CHAPTER FIVE
INTERROGATIONS

No more than an hour had past, and the small group had retreated back to the house of Mike Wheeler. Each of the five twelve year olds still damp with rain as they huddled around the frightened girl sat peering up at them warily.

Kimmy supposed they looked quite intimidating in the strangers eyes, each staring down at her with matching expressions of perplexity.

Soon after, the questions followed.

Questions upon questions being thrown at the girl.

"Where do you live?"

It was Aaron who had spoken first, his voice cracking slightly with the pure confusion swimming within his sentence.

In the brief time Kimmy had spent with the small group of friends that night, something she had taken a particular notice to was Aaron's behaviour.

More specifically, how different he seemed to act around his three friends compared to how he acted around Kimmy.

Sure, they had only known each other since that previous Sunday, but Kimmy had spoken to him one-on-one. And Aaron appeared to be set on the idea of the pair becoming friends. Which she had gone along with, despite the fact she hardly knew him.

But he had been so scared to as much as approach her, never mind sit next to her and start a conversation. She wasn't going to turn down his friendship offer when she had no reason to, especially after the kindness he had shown to her.

With his friends - or how Aaron had labelled them; the party - Aaron was louder, made more jokes, laughed, had a carefree expression resting on his face.

The thing Kimmy took most notice of though, was the way he looked each one of them in they eye every single time one of them spoke without hesitation. The way he had his hands in his pockets or simply by his side, he didn't feel the need to constantly fiddle with his watch or fingers to put his rising nerves at ease.

Whereas, whenever he had spoken with Kimmy - or as much as met her eye, that all seemed to go out the window. He became panicked almost, as if simply just conversing with her was enough to send the young boy into a full blown terrified trance.

Kimmy brushed off the thought. He just wasn't as used to her presence, it would most likely take him some time to get used to her being around.

"Is there a number we can call for your parents?" It was Mike Wheeler who had asked next, the words pouring from his lips at a rapid pace.

The girl gave no answer, only glancing up to greet him with the same mix of terrified and perplexed expression she had worn for the past hour.

"Where's your hair?" The curly haired boy - Dustin questioned, brows furrowed in concern. "Do you have cancer?"

"Did you run away?" Lucas blurted, disregarding Dustin's previous questions as he evidently had some of his own he wished to find the answers for.

The girl gave no answer.

Just like she had done with the past three questions before - however her silence on Lucas' question sent Aaron into a miniature spiral.

"Do you have any diseases we should be aware of?" Aaron's voice filled with disgust and horror, taking three steps back as he cautiously put his hands up as if that could prevent any sort of disease spreading to him. "Because it's really not cool of you to infect us- I really can't get sick right now-"

"Are you in some sort of trouble?" Mike asked again, cutting of Aaron's rambles with the smallest of eye rolls. All three of his friends seemingly used to his obvious fears and cautions.

"Is that blood?" Lucas gasped, reaching closer to inspect the stain with his hand stuck out as he pointed.

Mike was quick to shut this down, slapping Lucas' hand down with an almost mortified expression.

"Stop it!" Mike exclaimed frantically. "You're freaking her out!"

"She's freaking me out!" Lucas snapped back almost instantly, motioning to the girl sat on the seat opposite them all.

Kimmy remained silent, just as she had done for the rest of the night, simply because she didn't want to get involved with their argument. Seeing as she wasn't friends with them and all. As stupid as it sounds, it almost felt as if she was stepping over her boundaries.

"I bet she's deaf." Dustin proclaimed, a wide eyed look on his face as well as a small grin of realisation.

He then paused and turned to the girl, before clapping loudly in her face. However, this only caused the girl to flinch back violently, her look of horror only increasing.

"Not deaf," he shrugged quietly.

"Alright, that's enough, alright?" Mike cut him off quite hastily with a shake of his head. "She's just scared and cold."

Dustin caught Kimmy's eye as the pair sent each other wide eyed stares.

No one said anything for several seconds, no one really knew what they could or should say.

Mike then walked to the back of the room rather hastily, grabbing some clothes from the launders basket before jogging back over to where the remaining four stood.

Kimmy watched with knitted brows as she watched the young girl flinch at any sort of sound, no matter how loud. Leading Kimmy to an assumption that perhaps she had run away. She certainly looked scared enough.

"Here, these are clean." Mike mumbled, placing the pile of clothing firmly into the hands of the small girl who once again said nothing but looked up at him cautiously. "Okay?"

She looked down at the clothes for a moment, before slowly lifting them and placing them to her cheek, puzzling the group.

She then put them down next to her gently and shrugged off her coat, only to stand and reach for the bottom of her oversized shirt.

Kimmy turned away on instinct, her back now facing the young girl. Then the series of exclaims came rushing all at once.

"No,no,no!" Mike rushed, desperate to put her to a stop.

Dustin had his hands on his head as he spoke frantically. "Oh, my god. Oh, my god." Oh, my god!"

"What the hell is wrong with her?" Aaron hissed to Lucas urgently, Kimmy could see the way his jaw dropped as well as the way his face confronted into an even deeper look of horror than it had previously been - if that was possible. "There must be something wrong with her."

"See over there?" Kimmy heard Mike stammer from behind her. "Th-that's the bathroom. Privacy- get it?"

There was a brief silence, Aaron, Lucas, Kimmy and Dustin all still facing the back wall. Only turning back around to face Mike upon seeing the fragile girl walk aimlessly into the small room.

However Mike trailed after her, going to close the door before she stuck her hand out, stopping him.

"You don't want it closed?" He asked, a suspicious tone to his voice.

Another hesitant pause flooded the room, before she surprised each of the twelve year olds by answering his question.

"No." She muttered simply in a small voice.

"Oh," Mike replied as soon as humanly possible, hoping to trick her into replying once more. "So you can speak."

Kimmy just about flinched at his choice of words, if any of them wanted to get the girl talking - then they'd at least have to build some sort of trust. Seeing as she was very clearly traumatised to some extent.

Just as Kimmy suspected, the girl didn't reply.

"Okay, well..." Mike started off awkwardly, obviously searching for something to say. "Um, how about we just keep the door..." he then pulled the door, to the point nothing was visible to the five bystanders, yet still not closed fully. "Just like this."

The girl didn't rely once more, though she also didn't protest.

"Is that better?" Mike asked carefully.

To which the girl nodded, "yes."

Mike nodded and left her to get changed, stalking over to were the four behind him had gathered around.

"This is mental." Dustin protested before Mike's steps had even come to a halt.

"At least she can talk." Mike shot back, hoping to convince his friends to see his point of view on the matter.

"She said 'no' and 'yes'," Lucas rolled his eyes as he spoke, utterly baffled at how Mike could even consider the idea of siding with the strange girl. "Your three year old sister says more."

"She tried to get naked," Dustin exclaimed. His hands waving around wildly only emphasising his disapproval.

"She's crazy." Aaron announced with a shake of his head pausing and motioning to the bathroom door when Mike shot him a look. "Mike, she is completely crazy."

"There's something seriously wrong with her." Lucas agreed quietly. "Like, wrong in the head."

"She just went like..." Dustin trailed off, deciding against using his words and instead began mimicking what the girl had done previously.

"There's nothing wrong with her, she's not crazy." Mike assured with an eyeroll, though he seemed hesitant.

"She might not be crazy," Kimmy started, almost hesitating as each pair of eyes landed on her in surprise. "But she's definitely not all there in the head."

"Exactly." Aaron and Lucas agreed in sync, while Dustin nodded his head.

"Look, no offence or anything," Mike begun, evidently growing frustrated with all his friends turning against him. "But I wasn't really talking to you. We hardly know you-"

"Leave her, Mike." Aaron cut in abruptly, taking Kimmy by surprise. "We were all talking as a group, she's allowed to have her input."

Kimmy watched as Mike rolled his eyes but moved on, turning his attention to Lucas who had come up with yet another theory on how the girl came to be in the woods.

"I bet she escaped from Pennhurst." Lucas theorised, sounding so confident in his answer that it was almost difficult to doubt him.

Almost.

"From where?" Mike answered boredly, obviously not impressed nor willing to entertain the idea.

"The nuthouse in Kerley County." Lucas confirmed, almost as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Kimmy's brows knitted together on their own accord, it wasn't the worst or most unlikely outcome. Looking at the way she behaved all the way to the way she was dressed, it was more than possible that she had run away from some sort of nuthouse.

"You got a lot of family there?" Dustin teased, a playful smile on his face.

"Bite me." Lucas sneered back, in no mood for jokes as he was taking the topic of the strangers whereabouts much more serious than Dustin appeared to be.

Lucas' response caused a snicker to fall past Aaron's lips, though he was ignored as the discussion was already moving forward.

"Seriously though," Lucas continued in a much calmer tone. "Think about it. That would explain her shaved hair and why she's so crazy."

There were murmers of agreement from the three surrounding him, while the look of u certainty never left Mike's face.

"Yeah, and why she went like..." Dustin trailed off, repeating the motion of acting out taking his shirt off once more for effect.

"She's an escapee is the point." Lucas carried on, speaking directly to Mike in hope to change his mind. "She's probably a psycho."

"Like Michael Myers." Dustin whispered, a sudden serious expression etched into his features.

"Exactly!" Lucas confirmed. "We should have never brought her here."

"So you just wanted to leave her out in that storm?" Mike attempted once again to reason.

"Yes!" Lucas fired back, much to Mike's evident surprise. "We went out to find Will, not another problem."

"What if she's missing?" Kimmy blurted, the thought only really hitting her then. "What if her parents are looking for her?"

"What?" Aaron murmured, partially unsure  of what she meant.

"I mean," Kimmy began, scrunching her nose up in thiught before continuing. "What if she's a missing person like Will? And we've technically just abducted her."

A silence followed, and she watched the color drain from Aaron's face next to her as a look of worry took over his features almost instantly.

"Right," he nodded and turned to Mike, still looking as if he could throw up. "Mike we have got to tell your mom."

"Agreed." Came Dustin and Lucas' instant response.

"No way, no way." Mike protested at once. "Whose crazy now?"

"How is that crazy?" Lucas exclaimed, utterly appalled as he threw his hands up.

"'Cause, we weren't supposed to be out tonight." Mike answered in a low voice. "Remember?"

"So?"

"So, if I tell my mom and she tells your mom," Mike paused briefly and turned to Dustin and Aaron. "And your moms..."

"Oh, man," Dustin mumbled dreadfully.

"Our houses become Alcatraz." Lucas agreed with much hesitation as well as doubt.

"Exactly."

Aaron didn't seem to care all that much. And Kimmy didn't think it was because of the fact that he didn't care about what his mom thought about him or that he didn't respect his mom. He knew after his argument that wasn't the case.

The same question which had been previously pondering on her mind made a reappearance as she perhaps read too much into the situation.

Kimmy wondered if maybe Aaron's parents weren't around all that much. It would surely make sense. Seeing as from what she could make from the little time she had seen Aaron and Steve interact, they talked as if it were just the two of them. As if their parents were a phone call away, instead of just being down the hall.

"And we'll never find Will." Lucas' voice was what had dragged Kimmy from her semi-trance, leaving her with no choice but to brush the thought off and pretend to focus on the conversation at hand.

"Exactly!" Mike repeated, sounding glad he had knocked some sense into them all.

The three boys shared swift glances of uncertainty, completely unsure of what to do. Though this wasn't for long, as it appeared Mike already had a plan.

"Alright, here's the plan." He begun carefully as he looked over his friends. "She sleeps here tonight."

Dustin's eyes went wide as he went to protest. "You're letting a girl-"

"Just listen!" Mike cut off, taking a deep breath before continuing. "In the morning, she sneaks around my house, goes to the front door and rings my doorbell. My mom will answer and know exactly what to do."

Kimmy wasn't convinced in the slightest, but she kept her mouth shut.

"She'll send her back to Pennhurst of wherever she comes from." Mike continued, rattling off his plan at a rapid pace. "We'll be totally in the clear. And tomorrow night, we go back out. And this time, we find Will."

No one said anything, thought they had all silently agreed that was the route they would take. Kimmy took the chance to catch a glimpse of all the boys faces.

They all looked terrified.

...

Twenty minutes later, and the harsh rain had turned to drizzle. Kimmy was walking home after a rather bizarre night which she hadn't exactly bargained for. She wasn't exactly looking foreword to going home, but at least her parents would be out cold by this point and she could go to her bed in peace.

Aaron was walking next to her, pushing his bike along seeing as Kimmy didn't have one with her. The two had waved goodbye to Dustin a few streets ago and they had walked in silence since.

Aaron had insisted on walking with her wasn't a big deal and that it was on his way home anyway. Somehow, Kimmy seriously doubted that. Seeing as she lived in probably the poorer part of the town while he, probably the richest - it was no secret that the Harrington family had money.

Kimmy didn't press on the matter, if he wanted to walk with her, she wasn't going to stop him. She supposed the company would be nice.

"I feel a kinda bad for her, you know?" Aaron begun after what had felt like an hour of silence. "After what you said about her being missing 'n all."

Kimmy looked up at him then, her eyes instantly landing on his hands.

He was back messing around with the fingers on his right hand while he used his left to push his bike along.

"Yeah," she replied after a moment, her voice much quieter than intended. "Me too."

"But I still think she's crazy." Aaron had spoken so quickly and with such seriousness to his voice that it literally sounded like a joke. Though with one look at his face anyone would know he was being serious.

"I don't think she's crazy," Kimmy shut down quickly, meeting his eye as she spoke - holding back a laugh at his dramatically taken aback expression. "I do think she's probably been through some shit that's made her a bit messed up in the head though."

If Kimmy thought she had seen Aaron confused before, she hadn't seen the half of it. The look of confusion was almost comical.

"What do you mean?" He asked quietly, as if listening cautiously to every word which echoed past her lips. "Because she wouldn't talk?"

Kimmy shrugged, "that's probably part of it - just think about it."

"Think about what?" Aaron's reply came almost instantly. His voice almost cracking with how lowly he was speaking - as if scared someone could be listening in.

"Did you see how scared she was?" Kimmy asked abruptly, her voice raising as if she couldn't believe Aaron wouldn't have clicked on by that point. "She flinched everytime anyone moved an inch."

"I suppose," Aaron murmured scrunching his nose softly as he thought it over.

Suddenly, Aaron stopped walking. Causing Kimmy to stop also and turn to him with a perplexed expression.

"What are you doing?" She found herself asking, watching with wary eyes as Aaron pushed the black hat back a bit as it had slipped down his eyes momentarily.

The same black hat Kimmy guessed he always wore while it was cold out. He then turned from her and pointed behind him.

"We're at your house." Aaron said nonchalantly, shrugging as if it was no big deal.

"How do you know that's my house?" Kimmy blurted suspiciously, furrowing her brows together as she stuffed her hands in her jacket pocket.

Aaron appeared to catch on at what she had been insinuating and rolled his eyes as a small grin tugged on the edge of his lips.

"I walked you home after what happened on Sunday, remember?" His tone now serious as he spoke, the tiniest amount of sympathy flooding over his eyes.

"Oh, yeah," Kimmy muttered, a heavy wave of embarrassment washing over her to the point she had to look away. And instead settled on walking past him and towards her household.

"See you around, Aaron." She mumbled awkwardly.

"See you around, Kimmy." Aaron smiled as he waved slightly. Just as he went to turn away and bike home.

Kimmy paused for several moments, an abrupt thought which she hadn't even considered was screaming back at her to the point she just had to ask it.

"Aaron?"

Aaron paused just as he went to kick off his stand and tilted his head to catch her eye.

"Yeah?"

"Um, about Sunday..." Kimmy trailed off, a serious look of dread pulling down her features. "You didn't... tell anyone? Did you?"

Aaron seemed taken aback, however he quickly recovered, shaking his head. "No, I didn't tell anyone. I swear."

Kimmy could have sworn she literally felt the relief roll off of her body as she momentarily closed her eyes.

"Thank you," she spoke quietly, but Aaron heard. "For, you know- helping me out. I never said thanks- it was a big deal you helping me out. I appreciate it."

Kimmy didn't know why she had felt the need to say that just then, but she knew it needed to be said.

"Don't worry about it." Aaron replied, though Kimmy could tell with the look on his face and the tone of his voice that he recognised the seriousness of the situation. "It was no big deal-"

"It was a big deal to me." Kimmy assured with a nod of her head.

Aaron didn't reply to that, he didn't turn away either. Almost as if he didn't know what to say. This went on for several seconds until he snapped out of it and bid her goodbye.

Kimmy waved at him before retreating back up her lawn and to the front door.

She then turned and looked behind her before pushing the door open, and the sight before her caused her face to scrunch once more in confusion.

Instead of continuing down the street, Aaron had turned. Retracing the steps the two of them had taken before continuing to do so at the top of the street. Leading Kimmy to believe that her previous assumption had been correct.

The turn off to Aaron Harrington's house must have been blocks away. Adding at least thirty minutes to his journey simply because he had decided to walk her home.

...

Things are picking up now!!! Yay!

What's your favourite season of st?? My favourite is probably season 2 just because of the vibes lol

Anyway you should all look foreword to when we reach season 3 in this book because I can confidently say that season 3 IS Kimmy and Aaron's season!

Hope everyone is having a good day/night!!

Votes and comments are very appreciated!!

-AJ :)