I shake off the hand that continues to brush over my back. I throw my elbow back, successfully hitting Steve in the side. Steve sends me a disbelieved look when I scowl at him over my shoulder. There is no need for him to keep reaching out to grab me right now. I don't care if he is scared. He can get over it.

One foot in front of the other, I creep down the hallway, right behind my sister and Jonathan. We need to find out where the monster went. My bat held tightly in my hands as we move further down the hallway. We round the corner of the hallway.

The living room is empty. I step further into room, circling around to check where it could have vanished to. I cautiously wander over to the area that the monster fell through the ceiling. There's pieces of the ceiling and attic scattered around the floor, yet there's no monster to be seen.

"-- is crazy. This is crazy."

I spin around, rolling my eyes at the sight of Steve freaking out over everything. I drop my bat down by my side. "Steve, shut up for once in your life."

Steve ignores me and continues with his breakdown. "This is crazy! This crazy!" He shouts next, "This is crazy!" He spins in a half circle before he spots the phone on the wall. Steve darts for the phone.

I point at the side of his head, silently telling Nancy to go after him. He is just getting in the way of things. My sister lunges for the phone in Steve's hand.

"What are you do- What are you doing?" Steve shouts at her. He attempts to snatch the phone back out of her hands. "Are you insane?"

"It's going to come back!" Nancy shouts back. She tightly grips the phone in her hand. "So, you need to live."

I slice my bat in the air, resting it on my shoulder and marching toward him. "Right now." I shove his shoulder to push him to the door. My sister helps me kick him out of the house.

The lights blink and the electricity pulsates throughout the house. The three of us join back together, weapons held in our hands. Our breathing picks up from the adrenaline and the anticipation of the monster showing up again. We have to catch this thing.

"Where the hell is it?" I yell.

"Come on." Jonathan's shoulder bumps against mine. "Com on, you son of a bitch."

We shuffle on our feet, moving in a tight circle with our back inches away from each other. My eyes scan the house, eyes quickly adjusting to the constant flickering of lights.

"You see it?" I ask them, fingers flexing around the handle of my bat.

"No."

"Where--"

"Come on!"

Suddenly, the lights flicker off and don't turn back on. My breath catches in my throat from the darkness of the house. I whirl around to continue searching and abruptly stop when Nancy screams my name.

The monster stands directly in front of me, roaring loudly. I swing my bat, slamming it against the monster's body before I fall back to the ground, pushed by it. My back hits the floor of the living room hard.

"Reagan!" Jonathan screams, voice full of worry and fear. He attacks the monster with the bat he hammered nails into.

My scream catches in my throat. The monster pins me to the floor, one clawed hand on my chest. I stretch my right hand out to the side, desperate to grab my bat that slipped out of my hands when I fell. My fingers brush against the end of the bat.

Jonathan and Nancy scream my name, repeatedly, doing everything they can to save me from this misery. The monster's head leans down, way too close to mine, and some sort of liquid falls out, landing on my chin. I gasp and turn my head to the side, freaking out over the close proximity.

The head of the monster resembles a venus fly trap the way it's head closes and opens back up with several flaps. I choke back the sobs bubbling up in the back of my throat. I desperately stretch further for my bat.

"Reagan! Reagan!" Nancy shouts, firing off the gun.

"Reagan!" Jonathan repeatedly hits the monster with the bat.

My fingers wrap around the handle of the bat. Quickly, I swing it up toward the monster's head, the force hard enough to smack it's head away from mine.

"Go to hell, you son of a bitch!" Nancy yells.

It straightens up over my body, advancing toward my sister as she shoots at it. Jonathan runs to my aid, helping me to my feet. I grow sick from the gross slime on my face. I wipe it away with my hands, proceeding with wiping it off on my jeans.

Jonathan quickly checks that I'm okay before turning to help my sister, except Steve races back into the living room, grabbing Jonathan's bat from the ground that he dropped to help me. Nancy's gun clicks when she pulls down the trigger, all out of bullets. The bat in Steve's hand slices through the air, colliding with the monster's body.

The monster advances toward Steve, moving down the hallway. If Steve keeps this up, he'll be able to make the monster walk right into the trap. Loud grunts emit from the hallway. The sound of metal clanging together echoes from the hallway.

"He's in the trap!" Jonathan springs forward. "He's stuck.

We rush to the hallway, standing beside Steve at the end of it. The foot of the monster is caught in the bear trap, just like we hoped would happen. Jonathan fishes for the lighter in his pocket.

"Jonathan, now!" Nancy shouts.

I grab the lighter out of Jonathan's hand, flipping it open with a flick of my wrist. "This is for Barb, you son of a bitch." I toss the lighter to the carpet of the hallway.

As soon as the flame touches the carpet, it bursts into flames from the gasoline Nancy had poured on to it earlier. The fire rapidly spreads down the hallway, igniting the bear trap and monster. I hold up my arm, flinching from the brightness of the flames and the head radiating off of it. The hallway erupts in flames. The monster roars, loudly.

Jonathan grabs the fire extinguisher from the ground. "Get back!" He shouts. His hands wrap around the black hose, spraying the hallway and monster with the white foam.

The once brightly lit hallway turns from a dark orange to pitch black. The foam fills the hallway, all of us coughing into our arms and hands. I peer through the smoke remaining in the hallway, hesitantly walking toward the trap. The hallway is empty with the monster nowhere in sight.

Nancy coughs before asking, "Where did it go?"

Jonathan peers down at the trap. "No," He lowly mutters. "It has to be dead."

The bear trap remains closed, except there is some weird goo bubbling on the metal of the jaws. Smoke arises from that spot, exactly where the monster was a few seconds ago. How could it just disappear like that?

"J-Jonathan..." I slap his arm until my fingers latch around the material of his jacket. I nod my head up toward the ceiling, where the lights on the strings are turning on, one by one.

We turn around, watching the lights follow us down the hallway. Another string of lights in the hallway turn on, leading by to the living room. Steve slowly leads the way. I stay close to my sister and Jonathan, gripping the bat in one hand.

These lights are different. They aren't blinking rapidly, like they did when the monster was here. They are lighting up, one bulb at a time until it leads to the front door.

Jonathan steps forward, pausing when I grab his wrist. "Mom?" He whispers. "Is that you?"

I glance at him then the door. Wait- Are the lights actually Mrs. Byers and Hopper in the Upside Down? Jonathan walk out of his house with the rest of us right behind him. The lamp post outside flickers and stays on.

"Where's it going?" Nancy wonders out loud.

I shake my head, lightly. My hand reaching out for Jonathan's, fingers instantly intertwining together. "I don't think that's the monster."

X

"Reagan! Nancy!"

"Mom?!" I rush through the hospital hallways and right into my mother's arms, bursting into tears. "Mom..." I wrap my arms around her back, relieved to see her, dad, and the boys.

"Oh, my God! You're okay. You're both okay!" Mom pulls Nancy into the hug as well. She steps back from us, checking to make sure we're both okay. Her eyes light up with relief when she notices Nancy is okay. "What happened to your eye?"

I grimace at her thumb brushing over the sensitive, purple-greenish skin. "Ow, Mom." I hiss.

"Who did this to you?" Her hands grabbing my shoulders.

"It was just a stupid fight. It doesn't matter."

"Doesn't matter?!"

"Mom," I thread my fingers together in front of my body. "I just-" I glimpse over my shoulder at the private waiting room that Hopper, Mrs. Byers, Jonathan, and Steve are waiting in. "I just want to see how Will's doing."

She presses her lips together, sighing. "Fine. We'll talk about this and--" Mom gently grabs our injured hands in hers. "-- and this when we get home."

Nancy and I nod our heads in agreement. We lead our parents back to the waiting room, falling back down in our seats we were sitting in before. Jonathan grabs my hand in his without hesitation, an action that my mother raises a brow at, but remains silent.

I slide down in my chair, just enough to comfortable rest my head on his shoulder, breathing a sigh of relief. We did it. After the monster vanished from the house, it appeared back at the school, where the boys and Eleven were attacked by the men that worked with Dr. Brenner. The men that were behind all of the tests on Eleven and hiding the secret of the entrance to the Upside Down in their building.

Eleven sacrificed herself to kill the monster. Now, they are both gone. While all of that was going on at the school, Hopper and Mrs. Byers went into the entrance of the Upside Down and found Will. He's in a hospital room now. We're all waiting for him to wake up.

Everything was okay again. At least, that's what everyone was thinking, aside from the fact that nothing was okay. Yes, the monster is dead and Will's been saved, but we still lost Barbara. We couldn't save her.

I couldn't save her. I couldn't save my best friend.

"-- he's up!"

I jerk awake, head flying off of Jon- Steve's shoulder. I look to the left, a frown sliding on my face when I notice Jonathan's seat is empty and he's standing in the doorway of the waiting room.

"Guys, Will is up!" Mike shouts to wake up his friends. "Guys, come on!"

Jonathan half smiles and nods his head at me. I turn to Steve. He gives me an awkward smile in response.

"I still don't like you." I state before climbing to my feet, following the boys out of the waiting room.

Jonathan chuckles and leads us to Will's hospital room. His mother is waiting beside Will's bed. My brother and his friends nearly attack Will just at the sight of him.

"Byers!"

"Be careful!" Mrs. Byers worried waves her hands in the air toward the boys. "Be careful with him!"

The boys take their turns to hug their friend. I stare at the back of their heads, getting small glimpses of Will through their bodies. Jonathan wanders a little further into the hospital room. I remain by the door.

My heart is swelling with joy from seeing Will alive and well, yet there is still that piece of it that was missing. The piece that Barbara took with her when she died. I'm not sure I'll ever truly feel okay again. Tears prickle my eyes and my throat tightens.

"-- won't believe what happened when you were gone, man--"

"-- it was mental--"

"You had a funeral!"

I weakly smile at the back of Jonathan's head before stepping back out in the hallway. A single tear slides down my cheek. My arms fold over each other on my chest as I walk down the hallway, silently crying over the death of my best friend.

XXXX

One more chapter after this one. I think I'm in shock. I don't want to say goodbye to Reagan and Jonathan yet.

The next chapter will be a cute one. No more tears or sad chapters. This will be a really cute and happy chapter. I'm looking forward to writing it.

Question: Who's ready for a really cute chapter?

So, yeah!