Chapter Thirty-Eight: First Attack

(The Upside Down, Pt. 2)

***

Nancy got up from the couch to answer while Rowan and Jonathan watched, Rowan periodically eyeing the Christmas lights, just in case; Harrington's appearance doesn't mean they should forget they're luring in a very dangerous monster here. In fact, him being here only heightens it, since he has no idea of what is coming.

Please, Nance, make him leave. Make him leave before it's too late.

Because here's a little known fact: As much as Rowan hates Steve Harrington, as much as she wants to punch him or set his massive hair on fire, she doesn't want him dead. She doesn't want him to die, knowing as much of an asshole he is, he's just a teenager like her, and a teenager with a shitty home life and asshole parents if what she'd picked up on is anything to go by. She doesn't want him to die, and much less by the hungry, tooth-adorned petals of a Demogorgon's mouth and its vicious claws, after Barb's own demise at it's mercy and Rowan's slowness to prevent it.

No, she doesn't want Steve to die.

Which means he had to leave. Now.

While he still could.

The door opened a crack, revealing Harrington's bloodied and battered face. Rowan felt a twinge of guilt at that, but it's shoved down the moment she remembered why, and would easily do it again the next time Harrington dared badmouth her family. But underneath the blood and bruises, she can see what looked to be genuine remorse in his eyes.

He should be remorseful, after what he did to Nancy and what he said about my and Jonathan's families, she thought bitterly, but that remorse made her guilt grow stronger.

"Steve, listen to me," Nancy said, pulling Rowan out of her thoughts as Harrington stared at her, obviously surprised to see her there.

"Hey, Nancy, what—"

"You need to leave," Nancy interrupted, her tone holding no room for an argument while conveying the urgency of the situation.

She went to close the door, but Harrington kept it open, stammering, "What? No, I... I'm not trying to start anything, okay?"

"I don't care about that. You need to leave," Nancy insisted, going again to close the door, and again Harrington kept it open.

"No, no, no. Listen, I-I... I messed up, okay? I messed... messed up! Okay? Really. Please. I just want to make things right, with you and Byers and Graveswood. Okay? Please."

Rowan's eyes widened. He's apologising for what he did?

That shocked her, especially when it sounded so... sincere. When and how did Steve Harrington go to the people he mocked and sneered at and apologised for the shit he did to them? Wanted to make things right with them?

Any other time, Rowan would take it—especially if it truly was sincere—but now, it was hardly the time and he had to leave. Right. Now.

However, Harrington had finally noticed the bandage around Nancy's hand, his tone shifting into concern Rowan couldn't decide he should show or not given what he and his friends had done to Nancy earlier as he asked, "Hey, what happened to your hand?"

His voice went higher with concern as he questioned, "Is that blood? Are you—"

"Nothing. I... It was an accident," Nancy interrupted, and Rowan could tell she was trying to keep her voice steady.

"Yeah, what's going on?" Harrington asked, not buying it. 

God, would you just stop being a concerned boyfriend and leave, Harrington? Rowan demanded mentally at him, even though he couldn't hear her.

"Nothing," Nancy repeated, her voice firm.

"Wait a sec," Harrington muttered, and his eyes sharpened into a protective worry. "Did he do this to you?"

"No," Nancy denied, but Harrington was not leaving now, not with the thought of Jonathan hurting Nancy in his head. Admirable, but stupidly dangerous right now.

"Nancy, let me in!" he demanded as Nancy tried to shut the door, shouting, "No. No! No, Steve!"

But it was all in vain, as Harrington forcibly shoved the door open and got inside, his eyes widening at the sight of the Byers living room, at the bat in Jonathan's hands with the nails sticking out and Rowan perched on the couch, their hands bandaged as well.

"What is... what the—" he tried to ask before Jonathan gripped his shirt, demanding with frantic urgency, "You need to get out of here."

"Whoa. What is all—" Harrington tried to ask again, eyeing everything with wide, confused eyes, trying to comprehend the Christmas lights, the alphabet wall, the chains lying about, the bat and the bandaged hands, before he smelled something, as Jonathan said again, "Listen to me. I'm not asking you, I'm telling you, get out of here!"

"What is that smell?" Harrington demanded. "Is... is that gasoline?!"

A click sounded and the boys turned to see Nancy point a gun straight at Harrington, the barrel aimed at his head.

"Steve, get out!" she yelled, and despite how frayed her voice sounded, her hand was steady.

"Wait. What? What is going on?!" he demanded, staring with wide eyes at the gun pointed at him as Nancy went on, "You have five seconds to get out of here."

But as Harrington stared at the gun, he didn't notice when Rowan reached for her own gun, whipping it out and cocking it as she said, "Nancy's right, Harrington. You need to leave right now."

Harrington's head whipped around, and if it was possible, his eyes grew wider. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! What the hell?!"

"We're not kidding, you need to leave!" Rowan exclaimed, the gun not wavering, hoping the thick-headed dumbass could pick up on the desperation, the fact that he was in very real danger.

"Okay, is this a joke? Put the guns down!"

"Are you even listening to us? Get out!"

"Graveswood, I know you hate me, and for good reason, but not enough to shoot me! Put the gun down!"

"We're doing this for you," Nancy said, Rowan nodding as she gripped the gun tight, looking straight at Harrington as she pleaded, "We really are. You have to leave, for your own good. Please, Steve."

Harrington's brown eyes widened, obviously surprised that she had said his name, but she didn't care. She had to have Harrington leave, to understand that their pleas, that even the guns pointed straight at him, were meant to protect him. 

That she couldn't bear to have another person's blood on her hands, not when she could stop it.

"Hold on, hold on! Wait. Is this... What is this?" Steve demanded, but Nancy and Rowan didn't  say anything, only readied the guns, to fire a warning shot—at least, Rowan was readying herself, if that was what it took to get Harrington out of here.

All three were heedless to Jonathan's urgent call of, "Nancy, Rowan," after he'd noticed the lights starting to flicker.

"Three. Two."

"No, no, no! No, no!"

"Nancy! Rowan! The lights," Jonathan yelled, finally catching their attention as they stared at the lights. Rowan immediately cursed as she looked back at Harrington—at the blood. He was practically a walking dinner bell. 

"It's here."

"Wait, what's here?!" Harrington demanded as Nancy, Jonathan and Rowan got back to back, as the lights flashed faster, a dizzying array of technicolour, searing Rowan's retinas the longer she looked at it, squinting past the pulsating neon to catch a glimpse of slick, taunt skin.

Rowan turned to Harrington and hissed, "Get out of here, Harrington. Before it kills you, you walking dinner bell!"

"Before what?!" Harrington yelled, voice going an octave higher, but Rowan barely heard, focusing fully on finding the monster.

"Where is it?" Nancy demanded, Harrington shrilling, "Where is what?!" in the background. He yelped as the gun in Nancy's hands spun back to him along with the nail bat that Jonathan swung a little too close to Steve when he picked it up, shouting, "Whoa! Easy with that!"

"Where is it?"

"I don't know! I don't see it. Rowan, do you?"

"I can't see it either! Fuck! I can't see anything with these lights!"

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

Harrington's words died in his throat as the roof above them crashed and squelched, plaster falling away to revealing a bulging, viscous membrane, something pressing against it, as the lights spasmed maniacally, as Rowan winced, that same screeching dissonance grating against her, of something wrong, but kept her eyes directly on the thing clawing its way into their world.

The Demogorgon.

Immediately Nancy and Rowan began shooting at it, gunshots firing off like concentrated booms of thunder as bullets pinged off against the membrane, and eventually the monster's skin as it clawed through, before it landed on the Byers' floor, unaffected by the multiple shots fired against it even as inky blood oozed from the holes peppering its pale skin. The sharp stench of gunpowder filled the air as Harrington yelled and screamed behind them, as the Demogorgon lifted its head, opening its mouth with a piercing screech.

"Oh my God!" Harrington screamed as Rowan, Nancy and Jonathan turned to run and lead it into the trap, the Byers boy shouting, "Go! Go! Go! Run! Go! Get out of here!"

But Harrington turned too late and the monster lunged for the easy prey. Rowan's eyes widened, and before she realised what she was doing, she teleported to Steve's side and thrust her hand out, pushing the monster against the wall with her telekinesis. It gave a pained screech as Harrington stared at her, eyes as large as moons.

"Graveswood, what the f—" he started, but Rowan grabbed his arm, yelling, "No time! Run and live!"

Harrington shut his mouth and heeded her instructions, following behind her as she warned, "Watch out! Bear trap!"

Harrington jumped over it, shouting out a chorus of, "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!" until they were in Will's room, Rowan slamming the door behind her as she stood with Nancy and Jonathan, panting but alive.

Harrington, meanwhile, was still freaking out as he yelled in a panic, "Jesus! JESUS! What the hell was that? What the hell was that?! And what the hell did you just do Graveswood?! What the hell did you do?!"

"Shut up!" Rowan, Nancy and Jonathan yelled in unison, before turning back to the door, Nancy's gun ready while Rowan lifted hers in one hand and fisted her other hand, sparks crackling across the bloodstained knuckles she wore on it, as Jonathan gripped the nail-bat tighter, lighter ready. Rowan ignored the burn of Harrington's gaze on her, the wide eyes at seeing electricity dance across her hand, as they eyed the door, the Demogorgon screeching behind it.

Waiting for it to set off the Yo-Yo, its generically painted face smiling innocently for the purpose it was to do.

And as they waited, Nancy frowned, whispering, "What's it doing?"

"I don't know," Jonathan answered, not tearing his eyes off of the door.

Then, it went silent as the flickering light steadied.

Nancy looked at Rowan and Jonathan and asked, "Do you hear anything?"

Rowan and Jonathan shook their heads. "No."

Rowan looked at the door, at the silence now resonating in the room, loud and oppressive after the calamity of the fight and escape from the Demogorgan. And, now that she was relatively calmer, Rowan realised that the dissonance she'd felt earlier was gone now, that the electricity in the house, in what felt like the entire world, seemed... settled. Like a discordant current was gone now, it's wire cut.

Or left of its own volition.

Rowan pushed down the sudden realisation, that somehow, she could sense how creatures of the Upside Down buzzed with a different electricity from this world—that the Upside Down, with its decay and cold, buzzed at a different frequency entirely, a frequency she could sense, that clashed with her own electricity—as Nancy hesitatingly opened the door, the teens staring out into...

Nothing.

The Demogorgan was gone, had fled while they hid in Will's room and waited for the trap to go off.

But Rowan knew it was stupid to think it was gone entirely, something that she knew Nancy and Jonathan were thinking as well by the narrowing of their brows, the clench of their jaws. They hadn't frightened it off, and she and Nancy definitely hadn't killed it with their measly bullets—though it did have Rowan wonder how much it could withstand, what could kill it, if it could shrug off a barrage of bullets?—when they'd fired at it, and Rowan knew deep in her bones that her telekinetic attack hadn't done the trick either.

It would come back.

And, as Rowan looked back at Harrington and his panicked face, they couldn't fight it, not with Harrington as a liability that could end up getting them all killed.

She prayed that encounter with the monster was enough to convince him to hightail it the hell out of there.

And that afterwards, she can convince him to not tell anyone about her powers.

***

HeheheheheHEHEHEHEH

This chapter was a LOT of fun to write, for obvious reasons. Steve's panic and confusion and just the sheer chaos of the scene was very enjoyable to write—though a little bit hard to tell who was saying what. Also that little Stowan scene 🥰

And yes, the culmination of what I've also been hinting with for Rowan's powers: She can sense that the Demogorgan—and therefore the Upside Down and anything in it—runs on a different type of electricity from this world! I've been looking so very forward to showing it and showcasing another side of her powers that, over the years and dealing with more of the Upside Down and as she uses her powers more, will help her and the Party in fighting against it! Though, it is painful, as it's literally like another frequency clashing against the frequency she's naturally attuned to and processes... but it does end up being helpful in the future!

And now, the REAL action begins next chapter! There will be lots going on, so I hope you all enjoy it!

Please read, comment and vote! 

GhostWriterGirl out!