MY TEARS RICOCHET 𛲕 STRANGER THINGS

28. The Long Haul

CHAPTER 28: The Long Haul

I feel more free than I have in years
Six feet in the ground
— Doomsday, Lizzy McAlpine

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

November 4th, 1984: Hawkins

THE WALK BACK TO HAWKINS WAS SHORTER THAN the walk to the junkyard. Maybe it was because they were nervous and nervous people tend to think things are going faster. Or maybe, their feet were subconsciously taking them a little bit faster; the lives of their friends and everyone else in Hawkins riding on their shoulders.

Daphne was still horror-stricken from their close encounter with the baby demogorgons. It had been a year, but she could still remember every last inch of emotion she had experienced when she encountered one for the first time. And to almost lose Steve to the monster that had taken her best friend from her... Daphne was an odd combination of furious and terrified, a mixture that never ended well for her. 

Unable to handle any more strong emotions, Daphne had tuned back into the kids' conversation about the demogorgons just in time to overhear Lucas ask, "You're positive that was Dart?"

"Yes," replied Dustin firmly. "He had the same exact yellow pattern on his butt."

Dart — Dustin's demon pet that they had tried and failed to capture. And now he had joined up with his demon friends, and they were more royally screwed than ever. For once, Daphne didn't even have a plan... she just wanted to go back to Hawkins, find Hopper and let someone else save the world this time.

"He was tiny two days ago," Max pointed out.

The redhead had recovered remarkably quickly from almost being eaten by a demogorgon and Daphne couldn't help but admire her for it. Max was resilient, a lot more resilient than Daphne ever was. The most striking thing about Max, Daphne thought, was that she didn't have any stakes in this. She had nobody that she was fighting to protect, but she was risking her life anyway. Daphne thought that was a mark of an incredible strength of character if there ever was one.

"Well, he's moulted three times already," said Dustin in a 'duh' tone.

"Malted?" repeated Steve, a baffled expression on his face.

"Moulted," answered Dustin. "Shed his skin to make room for more growth like hornworms."

"Excellent," mused Daphne. "I was just thinking that all these flesh-eating monsters were missing were hornworms."

Dustin shot her an exasperated look, but before he could respond, Max cut in. "When's he gonna moult again?"

"It's gotta be soon. When he does, he'll be fully grown, or close to it. And so will his friends."

Daphne shuddered at the thought. They had barely managed to fend off the Demogorgons at the size they currently were. The last thing they needed was an army of fully grown monsters parading around Hawkins with an appetite for human flesh.

"Yeah, and he's gonna eat a lot more than just cats."

Lucas stopped in his tracks at Steve's comment, grabbing Dustin's shoulder to force him to look at him. "Wait, a cat? Dart ate a cat?"