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?" Joyce asks.

"El beat the shit out of it, but yeah, it's still alive," Max says.

"But if we close the gate again-" Will says trailing off.

"We cut the brain off from the body," Max says.

"And kill it," Lucas adds. "Theoretically."

"Yoo-hoo!" We all turn to see the man named Murray running towards us while waving papers in the air. "Yoo-hoo." He sets down the papers on a nearby table and we crowd around it. Will squeezes next to me and I lean my head on his shoulder. He grabs my hand and squeezes it.