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TWENTY FIVE!
trap the beast
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         When Nina Henderson had awoken from her peaceful nap on the Friday afternoon, she never expected to be bombarded by her younger brother's exclaims of despair.

The curly haired boy had ran straight to his older sister, despite it being early in the morning on a weekend, to explain the tragedy that had just occurred.

Nina Henderson's brain was fogged beyond belief, due to the fact that she had been forcibly awoken from her tranquil rest, thus delaying her comprehension of each word that flew out of Dustin's mouth.

The only sentence that her brain had been able to deciphered from the panicked word vomit was that 'Dart ate Mews.' That phrase alone had caused Nina to jump out of bed in a panic. She immediately decided to step in to help her brother cover up their cat's tragic death before their mother discovered the massacre.

When the girl had entered the living room, she instantly spotted her mother outside, standing on the front with an orange bell toy that she was desperately shaking.

Dustin had clearly lied to the poor woman that the cat had somehow snuck out. She was then met with the worried face of her younger brother, who had laid out the entire situation to her in simple terms.

Apparently, the curly haired boy had found a small slimy creature in their garbage can and snuck in the being, he named Dart, into the house to keep as a pet.

The unfortunate part was that the little slime beast had kept mutating into a bigger version of itself, gaining a larger appetite and leading it to feast on poor Mews as its next dinner meal. It was sad to say the least as Nina like the Cheeto coloured cat but she ultimately agreed to help her brother.

"Dusty, Nina, baby." Claudia called as she opened the front door to re-enter the house. She looked distraught beyond belief and was on the verge of tears at the situation.

"You two are sure she's not in your rooms?" The woman questioned worryingly, closing the front door behind her. Nina just shook her head as Dustin quickly picked up the house phone to pretend he was busy.

"Uh-huh. Thank you so much, Mr McCorkle. Thank you so much. You are a true lifesaver. Alright, this was great. Thank you. Alright, have a good one. Bye bye now. Alright, you too." Dustin spoke into the phone as if he was actually making a call when in reality, the line was completely dead.

He hung up the phone after a minute of fake conversation before turning to face his mother. "Alright, great news."

"They found her?" Claudia pondered happily.

"No but they saw her wandering around Loch Nora." Dustin answered, trying to sound believable.

"How did the poor baby get all the way out there?" Claudia questioned in disbelief.

"I don't know. Lost, I guess. But they're gonna look for her. Nina and I'll stay here, just in case they call again." Dustin assured the panicked woman.

"Yeah, just to make sure." Nina confirmed

"And you're gonna go help look? Yeah? Yeah?" Dustin pondered in a gentle tone, receiving a nod of agreement from his mother.

He pulled her into a comfortable and loving hug. "Go get her. You're gonna find her, alright?"

"We can find her." Nina reminded, leading her adoptive mother back over to the front door.

"We can find her." Claudia confirmed with a smile of reassurance.

"I love you" Dustin assured, blowing a kiss.

"I love you." Claudia smiled happily.

"I love you." Dustin repeated once again to assure her. "Alright, go."

The curly haired boy and Nina both waved with large smiles on their face as they watched their mother exited through the front door and walk towards her parked car that sat untouched in the driveway.

As soon as their mother had pulled out of the driveway in her car, the two teens quickly ran off to the backyard, in order to unlock and open the door leading to the underground basement as it was the easiest place to lure and catch Dart with.

The next step on their long list was to gather any equipment from the closet that was deemed sturdy enough to protect the two teens from the mutated and grown version of Dart.

Dustin had settled on wearing a mix match set of old sports equipment he had found. He wore a set of hockey goalie knee pads with a padded baseball vest, oven mitts and a matching catcher's mask.

Nina had settled on a hockey helmet, the matching pair of hockey gloves, shin pads used for soccer and a heavy winter coat made for cushioning hard falls in skiing.

Despite the new heavy layers overheating their bodies, the two had to wear an extra layer to protect their own flesh from being targeted, in case Dart turned on them.

The second last step on the teens' checklist was to grab as many packets of sliced deli meat from the fridge and lay them around the house in a trail that laid straight to the outdoor basement hatch. The two teens simultaneously placed down a perfect pathway of baloney slices through their house and outside as a way to lure the beast out.

After they had finished that task, they had to now lure and capture Dart. Dustin had decided to go back inside to the house to release Dart from his room, while Nina hid herself in the back of the shed with a pair of binoculars.

It took a few minutes before Dustin finally showed up to the secluded shed, completely out of breath from running in his heavy gear. The two teens stood together, peering into the backyard from the cracks in the wood panels, trying to survey Dart's location.

The idea worked like a charm.

As if on cue, the grown beast has hobbled out of the opened back door, towards the trail of deli meats. The beast picked up each baloney slice with his mouth, gobbling it up with ease before moving onto to the next one in the trail. Dart had made it all the way to the opened hatch in the ground before suddenly stopping himself from eating the last piece and going down the flight of stairs.

It's as if the beast could sense the presence of the two teens hiding, so it ultimately turned to face them.

"Shit!" Dustin and Nina exclaimed in sync, quickly backing away from the cracks in the wood panels to avoid the beast's deadly gaze.

Dart had stepped even closer upon inspection, scaring the two teens, who flung themselves against the wall in fear.

As Dart stepped closer to the shed to investigate, Dustin had somehow mustered up the courage to face the beast, head on.

The curly haired boy harshly kicked opened the wooden door with a battle cry, causing Dart to stumble backwards with a nervous screech. Dustin chased after the coward beast, that back up in fear. The boy than used his hockey stick, preforming a famous slap shot on Dart, to get the slimy beast into the underground basement.

It worked like a charm as Dart flew down the stairs, harshly hitting the concrete. Dustin immediately rushed to closed the opened doors to contain the beast before it could run back up the stairs.

Nina ran straight out of the shed, jumping on top of the shut doors to keep Dart from breaking through as he had resorted to slamming his body into the wood. Dustin began to tie a chain around the door handles before placing a pad lock on to keep the beast in.

"I'm sorry. You ate my cat." Dustin breathed out in relief, finally getting the lock on.

After the lock was secure, the two teens collapsed on their backs, sighing in relief at their success.

"What do we do now?" Nina questioned, trying her best to catch her depleted breath.

"We clean up the bloody mess from the carpet and bury Mews before mom finds out." Dustin instructed his older sister.

"I can call Stanley. He can come help us." Nina suggested suddenly, finally gaining her breath.

"Yeah, that's a perfect idea." Dustin agreed with a nod. "I call Lucas, Mike and Will to help."

The two teens got up from their spots, once they had no longer felt the harsh force of Dart trying to break through the locked hatch that was once beating against their backs.

They headed inside instantly, in order to complete the final task on their to-do list. They had to clean up the crimson mess that stained their plush carpet and dig a hole in the backyard to bury the dead cat's body.

Dustin had decided that it would be best to fish out the variants of bleach cleaners to clean the carpet first as it would definitely be the most time consuming task. They had luckily found the significance stash of lemon scented spot removers, bleach bottles, rags and bristle brushes under the kitchen sink cabinet.

The teens reluctantly removed the products from underneath the sink before carrying it to the crime scene, the corner of Dustin's room.

The bedroom's usual pubescent aroma was now masked by a thick layer of the ironized metallic smell that blood is known to give off, when released into the atmosphere. The smell was so unbearable that the two teens had to quickly covered their faces with the collar of their shirts to avoid from throwing up on the carpet.

Speaking of the carpet, the plush surface was completely drenched by the striking crimson red liquid and even the walls became victim to the substance as well.

The worst of it all was the limb body of the orange cat that laid in the corner, completely ripped apart. That sight alone was heartbreaking to the two teens. Even if they didn't like the clingy cat, they still thought that the poor thing didn't deserve to die so gruesomely.

"I'll begin scrubbing the carpet and you call Stanley." Dustin suggested, reluctantly dropping his bucket of cleaners on the ground to begin.

Nina nodded before slipping out of the room to run towards the living room.

As soon as she was far enough away from the odorous metallic smell, she pulled down her shirt from her face to be able to suck in deep breaths of the clean air. The girl steadied her panicked heart, all while trying not to sob at the gruesome sight she had just witnessed.

Death was hard for anyone to handle but Nina hated witnessing death the most due to the situations she was forced into at the labs. So many people and even animals succumbed to the grim reaper at the hands of her powers, which disgusted her.

Though Mews death wasn't her fault, she still couldn't stop the guilt from eating at her soul.

After taking a few moments to calm herself down by deeply breathing, she reached over to the hung up telephone that sat on a side table. She picked up the ivory colour device, bringing it up to her ear with one hand. She used her other hand to absent mindlessly typed the number for the Harrington residence.

She knew Stanley's number by heart and it was so natural for her to call him that it just felt like second nature to her. The girl waited patiently for the line go through, intently listening to the variations of rings that echoed back to her.

"Hello?" A groggy voice finally spoke up through the now alive phone line. It was indeed Stanley Harrington, who had just picked up the phone.

"Stanley." Nina called in relief.

"Nina, what's up?" The boy questioned, happy to hear the girl's voice.

"Stan......Something's wrong with Mews." Nina stuttered out, trying to suppress the urge to cry.

"Oh, no, what's wrong?" Stanley questioned, genuinely nervous by her tone.

"He got into a fight with Dart and things got......messy. You need to help Dustin and I before our mom gets home and finds out." Nina explained, her tone getting uneasy as she discussed the matter.

"Don't worry, I'll be over in less than fifteen minutes to help." Stanley announced, using a gentle tone to calm the panicked girl down.

"Just......don't do anything until I get there. We'll handle this. Don't worry. I'll be there soon." The boy assured, the line going dead after he finished his sentence, indicating that he had hung up.

Nina sighed in relief before walking back towards her brother's room to help him tackle the rest of the bloody mess.

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         Stanley Harrington had reached the Henderson house fairly quickly, despite being on a bike but that just showed how urgent Nina was over the phone.

The two Henderson teens, with the new addition of Stanley Harrington, were able to extract the blood stain out of the plush carpet and clean the bedroom's crime scene in record time.

The three then moved onto burying the body in the backyard. Nina and Stanley worked together in a manner time to dig the five foot hole that would now lay Mews body.

Dustin had wrapped the cat in a thick blanket, lowering it to rest in the hole as the other two teens shovelled the pile of dirt back on top of the limb body to cover up the new hole they had just created.

It was a long and tedious task but the three teens were able to successfully cover up the death of Mews before Claudia Henderson had even arrived home.

After dealing with the cover up of Mews' death, the three teens had decided to make their way across the small town to recruit the rest of the Party.

According to Dustin, he had tried to signal the rest of the Party members to warn them of a very important 'Code Red,' but was met with dead lines in return and even complaints of annoyance from Lucas' younger sister, Erica Sinclair.

That was the final straw for the Henderson boy, so he decided to embark on his own into town to find the others, forcing Stanley and Nina to tag along with him.

That is why the three teens were currently standing on the front porch of the Wheeler residence, pounding on their door for someone to answer.

The wooden door finally opened to reveal Mike's dad, Ted Wheeler, who seemed just as annoyed as Dustin was.

"Your like has been busy for over two hours, Mr Wheeler. Do you realize that?" Dustin pondered in annoyance by the situation.

"Oh, I do realize." Ted nodded in a monotone tone but his sarcasm still appeared through.

"Is Mike home?" Dustin asked.

"No." Ted shook his head.

"No? Well, where the hell is he?" Dustin questioned, his patience becoming tested.

"Karen, where's our son?" Ted called loudly, slightly turning his head towards his wife.

The woman was busy on the phone with a friend but she still replied back to her miserable husband with the answer.

"Will's." The older Wheeler male confirmed.

"No one's picking up there." Dustin pointed out as he tried multiple times to contact the Byers' family but their line was always completely dead.

"Nancy, what about Nancy?" Stanley pondered, speaking up to help the Henderson boy.

"Karen, where's Nancy?" Ted called again for his wife, who angrily yelled back at him. "Ally's. Our children live here anymore. Didn't you three know that?" He replied, clearly getting annoyed with interacting with the three teenagers.

"Seriously?" Stanley rolled his eyes.

"Am I done here?" Ted begged.

"Son of a bitch. You're really no help at all, you know that?" Dustin shook his head, being the most frustrated of the group.

"Hey! Language!" Ted exclaimed but his pleas went ignored as the three teens had already began to walk off the of the property to leave.

"Does that guy always have a stick up his ass?" Nina pondered, cringing at the man's poor attitude.

"Yep, pretty much." Stanley nodded.

Dustin Henderson suddenly stopped the older two teens at the edge of the lawn when they noticed a familiar car pull up to the side of the Wheeler residence.

It was a 1980s BMW 733i that sported a deep mahogany shade as it's exterior. That car belonged to only one person in Hawkins and that person was Steve Harrington, the king of the teenage population.

The older teen boy in question, did indeed exit out the front seat of the car with a bouquet of fresh ruby red roses that he carried under his arm. He seemed to pay no attention to the stares he was receiving from the younger teens as he continued to steadily walk up the Wheeler's pavement driveway, muttering to himself.

Steve Harrington was only broken from his trance when his name was called by the curly haired boy. "Steve?!"

The teen boy froze on the spot, turning to stare back at the three. He definitely didn't expect to be approached by three younger teens, who he recognized immediately.

"Are those for Mr or Mrs Wheeler?" Dustin questioned, approaching the older boy. The two teens following right behind.

"No." Steve shook his head in confusion.

"Good." Dustin nodded, harshly grabbing the bouquet of roses out of the older teen's hand.

"Hey! What the hell?! Hey!" Steve exclaimed in annoyance at the sudden action.

"Nancy isn't home." Dustin announced, ignoring Steve's pleas as he just continued to walk towards the older teen's parked car.

"Where is she?" Steve questioned.

"Doesn't matter." Dustin shrugged, opening the car door with the intention to sit in shot gun.

The two teens then proceeded to open the back doors of the car and Nina quickly sat down in the back seat, instantly putting on her seatbelt.

"We have bigger problems than your love life." Stanley pointed out, earning a glare from his older cousin but a nod from the curly haired boy.

"Do you still have that bat?" Dustin pondered.

"Bat? What bat?" Steve questioned in confusion, unsure by the asking.

"The one with the nails." Stanley confirmed.

"Why?" Steve pondered with wide eyes.

"I'll explain it on the way." Dustin assured as he sat down in the front seat of the Harrington car.

"Now?" Steve asked in confusion.

"Now!" Dustin confirmed in a demanding tone, causing the older boy to run right towards the driver's side of his car.

Steve quickly jumped into the front seat, starting the engine instantly as his keys were left untouched in the ignition. The three teens sat with seatbelts on, waiting patiently as the older teen boy backed his car out of the driveway.

Once the tires had hit the asphalt road, he immediately stepped on the gas to allow the group to get back to the Henderson household in a timely manner.

The four teenagers were only driving on the road for a short period of time but the sun had already decided to set, allowing the dark night to take over the small town of Hawkins.

The pale moonlight mixed with a low hum of a Queen that played over the radio, brought some sense of tranquility to this somehow messed up situation that the teens were currently facing.

Nina and Stanley sat in the backseat, staring out their windows in silence, closely listening to Dustin Henderson ramble on about the entire situation to Steve Harrington. He had no clue what he had gotten himself into.

"Wait a sec, how big?" Steve questioned in confusion by the conversation.

"First, it was like that." Dustin started, using only his thumb and pointer finger as a base measurement.

"Now he's like this." The curly haired boy announced, spacing his hands apart to showcase the true reality of Dart's new size.

"I swear to God, man, it's just some little lizard, okay?" Steve exclaimed in disbelief.

"It's not a lizard." Dustin denied.

"How do you know it's not?" Steve pondered.

"How do I know if it's not?" Dustin scoffed.

"How do you know it's not just a lizard?" Steve asked again for clarification.

"Because his face opened up and he ate our cat!" Nina exclaimed from the back seat in annoyance. She was getting sick of the two boys argue back and forth with each other.

This announcement seemed to shut the two boys up as Steve just leaned back in his seat with a shocked face.

It took another moment of driving or so for the group to finally arrive to their intended destination, the Henderson residence. Steve Harrington stopped the car in the residence's driveway, right behind their mother's car before completely shutting off the engine.

The three passengers climbed out of their seats, emerging into the outside world before trekking around the car to the trunk. Steve jumped out of the car a moment later and ran straight to his trunk to open the compartment.

As soon as he had revealed the inside of his trunk, he quickly reached for his trusty nail engraved bat that gently laid on the satin interior and a small flashlight.

Once satisfied with his haul, he shut his trunk and allowed the curly haired Henderson boy to lead the group to the backyard, where Dart was being held captive.

"This is it! This is where we trapped him." Nina announced, once the group had finally discovered the locked hatch door in the dark.

Steve stepped forward first to investigated the locked hatch with his flashlight in tow. He seemed unconvinced but still nervous about the situation. "I don't hear shit." He pointed out nervously, noticing an unsettling silence.

"He's in there." Dustin assured.

But Steve still pressed his bat against the metal door to create a noise that would cause Dart to react. He received nothing in return, not even a sound. He then slammed his bat down, hoping to get even something but still received nothing.

It was quiet, almost too quiet for the group's liking.

"Alright, listen, kids! I swear, if this is some sort of Halloween prank, you're dead." Steve threatened, shining the flashlight in the younger teens eyes.

"It's not." Stanley confirmed, squinting to avoid the bright light shining in his eyes.

"Alright?" Steve questioned.

"It's not a prank." Dustin confirmed.

"Get this light out of my face." Stanley ordered in annoyance.

"You got a key for this thing?" Steve pondered.

In response, Nina threw him the key set that he swiftly caught with ease. The older teen boy crouched down in front of the lock, easing the key into the metal object and twisting it until the click sound indicated that it was unlocked.

Once that satisfying sound appeared, Steve unhooked the lock from the chains that he began to remove as well before opening the hatch doors. The stairs lead down to complete darkness that just screamed terror that none of the teens were excited to explore.

"Let me see that." Steve ordered, harshly grabbing the flashlight from the curly haired boy's hand. He then shined the light into the black abyss of a concrete room that sat at the bottom of the stairs. 

"He must be further down there." Dustin assured. "I'll stay up here in case he tries to escape." He announced, trying to calm his own nerves.

"Me too." Nina nodded in agreement, also not wanting to go down the stairs either.

"Yeah, me as well." Stanley confirmed, earning a glaring look of disbelief from his older cousin.

Steve Harrington just rolled his eyes at the teens' reaction and the situation before carefully walking down the concrete stairs into the pitch black room with his flashlight in tow.

The teens could only see a small source of light that reflected but when the older boy stepped farther away from the steps, the atmosphere became darker again. The sudden darkness and the deafening silence made the situation uneasy to the three, who began to worry at the lack of interaction from Steve.

"Steve? Steve? What's going on down there?" Dustin questioned worryingly.

"Get down here." Steve ordered harshly and all three teens ran down the stairs to investigate whatever the boy had just found.

"Oh, shit." Dustin muttered with wide eyes, noticing the slimy shedding of skin that laid on the edge of Steve's bat.

That was a huge indication that Dart had mutated again and had definitely increased in size but they have yet to notice the new hole in the wall, except for Nina.

The girl had quickly noticed the new decoration as she knew that the bricks in the wall were not exposed in that fashion. The regular brick foundation had been ripped apart in the corner, exposing the housing wires and now a dirt tunnel that lead to complete darkness.

"That's even worse." Nina pointed out.

"Oh, shit!" Dustin exclaimed.

"Well, we're screwed!" Stanley panicked with wide eyes, earning a glare from the other three teens.

💬 AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Steve is now finally apart of this story! He became my favourite character in Stranger Things due to these scenes in season two. I was so excited to write for Steve but I knew he wouldn't be joining until act two of Odd Eye as act one only followed the Party and not Nancy or Jonathan's story. I'm glad that he's only here now as I wanted to punch Steve in season one but now I love this boy with all of my heart. Can't wait to write his loving relationships with the Party, Nina, Stanley and Wendy.

Also, if you didn't realize it or missed the information completely then I'll announce here lol. Steve is paternal first cousins with Stanley and Wendy. Thomas Harrington is the younger brother of Steve's dad, so that makes them first cousins. I originally only had Wendy be sister related to Steve but I changed the family dynamic, once I added Stanley and Thomas and I couldn't be happier.

Thank you again for everything and I look forward to seeing all of your love and support.

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