"I swear, if I'm dying tonight because of you, I'm gonna haunt your ass so hard, Harrington!"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah! I'm gonna go full Poltergeist and shit!"
"Then bring it, Graveswood."
"Challenge accepted."
***
In which after years of suppressing their...
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Chapter Twenty-Nine: Jump
(The Monster, Pt. 7)
***
"EL!"
Dustin's shout rang through the absurdly quiet woods, soon joined by Mike's yell of, "Eleven!"
"El!" Alistair joined in, looking around the woods for any sign of the shaved-haired psionic girl, as the quiet of the woods was soon replaced by the chorus of boys yelling. "EL!"
"Eleven! El!"
"El! Eleven!"
"Eleven!"
"El!"
Nothing.
There was no shout back, no sign of El anywhere. Alistair sighed, worry worming in his stomach. God, he hoped they would find El, and that the bad men wouldn't—or, given the silence of the woods, they wouldn't stumble on something worse while looking for her.
He heard the flap of wings and cast a look to see the ghost raven land on a tree branch, staring at him with its remaining eye. Alistair had attempted to talk to it, before Dustin arrived to take him to Mike's so that he, Mike and Lucas could apologise to each other over yesterday, only for that to crash and burn, and then look for El, but the raven, of course, hadn't responded, just stared at him.
So, Alistair decided to ignore it, despite its persistence on following him, and looked forward.
He saw Dustin giving him a look, and Alistair decided to ignore that as well, walking forward.
Except that soon, Mike stopped as he said, "Hey, guys, stop. Do you hear that?"
"What?" Dustin asked, as Alistair frowned. He hadn't heard anything.
But that didn't deter Mike, as he shouted, "El! El?"
But it wasn't El who appeared.
Instead, Troy and his lackey appeared, their faces twisted in anger that looked murderous.
"Hey there, Frogface. Schizo. Toothless," Troy sneered, and flicked a switchblade.
"Shit! Run, guys!" Dustin yelled, dropping his bike. Alistair's eyes had widened at seeing the switchblade, agreeing with Dustin.
"What?" Mike yelled, but Dustin only yelled, "Run! Come on!"
"Seriously, Mike, run!" Alistair screamed, tugging at his jacket as the bullies advanced, as finally Mike began running, abandoning his bike as well; above, the raven flew overhead, cawrking.
"You're dead, Wheeler and Graveswood!" Troy shouted as he gave chase.
"Move, Mike! Mike, come on, run!" Dustin and Alistair shouted as they ran as fast as they could, hoping to outrun the bullies and the knife, until they ran out from the woods and onto the path next to the quarry. Gravel kicked up under his feet as Alistair sprinted, his lungs gasping for air and his legs burning, but he didn't care, as long as he and his friends outran Troy and his goon. Mike was keeping pace with him, but Dustin was lagging, and eventually stopped, doubling over as he wheezed, "Cramp!"
