23. The Tide Is High

And we are over 200! WOOHOOOOO! I am so happy guys, thank you, every single one of you! Thank you for reading, following, reviewing, everything. It's been 23 days and 23 chapters and I am over the moon. I can't wait to see where this story's gonna go (yup, I actually don't know it yet)

Blondie – The tide is high

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I'm the type of person who tends to assume things. While that is generally bad and not exactly advisable, the good side of it is that I am usually very right. I make assumptions, yes, but in some 97% I am on point. Like just now; I assumed that Jonathan did not even have the time to think, let alone take my camera out of the car. Well, now it's officially his camera, because my brother is an asshole. But I was fairly sure that he left it in the car and lo and behold, I was right.

"You went to get a camera?" Mike asks when he recognizes the object in my hands as I close the gym door behind me. "Really? Is this really the time for photography?" he asks in annoyance.

"When you think about it, it's the perfect time for photography," I shrug. "We've just got the confirmation that Will is alive and chances are, we're going to have him back. Sure, it could be better. Our collective moods could be better but let's face it, this is the first time we have the time to breathe."

I know things aren't peachy as I'm making them out to be. Barbara is… dead. It's easy for me to push that away when she wasn't my best friend. Nancy is probably falling apart. I'm going to help her in any way that I can but right now, the kids are my biggest worry. We are adults. We can handle things, even things as crazy as the ones that have been hitting us in the face for the last week. They can't. And even if they can, a helping hand wouldn't hurt, would it? So, I snap the camera into Mike's annoyed face. He rolls his eyes and El looks confused as hell, but I guess it's going to make a memory. Maybe not the best memory ever, but a memory still.

"Let me get one with all four of you,' I say and when I see that Dustin and Lucas are a little bit reluctant to join in on the photo session, I sigh and literally push them closer to El and Mike. "Cheese!" I grin to my reluctant audience, but I take a photo anyways. "Now, who's gonna take one for the team and take a photo of me with you guys?"

"Me!" Dustin jumps up; he's probably eager because he doesn't want to be in another photo but I don't really care. I take his place on the bleachers and I throw my arm around Mike; well, Mike and El both, since they are pretty tiny when compared to me. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that smiled.

"What do we do now?" Lucas asks as I take the camera from Dustin; I snap another one blind, not even looking at what I'm capturing. "Could you please stop it with that?" Lucas sighs.

"Okay," I roll my eyes; so much for wanting to improve their mood a little bit. "We wait for them to come back for us. We wait for them to find Will."

"But what do we do if they don't show up?" Mike asks. I can tell it on his face, it's not a question he wants to think about but we all know what they're going into. I've been in it for a couple of minutes and it's more than enough to last a lifetime. They'll have to be in there for a while longer.

"Well, if they don't show up… we are going to drive you guys to my place. You'll stay there and hide. And we will go to look for them." I tell them. I'm pretty sure I can speak on Jonathan's behalf; there's no way in hell he would stay here with his brother and mother both being in the Upside Down. I'm not sure if Nancy will be as willing but I'm pretty sure she would. I know I'm in, no matter how dangerous it is.

I'm not going to let Will, Joyce, even Hopper get stuck in there. And I'm sure as hell not going to let Jonathan go in there alone. If they don't show up, we're going, with or without Nancy.

"And what do we do if you guys don't show up?" Lucas asks.

"You're thinking way too ahead dude."

"T, cut the crap and tell us what do we do!" Dustin snaps at me.

"You do nothing!" I lose my patience; I need to calm down. I'm not going to calm them down if I myself am angry. "Look, if that happens… there's not much you can do. There's no way in hell you're going in that place. Don't even think about it, any one of you. If we don't come back… go to your homes and act like everything is okay." I feel like such a bitch for saying it when I know all too well that they're not going to be able to act like that. Yet, we need them to. We need them to act and move on, if it does come to that. We can't have them looking for us, not even in this world, let alone in the Upside Down.

"And what about El?" Mike asks me.

I didn't even stop to think about that. When I thought about her, I always figured one of us will be there but if we all go in… I can't think negatively, but if we all go in there and if we don't come back out…

We all jump when the gym door suddenly opens; we all also breathe a sigh of relief when we see Jonathan. "Tina? Could you come outside for a sec? I need to talk to you." he tells me.

"Stay here, I'll be back in a minute," I glare at the kids before making my way out of the gym. I'm not surprised when I see Nancy waiting in the hall for me and Jonathan. "What's going on?"

"We're going to the police station." She tells me.

"Why?"

"To get the hunting stuff we bought," Jonathan explains. "We're going through with the plan."

"Oh, like hell you are!" I can't believe he's even suggesting it! "What are you gonna do, lure that thing out in front of four 12-year-olds?! Are you absolutely insane?"

"That thing killed Barb!" Nancy yells; of course, it's all her idea. She's driven by guilt and grief and I get it. Hell, if Jonathan got killed by that thing, I'd be thinking the exact same way she is. But Jonathan is very much alive and I am very much rational. "And Mrs. Byers and Hopper are going into a fucking trap! If that thing is in there, they are as good as dead!"

Okay, she has a point. It is dangerous and revenge would be quite nice but no!

"You can't bring your brother into such a risk," I shake my head. No way. "We can't do it here."

"We're not doing it here," Jonathan retorts. "We're doing it in my house."

"And what about the kids?" I ask.

"They'll manage on their own," Jonathan tells me. What?! "They've been doing great so far."

"I'll go and wait by the car." Nancy mumbles. As angry and as sad as she is, even she can see the fight that is about to occur. That's good; she can make a run for it and avoid the line of fire. She gets it but I don't think my boyfriend does.

"You aren't seriously suggesting leaving four kids unprotected in this shithole of a situation, are you?" I ask, not quite believing this entire situation.

"One of them has fucking super powers!" he yells. Yeah, like that solves every problem ever!

"Did you not see her just now? She's drained, Jonathan. She couldn't even levitate a cheeto, let alone save someone's life! You can't be serious! We can't leave them alone! We can't!"

"Fine, then you stay and keep them safe!"

His words are a verbal equivalent of a dead fish being smacked across my face. That's how it feels.

"And what, I am supposed to sit back here and let you and Nancy battle that fucking thing on your own?!"

"Yes! If you want to stay, stay! If you want to come with us, then come with us! But we are doing it, with or without you." he tells me. The moment I think that he can't even surprise me with anything anymore, he walks away. He just walks out of the school, leaving me to stand here like an idiot.

I have five seconds to make a decision. Five fucking seconds. Keep the kids safe or go with them?

Nancy doesn't have super powers. I'm not letting that asshole die tonight.

With a camera in my hands, I run out into the school parking lot, just as he was starting the car. He sees me and he waits for me to run to them; I throw the camera in before slamming the door with all the strength I have in me. I am literally shaking with anger.

"We need you more than they do," he starts to rationalize with me as he drives the car onto the road. "You can actually-"

"Don't you fucking dare," I growl. I swear, I never made a sound like this before. I was never this angry, not even with Steve when he broke Jonathan's camera. I am reaching completely new levels of anger right now. "Don't you even talk to me, Byers. Don't."

"Nothing is going to happen to them if they-"

"You don't fucking know that!" I yell so loud he actually jumps. "If something happens to those kids, I swear to god…" I don't even know what I'll do. I don't. I can't think about it, not when I'm in a car that's driving away from them. All I can think about is how fucking angry I am with Jonathan. "If you ever do something like that to me again, that's going to be the last time you ever talk to me. Don't you ever, ever force my hand like that!"

"If you want to stay than you can get out right now-"

"I can't!"

"Why not?!" he yells back at me.

"Guys, please don't." Nancy begs from the backseat.

"Oh why don't you take a wild fucking guess buddy?! Why?! Why can't I?! You tell me!"

This is the worst silence of my life. I don't like silence, I despise it and I can't handle it, but this is an unexplored level for me.

I told them I'll be back in a minute. They're gonna wonder where the hell I am and I imagine it'll take them a couple of seconds to figure out that the three of us, that the three almost adults that should have been in charge of them just left! We left! We didn't even tell them where we are going, nothing! For all I know, they'll come after us! With a Demogorgon roaming around and with those people after Eleven, they should not have been left alone. Not by me, not by anyone else.

But I can't let Jonathan risk himself like that. I can't just… sit back and watch him march into his own death. Even when he's acting like a dick. He forced my hand. He literally made me chose between them and him. I don't care about regular rules of dating, they don't apply here. Yes, no boyfriend should ever blackmail his girlfriend like that. I guess a part of me is angry about it too but this is different. We are all in massive danger. And if something happens to those kids, I don't know how I'm gonna forgive myself.

And if it happens, it'll be Jonathan's fault. He's the one who made me choose. He made me choose between him and them and… even if we all make it until morning, I'm not sure if my choice will be the right one. He never should have done that.

I don't think I can ever forgive him for this. Even if we all make it out alive. I don't think I could do it.

"Look, I'm sorry," he sighs. "I really am. But I can't just let-"

"What part of 'don't talk to me' did you miss?" I ask in a very calm and low voice, especially given that I was screaming at him seconds ago. This time around, he doesn't respond.

That's how you know real anger, that's how you know you've pushed someone to the edge and beyond. When the pure rage dies down, anger and disappointment remain. And to hear that must be a thousand times worse than screaming. I know it's hard for me to say it, it must be hard for him to hear it. If he even cares, that is. If he actually cared, he would not have put me in this position to begin with.

No flowers, apologies or mix tapes of the world could fix this.

Somewhere along the way, I smoked all my cigarettes and I did not even realize it until I really needed one. Even the spare pack I keep in Jonathan's stupid car is empty and I am dying!

I could jump out of my own skin, that's how I'm feeling. As if all those emotions I have been feeling weren't enough, now I'm on edge because the idiot is trying to sneak into the police station to take all the hunting gear we bought. If he gets caught… I don't even want to know what can happen to you if you try to steal from a police station. Hopper might be fighting alongside us but once the fight is over, he's going to have to go back to being a cop and Jonathan is apparently a criminal now.

"Tina, I'm sorry," Nancy speaks up, much to my dismay; I was hoping we can go on with pretending that the other one isn't in the car. "It was my idea. I didn't know you would end up fighting because of it, I didn't want it to lead to that and-"

"Nancy, don't," I sigh. "Please," I add, not wanting to sound like a complete and utter bitch, even if that might be something that Nancy deserves. No, she doesn't. She made a mistake but she just found out that her best friend is dead. She gets a pass, no matter how angry I am. "I don't want to talk about it. Besides, it's not about going after the Demogorgon. It's about… everything else."

She couldn't understand it, nor do I want her to. I'm afraid that her ups and downs with my brother can't quite compare to the down Jonathan and I are at right now. This isn't an everyday situation, not when you have mortal danger involved. There are no rules, no right or wrong. You can only decide if something feels right or not and what Jonathan did is everything but. It's the last thing I want to talk about and at the moment, Nancy is the last person I would talk to about it.

"If you don't talk about it, it's only going to eat you alive and you know it."

"Yeah well, it's my choice, so you're going to have to respect it."

She can be right about it a thousand times over, I can't talk about it. Not when I have a Demogorgon to kill, not when I need to keep a leveled head. As leveled as it could be, given the circumstances.

A part of me was hoping that Jonathan would actually get caught, because then I'd be free to go back to the kids and he can spend the remainder of the night under arrest and sulking. That being said, I am not surprised when I hear the trunk open, something heavy being put in it and slammed, before he gets in the car; I turn my head away, suddenly finding the view from the window incredibly interesting.

"I got it."

The drive itself seems like it's been going on for hours, even if I know it's not. The moment he parks the car, I am out of it. I march into his house as if it is my own and the moment I am through the doors, I run to the kitchen and I start rummaging through the drawers.

"What are you looking for?" I hear his confused voice but I don't bother with turning around.

I don't respond as I keep looking; once I find it, he'll get his answer. And that he gets, as I let out a sigh when I finally find one lone cigarette. I swear, I never needed one more than I need it now. It feels as if I am being lifted by angels and floating around mid-air. I'm not, but it sure feels like it.

I don't get it, why the two of them are staring at me, but instead of saying anything, I just ignore them.

"We need the lights," Jonathan finally speaks up. "You two, you cover the lights and I'll take care of the bear trap." He tells us.

"Where is it going to go?" Nancy asks him.

"Hallway," he nods his head towards it. "We will lure him out into the living room and then we'll make a run for it. To my room, or Wills, it doesn't matter. Once it gets in the trap, we will light the son of the bitch up." He explains. The plan is as good as any, though I am fairly certain we're not going to make it out alive. Knowing better than to start another discussion, I just walk past them, into the living room and without saying a word, I started putting the lights back together.

For whatever reason, every single light is unscrewed. Given that Joyce really went out of her way to decorate the living room, it's going to take us quite a bit of time to get them all together.

All three of us work in silence, with the only noise being Jonathan hammering the bear trap to the floor. Nancy and I are working faster than I thought we would but it'll still take us some time. I have a feeling that Joyce and Hopper should already be in the Upside Down, if their plan didn't fall into a glitch. And it probably did, because with our luck… we haven't been lucky so far and I don't see how that could change. This isn't going to end well. There's no way of this ending well for us.

"That was the last one," Nancy announces with a sigh. "Now what do we do?" she asks.

"You help him with the bear trap," I tell her, not wanting to have a moment alone with Jonathan. "I'll improve your bat." She nods and listens to what I say. I nearly break out into dance when I notice a half empty pack of cigarettes on the table; I light another one and I walk over to the stereo. If I'm going to go through this shit, at least I can have some preparation music. Of course, the moment I blast the music, Jonathan looks up from the bear trap and directly at me; he doesn't hold my gaze and I imagine it has something to do with the way I looked at him.

I love Blondie, I love Debbie Harry with all my heart, but "The Tide is High" has to be the worst possible song for monster killing time. Still, I hammer nails into the baseball bat, feeling better than I did before I played the music. I think I get in about 15 nails, which has to be good enough. The bat is the last resort anyways, since we are definitely planning to shoot the damned thing down. Seeing as the two of them are still struggling with the bear trap, I decide to kill the time with dealing with the gasoline.

Now, I may not be a scientist but I'm pretty sure that pouring gasoline around a house while smoking a cigarette is a bad idea. The problem is, I don't really care. At worst, I'll explode, but hey, at least that will give them enough blood to lure out the Demogorgon, right? Two birds with one stone, the way I see it. They will go through with their stupid plan and Jonathan won't have to deal with me afterwards. Hell, I'm probably doing him a favor.

I start in the living room, just in case. It's a massive issue, since we don't know where the thing is going to show up; we are planning to spill blood in the living room but for all we know, it can come out of the bathroom. And if I pour gasoline everywhere, we're fucked. The house can… explode. Still, I start in the living room and I go through the hallway.

Jonathan and Nancy move when I get to the bear trap and I really don't go easy on it; that's where it's going to burn now.

"Which room do I go to now?" I ask as the gas keeps pouring onto the floor.

"My room," Jonathan tells me and I just nod as I leave the bear trap to them and make my way to Jonathan's room, leaving a trail of gasoline behind me. How bad is it that I hope the fire will catch Jonathan's photos? At least those he took of me. I'm angry enough to not want him to have any memories but I think I'm still rational, seeing as I don't look for the photos to soak them in gasoline. "We're done!" he announces from the hallway, just as I finally managed to empty the bottle.

"Now what do we do?" I ask as I walk out into the hallway.

"Blood." Nancy sighs.

Once again, I work in silence. I turn off the stereo as the two of them move the table closer to the wall, to leave space in the middle of the room.

Jonathan hands me a knife and I look up in confusion; he has a knife in his other hand to and so does Nancy. "Are you serious?" I ask and both of them just shrug. Oh brother. "Look, if I have to be the one, it's not a problem, but how the hell do you think it's going to be a good idea if we all cut ourselves? We need our hands. We're going to have to fight this thing. How do you think we're going to do it if all three of us are injured?" I ask; apparently, I'm the only one who still has some common sense here. I don't have a particular desire to be the one who provides the blood but I'd rather do it than to have all three of us do it. We need to be able to fight it. We can't just… hurt ourselves in advance!

"She's right," Jonathan tells Nancy. "But how do we decide?"

"Rock, paper scissors?" Nancy suggests. Well, that might just be the only fair way do to this. I am safe in the first round, having rock over their scissors. I watch as the next round ends up in a tie with two scissors. And then Nancy loses; paper beats rock. "Okay. Okay. Okay." She nods her head. I can see the look on her face, the look of 'just do it and be over with it' and I look away at once. I don't have to see it to know it had happened; I hear her gasp. "Son of a bitch!"

"No, not the palm! Nancy!" I snap in annoyance when I see where she's bleeding. "How are you going to hold a gun now?" I ask. Seriously, it would have just been better if I took the knife and did it myself.

"I'll manage." She manages to utter, clearly focused on the pain.

"Come on, get over here, let's get this thing fixed," I tell her as I sit down on the couch and grab the first aid kit we had prepared earlier. She's bleeding like crazy. If that thing is drawn by blood, there's no way it's not going to react to this. I'm no nurse but I'm doing my best. I bind her hand, watching as she jumps up at every tiniest noise. "Don't worry, we'll know when it happens." I mumble.

"How?" she asks with a frown.

"Mom said that the light speak before it comes." Jonathan explains and Nancy looks even more confused.

"They blink, flicker," I elaborate. "We will know when it comes. And when it does…"

"Run to Jonathan's room," Nancy nods her head. "Don't step on the bear trap."

"We wait for the yo-yo" I continue.

"And then we burn the son of a bitch." Jonathan finishes.

"Who would have thought that killing a monster from a different dimension is such a picnic, right?" I comment as I am finally done with taking care of Nancy's hand; I did the best I could, but once this is over, we're taking her to the hospital to have that thing checked out, just in case.

"Tina?" Jonathan asks and reluctantly, I look up at him. I can tell that he's struggling to say what he wants to say, whether it's because Nancy's here or because he doesn't really want to say it. I wait. I don't have anything else to do, after all. "I'm sorry." He finally manages to utter under his breath.

"Don't lose sleep over it," I look away from him. "It's my fault after all. You're that guy."

"What guy?" I don't even have to look at him to know that he's confused as hell.

"Nothing," I shake my head. "Forgot I even said anything."

He might not get it but I do. I remember it, as clear as day. I thought that what Steve told me was a load of crap. Or that it's an occasional case and that Jonathan and I would end up being an exception to the rule. Hell, we were nothing back then; I was bawling my eyes out because he was ignoring me, thinking that's the worst thing ever, the biggest problem we will ever face. I remember Steve's speech as clear as day. Being with someone is like giving them the power, the ability to hurt you but trusting and hoping that they won't do it.

I didn't think I'd be stupid enough to fall into that trap. I thought more of myself, that I was stronger and more independent, that a guy will never change that, even if the guy was the guy. Now I know that I was wrong because I did exactly what Steve had said. I gave Jonathan the power to hurt me, I handed it over with a red bow wrapped all over it, truly believing he wouldn't do it. And yet he did.

Steve's speech didn't end there, unfortunately. He also said that if such guy exists, he can never know that he has that kind of power. Never, ever. Jonathan knows it. I don't know if he used it willingly but he did use it. I don't know if he wanted me to come with them or not, I don't know if he thought that forcing a decision onto me will play in his favor. Jonathan isn't calculated like that. At least I don't think he is. Seeing what had happened in the last 24 hours, maybe he is and I got it all wrong.

Whether he did it on purpose or not, he did it and it hurts like hell. I'm not sure how I'm going to get over it, or if I'm going to get over it at all! And unfortunately, it highly depends on how this night will end for all of us.

Well, at least if one of us dies, I won't have to worry about that anymore, will I?

"Why is it taking so long?" Nancy asks, shaking with impatience. I might not be panicking as she is but I am a bit worried about the slight delay. What if it's busy with Joyce and Hopper? What if they are already in the Upside Down and something bad had happened?

Or what if we are completely wrong? What if it doesn't react to blood at all, what if it is not drawn to it? It was a theory from the start and theories can be as wrong as they can be right.

"It will probably happen soon," Jonathan mumbles. "We just have to wait for it." he tells us. Not wanting to risk anything, I take a gun from the table and I hand the other one to Nancy. I still don't get how she could be stupid enough to cut her palm. I get, theatricality and all that, blood sacrifice and while it's all very poetic, it's not practical at all. But she holds the gun and doesn't complain about the pain.

A loud knock on the door makes us all jump up and the three of us exchange looks; monsters don't knock. I doubt this one suddenly developed manners.

"Jonathan?!"

My blood freezes when I recognize the voice. I look over at Jonathan, who looks equally as shocked as I do. What the hell is he doing here?! He never… I'm going to kill him, I swear to god. I will kill him with my own two hands!

"Are you there man?! It's… it's Steve!" he yells. Nancy's eyes go wide; she's the last one to pick up. But of course my brother would show up when we're trying to lure out a monster from a different dimension, his timing has always been impeccable!

"Listen, I just want to talk!" he yells as he knocks on the door again.

"You get rid of him." I tell Nancy, knowing I would only end up making things worse.

This isn't going to end well.