Dead Girl Walking ━━ Steve Harrington

??? Curiouser and Curiouser

"It was cold during the night. Don't you think so?" Rhiannon said, pursing her lips. That seemed like a solid excuse.

"Yeah. Yeah— cold— really cold. That's probably why we were..." Steve never finished that thought, checking his watch instead. He grabbed his blue jacket from the back of the armchair and snatched up his shoes. "I'm gonna go, see if I can find Henderson."

"Yeah, you do that." She was just glad one of them was getting away from this disaster.

On his way out, Steve greeted Nyx and rubbed his furry head. The second he was gone, her facade fell. She sighed, pressed her palms over her face, and swiped the hazy fog of drowsiness away. Nyx was staring at her with those sharp feline eyes of his, gaze heavy with judgment.

"Don't look at me like that," she scolded. "It was cold."

Callous as usual, he went back to playing with the tassels on a threadbare cushion.

When she walked into the kitchen, Dustin was already at the counter, eating a bowl of cereal. "Morning," he said. "How'd you sleep?"

"Great," Rhiannon mumbled, though with the enthusiasm of a brick wall. Early mornings had a way of dampening her mood.

Still, that answer was enough for Dustin. "Cool. I've got cereal and toast out. Or eggs in the fridge. Coffee's in the pot."

Steve moved to pour himself a cup. "Mind if I use the guest shower?"

Rhiannon let out a quiet sigh as she reached for the cereal. She'd been hoping to shower first, but Steve beat her to it.

"Go for it," Dustin said with a shrug. "It's a bit faulty, though. The heater stops working after a while."

After breakfast, Rhiannon waited. Waiting was not something she was made for because, after mere minutes, she was pacing the guest room restlessly.

Another second ticked by before she knocked on the door. "What's the holdup?"

The shower shut off, preceded by the sound of feet shuffling against the tile. "I didn't use all the hot water, if that's what you're worried about," came Steve's reply. "I'll be out in a sec— just getting dressed."

"Can you finish that out here? We gotta go before Dustin's mom gets home."

"As long as you're not gonna be weird about it."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not in your little fan club. It's not that big of a—"

The door swung open. He stood there in nothing but a towel, hair damp and disheveled, skin glistening wet. The heat from the bathroom clung to him. Rhiannon's breath hitched. Her gaze skirted to his toned abdomen before she quickly looked away, pretending to study the bed, the armchair, the tacky floral wallpaper. In her periphery, she could see the corner of his mouth twitch. Him, amused? It annoyed her to no end.

"Knock yourself out," he said as he walked past her.

She nearly bumped into the door as she treaded into the bathroom, trying not to stare at the droplets trailing down his body. She hadn't gotten the image out of her head even as she got in the shower.

That is, until the water turned painfully cold and she wanted to curse him to hell. She should consider herself lucky her body easily adjusted to drops in temperature.

It was midmorning by the time they went out to the store to buy the supplies for Dart's trap. Rhiannon decided to leave Nyx back home because she didn't want to expose him to any danger, and attempting to catch an interdimensional monster would surely put him in the crossfire. After leaving Maple Street, Steve drove to the outskirts of town and parked his car on the side of the road next to the forest. The three of them slipped on cleaning gloves and gathered the buckets of bait from the trunk.