Chapter 34

026

• 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 •

─────✧･ﾟ: *✧･

☄. *. ⋆ “Go! Go! Go!” Nancy repeated, and everyone scrambled to leave. Stella felt arms around her, followed by her girlfriend’s panicked voice. “Jesus, Ess!”

The contact made Stella turn, legs done with their final push of strength. They barely held her up anymore as she leaned against Max. Arms slipped under Stella’s earning an unintended cry out when her shoulders fought against the movement.

The blurs of different colors ran by Stella, and the only thing she truly processed was everyone shouting as they all hurried out.

The next thing she knew, Stella was being practically carried into the trunk of the car. Max slipped in beside her while El’s pained wailing struck through her skull. She tried not to shout herself, pain intense in both of her shoulder blades. The only thing she could think of after ensuring Max’s presence was ridding herself of the stiff agony up her arms.

“Holy shit, Stella!” Mike exclaimed incredulously as Nancy started away from the cabin.

“Arms,” was all she could manage, thinking herself she sounded rather ridiculous.

“What?” Max leaned in a bit. El’s cries calmed, clearly being restrained rather than actually any better

“Shoulders,” if she let out any more words, she’d be roaring them. “Need to– pop them. Back in place.”

Max’s eyes strayed to where the girl spoke of, face dropping further when she noticed the protruding joint of Stella’s shoulder on either side. She heard Mike curse again, but paid no mind and simply gave Max a look. “Hurry– please,” she told her, voice a whine now.

Max uncertainly put two hands on Stella’s left shoulder, one on the front and on the back. She gave Stella an uncertain glance.

“Now! Go!”

A sharp pain jolted up from Stella’s shoulder barely after the words left her mouth, replaced with simply a dull ache and more relief than pain there. Still, her friends all winced around her. “Other… other side.”

Max shifted to Stella’s right, same hand positions taking place with more confidence this time. There was no warning this time, and Stella didn’t want one. “God!” The same pain surged for the same amount of time, lightning jolting through her every nerve. She sighed once she managed to release her breath. With shaky pants, she let herself lean until she fell into Max’s arms.

Tires screeched as the car turned, rocking them to the side of the trunk. She attempted to put her arms up first, but ended up slamming against the back of the car seats anyway.

“Shit, you okay?” Max asked, getting a nod from Stella while Nancy gave an apology from the driver’s seat.

“S’fine.” Stella tried to blink away the headache, looking up and finding that they had arrived already. She heard doors open and tried not to lag behind while Nancy tossed a rock through the glass door, watching it shatter.

Nancy instructed Stella and El to be sat down once they had managed their ways inside. Stella already winced at the sight of the rubbing alcohol. Sitting back down brought her at least some relief.

Nancy rolled up El’s pant leg enough to reveal the slit torn up her shin. Stella’s jaw grew taut, face pulling into a grimace as various groans sounded from the others.

Max nervously glanced up at Stella, worried to reveal hers as well. Stella’s head shook a bit when Nancy reached for her sock. “I can stitch myself up, you guys should focus on–“

She was stopped on her way to stand, and firm hand grasping hers. “Are you insane? Sit back down, Ess.” It was enough to bring Stella back to the floor, lips pursed and brows furrowed.

The fabric of Stella’s sock peeled off of her flesh, a shaky grunt leaving her with eyes screwed shut. The burning sensation rang through her leg while the sock rolled down, sticky with blood.

Just above her already-bandaged ankle which she was seriously considering to be broken, a gash ran in a line, almost half of a circle around her leg. “Shit,” she muttered along her friends voices.

Nancy started to open something, catching Stella’s attention. “Hold on– Nance.”

“What– woah, hey. What are you doing?” Stella’s concern grabbed Max’s attention. Nancy froze. “I’m cleaning the wound,” she stated obviously. Max and Stella both shook their heads, Max being the only one who could bear to speak anymore. “No, first we need to stop the bleeding, then clean, then disinfect, then bandage,” she listed. After a glance around at the others, Max added on. “I skateboard, trust me.”

Sudden contact on Stella’s leg made her wince, shut eyes opening to see Max with a cloth held down. One rested similarly on El’s. “Mike, hold this. Keep the pressure on it nice and firm, okay?”

Mike complied, and Max looked up to Nancy and Jonathan. “We’re gonna need water, soap.” The two hurried off after small sounds of acknowledgement. Clattering behind Max made all three girls look over.

“Does any of this help?” Lucas asked, bag upside down and belongings scattered amongst the floor. Stella’s eyes scanned over them, concluding to a no that she didn’t care enough to say. She knew Max would tell him anyway. “No. Go get me a washcloth and a bowl.”

“A bowl?”

“Lucas!”

After a light hit from Will beside him, Lucas agreed and started to rush off. Max turned back to Stella, placing a hand on her shoulder. Stella grounded herself with the touch, pain beginning to numb. “Remind me to bring Zoey next time.”

Max took a moment to register what exactly she was talking about, then let a laugh escape.

“Who… is Zoey?” Eleven asked, the same dulling of the pain seeming to start its process on her. Stella grinned. “The most tride-and-true sidekick I’ve ever had.”

“A knife,” Mike and Max elaborated simultaneously.

“And my bow-and-arrow!” Stella’s brows shot up. “God, I miss that thing.”

Max smiled before her head turned, “I’m gonna see what those two idiots are doing.” She started to stand, Stella sitting up to join. “Hey, hey, Ess, what are you doing?”

“I’m coming with you,” Stella shrugged as if it were the most normal thing in the world. Max looked at her like she was crazy, which she probably was. “No, you need to stay here, we told you.”

“Cali, I can come! It doesn’t hurt that bad, I swear. I’m not some liability,” her voice weakened, and Max frowned. “I didn’t say that.”

“Please.”

Max bit her cheek, scanning Stella’s face before sighing, “I’ll be right back.” She turned and headed off, leaving Stella softly groaning in frustration as she dropped her head against the knee of her good leg.

It took her a moment, but she looked back up in the direction of where her girlfriend had walked off.

“You’re not staying here, are you?” Mike’s question sounded more like a statement, and an obvious one at that. Stella’s eyebrows narrowed, her head shaking a bit, “Duh.”

Mike sighed, El watching with concern as Stella pushed herself to her feet. “Stella, Max said–“

“I can handle just fine,” Stella cut El off, “I got it.”

Definitely broken, she thought again once the pain shot up from her ankle.

“You wanna kill that thing with fireworks?” Stella found her girlfriend’s voice, limping towards it as she dragged her leg behind her.

“You got a better idea?” Lucas could be heard, Max’s obvious tone shooting back, “Yeah. Eleven.” Stella felt a small ache in her chest when she wasn’t included.

“Her and Stella against that thing?” Lucas questioned.

“I didn’t say Ess. She hasn’t done this before like El has.”

“Are you kidding me? Did you not see what she did to that thing at Hopper’s cabin?”

“I don’t wanna put her in danger that she hasn’t faced before. It isn’t as safe as it is for El.”

“So you’re saying you wanna just have more superpowers on our side and not use them?”

“No–“

“Even with Stella,” Lucas got back to his point, “they’re gonna need some backup.”

“I don’t need backup,” Stella finally decided to speak up, aisles away from her friends. Max whipped around to look at the girl, “I told you to stay there,” she sighed. Stella shrugged, “I told you I was fine!”

Max looked back at Lucas while he handed Will fireworks, scoffed, then moved to lead Stella as the brunette insist ed she could walk on her own.

–

☄. *. ⋆ Stella wasn’t too sure how she was supposed to do this.

She had done it earlier. Closed her eyes, thought of Ozzy, and showed up there. But it didn’t seem so simple now.

I let you in. That’s what Ozzy had told her. Maybe that was why she couldn’t get in. How she got in last time.

The hiss-pop of a soda can snapped Stella out of the dark, although she was pretty sure it wasn’t working. She kept trying to focus anyway once she registered what the sound was.

“How do you even drink that?” Stella heard Mike, and Lucas whispered back, “Because it’s delicious.”

“What?”

Stella sighed, trying not to get too distracted or mad about the distraction. She did wonder what Lucas was drinking that caused such a scene, though.

“It’s like Carpenter’s The Thing. The original is a classic. No question about it. But the remake…” he slurped while Stella started to guess it was Coke. “Sweeter. Bolder. Better.”

Stella groaned, ripping the make-shift blindfold from her eyes. “You guys are making it so hard to focus!” She whispered, the girl next to her still searching the darkness for Dustin.

“Sorry,” Lucas muttered while Stella tried her best to stand on her own. Max rushed to help, and Stella got to her feet as fast as she could to prove she didn’t need it.

Will sat up, “Did you find anything?”

Stella gritted her teeth. “Didn’t see shit,” she threw the apron they used as a blindfold onto the floor as if it she were mad at it. Strangely, she kind of was. “I don’t think I can on my own.”

They all eyed her curiously. “Last time, Ozzy told me he let me in,” she leaned onto Max as much as she wanted to force herself to walk normally. “He had to have meant his head. I don’t think I can just travel the dark like El can,” she explained, going to sit against a grocery stand. “If she even is, because you two were babbling on about Coke,” she gestured to the can in Lucas’s hand.

“Yeah, because Lucas is insane,” Mike muttered. The boy in question narrowed his eyes, “So you prefer the original Thing?”

“What? No, I’m not talking about The Thing, I’m talking about New Coke.”

“It’s the same concept.”

“Actually, it’s not the same concept.”

“It tastes the same anyway,” Stella rolled her eyes, annoyed.

“No it doesn’t!” Mike and Lucas shouted now, simultaneously.

“Hey!”

They all turned to Eleven, blindfold yanked from her face.

“Sorry,” Mike apologized, Lucas echoing after. “Did you… find him?”

─────✧･ﾟ: *✧･

sorry this chapter is like two scenes 🫩 i haven’t had motivation to work on new chapters but i wanted to get a chapter of this out before it ended up being like a month with no update

ok ty for reading byebyeeee