𝐃𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐈𝐓 𝐔𝐏 // 𝐑𝐎𝐁𝐈𝐍 𝐁𝐔𝐂𝐊𝐋𝐄𝐘

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄: 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐀 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐉𝐄𝐂𝐓

✲꘏ ꘏ ꘏ ꘏ ꘏ ꘏ ꘏✲

Blows were landing on Kristen's torso, for sure worsening the condition of her ribs.

"Достаточно! Она не твоя, чтобы убивать. Дураки."

The warden kneeled down to Kristen's level.

"What I tell you, American? No run. You don't listen. Now is going to be much pain. Much."

Another blow landed on her back, making her hurt all over. They dragged her to where she would be staying from now on. When she came to, she saw Hopper already there. And Enzo.

"Kid, you okay?" Hopper asked as soon as he saw her.

"No," she said with a light chuckle at the end.

"It could be worse, Americans. At least you have company. Your eyes don't deceive you. I'm a prisoner now. Like you. Yuri, the smuggler, he betrayed me. Betrayed us."

Kristen couldn't take it anymore. She punched him across the face. She grabbed him by his coat and pinned him against the wall.

"You said we could trust him!" she yelled at him. "You swore to me! To us!"

"Because I believed we could. You think that's what I planned? I have lost everything. Everything! You both knew the risks. Both of us. We gambled today, and we lost. We lost."

"I trusted you," she said with tears in her eyes. "I can't believe I fucking trusted you." She let him go, sitting down on the bench next to the three.

"Joyce," Hopper then said. "What about Joyce?"

-

Kristen sat on a bench by Hopper, her mind going 100 miles per hour.

"Tell him, Americans. Tell him how you will make him rich."

No response.

"You're real help, Americans, you know that? A real help. Hey. You want to die in here? You want do die? Is that it?"

"Better than being in here," Kristen said lowly.

"That's what we've been brought here to do," Hopper commented.

"So, that is it? You give up, then?" He sat down next to Kristen, sighing deeply. "What about your woman? She's captured, yes, but still alive. We can still save her."

"'Save her.'"

"That is amusing to you?"

"You don't get it, do you? You don't get it. The closer I get with Joyce, the more danger she's in."

"You're not thinking straight, American."

"No, I think I am. For the first time in my life, I think I'm thinking straight. I used to think I was cursed. Ever since I was 18, Kristen's age. Got some letter of induction in the mail. Uncle Sam wants me to go fight some war in the jungle. Charlie's moving south like a plague 'cause of commie bastards like you, and... You know, I'm happy enough to go. Prove to my old man I'm not the piece of shit he thinks I am. I get over there, I must test well, and they put me in the Chemical Corps. There I am. I'm just a kid, you know. I'm 18 years old, 8,000 miles away, and I'm mixing up these... 55-gallon drums of Agent Orange. With just these kitchen gloves. We used to clean out these buffalo turbines after a run and just be inhaling the stuff. No masks, nothing. 'It's not chemical warfare. It's just herbicide to kill plants. Harmless.' That's what they told us."

Kristen had no idea about Hopper's life before he worked as a cop in Hawkins. And now she was hearing it and she felt so bad for him.

"And then I got back to real life, and these guys I worked with, the ones that made it back, they started trying to get back to normal, you know? Having families. And then things started going wrong. Kids born stillborn. Dead in the womb. Crooked spines, eyes popped out. The horror... followed us, clung to us. My wife Diane, she wanted a baby. I did too. We had a baby, and she was, um... she was born healthy. She was perfect, you know. Sara. And then she died. It wasn't an easy death. She... suffered. I knew the risks, but I, um... I hid them. And then Diane left me. She didn't blame me. Not with words. After that, I was just... I just hid myself in drugs and alcohol. And then people started coming into my life. This girl El, and Joyce just happened, and I told myself they needed me. But that wasn't true. That's a lie. They didn't need me. I needed them. I needed them. You were right, what you said last night. I knew the risks, breaking out of here, but I did it anyway. The minute I sent for Joyce, the minute I sent for her, I sentenced her to death. Just like I did with Sara. Everyone I love, I hurt. See, I was wrong this whole time. I wasn't cursed. I am the curse."

They heard a shrill snarling sound, and Enzo and Kristen's heads shot up.

"I've heard rumors of a monster. From America. I don't know if what you say is true, American,  if you truly are a cursed man, but you're right about one thing. We are going to die in here."