Risky Business ｡ Stranger Things

47 : Back to the Future

The Starcourt Mall was still aglow in the darkness, the neon light bleeding into the shadows like ink. The vacant mall was eerie, so giant and empty, like a modern cathedral bathed in technicolour and false gods. Shop windows were dark, all the stores shut up tight for the night. The party dashed across the polished floor of the second level while also trying to be stealthy.

"I'm not seeing anyone," Lucas whispered out coarsely, brown eyes sweeping the area.

"They have to be here somewhere," Nancy replied, looking to Jonathan, concern was contorting her pretty feature yet there was a dedication there too. Dedication was always rooted in Nancy Wheeler's blood, always under her porcelain skin.

Eleven's head flipped around sharply and she strode towards the railing. "They are down there," she stated, her movements calculated and powerful. Down below, men dressed in black with loaded guns were stalking towards the counter of Great Cookie. Prue stepped up to the railing, soaking in the scene below; her pulse was drumming loudly. Steve Harrington was down there, trying to stay alive as soldiers were closing in. Eleven lifted her hand, her gaze hard, protective. In the next moment, the display car below them started to wail, the horn honking as the vehicle started to shiver. The men turned at attention, boots squeaking out as they aimed their guns towards the car that was freaking out. A muscle in El's jaw tightened as her fingers tensed and the car propelled through the air with incredible and impossible speed, crashing towards men like they were pins at a bowling alley, knocking them all down. The car smacked into another food outlet, skewed with twisted metal and smashed glass. There was a long moment of silence, anticipation for something to give, but the coast was clear for now, and Dustin's head popped up, finding his friends up on the second level.

Prue spied Steve's brown sweep of hair and her heart launched. "Steve," she breathed out, turning on her heels. The party were in her wake as they dashed for their friends, taking the dormant escalator. 

"You flung that thing like a Hot Wheel!" Dustin exclaimed, jogging to Eleven, who was being half-carried by Mike. Prue went straight to Steve; the sight of him was such a pure and sweet relief. She pulled the tall boy into a bear hug, and even though he grimaced at the pain that shot through his sore body, he wrapped his arms around Prue too.

"God, you look terrible!" Steve said as Prue finally stepped back. She knew she must have looked a mess; sweat and monster blood-soaked skin and bruised knees and strangle marks on her throat.

Prue laughed, taking in the black eye decorated with blood and the busted lip, red and swollen. "You should see yourself," she replied.

Steve shrugged. "Yeah, I feel pretty terrible." Beside Steve was Robin Buckley, her dark eye-makeup was smudged but she still managed to pull it off. And on the other side of the edgy girl was another girl with a familiar face. It was a face that had once been poised and dolce in the back of a small bookshop. Yet now all of that had ebbed away, revealing her iron bones and survivor's blood, her final girl heart. She was the rare type of girl that could wear blood like glitter and fear like perfume. 

"Jesse?" Prue questioned, blinking hard at Jesse Fontana. "What are you doing here?"

"It's kind of a long story," she admitted in her peach sweet voice. Jesse was dressed in a Jane Fonda workout assemble: pink leotard, white tights and cream legwarmers scrunched low over her dirty Reebok sneakers. While Steve and Robin looked drained, Jesse was alert and bright-eyed, even with the dark bruise that consumed one cheek.

"Are you okay?" Prue asked, eyes not moving from the whelping bruise on the side of the girl's face; it looked terribly painful.

Jesse Fontana had unexpectedly become entangled in the darkness and the strangeness of Hawkins, but she took it all in her stride, almost relishing in the familiarity of it all. And her smile was sublime despite all the darkness and the strangeness. "Yeah. This isn't my first rodeo," she offered up. The whole group of Hawkins's teenagers were clueing in each other, including the Russian threat that had invaded the town and how Eleven had superpowers and how Robin had cracked a top-secret code (which had ignited Prue's curiosity like wildfire) and a few quick introductions. But the sweet relief over being reunited vanished as Eleven hit the ground, her legs giving out as a pain seared through her blood.