Risky Business ｡ Stranger Things

48 : Godzilla

The pink neon light was still burning, still glowing and it made everything saturated in bliss. And the longer Prue Owens sat drenched in that colour heavy light, the eerier it became, transforming what it should have been, what the night should have been, into something that was upside down. The strangeness wasn't strange, but mundane. The horror wasn't horror, but holy. The boy contaminated by a monster wasn't a boy, but a soldier of shadows. He wasn't a broken boy, but a broken god. But even boys-turned-gods could bleed, could fall.

Prue was still sitting by herself, hooded eyes shifting from Murray explaining his extensive and paranoid security measures to Nancy and Jonathan to Hopper chatting tenderly with Eleven to Joyce and Will embracing each other. She dropped her gaze, soaked in soft neon light, wondering about her own mother and father, wondering if they were safe. She desperately craved her mother's arms around her, comforting. And she wished her father was here to reassure her that everything was going to be okay. That everything was going to be fine, that dawn would come and dilute the neon light. Yet by the end of the night, before dawn could chase away any and all garish light, Prue would learn to fucking hate neon light. For it would be, forevermore, a stark reminder that soft light could be just as terrifying and endless as the dark.

"We should go," Mike called out, eager to get on the road, to get El to safety. Hopper nodded reluctantly before wrapping his thick arms around his daughter. He let her go a heartbeat later, his moustache bending with a sombre smile. Nancy was jiggling Murray's keys in her hand, striding with purpose as the party moved out. Prue followed behind, her bones sore and groaning: her body wanted rest more than anything else.

"Hey, kid!" Hopper hollered out, raising to his full height. Prue paused, tossing a look over her shoulder at the Chief of Police wearing a pink and green patterned shirt. "I spoke to your dad. He's bringing back up," Hopper informed her.

Prue nodded slowly with relief. "Good."

"Not sure if he'll get here in time..." He let the sentence drop off, rubbing a hand across his jaw. Hopper inhaled deeply, eyes finding Prue amongst the neon glow. "Look out for each other, okay?" he went on, meaning Team Griswold Family. "I wasn't joking when I said I have enough rebellious teens to worry about."

A weak smile lifted Prue's lips. It felt wrong to smile when the world was on the brink of ending, and a part of it would end tonight. "Copy that, Chief," she replied, nodding her chin with gathered conviction. She turned around as Joyce popped up beside Hopper, ready to head under the earth, head into danger fearlessly for her children.

The air outside the mall was no cooler and the heat seemed to hang low like fog. Mike and Max were still carrying Eleven and her leg was started to weep blood again. Prue pulled open the back of the station wagon before stepping aside for Mike to help El lay down flat. She dragged the flat of her hand across her forehead dotted with fresh sweat as Prue looked to Nancy yanking open the driver's door.

"Do you know how to get there?" Prue asked, meaning Murray's place.

"Yeah. We've been there once before," Nancy answered, looking across the roof of the car to Jonathan, and the memory of one night flickered between them like the flame of a candle. A night that everything came together for Nancy and Jonathan. Once Eleven was tucked up in the back with her leg stretched out, choking back whimpers, Prue squeezed into the backseat, her knees pressed against Max's grazed ones and Will's knobby ones.

Prue swivelled around, trying to reach her seatbelt. "Don't forget to buckle up," she told the younger teens.

Max rolled her eyes and Lucas scoffed. "You're seriously thinking about seatbelts right now? Seriously?" he exclaimed, throwing up his hands dramatically while Nancy twisted the key in the ignition but the engine didn't stir awake, only spluttered out bleak sounds. She tried again, throwing a nervous glance at Jonathan in the passenger seat.