#demo!steve

"Eddie's kinda right, though. There's no graffiti and the windows are intact," Ronnie points out. "And this has been sitting here empty for decades."

"Maybe we're the first ones here," Rick rubs his hands excitedly. 

"Yeah, I doubt that."

"Well, maybe not everyone's into petty vandalism." 

"Did I bring the paint spray for nothing?"

Rick scoffs, kicking at the wire fence in search of an entry point. "I'm not doing arts and crafts, man, I'm here to get drunk in a creepy building."

That they could all agree on. It was the tale of a forgotten laboratory that brought their curious teenage asses up to this point, armed with a crowbar, a bolt cutter, and a crate of beers. 

Which brings them to now, exploring the abandoned rooms with only the setting Sun illuminating the inside of the building. The deeper they go, the less windows there are, the doors get heavier and the corridors narrower. It's a delightful nightmare fuel and it gets even better when they find a staircase. 

"Oh, hell yeah." Rick grins upon pushing open the door. "Wanna see how deep it goes? I bet the best shit happens underground."

"You mean the worst shit."

"Duh. Maybe we'll find an autopsy table or something. Bet they were cutting up humans here." 

They all pile down the stairs, some of them swaying more than the others. Somewhere in the building, an emergency power source must still be running, illuminating their path in dim light filtering through years of dust and cobwebs. 

"Shouldn't we be on aa basement level by now?" Ronnie observes as they turn into the next flight of stairs. 

"Maybe they needed an extra layer so the screams won't carry." Rick grins up at her. 

"Sure," she deadpans. 

They reach the end of the stairs soon, and sure enough the door say -1.

"Maybe there are other stairs to ground 0?" Eddie suggests. 

"Maybe," someone answers with no conviction. Rick pushes the door. 

They set up camp by what seems to be a reception desk, splitting into pairs to explore the dark hallways around, beers and flashlights in hand. Nothing seems too out of place, most of the doors ae closed, but through the windows they don't see much more than empty labs, ridden of any equipment. 

"This would be much more boring if the light was on," Eddie observes quietly. 

Ronnie snorts. "Oh yeah. It's almost like walking through school at night. But at least the science classroom has a skeleton."

"There's still hope, we haven't seen all the rooms."

"Hey guys!" Rick's voice booms suddenly through the darkness, making them curse and clutch at their only weapons—a flashlight and a bottle of beer. "I've found some keys!"

Eddie and Ronnie find each other's eyes in the dark. "Ooooh!" They croon in unison, turning back without a word. 

"Now we can make explore the empty labs from the inside!" 

"You think someone left their mug behind? Would be a kick ass gift fro Wayne."

"'Greetings from Hawkins Laboratory'?" Ronnie raises an eyebrow. 

"I don't know what eggheads are into." Eddie shrugs. 

While everyone looks through the cabinet of keys, Eddie takes a step aside and takes a look around. Their flashlights illuminate the blackness at the farthest corners, where anything could be lurking and looking at they annoying group of teenagers disrupting the peace. 

"Has anyone seen a bathroom by any chance."

Rick gives him a short, annoyed look. "Just go in the corner, Munson, don't be a wuss."

"Man, it feels weird in a place like this." Eddie makes a face. "I bet there's a nice, spider-infested urinal somewhere."

"Well, be my guest to look for it, then." Rick shrugs, reading through the labels on the key chains. "Ugh, these make no sense. Here, everyone take a few, let's see who can match it to a door first."

read full on ao3

After being attacked by the demo bats in the upside down a month ago something was different about Steve..

Shortly after Steve’s encounter with the demo bats, only two after days actually, he started to notice some changes. On the second day when he woke, he noticed the lesions on his neck were gone.

Standing in front of the bathroom mirror pulling down the collar of his shirt and tilting his head every which way looking for the marks that marred his skin he found them gone. He took a long breath and then lifted his shirt. Steve tucked the bottom of his shirt under his chin and slowly started unwrapping the bandages around his torso. When the last piece of white gauze fell he gasped. Every bite, every scratch, was gone, completely, his skin creamy and pristine. Steve took a shaky step back from the mirror almost tripping over the bathmat, his shirt falling back into place. He didn’t tell anyone.

The next day the fever started, he woke before the sun, skin burning and sweat beading all over.

Steve felt pain everywhere but mostly in his jaw, it felt like someone was trying to rearrange his bones and his teeth but with no success. He laid there in pain in a puddle of his sweat for a few hours before he felt like his teeth were truly going to be pushed out to make room for new.

He shoved the thin sheet he had covering him off and stumbled into the bathroom, one hand holding his jaw as if the pressure of it could make it stop. He stumbled in front of the sink and started gagging as blood filled his mouth and his teeth started to get pushed out of their sockets as new, sharper teeth took their place. Steve looked at the bloody sink full of his teeth in horror as the pain subsided but blood still spilled out from his parted lips in a small stream mixed with his saliva. He looked up into the mirror catching a glimpse of his new teeth. Steve brought a shaky hand to his mouth, pulling his bottom lip down with two fingers revealing a row of big sharp teeth. He gasped pulling away from the mirror in shock, he took a second to breathe before approaching the mirror again. This time he raised his top lip bearing his teeth, on top was more like vampire teeth, front four teeth normal and then large pointed canines. He hooked a finger into his cheek and pulled the skin back, the skin there felt more flexible somehow, stretchier. He revealed the rest of his teeth all jagged and sharp behind his canines.

Steve felt like the room was spinning as he pulled himself away from the mirror and stumbled back to his room. He fell back into bed and just stared at the turning ceiling feeling sick to his stomach.

A/N: Okay so, tell me what you think in the comments, also sorry for any weird formatting I just copy and pasted from my notes.