— CHAPTER 13 —
WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME

WEDNESDAY 3rd JULY,
1985

THOMAS should have known better than to get involved in this. Sitting in the back of Hopper's (technically the Hawkins P.D.'s) Chevy Blazer as it zips along the road, he casts his mind to his heavily pregnant sister at home, and his daughters who he should be looking after. And what is he doing instead? Chasing the mess that Mayor Kline made.

     Earlier today, he had tagged along with Hopper and Joyce, as they made Kline take them to his cushy mansion. The faux zebra-skin carpet and polished floor tiles had left a bad taste in Thomas's mouth. Here was their mayor, enjoying all his tacky wealth, while the hard-working people in Hawkins were breaking a sweat to make a living. Kline had led them upstairs to a safe in his bedroom and unearthed some papers.

     Land deeds, transfers of property. So much land had been bought up by the enigmatic people at Starcourt, and they didn't tell a thing to Kline. The pathetic little man, with tissues stuffed up his bloody swollen nose, had explained that he was keeping these in a safe for "protection". The insinuation had not reassured Thomas one bit.

     It was Joyce who then made the connection — Hess Farm, Henry's Place, Bullocks, all the places mentioned in the land deeds are located in southeast Hawkins, around Lake Jordan. Four nights ago, when the power outage happened that plunged the Hawk Theatre into pitch black, it left the magnets on her fridge unmagnetised. Only a very strong machine could disrupt their magnetism. At first they had feared it was the lab, but the power plant is smack in the middle of the property Starcourt has bought up... so maybe it was coming from there.

     Maybe Thomas just feels uneasy, because this is like deja vu. One moment, he was stumbling around looking for his daughters last year, and the next he was running for his life and watching Bob get pulled apart by those... things. It still haunts him. He had been caught completely off-guard that night. What if something like that happened again? Sure, the gate was closed, but whatever this new thing is, Thomas dislikes the idea of being in the dark about it.

     Gravel crunches beneath the tyres of the truck, turning slowly into Hess Farm. The headlights bore into the path beyond them. "Looks like somebody's home," Hopper murmurs, nodding through the other window. Thomas twists in his seat and notices another truck parked up in front of the small bungalow.

     Hopefully they're friendly, Thomas thinks.

     Once they park up, he is halfway out of the door when Hopper catches it with his strong hands. "No, you stay here, Thomas."

     "What? Why?" he asks incredulously.

     "I think Joyce and I should do this alone," Hopper says slowly, rubbing a hand over his stubble and thick moustache.

     "Well, you already let me tag along this far, didn't you?"

     "You can be our getaway car if anything goes wrong!" Joyce says; it's meant to sound teasing, but it is far from that. She shoots him a neurotically innocent smile as she brandishes a flashlight in one hand.

     He looks back at Hopper, almost defiant now. "Come on, why me, though?"

     "Because..." Hopper thinks, before replying, "... you're the youngest."

     "Wha—" Thomas glares at him, hating that shit-eating grin he's giving him. "Jim, I'm forty-one years old, you can't pull that card!"

     "Radio me if anything happens! It's on the dash."

     Before he can argue with them on it, Thomas watches Joyce and an armed Hopper walk into the house. And they didn't even leave him the car keys. Typical. He circles around to the front seat of the truck and shuts himself inside. Rolling his window open just a crack, he lets the evening air trickle in, along with the chirps of crickets and hooting owls in the trees. His head falls back onto the headrest, uncomfortably digging into a certain contour of his cranium enough that he retracts again. The more he can avoid cramp at his age, the better.

     Thomas glances down at his watch. It is well past midnight already. Hopefully, everyone at home should be in bed by now. He is sure the girls helped Peggy upstairs so she could get comfortable. Soon, he'll be back, and this will just be a crazy de-tour he took.

Looking for something to do, he starts fiddling with the knick-knacks in Hopper's truck. He knows he definitely takes it for unofficial business too, but at this point, maybe the police station have seen it is futile to chase him up on it. Thomas remembers it was this truck that pulled up outside his house on November 9th, 1983 — and out of it ran a distraught little Cath, straight into his arms as she shook and wept over Will's body that was found in the quarry. Of course, he was found indeed alive a few days later, but Thomas never forgot what Jim did that night for his daughter. He was relieved someone had thought to take her home.

Even when they were young, it is something he always remembers about Jim Hopper. For all his gruffness, under there is a beating heart which wants to help people.

Midway through adjusting the rear-view mirror, Thomas is suddenly blinded. He squints and feels his eyes water against the glare. With it is the sound of a motorbike engine, revving and then slowing to a halt. Once his eyes adjust again, he sees the burly outline of a man who looks oddly familiar — he couldn't be blamed for thinking the guy was Schwarzenegger, walking straight out of a 'Terminator' movie.

     That thought suddenly makes him freeze. Hopper said a guy had beaten him up the other night. From the way he was described...

     Oh, shit.

     Sinking lower into his seat so he won't be seen, Thomas helplessly watches as the action man walks into the house. He then lunges for the radio sitting on Hopper's dashboard and holds the button down. "Jim! Can you hear me? There's– there's a guy that just walked in, I think he's the one who attacked you... you have to get out of there?" Thomas listens and waits for an answer. "Jim? Joyce? Anyone?" Nothing.

     He waits... and waits... and waits...

     Then everything seems to erupt. Peppered gunfire, muffled at first, sounds from inside the house. Thomas sits forward in a panic and tries calling them again and again, but still no answer. Then the gunfire gets louder, and he can see hot white flashes like lightning through the windows. A staggered blur runs towards him in the form of Hopper and Joyce.

     "THOMAS, DRIVE!" Hopper barks.

     "What?!" Thomas exclaims.

     The police chief tosses the car keys at him, but they only hit a half-open window and plink down onto the ground.

     "Jim, what the—"

     "COME ON, THOMAS! QUIT SCREWIN' AROUND!"

     "Alright, alright! Jesus! Give me the damn keys!"

     Thomas rapidly rolls down the window like he's powering a giant locomotive. Hopper picks the keys up off the ground and tosses them in his face, almost taking an eye out with it. The doors are being ripped open, Joyce crawling into the passenger side while the other piles into the back. All Thomas knows is his hands are shaking so much with the urgency, he can't even find the right key, and oh, he's so goddamn confused.

     "Oh my God!" Joyce gasps, still catching her breath.

     "Thomas, drive..." Hopper says, quieter for once.

     "GIVE ME A MINUTE!" Thomas snaps back, sticking the key into the ignition and turning it.

     "THOMAS! DRRRRRIVE!!"

     The Chevy Blazer shudders back to life. He slams his foot down on the gas and reverses as quick as he can, just to be met with the shrinking image of the burly man, who is now holding a machine gun. "Holy SHIT!" Thomas cries, instantaneously ducking as a spray of gunfire hits the car. He turns the wheel full lock, making the car skid in a circle, and then corrects it to drive straight ahead. His nerves are frayed and he has no clue where he's going. The truck ploughs through the Hess Farm's mailbox, and he couldn't care less right now. He swears he doesn't release his breath until they are far out into the road, the only ones there.

     "Okay..." Thomas gulps, his mouth like sandpaper, "I– I think we're safe for now."

     "Great job," Joyce pats his arm tiredly.

     "Yeah, but word of advice next time: getaway cars usually need the keys to do their job."

     "Just keep driving, Thomas," Hopper says.

     Well, that just ticks him off. Stopping at the upcoming junction, he glances at the rear-view to look Hopper in the eyes when he gives a piece of his mind. Only he isn't looking at him; he is looking at a totally different man, younger, with a sweat-frenched face and spectacles sitting on his nose. They make the briefest eye contact before Thomas does a double take. He twists so fast in his seat, his seatbelt almost slits his throat.

     The man says something and gingerly waves, his wrists in handcuffs. He has no clue what came out of his mouth, but it sounded suspiciously like... Russian.

     Thomas's eyes grow twice in size as he glares at Hopper. "Who the hell is this guy?"

━━━━━━

     AT some point, inhaling and exhaling the same air starts to drive you insane. Daphne feels like a ticking time bomb in this elevator shaft, with cramp in her joints and not a wink of uninterrupted sleep. That's what over eight hours will do to you. Not to mention that her bladder is straining from needing a bathroom break — she got good at holding it during school, if it meant avoiding the likes of Carol Perkins in there, but Daphne can't keep this up forever...

It doesn't help that Dustin is pacing back and forth on top of the elevator, talking over and over into his Supercom: "This is a code red, I repeat, a code red. Does anyone copy? We are innocent children and we are trapped under Starcourt Mall. The Red Army has infiltrated Hawkins, and if we are found, they will torture and kill us..." he is saying right now, which is hardly encouraging. But she is stuck with his endless monologuing and thumping footsteps above her. Eventually, Steve has enough and crawls up to shut him up.

"Hey!" Steve cuts him off, hoisting himself up through the top. "You gotta take it easy on that thing, you're gonna drain the battery."

"The mall just opened," Dustin says.

Has it? Daphne glances down at her watch and sees that yes, it is well into the morning now. Well, that's depressing.

"So?"

"So, someone could be in range!"

Steve scoffs, "What, do you think Petey the Mall Cop's gonna rappel down here and save the day?"

As she watches him clamber up out of sight, Daphne tunes out of the boys' conversation and tries to sit up for the first time in hours. Her muscles twinge at the movement and she grimaces. The blood rushing too quickly to her head, she sits hugging her knees and adjusts to her surroundings for a moment. Robin is stood examining the walls for a way out, Erica is studying the vial of green liquid, and Andrea is... actually, what is she doing? Daphne does a double take and notices the mostly-built LEGO house, albeit a small one, stood on the floor.

"Did you build that?" she asks incredulously.

"Yeah," Andrea shrugs, "it was for my brother, but I'm so bored. What else was I supposed to do?"

Baffled, Daphne shakes her head. "That's fair..."

Suddenly, a tinkling of water hitting the walls snaps up her attention. Either Dustin or Steve is taking a piss.

"Oh, no, no..." Daphne whines, crossing one leg over the other. Lucky bastards, she thinks. It's alright for them to take a bathroom break, but what is she supposed to do?

"Could you re-direct your stream, please?" Robin yells, wrinkling her nose. Soon enough, they are saved from having to look at that.

"And... voilá!" Andrea gives an unenthusiastic jazz hands towards the LEGO house, before immediately dismantling it again. "Well, at least I know all the pieces are in there."

CLANG, CLANG, CLANG!

Daphne whips her head around to see Erica — to her utter horror — whacking the green vial against a hard surface. She could not leap to her feet faster, scrambling over and snatching the liquid from the child's hands. "Geez, Erica, what are you thinking? You don't know what's in here!" she cries.

"Exactly! It could be useful," Erica fires back.

"Useful, how?" Robin asks.

"We could survive a long time down here without food. But if the human body doesn't get water, it will die."

"But I have water," Daphne reminds her, nodding to the half-emptied flask of lukewarm water. They have been rationing it to the best of their abilities since getting stuck down here.

Erica shakes her head fiercely and says, "I don't want that musty water if I can help it!"

Shoving the LEGO box back into her bag, Andrea is laughing weakly. "Unless that stuff is lime-flavoured jello, I think the last thing you'll think while drinking that is regret." She stands to her full height and rummages further in her backpack. "By the way, if anyone wants 'em, I found some fruit roll-ups at the bottom of this."

Robin rakes a hand through her hair. "You only just found them now?"

"It's a big bag, what can I tell you?"

"Well... better late than never," Daphne sighs. Right on cue, her stomach growls. All this talk of food and water isn't doing her stay calm mentality any favours.

Thump-thump. The group turn around, hearing the distinct noise of footsteps approaching the elevator doors. Renewed trepidation over being caught wakes them up; it gives them enough energy to all load atop the elevator, Andrea scooping her dangling feet up just in time as the doors whoosh open. Steve presses a finger to his lips as two Russian guards come in with a trolley, loading some of the cardboard boxes onto it.

One of them raises his nose to the air, sniffing it. Daphne doesn't have to understand Russian to know what it is they can smell. A few moments later, they walk out again, leaving the doors open. The squeaking wheels grow fainter...

And there's their chance. Steve hops down first as the door is sliding downwards, sticking the green vial under it to keep it open. "Go, go, go!" he urges the others. Robin army-crawls under first, then Daphne makes sure the other kids get through first. As she follows behind after Andrea, she sees cracks appearing in the glass like intricate pieces of a spider web, all about to break.

"Steve, hurry!" Daphne exclaims.

The moment she's safely on the other side, she grabs his hand and helps pull him the rest of the way out — at the same time, the glass shatters and the door comes swooping down. Out from the vial spurts the green liquid, hissing and spitting as it burns an acidic patch into the floor tiling. What the hell? Daphne stares wide-eyed at Steve, knowing his skin narrowly missed the toxic stuff.

"Jesus Christ..." he mutters.

"You still wanna drink that?" Robin breathlessly asks Erica.

This place keeps getting weirder and weirder. "Holy mother of God..." Dustin utters. The others turn around to look his way, coming face-to-face with a long corridor lined with pipes, more like an underground tunnel with milky fluorescent lights. Daphne can't even see where it ends. One thing's for sure, and it is that they can't go back the way they came. Not yet.

"Hope you guys are in good shape... lookin' at you, roast beef," Steve says, smacking Dustin lightly on his belly. He walks on ahead, initially on his own. "Let's go, come on!"

The group start trotting miserably behind Harrington. Daphne figures if they are here, they might as well investigate. That was what this whole insane idea was for, right? Dustin got his wish — he found the secret Russian base he was so fixated on.

"Andrea? You still got those roll-ups?" asks Daphne.

In response, Andrea tosses her one, and no sooner than Daphne catches it does she rip open the packaging and start nibbling at it. She'll need all the energy she can get at this rate.

━━━━━━

     "SON of a bitch!" Hopper grunts through gritted teeth. Beside him, Thomas has a toolbox handy, trying not to inhale the charcoal grey plumes of smoke hissing from the open bonnet.

To lose the guy with the machine gun, they had to take a de-tour through the forest. Hopper knew a guy in Illinois that could translate Russian, so the aim was to get there. But suddenly the Chevy Blazer had sputtered and broke down in the middle of nowhere. Long story short, it leaves Thomas stranded out in the woods — God only knows where — with Hopper and Joyce...

... And the Russian they seem to have kidnapped. His name is Alexei, apparently, although Hopper still calls him Smirnoff with disdain. He has been cuffed to a nearby tree so he can't think of running away. Thomas still can't wrap his head around why he is here with them. Or maybe it's more that he cannot believe he is in this situation at all. He should be at home with Peggy and the girls, not trying to get his bearings while a Russian stares blankly at his efforts to fix the truck.

Thomas glances over at him now, as he's listening (trying to, anyway) as Joyce rambles about magnets. She has two rocks she is clicking together to demonstrate. The poor sucker.

     "Magnets. Do you know magnets? Magnet? Mag-neet?" Joyce repeats slowly, even trying different accents.

     Nudging his glasses with a cuffed wrist, Alexei nods and repeats, "Mag-neet."

     "Ah, yes! So, mag-neet on my fridge, my ice box, and then they..." she pouts, dropping the rocks to the forest floor, "... they fell. Demagnetised. Stopped working. Do you understand?"

     "Da," Alexei nods.

     "So, is that because of the machines you're working on?"

     "Machina?"

     "Machina! Machina, yes. Vroom-vroom!"

     "Da, da! Machina, machina!" Alexei says eagerly, pointing to the truck behind her. "Vroom-vroom!"

     Ah. They clearly aren't as synchronised as Joyce thought they were. Thomas pinches the bridge of his nose, already feeling his brain fried from the twists and turns these last twenty-four hours have taken. "No, no, no, not the car," she says, "the machine at the Hess Farm, where we kidnapped you—"

     "Joyce!" Hopper hollers, making Thomas's eardrums ache, "you're givin' me a headache, both of you! Is Thomas the only one helping me?"

     "I am helping!" Joyce huffs, marching over to him in a pint-sized dose of anger. "I am making progress."

     "Progress?"

     "Yeah!"

     "What have you learned, huh? You've learned that Smirnoff over there—"

     "Alexei," Joyce and Thomas both correct him together.

     "— Smirnoff is Russian, and works for Starcourt. Two things we already knew."

     "Thought we knew, but now we know-know," Joyce rambles, "because I confirmed them... you're welcome!"

     "Yeah? Why don't you confirm whether this baby'll start, huh?" Hopper deadpans, tossing her the keys. "Thomas, you keep an eye on Smirnoff."

     When did he start taking orders from Jim Hopper? Not the police chief, but the guy from his school days. Sighing, Thomas undoes a button at his collar, feeling the sweat already seeping through his shirt. This place is rife with mosquitoes that just can't wait to feast on them. He has been smacking them away more times than he can count. When he goes over to Alexei, he sees the Russian already has multiple bites on his forearms which he wasn't able to swat away.

     Thomas shoves his hands into his pockets, giving Alexei a strained nod. What the hell does he say to him? He doesn't even speak English, but if he did, that would hardly be an improvement. He hardly has any wish to be friendly with one of the Russians that has secretly been in Hawkins for a while. Besides, all his life has had the grey cloud of the Cold War hanging over him, so the urge to be friendly is even less present.

     Alexei starts saying a word to him, over and over. It sounds like "voda", but apart from "da" and "niet" maybe with some phrases he heard in Bond movies, that is where Thomas's Russian knowledge begins and ends.

     "I don't understand," he shakes his head at Alexei.

     "Voda," Alexei says again, imitating a pouring motion into his mouth.

     "Uh, drink? Water?" Thomas imitates the action himself, and the Russian nods quickly. "Don't have any. No food. No water. Niet."

     Parched, Alexei frowns, but doesn't protest any more. At first glance, he seems pretty harmless. If Thomas didn't know that he had been working with some secret machine on Hess Farm, he might be inclined to give the guy a chance.

     Suddenly Alexei's eyes widen in alarm; his eyes dart to Joyce in the front seat, her foot clamped down on the pedals as the truck makes an unhealthy shuddering noise. "Hey, hey!" Alexei starts waving his cuffed hands in warning, "Stop, stop!"

     "Shut up, Smirnoff!" Hopper snaps back.

     "Hopper, I think you should stop," Thomas finds himself saying, not liking the sound of the truck either.

     Alexei reverts into Russian in a sentence that none of them understand. Of course that only ticks off Hopper further, as he grunts and comes storming towards their hostage. "STOP! You hear me, I said shut your damn—"

     "JIM!" yells Thomas, as the bonnet coughs out a flash of fire. The engine hisses like a boiling kettle; it's about to blow.

     "Oh, shit," Hopper murmurs, all the anger gone for a moment.

     Blindly, Thomas lunges towards the truck and yanks Joyce's arm out, the rest of her body following as she staggers into the trees. They clear the space just in time — BANG! The bonnet explodes in huge flames and crackles, the dark smoke blackening the air and choking their throats. A vexed Alexei rolls his eyes at what he had been saying all along, in the most concise English he could muster:

     "Stop," he repeats.

     A beat of stunned silence passes.

     "... What now?" Thomas finally asks.

     Hopper uses his hand to clamp back a tuft of sweaty hair. "We walk," he replies gruffly, unlocking Alexei from the tree.

     The four of them start walking through the woods, up and down hills and weaving past trees. Dappled sunlight bursting through is still harsh, Thomas feeling himself sweat buckets. He finds himself leading the group with Alexei in tow and in his eye-view. Behind them, Joyce and Hopper lag behind, too busy bickering to pay any attention.

     "I thought this friend of yours lived in Illinois," Joyce is complaining.

     "He's not really a friend," Hopper says, "he's more like an acquaintance."

     "Okay, so this acquaintance lives in Illinois... correct?"

     "Correct."

     "So we're walking to Illinois?"

     "Yeah, yeah, we're gonna walk to Illinois. You know, I figure we'll get there by, like, Friday evening. I hope that works for your schedule..." Hopper finally drops the sarcasm and huffs. "Jesus Christ, Joyce! We're not walking to Illinois, okay?"

"Well then, what are we doing?" Joyce throws her arms in the air.

"That's a good question, Joyce," Thomas snaps, unable to hide his irritation any longer. "We're stuck out in the middle of nowhere, and my sister could go into labour any day now, and she has no goddamn clue where I am!"

"Then why did you come?" Hopper fires back.

"I didn't know it would be an overnight, stranded-in-the-woods kind of thing!"

"Isn't there someone in Indiana who speaks Russian?" Joyce asks.

At the mere suggestion, both Thomas and Hopper scoff and glance at each other. Unlikely.

So, Illinois it is. All Thomas can do is keep an eye on Alexei, who staggers on at the front of the group parched and tired. He seems surprisingly unwilling to escape them. Then again, where would he go?

He only hopes the girls are doing okay at home...

━━━━━━

     CATH winds her finger around the yolk-coloured phone cord in Mike's basement, waiting for some to pick up back home. She is feeling a little more human knowing she's due a plate of pancakes from Mrs. Wheeler, but before she can think about the Mind Flayer or anything related, she feels an urge to check in at home. Now they know that Billy is the host, they will need re-enforcements. Cath has thought she might tell her dad or Daphne what happened in the sauna test, as well as telling them where she's been.

"Hello?"

     Perking up at her aunt's voice, Cath grips the phone tighter. "Peggy, it's Cath."

     "Why, hello stranger! Where have you been?"

     "I know, I'm so sorry I wasn't home last night. I was at a friend's house and we all lost track of time..."

     She conveniently leaves out the rest — the trauma of the sauna test, their laboured bike journeys back to the Wheeler home, and practically collapsing into slumber as they piled into Mike's basement. Cath woke up this morning atop a sleeping bag, Lucas's shoes in her face and a stray D&D figurine digging into her back.

"Is Dad there? Or Daphne?" Cath asks. "I really need to talk to them."

     "They're not here. Daphne and your dad didn't come last night, either."

     She furrows her brows. "... They didn't?"

     "No," Peggy sighs, sounding vexed, "no call or anything. I supposed your dad might be working late, or Daphne had a secret boyfriend."

     Unbeknownst to her aunt, Cath digests this information with discomfort. Two of them disappearing at the same time? It sounds suspicious. Then again, she could just be paranoid. Daphne could have slept over at Amy's, and Peggy has a point, her dad could have picked up an extra shift at the Hawk Theatre — it also wouldn't be the first time he ended up sleeping there, and coming home in the morning.

     Still, although Cath knows she has bigger things to deal with right now, the thought of Peggy home alone makes her nervous. "Listen Peggy, uh... something's come up. It's really important, and I don't know how long it will take, so I won't be home until tonight."

     "Okay. Well, thanks for calling to tell me. It would make you the first... I've got plans of my own, anyway."

     "You do?"

     "Of course! Starting with a viewing at a house before lunch."

     "Peggy, are you sure you should be going out right now?" Cath asks worriedly.

     Her aunt just scoffs into the receiver. "Sweetie, you're starting to sound like your dad. I can still do a lot. I'm just... slower, that's all. And your grandma is going to take me there and look at the house with me."

     Remembering how her aunt and grandma usually clash, Cath imagines the viewing vividly. "Well, good luck," she says, knowing they will need it.

     "If we don't kill each other before tonight, will I see you for dinner?" Peggy asks through strained cheeriness. "Most likely microwaved, if your dad doesn't show up."

     "Oh, I can make something," Cath interjects, "how does mac and cheese sound?"

     "Ooh, now you're talking! Alright, Cath, I'll see you later. Have fun today."

     Hearing her aunt hang up, she thinks of how today will probably be anything but fun. Cath hangs the phone back up on the wall-mounted receiver. Mike walks by and slips his hands into his shorts pockets. "Thanks for letting me use your phone," she tells him.

"No worries," Mike says lightly, like it was nothing. "Did you get through to them?"

"No," Cath shakes her head, "neither of them are home, which seems... weird."

"Maybe they just slept over somewhere?" Max suggests.

     "Daphne, maybe, but Mr. Delaney? Where would he be?" Will asks.

     Mike notices Eleven sat on the couch with her blindfold, and says, "Never mind. We'll try and find Hopper like we planned."

     Cath nods, sitting cross-legged on the floor and looking up at El — a dark bruise has blossomed on her neck where Billy strangled her, and her voice sounds raspier when she speaks now. But she has still plunged back in to use her powers, intending to locate Hopper telepathically. They adjust the TV set to static and stay hushed as El ties the black blind fold around her eyes.

     A few minutes later, she says, "I found him."

     "Where is he?" Mike asks.

"Woods."

"Woods?"

"He's with... Will's mom..."

Will blinks in awe. "My– my Mom?"

"And Cath's dad... there's another man, but I don't know him."

This keeps getting weirder. Cath sits forward, and asks, "What are they doing?"

Eleven pauses, struggling to enunciate, before replying, "Ill-annoy. They're going to Ill-annoy."

"Mike! Breakfast!" Karen's voice hollers down the stairs.

Annoyed, Mike twists around and yells back, "NOT NOW MOM!" Then without missing a beat, his voice drops back to normal and he asks El, "Illinois? Illinois, like the state? The state of Illinois?"

None the wiser, she just shrugs. "Ill-annoy..."

After her mind-search only seemed to make things murkier, it's clear that they won't be able to reach any of the adults right now. Why is her dad hiking to Illinois without warning? That hardly sounds right.

They wonder if they can find Daphne somehow, but first, El needs a break. The girls take her into the basement's bathroom to get her cleaned up. Cath runs a flannel under cool tap water, and starts dabbing away at the blood from her nostrils. As she does, Max's eyes shift down to the black and blue bruise on her throat.

"Does it hurt?" she asks, somewhat guiltily; it was Billy who did that.

"Only when I talk," El croaks.

"Well, it's a good thing you're not Mike, then," Max teases her to lighten the mood. "Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you'd be in constant pain."

It is a much-needed moment of relief from how heavy everything feels, the girls giggling amongst themselves. Outside the door, it's a different story. Cath doesn't have to see him to know that Mike is pacing the room — his shoes scuffle along the basement floor with exasperation, as his train of thought can be heard through the door.

     "Something's not right. I can't get Hopper off my back all summer, now all of a sudden, he's hiking with Will's mom and Cath's dad to Illinois? And Dustin's MIA, too? I mean, this can't be a coincidence!" Mike says; and Cath has to admit, she had the exact same thought. She is surprised the others aren't hearing the alarm bells as much. Either way, it makes her feel less paranoid to hear him say it.

"What does it matter?" Lucas replies, "The bottom line is, they're not here. It's up to us."

"Up to us to do what exactly?"

"Find Billy and stop him."

"Okay, yeah, that's a really nice sentiment," says Mike, "but even if El could find him again, and that's a pretty big if, then what?"

"We burn the shit out of him and make sure he doesn't escape this time," Lucas shrugs.

"Okay, then what?"

"Then we win."

Cath peers through a crack in the door. She can see Mike moving his arms through the air, all his features pinched in worry as he goes through the options. "No, see, that's the problem. We don't. We don't win. We got the Mind Flayer out of Will before, and he just came right back. We don't just have to stop Billy, we have to stop the Mind Flayer."

"How in the hell do we do that?" Lucas asks, taken aback.

"I don't know..."

Will, who has been quiet all this time, suddenly says, "Maybe El does."

The three boys stand up, staring in bemused curiosity at the bathroom door. Cath feels odd being at the other side of it, like she's on the other side of a one-way mirror. Max and El are hushing their voices too, eavesdropping on the boys.

"What are they still doing in there?" Mike asks, pulling that face of annoyance that Cath knows all too well.

"I don't know, girls just like hanging out in bathrooms," Lucas says through a mouthful of cereal, which he's been scooping handfuls of from the box.

Mike pushes the box away with a scowl. "Why?"

"I mean, I don't know..."

Under her breath, Cath mutters something only she can hear. Speak for yourselves! She could say the same for the ever-mysterious boys bathroom.

"They're conspiring against me," Mike concludes.

Incredulous, Will hisses, "That's what you're concerned about right now?"

"It's not my main concern," the other justifies, "it's just a sub-concern."

"I thought it was already over."

"It's not over, okay? We're just taking a break."

"She said she dumped your ass!" Will emphasises. "That doesn't sound like a break."

Deciding to chip in now, Max raises her voice and calls out, "It wasn't! You guys do realise we can still hear everything you're saying, right?"

El snickers to herself again, enjoying the rapport. Cath is too, but at the end of the day, she just wants everyone to get along. There is only so much bickering she can take this summer.

There seems to be a knock on the door from upstairs, because Mike is instantly yelling, "NOT NOW MOM!" again.

"Mike, open the door!" Nancy desperately calls back.

What's she doing here? Cath opens the bathroom door, watching as Mike walks up and lets his sister in. Surely enough, there stands Nancy Wheeler, along with Jonathan and...

"Amy?" Cath says.

She looks as surprised as she is to see her, too. What is Amy doing with Nancy and Jonathan? As far as Cath knew, she wasn't friends with either of them. And if Amy is here, where is Daphne? The trio altogether look as though they didn't get a wink of sleep last night. Soon enough, they are telling the whole story to the group. When they get to the exploding rats, Cath perks up.

     "I saw one of those," she says, "on our porch yesterday. It was disgusting..."

     Rife with concern, Nancy asks, "What did you do with it?"

     "Threw the remains in the trash and mopped it up," Cath shrugs.

     But soon enough, she finds herself dwelling more than she'd like to on that rat. Nancy and Amy explain that after Mrs. Driscoll — a friendly old lady who Cath knows plays bingo with her grandma — was found eating fertiliser and hospitalised, they went to visit her. The woman was in no fit state and her veins were blackened, as the lights had started to flicker and she had screamed out.

     "It was the same thing, the exact same thing that happened to Will last year," Nancy emphasises; just her words bring back vivid memories of the Mind Flayer's clutch on Will. She and Cath had both been there when they got it out of him. "And look at this. Look at the body temperatures."

     Nancy hands a medical report over to Will, who skims over it. All the temperatures listed are well below average. "He likes it cold," he recalls.

     "Sorry, who likes it cold?" Amy asks.

     Mike shoots a look to his sister. "Why is she here again?"

     It is a fair question — on the one hand, it could be risky introducing someone new into this exclusive club of people who know about the Upside Down. But it seems that Amy has gotten involved for better or for worse, so it is tricky to reverse the clock on that.

     Taking a deep breath, Nancy says more eloquently, "It's okay. We can't hide it from Amy anymore, she's seen too much. I was only halfway through explaining things when we got here."

     "Okay, fine, just... pretend I'm not here," Amy grumbles, folding her arms across her chest, "I'll ask questions later."

     Cath meets Amy's eyes, one of the only other familiar faces to her in this room. Still, the older teen seems surprised that she knows so much and navigates it so calmly. Sometimes seeing someone else react to all of this for the first time is a reality check.

     "Anyway, so this crazy old woman who was eating fertiliser—" Mike begins to say before being cut off.

     "— Mrs. Driscoll," Nancy and Amy both correct him.

     "Right, yeah, Mrs. Driscoll. What time was this attack?"

     "Last night."

     "Right, but what time last night?"

     "Around 9:00," says Nancy.

     Jonathan glares at her, looking betrayed. "You waited all night to call?"

     "We were waiting for the doctors to run some tests," she justifies.

     "You weren't there?" Will retorts to his brother.

     "Well, I'm here now, aren't I?" Jonathan waves his hands through the air.

     "Hallelujah!" Nancy snaps with biting bitterness.

     The air feels laced with tension between them, and not the exhilarating kind. Amy rolls her eyes and jabs a thumb towards them. "Trouble in paradise..." she mutters. Clearly, she has heard enough of Nancy and Jonathan's quarrel already.

     "Um, so... wha– what time was your sauna test?" asks Nancy.

     "Around 9:00," they all reply vaguely.

     "Well, that's it. That proves my theory."

     "She's flayed, just like Billy," says Mike.

     "Flayed?" Jonathan echoes in confusion.

     "Like, the skin?" Amy interrogates.

     Mike goes on to explain, "The Mind Flayer. He flays people. Takes over their mind. Once they do that, they basically become him."

     "If there are two flayed..." Lucas trails off in dread.

     Will finishes the thought, "We have to assume there are more."

     "Heather," El whispers, frowning; the poor girl they had seen at the Holloway house that stormy night, under Billy's spell. She must be flayed too. "Billy was doing something to her. She was scared. She was screaming. Bad screams."

     "What's a good scream?" Lucas asks.

     "Max said—"

     "Doesn't matter," Max interjects, her cheeks turning red.

     "I'm sorry, I'm lost," Nancy squints tiredly, "who is Heather?"

     "Heather Holloway," Cath says, and that seems to cement the person for her, "she's a lifeguard at the pool."

     Then at the same time, Nancy and Jonathan make another connection. "Tom..." They say in unison. Do they mean Tom Holloway? By that logic, everyone in the house that night could have been flayed, which only feeds Cath's worst fear...

     Felix.

     It feels even more pressing now that Amy is here. Originally she had wanted to tell Daphne, but if Amy is the only one she can reach — and who also has no clue where Daphne is — Cath will have to take this option. The group all agree to go to Heather's house together, to see what they can find. On the way out to the station wagon, Cath trails behind her until she can catch her attention.

"Amy?" she finally asks.

The older teen whirls around, her lack of focus only coming from all this new information. "Yeah?" she says impatiently.

Cath swallows thickly, feeling her skin prickle hot with nerves. "When we went to the Holloway house the other day... Felix was there, too."

Amy's eyes widen, even if she doesn't realise it. "His date..." she mumbles.

"Do you think he's—"

"No, he... could have gone home before anything happened," Amy says, trying to convince the both of them; she certainly has the mind to consider it right now, even if she doesn't fully understand what being flayed means yet. She seems to notice Cath is anxious, and clears her throat. "I don't know yet. Let's just go over there first."

━━━━━━

A/N;

sorry that ending was a bit abrupt, i feel like the dialogue got so clunky towards the end 🫣

i was feeling inspired to write for underworld anyway, but then the new ST5 teaser dropped the other day and that supercharged it. i mean, HELLO?? it was so jam-packed!

love the irony of daphne ending last chapter with the thought of thomas and cath being sensible... meanwhile here, thomas is driving a getaway car being shot at by budget arnold schwarzenegger, and cath is teaming up with amy to break into someone's house. love that for them. (in particular, the scene with thomas driving them away from hess farm did have me cackling, even though it's also a very perilous scene. just the chaos of it all)

also wanted to say thank you so much for 4K reads!! i appreciate it so much 🫶

— Imogen

[ Published: July 19th, 2025 ]