"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 One-Hundred-And-Forty-Three: The Collage
(The Nina Project)
***
The sound of stairs creaking woke Rowan up.
Lifting her head up, Rowan twisted around—or as much as she could, since she was wrapped up in Steve's arms—to the stairs, and saw Alistair creeping up them. To her relief, she saw the headphones were still on Alistair's head, even though the music had stopped playing.
"Al?" she hissed, making her brother freeze in the spot. "Where are you going?"
Turning around, Alistair whispered, "Upstairs. I, uh, I thought you'd stayed asleep."
"Too bad. I'm wide awake now," Rowan retorted. She looked at the rest of the basement, seeing the rest of the Party sprawled out on any available space—Valerie and Robin, Rowan noticed, were snuggled close together—as her sixth sense registered their electric impulses, slightly different for each person.
Except for Max's.
Rowan's eyes widened and she searched frantically for that head of fiery red hair, but Max was nowhere to be seen. Whirling to Alistair, she hissed, "Where's Max?!"
"She's upstairs. She woke up before me, and told me she needed to do something," Alistair explained, voice low so as not to wake anyone else up. "I'm heading up as well because I... I don't think neither of us should be alone right now."
"No, yeah, of course. I get it," Rowan replied, her voice just as quiet.
Alistair shuffled his feet, muttering, "I think Nancy's parents are up anyway, but... but I still thought we should be together."
"You don't need to explain. Like I said, I get it," Rowan said. "Mind some extra company?"
Alistair didn't say anything, but the small nod told her everything.
Rowan looked away, turning back to Steve's arms wrapped around her. No way could she get herself out without waking him up, so she teleported, landing on the step under Alistair's.
"Let's go," she whispered, and together the Graveswood siblings headed up the stairs.
When they were in the hallway, Rowan grabbed her brother's arm and said, "Actually, I think we should talk."
"Didn't we talk last night?" Alistair questioned, pulling his arm from her grip to cross them.
"Yes, but we didn't talk about why you and Cami were in Hawkins Lab," Rowan said pointedly, crossing her own arms and giving Alistair one of her looks.
Alistair grimaced, but didn't back down. "Did, uh... did Cami tell you guys?"
"Only that you had a hunch and she didn't think you should go alone into that goddamned place," Rowan answered evenly. "I would like to know why the hell you had a hunch that had you want to go into fucking Hawkins Lab. And willingly as well."
