𝐙𝐄𝐑𝐎 ✯ steve harrington¹

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑 : staring problem

WORD COUNT : 2.9k

On the night of November 6, Owen was never quite able to get comfortable or fall asleep for more than a couple minutes at a time. Finally growing tired of flopping around wildly, she threw the covers off of her body and trudged into the kitchen. Refrigerator light washed over the room, causing her face to screw up in discomfort as she looked around for a slice of leftover pizza from dinner that night. As she blindly searched through the various Ziplock bags and Tupperware containers in the fridge, a sharp pain randomly spiked from behind her eyes. The shock of pain sent her reeling back, effectively slamming the back of her head on the edge of the refrigerator. Her hands clamped over both her eyes and the base of her skull, expletives spewing in the form of a whisper-yell as to not wake her family.

"God, what the fuck..." she murmured, eyebrows furrowing as a metallic taste formed in her mouth. With her eyes still clamped shut in pain, Owen guided herself into the bathroom by touch alone. She turned the lights on overhead and met her own eyes in the mirror. The flickering lights above revealed blood dripping from her nose, pooling on her lower lip. Some of it had managed to seep into her mouth, causing that metallic taste and a reddening of her teeth upon further inspection. Owen spit the taste out into the sink, grimacing at the whole situation.

Suddenly on blood clean-up duty of all things, Owen unraveled a wad of toilet tissue and shoved it up the nostril in question. Then, she made sure to brush her teeth to try and get that god awful taste out of her mouth. She leaned forward to spit out the now pink-tinted toothpaste, but the lights above her head completely flickered out before she could even look at herself in the mirror again to make sure everything was back in order. Owen loudly groaned then, deciding then that getting out of bed at all seemed to be the worst idea she's had in a while.

✯

Owen never fully got to sleep that night, which was apparent on her face when she stumbled into the kitchen the following morning. Dark circles hung beneath her eyes as she haphazardly dumped cereal and milk into a bowl, shoving a spoon into the mixture before trailing into the living room. Law was fixated on the television when she sat down on the couch beside him, eyes shut in exhaustion as she shoveled her breakfast into her mouth. Her brows knitted together curiously at the sound of a reporter's voice coming through the speakers instead of the cartoons Law typically had on before school. Owen peeked at the television as her curiosity got the best of her, positive that something interesting had to be going on for Law to have turned on the news.

"Some kid from the middle school went missing last night," Law explained, his tone solemn. He didn't once tear his eyes away from the screen. Owen glanced over at him, noticing his knee bouncing anxiously. Law was completely void of his typical animated expression. He had never looked like this before – so tense. It was unsettling, to say the least. Even when bad shit would happen to him at school, there was always an optimistic glow that emanated from her younger brother. However, the look of pure anxiety written across his features in that moment made him almost unrecognizable.

Gordon ambled into the room shortly after Owen, eyes already glued to the TV. "Man...Dad can really pick a place to live, huh?" He plopped down on Law's other side, immediately sliding into a slouch. "First all the shit that went down in Detroit and now this," he grumbled. The couch could barely fit the three of them anymore, but they all managed to make it work anyway. Neither Law, nor Owen, had anything to say in response to their older brother. Unfortunately, he was right. Sometimes it felt like scary shit like this just followed them. It was almost always completely out of their hands as well, which just made it all even more terrifying.

Owen snuck one more look at Law, seeing the concern that was deepening on his face. Scooping the final bite of cereal into her mouth, she jumped to her feet decisively and marched into the kitchen. She hurriedly dumped her empty bowl into the sink before marching back to the living room. Owen swiftly turned off the television, coming to stand before Gordon and Law with her hands placed directly on her hips.