Bloody Negatives {Stranger things}

Chapter Twenty-One

《Chapter Twenty-One》
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The second time Dustin wrapped a bandana around Tally's head somehow felt more natural.

It wasn't like contacting El once had suddenly made it feel normal. He was pretty sure doing something like that would never feel normal. Though somehow, with everyone in the room—Max, Dustin, Nancy, Steve, Robin and Lucas—it was almost... easier.

"How can he do this?" Robin whispered. Even with the makeshift blindfold on, Tally could see her expression clearly in his mind.

"I can't if you keep talking," he murmured sharply.

"Sorry, geez," Robin snapped back.

Tally breathed in deeply. His head stung slightly as he tried to recall how he'd found El last time.

The Five Things Trick.

It was funny. When Ms. Kelley had first taught him the trick, he's decided almost immediately that it was pointless. Now he'd used it multiple times. Not for the purposes she'd intended, but still... for purposes.

Five things he could see. It was somehow easier to see this time around. He could see Robin's eyes, filled with childlike amazement. Steve's skeptical expression. Nancy's lips drawn into one point, eyebrows raised. Max sitting in the corner of the bedroom, walkman turned on and eyes closed tightly. Dustin smiling in a somewhat proud manner.

Geez, was that five already?

Four things he could hear. The faint, muffled lyrics of "Running Up That Hill." Lucas shifting sitting positions every five seconds. Steve breathing in an oddly loud way. Nancy making "hmm"s of concern every once in a while.

Three things he could feel. His eyelashes brushing against the cloth bandana every time he blinked. The old, rough carpet of his bedroom he was sitting on at the moment. The gentle buzzing the earth seemed to have as it twitched beneath him.

Two things he could smell. Nancy's perfume. Steve's cologne. That one was easy. The two scents in an odd, yet comforting way.

One thing he could taste. Copper.

Tally's eyes snapped open.

Eleven stood in front of him. She was trembling like she was experiencing her own private earthquake.

It took Tally less than ten seconds to notice that something was horribly wrong. For starters, she wasn't looking at him. She wasn't even looking in his direction.

She was looking up.

Tally looked up, too.

What the fuck.

There weren't that many words to describe what Tally was looking at. It could possibly be called a silo. Like the kind they keep grain in on the farms Tally had seen way out in the country.

As far as he remembered, silos had never seemed quite this intimidating.

Tally looked at El, then looked back at the silo, then turned in a slow, steady circle.

The room was fairly mundane looking. It was like a warehouse or something. High ceiling, lots of steel walls and staircases, hallways leading away in every possible direction.

The oddest thing about the room—apart from the silo—was the people scattered all throughout it. They were all dressed in long, pristine lab coats. The kind of lab coats that would have freaked Tally out when he was a kid. The kind of lab coats that would still freak Tally out now that he was older.

There were so many of them, it was practically horrifying. What were they doing? What were they doing to El?

As Tally surveyed the room, he felt a strange kind of familiarity wash over him. Which was odd, considering this place might as well have never existed before ten minutes ago.

"El?" Tally tried to ask, though the younger girl was completely unresponsive.

Tally felt his heart rate begin to speed up. No, no he wouldn't be forced back to Hawkins again. He was going to get the answers he needed this time. Ground yourself, he thought, be normal.

Five things he could see. The silo... Eleven... the people in the lab coats...

Tally froze when he got to number four.

It was a man. Tall, white hair, slightly crooked red tie. Nothing odd about him.

He stood on one of the staircases next to the silo, offering El a warm smile. As Tally gazed at the man, one very strange word forced its way into his head.

Papa?

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