002 - Steve Harrington

The Battle of Starcourt

Eleven begins to cry because whatever is inside her leg, is causing her immense pain. 

"What is that?" Erica asks, looking at the thing moving in El's leg.

"There's something in there." Mike says as he holds El's hand.

"Jesus Christ." Dustin says.

"Keep her talking." Jonathan says as he gets up. "Keep her awake, okay?" He says as he runs off.

"No!" El cries out.

"It's alright, El. We'll figure something out." I calmly say to her. 

"Hey, hey, hey. Stay awake, stay awake. Let's get her on this side, on this side." Mike says as he sits behind El and they move her so she can sit up against him. 

I move down to the end of her leg. 

"You know, it's not actually that bad." Robin begins to say. "There was a... The goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg, and like the whole bone came out of her knee, six inches or something, it was insane." 

"Robin." Steve and I say, cutting her off.

"Yeah." She says, looking down at us. 

"You're not helping." Steve says to her as I shake my head.

"I'm sorry." She apologizes as Jonathan comes running back.

"Okay. All right, El?" He says sitting down next to me, at the end of her legs. "This is gonna hurt like hell, okay?" 

"Okay." She sobs.

"Need you to stay real still." He says as he puts on gloves. "Here, you're gonna want to bite down on this, okay?" He hands Mike a wooden spoon. 

I watch as El bites down on the spoon before my attention is brought to the sound of a knife. Jonathan holds a giant knife over El's wound.

"Wait." I say stopping Jonathan, putting my hand over his with the knife in it. "You're not gonna cut it out of her, are you?" 

"It's the only option." Jonathan says, not taking his eyes off of her leg.

"Okay." I tell him. "Make the incision and then I'll do the rest. I'll get it out of her." I tell him before I remove my hand. "It'll be okay, El." I say to her, reassuringly. 

She nods her head and Jonathan brings the knife down to her leg. 

"Holy shit. Holy shit." I hear Dustin say.

"Do it." I say to Jonathan, noticing his hesitation. 

"Okay." He says before taking a deep breath. 

El screams as Jonathan makes the cut on her leg, causing the thing inside to squirm more.

"All right, Jonathan. That's enough." I tell him once there's a big enough incision on her leg. He drops the knife and moves over so I can sit in front of her bad leg. 

"I'll try and be quick El. Just hold on a little longer." I say as I extend my hand over her wound. 

I follow the small source of energy that is in her leg. Once I find it, I begin to pull it out, causing El to scream and writhe even more. 

"Dani!" Nancy shouts at me.

"Stop talking! It's almost out!" I shout out as I feel the thing begin to come out of her leg.

The thing begins to protrude from her leg as she lets out a loud scream, causing the window break behind her. Everyone ducks away from the broken glass as I pull the, screeching, worm-like-creature out of El's leg. She collapses completely against Mike as I throw it across the food court. My power surges even more as my hand lights on fire. I emit the fire from my hand, burning the creature to a crisp.