𝖕𝖆𝖗𝖆𝖓𝖔𝖗𝖒𝖆𝖑 || 𝘀. 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗼𝗻

S3E8: The Battle of Starcourt

El screams while we all crowd around her. Whatever's in her leg moves around, crawling around under her skin.

"Keep her talking." Jonathan jumps up and starts running farther into the mall. "Keep her awake, okay?"

"Hey, hey, hey. Stay awake, stay awake." Mike taps her cheek. "Let's get her on this side, on this side."

"You know, it's not actually that bad. There was a... The goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire," Robin talks while we try to help El, "this other girl slid into her leg, and the bone came out of her knee, six inches or something, it was insane."

"Robin," I say, looking up at her.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry, but you're not helping."

"I'm sorry."

Jonathan comes back with a knife and a wooden spoon. "Okay. All right, El? This is gonna hurt like hell, okay?"

"Okay," she gets out through her cries.

"Need you to stay real still. Here, you're gonna want to bite down on this, okay?" He puts on food service gloves and hands her the wooden spoon to put in her mouth. He hesitantly hovers the blade of the knife over the wound on her leg.

"Do it," Mike says.

"Okay."

Jonathan looks like he's going to be sick, but he does it anyway. The blade slices through her skin and blood oozes out. El screams. I hold her hand, which she grips so tightly my fingertips turn purple. Once he has a big enough incision, he carefully sticks his fingers in, trying to pull the thing out. Despite El's screams of agony, Jonathan keeps trying. El spits the spoon out and cries for him to stop.

"I can do it," she gasps, trying to sit up. "I can do it." She holds her hand over the wound. The thing inside squirms around. She uses her powers to grab ahold of it. She screams at the top of her lungs, causing the glass behind us to shatter.

A tendril like thing covered in blood pulls out of her leg and she flings it across the mall. It tries to crawl away, but is stomped on by the thick sole of a work boot. A boot that belongs to Jim Hopper. Behind him stands Joyce and a balding, homeless looking man I don't know.

Stories are exchanged. As it turns out, the Russians aren't the only thing we have to worry about. There's a new monster in Hawkins.

"The Mind Flayer," Mike begins, "it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world."

"And it almost did," Max says. "That was just one tiny piece of it."

"Then how big is it?" I ask, dreading the answer.

"It's big," Jonathan says. "Thirty feet, at least."

"Jesus," I mutter.

"Yeah," Lucas confirms. He looks over at Hopper. "It sorta destroyed your cabin. Sorry."

"Okay, so, just to be clear," Steve starts, "this... this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic... weapon?"

Nancy nods. "Yes."

"But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon... with melted people."

She nods again. "Yes, exactly."

Steve shrugs. "Yeah, okay. I... Yeah, I'm just making sure."

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

"El beat the shit out of it, but, yeah, it's still alive," Max says.

"But if we close the gate again..." Will begins.