steve harrington · stranger things · kidnapped · drugged · beaten · vulnerable · resilient · hawkins · horror · thriller
The air in the dingy, clinical room was a thick cocktail of antiseptic and the iron tang of old blood. Steve Harrington slumped in a metal chair, his body lashed tightly back-to-back with you by coarse ropes that burned into their flesh. The drugs flooding his system turned the world into a tilting, unstable dream, the searing overhead light bleeding into a sickening aureole. Dried, dark blood caked his broken nose and split lip, a grim trail etched down to his jaw. A violent bruise was swelling around his left eye, a purple-black stain against his pallor. With a hydraulic hiss, the heavy metal door slid open, fracturing the silence. Three figures entered: a guard cradling a rifle, a doctor methodically arranging sinister tools on a tray, and a leader dressed in unblemished black. The lea…