Secrets // Steve Harrington

Chapter Seventeen - The Barrier

Word Count: 2,736 words. 

Warnings: None. 

When I opened my eyes again, I wasn't on the streets of Hawkins anymore. At least, not on the streets that I knew as my own. I was jolted awake by screeching above me, bird-like creatures circling the air. I call them bird-like due to their flapping wings and their elongated beaks, but they were far too large to be anything close to what I thought.

Quick to scramble to my feet, I looked at the world around me. The buildings crumbled as though they had been there for centuries, and black veins sprouted from the broken tarmac under my feet. The air was heavy with ash and I coughed loudly as I breathed it in.

It had never been like this before. The world in my mind – that I suppose wasn't completely in my mind anymore. I could never smell the air, only feel and see the clear burning in the air. It was like I was truly there.

I had moved before he spoke, somehow anticipating the words that would be whispered in my mind. But they weren't in my mind. His words weren't spoken hushed in my ear, rather they echoed across the entire street as though he spoke from the very sky I looked at.

"Run," he boomed and so I did.

I didn't know why I was running nor where I was running to, but I knew that I was now running from those birds in the air as they ducked their head and flapped their heavy wings to chase.

I didn't care to look back as I turned again. I knew the streets of Hawkins and if I had paid enough attention, I could tell where I was going, but I didn't know. I felt as though I was sprinting aimlessly to get away from the beasts that chased me but when a house appeared in front of me, the door open, I knew that I had been running somewhere. He had been leading me here.

It shut behind me harshly and I panting heavily against the door. A large force hit the wood behind me, almost throwing me to the ground of the house but I managed to stay standing, pushing against the door. They couldn't get in, I wouldn't let them.

When the banging stopped and I could hear the distinct noise of flapping wings, I finally let my body fall away from the door. I braced my hands on my knees, breath shaking. "Fuck," I cursed.

"Lia?" his voice asked. Not the voice that had been in my head. Not One.

"Will?" I called out, the exhaustion from running that had overcome me becoming secondary as I searched the house I was in. It was the Byer's residence. "Will?"

"Lia?" His voice was louder this time.

The darkness surrounded this house as well, the bulging roots taking over every wall and doorway. In fact, it seemed to be stronger here than anywhere else I had seen before.

"Will? Where are you?" I asked.

"Lia!" It was a shout now and it was coming from his bedroom.

I turned, approaching his room. Although the door itself was wide open, the black veins covered it, secured tightly on either side so that no one could squeeze through.

I tried to pull at one of them. "Will? Are you in there?"

"Lia!" he screamed.

Looking through a gap in the barrier, I could make out his face. His body was trapped behind some kind of clear goo but he could see me and I could see him.

I pulled harder, putting all of my strength into ripping apart the root that separated me from him. "Will, I'm coming for you!"

"Lia." He was sobbing. "Help me."