Risky Business ｡ Stranger Things

46 : Red Dawn

Heat stirred through the darkness, gathering sweat on Prue's flesh that was splattered with monster blood. The tar-black ichor was sticky and smelt foul. Bradley's Big Buy was a beacon in the night, a lonesome hideaway stocked with supplies. Nancy had found a rock and smashed a way into the closed supermarket, all without a single regard for the laws they were breaking. As Jonathan and Nancy tore through the aisles, Prue guided Max and Mike through the hole and over the broken shards of glass, as they shuffled under Eleven's weight. The wounded girl moaned with each painful movement but she still had some grit, still had some fight left in her.

Armed with rubbing alcohol and gauze pads, Nancy huffed out: "Okay, get her down on the floor," she directed at Mike and Max. Eleven winched as her friends manoeuvred her down onto the glossy supermarket floor.

"Be careful," Jonathan wheezed out, crouching low.

"Lemme see," Nancy said, bending down by the girl, edging up one leg of her pants to see the damage. Eleven sucked in a stabbing breath, head falling back against the shelving. Prue scrunched her nose up at the sight. Blood had soaked through Eleven's scrunched sock and the wound was still oozing freely. The area around the ripped flesh was red and sore and Prue doubted the Mind Flayer's bark was worse than its bite. There wasn't much light, but the teenagers made do as they all hovered around, surveying the wound.

"Ugh," Lucas remarked, averting his eyes. "That's gnarly!"

"Shut up!" Max bit back, punching the boy in the arm before dropping to her knees beside Eleven. Blood wept from the wound, sliding down El's leg like carmine tears. "Shit!" Max muttered, knowing the damage was bad.

"Maybe it's not so bad?" Will asked, leaning over Mike's head. Will was trying to be optimistic, but the boy knew more of doom than he should for someone his youthful age. Yet even lost in the darkness, the boy was a glimmer of light. 

Nancy ripped open the packet of gauze. "What are you doing?" Max butted in, eyes wide.

"I'm cleaning the wound," Nancy replied, her voice deadpan.

Max shook her head, her two plaits whipping around. "No. First, we have to stop the bleeding," she informed, her voice knowing, too knowing. "Then clean, then disinfect, then bandage." Nancy and Jonathan both just stared at Max, mouths parted in astonishment.

"I skateboard. Trust me," the redhead lied, hiding the truth about why she actually knew how to treat a wound. She instructed Mike to apply pressure to the bleeding wound and then directed Nancy and Jonathan for soap and water. Lucas dumped the contents of his backpack on the floor, trying to be helpful but Max ordered him and Will off with a roll of her eyes. Mike settled in across from Eleven, holding the gauze pad firm and steady, stopping the blood flow.

Max hopped up and turned to Prue. "You know you're covered in black goo, right?" She gestured towards the monster blood littering Prue's face. The conversation reminded her of a similar one she had had with Steve last year at the Byer's house. The nostalgia was jarring as it sparked in her heart. She never would have believed that the nightmares of last year would be simpler than the ones that plagued her summer, the ones that were ruining her summer. And her summer would be ruined and twisted, dead and gone by the end the night. The following dawn would wake the town to a new grief, for death would claim three lives tonight, snatch them away like a thief dwelling in the shadows of this world and every other world.

"Somehow I always end up sprayed with alien blood," Prue chuckled, lifting a hand to wipe some off, but it was stuck to her skin good: she'd need water to remove the bloodstains. The blood on her face also made Prue recall the last time she had had blood on her cheek: when a drunk Billy had touched her face with bloody fingers. "Do you often patch Billy up?" Prue asked, keeping her voice low, knowing exactly what Max meant when she had said she knew only how to handle a bleeding wound due to skateboarding. It had been a good lie, believable even, but there had been a hidden truth to the girl's words.