027 | the battle of starcourt

EL WAILED IN PAIN, SOMETHING moving through her leg. Bea sat by her side, Mike on the other side of her.

"There's something in there," Mike said as he saw it start to move around within her leg.

"Stay with me sweetie, remember that song Hop likes, the one by Jim Croce?" Bea said, starting to hum the song. It distracted El from the pain until the thing started moving again, making her scream out in pain

"Keep her talking, keep her awake okay? Bea, lets go" Jonathan said, standing up along with her as they rushed round the corner.

"You remember that medical course we took when you wanted to become a nurse?" He asked as they ran round the court, jumping into the Chinese area.

"Yeah, of course," she said, watching as he dug through a drawer.

"Well, we're going to need it," he explained as he pulled out a wooden spoon and a knife, heating it over the oven.

They ran back, "Okay, all right El, this is gonna hurt like hell" Bea said, the two kneeling in front of her leg.

"But we need you to stay really still,' he said, El letting out a half broken sob in agreement.

"Here, you're gonna bite down on this," Bea said, pulling latex gloves over her hands at the same time as Jonathan.

He looked at her before she nodded her head, holding down El's leg as he reached the knife down, holding it cautiously over El's wound.

"Do it," Mike said as he sat behind El who was biting down on the wooden spoon.

Jonathan took a deep breath before slicing through the leg, Bea holding it down. El screamed, the sound muffled by the wooden spoon.

Jonathan took a deep breath as he reached into her leg, trying to grab the thing inside of her.

"Stop!" El yelled out, spitting the spoon away, "I can do it"

They both say back, watching as El panted, letting out a pained scream as she used her powers to extract the thing from her leg.

They watched it fly out with a scream from El. They all looked up as they heard it get squashed, all of them seeing Hopper, Joyce and some other man standing there.

They explained everything, Bea giving the girl stitches using a needle and thread from another store before she bandaged up the wound.

"The mind flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world," Mike explained.

"And it almost did, that was just one tiny piece of it." Nancy said as she looked over at Bea and Steve, the latter with his arm around Bea.

They were all standing up now, except for El who was sitting down, leaning into Hopper for support.

"How big is this thing?" He questioned, looking down at El as she sipped on a cold drink.

"Its big, thirty feet at least, it sorta destroyed your cabin," Lucas explained, holding his hands out.

"Okay, so just to be clear, this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic weapon? But instead of like, screws and metal, the mind flayer made its weapon with melted people" Steve reiterated, his arm wrapped around Beas waist.

"Everyone has a gimmick now,' Bea groaned, looking at Joyce.

"Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?" Joyce questioned.

"El beat the shut out of it but yeah, it's still alive, but if we close the gate, we cut the brain of from the body, and kill it" Max explained to them

Suddenly, a man ran in, waving pieces of paper around. He placed them on the table and explained the Russian map.

"The gate is here, I don't know the scale on this but I think its close to the fault, maybe fifty feet or so," Murray explained.

Bea and Steve sat in the corner, shaking their heads at the idea. "More like five hundred, what, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disney land or something," Erica said.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Murray asked and Erica rolled her eyes.

"Erica Sinclair, and who are you?" She asked, Bea also wanting to know who this random man that was friends with Hopper was.

"Murray Bauman," he said, almost in disbelief that a child was asking him this.

"Listen Mr Bunman, I'm not trying to tell you how to do things but I've been in that shithole, and if you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die," She explained.

"I'm sorry, why is this four year old speaking to me?" Murray questioned, obviously feeling threatened.

"Shes completely right, with all due respect, you'll all die if you do that," Bea added and Hopper looked over at her confused.

Dustin walked to the front and looked at the plans, explaining that him and Erica can lead the way.

But they didn't listen to them, instead going off to fight. Bea grabbed a gun, shoving it into her pocket as she watched her brother talking to the boys.

"He knows what he's doing Hopper, I was there and it's a real shithole," she said and he sighed, grabbing a walkie talkie and turning to them.

"You can navigate but from somewhere safe," he said, handing it to Dustin.

Dustin explained that it wouldn't work and you needed someone with a radio tower which was at the highest point in Hawkins. Himself.

"If you want us to navigate, you've got us. But we need a headstart and a car," he said and Hopper handed them the keys to a car which you could win at the mall.

"Stay safe kiddo," he said and Bea hugged him.

"You too, I can't start my training in September without my main man,' she said and he smiled, patting her on the shoulder before they left.

Steve, Robin, Erica, Bea and Dustin walked outside, looking at the car that they were leaving in.

"Oh man, this is what I'm talking about," Steve said as they walked out toΒ  car, looking at the numberplate, Robin questioning the numberplate.

"Toddfather? Steves her daddy now," he said as he hopped into the front seat.

"Did you just talk about yourself in the third person?" Robin asked, getting into the back seat.

"Did he just call himself daddy? I get some guys are kinky but I didn't think Bea would be into that shit?" Erica said, getting into the backseat along with Robin and Dustin.

"Oh shut up," she said, strapping herself in and looking over at Steve.

"At least you don't have to live with them," Dustin said, faking a shudder. Bea turned around, smacking him over the head.

"Where are we going?" Steve questioned.

"Weathertop," Dustin said, Steve didn't know where they were going but Dustin have directions.

They drove up as much of the hill as they could before having to stop, running as fast as they could to the top of the hill.

Dustin set it all up and Bea looked over the side, gasping when she saw the lights flickering over the Starcourt mall. She called them over, showing them that the monster had got them.

Dustin began to yell into the walkie talkies, getting no response but the growling of the mind flayer as they knew that their friends were surrounded.

Bea said goodbye to her brother, her, Robin and Steve jumping in the car and beginning their drive back to the mall.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Bea said as she sat in the back seat with Robin, her leg bouncing up and down as she was overcome with nerves.

"I'm sure they're going to be fine," Robin said, smiling at her friend.

When they made it to the mall, they saw that Billy was beginning to drive towards them, the others seemingly unable to start the car.

Steve began to speed up, Bea closing her eyes as they crashed against Billy's car, knocking him unconscious in the other direction.

They got out of the car, talking to the others before making the decision to lure the beast away by driving the opposite direction, leaving the injured El with Mike and Max in the mall.

She sat in the trunk with Robin and Steve, her boyfriend rubbing his finger over her hand trying to comfort her. All she could think about was her brother alone at Weathertop.

All of a sudden, she heard her brothers voice. He was singing on the other side of the mic to Suzie and she couldn't help but laugh as he sang to her for the answer to plancks constant.

When he finished, the monster began to turn the other way, heading back to the mall.

Jonathan, who was behind the wheel, turned around, speeding as fast as he could back to the mall and when they parked up, they grabbed all of the fireworks in the back and hauled them inside.

When they got in there and were on the second floor, they saw El was with Billy and the mind flayer and they were clearly trying to hurt her.

From different sections of the mall, the groups, Bea with Steve and Robin, began to hurl firework at the monster.

He was beginning to feel pain with Billy occasionally flinching but Bea began to notice that they were running out of fireworks.

Just as they finished, she saw Billy get impaled by the mind flayer when he tried to save El. Bea jumped up, beginning to run down to help her when Steve grabbed her arm.

"Bea," he whispered, pleading with to not to run into danger.

"I have to go," she said, breaking free of his grasp as she began to run away, down the escalators and freezing when she watched Billy collapse to the floor.

He collapsed on the floor along with the mind flayer and Max ran over, sobbing as he died.

"I'm sorry," Billy whispered. His head lolled to the side and El pulled Max into a hug as she sobbed over her brother.

Bea froze, unable to do as she knelt down next to him, "Sorry," he whispered again as he looked at her and she looked over at the girl.

She wiped away her tears before closing Billy's eyes, going over to the girls and checking if they were okay.

β˜†β˜†β˜†

Three months later

Steve, Robin and Bea pulled up to the video store, preparing for the new job Steve and Robin were trying to get.

"You put your mum down as your reference?" Robin questioned.

"Yeah, why not. She's super well respected," Steve said, the three walking into the store.

As they walked in, the guy from the arcade stood behind the counter, "And we weren't fired, the mall burnt down and killed loads of people," Robin added as he read their resumΓ©.

The guy was really weird, not letting Steve into the job but letting Robin in.

But somehow, Robin made sure that he got the job. Bea checked her watch, realising she had to go check on El.

After Steve got the job, he drove her to Jonathans house, dropping her off so that she could help.

"Hey Jonathan," she said and he turned around, taking a look at his best friend.

"Hey Bea," he said and neither of them spoke. After the summer and last year, they had drifted apart and neither knew what to say now.

"I'll miss you," she stated and he nodded his head.

"I'll miss you too," he replied before smiling at her, neither knowing how to say goodbye.

"I should, I should check on El," she said and once again, Jonathan just nodded his head.

She pulled him into a hug, the two whispering their goodbyes before walking apart.

"El?" She asked, knocking on the door and walking in as the girl let her.

When she saw El crying, a letter by her side, she rushed over, "Hey, hey,' she whispered.

El sobbed, hugging Bea as she realised they were leaving.

She comforted El, knowing that this must hurt her. But she made El promise to call her every weekend to check up.

Once she had finished talking to El, she spotted Will standing by the car.

"Don't ever change okay, if you need me ever, whether it's for a movie marathon your brother doesn't want to watch or if you want me to beat some kids up, you call me okay," she said, pulling him in for a hug.

"I'm gonna miss you Bea," he said, realising that the girl who he had always seen as a sister was going to be thousands of miles away.

"I'll send you letters okay, I'll call," she said, "I'll miss you too peanut,"

She wiped away her tears as she pit on a fake smile, "Now you go, I think your friends want to say goodbye," she said, stifling a sob.

Finally, Bea watched as they drove off, realising her entire childhood had just driven off in a van.

1542 words

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