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They arrived at the address as Hop knocked on the door. "Can I help you?" A woman opened the door only opening it slightly.
"Hi, we're looking for Terry Ives. Does she live here?"
"Who's asking?"
"The Hawkins chief of police." Hop shows his badge as the woman behind the door still looks confused but quite stunned.
"And you want to talk to my sister?"
"Well if your sister is Terry Ives then yes."
"Okay well you can come in." The woman opens the door fully. "But if you want Terry to tell you anything, you're 5 years too late." She steps aside as Hopper, Joyce and Jess walk into the house to see a woman on a rocking chair with the TV playing in the background.
"Hello, my name is Joyce Byers." Joyce walks up to her. "Uh this is Jess Hopper and Jim Hopper, chief of police, we drove over from Hawkins. Um, you see my son." Joyce got the missing poster of Will out of her back pocket. "He's been missing for about a week now. "Um we were wondering whether we could talk to you about you're daughter Jane? If there's anything that you could tell us about when she was taken?"
"What was your relationship with Dr Brenner?" Hopper took over. "You guys keep in touch?"
"This is.. this is him." Joyce unfolded the kissing poster showing it to Terry. "This is Will. You may have seen him on... on the news."
When they still had no answer and Terry just continued staring blankly at them. "What's wrong with her?" Hopper asked her sister who was leaning on the doorframe beside Jess.
"I told you, you're wasting your time." She shrugged before inviting them to sit down whilst making them drinks whilst she tried her best to explain what happened with Terry. "She was part of some study in college."
"MK Ultra?"
"Yeah that's the one. Was, uh..." she exhales rubbing her head obviously not liking bringing this subject up. "Started in the 50's. By the time Terry got involved, it was supposed to be ramping down, but the drugs just got crazier. Messed her up good."
"This was CIA that ran this." Hopper questioned as she chuckled to herself.
"You and Terry would have got along. 'The Man,' with a big capital 'M.' They'd pay you know... a couple of hundred bucks to people like my sister, give 'em drugs, psychedelics. LSD, mostly. And then they'd strip her naked."
"Jesus." Jess mumbled to herself as she tiredly leaned her head on Joyce's shoulder.
"They'd also put her in these isolation tanks." She noticed the other three's confused faces. "Yeah um these massive big bathtubs, basically, filled with salt water, so you can float around in there. You lose any sense of, uh... sense and feel nothing, see nothing. They wanted to expand the boundaries of the mind. Real hippie crap. I.... I mean, it's not like they were forcing her to do any of this stuff. The thing is, though, is that she didn't know she was pregnant at the time."
"Jane?" Jess questioned again as the sister nodded. "Do you have any pictures of her?"
"I don't think you guys understand!" She chuckled to herself. "Terry miscarried in the third trimester." She sighed as she nodded for them to follow her as she led them to a closed off room she opened it for the other three to see a nursery. "She keeps all of this up. Been doing it for 12 years. Terry uh pretends like Jane is real, like she's gonna come home one day. Says she's special. Born with abilities."
"Abilities?" Joyce furrows her eyebrows.
"You read any Stephen King?" Joyce, Hopper and Jess look at each other with even more confusion. "You look scared actually." She chuckled. "I mean it's all make believe."
"What kind of abilities?" Joyce stutters as she repeats her question.
"Telepathy, telekinesis." She starts to list. "You know shit you can do with your mind. That's why the big, bad man stole Jane away. Her baby is a weapon, off fighting the commies. You know, the doctors all say it's a coping mechanism. You know, to deal with the guilt."
"Do you think there's anyway she could be telling the truth?" Terry's sister looks at Jess with slight shook.
"There is no birth certificates, nothing from the hospital. Doctors and nurses, all confirm that she miscarried."
"Yeah but that could've have easily been covered up." Jess continues.
"Brother and sister right?" She points between Hopper and Jess, smiling to herself with her cigarettes between her middle and index finger as she pointed. "Yeah you both would've got along with her." She nodded. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you more." She stood up as they took that as their sign to leave.
"Thank you for your time." Hopper smiled at her.
"Sorry I couldn't have been any more help."
"You helped us out a lot actually." Jess smiled reassuringly.
"Good luck." She smiled making both Hopper and Jess smile.
"Thanks." Jess peered her head over her shoulder. "Joyce!" Joyce turned her head to face her. "Come on hun." Jess nodded as they walked out the door. Joyce got in the back of the car instead of Jess for once as Hop got back in the drivers seat and Jess in the front passenger. Jess and Hopper turned round to try and read Joyce's expression. "Hey it's gonna be okay we'll find Will. Remember I promised you, and I never break my promises." Jess reached her arm out behind her taking hold of Joyce's hand rubbing the back of it with her thumb. "Don't I Hop?"
"Yeah she may be a little shit but Jess never breaks her promises. Ow! What was that for?" Hopper rubbed his arm slightly after Jess punched him in the arm.
"Don't call me a little shit."
"Don't hit me!" Hopper glared at his little sister as he drove off the drive.
"Don't hit me!" Jess mocked her brother in a high pitched voice, as Joyce let out a small smile to herself, at the sibling squabbles but also due to the fact that Jess was still mindlessly rubbing her thumb against the back of her hand, not showing any signs of letting go.
