𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐕𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚 - 𝐒.𝐇 (𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬)

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐝

The teens all piled into Lea's car, letting out heavy sighs. Lea looked back at all of them. El sat next to her in the passenger seat and the other four were squished in the back. "Double up on seat belts, alright? I can't have you dying on my watch."

They looked at her with furrowed eyebrows and she rolled her eyes. "Seat belts now." She snapped. Everyone called that her "Hopper voice". Her voice was raspy from being choked so it didn't have its full effect.

"Lee, are you sure you're okay to drive?" Mike asked. "I mean, your hand is all bloody and you and El almost just died so..."

Lea rolled her eyes once more. "When do El an I not almost die?" She asked rhetorically. Mike scoffed. "Now, I was serious about those seat belts."

They huffed and clicked them into place and Lea smiled sarcastically. She backed away from the sign that was completely destroyed under her car and headed for the Wheeler's home.

Everyone was pretty quiet so, she decided to speak. "Ok." She cleared her throat and winced in pain. "Um... can you guys give me the full run around on what's going on?"

Will looked at Lea through the rearview mirror and sighed. "The Mind Flayer's back. This time, he's in Billy. We thought it was a good idea to test him to see if he was and... well, you know the rest."

"Holy shit you guys! You need didn't think to tell me about any of this?" Lea asked, completely disappointed in them.

Mike scoffed. "We tried. But, you just had to go to work. We figured we can do it alone." Mike snapped. Lea clenched her jaw and thought back to the argument she had with Steve before she left.

Holy shit. I could've died.

"El tried to convince Mike to call you but, he wasn't for it." Max rolled her eyes as she explained.

Mike widened his eyes and looked over at the girl next to him. "Oh, you're so mature! Yeah, tattling like a five-year-old... that's great!"

"Well, if you weren't such an asshole all the time, maybe I wouldn't feel the need to tattle." Max sassed back. Lea rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, I'm such an asshole! I didn't want Lea to end up in this mess and yet here she is! I mean, really, Max-"

"Hey hey hey!" Lea yelled. Her throat burned but she pushed her pain aside. "Both of you shut up! I've had enough yelling for the day and I don't think I can take it anymore! Both of you close your mouths or I will leave you on the side of the road, got it?"

After that Mike and Max were silent. The only sound was Lea's angered breathing. It wasn't that she was mad at the kids, she just needed a break from all of the yelling.

All of the kids noticed that Lea was acting strange. Whenever they were in the car with her (which they all were at some point) she'd turn the music up loud and try to talk over it. This time, the music was off completely and she wasn't talking.