the fallen angel

✧

BEFORE YOU READ )

heyyyyyy guysss. um. how are we doing today?

i'm sure you already know what i'm here for. so i'll make this quick.

this chapter contains blood, graphic gore & violence, body dysmorphia, non-consensual situations, death, mind control, dustin's pov, biblical references, childhood trauma, snitching, following people at night, steve and ricky arguing every four seconds, no beta we die like bob, lucas being smart, no one is listening to dustin, ricky being a brother figure to lucas and dustin, steve getting jealous, more babysitting, b*lly hargrove is mentioned, vecna's a lil bitch, lucas is sad, rue does wrongs but we support her anyways, and this is all somehow emilia's fault because i said so.

proceed with caution besties

♱

dear god take this feeling out of me

it's killing me

it's eating me alive

but it's what you deserve

why didn't you show me how to be good?

why did you make me suffer on my own?

i was only a child

you were a monster and you always will be

♱

Lying was an ugly trait that came from anyone and everyone. It never ends up the way you want to, maybe at first, but after a while, all of your lies will be unravelled, and you will have to suffer from the truth. And the truth shall always be your curse.

Dustin Henderson has never been a good liar.

He knows he stumbles over his words when he lies, and his face slowly starts to turn three shades darker while heat crawls up from his neck. His lisp becomes harder to understand, his voice cracks, and he rushes over his sentences.

What he does instead of lying is to avoid the question.

Dustin sits at the table in the Wheeler's basement with Lucas and Ricky. It's been hours since their excursion to The Creel House, where they discovered Vecna's whereabouts and the remnants of Hawkins' ten missing people. Nancy allowed everyone to pick up clothes from their homes and use her showers. They began to fall asleep one by one after cleaning up and regrouping.

Dustin can't take his gaze away from Rue, who is sleeping on the couch. She lies there peacefully, clutching Max close to her while the music from her Walkman continues to play. He swallows the lump in his throat as he tries to look away from the grim taste of bile in his mouth.

He couldn't take his mind off the carnage. Dustin sees it every time he blinks, and when he thinks about the broken bones and shredded limbs, his gut twists and his insides whirl around, and he understands why Robin Bucky had thrown up.

Dustin considers himself naive and stupid because he ignored all of Rue's concerns. She'd been bawling her eyes out the night before because she'd injured somebody, and all he could think of was that one of his best friends was a Celestial.

But he also suspected that his denial was keeping him from believing her. Only in his nightmares would he have encountered a Celestial fallen from grace, leading to his inescapable death.

But she's real.

And she's his friend.

And like the good-hearted person, she's always been, she's tried to warn him.

"Are we just going to leave them there?" Lucas' voice is softer than usual.

He speaks quietly, not wanting to wake anyone while clutching the mug of hot chocolate Nancy and Ricky made for him, faint steam rising into the air.

Lucas stares at the table, his eyes glazed with terror.

Dustin was not the only one who couldn't shake the imagery. But Lucas knew one of the victims—the effects were stronger on him than on anybody else in the room.

Lilah Amerdelda.

Dustin had heard about her from Lucas weeks ago, the pretty girl he was lucky enough to share a lab with in his third period. She was a cheerleader who talked to Lucas and flirted with him while he sat on the bench during his games, leaving the boy a flustered mess. Lilah was bright. And for the first two weeks of the second semester, Lucas was envious of her intelligence. For weeks, he's been working up the guts to ask her out.

Dustin had spotted Lucas' face fall as he heard Nancy mention her name while identifying the first four missing people yesterday.

"We can't just leave them there, right?" Lucas looks up at Ricky, "We have to tell someone. Their families deserve to know. Then they can be buried. Properly. They shouldn't be left there to rot in that... house. We can't... we can't leave them."

Ricky looks like he wants to agree.

Dustin has never seen him with a look like this before. Ricky Maguire was recognized as a burnout who couldn't get into college and was often in trouble with the cops, and his only redeeming trait was his rockstar girlfriend, Dani Patel. At least, that's what Nancy Wheeler said whenever Alex brought up his older brother whenever she'd drop them off at the library.

Alex spoke about how his brother was cool and always found time to spend together with him, even during work hours.

Ricky has a scar across his right brow, which adds to his macho man persona, but he told Dustin that he got that scar when he was fourteen, after crashing his bike into the back of Chief Hopper's car after laughing too hard with Dani over a joke Eddie Munson had sputtered out as the three of them rode home from school.

"You're right, Luke," Ricky hums, but then there's a hesitant look in his eyes. "But Nancy said we can't. Not until we clear up Eddie's name. If we say something now, Eddie will get the blame and even more chaos will happen. Then they'll question us why we were there in the first place, you know, breaking and entering private property. And then we're all going to be claimed as accomplicess, and we're all gonna go to jail."

"That's one way to put it," Dustin mutters.

"It's also the most realistic," Rucky reminds him. "I suggested that we should let Eddie get taken in by the cops, and when the murders keep on going while he's in jail, it could prove his innocence."

Dustin raises his brows, "That's... actually a really good idea."

"Why do you sound shocked?" He scrunched up his nose. "I'm more than just a pretty face, you know."

"I've seen prettier," Dustin waved him off, biting back a laugh at Ricky's offended expression. "Tomorrow, we can convince Eddie to turn himself in."

"Good luck with that," Ricky mutters as he brings his hands over his head, stretching out a kink in his back. "He's a bit of a coward, if you haven't noticed. You might have to bribe him or something."

The quiet click of the basement bathroom door unlocking echoes around the room. Robin finally exits the room, and the three boys turn in their seats. She has shut herself in there since they've returned, and sometimes they could hear her vomiting through the door. When she walks out, her eyes are bloodshot, and her short hair is sticking up everywhere. As she stares blankly at the floor, her skin has become whiter, and the millions of freckles on her face are now more visible.

Steve leaps from his seat and rushes over to Robin's side. He murmurs words of comfort into her ear and guides her to the reclining chair he was sitting on.

Nancy had returned to the basement at that point, carrying a tower of clean blankets in her arms. She exchanges a knowing glance with Ricky as she passes the blankets around, ensuring that everyone is warm and has one. She rubs her hands over Lucas' head in a sisterly manner before pinching Dustin's cheek when she passes them to the boys.

"We were thinking about tomorrow," Ricky starts, "About Eddie."

Nancy slouches slightly, the bags under her eyes darker than they were this morning. "Yeah, we have to check up on Eddie. Get him more food. Maybe move him here or something so he's not a sitting duck."

"We thought... well, Ricky thought that if Eddie turns himself in and the murders still happen, it can prove he's innocent."

"That's... that's a good idea," Nancy furrows her brows, "Are you sure Ricky came up with it?"

"I'm literally sitting right here," Ricky turns to look up at Nancy, and she shrugs.

"Just, anything that's calmer than today." She pauses and looks down at Dustin and Lucas, "I am sorry about today. I never... you shouldn't have seen..."

"You didn't know," Lucas cuts in, and he tries to smile for her, To relieve the guilt that weighs down her shoulders. "It's not your fault."

Nancy remains silent at this point. She gives a faint nod before turning around and approaching Max and Rue as they slept. She carefully wraps a blanket around them, tucking the hairs that have fallen across their faces behind their ears.

Nancy's only chance to unwind is when she sits on the floor between the couch and the coffee table. She shuts her eyes, hoping to drift off to sleep.

Another beat of solitude follows. No one in the room says anything, slowly allowing sleep to take their consciousness, hoping that their dreams would bring them some solace before they had to continue to live their lives, which were elaborate nightmares.

The lights are all off and they sit in darkness. There's no sound but the branches of the bushes hitting against the high windows of the basement. Someone shifts around and then there is a light that flicks on. It startles Dustin out of his drowsy state and he lifts his head from his arms on the table.

It was Lucas. He has a flashlight on, and he lets it face the roof. It was a light bright enough for the three boys at the table to see, but not bright enough to wake anyone else up.

Dustin stares at Lucas questioningly, and the boy chews on his lip as he stares at the table in deep thought. "I can't get it out of my head." He whispers.

Ricky tugs the blanket around his shoulders, wearing it like a cape as he brings one foot up to the chair, "Yeah, me neither. And you guys dealt with this shit before? You're like twelve."

"We're fourteen," Dustin grumbles.

"Some of us are fifteen," Lucas points out.

"I don't have an early birthday."

"I was just saying..."

"Whatever..."

"We haven't actually dealt with this before," Lucas admits quietly as he turns to Ricky, "I mean, with the Upside Down, yeah. But this? What we saw at The Creel House...? That's new. It's something else. And yeah, this whole Vecna thing is different too, but... I don't know... I feel like... I don't know."

He continues to murmur cut-off statements as he struggles to express himself fully. Dustin felt as if his heart was ready to burst when he noticed Lucas cast a glimpse at the couch.

"The bodies... they were so..." Lucas sighs, his brows furrowed deeply while his hands ball into fists, annoyed with himself for being unable to explain it. "It was inhumane."

Dustin opens his mouth after another moment. His mind is racing with ideas for how to redirect the subject in a different direction or push it behind them entirely. But then Lucas starts talking again.

"It was familiar."

Ricky frowns, "What?"

Lucas looks up at him, and there's a helpless look in his eyes. "You know Billy Hargrove, right?"

Ricky nods solemnly. "Yeah. Eddie used to sell to him."

"Okay...? Um. Last summer, he was a host to the Mind Flayer. The shadow monster. He was possessed. And there was this other girl... Skylar? Uhm, they were, like, henchmen for the Mind Flayer, and they had to get rid of El, and they were gonna do something to Rue... and they got her... and then.... but then they were killed.

"Billy started floating into the air, slowly. He was screaming. In pain. Then... his bones, they started to bend and... snap and his eyes... I don't know what Vecna's victims look like, but the way Nancy described Fred... it sounded too much like Billy."

Ricky holds his breath, "And Skylar?"

"After Billy fell... she started floating too. Her death was faster than Billy's. She didn't even get the chance to scream before... before she was ripped apart. Her arms, legs... until she was nothing but bones and flesh on the ground. Like Lilah."

Ricky looks horrified. "Vecna did that?"

"No..." Lucas says gravely. "Rue did."

"We can't be sure of that," Dustin exhales. He's sweating profusely and feels like his clothing is clinging to his skin like a second layer. His gaze darted to the couch every now and then, fearful that Rue would awaken and catch them. "I mean, she... she doesn't even remember it."

Lucas tipped his head to the side, regarding him with a strange look. "Dustin, you were there. You saw it happen. We all saw it happen."

"Okay," Dustin feels his leg bouncing under the table, but he makes no means to stop it. "But why haven't we talked about it? You know, if it happened... then why isn't this a recurring topic?"

"Because she saved El," Lucas leaned forward on the table. He stares at Dustin in disbelief but also suspicion. "And because of Max."

Ricky cuts between the growing tension between the two of them. "What happened after?" He asks Lucas.

"Rue fell into a coma," Lucas answers, "She was drained. Really drained. I tried asking her about it through our letters but she said she can't remember any of it. She got hit in the head really hard, and I guess she's lucky because I wish I could forget it."

Ricky closes his eyes and shakes his head. "So, wait. Let me get this straight. You're trying to tell me, Ruby was the one who killed Billy Hargrove and this Skylar, person, mercilessly-"

"That's what happened. Ask anyone. But not Max, it's still a sensitive topic."

"Right," He nods, "but, now you're trying to suggest that Ruby is kidnapping innocent people and taking them into the Creel's House to brutally murder them? That's just... our Ruby? Really? I mean, you saw the same room as I did, right? You really think Ruby did that?"

Lucas sighs and drops his gaze to the table. "I don't know. I don't believe myself either. But you can't deny that... It's awfully similar. Billy's body and Vecna's victims. And then all the bodies we found in the house. The house Vecna lives in. I don't know. I don't know... Maybe I'm reaching. Maybe I'm still in shock and pulling things out of my ass."

They all fell silent when they heard someone moving about. Their heads snapped towards the sound, holding their breaths and hoping whoever had woken up would return to their sleep.

Dustin felt his heart sink when he heard the sound of footsteps nearing them. He strained his eyes to see who it was, and there was a terrifying thought in his head of spotting Rue emerging from the darkness, her eyes burning with fury as she'd approached him.

Lucas reached for the flashlight to see who was the owner of the footsteps.

Dustin almost shrieked as he felt something soft whack him in the face and knock his cap off. When he felt it, he nearly fell off the chair he was sitting in, and he had little time to respond before hearing Steve Harrington's voice snarl at them.

It was raspy, and he'd obviously woken up seconds ago, "Can you shitheads shut the hell up? Some of us are trying to sleep here. In the back of my head, all I can hear is you three whispering like little annoying chipmunks."

Dustin blinked, and he tried to calm his rapidly beating heart while fixing his hat.

"Oh, my dearest apologizes, King Steve," Ricky tilts his chin up to smile sarcastically at him. "The last thing I'd ever want to do is upset royalty. You should go back to your beauty rest, we all know you need it."

"You son of a bitch-"

"Can you do it by yourself or do you want me to tuck you in, too? Does that sound nice, Stevie?"

"You know what, Maguire?"

"Please, do tell."

"Shh!" Lucas cuts the two of them off. When they turn to look at him, his eyes widen. Lucas switches off his flashlight, allowing the darkness to drown them out. "Did you hear that?"

Steve was the one who spoke, dropping his voice to a whisper, "Hear what?"

"If you shut up, you'd know," Ricky shot back.

Dustin then heard it. Softer footfall and the creaking of the old wooden stairway leading to the basement can be heard in the silence. They wouldn't have heard the silent opening and closing of the door if they hadn't been straining their ears to hear it.

There was another click sound, and the music from Max's cassette had come to an end. And then there was more silence.

Lucas turned on his flashlight once again and shined it on the sleeping girls. He aims it at Robin, who is drooling and fast asleep in the recliner. Nancy was then in the spotlight, her head leaned back on the side of the couch, and she frowned as the harsh light shone on her face. Lucas pointed the lamp at Max, who was still sleeping on the couch. Her headphones had slid off her head and were now resting in her red frazzled hair as she cuddled into the blanket.

"Where's...?"