Tension (Steve Harrington)

Chap. 20; The Mind Flayer

Steve reached up from the ground below a five-foot-high ledge for Max's hand. She grabbed onto his hand. His hand slipped under her armpit to help her down. Steve did the same with the rest of the kids. Lauren stayed behind, making she all of them get down safely before she got down. Once all the kids were down, Lauren sat with her legs hanging off the ledge. Steve extended his hand for her. She took it in hers while his hand moved to her wasit. Lauren slid off when she did, so Steve hand slipped to her back. Making her want to scream like, but she couldn't. She didn't. "Thank you." She said quietly.

"Yeah." They continued with their walk to the lab through the dark woods. Lauren was feeling far from okay. She was bleeding rather heavily despite the tight jacket. She thought it might be tight enough and have enough pressure to stop it.

Unlike most of the trek prior, Lauren walked in the front with Steve. When she had stayed in the back behind the kids before. The teens stayed silent. However, the kids behind them shared quiet words. The bugs and animals are still the loudest things in the woods.

They could see the light through the dense forest, only making them pick up their pace. The group finally reached the forest line, seeing Nancy and Jonathan looking into the woods when they walked out. Both sides had no clue why the other was her. There was a dark shadow on her face, but you could see Nancy's facial expression change dramatically. "Steve?" Nancy said.

"Nancy?" Both Steve and Lauren said together.

"What? What are you doing here?" Nancy asked, run-walking up to them.

"What are you doing here?" They started walking up to her and Jonathan, who were doing the same thing.

"We're looking for Mike and Will." Dustin's body language dropped with worry. Looking from the lab to Nancy.

"They're not in there, are they?" Dustin said anyone would have been able to hear the anxiety and worry in his voice.

"We're not sure." Jonathan seemed to have the same worries creeping into his raspy voice as well.

"Why?" There was a screech from the lab, causing them all to turn their heads. All over their hearts sank at the squel.

"That's why," Dustin replied. The worst ran through Lauren's head she couldn't think otherwise. Even if it wasn't good to do so. The boys were in trouble if they were anywhere by themselves. She swallowed down the bad thoughts, thinking back to the conversation.

She looked back to everyone else and immediately looked to Nancy. Nancy was staring down at Lauren's hand. A hand that was interlocked with Steves's. Lauren noticed Nancy's gaze and followed it directly to her and Steve's intertwined fingers. She tried to pull away, but his grip was rather tight. So she wiggled her fingers out of his grasp. This made Steve look down at her, but Nancy's attention was brought back to the conversation. Lauren's hand moved to the back of her neck. She hadn't even noticed, but they must not have let go after he helped her down.

"What happened to you?" Jonathan looked at the girl with the blood-covered clothes. Lauren looked down at her blood-coved pants hand and shirt.

"I sneezed." No one laughed, but Nancy did have a smile flash across her face. Lauren shrugged off the not funny joke she had made. It didn't really matter if anyone else thought it was funny. It gave her something to think about other than the feeling of her everywhere it hadn't before, like her fingertips and even places like her ear.

"Huh?" Jonathan looked confused.

"Nothing, it was a joke." Again, she shrugged it off. "Why would Will and Mike be in there?" Again, Nancy didn't seem to be in the conversation. Her light green eyes were enlightened by the lab light flickering on one by one. However, she seemed to be the only one to notice.