Chapter Text
As soon as the first creature took hold of his throat he felt instant pain. Although that was nothing compared to how it felt when one of them bit into his side. And then another one. The first noticeable thing was the sharp shooting feeling of the actual teeth.
And to be honest, Steve was kinda glad he was preoccupied with something more serious than the fact that there were teeth of some weird animal in his body.
But second, he registered a horrible feeling of wrongness that shot out through his body. He couldn’t describe it in a better way. It’s like something was suddenly in him. It felt gooey, warm but also super cold at the same time. He didn’t have enough time to ponder on how disgusting it felt because the bats were being ripped off of him. He heard some scattered yelling around him. Since he could finally move, his body shot into action right away and he may have bit into something but the adrenaline made everything feel a bit more rushed for him to register what was actually happening.
When he turned, Robin, Nancy and Eddie were all there. Which was a bit surprising since he thought they wouldn’t just jump in after him so recklessly. Something that he was wrong about apparently.
More of those things were flying around now, even guarding the gate. He couldn't help but feel hyper aware of the fact that there’s so many of them and they're everywhere There must be hundreds flying towards them now so they all have to run into those stupid woods again.
==========================================================================================
Eddie is pretty sure he’s dreaming. There’s no other way to explain all of this otherwise. He’s in this bullshit upside-down world and walking next to Steve fucking Harrington of all people. And he tells him so. Tells him how he can’t believe that Steve Harrington is actually a good dude. And he's not particularly lying about that. He still has a problem wrapping his head around Harrington being, dare to say, nice to him. So you can excuse Eddie for being just a little surprised about that.
He thinks that Steve will scoff, laugh, or even just roll his eyes in reaction to that but instead Eddie gets nothing. It’s safe to say that the weird lack of reaction throws him off course a little bit so naturally, he starts talking about Nancy, hoping that at least will warrant a reaction. Literally everyone knew about the big dramatic breakup of 'king Steve' and the 'goody two shoes' Nancy Wheeler. Whether you wanted to know about it or not.
But now Steve is looking at his lips. Right as Eddie is talking about his ex. Which is…not at all weird.
What’s way more strange is the spaced out look Steve has on his face. Eddie couldn’t see it before because of the low light, but now when their faces are so close he’s just a little bit concerned.
“Harrington?” He waves a hand in front of his face. He gets no response besides Steve’s features dropping. As his eyes start to blink a bit faster than normal, Eddie’s tone becomes more panicked.
“Hey you with me?” He shakes Steve’s shoulders just as he drops to the ground. Eddie barely catches him and now he’s rightfully in a full panic mode.
“Robin! Nancy? I think we have a little problem over here!” The two girls rush to his side as the screeches of the bats start up again. It's as if those motherfuckers were laughing at them or something. It's unnerving. As soon as Nancy reaches them, she is ordering all three of them to pick up Steve and move him to Skull rock since that is probably the closest hiding spot.
Eddie is partly carrying, partly dragging Steve's limp body. He can feel the uncomfortable warmth radiating off Steve, which is probably not a good sign of whatever is going on with him. Not to mention that even if Steve's supposed to be unconscious, his body shakes in Eddie's arms.
They finally put him on the ground when they get to the rocks and without hesitation Eddie immediately sits down next to him, putting Steve’s head in his lap. Nancy is whisper-yelling at him right away.
“What the hell happened?” She crouches down on the other side of Steve’s body.
“I don’t know! He was fine, we were just talking and then he started staring at- at nothing, then his face looked weird and he dropped to the ground.” He starts playing with his hands because now he doesn't have anywhere to put them without it being awkward.
Robin is leaning on the wall with hands in her hair. “I swear if I was right and it was actually rabies I’m gonna be so mad-”
Nancy cuts her off with “Robin! Calm down. I’m sure it’s not rabies, okay?” and a roll of the eyes for good measure.
Steve groans and all three of them jump, startled. He also turns his head, exposing something that looks like black veins or more like a vine going up from his shaking shoulder up to his ear. Eddie points at it, looking up at the two girls.
“I don't think that's supposed to be there, right?”