matter of time - harrington

volume thirteen

When the sun went down, Eliza found herself seated on the abandoned bus with Steve and the others. She sat with her back against the window, silently worrying about her brother. Where was he? Was he safe? The last she saw him, Jack was with Will and Mike at the Byers' house, but they could be anywhere by now. She gnawed on her bottom lip, praying that wherever Jack was, he was safe and out of harms way. Knowing about all of this and actually being involved in it were two different things. 

She could hear the others shift in their own seats every few moments. They had no way of knowing if their plan even worked. They could sit in the bus for hours waiting for something that never actually showed up. A part of her kind of wished that would happen. Eliza wasn't sure how she'd react to the creature Dustin described. 

She turned her head when she heard movement and saw Lucas making his way up the ladder onto the roof of the bus. She frowned and briefly considered following him up there, but stopped when Max began speaking. 

"So you've fought one of these things before?" Eliza turned from peering around the seat at the redhead to looking expectantly at Steve. He nodded his reply while flicking his lighter. "And you're like 100% sure it wasn't a bear?" 

To Eliza, that was a fair question. She'd never seen one of these creatures before. Although, from the description she'd received from Dustin and from the drawing in the Dungeons and Dragons book, she imagined the Demogorgon didn't look much like a bear. 

"A bear? Shit, don't be an idiot, okay? It wasn't a bear." Eliza was stunned by Dustin's snappy response. She'd never witnessed the boy being anything but pleasant with everyone he came into contact with. Sure, he'd snapped at Steve a few times in the last 24 hours, but that was Steve. She'd assumed from the moment Max stepped into the field that she was the girl Dustin was crushing on. If this was how he planned on wooing her, he certainly wasn't going to get far. 

She watched Max stomp away and climb the ladder to the roof where Lucas was sitting. Eliza rolled her eyes and shook her head, shooting Dustin a disappointed frown when he glanced her way. 

"That's good, just show her you don't care." Steve spoke, looking up to give Dustin a grin. 

"I don't." Dustin muttered. 

Eliza slid from her seat to move towards the center of the bus. She and Steve met eyes for a moment, long enough for her to glare at him. His stupid advice was only going to get Dustin in trouble. 

"Girls don't like boys who are mean to them." She murmured, kicking at Steve's leg. 

He shifted slightly, sitting up straighter against the wall and shrugged at Eliza. Before he could speak, however, he was interrupted by a loud growl. Eliza's eyes widened and then she scrambled quickly to the other side of the bus. She looked out of one of the few holes in the sides of the bus, but couldn't see anything. 

"You see him?" Dustin asked. 

"No." Steve and Eliza replied in unison. 

"Lucas! What's going on?" Dustin called up to the open hatch. 

Eliza waited with bated breath, hoping that whatever was out there didn't come charging right at them from the dense fog. Some of the coverage cleared, enough that Eliza could just barely make out a figure in the distance. She gaped at it, holding her breath as if it could somehow sense or hear her from within the bus. She wouldn't put it past it, they had no idea what these demodogs were capable of. 

"He's not taking the bait. Why is he not taking the bait?" Steve asked, glancing between Dustin and Eliza. 

"Maybe he's not hungry." Eliza murmured, turning slightly to meet Steve's gaze. 

She saw the thought come to him and almost wished she hadn't said anything at all. They both turned to look out the window again as Steve spoke. 

"Maybe he's sick of cow." 

Steve was moving before she could stop him. Eliza and Dustin stood up, both watching as Steve grabbed the bat from the floor of the bus. Eliza stepped forward, reaching helplessly for Steve's arm in an effort to stop him. His self-destructive tendencies might have seemed brave before, but now she was just terrified for him. 

"What are you doing?" She asked, tightening her grip when he tried to pull away from her. 

Steve sighed and offered her the lighter. 

"Just get ready." 

He wrenched from her grip a moment later and was already moving out of the bus before she had time to fully react. Eliza held the lighter tightly in her fist and quickly moved to the side of the bus to watch Steve through the window. 

She did not like this plan. Even if he had fought a Demogorgon before and even if Dart was only half the size of one of those, it was still dangerous. She didn't notice when Max moved down the ladder and into the bus with them. She did notice, however, when Lucas began yelling from the roof of the bus about another demodog approaching. She didn't waste any time in rushing to the handle to open the door. The kids surrounded her only seconds later, all of them calling for Steve to hurry. 

When he dove into the bus, Eliza was there to catch him and close the door. Steve held his legs against the door as the demodogs attempted to break through. She shifted and pushed a piece of metal towards him and helped him to set it against the door, creating another barrier between them and the beasts outside. 

For a brief moment, the teenagers relaxed, neither one really noticing that they were still clutched closely together. The closeness was safety, a net of something familiar and comforting. Steve was ripped away from her when they heard Max's scream. He raced over and pushed the younger girl out of the way, preparing to battle against the demodog on the roof, but before he could attack, another loud growl caught the creature's attention. 

The five of them watched in stunned silence as the demodog ran off, followed by the others that had only moments ago been surrounding them.

"Where are they going?" Eliza asked, turning to look up at Steve with a worried frown.