𝙈𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙇𝘿𝘼 || s. harrington

ᶜʰᵃᵖᵗᵉʳ ⁰⁰⁸

˗ˏˋ the battle of starcourt pt. 1 ! ˎˊ˗

⋆⁺₊⋆  ⋆⁺

ELEVEN was laying on the ground, screaming in agony. Matilda, on the other hand, was screaming in her head. The people around them were properly freaking out, unsure of why Matilda was hurting too. Jonathan had run off to get a knife and a wooden spoon in order to slice El's leg open, while the rest of the group stayed huddled around El.

Matilda was still rocking back and forth, knees to her chest with her hands clapped over her ears. Steve was beside her, holding her for comfort.

As soon as the knife sliced into El's leg, both girls were screaming. El was muffled by the spoon in her mouth, but Matilda's was ear piercing. She clamped a hand over her mouth to try and protect the others. Jonathan plunged his hand into El's leg, looking for the moving thing they had seen in it prior.

     It hurts, doesn't it?

Matilda began to hyperventilate, her screams mirroring El's. "Get out of my head." She murmured.

Steve heard her speak, and turned away from everyone else. "What?" The girl didn't respond, she just kept in her position and whimpered. Matilda faintly heard El screaming, and her head snapped up. She saw the girl struggling to get the tiny creature out of her leg.

     You can't save her now, Matilda. Give up.

El was holding the creature in the air now, and it was floating between the group. "Get out of my head." Matilda shrieked, causing the glass window behind them to shatter. At the same time, El threw the creature across the room.

Matilda was out of her trance, and she leaned back into Steve's embrace. Her head rested on his shoulder, and her body became more relaxed. Her gaze went to where the creature was thrown, and saw that there were now three more people joining them. Matilda let a smile creep onto her face, knowing that they were here to help.

Steve helped her move to the atrium so they could explain everything to Hopper and Joyce, plus another guy they had brought with them. Matilda was slowly recovering, the voice from her head was gone for now. Steve sat her on a bench, protectively holding an arm around her shoulders.

"The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world." Mike explained.

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

"How big is this thing?" Hopper asked.

"It's big. Thirty feet at least." Jonathan replied.

"Yeah. It sorta destroyed your cabin. Sorry."

Matilda swallowed, knowing that she had seen some of their fight happen. She had seen it, and she was terrified.

"Okay, so just to be clear, this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, and is messing with Matilda, it's some kind of gigantic— weapon?" Steve questioned.

"Yes." Nancy nodded.

"But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon... with melted people."