CHAPTER EIGHT:
THE BAT WITH THE NAILS

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THE NEXT DAY was spent with Liz hearing Steve pace in his bedroom for hours. She knew it was probably about Nancy since when she walked by his door, she heard him mutter things about apologizing. Liz had spent the majority of her Saturday morning and mid-afternoon just doing her homework or watching TV. She was starting to worry about her brother as she hadn't seen him come out of his room at all that day.

   Eventually, just as she was starting her math homework, she heard her brother come running down the stairs. The first words that came out of his mouth, were one of the last that Liz thought she would ever hear from her brother, "I need your help with something."

   Liz raised an eyebrow, and set down her pencil, "Help with what?"

   "I'll explain on the way," Steve starts, as he grabs his keys and opens the front door, holding it open. "Can you just come with me... please?"

   Liz sighs before closing her math book, and following Steve out the door. She gets into the passenger seat of his car while gets in the drivers. Liz's seat vibrates slightly as Steve starts his car. The radio comes to life, spewing radio music from the speakers. Liz reaches over, and turns the knob that control the volume of the radio. As soon as she lets go of the knob, Steve turns it back down, giving her a look. She rolls her eyes, and obeys, letting Steve control the volume.

   They drive through the streets of Hawkins, finally stopping at a grocery store. The parking lot was fairly full considering it was Saturday, and people were off of work. The two Harrington siblings get out of the car, and walk across the parking lot to the store entrance. Liz smiles as she walks through the entrance, remembering when she saw it after Eleven smashed it to pieces. She followed Steve as he headed straight to a display full of flowers. Liz sighed, and immediately knew this was about Nancy.

   "Okay, which ones do you think Nancy will like?" Steve questions his sister, as he rests his chin on his closed fist. Liz glances over the many flowers, ranging from a dark red to a bright yellow, and roses to carnations. Her eyes stopped on a small bundle of red roses. Liz reaches her arm out, and grabs them. She smiles and puts her nose in them, sighing in content as the smell of the roses cloud her senses.

   "These ones." Liz states, handing them to Steve. Steve takes them, and twirls them in his hands before smiling at his sister.

   "You're sure these are the ones?" Steve asks, hesitation in his voice. "Because... the yellow lily's are-"

   "No." Liz  states without hesitation.

   "What about the white-"

   "No!" Liz interrupts, rolling her eyes. "The red roses are the way to go, I swear. Don't you trust me?"

   Steve sighs. Liz raises her eyebrows and he nods at her, "Yeah. Yeah, I do. Come on, let's go pay."

   They walk towards the check out registers, and go to the only open one. Steve places the flowers on the conveyor belt, and the teenage girl types some things into the register, popping a bubble with her gum in the process. The girl had a bored expression on her face as she spoke, "That'll be one dollar and fifty cents."

   Steve pulls the money out of his wallet and the girl takes it, handing him his change of fifty cents. Steve and Liz smile as a thank you before grabbing the flowers and leaving the store. The two of them get back in the car, Liz holding the flowers as they drive over to the Wheelers' residence. On the way there, Steve practices what he's going to say to Nancy. Liz thought it was stupid to apologize her when she was the one who called their whole relationship bullshit, but she kept her mouth shut and supported her brother.

   They eventually get to the Wheelers, and Steve jerks the gear of his BMW into park, turning off the ignition before taking a deep breath. Liz watches him as he runs a hand through his hair, trying to make himself look nice. Liz smiles, "You look great, and you're gonna do fine." Steve smiles at her, and she hands him the flowers. "If she can't see how great of a guy you are, then she's not worth it."

Steve smiled and got out of the car, walking around and making his way across the grass. Steve hardly noticed as he walked across the lawn that Dustin Henderson stood on the Wheeler's sidewalk wearing an orange t-shirt and a purple jacket. He looked somewhat defeated as he made his way away from the home until he noticed Steve. Liz furrowed her brows at Dustin, wondering why he was here. She was gonna call out his name until he called out Steve's.

"Steve!" He yelled, as he made his way over to the boy. Liz rolled her window down to listen to the conversation. "Are those for Mister and Misses Wheeler?"

Steve frowned, glancing down at the red roses in his hand, "No."

"Good." Dustin states before snatching them from Steve's hand and starting towards the car where Liz sat. "Liz, what the hell? I've been calling you all day!"

"I've been at home. Did you try calling the house phone?"

"Shit! I'm an idiot!"

"What's wrong?" Liz questions, wondering why Dustin apparently needed to contact her all day.

"Hey. What the hell? Hey!" Steve shouted as from behind."

"Nancy isn't home."

"Where is she?"

"Doesn't matter!" Dustin responded as he opened the door to the backseat. "We have bigger problems than your love life." He opened the door and stood there, turning to face Steve who was still in his spot on the Wheelers' front lawn. "You still have that bat?"

"Bat? What bat?" Steve questions, furrowing his brows in confusion.

"The one with the nails." Dustin explained, waving the hand that still held the roses.

At this point, Liz was utterly confused as to what was going on. Steve once again furrowed his brows in confusion, "Why?"

"I'll explain it on the way."

Unsure of what to do, Steve shuffled a few steps forward as Dustin got in the car, "Wha–now?"

"Now!"

Steve quickly scurried up toward the car while Liz turned her head to Dustin, who was slamming the door shut, and beginning to put on his seatbelt, "Dustin, what's going on? Why do you need Steve's bat?"

"Okay, kid," Steve starts, putting his keys into the ignition and starting the car, making the engine rumble. "This better be good."

"Okay, Liz, before I say this... you have to promise not to get mad at me." Dustin says, causing Liz to turn around and look at him again.

She sees his hesitant face, and he smiles at her. Liz loved Dustin's smile, but she kept a straight face as she stared at him, "Dustin, what did you do?"

"Promise me—"

"Fine! I promise!"

"I may have let the situation with Dart escalate too far." Dustin rushes out, nervously laughing as Liz purses her lips.

"Dart?" Steve questions in confusion. The two teens ignore him.

"What do you mean by escalate too far?" Liz asks, before her eyes widen. "Dustin, what did you do?"

"Liz, what is Dart?" Steve asks, wanting to be in on the conversation.

"Dart is a lizard." Liz explains, making eye contact with her brother, before looking back at Dustin.

"Nope, nope." Dustin rambles, shaking his head at the girl. "It is definitely not a lizard."

"Okay, sorry, tadpole—"

"Nope." Dustin says again. "Liz, I don't think that Dart is from... our world."

Liz's eyes widen, and she raises an eyebrow. Dustin nods, and she purses her lips, looking back at Steve, "Drive."

"Wait, what do you mean not our world—"

"Steve." Liz states firmly. "Drive!"

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Somehow, as they were driving, the sun had set as they crossed town to reach Dustin's house. The road they took was empty and silent, the only noise being the whirring of the engine of the car and Steve's music which Liz had turned up when Steve wasn't looking.

"Wait a sec, how big?" Steve questioned for the tenth time that car ride, peering at the rearview mirror at Dustin.

"First it was like that, "Dustin explained, holding his hands a few inches from each other. "Now he's like this." His hands were now over a foot apart and Liz sighed in anger.

"God dammit, Dustin!" Liz yells to the boy, despite her promising not to get mad at him. "We all wanted to get rid of it, but no, you just had to keep it!"

"He's a slug from another dimension, Liz!" Dustin argues, causing Liz to roll her eyes and pinch the bridge of her nose in annoyance and anger. "He's a huge scientific discovery, I couldn't just let you guys kill him!"

"Stop calling it a he!" Liz yells, finding it strange how Dustin could possibly still view it as a pet if it was possibly from the Upside Down.

"I swear to God, man." Steve spoke up. "It's just some little lizard, okay?"

"It's not a lizard!"

"How do you know?" Steve presses, still not believing that it's from another dimension which annoyed both Liz and Dustin.

"How do I know it's not a lizard?" Dustin questions loudly, challenging Steve.

Steve's voice rose louder, "Yeah, how do you know if it's not just a lizard?"

"Because its face opened up and he ate my cat."

It was dead silent after that as no argument or snappy comeback could come to Steve's mind. Liz watched as he pursed his lips and shrugged, nodding slightly. It was silent until they finally pulled up to Dustin's driveway.

The trio moved around to the trunk of the car once Steve turned off the ignition. He unlocked his trunk before tossing the keys to Dustin, and reaching into his trunk. He pulled out the infamous bat that had nails twisted into it and through it, holding it in his hand. He turned to Dustin and Liz, and smirked at Liz slightly. She rolled her eyes at his cockiness, and started following Dustin around to the back of his house, where the red double doors that lead to his basement were built.

Liz furrowed her brows at the chains and small padlock binding the two handles together. The trio stood in silence for a minute before spoke up without looking away from the doors, "I don't hear shit."

"He's in there." Dustin says.

Steve pulled his arm back, and lightly hit the end of his bat against the metal doors hard enough to make the chains rattle slightly, but no sound came from inside. He exchanged a glance with Liz who shrugged, and then swung the bat down harder. There was a large rattle, loud enough that Liz jumped slightly.

   "Alright, I swear — listen, kid, if this is some sort of Halloween prank," Steve began, shining the flashlight in Dustin's face. "You're dead."

   "And I swear to God, Liz, if you're in on this, too—" Steve starts, moving the flashlight back and forth between their faces.

   "It's not—"

   "You got it?"

   "It's not a prank!" Dustin protests, "Get it out of my face."

   Liz hesitantly pushed the flashlight down slightly, so it was hitting Dustin's chest instead of his eyes, which he looked grateful for. Steve then motioned the padlock, "You got a key for this thing?"

Dustin nodded and left the two Harrington siblings as he went inside to grab the keys. He came back a minute later, and tossed the set of keys to Steve, who kneeled down and unlocked the padlock, throwing the chains to the ground. Steve opened the left door, peering in before opening up the right door. Dustin stepped up, holding the flashlight into the basement, shining the white light across the stone floor.

"He must be further down there," Dustin guesses. "We'll stay up here in case he tries to... escape."

Steve looks up at Dustin, giving him an unamused expression before shaking his head. Steve sighs before standing up. He twirls his bat before starting to walk down the stairs slowly with his bat raised.

   "So, how did you even get Dart in here?" Liz questions. She knew that if Dart was that big, that we wouldn't be able to just pick him up.

   "I led him out with a trail of bologna, and then used a hockey stick to throw him in here." Dustin explains, making Liz nod. Both teens start to realize that Steve hasn't said anything yet. "Steve?"

   "Steve, what's going on down there?" Liz yells, worried about her brother. "I swear to God, Dustin... if you killed my brother—"

   The shine of a flashlight makes both teens jump, but they sigh in relief once they realize it's Steve, "Get down here." Dustin and Liz share a look before walking side-by-side down to the basement.

   As the reach the bottom of the stairs, Steve holds up his bat and Liz cringes as she sees the ugly yellow material draped across the end of Steve's bat. Piles of the liquid were sliding off, landing in a small pile on the floor, and the whole thing reeked. Dustin's eyes widened, "Oh, shit."

   Steve pointed the bat to a corner of the brick, basement wall. A pile of bricks and concrete had been torn from the wall, and in its place left a gaping hole. Liz's eyes widened as even in the dim light she could still see how deep the tunnel went. Dustin walked over to it, "Oh, shit!" They all kneel down and peer into the tunnel, "No way. No way."

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A/N:

[ 2319 WORDS ]

finally updated!!