CHAPTER FOUR.
the gossips of hawkins have a new topic!

[ please read ]
hey so i basically want to clear some things up real quick. it's been a year since brenner went 'missing', so nineteen learned a lot in one year. she got a teacher, and mary worked with her a lot basically. nineteen was never allowed outside, even after owens started working, but she basically knows almost everything. she's obviously gonna be confused on what's in and out and stuff in the future but she knows stuff, just saying! oh! and she can read the basics, so i would put her at about a 1st grade reading level, maybe? which is a bit better than eleven could so they're near each other in that aspect : )

ALSO YALL IM SORRY THIS IS SO MUCH LONGER THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE KENXISKS

and finally, chapter dedicated to: @ohclio

PS. the clothes in the media are what i picture her wearing. they got rid of polyvore so this was sloppily and hurriedly made lmao sorry
—

after steve popped a few waffles into the toaster, made sure that nineteen ate them, told her what she should and shouldn't do while he was gone, he left for school. nineteen stayed in the kitchen for a couple more minutes, looking at the interior design. there was a glass chicken on top of the refrigerator that she was tempted to touch, but remembering steve's words to not touch anything, she just looks before moving on.

nineteen leaves the kitchen quietly, making her way back upstairs. she walks back down the hallway and peeks into the room that steve said was his. the door creaks open loudly and she takes a few steps back before pushing the door the rest of the way.

steve has blue sheets and a blue cover with white walls. there's a desk in the right corner and a window on the side opposite of the door. nineteen walks towards the clear glass and peers outside. she scans the yard silently. the ground is covered in mud and leaves, and is still wet.

her eyes fall upon the pool, which was a nasty, dark green color with leaves floating in it. she stares at it disdainfully. nineteen takes a step backwards, sadness contorting her face as she feels a small tug to the area near the diving board. she makes a noise of discomfort at the back of her throat before turning back to the room quickly.

she steps away from the window and towards steve's desk. there's a book open on it and nineteen picks it up. it's thick and much heavier than she anticipates, so she nearly drops it after handling its full weight. the words on the pages are tiny, and she only knows a couple of words per sentence, and that's just 'a, the, and it'. she drops the book back on the desk, disappointedly, and looks around the room.

her eyes settle on shelves against the wall. they have small trophies and pictures adorned across them. she notices a reoccurring face in all of the frames. it's a young woman, with light eyes and light brown hair. she has a pretty smile and kindness in her eyes.

nineteen stares at the picture of steve and the girl before reaching up and delicately touching the side of her own cheek. she thinks the girl is beautiful, and wonders why she couldn't look like her too.

the lady seems familiar. although, she couldn't remember ever seeing her in her life. she couldn't remember a lot of things.

just when she finds a new picture of the girl, she suddenly sees movement out of the corner of her eye. she steps back a few steps, until she realizes she had just caught sight of herself in the small, rectangular mirror that hangs on the wall. she knows what a mirror is, and how it works, she just never had the need to look in one. but now she couldn't even seem to look away.

she reaches up slowly to her head and feels of the brown hair there. her hand falls down to her bangs, which she pulls at and pushes back, looking at her clear forehead. she then takes a step forward and widens her eyes. the clear blue staring back at her reminds her of mary, since mary always said she had beautiful eyes, and she watches them start to fill with tears.

she looks at the ground, taking deep breaths to will the thoughts of the woman away. she instead stares at her bare feet. they have dirt on the soles and up at her ankles, with dried blood smeared on the bare tops of her feet.

nineteen raises her head slowly, looking at the bottom of her sweatpants in the mirror. the soft cotton was clean, and reminded her of the hospital. she suddenly feels the urge to strip out of it. but, remembering mary's teachings, she knew it was inappropriate - since she had nothing else to wear.

but, wait. she does. the clothes steve had given her this morning! nineteen turns quickly, and darts out of the room. she walks back to the spare room she had slept in and glances at the messy bed. the clothes were laid out on the white sheets.

she picks up the sweater, softly rubbing her hands across it. she grimaces at the dirt in her fingernails and on her palms. she picks up the shorts and walks to the bathroom down the hall.

she pushes open the bathroom door and closes it behind her for privacy, despite no one else being in the house. she steps out of her clothes and puts on the ones steve gave her.

she pulls up the light jean shorts, staring confusedly when they still feel extremely loose. she furrows her eyebrows, looking down, before feeling the top of them. remembering what buttons were for, she slides it together and sucks in her stomach. it's tight. she exhales, twisting the hems around her lower thighs.

the girl in question looked down at her legs. they had little prickles coming out of them, which mary had told her they would have to start 'shaving' soon. nineteen had been bewildered when mary explained everything girls went through. she was scared for when that happened to her.

and mary wouldn't be there to help.

nineteen shakes her head, annoyed with herself for thinking like that again. she picks up her clothes and wrenches open the door.

-

when steve gets back to the house that day, he finds nineteen sitting outside on the steps. she has on the clothes from that morning and the coat he had given her the night before. he gets out and props his arm on the top of the car door. "i'm hungry." nineteen says at the same time as steve says, "we gotta talk real quick." he stops. "oh - okay. okay."

once they're back inside, they go straight to the kitchen. steve puts his arms on the counter and leans forward, thinking. it's silent. "have you ever tried a poptart?" he suddenly asks. nineteen shakes her head. she hadn't tried many things, obviously. he nods and opens a cabinet door. he pulls out a small box and opens it, revealing a small, thick square.

he opens the wrapping around it and holds out the small, frosted square. nineteen grabs it, taking a small bite. she swallows before discovering she likes the gooey taste and quickly going back in for another bite. steve lays down the other poptart in front of her and leans against the counter silently again.

as she finishes the poptart, she picks up the second one. steve looks like he had something to say but was holding back. "okay, listen, kiddo," steve starts. "i know you said you didn't want to go to the cops and that you wouldn't hurt me or anything, but i need to know what's going on. you have to tell me. or else we gotta go to the cops. i mean, you didn't even know what a car was, or pizza, or poptarts, but you know who chief hopper is? it's strange, all right? and i just need to know, okay?" he says, crossing his arms. "blue?"

nineteen's eyebrows draw together sadly. she looks down and plays with the button on her high waisted shorts. she glances at steve, who's staring back at her intently. she sighs before closing her eyes and pulling up the sleeve of her jacket and sweater.

"the lab." she confirms. "i was at hawkins lab." her eyes suddenly go wide. "please don't take me back there. you can't take me. it's scary. i-i'm alone there, and-and i'm not.. i have no-" she struggles to find her next words.

"wait, why are you at the lab? what's going on there?" steve asks.

"owens said i can't tell anyone."

"what do you mean? are you an alien or something?" he scoffs. nineteen shakes her head. not knowing how to tell steve, she looks over at the microwave and slightly moves her head to the side once she feels the connection. it turns on and starts to heat up. steve raises an eyebrow. nineteen then holds out her hand to steve and he stops and stares.

the veins at the bottom of her hand and wrist were bright blue and moving. he steps back. "what the hell.." he starts. she then looks into the living room, where the lights starts to turn on and off by themselves. the same happens in the hallway and then finally in the kitchen.

steve was staring wide-eyed at the girl as she turns back to him, red streams of liquid falling down her cheeks. steve swallows hard and nineteen reaches up and wipes away her the blood with her fingers.

slowly, she stands up and walks around the counter to steve. she looks into his brown eyes for a moment. a lot of things were crossing his mind right then. she picks out the few things that came through.

what the actual hell?

i have a demon in my house.

this isn't real, it can't be.

demon? nineteen didn't know what a demon was, but she's not surprised he's scared. she never liked seeing blood run from her eyes, either. she hopes he understands because she feels like she can trust him. while he is struggling to speak, nineteen is struggling to find the words to say.

"i am not a demon." she finally says.

-

even though steve is still extremely on edge, you can tell from his body language and reckless driving, nineteen doesn't feel uncomfortable. she sits up, looking out the window in giddiness. it's sunny and there's plenty of people out. steve even waves at a few of them walking as he makes his way to the sheriff's station.

"okay, when we get there, i don't want you to say anything. okay?" nineteen nods immediately, looking back at him. "because, i just want for one story to be the main story, i'll come up with it. but, you have to pretend to be my cousin. a cousin is someone-"

"i know what a cousin is."

"oh, oh. you know some things but you don't others. it confusing."

"i don't know movies." she states without turning to him. they stop for a minute and she watches a dog sniff at a man's feet by the sidewalk. it's a small brown dog and she grins at it.

"you've never watched a movie?" he glances at her in disbelief. she shakes her head, sitting back in her seat as he presses down on the gas. "man," he scoffs, chuckling while shaking his head. "this is wild."

he takes another turn as nineteen stares at him with thoughtfulness. it never really actually occurred to her that he was close to her age. he had spoke of school, which is where young kids around her age went to learn. mary had told her that.

nineteen finds it hard to stop thinking about mary. she had been the only actual comfort nineteen had ever known, besides eleven - which still didn't count. they had never technically met in person. nineteen suddenly blinks down at her lap rapidly to stop the tears behind her eyes.

she could go to eleven. she could find her.

she lets out a small breath of amazement. she closes her eyes slowly, trying to fade out everyone's wisps of thoughts, all the noises around her, clearing her mind and letting peace overtake her senses. she reaches out to eleven, the best she ever tried, and made one thing clear.

come find me.

her eyes pop open as she felt the car turn and stop. she raises her hand to her cheek, where blood was now dripping. she shakes her head and looked to steve. he looks up with a comforting smile before he jumps back and makes a noise of discomfort.

"why do you do that?" he asks, his hand on his seatbelt. nineteen cocks her head.

"what?"

"uh.. bleed from your eyes, i guess?" nineteen wipes it away with the jacket sleeve.

"i do not know." she speaks softly, looking out the car. she pronounces out the words on the door. "puh-oh-lice," she whispers out. "police." she corrects herself quickly. she feels her nerves suddenly sky rocket and bites her lip anxiously.

"hey," steve starts, ready to soothe her. but then he almost starts laughing. she turns to him. "you're, uh, hair.. is floating." he says. she glances to her side. sure enough, her hair is standing up above her. he stares for a moment, before reaching over to lay a hand on her shoulder. "it's gonna be- oh! shit!" when he had touched her shoulder, a small shock had gone through him. she glances at him in alarm as he held his palm.

"that is static." she informs him, remembering when mary told her that would happen if any of her vitals were to only majorly sky-rocket.

he nods cautiously, leaning back. "well, make it stop. we gotta go in." he tells her, opening his car door.

nineteen reaches up, smoothing down her hair and getting out of the car.

she walks to steve as he holds the door open. inside, it smells faintly of smoke and coffee. owens would drink it every single morning. she furrows her eyebrows, confused when she doesn't immediately see hopper. she was pulled out of her thoughts by steve setting both of his hands quickly on each of her shoulders, wincing at his words when he spoke.

"uh, hi. this is my cousin. she's from out of town. um, say nice to meet you, blue-" steve stops himself and then sighs as he had already messed up.

"blue?" the woman with glasses asks. she raises them up onto the top of her head and gives nineteen a once over. "is it a nickname?"

steve smiles tightly. "yes, of course. uh, is the chief around?" he asks before the woman could ask anymore questions. she shakes her head. "i'm afraid he left a little a while ago. i could.." the woman's words fade out in nineteen's mind.

she glances around the room, only to stop when she sees one man staring at her. her breath lightly catches.

he's standing in the middle with two other men, who have uniforms and hats on. the man looks as if he had seen a ghost, his skin now pale. nineteen swallows heavily, not breaking eye contact. she knows who he is.

he had been a lab worker when papa was still there. he had been a quiet one, but one who did his job thoroughly. he was still bald, nineteen notices, just like he had been a year ago when she had last seen him. he had watched over her cell all of her years there.

in steve's words, it's insane. the fact that he just so happened to be there was crazy.

tears flood the girl's eyes, and she can't take it anymore. she backs away from steve, staring at the bald man who is now uncomfortably stepping away from the two men as well.

she shakes her head as he makes his way to the door and before he reaches her, she slams the doors open and runs.

-

nineteen hears steve's shouts to stop, she even thinks he chases her through town for a little bit, trying to catch her, but she never does. if anything, his cries only make her run faster and harder.

she's in the woods now. she had been in the woods for a while. she wasn't sure how long but the sky had gotten a little bit darker.

all she knows is, she needs to get out of here. she needs to find eleven. but where even is the cabin? she needs to reach out to eleven, and quickly.

she stops for a second, closing her eyes, and shivering when she feels a cold chill go down her spine and the light leave.

her eyes open and she finds herself back in the dark place. the infinite black walls, the water sloshing around her feet, and the distinct echoing sound when a voice speaks.

she turns around, finding eleven staring up at her on the couch. tear stains are evident on her cheeks and she hops up from the old, musty couch and runs into nineteen's arms.

"my mama, she's-" she sobs out, clutching nineteen. "i-i have to find her." she chokes. "i have to help her. she has to help me."

nineteen pulls back, analyzing her face. "but.. it's not safe." she tells her. eleven sniffles. she grabs nineteen's arms again. "come with me. come find me."

nineteen shakes her head. "you can't do this. it's not safe. it's not a good idea." she says. eleven shakes her head. "no. come with me." she says again.

nineteen shakes her head yet again. "no. dangerous. i can't. i have to go. i have to find steve." she tells the curly headed girl. "wait for hopper. we can talk to tomorrow." eleven's face crumples but she nods, pulling away from her.

"see you."

nineteen nods. "see you."

and she stumbles backwards as light hits her body. she shakes her head, looking around the woods. find steve. she reminds herself. find him.

she starts running again, searching for a voice throughout all of hawkins. it was hard to find it, but she manages.

i'm genuinely screwed.

blue blue blue

maybe i should start asking people if they've seen her.

nineteen sighs and stops, scanning the sudden visible break in the tree line. it's a path of dirt going into an open field. nineteen walks towards it, seeing a small, wooden sign on the ground.

she starts to walk towards it when she hears a sudden rumbling sound. she jumps and backs away, running back and hiding behind a tree. she watches as a big car passes by with a man in the front. she stares after him, and gasps. it's hopper. it's hopper!

she runs out onto the road, and waves her hand above her head, so he'll stop. but he doesn't. she confusedly stares as he's very busy with something else, and doesn't even notice the girl in his rear view mirrors.

she slumps, watching the car go behind a set of trees and disappear. she feels lost and hopeless.

she turns to start walking back where the man came from. she doesn't know how far she is from town, or where steve is.

just thinking of the boy makes her worried. what if she doesn't find him? what if she has to sleep in the woods tonight?

nineteen walks for another 30 minutes, anxiously looking around for anything. she isn't exactly safe at the moment.

even though she gets to town fairly quickly, it's not until she gets to the center of it that she sees an actual person. it's two women, one with big, blonde hair and another with brown curls. they don't resemble eleven's though. they're shiny and reach high above her head. the women walk out of a store together, plastic bags in hands as they chat.

one of them notices nineteen. it's the brunette. she stops her words instantly and looks at the girl. she seems to be staring at her lack of longer pants.

"oh! hello, sweetie? um," she glances to her friend. "aren't you a little cold? a girl your age has no right to be wearing shorts in this chilly weather." she states and leans down, setting her hands on her own panty-hosed-covered knees gingerly. nineteen scrunches her face up. the woman's voice is unpleasant to her ears.

she backs up. the women frown and look to each other. the same woman steps forward again. "do you not have long pants?" she asks. nineteen shakes her head slowly, looking between the women. "are they all you have?" she pries. nineteen blinks, stepping back a little bit again. "honey, where are your parents?"

nineteen assumes she makes a disgusted face at her voice, because the brunette's scratchy voice suddenly echoes in nineteen's mind.

little brat.

nineteen squints her eyes and steps forward, mere inches away from the woman's face. she stands up straight. the woman's eyes widen in alarm and she steps back.

nineteen starts towards them, when the three females jump as a car suddenly beeps loudly and then the tell-tell sound of steve harrington yelling reaches their ears.

"blue, i have been driving all over this damn town looking for you. where have you been?" steve asks, jumping out of his car.

"looking for you.." she mutters as he walks to her. he kneels down in front of her. "i was so worried. don't ever do that again." he says. he then glances at the two women before looking back at the blonde.

he clears his throat and stands back up. "uh, mrs. wheeler. how are you?" he asks, setting his hands on nineteen's shoulders and dragging her back a little. the woman smiles. "i'm just fine, steve. how about you? who's this?" she asks, gesturing to nineteen.

the boy glances back down at the girl and takes her arm. "long story. um.. let's go." he says. nineteen nods and starts to the car.

she opens the passenger door and gets in, slamming the door.

that was so strange. maybe we should call the cops.

or child protection services. did you see the way she looked at me? something's wrong with her. that was very unnatural... oh, my god! what if she's one of those crazy, russian children from last year?!

cathy, are you serious? there was only one child and what would steve harrington, of all people, be doing running around with one of them?

nineteen sunk a little in her seat at the women's conversation that played in their heads like radios. she glances at steve who has no idea as he starts the car and drives away from the gossiping women.

—

this was eventful but honestly also just a filler so therefore it sucks!