Short and Sweet

My eyes flew open at the sound of Steve's voice. "This is crazy, this is crazy, THIS IS CRAZY!" his voice came from the living room.

I jolted up from the bed and threw open the door. I stumbled over my feet as I followed the sound of chatter in the living room. Sure enough, a panicked Steve was running out the door and fumbling for his car keys. I slowed to a stop and quirked a brow. "Why was Steve here?" I questioned slowly.

Before either of my companions could answer, the lights started flickering again. I backed up against the wall and pressed myself against it, trying to gain a sense of where the demogorgon was coming from. It was an attempt in vain. All the lights flickered in unison as Nancy and Jonathan stood back to back in the center of their room, wielding their respective weapons. Suddenly, my vision went black and that dark feeling crawled through my veins once again. All of my senses were overwhelmed with deprivation. There was no sound. There was no smell. Just a complete void. "It's here," I whispered to myself, the comment going unnoticed by Nancy and Jonathan.

Just as quickly as the void came, it was gone. The Christmas lights had all shut off. For a dreadfully long moment, there was an eerie stillness to the air. I shut my eyes and took a deep breath in. This was it, whether I liked it or not. This was the moment they were going to find out.

As I exhaled, I heard Nancy scream. "Jonathan!"

My eyes snapped open to see Jonathan being tackled by the demogorgon. I froze at the sight of it, feeling my heart drop to my feet as my past came rushing back to me. Nancy got off a few rounds on the monster before emptying her clip completely. I tried to will myself to help, but I was paralyzed by fear. God damn it, Melanie. Move. Move your feet. You can save them.

The demogorgon was standing tall over Nancy, and I saw terror flash through her eyes. It leaned in closer and closer, preparing for the kill. I pushed and pushed myself to help her, but I couldn't. My body was frozen in place. "Nancy!" I cried out to her.

I was taken by surprise when Steve jumped in front of her with a bat, and clubbed the demogorgon. "Steve!" I heard an exclamation come from Nancy.

Steve stood his ground well against the humanoid creature, swinging his bat ferociously and fighting with all he had. I had to gather my courage quickly. Steve had bought me valuable time, and I had to use it.

I closed my eyes once again. This time, I willed myself into the void. I basked in the dark silence. I recalled my past. I recalled how many people I had lost to the creatures of this realm. My mother. My brother. I pictured their faces. I pictured their smiling faces with the expressions they used to have before any of this had happened. I remembered it all so vividly: the crinkles at the corners of my mother’s eyes when she grinned, the dimples that appeared on Brian's mouth when he laughed, the freckles scattered on his face from being in the sun all day. This creature took them from me. And it was about to take more.

Rage boiled under my skin as I forced my eyes open. My vision immediately turned dark around the edges. My eyes focused on the one thing in the room that mattered: the demogorgon. I kept my gaze pinned onto the monster and put all of my energy into pinning it down. My fists clenched impossibly tightly as I held the creature in place. I felt my body temperature rise ever higher. The demogorgon froze, seemingly paralyzed. Jonathan glanced up at it, sensing something was wrong. As I focused even more on the pain that it had caused me, it began to scream. It screamed with the same pain I felt. My breathing became heavier, but other than that, I showed no sign of exhaustion. My eyes narrowed as the demogorgon screamed even louder. "What the hell..." Nancy muttered quietly with a dazed look in her eyes, as Steve let his bat fall to his side in confusion.

But Jonathan knew.

His gaze moved from the demogorgon to me, and I knew I was done for. He knew it was me. My eyes met his for a moment, and he gave an almost imperceptible nod. With that, I felt a new resolve to finish what I had started. My stare focused back on the demogorgon, and not even a second later, it burst up into flames. My body temperature rose to the point where it felt as though there was fire running through my veins. But I showed no sign of pain. I hardened my gaze as I continued to burn the demogorgon to the ground with my mind. It shrieked in agony as it burned to ash.

Once it was finally dead, all of the life flew out of my body and I fell to my knees. I didn't have to hold a hand up to my nose to know that there was a steady stream of blood flowing from it. "Oh my God," Nancy stuttered out as she stared at the charred corpse of the demogorgon in disbelief. "It wasn't anywhere near the trap."

Jonathan stumbled to his feet and rushed over to me. His hands found purchase on my shoulders as he forced my unfocused eyes to meet his. "Mel. Mel, look at me. Are you okay? Can you hear me?" his voice came out high pitched and wobbly. "What was that? How did you do that?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but before I could, I passed out for the second time that evening.