November 3rd, 1984

Hawkins, Indiana

"Do you still have that bat?" Dustin asked from the front seat while Steve ran a hand through his hair for probably the hundredth time since we got on the road. "What bat?" He asked, sounding annoyed by the preteen sitting next to him who had been giving him directions on where to go the entire car ride.

"The one with the nails, duh." Dustin remarked as he pulled his walkie out of his bag, "Where are we even going?" Steve asked as Dustin messed with the knobs on the walkie.

"Guys, I'm being serious. We have a Code Red. Anybody there?" Dustin spoke quickly into his mic but no one responded, the sound of static instead met our ears. "Hello?" Steve called out to Dustin again.

"My house. I locked Dart in my basement." "Who's Dart?" Steve asked, turning to look at Dustin and me. "His pet... lizard?" I tried, only for Dustin to turn around in his seat, "He is not a lizard!"

"Well, then you describe what that thing is." I rolled my eyes at the boy, "Well, he's bigger than a lizard now for one." Dustin stated.

"It grew again? Already?" I asked, leaning up in my seat so that I could fit between the two boys. "What does she mean by already? How big is this thing?" Steve asked, sounding slightly freaked out.

"Well, first it was this big." Dustin held two of his fingers out to try and give a rough measurement to Dart. "And now he's this big." Now holding both of his hands about as wide as his body.

"Holy shit." I muttered under my breathe, the idea of another Demogorgon running around Hawkins flashing through my mind. "Well, how do you know this thing isn't just a lizard?" Steve asked, blowing off the idea that it could be anything else.

"How do I know if it's not?" Dustin asked annoyed with the boy, "Yeah, how do you know it's not just a lizard?" Steve asked raising both his voice and one of his hands off the steering wheel. "Cause his face opened up and he ate my cat."

Sitting in silence, Steve nodded his head and shrugged, seeming to now accept that Dart might be a real threat.

Reaching a hand between the two boys, I slowly turned the radio up a little louder so that the silence wouldn't be as weird.

~~~

Once the car had come to a halt in front of Dustin's house, the three of us jumped out of the BMW and made our way to the trunk of Steve's car.

"How long has that been in there?" I asked Steve as he pulled out the bat covered in nails from the night we fought against the Demogorgon.

"Not long..." He muttered under his breathe before slamming the trunk closed, "So where is it?" He asked Dustin, who lead the way around the back of his house. "I locked him in there."

Stopping in front of a storm shelter that's doors had been wrapped with a metal chain and locked together, Steve took a few steps closer to the doors. Leaning down to see if he could hear Dart.

"I don't hear shit." He stated after looking down at the locked doors for a few seconds. "He's in there."

Looking between Dustin and me, Steve slowly moved the bat to lightly tap on the metal doors. Nothing. Not hearing anything on the other side, Steve brought the bat down a little harder on the door. Nothing.

"All right listen, kid. If this is some type of Halloween prank, you're dead." Steve stated, growing more annoyed with the situation we had brought him in as he shined his flashlight in Dustin's face.

"It's not a prank." Dustin stated meekly, holding his hand in front of his eyes, "Get that out of his face." I rolled my eyes at the two boys and lightly moved Steve's light away from Dustin. "You got a key for this thing?"

Taking the key from Dustin, Steve handed me the light before unlocking the chain and slowly lifting the doors up.

Shining the light down the stairs, nothing could be spotted from our place, "Give me the light." Steve whispered.

"Maybe you should go down there? And we'll stay up here, in case he tries to escape." Dustin stated, earning a glare from Steve.

Scoffing, Steve slowly made his way down the stairs, looking over his shoulder at us before finally turning the corner and out of our sight.

A light turned on in the basement after a few minutes, though Steve stayed silent.

"Steve?" I called out, though he didn't answer. "What's going on down there?" Dustin asked when finally Steve rounded the corner again.

Rounding the corner, Steve shined the flashlight up at us from his place at the bottom of the steps. "Get down here."

Making our way down, Dustin and I found that at the end of Steve's bat now hung the newly molted skin of Dart. "Shit." I groaned, looking down at the slimy mass.

"Oh shit!" Dustin exclaimed loudly before running over to one of the walls, where a hole had clawed out and dug through. "No way..." Dustin whispered, looking through the hole to discover that it went on further than our eyes allowed us to see.

"So, what exactly do we do now?" Steve asked as he tried swinging the skin off the end of the bat, the mass making a gross, wet noise as it hit the floor.

"We have to go get him!" Dustin stated as he got off the floor and away from the gap in the wall. "And how do we do that?" I asked him.

"We have to lure him to us some way." Dustin stated as he went into his bag and pulled out a pack of bologna. "That's disgusting." Steve stated as he scrunched up his nose. "I had to get him out of the house some way, okay?"

"We're gonna need something better than sandwich meat to get Dart to follow us, Dustin" I stated as Dustin put the packet back in his bag. "Well everything's closed for the night, what do you suggest we do?" Steve asked as he began to make his way towards the stairs.

"I'm sure we can get some meat from the butcher in the morning?" Dustin asked, stopping Steve in his tracks. "When you say we, you mean you and Nell, right?"

"Steve, please. We could use your help. That and your car." I smiled up at him while he just looked down blankly at me. "There's no way I can get out of this, is there?"

Shaking my head, Steve let out a sigh and brought his hand through his hair again. "You two owe me, big time."

"Whatever, come on guys let's go inside and make a strategy." Dustin grinned at the two of us before running back up the steps of the basement.

"So, about yesterday." Steve started once Dustin was out of hearing range.

Leaning slightly on the bat, Steve placed his other hand in his jacket pocket. "I shouldn't have brought up Nancy, after everything. I just have had a lot on my mind and I wasn't thinking."

"You're allowed to worry about your girlfriend." I stated and walked around him and towards the stairs. "She isn't my girlfriend, I don't think so at least." He tried and followed behind me.

"Steve, you bought her roses and went to go makeup with her. It's obvious you want her."

"It wasn't like that, I swear." He tried again as we made it out from the basement. "Steve, it's fine." I stopped in my tracks and turned to face him. "Really. Let's just, go make this strategy and drop it."

~~~

Stepping out of Steve's car, we stayed parked on Mirkwood in front of the woods where Will had disappeared last year. "My cars gonna smell for weeks." Steve groaned as we pulled out the three buckets of raw meat. "I'll get you some perfume." I smirked up at him as I leaned over my bag to pull out the bright yellow gloves.

"Dustin!" Rolling his eyes, Dustin grabbed his pair of gloves from my hand and walked away from us, "This is Lucas. Do you copy? Dustin?"

"Well, well look who it is," Dustin spoke into his mic that connected to his walkie. "Sorry, man. My stupid sister turned it off."

"Well, when you were having sister problems, Dart grew again, he escaped, and I'm pretty sure he's a baby Demogorgon."

"Wait, what?" Pulling my gloves on, I pulled my backpack over my shoulder as Steve grabbed his bag out of the trunk, slamming it closed.

"I'll explain later, just meet me, Nell, and Steve at the old junkyard." "Dustin, let's go." I called out as Steve and I picked up our own buckets of cubed meat. "Steve?"

"And bring your binoculars and wrist rocket with you." Dustin finished and turned around to grab his bucket as well.

"Steve? As in Steve Harrington?" "Let's go!" Steve groaned and turned around to start walking into the woods before us. "Just be there, stat. Over and out."

Walking through the woods, every few steps we would drop a cube or two of meat. "So, will this actually work?" Steve asked as he threw another piece behind us.

"Don't really have any choice." Dustin stated as he threw a piece in front of him. "Smart thinking with the gloves, Nellie." Steve smiled over at me as I dropped a piece in front of me. "Didn't want our hands smelling like your car." I stated with a sarcastic grin.

"Don't remind me." Steve groaned while Dustin looked between the two of us. "Okay, I'm just gonna ask. What's going on between you two?" He asked with a scrunched-up face.

"What?"

"Nothing, don't be weird." Steve and I both spoke at the same time, turning down Dustin's question. "Okay, chill." Dustin said with a goofy grin, raising his hands up as the two of us threw more meat down.

"It's just that like you two keep smiling at each other, it's gross." Dustin continued, throwing a piece in front of him. "Dustin, friends smile at each other." I stated, rolling my eyes at him.

"Yeah, she isn't even my type." Steve scoffed out, looking down at the ground. "Sure, it's just that-" "Don't Dustin. You heard him, I'm not his type. Please drop it." I groaned and walked ahead of the two and onto the train tracks that led to the junkyard.

"Look what you did." Dustin tried to whisper to Steve. "Don't blame me, you brought it up."

"Am I seriously that bad at understanding girls?" Dustin asked while I continued to trek ahead of them. "What do you mean?" I called back to him.

"Well, I thought if Max saw Dart, she'd find me interesting or whatever." "Whoa! Wait. You're telling me, you kept something that you knew was probably dangerous in order to impress a girl?" Steve asked.

"A girl you just met, at that. Seriously Dustin?" "Guys, that is grossly oversimplifying things." Dustin stated, ignoring what we said. "What girl would like a gross slug?" Steve joked.

"You mean an interdimensional slug? Because it's awesome." Dustin stopped in his tracks to face Steve. "Well, even if she thought it was cool, which she didn't, I just think you're trying way too hard, man."

"Well, not everyone can have your perfect hair, all right." "Hey, it's not about the hair, all right? It's about acting like you don't care." Steve stated, earning a scoff from me. "That works?" Dustin asked innocently.

"Yeah, drives them crazy."

"Really? Nell, is he lying?" I shrugged and threw another piece on the ground. "Girls aren't that simple, but sure. Take advice from Steve 'The Hair' Harrington. What could go wrong?"