What Are You Hiding? | Henry Creel / Peter Ballard / 001

Part 25 - Brother Brother

Third-person POV, 15 minutes after Jules left for Henry's house

"How much do you want to bet she won't be back for at least an hour?" Mike asks Nancy as he takes a seat on the couch beside her.

"With a few hickeys," Nancy adds nonchalantly as she flips through her journalism notes.

Mike makes a face. "Ew, can you not?"

"I can't apologize for speaking the truth."

The siblings are torn from their discussion as the front door slams open. "Jules!" yells the intruder.

Both Mike and Nancy turn to see a strange girl with short brown hair standing in their doorway, a flustered appearance about her. "Robin?" Nancy asks, recognizing Robin as one of Jule's friends that she never tells the family about.

Robin turns to Nancy, sighing relievedly as she invites herself into the house, running to stand in front of Nancy. "Nancy, thank god. I need to know where Jules is."

"At Henry's place, as always."

"Fuck!" Robin groans, throwing out her arms dramatically.

Mike stares at Robin in confusion. "Uh... what the hell is going on?"

"Henry's ending the world, and I think he's planning to kidnap Jules when he does it so that she can't interfere."

"Wait, what?" Nancy asks.

"Henry is behind these past three murders in Hawkins, and they're somehow helping him end the world. How? I don't know, I'm still working out the details. But I think it's happening soon, and I know he's going to kidnap Jules when he does it. He's exhibiting all the signs of someone preparing to kidnap his girlfriend." She paces frantically, muttering under her breath, "God, why didn't I see this coming sooner? This is a textbook borderline-abusive situation. Henry breaks one of Jules's rules and mind-controls her mom? He apologizes profusely and buys her ice cream to make up for it. The biggest example in psych class is literally the abuser buying the abusee something nice to make up for their shittiness!"

Mike and Nancy stare at her dumbfoundedly. At the same time, Mike and Nancy ask, "What are you talking about?"

Robin rolls her eyes defeatedly as she motions to the door. "I'll explain in the car."

Mike and Nancy look at each other, shrug, then stand up as they follow Robin.

"Oh," Robin adds on. "I'm going to need Nancy to drive; I don't know how."

......

"Wait, I still can't get over the fact that she's been lying to us about this for a whole year," Mike shakes his head from the backseat.

"I can believe it," Nancy mutters. "She didn't even tell me his name until a few days ago, and she actually didn't even tell me - you did."

Mike rolls his eyes. "Okay, I can't get over the fact that she's been lying to me."

"Asshole," Nancy mutters.

"Hello, guys?  You can complain to Jules after we get her back from psycho boyfriend," Robin interrupts.

"Right," Nancy nods. "But... how the hell do we get her back from psycho boyfriend?  You said that he placed some spell on the house that only allows him and Jules to enter the property."

Robin nods defeatedly.  "That's a good point."

"So you're saying you don't have a plan?" Mike asks in annoyance.