"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 Seventy-Three: The Return Of A Friend
(The Mind Flayer, Pt. 5)
***
The harsh, telling ring of the phone cut through the suddenly silent, suddenly tense Byers residence as Dustin stood up, so harshly his chair almost fell over, and he raced to the mounted phone and slammed it against the holder, cursing, "Shit. Shit!"
For a few, heart-stopping seconds, the phone was silent. Rowan thought it would remain so, that they managed to get away with it...
... Until it began ringing again.
Dustin made to grab the phone to slam it against the holder again, but Rowan was already there and slamming a hand against it, short-circuiting the phone—she would apologise to Joyce tomorrow, when they weren't about to die—and silencing it. For good measure, Nancy ripped it off the wall when Rowan lifted her hand and slammed it against the floor, quieting the damn phone quite sufficiently.
"Do you think he heard that?" Max questioned, fear clear in her face if Will had.
"It's just a phone. It could be anywhere. Right?" Steve reasoned, but he looked as unsure as he sounded. Rowan's mouth twisted, electricity whirring uneasily inside her.
"Don't be so certain on that, rich boy," Aunt Aco muttered. She snatched up her crossbow and loaded it. "We have to be prepared if he did."
The kids looked at each other nervously as Aunt Aco marched up to the front door, crossbow trained on it, but Rowan walked up to them and said firmly, "Hey. Nothing's gonna happen to any of us, okay? I'm not gonna let it. And neither are Steve, Nancy and my aunt."
Some fear seemed to bleed out, but it came racing back when a chorus of unearthly shrieks sounded. Rowan whirled, fists raised and crackling as Steve held his bat tighter, the both of them moving in front of the kids and each other almost instinctually.
A heartbeat later the back door slammed open and it was all Rowan could do to keep from shooting lightning at whoever opened it.
"They're coming!" Jonathan yelled, as Alistair and Mike peeked out from behind Jonathan. They ran in along with Joyce, who clutched a newly unconscious Will to her, and Hopper, carrying the rifle from the lab and a gun the Byers had. Jonathan hurriedly locked the back door as Joyce carried Will to Jonathan's room while the kids scurried off to the living room. Rowan turned and gaped to see them at the front window, peering out through the curtains.
"Holy fucking shit, are you gremlins mental?" Rowan yelled as she hurried into the living room with Steve, Jonathan and Nancy, right as her aunt screeched, "Hey! Kids, get the hell away from the windows!"
All six kids blinked owlishly at Aunt Aco, but they didn't move away—that was, until Hopper barked, "Hey!"
At once, the kids turned as Hopper, who was still holding the two guns, yelled, "Hey, listen to Aco and get away from the windows!"
