BREAKING INTO THE POLICE STATION was easy enough. The officer at the front desk was too preoccupied with his playing cards and whatever news broadcast he was listening to on the radio to catch the three teenagers sneaking past him, and they were grateful for it. The weapons box was located in Hopper's office, which he had left unlocked when they departed from the station in haste earlier that day. On the way out, Nancy made sure to grab a fire extinguisher to put the fire out later.

        It was nearing midnight by the time the three of them returned to the Byers house, where they immediately got to work screwing the Christmas lightbulbs onto the netting. Jonathan took charge with nailing the bear trap into the floor in the hallway, as well as hammering nails to the baseball bat. Nancy added ammunition to her gun so that it was fully loaded, and Amara sharpened her crowbar and poured a stream of gasoline from the trap into the kitchen. Lastly, they opened the trap and added a yo-yo to it that they placed on Will's chair as a signal for when the Demogorgon was in the trap.

        Once they were ready, Jonathan grabbed two kitchen knives for himself and Nancy to inflict wounds that would lure the Demogorgon. Amara had agreed to stand guard in the event that the Demogorgon arrived immediately after detecting blood from another dimension, her newly polished crowbar raised in expectation.

        "Remember... " Jonathan went over the plan once more, ensuring that Nancy and Amara remembered everything.

        "Straight into Will's room," Nancy finished, "And – "

        "Don't step on the trap," Jonathan reminded them.

        "Wait for the yo-yo to move," Amara recited.

        "Then... " Jonathan flicked his lighter for effect. "All right. You ready?"

        "Ready."

        They both lifted their non-dominant hands and brought the knives against their skin. "On three," Jonathan said. "One... two... "

        Upon noticing the discomfort on Nancy's face, Jonathan stopped counting. "You don't have to do this – "

        "Jonathan, stop talking."

        "I'm just saying, you don't have to – "

        "Three," Nancy interrupted Jonathan and they both dragged the knives across the palms of their hands, wincing as blood bubbled to the surface of their skin.

        Nancy and Jonathan left a trail of blood on the living room carpet as they retreated to the couch to wrap each other's wounds. Amara remained standing with her crowbar lifted, but so far nothing had disturbed the silence. Jonathan finished wrapping Nancy's hand with gauze and now she was doing the same to him. As Amara peeked at them out of the corner of her eye, she noted how much they looked like a couple even if Nancy still had some feelings for Steve.

        The stillness was broken by a faint creak outside, and Nancy tensed. "Did you hear that?"

        "It's just the wind," Jonathan reassured her, noticing her fear. "Don't worry. My mom, she said the lights speak when it comes."

        Nancy raised her eyebrows in confusion. "Speak?"

        "Blink," Jonathan corrected himself. "Think of them as alarms."

        Nancy finished patching up Jonathan's injury, but they didn't let go of each other's hands. Amara once again felt like she was on the outside of their universe, like she could disappear from the room if they stared at each other for long enough. Someone banging on the door shattered the moment and all three of them flinched in shock. It didn't help matters when the person on the other side of the door revealed their identity.

        "Jonathan?" Steve Harrington hollered, still knocking on the door. "Are you there, man? It's... it's Steve! Listen, I just want to talk!"

        Nancy decided that it would be best for her to talk to Steve, and she opened the door a fraction so that he could only see her face. Steve was surprised to see her there but reminded himself that he had driven her away from him and it would make sense if she turned to Jonathan for support. But he still wanted to make it right.

        "Steve, listen to me," Nancy told him firmly. "You need to leave."

        "I'm not trying to start anything, okay?" Steve assured his girlfriend, under the impression that his earlier skirmish with Jonathan was the reason she was pushing him away, but it was frankly the last thing on her mind at the present moment.

        "I don't care about that. You need to leave," she repeated.

        "No, no, no. Listen, I messed up, okay? I messed... I messed up," Steve stammered, his face still bruised from Jonathan's fists. For the first time in their relationship, he was the vulnerable one. "Okay? Really. Please. I just want to make things right. Okay? Please. Please... "

        It was only then that Steve noticed that Nancy's hand was wrapped in gauze, and he momentarily forgot that she probably wanted nothing to do with him as he began fussing over her wound. Nancy attempted to convince her boyfriend that it was an accident, but Steve took her secrecy as an implication that Jonathan had hurt her. Despite Nancy's pleas for him to leave he forced his way through the door, stopping in his tracks to find Jonathan with an identical wound and a baseball bat with nails resting on the coffee table near him, and Amara standing several feet away loosely clutching a crowbar in her hands. His confusion increased tenfold.

        "What is... What the... "

        Jonathan strode over to Steve and seized a handful of his shirt. "You need to get out of here."

        "Whoa. What is all – "

        "Listen to me. I'm not asking you, I'm telling you, get out of here!"

        Steve was now panicking, straining to push Jonathan off of him. "What is that smell? Is that... is that gasoline?"

        Nancy had had enough, overwhelmed with fear for his safety as she acknowledged that the Demogorgon could be arriving anytime soon, and the last thing she wanted was for him to be killed even if his actions from before still stung. She picked up the gun, pointed it at Steve, and ordered, "Steve, get out!"

        "Wait. What? What is going on?" Steve exclaimed, processing the notion that Nancy Wheeler of all people had a gun and was pointing it at him, no less.

        "You have five seconds to get out of here," Nancy informed him. It pained her to shoot him but she would take that chance if it meant he would survive the wrath of the Demogorgon, the same monster that had kidnapped and murdered her best friend.

        Amara was no longer listening to them. As Nancy counted down and Steve continued to protest, a flicker of light in her peripheral vision caused her to turn around, and she realized that the Demogorgon was on its way. And Nancy was too preoccupied with trying to get Steve to go that she wasn't aware that the thing she was trying to save him from was arriving imminently. Jonathan had also caught sight of the lights and was trying and failing to gauge her attention.

        In the space of one second, Amara was reminded of how easy it was for her to become lost in thought. Her mind provided her with far more entertainment than the real world ever could because life was too realistic and boring and not built to suit the needs of people like her. Obviously, that was not the case now because she was preparing to battle a faceless monster from an alternate dimension, but the fact that remained was that words couldn't bring her back to the present moment when she was deep in thought; it always took Eurydice snapping her fingers or Robin lightly tapping her shoulder for her to return from the depths of her unique brain. Nancy wasn't lost in her own mind but rather too busy squabbling with Steve to process Jonathan's warnings, and Amara knew that Nancy needed the same physical signal to warn her of the peril they were in and she gently grasped her arm.

        Nancy finally unfixed her gaze from Steve and faced Amara, who wordlessly gestured at the flashing lights. She abruptly dropped the gun from Steve's face and Jonathan nabbed the bat from the table, all while Steve stood in bewilderment as the other three people in the room crept towards each other until they were back-to-back.

        "Where is it?" Nancy cried, brandishing her gun around.

        "Where is what? Whoa! Easy with that!"

        "I don't know," Jonathan replied, twisting around. "I don't see it."

        "It has to be here somewhere," Amara added, gripping her crowbar so tightly that her fingers whitened, suddenly wondering how on earth they were going to pull this off.

        "Where is what? Hello? Will someone please explain to me what the hell is going – "

        Steve's question was answered by pieces of the ceiling breaking off and tumbling to the floor, revealing a webby substance similar to the portal in the woods. Something was growling, a head was emerging, gunshots were ringing –

        Amara's fight or flight senses kicked in and she followed Jonathan and Nancy to Will's room, tugging Steve along with her. She had been able to catch a glimpse of the Demogorgon as it landed on the floor next to the window; it was just as she remembered, with broad shoulders and thin limbs and a petal-like mouth with hundreds of pointed teeth...

        "Jump!" she shouted to Steve as they neared the bear trap before vaulting over it herself. Steve was the last person to reach Will's room, slamming the door shut upon entry. Jonathan fished the lighter out of his pocket and Nancy ensured that the door was properly shut as the Demogorgon drew closer, hungry for prey.

        Steve was still hyperventilating, unable to believe that what he had seen was real. "Jesus! Jesus! What the hell was that? What the hell was that?"

        "Shut up!" Nancy and Jonathan yelled in sync. Steve complied and the four of them moved to stand next to each other, weapons raised and lighter ready. Every light source within the house was blinking rapidly, the presence of an interdimensional being compelling the electricity to surge. Amara could hear the Demogorgon snarling outside Will's room, but there was no movement from the yo-yo or loud clang that alerted them of its capture.

        "What's it doing?" Nancy questioned, bemused as to why the Demogorgon wasn't attempting to burst into the room when they provided an excellent meal.

        "I don't know," Jonathan replied.

        The lights stopped flickering at the same time that the Demogorgon stopped making any noise. "Do you hear anything?" Amara asked the others.

        Jonathan flicked the lighter shut. "No."

        They opened the door and cautiously stepped out with their weapons ready to attack. The Christmas lights had stopped blinking in the absence of the Demogorgon, and Amara wondered how far it had traveled if the lights couldn't signify its location in the Upside Down. Perhaps, she theorized, Hopper and Mrs. Byers are close by as well and it's confused about which prey to choose – she was yanked from her thoughts as Steve crashed into her, but he himself was too inattentive to question why she had stopped walking or even apologize for bumping into her.

        They returned to the living room, the lamps casting eerie shadows on the walls that could easily be mistaken for a bloodthirsty monster. As Nancy, Amara, and Jonathan scoured the room, waiting for the Demogorgon to inevitably return, Steve chose to cope with the whole situation by muttering to himself. His mumbling soon escalated into shouting and he bolted to the phone to dial 911. Cognizant that Hopper was unavailable and the police force wasn't equipped to handle the Demogorgon, Nancy wrenched the phone out of his grip and tossed it onto the floor before anyone could respond.

        Steve's eyes bulged in perplexity, distorting the injuries marring his face. "What are you – what are you doing? Are you insane?" he spluttered.

        "It's going to come back!" Nancy warned her boyfriend. "So you need to leave. Right now."

        Steve practically flew out the door, shutting it behind him rapidly. As if on cue, the lights started flickering wildly and the three remaining people in the room readied their weapons, standing back-to-back as they prepared to battle the Demogorgon from scratch. The air was thick with tension, straining Amara's lungs until she could barely breathe. For the first time, she acknowledged that a scenario where she or one of her companions didn't make it out alive existed.

        The lights unexpectedly shut off, flooding the room with darkness. Amara pivoted around just in time to witness the Demogorgon appear from behind – of course – and quickly moved out of the way. However, Jonathan wasn't so lucky: the Demogorgon pinned him to the ground before he had the chance to attack it. His bat clattered from his fingertips and out of his reach.

        "Jonathan!" Nancy cried.

        The Demogorgon was even more terrifying in the absence of light. It appeared to be back for good this time, widening its petal-like mouth as it prepared to feed. Nancy shot at it which caused it to recoil, freeing Jonathan from its hold.

        "Go to hell, you son of a bitch!" Nancy punctuated each word with a gunshot. The Demogorgon abandoned Jonathan and turned its full attention to her. The gun appeared to do little to the Demogorgon other than hinder its movement, and Nancy was running out of ammunition and time.

        Amara was no fighter. She was the easiest target for bullies to distract themselves from their own insecurities, the family member responsible for her parents and brother having to start a new life in Hawkins, the recluse so afraid of being ostracized again that she diminished her existence and cut herself off from potential friendships. The monster Amara was facing had abducted multiple townspeople and murdered all but one of them, but had also inadvertently led to her forming connections with people that she wouldn't have glanced at otherwise. She had always felt weighed down by her diagnosis because it made her different in a world that valued conformity, but most people didn't believe in supernatural beings and yet they still existed. Just as society had to overcome its aversion to the unknown, Amara had to face her fears, literally and metaphorically.

        Amara swung her crowbar at the Demogorgon, hooking the end around one of its slender arms. She pulled on the handle and moved backward, attempting to drag the Demogorgon in the direction of the trap. However, it used the momentum to swipe its free arm at Amara, its claw catching against her skin and leaving three jagged marks along her clavicle. A moan of agony tumbled from her lips and she dropped the crowbar, pressing her hand against the wound to stymie the flow of blood.

        Nancy fired her gun again before the Demogorgon could injure Amara additionally, even though she knew the effort was feeble. She quickly ran out of ammo but continued to back away alongside Amara, hoping at the very least that they could lure the Demogorgon to the trap. The scent of blood and gunpowder was stifling and the odds of any of them surviving were increasingly slim, but Amara knew it would be worth it if Joyce was able to rescue Will because of them.

        Steve suddenly emerged with Jonathan's fallen bat, striking the Demogorgon in the torso. He had been prepared to leave but the re-emergence of the monster and the possibility that any of them could be in danger had compelled him to stay and fight. Another hit and the Demogorgon stumbled backward. A further three swings of the bat and it backed into the trap, which closed around its foot.

        "He's in the trap!" Jonathan shouted above the sound of the Demogorgon struggling to break free. "He's stuck!"

        "Jonathan, now!" Amara exhorted, still covering her wound. Jonathan activated the lighter and threw it on the ground. It followed the trail of gasoline up until the bear trap, engulfing the Demogorgon in flames.

        "Get back!" Jonathan bellowed after a few moments of the Demogorgon screeching in agony, using the fire extinguisher to smother the flames. But when the smoke cleared, there was no sign of the monster anywhere. All that remained was the sealed trap and a gooey substance identical to the portals to the Upside Down.

        "Where'd it go?" Nancy broke the silence, asking the question they were all wondering.

        "No," Jonathan panted, leaning against the wall in exhaustion. "It has to be dead. It has to be."

        For a moment nobody spoke, but Nancy was reminded of how Amara had been injured by the Demogorgon. Glancing at the other girl in the room, Nancy saw that she was still shielding the marks with her hand, which was covered in dried blood. "Oh God, you're bleeding," she gasped, drawing everyone's attention to them.

        "Wait, what happened?" Steve questioned.

        "That thing – it got her," Nancy explained, carefully lifting Amara's hand to inspect the gashes left by the Demogorgon. "We have to clean it before it becomes infected."

        "Maybe we should call the hospital," Steve suggested casually.

        "And explain to them how I got this?" Amara shot back, raising her eyebrows. "Like they'd believe me if I told them an interdimensional beast did this to me."

        "Jonathan, get me some more gauze," Nancy instructed, and Jonathan nodded and rushed to the bathroom. Nancy guided Amara to the kitchen and sat her down before turning on the faucet and wetting a paper towel. Amara winced as Nancy gently brought the towel to her skin to clean the dried blood, but nevertheless allowed her to continue.

        As Nancy dabbed Amara's injuries and Jonathan returned with the gauze, Steve stood a few feet away from them, wondering how he could help. "Is there anything I can do?" he asked, his voice soft.

        "Just make sure that thing doesn't come back," Nancy told him, not looking away from her task. She finished cleaning the lacerations before reaching for the gauze Jonathan was holding. "Thanks, by the way. For saving me," she told Amara sincerely.

        "I didn't save you," Amara pointed out, smirking. "Steve did."

        Nancy ducked her head, her cheeks dusting a light shade of coral. "Okay, let's say that you both did," she chuckled softly. As she finished patching up the first injury and started on the second, Amara didn't miss the way that Jonathan lowered his gaze to the floor sadly as he watched Nancy slip through his fingers. Maybe if Steve hadn't begged for Nancy's forgiveness Jonathan would have had a chance with her, but Steve protecting her from harm had demonstrated more than words ever could. Steve was by no means perfect, but he appeared to be willing to become a better person if it meant that he could hold onto the first girl he had ever felt something for.

        Nancy completed tending to Amara's wounds, but Amara rose from the chair before Nancy could offer her hand in support. "You're acting like you weren't just mauled by a monster," she noted, arching her eyebrows in amazement.

        "Some pain hurts more than physical pain," Amara replied, thinking back to all the times she had been bullied and excluded simply because of who she was.

        "Uhh, guys?" Steve piped up, glancing at the ceiling. "I think the monster's back again."

        Amara, Jonathan, and Nancy followed Steve's line of sight and gasped. The lights were flashing again, but nowhere near as frantically as the previous two times. This time one light blinked before the next one followed, as if something was traveling within them. Even so, the group equipped their weapons once more, Amara avoiding the pointed glare Nancy gave her after picking up her crowbar.

        The lights suddenly veered in the opposite direction, and the four of them pursued the blinking into the kitchen. Jonathan stopped moving, realizing that no monster could make the lights blink so delicately and beautifully. "Mom. Is that you?" He whispered into thin air.

        The lights ceased their blinking and the group stepped out onto the porch, witnessing one of the streetlights flickering. "Where's it going?" Nancy queried.

        "I don't think that's the monster," Jonathan responded.

        Steve finally lowered the bat from his shoulder, dropping it onto the wooden floorboards. "So, what do we do now?"

        "We wait, I guess," Amara murmured, brushing a flyaway strand of burnt sienna from her face and tucking it behind her ear.

        And so they waited. After five minutes Jonathan and Nancy decided it would be a good idea to clean up the mess they had made so they got to work disassembling the bear trap and mopping up the blood-stained rug. As Amara and Steve were taking down the Christmas lights in the kitchen, Steve was reminded of something from earlier that day.

        "Hey," he spoke, and Amara paused removing the lights from above the kitchen counter. "I have something of yours," he continued. Amara's forehead creased in confusion but she hopped down from the counter to join him. Steve reached into the pocket of his jeans and extracted a folded piece of paper. Amara unraveled it, her eyes widening as she deciphered her drawing of the Upside Down.

        "Oh my God, I was wondering where this went," Amara mumbled to herself and Steve. "I mean, I don't really need it now, but thanks," she told him, but his gaze was now directed at the living room, where Nancy and Jonathan were removing the paint from the wall.

        "I feel like I don't deserve her," Steve whispered, stopping cleaning completely as he observed the two of them. "I fucked up so badly, so it would make sense that she's moved on to him."

        "It's not really any of my business, but I'd say you still have a chance after what you did tonight," Amara assured him, hoping Jonathan wouldn't hate her for helping Steve win back the girl they both liked. "If she wasn't going to forgive you when you first got here, you're probably halfway there now." She patted his arm and joined Jonathan and Nancy by the living room wall, whispering something in the latter's ear before taking her place as Nancy walked over to help Steve take down the rest of the Christmas lights. Steve shot Amara a genuine smile when neither Nancy nor Jonathan was paying attention, an action she mirrored.

        It wasn't until after one in the morning that the phone rang. Jonathan rushed over to respond to it, hope for his brother's safety radiating off of his skin in waves of energy. After about thirty seconds of him responding "He's alive?!" and "Where are you guys now?" he hung up the phone and beamed authentically for the first time since Will's disappearance a week ago.

        "He's at the hospital now," Jonathan informed them, snatching his car keys from the table and striding to the front door. "I can drive us all there. I'm sure everyone else is there already."

        "I don't think I can go," Amara spoke up as they made their way onto the porch, and Steve, Jonathan, and Nancy looked at her in perplexity. "I told my parents I was at a friend's last night but I haven't come home since then," she elaborated.

        "So where will you be going?" Nancy questioned, opening the passenger door of Jonathan's Ford LTD.

        "I might have an idea," Amara answered, remaining on the porch as everyone else prepared to leave.

        "Do you need a ride?" Steve poked his head out the window, almost giving the game away by attempting to peek at Nancy. He caught himself just in time though.

        "It's okay, I left my bike here last night," Amara responded, retrieving said bike from where she had hidden it underneath the porch. "I'm okay, but thanks."

        They said their final goodbyes and backed out of the driveway. Amara waited until they were out of sight before mounting her bike and pedaling off, safe in the knowledge that the Demogorgon was gone and couldn't take her.

        Her parents, while unaware of her exact location, believed her to have stayed with Robin for an extra night and had simply forgotten to inform them, even if it was unlike her not to remember something that important. Her brother knew why she wasn't home but didn't know where she was or if she was even still alive. Her best friend understood that she had been acting strangely all week and had promised to explain everything one day but wasn't aware that she was still awake and had just fought an interdimensional monster.

        And so as Will's friends and family celebrated his miraculous return and Nancy lamented that Barb hadn't been lucky enough to survive as well, Amara dismounted her bike upon reaching the house where the one person who knew her well enough to believe her lived.

published to quotev: 6/8/22
published to wattpad: 7/1/24