Below and Beneath -Jim Hopper-

008

Hopper's POV

I couldn't believe I was about to cut open this stranger's arm and  rip out some little demon out of her. Fuck off to anyone who has said I'm not a nice person. God damn, it's been a hell of a day already.

I rolled up my sleeves, going into the kitchen to wash my hands, but also try and give myself a mental pep talk for a moment. I stood at the sink to try and take a breather, and forced myself to go back out there. Mike stood a little bit away from where she sat on the couch. He looked just as terrified as she did. I didn't really want the kid to see this.

"Uh, Mike, why don't you go check on Will?" I said to him as I walked back into the living room.

He frowned at me. "But Ms. Byers said to help?" 

I just gave him a look, hoping he would catch what I'm saying. After a moment he sighed and walked away. I don't think I would be needing him anyway. I was going to try and make this as simple as possible. 

I let out another long sigh as I got closer to the couch. I was trying not to make eye contact with her, but I definitely failed. She was silently crying, curled up close to the arm of the couch, holding her arm. She was looking right at me as I stared at her. I felt like I was looking at her for ages as I tried to figure something out to say to put her at ease. I think we were both past that.

"You know," I said, sitting down beside her on the couch. "I wouldn't do this if I absolutely had to. I don't want to cut into your arm as much as you don't want me to."

She nodded, sniffling a little bit as she tried to quickly wipe her tears away.

"I'm going to make this as quick and easy as possible, alright?" I said, meeting her eyes again. She nodded again. "Alright. Lay on your back."

I stood up so she could lay down. As she did, I walked over to a desk where there was a cup of pens and pencils, I grabbed one, handing it to her. "Bite down on that." I instructed her.

She took it, placing it in her mouth, biting down. I got down on my knees beside where she laid, taking the knife and pouring some of the rubbing alcohol on it. She started to slowly cry a little louder as I slowly brought the knife closer. As I was staring as her wound, seeing the small bulge where the creature was, holding the knife an inch away I almost couldn't bring myself to do it.

"This is fucking crazy." I said to myself under my breath. I glanced at her, tears rolling down her cheeks as she squeezed her eyes shut. She was terrified. So, I grabbed her hand, guiding it to my other shoulder, and she immediately gripped it tightly. "Here we go."

I bit my inner cheek as I forced myself to bring the knife to her wound, making as incision branching off where the original cut was. She started screaming automatically, ringing in my ears as her grip tightened on my shoulder, her screams were slightly muffled by the pencil. I had to ignore it though and continued to cut. It felt like it took hours, but I soon got to where the creature was at, cutting right beside where it was. It didn't seem to be very happy about that because she started to scream even louder once I was close to it. She also started to squirm, trying to push me away.

"Stop it! I can't take it, it burns!" She screamed under her tears.

I stopped, throwing the knife down. Blood was starting to run down her arm as a very fast pace. I grabbed one of the rags and held it to her arm.

"Victoria, listen to me, you have to sit still, I'm almost done." I said, getting a little frustrated with her. She wasn't listening to me. She continued to flail her arms around, trying to get away from me. "God fucking dammit, Victoria!" I said. She was losing too much blood and I needed to get it out of her now. "Joyce get in here-" I yelled, but when I looked over I see her and Bob already standing in the doorway, there faces mortified. "Get the hell over here, hold her down."

Joyce ran over right away, Bob hesitated. I wasn't even paying attention to the fact he had no clue what was going on. Didn't really mean shit right now anyway. But, Joyce squatted down beside her, holding her down my her shoulder, talking to her, trying to calm her down while Bob was behind the couch holding her other arm down. This made her sit still well enough.

I took a deep breath, throwing the towel off of her arm that I was holding on it to help the bleeding. It helped clear it a little bit, but it was quickly becoming a problem again. I took no more time and went in. She screamed more loudly once again as I only took two fingers into the incision, finding the creature as soon as I did. The only problem I ran into was that it was hanging onto her. The sucker did not want to let go. I tugged at it, and with one last pull I ripped it off of her, taking it out of her arm.

Her screams quieted down as soon as it was out of her arm, but she still was crying of course. I just had to cut one of her wounds and I know for a fact that didn't feel good. But, I am guessing that took care of the burning she was talking about.

Once I had the thing in my hand I ran straight to the kitchen, rummaging through the cabinets to find something to put it in. I found a mason jar, throwing it in and putting a lid on it. It was making small hissing noises from the jar. It looked like a really large worm, it was hard to get a good look at it since it was covered in blood.

I sat the jar down, rushing back to the living room to take care of Victoria. She was losing way too much blood. When I walked in Joyce was at her side, holding another rag to her arm. I looked at Victoria who was softly crying, her eyes shutting.

"No, no, no." I said, going over to her, lightly shaking her. "Stay awake, Victoria-"

"Hopper, she is going to pass out, we need to take her to the hospital. This need stitches." Joyce panicked.

"I know, but how are we going to explain-" I was about to snap at her.

"That doesn't matter right now!" She screamed. "She is going to die, Jim." She said more stern.

Right then someone started talking on my walkie. I picked it out of my belt, holding it so I could hear it.

"Kind of busy right now, Powell." I snapped, about to put it back in my belt.

"Hop, it's that girl again." He said before I put it away.

I froze, knowing it was Ell again. I had to go attend to that right now. I looked at Joyce, she had a blank expression. I think she assumed what that meant. I just grabbed my coat, heading to the door.

"You and Bob take her to the hospital, I will meet you there. Tell them she was in an accident or something." I said quickly, walking out the door before anyone could ask any questions.

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Sorry I've been inactive. I'm looking forward to focusing on developing Hopper and Victoria's relationship after this, I just had to get the whole meeting over with without rushing. Hope ya'll are having a good weekend :)