"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-Seven: Baiting The Monster
(The Bathtub, Pt. 8 — The Upside Down)
***
The drive to the police station is uneventful, but brimming with anticipation and nerves.
Rowan feels it the most, like she feels the charge before the storm strikes—the shift in air currents, the smell of metal in the wind, the spike of electricity, until the lightning bolt cracks across the sky like a whip and the thunder roars like the mosh pit of a concert. And it's that exact feeling, except tinged with another feeling:
The determination to kill.
When Jonathan parked the car at the station and he and Nancy are about to hop out, Rowan leaned forward and said, "Hey, maybe I should get the gear instead."
The other teens turn to her, Nancy asking, "Why?"
"Well, one, I know where the evidence locker is if someone put our gear in there, and two, I can teleport," Rowan said. "I'll be in and out in five seconds, tops."
Nancy frowned and looked at Jonathan, a silent look shared between them, but they can't really argue against superpowers. They looked back to her and Jonathan said, "Okay, but we're keeping lookout. If anything goes south, Nance and I are coming in."
"And I'll appreciate the cavalry," Rowan said, a smirk on her face and a salute before she closed her eyes and frowned, imagining Hopper's office—the large wooden desk, the worn couch pushed against the drab wall, the smell of cigarettes and people wanting the chief of police to investigate their claims no matter how serious or not the crime—imagining herself being right there, concentrating on her whirring cells, the feeling of dispersing and reforming someplace else...
When she felt the tug in her gut, felt that feeling intensify and die away and opened her eyes, she can't help a giddy grin on her face at seeing Hopper's office.
And now, she just had to find their stuff.
It's... surprisingly easy, to find—because it's still on the desk, right where they left it. But Rowan gathered bear traps and gasoline is something pretty noticeable in the evidence locker of a small town, and that none of the other officers probably didn't want to move it and risk Hopper's wrath. It din't matter which was true—it made this a whole lot easier for her.
Grabbing a box underneath one arm, Rowan focused on that feeling again, this time spreading it to the box, taking it with her as she jumped back into the car.
Sending a quick prayer it comes with her before she does.
Rowan landed with a THUMP in the backseat, and the clatter of metal told her of her success. Rowan acknowledged the gawping faces of Nancy and Jonathan as she said almost breathlessly, "One more trip. Be back in a sec!" and jumped again, landing back again in Hopper's office. Rowan's grin had grown wider as she lugged the second box underneath her arm. Before she can jump, a stroke of inspiration came and she crept out of Hopper's office and grabbed the fire extinguisher, just in case. With the box under one arm and the fire extinguisher in the other, Rowan teleported for the final time back to the car, her body practically singing with her use of her powers after keeping them pushed down for so long. Though she does feel a bit lightheaded...
