"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 Thirty-Five: Contact, Pt. II
(The Bathtub, Pt. 6)
***
Rowan gripped the edge of the kiddie pool tightly, watching El as she waited for a sign of her getting into contact with Will or Barb. She could see Alistair eyeing the walkie like a hawk, waiting for the moment Will's voice will come over, could see Nancy's pinched brows and anxious hope in her eyes of finally knowing if Barb was okay or not. Could see Will's mom and Jonathan and the rest of the Party look just as anxious and hopeful to know if Will was okay and finally bring him home, the tense clench of the chief's jaw, her aunt's dark eyes staring at the girl in the water, seeing what could have been for her niece and nephew.
Rowan suppressed a shudder on that and instead focused on El, and hoped she'd find Barb and Will soon.
If I fell asleep, I could join El in looking for them, Rowan thought, but dispelled the thought as soon as it came. Even if she could, there was a high chance she wouldn't be able to dream-walk into the Upside Down, and even if she could, there was also the high chance Barb or Will wouldn't see or hear her.
Right here, right now, El was their best chance of finding them, of assuring them that they were coming, that rescue was soon.
However, the moment she thought that, Rowan noticed that the young girl's chest began to rise up and down faster, at odds with the steady breathing she had earlier, just as the lights blacked out. Her own electricity simmered uneasily under her skin, and Rowan felt a creeping concern that something had either gone very wrong...
"I don't know," Mike responded, his face full of worry as he looked at El.
"Is Barb okay?" Nancy asked, then said again, her voice trembling, "Is she okay?"
And then El spoke, her young voice wobbling, full of grief and shackled sobs.
"Gone. Gone. Gone."
Beside her, Nancy choked out a sob, her eyes turning glassy as Rowan felt everything inside her freeze and crumble at El's single word. Now realising what her reaction was, what she'd found.
Barb.
And she wasn't alive, like they'd been hoping, praying, she would be, alongside Will.
Rowan felt her own eyes burn with tears, her body feeling like it was going catatonic while her mind exploded into thoughts and emotions, coalescing into one single thought:
I could have saved her.
She could have. If she'd been stronger, been faster, if she'd just gone right back, if she just used her stupid powers... Barb could have been alive. She could have found Will, they could have teamed up, maybe would have been in the woods at the same time Rowan and Nancy had been, could have gotten their attention while the Demogorgon ate the deer and before it could see them, they could have all gotten out together.
