-november 4th 1984-

-reader's pov-

steve led the way through the mysterious tunnels as we all dawdled after him, trying our best to not trip up on the vines that covered and wreathed the ground.

"alright, wheeler number 1." steve announced as he stopped in his tracks, "I think we found your hub."

everyone then shone their flashlights around the dimly-lit open area, every tunnel and pathway led to this place.

"drench it." mike said before we all leaked the gasoline everywhere.

"okay, you guys ready?" steve asked as we all stood behind him.

"yup."

"ready."

"mhm."

"light her up." dustin replied whilst steve pulled the lighter from his pocket.

"I am in such deep shit." steve sighed before flicking the lighter and tossing it into the puddle of gasoline.

the very second the lighter hit the ground, everything was set aflame. the crawling vines that slithered around the walls began to screech as my eyes widened in amazement.

"whoa.. fire." I breathed, before steve grabbed me by wrist.

"hurry up wheeler number 2!" he cried out, "the others are already running!"

"oh shit." I immediately turned on my heels and ran along side steve, he navigated the way and called out instructions to the kids in front.

"this way! this way!" he announced as he took lead again and we all rushed after him.

"HELP! HELP! HELP!" mike's struggling voice suddenly screamed from behind.

"OH MY GOD, MIKE!" I instantly skidded to a stop before spinning around to go find my brother.

I retraced my steps as quick as possible, with everyone else following until I found mike struggling against multiple vines on the floor that were trying to choke him.

whilst everyone else tried to pull mike out of the difficult situation, I focused on destroying the vines. I jerked my head from left-to-right, bursting the clinging inter-dimensional plants with every jerk until mike was free.

"holy shit, mike.." I babbled as I ran to his side, "are you okay?"

"y-yeah, I think so.." he panted, sounding just a little out of it.

"guys! we gotta go." steve tried to hurry us up but then a loud growl pulled all of our's attentions.

we quickly turned to find dart, closing in on us with his yellow-patterned butt high in the air.

dustin stood before us, his arms were protectively held out, but I couldn't tell if he was protecting us from dart or dart from us.

"dart.." dustin spoke before slowly approaching the creature, we all tried to call him back but he silenced us.

"trust me, please." he shushed us as he walked even closer to dart and dart walked even closer to him.

"hey.. it's me, it's me.." dustin stammered whilst pulling his bandana down and removing his goggles, "just your friend, dustin.. just dustin, alright?" he was now kneeling before the demodog, "could you maybe let us pass?.." dustin got a ferocious growl from the animal in response.

"okay, okay.." dustin began, "I'm sorry about the storm cellar, that was a pretty douchey thing to do.." the animal grunted in response. "you hungry? yeah?" he then pulled a 3 musketeers out of his backpack, "I've got our favourite, see? nougat."

the demodog seemed to grow a little more relaxed because it then took another step towards dustin.

"look at that, yummy." dustin placed some of the chocolate before dart, it hesitantly looked at the food before eating it.

"come on, come on." dustin whispered back to us whilst gesturing with his hands.

one by one, we all carefully slipped past dart as he was way too immersed in eating the nougat.

"that's a good gremlin.." I whispered with a grin whilst sidestepping past the animal.

once dart had finished with his chocolate, dustin stood up and gave him one last look, "goodbye, buddy."

——————

"HURRY UP!" steve yelled as we all flooded after him, suddenly the ground began to rumble, it was as if we were in an earthquake.

"JESUS!" lucas exclaimed as we all regained a strong stand again.

"what was that?!" max questioned.

many loud roars came from the distance, we all backed away from the sound in fear.

"THEY'RE COMING! RUN!" mike shouted, alerting us all to start sprinting to our only exit.

"THERE! THERE!" lucas pointed at the rope that thankfully was still hanging, just like how we left it.

first, steve helped max up through the hole, then lucas, followed by mike and I, but just as it was dustin's turn, they both suddenly stopped moving.

"what's going on?!" we all called down the hole, "dustin! come on!" I peered down to find steve protectively holding his bat out before the two of them as they awaited something.

a frightened yell escaped dustin's lips as he cowered down, a second later a whole massive herd of demodogs rushed right past them, as if the two boys weren't even there.

"eleven." I said aloud in realisation, the dogs were after eleven.

———————

dustin and steve were now out of the hole, we were all looking down it, searching for any more dogs until the car's headlights growing really bright and strong stole our attention.

we swung around to only be blinded by the lights, I raised my hands up to cover my eyes, just like everyone else.

"am I going mad or.. is my technically-now girlfriend doing that?" I asked.

"you're not going mad, n/n." mike replied, "that's your technically-now girlfriend."

"whoa.. badass!" I exclaimed with a wide smile.

about 10 seconds later, the lights dimmed down again. the darkness of the night returned, no longer illuminated by the blazing headlights. the only thing bright in the night-sky now, was the waxing gibbous phase of the moon. it stood proudly in the sky, just like every night, but tonight was different, well for me anyway. tonight was the first night that I would spend with eleven, after a long 357 days spent waiting.