chapter twelve ♰ Waiting Room

  As the incandescent lights started to erratically blink, Sydney wrenched her hand out of Steve's and scrambled for purchase of her axe, knuckles cracking as her fingers tightened around the neck of it. The others were all frantically preparing themselves ━━ Nancy markedly angling the gun at the ceiling as Jonathan grappled for better leverage on his spiked baseball bat and Toby gathered up all 4 of the knives they had used to cut their hands. As the electricity started to surge, the 4 of them gathered in a circle, backs to each other as they rose their weapons. Meanwhile, Steve was having a meltdown.

  "What's here? What is It ━━" he started to ask.

  "Steve, you're not helping right now!" Sydney seethed, raising her axe.

  "Where is it?" asked Nancy desperately, craning her neck around at the flickering lights.

  "I d'know!" exclaimed Jonathan.

  "Where is what?" bellowed Steve, gesturing arbitrarily. 

  Toby scowled at him, lip curling sourly. "Harrington, get in your shiny, pretty boy car and leave."

  "We should be able to see It, right?" said Sydney breathlessly. "Like ━━ big, scary monster ... we should be able to fucking see It!"

  "Hellooo?" Steve yelled, jerkily waving a hand in front of Sydney's face. "Will someone please explain to me what the hell is going ━━"

  The sickening sound of drywall shattering sent the lot of them staggering back, Sydney almost decapitating Jonathan as she swung around, bringing the axeblade viciously with her. She looked up in horror as the ceiling started to crumble, an ugly mouth with the bared teeth of splintered cement opening up, and something inhuman being spat out of it ━━ she saw its gangly, slimy limbs and its hollow face and instantly tightened the grip on her weapon.

  "Fuck," she said. Aloud.

  Instantly, Nancy started firing at it. But, the bullets seemed to ricochet right off its jaundiced flesh ━━ as if it was fashioned out of kevlar. 

  "What the ━━ Sydney, what is that ━━"

  "Go! Go! Run, now!" 

  Jonathan grabbed one of Nancy's shoulders and yanked her along down to the hallway to the bedrooms. Toby was soon sheathing one of the knives into the waistband of his jeans and trying to do the same with Sydney, his fingers encasing around her wrist to try and slacken her steadfast hold in the axe. But Sydney was practically paralysed ━━ staring up at the sinister creature as it leapt down from the ceiling. The legs of the coffee table bowed beneath its weight and it ceased its movements for a moment, gauging its surroundings.

  Then, it opened its mouth ━━ or, face. It unfurled like a lotus flower, revealing rows of barbed, serrated teeth, preceded by a spine-chilling, guttural shriek.

  "Holy shit," gawked Sydney, feeling her arms start to lower to her side. 

  "Sydney, move it!"

  Toby's grip was uncharacteristically rough on her wrist as he started to hurl her along. As he wrenched her away, Sydney desperately reached out for Steve's hand ━━ he had been too terrified to move as well. Only when he felt Sydney's fingers slot between the gaps of his like a feverish jigsaw puzzle did Steve jolt back into action, letting Sydney tug him along, and Toby to drag them both. 

  They bolted down the hallway, a clumsy entanglement of limbs and screams and Sydney hectically trying not to sever anyone's bones with the axe still in her grasp. 

  "Jump!" belted Toby.

  Sydney narrowly avoided getting her fraying laces in the bear trap, and felt her fingers slip out of Steve's. She barely got chance to look over her shoulder before he leapt over the sawtooth jaw of the trap with a yelp, because Toby was hauling her into Will's bedroom and everything happened so quick. Her heart was somewhere in her throat ━━ pulse beating against her oesophagus, and playing a menacing tune in her eardrums. It still felt surreal ━━ how could this be happening? Surely, logically, this was all one narcotized nightmare. A bad trip. Maybe, she was still in her bedroom, lighting up that bud from Nadine Munson, and she had sold her something laced. And all of this ━━ El, Will going missing, Barb dying, this Thing... was the neurotic hallucinations of fentanyl, or something.

   Steve came lurching violently into Will's room, slamming the door shut behind him. Turbulent and terrified, he made an instant beeline to Sydney, his hands seizing her shoulders and giving them a fitful shake.

  "Sydney, what the hell was that?" he screamed. "What the fuck is going on?" When she didn't reply, gulping down hard, Steve whirled round to confront Nancy, Jonathan and Toby who were all staring apprehensively at the door. "What was that ━━"

  "Shut up!" the 3 of them said in unison, scathing and mortified.

  The Demogorgon made an ugly, visceral screeching sound again from somewhere beyond the door, and Sydney stumbled forward, raising the axe. The pale flame of Jonathan's lighter flickered capriciously and Nancy's breaths came out in shallow pants. 

  "What's it doing?" she asked, staunch hold on her revolver never once faltering.

  "I don't know," said Jonathan, strangled.

  Toby had brandished out two knives, silver glinting. "It could be waiting us out ━━ predators to that to their prey. It's part of their hunt."

  The taut string of a yo-yo was hooked through the gap in the door, and tied round the back of the chair shoved against it. The same thread was fastened to the bear trap, so that when the Demogorgon was ensnared in it, the yo-yo string would unravel and the chair would fall back onto its 4 legs. But, nothing moved. Eventually, even the churning sounds ceased outside.

  The bungalow fell still.

  "D'you hear anything?" muttered Nancy, frowning.

  Sydney swallowed, glancing at Toby. "Care to explain this, Attenborough?" 

  "Like I said," he mumbled, "it could be waiting us out." 

  "So, what do we do?" asked Nancy.

  Jonathan's expression was grave. "I'll go first." 

  Pocketing the zippo lighter, and keeping the spiked baseball bat aloft, Jonathan tentatively left the room, and was instantly swallowed up by the darkness in the hallway. Nancy and Toby followed after him ━━ going lightly and keeping even their breaths quiet. Sydney had only managed one step towards the doorway when one of Steve's large hands clutched at her shoulder, his fingertips kneading anxiously into the cableknit jumper. She glared down at his touch, like his palms were lathered in acid.

  "Sydney, I know ━━ I know you're mad at me," Steve stammered clumsily, looking overwrought and miserable. "But, please ━━ please tell me what's happening, Nicks. I ━━"

  "You should leave," snapped Sydney, wrenching out of his hold. Steve's fear crumbled into dejection, hand falling pathetically to his side. "You shouldn't even be here. Just fucking ━━ just go, Steve."

  Then, Toby poked his head into the door. "It looks like It's gone." 

  Sydney nodded astutely. "Coming." She narrowed her eyes maliciously at Steve before following Toby back into the living room. 

  Steve was numb for a moment. He looked at the vacant threshold where Sydney had just briskly retreated through and felt his shoulders cave inwards. He deflated. Like a fucking helium balloon. Her resentment clouded his judgement for a good minute ━━ left him wallowing in self-pity and a languishing ache. Then, he thought about what had just happened, and what had just emerged from Jonathan's ceiling. Those fiendish growls and that devilish face. And Steve was spiralling again. Not just because of Sydney.

  Muttering fervently to himself, Steve hastened after the others to the mutilated living room. The wreckage of broken furniture was scattered about and the others were all scrutinising the damage for any residual signs of that ━━ that Thing.

  Steve skidded to a halt, existential dread eating his heart out as Toby Stanfield snaked an arm out to bring Sydney into his side. He brushed a lackadaisical kiss against her temple, entangling his free hand in her dishevelled hair. Steve watched as Sydney slumped into his body, her pretty head lolling onto Toby's heaving chest. Her hold on the axe weakened, and the blade was now scraping against the carpet as she fought to keep herself stood upright. 

   Throat raw, Steve thought for a second someone had used the blunt end of a knife to gouge a hole in his chest, and had rummaged around in the bloody biology of his insides, made a fist around his heart and cut it off from its strings. He felt like his body was just a bunch of torn up threads and veins going nowhere. Bleeding, with no place for the blood to go. Whatever this feeling was ━━ it had razor teeth and they were at his jugular. 

   "This is crazy," he started muttering. Steve physically started to rip at the roots of his awry hair. "This is crazy, this is crazy, this is ━━"

   Tearing his stinging eyes away from Sydney just as her stare fleeted to him ━━ hers lethargic and hateful ━━ Steve careened over to the telephone, grabbing it off the wall and starting to aggressively dial 999.

   Before he could press the third 9, Nancy was snatching the phone out of his shaking hand and yanking it out of its socket. She tossed it the floor, the wire detached and hissing. 

   "What are you do ━━ what are you doing?" Steve yelled, voice cracking. It came out hoarse and desperate, Steve grimacing through his weakness. "Are you insane?"

   Sydney could only compare his expression to that of a kicked puppy. Deplorable and heart-breaking to look it ━━ it made her step out from under Toby's arm and absentmindedly pass him the axe to walk over to Steve. Nancy was reprimanding him again, insisting that he leave, and Steve was spluttering. So pathetically that Sydney couldn't resist winding an arm round his waist and trying to pry him away.

   "Sydney, wh ━━ please." His breaths were erratic, and his eyes almost teary. Something hurt in Sydney. He was wounded, and it felt like she had to be, too. Steve Harrington was consuming. When he felt her try to pull him toward the door, Steve dug his heels into the carpet and grabbed either side of her face desperately. He was too frightened to even notice the way Nancy blanched ━━ the way Sydney's entire face dropped. The way the room's entire atmosphere shifted by that simple, subconscious reflex ━━ to hold her jaw, to cradle it, to look into her eyes with such desperation and lost eyes. Like twin, black moons, glazed over by dewy mist. "Sydney, just tell me what's going on, I want ━━ let me help you."

   It was like an empty stomach ━━ a hunger. A gnawing. A gluttony. Sydney felt an ecstatic pain to be held by him so intimately. 

   "Steve, I ━━"

   "It's going to come back!" Nancy bit the bullet. Steve faltered, eyes flitting to his girlfriend and his fingers becoming ghosts on Sydney's flesh ━━ searing haunts. Nancy swallowed thickly as Steve looked at her almost guiltily, and she hardened her jaw as his hands relinquished to his sides. "And you need to go ━━ right now."

   Dejected, Steve turned back to Sydney. Any softness she had before ━━ from the sweet bruising of his touch, and the seraphim of its sin ━━ had become brittle and roughened over by the guilt he was now harrowed by. She didn't even look at him now. She was staring at her shoes ━━ the converse motheaten and her expression crestfallen. 

   Steve's mouth opened and Sydney wondered if any words could possibly save him from this. Could ever dig him out of this earthy, tormented grave he had made his bed in. Maybe Steve had the same fear ━━ maybe he was just as hungry and lost and ravaged and alone and scared. Because he clamped his mouth shut, carded his fingers nervously through his hair and made an abrupt beeline for the door, and didn't look back. 

   As soon as it shut behind him, Sydney forced herself to confront Nancy, and the indiscernible emotions eating her up.

   Sydney winced, a migraine sweeping over her. "Nancy, I ━━"

   "Just..." Nancy squeezed her eyes shut and raised her hand. The knife twisted in Sydney's gut. "Leave it. We need to kill this thing." 

   "O-OK." 

   The lights started to flicker again, and the two girls snapped out of it ━━ whatever it was. The green rage of girlhood. The urge to belong and to be loved. Nancy quenched it with the revolver in her hand ━━ reeking of gunpowder and perfidy. Feeling dirty and wrong, Sydney couldn't even look at Toby as she grabbed her axe back off him. The anger in her was relentless as the 4 of them huddled together, shoulders touching as they pivoted around, bathed in the blinking lights. 

   "Any of you see it?" asked Toby.

   He spat out his words venomously. Like they were peach pits. Like the drugs in his throat ━━ Sydney and his lethal love ━━ were ripe fruit and he was spitting out the acid it grew around. 

   "No," said Nancy, panting.

    "Come on!" taunted Jonathan. "Come on, you son of a bitch!"

   Sydney nestled her knuckles round the axe handle and felt nettles prick at her lungs. "Where the fuck is it? Where did it even go ━━"

   "Come on!" grunted Jonathan.

   And the lights' went out.

   Extinguished with a mercurial hiss, and swallowing them all up in a complete darkness. Breaths hitched all around her and Sydney could barely see. 

   "Jonathan!" Nancy screamed.

   The lights shone bright again, blindingly. When Sydney could see again, the Demogorgon was back and straddling Jonathan with its unfurled face leering over his. Sydney gasped, staggering back until her spine roughly hit the drawers behind her. The creature made a primal sound, teeth almost nipping at Jonathan's flesh as his baseball bat clattered to the floor, the spikes rupturing the carpet seams. 

   "Go to hell, you son of a bitch!" sneered Nancy, firing at least 3 bullets at the back of its skull.

   All of them bounced off.

   Hit by a surge of adrenaline ━━ listening to the fight chemical instead of the flight ━━ Sydney stormed forward, brought the axe overhead and swung it back down onto where the Demogorgon's elbow was. It let out an ugly wail and staggered off of Jonathan. She hadn't completely severed the limb ━━ its skeleton was too strong for that, and the blade wasn't sharp enough. But she drew blood ━━ or whatever it excreted. Ichor? Something grey and metallic.

   "Sydney!" Toby roared across the room.

   Sydney didn't have long to celebrate her slither of a win, because the Demogorgon was rounding on her now ━━ and the axe was still embedded into its flesh. Pulse skyrocketing, and neck feeling suddenly swollen, Sydney tried prying it out, but it was stuck into into its bone. 

   "Fuck," she mumbled. 

   The Demogorgon opened its mouth, another guttural screech eliciting from deep in its ravenous belly. With a roar, it swept out its uninjured arm and swung it back down at Sydney. She went falling into the coffee table, its already depleted condition now entirely annihilated as it splintered in half. Her head hit the floor with an excruciating thud ━━ and the impact of the fall, and Sydney's teeth digging into her tongue, sent her neck careening to the side, a gush of blood spluttering out onto the broken table. Her skull throbbed. Her body hurt. Her tongue was bleeding everywhere, filling her mouth up with metal, drowning her throat in it.

   Nancy tried to distracting the monster whilst Sydney was down. Jonathan's body was curled up in a ball, too, garbling nonsense. Nancy kept shooting at it ━━ an onslaught of bullets barely even grazing it ━━ until the revolver's ammunition was all out. She kept pressing at the trigger fruitlessly, and eventually Toby had to tackle her to the side when the Demogorgon went to swing at her, too.

   "Hey, asshole!"

   Fucking Steve.

   He had somehow armed himself with Jonathan's spiked bat, and brought it maliciously down at the Demogorgon's torso. The nails bit sorely at its flesh and it wailed in pain, thrashing out its limbs. Steve didn't hesitate to deliver another hit ━━ this time to its head.

   "Steve," Sydney choked out, blood muffling her words.

   Wounded, she used the little strength she had left to get up from the splintery wreckage of the demolished table, crawling across the flinders until she returned the axe to her grasp. She barely could keep herself stood, and stumbled gracelessly after where Steve led the Demogorgon back toward the trap.

   "Syd, stop ━━" Toby protested, arm still circled around Nancy's abdomen. 

  Ignoring him, Sydney slumped against the wall, stabilising herself with it just as Steve deftly spun the baseball bat with the agile jerk of his wrist, and delivered another brutal hit to the creature. That had been the one ━━ because it elicited a grating moan from the monster and sent it tumbling back into the bear trap, digitigrade limbs flaying about.

  Withdrawing another efflux of cortisol from somewhere ━━ the rot in her belly, or sting in her heart ━━ Sydney pushed herself back off the wall and stormed past Steve. His mortified exclamation of her name ━━ of Nicks ━━ fell on deaf, ringing ears. She brought the axe up above her head, keeping enough distance between her and the Demogorgon so it couldn't reach out to attack her again, and lodged the blunt of it in its chest. It howled again ━━ this time, it reverberated across the frail, peeling walls. 

  Sydney mustered the strength to wrench the blade out of its flesh, now. The same viscous, silvery ichor oozed out of the wound again. But more of it. Seeping onto the carpet by its trapped feet. 

  "Holy shit," said Steve, awestruck, maybe a bit in infatuatedly ━━ eyes pining after Sydney as she heaved air back into her lungs.

  "You did it," marvelled Toby. He was stood slightly behind Steve, bewildered, and Nancy was skidding to a halt next to him. "You actually did it."

  "It's in the trap!" shouted Nancy over her shoulder. "Jonathan, now!"

  Steve was lunging forward, snatching a strong arm around Sydney's middle and dragging her back. Even when she was out of the way, he didn't let go ━━ his forearm pressed against her stomach and keeping it there, because it felt better than feeling hollow. And because she was warm, and because she was Sydney, and because as soon as she felt the sturdiness of his broad chest flush against her back, an overwhelming urge to just slump into him overcame her ━━ one she couldn't resist. Not with how invitingly he smelt of subtle aftershave and how warm he was ━━ and not with how weak she felt. He was solid and there, and held her so tightly. He was consuming.

  The axe slipped from Sydney's numb fingers just as Jonathan flicked the zippo lighter on and tossed the flame onto the gasoline-doused carpet. The fire ━━ hot and blinding ━━ licked up across the floor and engulfed the Demogorgon in a scorching blur. Eyes stinging, Sydney turned round and buried her head in Steve's chest. He didn't mind (of course he didn't), cradling the back of it and knotting his fingers in her matted tresses. 

  They all watched as the fire devoured the monster, everyone covering their eyes. They let the flames smoulder away at it until Toby grabbed the stolen fire extinguisher, expelling a cold gush of carbon dioxide which ate up the hallway in a hazy cloud. Coughing gruffly, Steve tucked Sydney's head a little further away so she didn't inhale any of it into her lungs and make her even weaker. 

  When it was empty, Toby tossed the steel cannister to the floor and coughed violently into the crook of his arm. The cloud of smoke took a good 20 seconds to dissipate, and once it did, Toby instinctively checked on Sydney ━━ the little smile he had disintegrating right away. Her fists were balled around Steve's jumper ━━ the cotton still stained by specks of his own blood from his fight with Jonathan earlier ━━ and Steve's hand was tracing absently through her hair. Toby's heart decayed into a fist. Pulse a sucker-punch. Oxygen, poison.

  "Where'd it go?" asked Nancy.

  Sydney reluctantly lifted her head from Steve. His hummingbird heartbeat had been a great placation ━━ the rhythm of it soothing. The bleeding in her mouth had stopped, but she must've still had some of it smeared around her lips because when he met her sluggish gaze, his mouth twisted into a sour frown.

  He wanted to apologise for the blood in her mouth ━━ for the swollen tongue and the wounded body. He wanted to say he wished it was his.

  Sorry. That's all he wanted to say. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Till she was sick of hearing it. Till she was sick of him.

  Was this how it was supposed to feel? Like hunger, like pain, like illness? With Nancy ━━ he never felt like that. Always satiated, never hurting; alive. 

  His fingers still inattentively playing with her hair, Sydney had to physically shove him to put some space between them. Steve frowned, opening his mouth ━━ pursing it just as quickly. Tired, Sydney had to use the wall as support to turn around ━━ too prideful to use Steve again, and too ashamed to even meet Toby's doleful eyes. When she looked back at the bear trap, the Demogorgon was gone. Just the charred, smelted steel of the trap, and the singed carpet. 

  "It has to be dead," said Jonathan, panting. "It has to be."

  The bungalow reeked of petroleum and ash and cortisol. Sydney's legs hurt. Her mouth felt abraded. She wanted ... what did she want? To sleep. She yearned for a nap. For a greasy slice of pizza and that one episode of Only Fools & Horses that Matt treated like an opioid. To be away from all of this. For Matt himself. To know that he was OK. 

  Above them, the lights turned on again ━━ but this time, instead of volatile flickering, it was more like they were illuminating a path. Tinkering in a solid, vibrant line back out to the living room. 

  "Please don't say it's back," groaned Sydney, hipbone jutting against the wall for stability.

  "C'mon," Jonathan muttered, leading the way after the trail of lights. 

  They followed the scintillations back to the front door. 

  "Mom?" blurted Jonathan, as the path came to a brusque halt. 

  Sydney frowned. "Joyce? You think it's ━━" It hit her. Joyce had said the lights acted as some kind of messenger, a mirror of the upside down. The flea and the acrobat, like Dustin said. Hope effervesced in her belly ━━ terrible, contorting hope. "That means ━━ Dad."

  Now able to stand up on her own two feet, driven by something primitive, Sydney hastened after Jonathan to the porch, the cold air hitting her mercilessly. Strangled, Sydney barely noticed Nancy, Steve and Toby stepping out after them  ━━ the 5 newly appointed monster-slayers pooling out on the decking as a streetlamp on the drive started to pulsate.

  "Where's it going?" murmured Nancy.

  Jonathan shook his head. "I don't think that's the monster."

  Managing a smile, careful not to let her teeth nick at her stinging tongue, Sydney turned to Jonathan ━━ mustering all the forgiveness she could garner ━━ and offered out her hand. He took it. He squeezed it. Things were going to be alright. 

  Things had to be alright. 

Sydney hated hospitals. They always held bad connotations ━━ of death, and of illness, and of injury. Of being half-drunk from that stupid party, and standing in the morgue, absolutely catatonic. Christine's corpse somehow not enough to sober her up, laid out on that silver table ━━ lifeless and grey and gone. Feeling like she was stood in an icy tundra, harrowed by a ghost she couldn't feel or see, but it was there. In her DNA and in a scar that felt sore. Of being a kid with a fractured leg and stitches keeping her skull together and waiting for Father arrive but he never would. Of her mother reading Wuthering Heights to the comatose body of her dying mother. Of feeling useless. 

  "You said I killed you ━━ haunt me then! Be with me always. Take any form, drive me mad, but do not leave me. Not in a place where I cannot find you."

  But they drove straight to the hospital when Lucas reached them over walkie-talkie, telling them to get there immediately. How could they not? How could Jonathan not? He loved his brother ━━ and he was alive. All Sydney could think about the entire journey there was that maybe hospitals wouldn't be so bad now ━━ maybe seeing Will Byers in a hospital bed, fragile but breathing, would change it. The semantics would shift and Sydney could feel hope again.

  Steve didn't come with them to the hospital. Nancy and him exchanged a fragmented conversation ━━ something about her explaining everything to him latter, and something about him knowing where he wasn't wanted. He got in his shiny car and left, and tried to ignore the mangled rot it set off in his ribs to look through his rearview mirror and see Sydney get into the passenger seat of Toby's car nonchalantly, without even caring that Steve wasn't going with her. 

  They got to the hospital and Jonathan didn't linger around for anyone else to get out the car ━━ he went to look for his mom, for his brother. Nobody blamed him. Nancy splintered away, too. Muttered something about Mike, and couldn't suppress the bitter look she gave to Sydney before she bolted off down the sterile corridor. And then it was just Toby and Sydney ━━ how it always had been.

  "Syd, I, uh ━━"

  Sydney noticed his aloof stance ━━ hands in the pockets and a muscle ticking in his jaw ━━ and started to panic. "You never got to say what you wanted to earlier ━━ before Steve came."

  Toby looked pained. "Yeah. No, yeah, that ━━ it was nothing."

  "Oh." Ailing, Sydney nodded numbly. "Yeah, OK."

  "Listen, Syd ━━ I should go home," he sighed. Toby couldn't stomach the way she stared at him. Lower lip wobbling, and still scarlet with blood residue. Wounded. In so many more ways than one. "My mom, she's ━━ she's probably worried. And I don't like her being alone for too long, 'cause ━━ Well, you know." 

  Sydney sniffled, but nodded. "Yeah. No, you're right, yeah... Tell Imani I said hey." 

  "I'll call you in the morning?"

  "You better."

  A pathetic attempt at being wry. At being normal. Toby tried smiling, but it looked wrong and fake, and Sydney despaired. He just gave her a little nod, wringing his hands together, and hesitated ━━ he considered hugging her. Kissing her cheek. Her forehead. Her frown away. Kissing her hard and sweet until she realised it wasn't Steve ━━ it had never been Steve. It was him. That she didn't need to feel hungry or consumed to feel loved. That it was OK to just feel loved. That pain wasn't a chemical that came along with it. You didn't need to feel addicted and dissected to be in love. 

  Toby didn't do any of those things. Because he felt consumed. Because he felt hungry. Because he hurt so badly that maybe love was hurt after all, and he was being senseless and gullible. 

  Toby left. 

  And it was just Sydney. How it had truly always been.

  She stood idly in the waiting room. Clinical lights blinding her. Tasting blood, and smelling gunpowder and smoke, and wanting to go home. 

  "Sydney."

  Sydney's breath hitched. She turned round. It was Hopper. His sheriff's hat was held limply in his fingers, and he had a blooming bruise on his cheekbone. He looked solemn. He looked torn.

  "Hop," she croaked out.

  His eyes widened, and he took a reflex step forward when he noticed her injuries ━━ the bandaged palm, the cut she hadn't even noticed on her head (from when she hit the table), and the blood smeared round her mouth. 

  "Hey, are you alright?" he asked, concern severe and real.

  Sydney nodded impassively. "Yeah, I'm ━━" She glanced over his shoulder, finding nothing. An empty waiting room. No Matt. The tundra returned. Chilling and stiffening her bones. "What's wrong? What's ━━ Hop, what's happened?"

  Hopper faltered. "We should get you a doctor. You're bleeding ━━ you're ━━"

  "Hopper."

  "It's your dad."