better by myself - steve harrington AU

chapter 4 - the bat (with the nails)

Half an hour ago, I was blissfully unaware of the demonic underground of Hawkings. Unaware of the fact that there was an evil alternate reality mingling and mixing with our very own. Some parts were blurry, when the duo spoke at the same time in urgency, but I now knew the gist of everything my brother had been up to a year ago. I almost wish I didn't.

"So you're saying... you two were fighting otherworldly demons together a year ago?" I barely believed the words as they were coming out of my mouth.

"No. Well. Not together." Dustin clarified.

"Yeah, I kicked that thing's ass last year. Dustin wasn't even there." Steve boasted. Dustin hit his arm with the back of his hand. "What I mean is, I'll just do the same thing now. I'll go in there and take a few swings at it and this will be over."

That comment confirmed all of my thoughts about how highly Steve thought of himself. "And where's this girl with superpowers?"

"Well, that's the thing. She disappeared last year. We don't know where she is." Dustin admitted.

I scoffed. "How convenient."

"She's real." Dustin persisted. "Besides, we don't even know for sure that Dart is a demogorgon. I'm still researching and-"

"That thing in there-" Steve interjected, gesturing towards Dustin's room. "That sure as hell looks like the thing I saw last year."

Dustin looked disappointed, like he was still holding on to hope that his pet wasn't evil but his hope was faltering.

"So... what do we do?" I asked. I was starting to accept the fact that I was a part of this challenge now, if not for anything else then just to protect my little brother. He was too fond of that monster, and I was afraid it would get him into trouble.

"We need to get him out of the house. And we need to get ahold of the party."

"Okay." I said, thinking everything through. "The storm cellar?"

"That might work." Dustin said, also in deep thought.

"Okay so, Steve and I will get him out there.. somehow - and you will get in contact with your friends." I said in an authoritative way. I wasn't thrilled about having to do it with Steve of all people, but I was less thrilled about my brother being in danger.

"What? No! I can help getting Dart out of the house." Dustin objected, loud enough for both me and Steve to hush him.

"What about your mom? How are we gonna do this without her noticing?" Steve said, ignoring Dustin's interjection. I took it as a sign that he agreed with me to not put Dustin in harms way. I made a note of it in my mental tally of Steve being good vs an asshole.

"I can get her to her bedroom, she sleeps like a log, she won't wake up." I offered. It was true, when me and Dustin were kids we'd have to wake her up when we had to go to school, instead of the other way around.

"Okay, good. We'll stay here in the meantime."

I nodded and got up from the bed, glancing back at them before I opened the door. "Don't snoop around in here."

Dustin rolled his eyes and Steve acted as if he were offended I'd even suggested it. I gave them both a piercing glare before I left the room.

My mother was still sleeping as soundly as before, she looked so peaceful. It broke my heart to think about having to tell her that Mews was gone. I didn't think I could do it.

Getting her to bed was easy, and she fell right back asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. This was the first time I could remember being thankful for what a deep sleeper she was. I made sure to close her door before heading back into my room.

"What did I tell you dumbasses?" I exclaimed as I saw the duo sitting on my bed and flipping through one of my photo albums.

"This one," Steve began, pointing at one of the photos, "this one is incredible." It was a picture I had taken on Christmas morning the previous year. Dustin's hair looked crazy and he had a big smile stretching from ear to ear. It was hard to believe that little boy had been off fighting demons and I hadn't had any idea.

"Bet you would've gotten into college if you had submitted that one." Steve said in a jokingly manner, but I didn't find it funny. I couldn't believe Dustin had told him about photography school. I groaned and took the photo album away from them, placing it back where it belonged.

"Can we please get this thing over with now?" I pleaded, prompting them to get up off my bed. "Go and call around, one of your friends has to be home." I ordered Dustin, I could tell he wanted to object but ultimately he did as he was told.

I made my way to the fridge, picking out the new packet of bologna my mom had just bought. I figured if that creature could eat a cat, it could eat bologna. Opening the packet, I picked out half of the stack to give to Steve, and kept the rest for myself. He took it and immediately went back into the hallway to start laying out the slices on the floor. I went outside to the storm cellar and started there, laying the slices out in a path so that me and Steve eventually met in the middle.

"Do you think this will work?" I asked, suddenly becoming very aware of the many ways this could go wrong.

Steve shrugged. "I mean... yeah."

"That's not very reassuring." I huffed, pushing past him to get back inside the house.

"No one's home." Dustin said as I entered the door.

"No one? Where are they?"

"I don't know! Whatever it is I clearly wasn't invited." He said sarcastically, but I could pick up a hint of hurt in his voice.

"Look, we don't need them. Let's just get that creature down into the storm cellar and we'll figure something out from there." I put my hand on his shoulder as to comfort him, but he just shrugged it off.

"Do you still have your bat, Steve?" He peered his head to the side of me, where Steve stood a few feet back.

"What bat?" Steve answered, cluelessly.

"What bat?! The one with the nails." Dustin answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world. I felt as clueless as Steve.

"Oh, right." He muttered simply, heading out the door again to get the bat from his car, I assumed.

"The bat with the nails." I said to myself, under my breath. For some reason the reality of it all started to hit. "I have to be going insane. This can't be real life."

"I'm sorry I dragged you into this." Dustin said sheepishly. He looked genuinely sorry.

"It's not your fault a demon creature ate our cat." I said. "Well, actually, it is a little bit." I added, letting out a weary chuckle.

"I know it's my fault. I didn't want to tell you but Steve insisted, I understand if you're upset." Dustin turned his head away as if he was scared to see how I would react. I had never heard my brother apologise so sincerely before, yet I didn't feel like this was a situation where he had to apologise. Instead of answering, I simply stepped forward and held him in an embrace. He was nearly as tall as me and I remembered only a few years back when he could barely reach up to my waist.

He returned my hug and I rubbed his back soothingly. "This is going to be over soon." I mumbled, trying to convince myself of the words as they came out of my mouth. That made him squeeze me tighter. We were both aware that it was probably only the beginning.