✓ | 1. subject thirteen [STRANGER THINGS]

eleven.

CHAPTER ELEVEN:
STEVE HARRINGTON

[ THE UPSIDE DOWN PART I ]

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          "I'm coming with you."

          "No, you're not, kid," Hopper replied to THIRTEEN's words instantly as he slammed open the metal back doors to the school. It was pitch black out — the sky an unbroken, inky expanse of darkness — and the air was icy when THIRTEEN followed Hopper with Joyce behind him into the parking lot of the middle school. The older man started for his car, printed with the words SHERIFF on either side, along with a checkered pattern. "You're a brave kid — at least, I thought you were. Now I just think you're stupid."

          "Not stupid," THIRTEEN denied, coming to a standstill in front of the car. "You're stupid. You cannot walk in there blind. You need me." He shook his head briefly, exasperated, and then snapped, "It is too dangerous," just as Joyce brushed past him, following Hopper to the car and heading for the passenger's door.

          "I don't care," retorted Hopper, jamming his keys into the lock of his door. "We gotta find Will."

          "Not without me," THIRTEEN interjected. He couldn't let them go there on their own to face such terrible danger. He couldn't let them go to the Upside Down without protection — even if that protection was him. "Take me with you."

          The car gave a clicking noise as it unlocked, so the two adults simultaneously yanked open their car doors. Without hesitation, THIRTEEN jerked his head to the left, forcing Hopper's door shut. With a sharp, echoing BANG! it slammed shut and clamped closed.

          The man simply groaned exasperatedly in response, head tipping back to the sky briefly. He tried again to open his door, but once more THIRTEEN made it shut with a sharp SLAM! Now seated in the passenger seat, Joyce jumped, startled, at the intrusion of noise.

          "For God's sake, kid," Hopper sighed out, leaning his elbow against the roof of his car and looking through the darkness at THIRTEEN, who stood in the doorway with the lights from inside directly behind him, making his edges fuzzy and golden. "Go back inside."

          THIRTEEN shook his head. "No."

          "Look. You can stand here and argue all you want, but there's no way I'm taking you within a three mile radius of that lab, alright?" Hopper snapped. THIRTEEN was about to jab his finger at the man and seethe, 'You will die!' but the older man continued on too quickly for him to have the chance to speak. "I'll stand here all day and night with you, THIRTEEN. Trust me, I will. But the more time you choose to stand here arguing, the longer it will take to find Will."