𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐬; 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞; 𝐬𝐡
summary; when she’s thrown into a fight with a terrible monster that threatens her new town, Cordelia Silva must run like hell to make it out alive... and maybe find her heart in the mix.
chapter summary; Cordelia and Steve have an encounter with a redheaded menace while babysitting.
warnings; this story may be unsuitable for some audiences. Sexual content, anxiety, self harm, depression, abandonment, violence, blood, death, and cigarettes.
stranger things series masterlist ; calpurnia’s questionable writings
“You’ve opened this gate before, right?” Joyce pointed down at the letters spelled out on the table, looking to the girl.
“Do you think that if we got you back there, that you could close it?”
The answer of Eleven looking off into space, and her brief nod, was enough to make Cordelia feel some remote sensation of happiness. Standing against the wall, Steve next to her, she made eye contact with him. A gleam in his eyes made her understand that this could be the solution to their problem.
From what had been explained to Cordelia, the gate determined everything. If she could close it, the rest of the monsters would die. And she’d go back to the junkyard, undisturbed. Alone. That place was where it seemed she best fit in. During the off season, when she wasn’t running or playing volleyball. When she didn’t have anyone wanting to know where she was, what she was doing. When she wanted to light the matches and watch them burn.
She looked up to see Steve staring at her. He had an expression she couldn’t read upon his face, and Cordelia turned away. Something in the midst of trying to understand her. She nestled into the corduroy of her jacket, flexing her right leg — her bad leg — to see how it felt.
“Its not like it was before,” Hopper was saying to the group, crowded around the kitchen table. “It’s grown. A lot. And I mean, that’s considering that we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs.”
“Demo-dogs,” Dustin interrupted.
Sighing, Hopper looked at Dustin, “I'm sorry, what?”
“I said, uh,” Dustin spoke, “demo-dogs. Like demogorgon and dogs. You put them together, it sounds pretty badass—”
“How is this important right now?” Hopper questioned, annoyance in his voice.
“It’s not, I’m sorry.” Dustin said.
Glancing up, Eleven spoke, “I can do it.”
Hopper shook his head, “You're not hearing me.”
“I’m hearing you, I can do it.” Eleven reiterated.
“Even if El can, there is still another problem,” Mike added. “If the brain dies, the body dies.”
“I thought that was the whole point,” Max pointed out.
“It is,” Mike said, “but if we’re really right about this. I mean, if El closes the gate and kills the Mind Flayers army..”
“Will’s a part of that army,” Lucas told the group.
“Closing the gate will kill him, then.” Cordelia said, startling Nancy who stood in front of her.
Cordelia watched Joyce. Her face was a mix of emotions. She couldn’t imagine having to lose a son in this way. Joyce moved into the bedroom, where Will lay.
“He likes it cold,” Joyce mumbled.
“It's what Will kept saying to me,” Joyce’s face had realization all over it, “he likes it cold.”
She walked to the window and pulled it shut. “We keep giving it what it wants.”
“If this is a virus, and Will’s the host, then…” Nancy said, trailing off.
“Then we need to make the host uninhabitable,” Jonathan finished.
Nancy continued, “so if he likes it cold.”
“We need to burn it out of him,” Joyce said.
“We have to do it somewhere he doesn't know this time.” Mike put in, voice loud.
“Yeah,” Dustin agreed. “Somewhere far away.”
Outside, Cordelia stood again with Steve and Nancy. They removed pieces of trash from a large pile that Hopper had created when he’d cleared out the shed. In her hands lay a saw, large and rusted. She slammed it down in another pile. This would break under pressure — not a good weapon.
Steve held up a radiator and tossed it to the side, “you should go with him.”
Nancy stared up at Steve, misunderstanding painting her face, “what?”
“With Jonathon,” Steve said.
“No,” she said, and Cordelia could see her cheeks flush against the pale beam of her flashlight. “I’m not just going to leave Mike.”
“No one’s leaving anyone,” Steve told her, getting up to stand side by side with Nancy across the trash pile. “I may be a pretty shitty boyfriend… but turns out I’m actually a pretty damn good babysitter.”
Cordelia watched as Nancy absorbed the words. If Cordelia Silva was good at one thing, it was observing. Nancy looked up at Steve with big eyes, glassy eyes, as he held out a radiator to her.
“Steve.” She said. Cordelia made the decision to leave, walking back to the house. This was not her business. She didn’t want to know about Steve and Nancy. She didn’t need to. She didn’t care.
“It’s okay, Nance.” Steve told her, watching Cordelia move away and back into the Byer’s home. “It’s okay.”
Nancy waited for the porch door to slam shut. “So Cordelia.” She said, changing the subject.
Steve stopped moving the trash around. “Yes?”
“What’s with Cordelia, why is she here?” Nancy asked, kneeling to the ground.
“She was in the junkyard and helped fight off the demo-dogs.” Steve told Nancy, who nodded, still staring at Steve.
“No,” he shook his head, understanding her eyes. “No, we just met. She’s beautiful, yes, but I don’t know her at all.” He reiterated.
“So there is nothing happening? I saw you two leave the bathroom, Steve. The look that you gave her.”
“The demo-dog got her leg, I was bandaging her up. Nothing is going on. We met four fucking hours ago!” Steve thrust his hands in the air. It wasn’t possible to like someone after four hours together. Even if they had been life or death ones.
“Okay, Steve.” Nancy said, her voice making her words an obvious lie. “It just looked like you’d known her for a thousand years.”
He didn’t say anything to that, instead rummaging through the pile again.
Cordelia stood on the front porch ten minutes later, watching as Jonathon, Nancy, Will, Hopper, Eleven and Joyce sped away in two different vehicles. Max was in front of her, and Cordelia could hear Mike sniffling.
She straightened her jacket and turned to open the door as Steve waited for the kids to enter the Byer’s house. The air was cold and the November night was clear, stars straying through the sky above them. In St. Paul, there were too many lights and Cordelia couldn’t see the stars. Here there were so many above her that Cordelia thought it was overwhelming.
In the kitchen, Dustin emptied the fridge’s contents out on the ground. The items lay around haphazardly, and Cordelia grabbed a glass of water as Steve shoved the dead creature in the fridge.
She turned around as Steve rubbed the top of Dustin’s hat, panting slightly. “That was too gooey to be good.” He said.
In the living room, Cordelia heard Lucas speak, “Mike, would you just stop already!”
“You weren’t in there, okay, Lucas.” Mike responded, tone thin and angry. “That lab is swarming with hundreds of those dogs.”
“Demo-dogs!” Dustin shouted from his spot in the kitchen, and Cordelia followed the projection of his voice into the living room.
Ignoring Dustin, Lucas continued, “the chief will take care of her.”
Max rolled her blue eyes, “like she needs protection.”
Walking in, Steve opened his arms to the group, “listen dude, a coach calls a play in the game, bottom line, you execute it. All right?”
“Steve’s correct.” Cordelia added. “We are not the starting team.”
“Okay first of all,” Mike said, “this isn’t some stupid sports game.”
“You watch professional volleyball and see who's saying that.” Cordelia spoke under her breath.
“Yes,” Steve turned to Cordelia, stammering slightly, “right… So my point is…” Steve paused, looking for the words. “Right, yeah, we're on the bench, so, uh, there is nothing we can do.”
“That’s not entirely true,” Dustin said. “I mean, these demo-dogs, they have a hive mind. When they ran away from the bus, they were called away.”
Cordeila gave Steve a pouty look, joking, “I thought me and Stevie scared them away.” Steve stared at her large brown eyes and his heart did something he did not want it to do.
“No,” Dustin shook his head, curls flopping, “no they were called away.”
“So, if we get their attention…” Lucas said.
“Maybe we can draw them from the lab.” Max added, a look dawning on her freckled face.
“And clear a path to the gate,” Mike finished.
“Yeah, and then we all die.” Steve stated, hands crossed over his chest.
“That’s one point of view,” Dustin noted.
Cordelia smirked slightly, the right side of her mouth lifting upward, “yes, the most positive one.”
“No, that’s not a point of view, man, that’s a fact.” Steve said.
Pushing through Cordelia and Steve, Mike gasped, “I got it!”
He led the group to the fridge, pointing at a drawing near the bottom. Scribbled out in large, unruly lines was an image of a tunnel.
“This is where the chief dug his hole. This is our way into the tunnel, so…” Mike got up again, moving with quick steps back into the living room.
“Here, right here, this is like a hub,” he motioned his hands at a group of the same style of drawing, the tunnels depicted again. “So you got all the tunnels feeding in here.” The boy kneeled down, and with some pain Cordelia followed suit. “So maybe if we light this on fire…”
“Oh yeah?” Steve asked rhetorically, pointing down, “that’s a no.”
“The mind flayer would call away his army,” Dustin ignored Steve, who stood in the background, eyes wide.
“They’d all come to stop us,” Lucas realized, excitement riddling his voice.
“Then we circle back to the exit,” Mike said.
“Hey!” Steve told the group, “guys!”
“By the time they realize we’re gone,” Mike continues, eyes big and round.
Max nodded, understanding, “El would be at the gate.”
“Hey, hey, hey!” Steve yelled, “this is not happening!” He clapped his hands to prove his point.
“But—” One of the kids argued.
“No,no,no,no. No buts. We promised,” he motioned back and forth between him and Cordelia, his hands exaggerated, “we’d keep you shitheads safe, and that’s exactly what we plan on doing. We’re staying here on the bench, and we’re waiting on the starting team to do their job. Does everybody understand that?” Steve reiterated sternly.
Mike immediately voiced his anger, “this isn’t some stupid sports game!”
“I said, does everybody understand that?” Steve motioned to the kids, one by one, driving the point in by waving his hands, “I need a yes.”
Outside, interrupting their conversation, a vehicle revved. Cordelia sprang up, feeling her pocket for the gear shift, which was heavy, pulling the material off of her strong shoulders.
Before Steve or Cordelia could stop the kids, Max and Lucas were at the window, peering outside to the driveway. “It’s my brother,” Max said, and Cordelia immediately looked to Steve.
“He can’t know I’m here,” Max’s voice was quickly turning frantic, “he’ll kill me. He’ll kill us.” There was no jolly tone in her voice, only deep and serious truth.
Dragging his gaze away from Cordelia’s eyes, Steve looked worried. The car outside revved loudly two times, and before Billy could do it again, Cordelia and Steve made a beeline toward the door. Their steps in sync.
The tires squeaked outside, and Cordelia could tell he’d turned the car off through the window of the door, the headlights disappearing and painting darkness around them in their absence.
Steve stepped outside of the door, opening it wide so Cordelia could join him under the porch.
And there Billy was, a cigarette lit in his mouth. Though Cordelia often pretended to smoke, there was something so ugly about someone actually doing it. Actually tainting their lungs. But she supposed Billy was just as tainted already, no need for the cigarette.
His voice was dreamy and rough, addressing the two teenagers on the porch, standing side by side. “Am I dreaming or is that you Harrington? And Cordelia Silva. What a surprise!”
Steve stared directly at Billy, not missing a beat, “yeah it’s us, don’t cream your pants.”
Cordelia bit down on her tongue to hide the laugh that almost escaped. Steve Harrington, the boy not so good with comebacks, had one for the papers.
Billy’s car door slammed shut and he pulled off his jean jacket, exposing a red shirt halfway unbuttoned. The cigarette was loose in his mouth as Billy smirked, watching with ugly eyes as Steve stepped off the porch, nearing Billy.
“What are you doing here, amigo?” Billy asked, the smile still on his face. He walked toward Steve.
“I could ask you the same thing… amigo.”
“Looking for my stepsister. A little birdie told me she was here,” Billy said.
“Huh, that’s weird.” Cordelia responded loudly, still standing on the porch.
“Yeah. We don’t know her.” Steve added, watching as Billy shook his head.
Billy waved his hands up, “small, redhead, bit of a bitch.”
“Doesn’t ring a bell,” Cordelia told him, moving down the porch steps. She could see the anger growing slowly in Billy’s pupils.
Sighing dramatically, Billy shook his head, “you know, I don’t know, this… this whole situation, you know Harrington. It’s giving me the heebie-jeebies.”
“Oh yeah?” Steve responded, “why’s that?”
Taking the cigarette out of his mouth, Billy explained, “my thirteen year old sister goes missing all day. And then I find her with you and Silva in a stranger's house, and you both lie to me about it.”
Chuckling, Steve looked away, exasperated, “man, were you dropped too much as a child or what?” Billy ran his tongue along his teeth, smoke billowing from his mouth. “I don’t know what you don’t understand about what I just said.”
“We don’t know your stepsister.” Cordelia insisted. “She’s not here.”
“Most you’ve ever said in your life, Silva,” Billy said, then looked to Steve. “It’s always the quiet ones, ain’t it.” He ran his eyes over her body, pausing to stare at her chest and then down at her leg, where the bloodied jeans were dark against the night.
“What’s going on here, Silva? Got a little too feisty, huh?” Billy pointed with his cigarette to the bottom of her pants, to the blood. He pushed Steve’s shoulder playfully, “good job, Harrington.”
She glared at him roughly, “your sister isn’t here, buddy.”
“It’s about time you left,” Steve added, stepping back slightly after Billy touched him.
“Then who’s that,” the redheads eyes made their way to the window, where Cordelia saw Max peering out of the broken glass, along with Mike, Dustin, and Lucas.
“Ah, shit, listen,” Steve said, turning back to Billy, and as soon as he did, the redhead pushed Steve to the ground roughly. Corelia balled her fists up, ready to attack if Billy did anything more.
“I told you to plant your feet,” leaning over Steve, Cordelia watched ash from Billy’s cigarette land in Steve’s hair. Then, Billy kicked Steve right in the stomach, leaving him groaning on the ground. He stepped over Steve and made a break for the door.
Cordelia spun on him, racing to block the doorway. She was quick, that was something about her. “Not so fast, Hargove.” She told him, and he eyed her up and down.
“You know, Harrington didn’t choose a bad one,” he said, a twinkle in his eye.
Before he could say anything else, she slapped his face, her skin hitting his cheeks loudly. He looked dazed for a moment before rage boiled on his face and he shoved her back against the door, tossing her to the side.
Cordelia heard the door open and opened her eyes to see Steve getting up. Once he saw her against the porch, hunched over, he sprinted to Cordelia.
“Are you okay?” He asked quickly, hearing yelling coming from the house.
“Are you?” She asked, and before he could stop himself he was holding a hand out for her, pulling her up.
“Yes,” he told her. She was stronger then he’d assumed, and he saw an odd burn mark against the side of her thumb, like someone had melted the skin on her fingers like wax.
She nodded, and heard a shout coming from inside, and she rushed in front of him, pulling the door open and letting Steve enter.
She moved to the kitchen, where she could see Lucas being cornered by Billy, who was red with anger. “You are so dead, Sinclair. So dead!”
“No,” Cordelia said, pulling her fists out of her pockets. “You are.” Her fist contacted the side of his face as he turned, and she could tell Steve was beside her. She could feel his flesh under her knuckles as she beat upon his face, and then nose. Billy bent over with the force of one of Cordelia’s punches, laughing hysterically.
She felt a hand brush her shoulder, and Steve had pushed her back, standing like a shield in front of Cordelia.
“Looks like you’ve got some fire in you after all!” He shouted, a playful tone on his face. “I bet that’s what Steve likes the most about you.” He gave them a shit-eating grin.
Steve’s voice was dark and husky, “get out.” He pushed Billy away with two fingers.
Before she knew it, Billy’s arms were flying through the air at Steve. She pulled him down and he ducked, missing the punch. The two tripped over themselves and further into the kitchen, punches landing on Billy, who was driven against the countertop. Then, the redhead pulled a plate from the sink and dropped it onto Steve’s head, laughing as the ceramic shattered against his skull..
He followed Steve from the kitchen and the kids moved too, into the living room. Billy grabbed Steve’s shoulders and held him up, “no one tells me what to do!” He grunted loudly. Then, with one swift movement of his head, Steve’s own was hit and he landed down on the ground, sliding against the drawings of the tunnels and against the couch. Cordelia gave the kids a look signaling to stay where they were, and silently she approached Billy’s back. Rage boiled inside her.
Punches fell like hail from Billy’s palms as he beat upon Steve, who lay on the floor, unconscious. Blood gushed from his nose and mouth, and Cordelia didn’t have time to think about what she was doing.
She reached and forcefully pulled Billy’s shoulders back, causing the redhead to lose his balance. He reached and tried to punch the air as he was flung onto his back. Cordelia quickly sat on his stomach, her strong legs pinning him down. He had to be double her weight, but the surprise gave her an extra couple of seconds. She held her hands against his neck, leaning down so that her elbows pushed his arms to the floor. She could almost taste his breath on her tongue, their faces were so close together. Her fingers tightened on his throat.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Max approach. Just as the redhead came into view, there was something jabbing out of Billy’s neck. He looked dazed, and Max pulled Cordelia upright.
Billy stood slowly and stared at Cordelia, then Max. He reached into his neck, pulling a green tipped syringe out of his flesh. The needle was small, and delicate, and fearing he’d use it as a weapon, Cordelia held her arms out in front of the younger girl.
“The hell is this.” He said, glancing up and down at the syringe and then his sister. He moved several paces forward. “You little shit, what did you do?”
Then, he landed backwards, falling onto the carpeted floorboards with a loud thud. Out cold.
Max’s mouth was open as Billy started to laugh, and then Cordelia saw Steve. He was passed out on the ground, his eyes closed and face starting to swell. She moved gracefully over Billy’s body and kneeled next to Steve.
“Steve?” She asked, watching his chest rise and fall. “Goddamn it.” She whispered, closing her eyes. She was alone now.
“Stay away from my friends, Billy!” Max growled at her brother several feet away, as Cordelia felt for Steve’s pulse, checking for irregularities.
Cordelia turned around and rose as the hellish-bat hit the ground in between Billy’s legs, all the doing of Max. She pulled it out, the floorboards splintering. “Say you understand! Say it! Say it!” She screamed at her stepbrother.
He lolled his head to the side, “I understand.”
“What?” Max asked.
“I understand,” Billy mumbled again, this time slightly clearer and louder then the last.
Max dropped the bat and retreated back to where Lucas stood. Looking down at Billy, Cordelia took in a breath when she saw the keys imprinted in his jeans pocket. She leaned down, and shook them in her fingers.
“I’m done with this,” Cordelia said, meaning the creatures and the fighting.“Let’s get the hell out of here and finish those bastards off.”
