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― season two, episode five;
BOB THE BRAIN

0:00 |───────── 17:06
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4069 words

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*.✧ 𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐋𝐄𝐘 ✧.*

A loud banging at the door made Mom and I jump up from the couch. "Is it Hopper?" Mom asked as I stood and went over to answer it.

"I don't know." I replied, turning the knob slowly, only opening the door wide enough so I could stick my head outside.

I was surprised to see that it was Mike on our doorstep. He immediately gave me an angry look. "You said you'd call me." He reminded me. "Yesterday."

I stepped outside, shutting the door softly on us. "I said I'd call later." I shrugged. "It's still 'later'. Maybe I was just about to before you showed up."

"You weren't." He said confidently.

"I wasn't." I admitted.

Mike sighed. "Can I please see Will?"

"It's not really a good time." I began to make excuses. "He's taking a nap."

"Is he okay?" Mike pushed me.

I stuttered as I tried to come up with another lie. "H-he's just really not feeling well. What happened yesterday really shook him up. I'll tell him you came by, alright?"

Mike just continued to glare at me, which was starting to make me feel uncomfortable, so I turned around to go back inside, deciding to just leave him there.

"It's about the shadow monster, isn't it?"

I slowly faced him. "How do you know about that?"

"Let me in." He ignored my question. "Please."

I sighed and opened the door, the two of us slipping inside. Mom jumped to her feet at the sight of Mike, trying to push him back out the door.

"Mike, honey, would you mind coming back later?" She rambled in a sweet tone. "It's just that-"

"He knows about the shadow monster, Mom." I cut her off.

Mom inhaled sharply before taking her hands off of Mike. I looked at him. "He's in his room."

He nodded quickly and I watched as he tiptoed around the drawings, not even questioning them, as he made his way down the hallway to Will's bedroom.

*.✧ 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐄 ✧.*

Mrs. Wheeler opened the door when I knocked. She seemed surprised to see me. "Belle?" She smiled. "It's so nice to see you. How are your parents holding up?"

"They're fine." I said quickly, not really wanting to make small talk at the moment. "Is Nancy home?"

"Nancy? No." Mrs. Wheeler shook her head. "In fact, I figured you were with her."

Shit. Where did they go?

"Oh! You're right!" I quickly came up with a lie. "I'm supposed to meet her at that pizza place in town. I'm so forgetful! Sorry to bother you."

The door was closed on my face and I started walking down the driveway, my mind racing.

Maybe they were at Ashley's house? I glanced over and saw that there was a discarded bike by the trash cans at the end of the drive. I grabbed the handlebars and picked it up, swinging my leg over the seat. "Sorry to whoever's bike I'm stealing right now," I muttered under my breath as I situated my feet on the pedals. "I promise I'll bring it back when I'm done."

I biked my way to the Byers' house, and upon arriving I noticed that Jonathan's car wasn't there, and there was an extra bike in the grass. I propped up my kickstand right next to the second bicycle, before I stomped up onto the porch. It was eerily silent inside the house, and I could hear my knocking echo.

Through the door, I heard Ms. Byers say, "Why are so many people stopping by? Why today of all days?" Her voice got louder as she presumably got closer to the entrance. I blushed when I heard Ashley giggle at her mom's remark.

The door opened and I gave Ms. Byers a friendly smile, trying to not show any stress on my face at all.

"Oh, hi. Belle." She said, "Did you leave something?"

My hat.

"Well, yeah." I said, already off track. "Um, I did leave my hat, the one that went with my witch costume."

"I'll grab it." Ashley was behind her mom now, and I smiled at her. The mere sight of her alone made my stress melt away.

Shit, I really loved her, huh?

I could only hope that one day I would have the strength to tell her.

"Thanks, Ash." I called to her as she turned and walked off, leaving me facing Ms.Byers, who was blocking the doorway, so I couldn't see past, for some reason.

"Actually, I didn't come for my hat." I admitted. "I came to ask if you know where Jonathan is?"

Ms. Byers frowned. "No," she shook her head. "I-I don't." She stared at the ground, her eyes darting back and forth, racking her brain for any ideas.

"That's okay. I'll go check in town next." I shrugged, seeing Ashley come up to the doorway once again.

"Alright," Ms. Byers sighed. "But if you see him, please tell him to call me, okay?"

"Sure." I said, accepting my hat back from Ashley. "Thank you. And thanks for letting me stay last night. I really appreciated that."

Ashley gave me a tight lipped smile. "Of course."

"You're welcome anytime." Her mom added, sweetly. Then, her tone and face became condescending. "Except right now. Because we are sort of in the middle of this thing...so if you want to come back tomorrow, that'd be great. It's just that tonight is a busy night and..." She closed the door on her own rambling.

I chuckled as I heard Ashley groan and scold her mom for her poor manners. I went back over to my bike and hung the chinstrap of my witch hat over the handlebars, before climbing back on.

I had one last place that I could think of that they might have gone.

The Lab.

*.✧ 𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐋𝐄𝐘 ✧.*

It was getting late, and the sun had begun to disappear behind the treeline with still no word from Hopper.

Mom had been calling him practically non-stop since we had hit the hour mark, getting nothing but voicemail. I stayed by her side, trying to comfort her by saying that I was sure he was fine, even though I was starting to have a really bad feeling. And Mike hadn't left Will's room since he got here.

Seeing Belle earlier helped me relax a little bit. I don't know, I just feel so calm around her, like I can be my truest self. I've never felt that way about anybody before.

"Mom?"

Will's trembling voice broke me out of my horrible inappropriately timed daydream about Belle. Mom and I turned towards the hallway, seeing the two boys standing there.

"I saw him." Will came closer, Mike on his heels.

"Saw who, baby?" Mom was confused.

"Hopper." He replied. "I think he's in trouble. I think..." he paused for a moment to swallow hard. "I think he's going to die."

I sucked in a breath and jumped to my feet. I hurried over to the kitchen table, digging through some papers until I found a blank one. I brought it back over to Will, holding it out.

"Where is he?" I kept the paper extended to him until he understood what I meant and snatched it out of my hands, walking back to his room. I followed him quickly, and Mom and Mike were right behind us.

Will sat down at his desk and slapped the paper down as I came up behind him, resting my hand on his chair. I watched him start to scribble aggressively onto the blank page. Mom brushed up next to me, grabbing a hold of my arm.

The black crayon was the next color that was snatched up by Will, and he started to color vigorously, in one spot this time.

"Is that where he is?" I asked. "Is that where you saw Hopper?"

Will set down the crayon, nodding. Mom took the drawing into her hands and examined it closer.

"Now, where is this?" I asked again.

"I don't know." Will is staring down at the desk. "I just feel him there."

"Okay." Mom held the paper up to eye level and started turning around the room, holding it up to the rest of the drawings taped to the walls, seeing if it matched. Mike and I caught on to what she was trying to do quickly, and we both left Will's room, going separate ways in the house to search for where it would fit.

"Here!" I heard Mike say, and the rest of us ran into the kitchen, where he was pointing. Mom pinned the paper on top of the other paper on the wall, and it was a match.

"Okay." Mom nodded slowly. "So, Hopper is here?"

"Yeah, now we just need to find out where 'here' is, right?" Mike said.

"Right." Mom breathed, still just as confused.

"Did he say anything?" Mike turned to me. "Before he left?"

"Something about vines...?" I tried to remember, but this only added to my growing headache from trying to figure all of this out.

Suddenly, car tires could be heard rolling towards the house.

"Hopper." Mom said hopefully, hurrying over to the door. I stayed back with Mike as Mom unlocked and opened the front door. I saw her shoulders slump down and she slipped the rest of the way outside.

Mike and I ran over to the window, looking out to see that it was Bob who had just arrived. The two of us sighed, disappointed, and turned away from the window.

"How are we supposed to figure out where Hopper is?" I groaned. "All of this is giving me a headache."

"I know." Mike paced nervously. "Sometimes I wish that I had all the answers, ya know?"

"Oh, I know." I smiled at him.

The front door was flung open, with Mom and Bob entering. Bob looked around the room, mesmerized by the papers everywhere, with a stack of board games in his hands. Eventually his eyes fell onto me, and he smiled. "Hey Ashley!" He said, all friendly. "What is all of this?"

"They're Will's drawings." I offered, not wanting to give too much away.

"Hmm." Bob seemed impressed. He turned to Will, who was standing off to the side. "You drew all these?"

Will nodded but Mom grabbed Bob's arm and pulled him back on track. "I told you the rules." She scolded. "No questions."

Mom left Bob's side, going into the kitchen. "We just need you to help us figure out where-" She pointed to the fresh drawing of where Hopper supposedly was. "-here is." She pulled a red crayon out from behind her ear and drew a large X in the middle of the paper.

"That's the objective. Find the X." Mike added, the rest of us now in the kitchen with Mom.

"What's at the X? Pirate treasure?" Bob joked.

"Bob." Mom said firmly. "No questions."

Bob paused for a moment, sighing heavily. Then he reached out and put his arm on Mom's back. "Let me talk to you for a second. Hang on, guys." He lead Mom out of the room and down the hallway, leaving me standing there in the kitchen with Mike and Will.

*.✧ 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐄 ✧.*

I felt myself grow angrier and angrier as I made my way towards the entrance of the lab. Two guards stepped in front of the door to block me from entering.

"Let me in." I said sternly.

"I'm afraid we can't do that." I was told by the first burly man.

"I need to speak to Doctor Owens." I replied, my words causing the two guards to exchange a glance.

"How do you know Owens?" The second guard asked.

"Because I just spoke with him this morning, and I think he has my friends." I crossed my arms.

"There are no visitors allowed inside the lab at this time."

"I want to speak with him." I repeated, staring at the men, getting up in their faces.

One of them sighed and turned away, pushing the door open and going inside. I tried to lunge forward and slip in after him, but I was grabbed roughly by the second guard.

"Let me go!" I cried out, squirming as his fingers dug into my arm. But he didn't even wince as I began to pull with all my might against him.

"Alright, alright, what is going on out here?"

I instantly stopped my wiggling and turned to face the first guard, who had just stepped back outside along with Dr. Owens.

"Where are Jonathan and Nancy!" I demanded. "I know that they're here!"

"Your friends aren't here, Miss Holland." He looked at me, confused. "I haven't seen them since this morning. Can you not find them?"

I didn't believe him, not for one second. They probably had found out about the tape somehow, and were currently keeping them tied up in a dark room somewhere, torturing them.

"Don't lie to me!" I yelled. "You're holding them hostage or something! Erasing their memory maybe!"

I elbowed the man that was holding me in the stomach and he grunted in pain.

"Sir, she's getting violent." The soldier beside Owens stated the obvious.

"I can see that." Dr. Owens hissed back to him. "Listen," He spoke to me softly. "I need you to remain calm. I can help you find your friends, in fact I want to help you, but you have to calm down first."

"Remain calm?" I scoffed in his face. "You killed my sister! And now you've taken my friends! I am never going to be calm!"

I swung my leg back and kicked the guard, hitting him in the stomach again, this time with a much greater force. I felt his other arm loop around my neck, getting me into a headlock. But even this wouldn't calm me down, and I dug my fingernails into his forearm until I drew blood, the soldier yelling out as I ripped at his skin.

Dr. Owens brought his hands to his head, looking stressed. He nodded to the second guard, giving a silent order. The man stepped towards me, swiftly bringing his hand up to my neck. I felt a stinging pain and cold metal against my skin, and I kicked the second man off.

"What the hell did you do to me?" I yelled, hysterical at this point.

I caught sight of the guard that I had just kicked off and saw that he was holding a large syringe with a long needle on the end. "What did you do to me!?" I repeated, thrashing around even more violently than before. "What did you do!?"

Suddenly, I felt my entire body grow heavy, and I involuntarily slumped over. The guard that had his arm around my neck dropped his grasp to my waist, catching me as I went limp.

These motherfuckers sedated me.

This was my last coherent thought, before my vision grew blurry and the world around me began to spin. Then, my eyelids fluttered shut.

*.✧ 𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐋𝐄𝐘 ✧.*

"I get it now!"

Mike, Will and I turned at the sound of Bob's voice. He was coming down the hallway with Mom on his feet. He pointed at a cluster of drawings on the wall. "That's Lake Jordan."

He continued down the hall, "And if that's Lake Jordan, then you'd probably find-" He pointed to another shape. "-yeah! That's Sattler's quarry. And then if you just follow it naturally..."

He walked along a trail of drawings on the floor, leading into the living room. "The Eno river." He motioned to some papers in the corner by the couch. "That's the Eno, do you see it?"

I stood up and went over to stand by Mom, to get a better look at whatever Bob was talking about.

"Okay," He went on. "So, the lines aren't roads. But they act like roads."

"Bob," I shook my head, confused. "What are you talking about?"

"They never go over water." He explained. "That's the giveaway! Ha! Don't you get it, it's not a puzzle, it's a map! It's a map of Hawkins!"

My eyes went wide and I slowly made eye contact with Mom, who looked just as shocked as I did.

"Isn't that right, Will?" Bob spoke with a big smile.

Will nodded fast, "Uh, yeah! Right."

"So, can you find where the X is?" Mom asked.

"I think so." Bob thought for a moment. "I need a map and a ruler!"

━━

"I've got about three inches, what do you got?" Bob called to me from his seat at the dining room table. I was standing in Mom's room with Mike, who was holding a long tape measure against the shape of papers that had been identified as Lover's Lake.

"I'm not sure!" Mike yelled back. "Mrs. Byers?"

"Hold on!" Mom replied, pausing for a moment ."Twenty-one feet, four inches!"

"How about Tippecanoe to Danford Creek?" Bob suggested.

"Danford? Where's Danford?" Mom sighed.

"Dining room!" This was Will, and I left the bedroom to go hold Mom's previous spot as she measured to the new location.

"Sixteen feet, ten inches!" Mom told Bob.

"How about-"

Mom sighed again. "This..this has gotta be enough!"

"It's not, it's really not." Bob insisted, looking down at his map spread out before him. Mom began to pull in and gather the measuring tape, and I let go of my end. We all entered the kitchen to stand over Bob.

"Can't you figure it out?" Mom asked.

"Well, it's hard." Bob answered. "The ratio isn't exactly one-to-one. I mean, if you're twisting my arm," He shot her a look. "And you are twisting my arm, then I would say that the X is..." He drew a line from one dot to another on the map and then sighed. "Maybe...half a mile southeast of Danford?"

Mom breathed a sigh of relief, giving Bob a peck on the cheek. "Thank you!"

Then, she grabbed the map from the table, turning and running right out the front door. Mike, Will and I hurried after her, and Bob was the last of us to get the memo. We all piled into Mom's car, leaving to go rescue Hopper.

*.✧ 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐄 ✧.*

I slowly came to, struggling to lift my heavy head. Once I was awake enough, I began to look around the room, taking in my surroundings.

I was in a similar place as earlier that morning with Jonathan and Nancy, only this time I was strapped to a chair, in the middle of the room.

My wrists and ankles were ziptied to the creaky chair, and I had some sort of belt around my waist, buckling me to the seat. I heard the door in the corner click unlocked, and Dr. Owens stepped in with me.

I immediately felt angry with him again, and started to squirm in the chair, but I was held in pretty tightly. "What did you do to me?" I demanded.

Owens held up his hands in surrender as he pulled up a chair for himself to sit right across from me. "I know that you're angry with me. With us." he ignored my question. "But we do not have your friends. I promise. I want to help you find them though, because the wrong person could've also intercepted their phone call and gotten their hands on them."

"The wrong person? Like you, and like everybody in this lab?" I leaned forward in my seat, getting up in his face. "I don't trust you." I spat.

"I'm not asking you to trust me, I'm just asking you to let me help you."

"I don't want your help." I growled. "You killed my sister."

"Whatever came out of that gate killed your sister." Owens defended himself.

"Yeah, and it's this lab's fault that it escaped!" I yelled. "You killed my sister!"

"Miss Holland I-"

"You killed my sister!" I said over and over, my voice getting hoarser and hoarser as I screamed.

Dr. Owens sighed frustratedly, then he stood from his seat. I fell silent, breathing heavily, as I watched him stick his hand out the door. He pulled his arm back in, and I saw that he was now holding a gas mask.

"What are you gonna do with that?" My adrenaline was pumping through my veins.

"For the safety of the lab, I have to keep you here until you are calm." Owens explained. "I'm going to give you some medicine that will help with that. Then, when you're ready, I will let you go."

"No!" I thrashed around in the chair. "No, you can't do this! I have to find them! I have to help them!"

"You left me with no choice, unfortunately." Owens moved his chair out of the way so that he could stand in front of me. He lowered the gas mask towards me, and I turned my face away.

"You're making this so much harder than it has to be." Owens tried to bargain with me. "I don't want to do this to you."

"Sure, you don't." I scoffed. "I think you get a kick out of hurting people, maybe you even liked killing Barb! You are so fucking sick!"

Owens set his jaw and then shoved the strap of the gas mask over my head. I struggled underneath him, but he was stronger than me and soon he had the gas mask over my mouth. He pulled out another large syringe needle from his lab coat, injecting it into the side of the gas mask.

I felt the air inside the mask grow thick, and I struggled to get a full breath. My arms grew limp first, and then my legs. My head drooped and I could only stare at the floor. I watched Owens' feet walk out of sight, and I heard the door close as he left the room. My ears began to ring just before I could no longer hold my heavy eyelids open.

*.✧ 𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐋𝐄𝐘 ✧.*

The road was dark and quiet, so quiet that you could hear the wind whistling as it pushed against the car.

"There's nothing here!" Mike said frustratedly as we all stared out the windows at the miles upon miles of fields.

"Are we close?" Mom asked from behind the wheel.

Bob wrestled with the map as he tried to get an idea of where we were. "We're in the vicinity."

"What does that mean, exactly?" I piped up.

"I told you guys, it's not precise. The scale ratio is not exactly one-to-one!"

"But we did all that work!" Mom argued.

"And we should've done more!" Bob said back.

I felt Will jolt forward in his seat beside me, and he abruptly said, "Turn right!"

"What?" Mom and I chorused.

"I saw him." Will said ominously.

"Where?" Mom demanded.

"Not here! In my now-memories!"

"In your what?" Bob asked.

"Turn right!" Will repeated.

Mom yanked the car to a sharp right as we all ignored Bob's questions. A sign for a pumpkin patch came into view, and it was too late to swerve. Mom plowed the sign over and continued straight, and I dug my fingers into the front two seats for support as we bounced along, all of us screaming.

Up ahead, I could see Hopper's truck, illuminated by the headlights. I gasped and Mom slammed on the breaks, just before we could rear end it.

"Are you guys okay?" Mom turned to us in the backseat to check on us.

"What's Jim doing here?" Bob was still confused. "Joyce?"

"Stay here," Mom told us kids, before opening her car door.

"Are you crazy?" I sat forward.

"It's not safe!" Will added.

"That's why I need you to stay here!" Mom scolded. "Stay here!"

Bob climbed out as well and the two of them slammed their doors, walking past Hopper's truck. I sighed and threw back my head, tapping my foot nervously.

I need to get out there.

━━

ೃ༄ catie speaks!

HAPPY STRANGER THINGS DAY!!!

this is the first of three parts coming out today!

i don't want to commentate/put too much in this section for these chapters, since they're coming out back to back i don't want to spoil.

so...i hope you enjoy!!