𝙆𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 // 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒗𝒆 𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒕𝒐𝒏 𝒙 𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒓

2-6: The Spy

The car ride was pretty silent with Steve driving. The radio played the song Hammer To Fall faintly. Dustin had explained a few minutes ago about the whole situation with Dart, and when Steve collected his thoughts, he spoke up.

"Wait a sec. How big?" He asked, glancing at me before looking back at the road.

"First it was like this." I demonstrated about three inches with my fingers. Then I brought up both of my hands and separated them about a foot. "Now he's like this." Steve sighed.

"I swear to God, man, it's just some little lizard, okay?" Steve said, directing his statement towards Dustin who was sitting in the back. 

"It's not a lizard." I defended Dustin, to which Steve looked at me once more. 

"How do you know?" He shrugged. 

"How do we know if it's not?" I asked. 

"Yeah, how do you know if it's not just a lizard?" Steve raised his voice a little as he got more frustrated.

"Because his face opened up and he ate my cat." Dustin matched Steve's tone, to which Steve just looked ahead at the road silently. He nodded to himself in realization that we were all in deep shit. 

It was dark outside by the time we pulled up to Dustin's house. We went around to the back of Steve's car, and I opened up the trunk for Steve to get his bat out. I held up a flashlight as we went around to the back of Dustin's house to the basement doors. We were quiet for a moment, waiting to see if we could hear anything from down there.

"I don't hear shit." Steve told us as he stared at the doors. 

"He's in there." Dustin shrugged. Steve looked back at Dustin briefly before turning to the red doors again. He lightly tapped it with his bat, nervous to go inside clearly. Steve licked his lips before smacking the cellar doors harder, but nothing inside could be heard. Steve turned to Dustin, which I held the flashlight to the boys face.

"All right, listen, kid. I swear, if this is some sort of Halloween prank, you're dead." Steve threatened as Dustin made a face at the light shining into his eyes. 

"It's not." Dustin defended.

"All right?" Steve asked again.

"It's not a prank." Dustin whined a bit before turning to me. "Get it out of my face." He asked, and I shined the flashlight towards Steve instead from the side. Steve took the flashlight from my hands and shined it back towards Dustin's face.

"You got a key for this thing?" Steve asked Dustin, to which he nodded quickly so he wouldn't be blinded any longer. 

We got the key, and Steve immediately went to open up the basement doors. He opened up both of them and crouched down while I held the flashlight once more. I shined it down the stairs before Steve turned to me. "Let me see that." He asked, and I handed him the light. Our hands touched briefly for only half of a second, but for whatever reason, my stomach began tying itself into knots. I figured I was just getting anxious from having to deal with a baby Demogorgon. What if Dustin got hurt? 

Steve shined the light down the stairs and didn't see anything but the concreate floor. "He must be further down there." Dustin theorized. I could see Steve was nervous to fight this thing, but it wasn't anything he hasn't fought yet. "I'll stay up here in case he tries to escape." Dustin suggested, being a major wuss. I punched his arm and Steve turned and gave him one of his "are you joking" looks. He turned back to the basement, shaking his head at the kid before he turned and looked at me. 

"You better stay up here too, then." Steve told me. "It would be dangerous for you to go down there without something to protect yourself with." 

"Well, I could always use you." I shrugged with a grin. "If Dart decides to attack me, I could just throw you in front of myself and run." Steve scoffed.