THE TOWER ━ stranger things

08.

chapter eight — redemption arcs and detective work

Twilight held her in its palm as she woke in a coughing fit, lying in between an empty road. Her body hurdled forward as she spit out the water that suffocated her – it was icy cold. A bone-chilling scream pierced her ears as she picked herself up. It was a muffled cry for help and each time she inched her feet further and further it grew louder. It seemed to be coming from a girl. She moved, jogging toward the sound – like a moth being drawn to a flame. No matter how loudly her thoughts screamed for her to wake up she continued forward.

The same warehouse building from her first vision came into view, Brimborn Steelworks. She halted and a sinking feeling erupted in the pit of her stomach. A familiar blue Camaro was parked in front, with the trunk wide open. The screams echoed even louder around her, screeching now inside her ears, as she crouched down holding her head in her hands. She shut her eyes tightly, fear overpowering the curiosity she was just feeling. Her pulse raced as her palms quickly grew damp.

"Stop!" She cried, "Leave me alone! You're not real, get out of my head! Please!"

Suddenly her mind grew silent.

She opened her eyes one at a time and knew not to be foolish enough to believe the torture was over.

It was dark, the air was cold, and life was still. A soft whisper tickled her ear, she turned and her breath caught in her throat. A girl who looked about her age had been lying on the floor with duct tape over her mouth. She wore a red swimsuit – the words on it were unreadable but it looked like she was a lifeguard. Her muffled cries echoed inside Irene's mind and goosebumps ran along her arms. Someone, tall in stature with a strong frame, stood over her as she wept on the concrete. Irene couldn't make out the face but she recognized the boots and the car she'd seen earlier had tied the loose end. Billy Hargrove.

She regained consciousness, waking abruptly from the vision, and stared up at the faces towering above her. The image of the girl flashed behind her eyelids as she blinked, her body scrambled away from the three. Her throat was dry, her body was sore, and her head felt terribly dizzy. She could also feel the crusted blood underneath her nose.

"Woah, slow down there. It's okay, Rena, it's just us." Steve spoke slowly, holding his hand out toward her. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, placing her palms on the tiled floor as she let its coolness calm her down.

She opened her eyes and looked back at the three, "How long was I out?"

"First you need to tell us what the hell just happened?" Dustin asked as he stood in shock. Irene sighed, the taste of truth felt tart on the tip of her tongue. I can't, she thought to herself,  At least not right now.

"When I was young, once and a while, I would get these awful fainting spells. They happened sporadically but usually when I was overwhelmed, afraid, or panicked by something. Doctors never figured out the underlying reason as to why they occurred and because there wasn't a pattern to them, they told me to just go about my day to day life and work around it the best I could." She explained, which was entirely true.

Her first fainting spell occurred when she was six and her doctor ruled it out as her body's fear response from something that might have occurred at school and the bloody nose was most likely just a response to heat exhaustion. And because she didn't tell her mom what really happened and what she really saw, they all believed it. Even though she had practically witnessed the future, she was so young that when her vision came to fruition she simply regarded it as deja vu. However, after a while she had another fainting spell and finally uncovered that she believed she was seeing things to her mother.