Chapter 35

027

• 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞 •

─────✧･ﾟ: *✧･

☄. *. ⋆ The air conditioner in the mall made Stella shiver when it hit her upon the opening of the door.

They could only hear their footsteps, the heavier thud of a shoe by Stella’s only good foot sticking out among the rest. She tried her best to stifle her grunts, to put weight on the other leg for the sake of evening out the sound, but it wasn’t so easy, even with Max holding most of her weight.

Her head perked up when she heard a voice, one that she didn’t recognize. “Shh.” Everyone stilled, looking to Stella.

“Listen.”

“It’s that way,” she whispered, turning on her one foot as best as she could while the other ate away at her leg. The pain traveled throughout the entirety of her body, and she felt a headache coming on.

Slowly, the group made their way towards the balcony of the mall, Stella’s eyes catching onto a familiar head of hair, a hat and a couple of others. They sat behind a counter, hiding from the view of a group of intimidating men in all black with guns in hand.

One of the men spoke more… something into a walkie as he continued to creep around.

The man turned just a degree, but it was enough. Stella could see his gaze hook on the same group hers did, although it must have been far more difficult to spot than it was for her.

Stella’s heart started to sink as he reached for the walkie, panic bubbling in her chest. She shut her eyes, hands warming with frustrating struggle.

“Don’t.”

She opened her eyes to see El staring back at her, determined.

The men with their guns stalked closer until they were all grouped together, and that’s when Eleven closed her eyes.

Honking startled her, and Stella stopped her own yelp the moment it tried to escape. Looking back over the balcony, she spotted the red display car shaking while its lights and alarms went crazy. She started to smile, fear fizzling out.

The men’s eyes all drifted up, landing on Eleven with one arm out and a line of blood down her nose.

The car launched towards them, and they were gone with a crash.

From behind the counter, four heads rose.

Steve (in visibly terrible condition), Dustin, and… Robin? And… Erica Sinclair was there too?

They watched the lid of a pot land, then the car smoking, then finally, the others standing on the balcony.

Stella was the first to break into movement, nearly charging out of Max’s arms.

Hopping on one leg down each step, Stella was still one of the first down the motionless escalator. “Steve!” She jumped into him, the wrap of both Harrington’s arms getting a sigh of relief from each of them. Steve was quick to pull back, “What happened to you?” He glanced down at the two bloody bandages around her ankle.

“What happened to you!?” She squinted at his swollen black eye. “And why are Robin and Lucas’s little sister here?”

“Yeah, what are you doing here?” Lucas asked his sister, who pointed to the two in the Scoops Ahoy uniforms, “Ask them, it’s their fault.”

“True, yeah. Totally true, it’s absolutely our fault.”

“What?“

“I don’t understand what happened to that car,” Robin glanced behind her while Max helped Stella back to where they were standing.

“El has superpowers,” Dustin explained simply, then turned his finger from Eleven to Stella. “Stella does too, but different ones.”

Robin blinked. “I’m sorry?”

“Superpowers,” Steve repeated. “El threw it with her mind, and Stella can shoot fire and shit.”

“She can what?” Robin’s eyes blew wider.

“That’s El?” Erica asked like she was meeting a celebrity.

“Who’s El?” Robin’s confusion was really making Stella wonder just how little she knew. She had to know something if she was here. Erica clearly did.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” Nancy asked, and Robin was quick to respond. “I’m Robin. I work with Steve.”

“She cracked the top secret code,” Dustin grinned, and Stella immediately paused. “Top secret code?”

Steve nodded like it was supposed to be obvious. “Yeah, which is how we found out about the Russians in the first place.”

“Russians? Wait, what Russians?” Jonathan asked what they were all wondering.

“The Russians!” Steve repeated.

“Those were Russians?” Max shook her head in confusion.

Stella had recognized the language from somewhere. “I knew it was Russian!” She guessed the millions of classes she signed up for were pointless, because she only remembered bits of words in Russian.

Lucas waved his arms. “What are you guys talking about?”

“Didn’t you hear our code red?” Dustin looked around at the others, lost. Mike whipped around to speak pointedly at him. “Yeah. And I couldn’t understand half of what you were saying.”

“Goddamn low battery!”

“How many times do I have to tell you with the low battery?”

“Well everything worked out, didn’t it, Steve?”

“Worked out? We almost died,” Erica exclaimed, earning a deadpan from Dustin. “Yeah, but we didn’t, did we?”

“Came pretty damn close,” Steve muttered.

Stella was growing more curious by the second. It almost took her pain off of the burning up her leg. “What happened that you guys almost died?”

“The Russians happened,” Steve shrugged, and Lucas shook his head. “Okay, Russians. As in, they’re working for the Russian government?”

“No, Lucas. They’re working for fucking Canada.”

“What is it that you’re not comprehending? Am I not speaking English? We have a full-blown Red Dawn situation.”

“So this has nothing to do with the gate?” Max wondered, and her girlfriend nodded along.

“It has everyrhing to do with the gate!”

“Well then what the hell does it have to do with the gate?” The youngest Harrington threw her hands up in annoyance. Meanwhile, Robin wore the same exact face she had the whole time, “What gate?”

“How much does she know?” Stella questioned, tone now out of pure confusion.

A grunt from away from the group grabbed everyone’s attention, faces becoming worried when noticed Eleven had fallen feet away from them. “El!” Everyone hurried, Stella in the back despite her efforts to move faster. “What’s the matter?”

“My leg. My leg,” she whined over all the concerns of what was wrong.

“Her leg, her leg, okay,” Jonathan immediately started to undo the bandage wrapped around her shin. It peeled away, jaws dropping and groans sounding when the wound was revealed. It looked way worse, puss and blood mixed and oozing from the gash. “God.”

Stella’s eyes widened impossibly further, and she instinctively moved back when she noticed a squirm beneath El’s flesh. “What the hell is that?”

“El! El, are you okay?”

“El!”

The only reply El could offer was an agonized scream.

“There’s something in there.”

“We need to get it out,” Stella frantically tried to focus. “We need a knife!”

“Keep her talking, keep her awake!” Jonathan told them before running off in a hurry.

“Hey, hey, El, it’ll be okay, I promise.”

“Let’s get her on this side,” Mike suggested, and Eleven groaned as they moved her.

“It’s, uh… you know, it– it’s not actually that bad,” Robin stammered, “There was a… the goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg, and like the whole bone came out of her knee, like six inches or something, it was insane,” she rambled anxiously— although she didn’t seem like the type to Stella —until Steve interrupted. “Robin.”

“Yeah?”

“You’re not helping.”

“I’m sorry.”

“That happened to my friend Lindsey!” Stella leaned forward almost excitedly. “Another girl grabbed her arm during a game and bent it backwards by accident,” she told as if it were just a story on a normal day. “You could see the broken bone, and she ended up quitting basketball,” Stella shrugged.

Robin’s face dropped even more shocked, clearly invested in the story.

“Essie!” Steve’s voice raised.

“What? He said keep her awake, and she’s listening!”

“Ess!”

Stella looked to her girlfriend. “Sorry.”

Footsteps neared and Jonathan hurried to kneel back down. “Okay. All right, El? This is gonna hurt like hell, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Need you to stay real still,” he told her, but Stella had a feeling that wasn’t happening. A wooden spoon was handed to Eleven by Jonathan. “Here, you’re gonna wanna bite down on this, okay?” He had gloves on now. Mike held the spoon in front of El and she bit down.

Stella felt a squeeze on her hand, clocking that it was Max immediately. They shared nervous looks as Stella gripped back, then remembered she had to ensure she didn’t hold too hard.

Jonathan held a knife to the wound, the appliance hesitating. Hands grasped each other even harder, eyes squinted in anticipation but never closed.

“Do it,” Mike told him.

The knife sunk in to the already horrible wound, a squelch sounding below the pained wailing. Stella gritted her teeth, both hands now holding Max’s.

The knife cluttered against the mall floor, and Jonathan didn’t waste time anymore. Two gloved fingers plunged into the open skin, more screams immediately erupting.

“Jonathan!”

“Stop talking!”

Jonathan’s hand became rushed, desperately fishing for whatever had been inside Eleven’s flesh.

El spit the spoon out. “Stop it! Stop!”

Nancy’s hand on Jonathan’s shoulder stopped him.

“Stop,” El repeated, a weaker sob. “I can do it.” She began to sit up. “I can do it.”

Nervous looks were shared around the floor as El reached a hand out towards her leg. Stella felt her lip begin to bleed from how she had been biting it.

Through guttural screams, the creature could slowly be seen lifting through her skin.

Startled shouts escaped the others when the giant window of a store behind them suddenly shattered. Stella looked back for merely half a second before hurrying to throw herself over Max.

The crash was short, and eyes went back on El as the creature was raised from her leg.

A claw, was the best thing Stella could compare it to. A really tiny, fleshy claw.

Eleven launched it across the room, and it splat onto the floor. Stella, standing now, shot a hand out, a small flame darting from her fingertips to the claw. Enough for Stella to strain just slightly, but not enough for her to stop herself.

The parasite-like monster made tiny screeching sounds as it burned. Stella ignore the sting it sent through her.

Heads turned to Stella— Erica and especially Robin slack-jawed —and it took her a moment to recognize what the other looks were likely for. “Oh, that is not in me. I’m fine,” she held her hands up.

A loud stomp caught their attention.

Hopper, Joyce, and… someone.

Who the hell is he?

─────✧･ﾟ: *✧･

finally back bc i missed stella

during my break i binge watched season 3 of yellowjackets finally and omg

any yellowjackets fans out there 🥹🥹

i can’t wait to write season 4 (there’s already scenes done in my notes app)