Lucky 13

The Cop

Joyce and Hopper had finished unpacking most of their things and were taking a break on the porch, passing a cigarette back and forth. Johnathan was inside, unpacking his room. "When do you go in about the job?" She asked, leaning into him.

"I'm meeting with Oscar Bowers in 30 minutes. Seems like an ass; a mouth breather, as El would say. The whole force seems out of it, though." Hop said, handing her the cigarette.

"What do you mean?"

"This town has a missing person and death rate higher than most places in the country." He decided not to tell her it was mostly kids, to keep her worries as minimal as possible. "Gonna try to change that. Put away these assholes."

"Only you could." After a few seconds, the kids run up to the porch, stopping to catch their breath. "Will, honey, what's wrong? Is your hair wet?"

In between deep breaths, Dustin explained. "We met these kids, one of thems Mikes lost twin brother. And I don't know about you guys, but something was off about them, like when El uses powers." He paused and the others agreed. "And they would react and talk about things that haven't been said out loud to them."

"Don't forget how close they sat." Lucas interrupted.

"Damnit, Lucas! Let me talk! Anyways, they were always touching. Like all the time. They basically followed and listened to everything this stutter kid said. And we went to this quarry with them and swam." He couldn't talk anymore and looked to Lucas.

Lucas started, "After we got done swimming, we were on these rocks drying off. Mikes twin guy was asleep on this kids shoulder. We said that we could go to the arcade and theater to hang out more, but they, like, immediately said no. Will? I'm too tired for this."

Will took over. "We asked why, but they just said that they would take us but they couldn't go inside. Then just looked at the twin and frowned. Then El started saying something about a bad thing."

"Something bad happened to him there. His secret. That's why he can't go back." El said.

"Yeah so El said that, and then they all looked scared and asked how she knew about the secret. We think she's getting her powers back." Max said, red braids moving around.

"They felt like me. I could feel energy like mine." El said quietly.

"Okay, calm down. Mike twin? Start there." Joyce said kindly, in a reassuring voice.

"We we're walking down the street when this kid started yelling at me that I was late, asking where my glasses were. Called me trashmouth and Tozier. Then this kid on a bike rolled up. He looked exactly like me if I had gigantic glasses and dressed like I've never seen a color in my life. Like seriously, so many random colors. He saw me and yelled something about his face and ran in." Mike said, rolling his eyes randomly.

"He said his parents told him he was adopted and that they picked the annoying kid, and that they wished they picked the other one." Will said calmly, feeling for the kid.

"His parents tell him that?" Hopper asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Yeah. But that's all that was really said about the twin. Not much to it." Mike said, wanting to change the subject. "What next?"

"I feel like we should talk about how close they are and the weird things they said. Oh and the weird feeling." Dustin said, counting the things on his fingers.

"It felt like that energy you feel whenever El is using her powers a lot. But it's weaker when one of them is alone. Like they amplify each other's energy being together." Will said, confused and shaking his head.