The babysitters club|| Steve Harrington

12

Lucia crashed her car. That's all she knew.

There was a steady ringing in her ear, and her vision was fuzzy. No part of her body seemed to be working right. There was a pounding in her head like she was twenty again, waking up from a hangover. But the slick blood she felt assured her that her head didn't hurt from a hangover.

She felt lightheaded, like she could just close her eyes and start drifting away now.

No. She had to get home. She had to go home to her boy.

Matteo was waiting for her.

Lucia tried to remember the events leading up to the crash.

She met Matteo at the mall, earlier that evening, then she had gotten back into her car, rode to her best friend Nicole's house. The poor thing was sick- a sudden fever and a cold all at once. So Lucia decided to take Nicole back to her house.

They used to do that a lot, when Matteo was younger. Just the two of them, it had always been just the two of them when Christopher had to spend half a day at the office and came back well after midnight and left before the sun rose.

Sure, she was in love with Christopher, but Nicole was her first friend, the one who stuck around when things were hard and even when things were amazing. It was really a no-brainer when it came to naming her as Matteo's godmother.

Now, Lucia looked over at the passenger seat where Nicole sat, shivering with fever, her skin blotchy and red.

"Lucia!" She wheezed, barely able to breathe herself, but more concerned about her friend. "Hey, you good?"

Lucia blinked twice. Was she good? Not really.

She didn't even remember how the crash had happened. Maybe a flash of sudden lightning? Had something distracted her? Thunder that made her flinch? An animal that she swerved to avoid? But she really couldn't remember what exactly had happened.

"I'm fine" She croaked, lying through her teeth.

"You're bleeding, Lucy" Nicole mumbled, "Fuck— Lucy, you're not good. We need to call an ambulance"

"I'm fine" She insisted even though she wasn't. "Or I will be. Let me check what went wrong, if the car is in a good condition we can go home, and if not, I think we'll have to wait here for the night"

"Creepy, love the atmosphere" Nicole's teeth chattered as she wiped the fog on the window, looking out at an abandoned steel mill. The words— Brimborn steel works were painted on the outside, though that too seemed to be chipped.

Lucia ignored the pain and stepped out of the car. The rain stung when it hit her forehead where the blood was dripping from. She remembered Matteo who had gotten hurt in the exact same place a couple days ago.

What had happened to him? Bumped into a refrigerator when the power went out, right.

Within seconds, she was soaked. The rain was unrelenting and cruel, coming down in waves onto the small town.

Lucia didn't let it deter her.

The headlights flickered on and off, though she didn't see much of a problem with them, but the engine was definitely busted. They had skidded off road most likely, though Lucia still couldn't remember why.

Just as she was about to sit back in the car, something snaked around her ankle and she fell forward, catching her chin against the hood of the car. It made an ugly thunk sound, and she could feel the vibration throughout her skull.

She fell face first into the mud as something pulled her back.

"Nicole!" She yelled, "Nicole! Shit! Something is dragging me—"

The other woman in the car stumbled out of her seat and tried to run over to Lucia's side, to see what the problem was.

It was so dark, Lucia couldn't even see what was pulling her back, just that it felt slimy and gross, snaking around her ankle.

She had a thousand scratches and bumps by now, probably, but all that mattered was that she had to make it out alive.

Lucia knew strange things happened in Hawkins— a boy had supposedly died and then come back to life, suddenly many teenagers went missing, something happening at the Hawkins lab, but she never expected anything even remotely similar happening to herself.

"Lucia?" Nicole yelled. "Shit, where are you—"

Then there was another thunk, body hitting the ground and Lucia knew whatever was dragging her toward the steel work mill had gotten her best friend as well.

She tried to fight back, she really did. She kicked and thrashed and tried to dig her nails into the muddy and slick ground to keep herself from being dragged to god knows where. But none of it worked and soon the two women were dragged inside the abandoned mill.

Lucia wasn't sure when she lost consciousness again, but when she opened her eyes, she could smell blood, mud and disgusting rats. She was sprawled on the floor like a ragdoll, whatever that thing had been dragging her using her ankle, had thankfully apparently left her alone.

The mill wasn't much better. Sure it was dry and stuffy, but Lucia couldn't find Nicole anywhere, not until she heard the scream.

She could barely see two feet in front of her, forget looking for her best friend. Still, she tried to blindly make her way toward the scream.

Her heart beat wildly in her chest. Her entire body had adrenaline coursing through it. She didn't want to die, that's all she knew. She had so much to live for- her boy, her husband, her diner. She wanted to live, she couldn't die, not now.

Had she told Matteo she loved him the last time she met him? Lucia couldn't remember. Had she told Christopher she loved him before he left for work that morning? She couldn't remember. When was the last time she had told Nicole she loved her and appreciated her support throughout the years? She couldn't remember.

When the monster emerged from the dark, Lucia swore her heart stopped for a second. Just enough time to pray before a tendril attached to her face and she gave in to the darkness.