Bloody Negatives {Stranger things}

Chapter Nine

《Chapter Nine》
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"Can you slow down for a minute?" Dustin sighed as Tally rambled like his life depended on it.

"He's not going to slow down," Max remarked under her breath.

Determined, Dustin tried again. "Tally, Tally listen to me, if you don't breathe soon, you're going to pass out."

"Oh—" Tally coughed, already feeling himself starting to grow dizzy.

Dustin put his hand on Tally's shoulder, patting awkwardly. "Deep breath, man. You don't have to tell us everything at once, right? What's the most important thing?"

Tally took a deep breath in. The air behind Max's trailer smelt moldy and made him want to vomit, but he forced words out anyways.

"I might get prosecuted for the murders that some supernatural being is committing," Tally squeaked, narrowly avoided letting out a sob along with his words.

Both Dustin and Max were silent for a a few seconds, before Max at last announced; "that is... a very big problem."

"We already knew about the supernatural being part though," Dustin said in a tone that was meant to be reassuring, but kind of just made Tally feel worse.

"What's happening?" Tally practically cried. The question was directed at Dustin, but he found himself inevitably looking at Max. He just trusted her more.

It was like his subconscious had formed some sort of attachment to her after she woke him up in the trailer park however many nights ago.

"We aren't 100% sure, but we do know that it has something to with the..." Dustin trailed off, before turning to Max and whispering; "he doesn't by any chance already know, does he?"

Max shook her head sombrely. "Nope, this is all new to him, too."

"That's two new people in less than a week," Dustin muttered, shaking his head. He and Max might as well have been speaking a foreign language, considering how little of what they were saying made sense to Tally.

"I'm still here," Tally whimpered, just in case they had forgotten him.

"Right, sorry dude," Dustin breathed out heavily before continuing. "There's this place... we call it the Upside Down. It's like a... it's like a mirrored version of our world, except much much worse. There are dangerous things down there. We think one of those dangerous things is committing the murders."

Tally blinked twice, and then he laughed. He laughed so hard his ribs ached. He laughed so hard that he had to bend over to avoid his lungs giving out. Tears came out of his eyes as he cackled like a madman.

"Ho-holy s-shit," Tally managed to finally say between giggles. "Holy shit, I've finally lost it, haven't I?"

Dustin and Max let out a collective sigh, before Max scooted closer to Tally, nudging his arm in an attempt at comfort.

"You haven't lost it," her eyes scanned the mostly empty trailer park. After Chrissy's body being found there, no one wanted to go outside unless they had too. "You remember the mall fire that happened last year? That was a creature from the upside down. We call him the Mind Flayer."

Tally shook his head rapidly. The mall fire wasn't something supernatural. It was just an unlucky accident. It was an accident that had killed all those people. An accident that had killed...

He quickly turned and looked at Max. "That's how your brother died?" She winced, and Tally immediately regretted speaking. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Max shrugged. "Yeah... that's- that's how he died. The Mind Flayer killed him."

Tally felt sick. "What about Jim Hopper? Is that how he died too?"

Dustin nodded sadly. "Kind of. He... he had something else happen to him."

Tally coughed out another laugh. "Oh my God, this is so stupid. Why the fuck does it have to be Hawkins, huh? Fucking fuck."

Dustin winced. "I know, feels like we're cursed, right?"

Tally fell onto his back and pressed his hands over his eyes. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fucking fuck."

"But now you know, right?" Max asked, raising her eyebrows. "Now you know what's going on. And now, we can work on fixing your big problem."

Tally nodded slowly, and then shot upright. "There's another problem," he said frantically.

"Hey, hey it's okay," Dustin said, squinting at the panicked boy with sudden confusion. "What's the new problem?"

Tally closed his eyes tightly, hitting his head against the hard metal of Max's trailer a few times before he gained the courage to speak.
"I think my friend is trying to kill Eddie Munson."

Dustin bit his lip and made a weird noise. "Shit."

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