"The way he looks at her. Like she's the most important thing in the world to him." "I think she is."
Experiment X - that's was she was known as. A dangerous weapon that belonged to a lab in the Soviet Union. An assassin. A spy.
A seventeen year old...
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- DEMISE -
STEVE, DUSTIN AND Irina watched as Max headed towards Miss Kelly's door so she could try and find out some information on Chrissy's sessions, which was going to be difficult, but worth a shot. Miss Kelly answered and let Max in, making Irina, Steve and Dustin all let out sighs of relief.
"She's in." Steve observed.
"I'm missing collarbones, not eyes." Dustin said. The two of them proceeded to bicker while Irina stared out of the car window. She could feel another headache coming on. She let out an inaudible sigh and but the inside of her cheek to try and suppress it, but to no avail. It was only when she could feel a warm liquid on her upper lip that her focus shifted from her headache. She raised her fingers to touch it and pulled her hand away to see a dark red liquid on her fingers - it was blood. Her nose was bleeding. This was the second time that this had happened this week.
"Whoa, Irina, are you okay?" Dustin asked from the backseat, making Steve look over to her.
"I'm fine, it's just a nose bleed." She said.
"Here, I have tissues." Steve dug around in the glove box in Irina's side of the car and passed her a pack of tissues. "Did you, like, hit your nose or something?" He asked.
"I don't know, probably." Irina replied as she wiped the blood from her fingers and nose. She didn't know what was causing it. Just then, Max clambered into the back of the car.
"What'd she say?" Dustin asked.
"Nothing, just drive." Max said.
"Nothing?" Steve asked.
"Steve, drive!" Max snapped. She had stolen Miss Kelly's office key so they could sneak in and have a look at Chrissy's files. While on the way there, Lucas's voice fuzzily came in through Dustin's walkie.
"Dustin?" He said.
"Lucas? Where the hell have you been?" Dustin questioned.
"Just listen, are you guys looking for Eddie?" Lucas asked.
"Yeah, and we found him, no thanks to you." Dustin responded.
"You found him?" Lucas asked.
"He's at a boathouse on Coal Mill Road. Don't worry, he's safe." Dustin told him.
"You guys know he killed Chrissy, right?" Lucas asked.
"That's bullshit. Eddie tried to save Chrissy." Dustin replied.
"Then why do all the cops say he did it?" Lucas inquired. Irina felt Steve place a hand on Irina's thigh to steady the bouncing again and Irina have him a half-smile, placing her hand on top of his.
"Lucas, you are so behind it's ridiculous, okay?" Max snapped after snatching the walkie off Dustin. "Just meet us at the school. We'll explain later."
"I-I can't. I think some real bad shit's about to go down." Lucas said before the walkie went static.
"What bad shit?" Max questioned, but got no answer. "Lucas? Lucas?"
***
The four youths had managed to break into the school and were now walking down the dark corridors with their torches on when Robin's voice came through the walkie this time.
"Dustin, do you copy?" She asked.
"Yeah, I copy." Dustin said.
"So, Nancy's a genius. Vecna's fist victims date all the way back to 1959. Her shot in the dark was a bull's-eye." Robin explained.
"Okay, that's, uh, that's totally bonkers, but I can't really talk right now." Dustin said.
"What are you doing?" Robin questioned.
"Breaking and entering into school to retrieve confidential and extremely personal files." Dustin answered.
"Can you repeat that?" Robin asked.
"Just get your ass over here, stat." Dustin said. "We'll explain everything.
Max unlocked the door to Miss Kelley's office and headed straight for the file cabinet. She rummaged through each drawer until she came across something. Not what she wanted, but something way more interesting.
"Holy shit." She gasped.
"What?" Steve, Irina and Dustin asked.
"Fred was seeing Miss Kelly too. Look, here are both of their files." She said, laying them on the table. Irina flicked through Chrissy's file and scanned her eyes over the list of troubles that she was having. Past trauma, terrible nightmares, difficulty sleeping, headaches. Irina furrowed her brows at the similarity of experiences she was having compared to Chrissy.
"Can I see Fred's file?" Irina asked Max, who swapped Chrissy's file with Fred's so Irina could have a look at it. It was the same. Suffering from past trauma, severe headaches, constant nightmares, lack of sleep, nosebleeds. A shiver went down Irina's spine as she read it all. Her mind flickered back to all the times she'd had night terrors and headaches and nose bleeds and trouble sleeping. What if it all came down to this? What if she was next?
"Irina?" Steve questioned when he saw how her face had frozen. But Irina couldn't hear him. It was like she was in some sort of trance. "Irina!" Steve said a little more firmly, trying to snap her out of it. He placed his hand on the side of her neck and stroked gently. "Come on, baby."
"What's wrong with her?" Max asked, becoming increasingly worried.
"Steve." Dustin said, and Steve looked over to him. "Has Irina been having nightmares again lately? Any headaches? Has she been sleeping properly, because I know she had a nosebleed in the car." Dustin pointed to both lists of symptoms that Chrissy and Fred had been having. Steve read over them and his heart dropped into his stomach.
Irina turned when she heard an awful, deep voice call out her name. She turned back to around for a second only to see that she was alone. No Steve, no Max, no Dustin. She gulped and slowly stood up with her torch in her hand before walking out of the room and into the corridor. There was a loud gong from the other end of the corridor that made Irina jump. Her feet pulled her towards the sound only to see a large grandfather clock embedded in the wall. She stared at it for a moment when that deep voice called out her name again, making her shiver.
