The babysitters club|| Steve Harrington

17

Minutes? Days? Hours? Seconds?

How long had they been descending?

The pit in Steve's stomach just kept getting worse, like his insides were turning into mush.

He was vaguely aware of screaming into Matteo's ear, holding onto the shorter boy as if his life depended on it.

Steve had been in life threatening situations before, he'd fought a Demogorgon and demodogs with a baseball bat, watched El battle against weird monsters and countless other weird things he had encountered so far.

But the pure adrenaline that coursed through his system right then was unmatched.

At least while fighting monsters they could run, they could hide. But in a free falling elevator room? This was something Steve couldn't think a way out of.

Robin screamed.

Erica screamed.

Dustin was grabbing Steve's waist, burying his face in Steve's chest while Steve himself was holding Matteo who was holding him.

Why did everyone think he had things under control? Why had they tried to be heroes in the first place?

As they fell, Steve made a list of his greatest accomplishments.

1. Greatest hair Hawkins high had ever seen. (But he was upstaged last year by Billy Hargrove so that didn't count)

2. His basketball fame. (But he was upstaged last year by Billy Hargrove)

3. His popularity in school. (But he graduated so that didn't count)

...

Oh that was a depressingly short list.

He just clutched Matteo's hoodie tighter.

"SHIT! SHIT! Dustin screeched as he tried to press the buttons again, hoping to reverse what had happened.

"WE'RE GOING DOWN" Steve kept yelling, "WE'RE GOING DOWN"

"YEAH NO SHIT, HARRINGTON" Matteo yelled back.

"WHY DON'T THESE BUTTONS WORK?" Dustin's voice was so high, Steve almost mistook it for Erica's.

Shit. Erica.

Fuck. How had they landed here?

If anyone died here tonight, it would be his own fault. He'd brought these rag tag assholes together and as many problems as they had all had with each other, Steve really cared about them, all of them.

Erica joined Dustin by the panel, "Press the button!"

"WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M DOING?" Dustin screamed.

"Come on, press something!" Matteo urged, his face was completely flushed now, the red color disappearing down his neck as well. "Just press the button!"

Dustin screamed a string of curse words his mother would probably have a heart attack if she heard.

"JUST PUSH IT" Erica slammed her hand on the panel multiple times like it was a tv that would work if she slapped it hard enough.

They stopped suddenly and maybe that was worse than the initial falling.

Robin crashed against the metal shelves, cursing in pain.

Eric and Dustin collapsed to the floor, relatively unhurt.

Matteo landed on top of Steve and Steve wondered how they always ended up in situations like these. Unfortunately, a couple boxes also fell on top of them, burying them as they tried to make sense of everything.