THE TOWER ━ stranger things

13.

chapter thirteen — scratching the surface

Mateo felt like his head was going to explode with the vast amount of information he was being fed.

First, he found out his sisters' weird friends were hiding the most elaborate secret ever. Second, he realized the town his family moved to was, contrary to popular belief, anything but ordinary. Third, Mike's older sister 'Nancy' is standing in front of the seven of them now, alongside Will's brother 'Johnathan,' explaining how there is possibly another flayed victim.

He had a feeling the third point had already existed but just hearing it spoken aloud enhanced the feeling of unease that sprouted from the pit of his stomach all the way to his heart. His fingers mindlessly tugged at the skin on his elbow – something he'd done since he was a child.

Irene always caught him doing this when they would walk home from school and everytime she would loop her arm around his and start asking him random questions about baseball. His face would brighten and he'd forget about whatever troubled him moments prior as he answered her questions with ease. When she ran out of sports related questions she'd start asking him philosophical ones like why was the sky blue and why did they have to go to school. He let out a faint laugh through his nostrils, but a sudden feeling of melancholy struck him abruptly; his sister wasn't there to stop him and his elbow was starting to redden with a dull sting.

"If there are two flayed–" Lucas began and Will sat up beside the oldest Vasquez, finishing his friends' sentence, "We have to assume there are more." Mateo dragged himself out of his thoughts at the response, slightly raising his voice.

"Heather." He said the same time El whispered the name, they locked eyes and gave each other surprised yet knowing looks. Anyone with a brain knew something was off that night and seeing that El had the same idea brought him brief comfort.

He actually felt like he was starting to gain some momentum with how quick he was connecting the dots. It was hard to keep up and within the small span of hours he'd spent at Mike's house, there were times where he felt like he wasn't cut out for the rigor of dealing with all the Hawkins/Upside Down issues.

He almost left entirely before everyone woke up and was planning how he could scrub the previous events from his brain and convince his mom and sister to pack up and go. He obviously didn't – mainly because he told himself his sister would never let him live it down and he was finally starting to reconcile with her.

"Billy was doing something to her," El began looking up at the two young-adults in front of them. "She was scared. She was screaming. Bad screams." El explained as Mateo turned inward yet again and began muttering to himself beside Will, going down yet another rabbit hole inside his mind.

Lucas pulled his eyebrows together, "What's a good scream?"

"Max said–"

"Doesn't matter." Max interrupted quickly and Mateo pinched the bridge of his nose at how off-track the conversation was about to get.

"I'm sorry I'm lost. Who is Heather?"

"Heather Holloway," Mateo sighed, looking up at Jonathan and Nancy, "She's a lifeguard with me at the pool." Everyone's eyes fell to his hunched frame. "That night we went to go check up on her, she seemed so out of it. She's usually not so dull like that." He shrugged and the group collectively leaned forward.

"Great so, in our case, cut off one head and three or more grow back." Lucas quipped tiredly and it made the latter let out a dry chuckle.

"Yeah, I guess that's what we're dealing with." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, running his fingers through his soft curls. All of the teens slumped back into their seats.