Stranger Things Rewriting - with Y/N

Chapter Seven - The Bathtub

Joyce Byers and Jim Hopper have been gone from Hawkins all day. Joyce even forgot about Jonathan's whereabouts with everything that has been going on through her mind. Finally, someone believes her. And it is not just anyone, it is Jim Hopper, her old high school friend and Chief of Hawkins Police. Since morning, they have been searching the lead of Terry Ives from the papers, and they have found her.

Joyce's heart was full of hope talking to that woman. She doesn't really know what she was expecting from her, but when she entered her house with Hopper, that misty hope faded away. Terry Ives is paralyzed on a wheelchair, unable to speak clearly, eyes starring at the TV screen. She is only the shadow of herself, and her sister Becky, saddly explained to them what happened to her sister, smoking cigarettes around the kitchen table.

"She was a part of some study in college." Becky says.

"MK Ultra?" Hopper questions.

"Yeah, that's the one." Becky nods. "Was, uh, started in the 50s. By the time Terry got involved, it was supposed to be ramping down, but the drugs just ot crazier. Messed her up good."

"This was the CIA that ran this?" Hopper asks, his back leaned on his chair.

Becky amusingly smiles at him. "You and Terry would've gotten 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."

Joyce and Jim look at each other with confusion as Becky continues talking.

"And then they'd strip her naked and put her in these isolation tanks." she concludes.

"Isolation tanks?" Joyce repeats in confusion.

"Yeah. These big bathtubs, basically, filled with salt water so you can float around in there." she explains with her hands. "You lose any sense of, uh... sense and feel nothing, see nothing. They wanted to expand the boundaries of the mind. Real hippie crap."

She stutters. "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." Joyce exclaims.

Becky nods silently and smokes more of her cigarette.

"Do you have any pictures of her?" Joyce asks her.

Becky looks at her with big eyes and stare at the both of them.

"I don't think you guys understand." she saddly begins. "Terry miscarried in the third trimester."

Joyce silently gasps in surprise and Hopper's face drops. Becky lets the idea sink in their minds before tapping some ashes from her cigarette in the ashtray, and offers them to follow her in a room. They silently agree and walk with Becky up the stairs to find a beautiful decorated kid's room.

"She keeps all of this up. Been doing it for 12 years." Becky sighs, taking a sit on the arm of a flower patterned armchair, while Hopper and Joyce observe the room.

"Terry, uh, pretends like Jane is real, like she's gonna come home someday. Says she's special. Born with 'abilities'." Becky continues.

"Abilities?" Joyce frowns.

Becky nods and looks at Hopper. "You read any Stephen King?"

Hopper and Joyce stare at each other and stammer, making Becky chuckle.

"You guys look scared, actually." she smiles. "I mean, it's all make-believe."

But Jim's face doesn't look amused, because he knows that it probably isn't make-believe.