Steve Harrington Appreciation Week Day 2: Incorrect Quote

It’s past midnight. Perfect time for nightmares.

Music: Out of the Darkness -Matthew And The Atlas 

Inspiration:

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Steve hasn't left the house in six months. He hasn't left his bed in weeks. After Billy's death his mental state went into shambles. He'd wake up screaming, he refused to eat, and worse of all...he began secluding himself from all of his friends. Robin and Dustin have only ever seen him a couple of times in those six months but aside from that, his parents were the only ones who interacted with him.

Today, he spent most of the morning lying in bed wearing the yellow sweater Billy use to wear. His mom sits besides him caressing his hair which is now dry and tangled. It pains his mom to see him, she begs him to eat just a little bit of food but he still protests. After witnessing the love of his life get impaled by the creature that had possessed him, Steve feels like there's nothing left to live for, everything was taken away from him that night. All he wants to do now is lie in his bed, wishing to one day fall asleep, and never wake up.

"Stevie, honey please, you can't stay in bed forever." She pleads, "I know it's been difficult ever since Billy passed but you should at least speak to your friends."

"I'll phone them later."

"how many messages do you think are on this thing?" She leans over to grab his answering machine and places it on his bedside cabinet. "They're all worried about you. Just listen to some of these messages for me, please?" She gave him a kiss on the forehead before leaving him alone with the contraption. It takes him a while but eventually he shuffles forward on his bed and picks up the machine.

You have 10 new messages

Steve contemplates it for a second, but it not really like he's got anything better to do, so he places the answering machine beside his bed and presses play.

14:08 15 Jan-

Hey Steve, It's Robin. Just checking in again, guess what happened in family video today? So this old guy came in looking all suspicious and shit and he starts grabbing a bunch of VHS tapes, right? So just as he's coming to the counter his wife shows and he starts to FREAK OUT! he drops all the tapes, which happen to all be pornos and she goes off at him. Calling him a pig, saying he's a disgusting old perv, and I'm standing there like "uhhh...no one in this fucking place pays me enough to deal with this shit." Argh! Sorry. Rambling again. We all miss here Steve, just know that, I know you need your space right now I get it. But when you're to talk I'm right here. Okay, gotta go, Bye!

Steve smirks for the first time in the past few months. He wonders he how much it's been killing Robin not to have someone to ramble to.

12:54 25 Dec 1985-

Hey Steve! Merry Christmas!

Dustin yells out threw the machine as the static sounds of cheerful Christmas music invade the background.

Mom! Will you turn the music down please?! Sorry about that. I'm just calling to wish you a merry Christmas, I hope you're okay man,. I haven't seen you since...well...oh guess what? I finally got into the hellfire club! You know Eddie Munson, leader and dungeon master, he caused another scene in the cafeteria today even though it was totally justified. When the teachers came to question him, I decided to stick up for him and he liked my confidence. I've been waiting forever to join to his club and I finally got in...OKAY MOM! I gotta go have dinner but tomorrow I'll come by and drop off your gift. Merry Christmas Steve.

Steve still has his Christmas present, a framed photo of him, Robin and Dustin hiding in the back of scoops ahoy, their faces covered in ice cream. Steve will occasionally pick it up from the window sill and reminisce about those days. He picks up the photo and looks at it fondly trying to forget about the person taking the photo.

14:43 12 Sep 1985-

Umm...hi Steve. How are you feeling?

It's Dustin again only this time the tone of his voice is drastically different. He's less perky than in the previous voicemail. Dustin, Robin and Steve didn't have a proper conversation until late October so it's no wonder that he's a little timid here.

So it's been a while we last talked. How are you holding up? I've really missed you and I didn't know if I should come over or call or what. My mom said I should give you some space. But whenever you want to chat I'm right here... alright. Bye.

18:23 6 sept 1985-

STEVE! Hi, I don't know if you can hear me that well. Its Joyce Byers. Jonathan's mom.

The poor quality of the audio crackles through the machine as Joyce's voice enhances as it tries to automatically set the volume from the previous message. Steve lightly slams the machine which seems to stop the crackling a little.

Sorry if the sounds is not great. I'm calling on a payphone right now, the connection at this motel is horrible. Listen I don't a lot of time left on this thing but there's someone here who wants to speak with you.

There's a brief moment of dead silence with inaudible muffling on the other end.

Steve?...

He can't answer you sweetie.

Oh. Hi, it's El. Just wanted to see how you are. We'll be in California in few weeks, we're going to go down to Santa Monica pier. That was his favourite place to go to in the summer. When I was travelling through Billy's memories you were in a lot of them, you made him really happy you k--

Steve skips over to the next message. He knows how the rest of these are going to go, it doesn't matter how sincere they are, to Steve it's nothing but a million voices repeatedly pitying him. Well Steve doesn't want their pity. He doesn't want to be reminded of everything he's lost. He skips past the next five messages, only listening to them for a brief moment just praying it has nothing to do with Billy. But each one is the exact same with a new voice. He pictures Billy in his last few seconds of breathing as each new message plays and he hates it. Steve doesn't want to remember Billy like that, but the memory of that day has been plaguing his mind for so long it's all he can think about. He's about ready to throw the damn machine against the wall until he reaches the final message.

00:34 2 July 1985-

Steve...

That voice. He thought he'd never hear that voice again. Steve sits up in his bed astonished, tears already glazing his eyes, he lifts the answering machine onto lap. All others sounds around tune out, the world goes silent, expect for his voice. His scared little voice.

I know it's late. I would've come by scoops I just...I don't think I can be around right now. I can't be around anyone. I…I don't know what's happening to me, it feels like there's some kind of poison in me, I don't have any control of my own body anymore. I want to tell you everything, I swear I do, but he won't let me. This shadow. It's been following me, it suffocates me the second I try to tell anyone the truth. I know this sounds stupid but you have to believe me. He's making me do things...awful things. I want to see you but I'm afraid if I do, he'll make me do to you what I did to those people.

The pitch of his voice is high. He's trying his best not to break down into a blubbering mess. Steve remembers the time, around this time he was investigating a secret Russian base underneath the mall. Maybe if he had been smarter and decided to go home that night instead, he could've gotten this message and done something to prevent all the shit that went down. He lives with that guilt everyday.

I can't stop him. He's making me build something for him. I've helped created, I've seen it Steve, I know what will d--

Billy begins to choke on his words as the monster within him begins seeping through. He hears Billy pull the phone away from him and yell out to someone or something but there seems to be no response.

I feel like I've failed you. I feel like I've failed Max, failed everyone, I'm so so sorry. Steve...I don't think I'm going to make it out of this alive. If I don't...just know I loved you. I really loved you, baby, and tell Max I loved her too, I never got to tell her that myself. Listen Stevie, I need you to do something for me if I die...I need you to take care of Max. She doesn't have anyone to look out for her, she needs that, Max is a weird kid but she needs someone to love her just like any other kid. Don't leave her to turn into another me...Ok. I don't...I don't think I can hold him back much longer. Bye, Steve, I love y--

YOU HAVE NO NEW MESSAGES

The teardrops pool down Steve's cheeks. How could he be so selfish? For all the brooding and mourning he had been doing for the past six months, making everyone else feel like shit for going out of their way to cheer him up, Max has been going a similar situation. If not a worse situation. Billy was her brother, they of had a rocky relationship but he was trying to be a good brother, even if he had a weird way of showing it.

Billy would speak fondly of Max in private when it was just him and Steve but never to her face. He had been working up the courage to say I love you to her but now she'll never hear those words escape his mouth. Max will never truly know what she meant to Billy.

For the first time in weeks Steve gets out of bed. It's like a weird surge of adrenaline enters his body but he doesn't care, Steve throws the duvet off of himself and takes his dust-covered keys from his drawer, he bolts for the door ignoring his parents entirely. He drives around town for a good few minutes, his first instinct was to go to the Hargrove's residence but he remembered that Max was never home at this time of day. Eventually he makes it to the junkyard where a gloomy young redhead is sitting on a rotting couch with Billy's Walkman on.

"Steve?" Max utters slightly confused as she swears she told no one she would be here. Steve towers over her awkwardly, realizing he hadn't thought out what he was going to say. "How did you find me?"

"I had a hunch you'd be here. You mind if I join you?" Max shrugs and shuffles over to give him space to sit on the mouldy couch. "So... I know things have been pretty shitty and--"

"God, Steve really?!"

"I know. I know you don't want to hear the same, "I'm sorry for your loss" pity speech. I just came to apologize for the way I've been acting."

Max raises an eyebrow at him.

"Cause for the past six months I had been making this all about me. I've been acting like a child just sulking in my room all day and ignoring everyone that I didn't even stop to think about you. I lost my boyfriend but you lost your brother. I came here to tell you that...he loved you."

"what?"

"He loved you," Steve reiterates, "I wanted to say that to you for so long but never found the right opportunity. I know it didn't seem like it, but he thought the world of you, Max. He wasn't a perfect brother, sure. But he wanted to be better for you."

Max looks down at her feet speechless. She knows that she was his shitty little sister, but she never really thought Billy saw her as anything beyond that. To hear she meant so much more to him, makes the aching pain in her heart burn like wildfire.

"yeah so, anyways, I just thought you should know that. I'm gonna go but just so you know, from now on, if you need anything I am always here for you. Billy would've wanted me to take care of you so... I'll just...yeah." Steve can sense an awkward tension growing between them so he removes himself from the couch and makes his way over to his BMW.

"Hey Steve!" Max calls out just as he's opening the car door, "do you think you can give me a ride home?"

Steve gives Max a little smile before opening the passenger side for her. As he drives her through the streets of Hawkins he can see Max begin to fall asleep against the window in the rear view mirror. Steve remembers that has the keys to Billy's Camaro. Maybe when Max is older he can teach her to drive and then she could take ownership of the vehicle.

Billy wanted to have that sibling connection with Max for so long, he just had a bad time at opening up that it usually strained his relationship with others. Now he'll never get to have the chance to be a real brother. Steve knows he'll never be Max's brother but he can at least be someone she can rely on, someone who can look out for her, it's what Billy would've wanted. Someone to make sure she doesn't have the same childhood he did.

I’m just gonna put this here

🙂

I GOT YOU

Billy in the upside down and Steve brings him back.

(I did this before vol 2 but I couldn’t finish it before vol 2 released LOL)

EMOTIONAL DAMAGE

While reading this, all I could think was just

“Damn Mirio”

I support the slut Steve Harrington act

Repost if you agree

tbblobnoern tuesday

A moment of light during the siege

#i love her, your honor.

They tried to move him, drag him away from the unmoving boy lying before Steve but he couldn't move. His legs numb beneath him as he sat there staring at the blood covering his tank top unsure if all of this was even real but eventually the sirens got closer and the fire began to spread far too close for comfort. That was when a fireman appeared urging him to get out, to leave before his lungs gave in to the smoke but Steve couldn't leave him to the flames. He deserved better than that so he stood up but before he could be ushered towards the exit he leaned down and lifted him into his arms.

His legs weak from exhaustion, his head aching from the drugs and injuries but he walked through the smoke. Through the blue emptiness with no one but the boy he loved curled into him as if he were just asleep. Nothing but the flashes of red and blue to lead the way until finally he felt the cool breeze of the night air and he stepped out of the Mall and the smoke, into the commotion going on in the parking lot.

No one rushed to him or took Billy from his arms. In fact no one even looked his way as more men rushed inside to put out the fire they had caused. For a moment he wondered if he was the dead one and if this was hell but even hell would not be so cruel. He lay Billy down on a stretcher and watched as he was loaded into the back of an ambulance, Max by his side. Not a word passed between them but a simple thank you from the girl who was grateful that he hadn't left him inside. Shock still in full affect until he walked through the door of his bedroom and felt the reality of it all come crashing down.

Billy was gone...