Jailbird || Stranger Things

forty-five ➵ something wicked

It was different this time. There was still the blue tinged darkness, the foreboding feeling of danger, but the setting was so wrong. It was new. Familiar, and yet so different. Her eyes wandered, neon signs of stores and restaurants flickering. As she turned around and stared up, she recognised the by then too often encountered sign.

    Starcourt Mall stretched above the escalators, a flickering purple bathing her skin as fear began to set in and chill her bones. Her breathing picked up, skin becoming peppered with sweat as she lifted an arm to wipe it from her brow.

    The girl turned on her heel, eyes catching onto the windows in the ceiling. The shadow moved, a deep thunderous tone moving the fake plant pots on the ground floor. She recognised this. She'd drawn this before. Was this the scene they'd wondered about?

    A much higher, much more ear piercing shriek cut through the air, making Teresa whip around to spot a struggle right behind her, a larger body on top of a smaller one as they fought for control. She recognised the curls of the larger one, especially the jeans that she'd helped pick out just a couple of years ago.

    "Billy!"

    To the right, she spotted Max's red hair, held back by Lucas as Billy's head raised. As he moved, Teresa realised the girl he was holding down was El, and ignoring the fact that there was a massive body that had haunted her nightmares just behind her, she ran over to the two.

    "El!"

    "He's gone."

    The voice was low, as if overlayed with several others that she couldn't recognise.

     "What will you do when they all leave? When they crumble?"

    She wasn't sure where the voice was coming from. It felt like it was all over, like it engulfed her in its own constructed prison of nightmares.

     They'd never left, merely took a break to lick their wounds.

    Fog engulfed the scene, the neon signs of the food court of the mall being replaced by a building overgrown by ivy and various greenery, but allowing just enough space for the blue metal of the walls and roof to show through. The soft muffled sounds coming from inside instilled that aforementioned foreboding into her belly again, but this time, she pushed it down and took the few steps into the building.

    Although if she would have just glanced to the left she would have noticed the very familiar car parked to the side.

    Inside the steelworks was just as chilly, but this time, it rose goosebumps on her arm, making her shiver. Raising her hands, she gently ran them over her arms in a halfhearted effort to warm herself up. Instead, she felt something sticky, and glanced down to see some dark black substance clinging to her bare skin.

    She recognised it.

    "Eugh," she breathed in disgust, shaking off the black mass as she continued through the building, towards the source of the sound.

    But once she got there, she wished she never stepped foot inside.

     The source was dressed in the female lifeguard uniform, the scrunchie holding up her black hair telling Teresa who she was. Again, she rushed to the struggling body, noticing rope from the pool binding Heather's hands before she noticed the tape over her mouth.

    "Oh my God, Heather—"

    Footsteps echoed around the basement of the warehouse, and out of the shadows, Billy approached, leaning down and taking hold of Heather's shoulders, forcing her down onto the floor.