𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓, v. hopper ☑️

xvii. bloody bandana

 ❝there aint no LOVE

like our LOVE❞

lights are on ―tom rosenthal

―――tuesday, 18:32, empty parking lot.

piper, her mama, finney and the detectives were looking around the parking lot behind the Grab N Go for awhile to look for any clues, or things to add up to robins disappearance, whiles piper was looking around she spotted a small, familiar thing ahead of her. she ran over, and saw what looked liked robins bandana, but it was covered in red blood, which she assumed was robins. piper covered her mouth as tears spilled down her face.

"fuck. no, no, no, no." she mumbled under her breath, not even touching the small, bloody item on the floor, she couldn't even see it anymore because of the tears blocking her eyesight, she stepped back, and was met with a tall, curly haired blonde boy stood behind her.

"hey, whats wrong?" he said, in a soft tone, not a tone she had heard him speak in before. ever. it made the tears spill out as she turned to look back at the bandana.

"its– its his– vance its his– its robins." her voice cracked as vances arms went around her, holding her in a warm embrace, the detectives and the others came running over, and saw the bloody bandana on the floor, piper craved her head into vances chest, and let all of the tears spill out, she knew he was gone now, the grabber got him.

her mama came running over, and saw the bandana, then started to break down into tears, "no–! no it isn't his, its someone elses." she cried out, begging for it to be a different kids bandana. detective miller picked it up with gloves on, and checked for a name, or anything on the inside of it, he looked inside and the initials "R.A" were covered in blood, and fading off.

"i'm sorry miss arellano, it is robins." he said, with his head down as he put the bandana into a plastic bag, they also found some money, and a note on the floor underneath it, the note was too covered in blood.

piper cried into vance's chest, as he ran his fingers through her hair, "hey, we'll find him." he whispered as he kissed her head, "we'll find him."

"no we wont– they never found bruce– or– or billy.."

"come on, lets get to the Grab N Go," he said, pulling away from the hug and walking her to the Grab N Go.

―――tuesday, 19:22, Grab N Go.

piper sat on a small chair behind the counter, her mama sat beside her, hugging her as piper had her knees up to her chest and her head resting on her ma's shoulders, as she looked at the floor, with no emotion at all, her face was blank, not sad, not happy, not worried, just blank.

vance walked over to the two, and passed them both a bottle of water, "you alright?" he asked, his voice cracking a bit too, he refused to cry, he fought back tears as he does whenever anything bad happens. "thank you." piper said, trying not to cry again as she accepted the water, but ignored the question, her ma nodded at the boy as she also took a sip of the water.

she saw the police questioning miss hopper, and saw the bloody bandana and tears went down her cheeks, she didn't look like she was crying, her face still was blank, but the tears said different.

"cariño, we will make sure they find him." her ma reassured her, trying to let out a small smile, "there wasn't any love, that was like the love the two of you had." she added on, looking down at the floor.

"i know, mamá. i know. im gonna go talk to vance." she replied, wiping the tears from her mothers face.

she stood up, moving her mothers arm and went over to the pinball machine, to see vance leaning against it, his head in his hands, she stood next to him, as she leaned against the machine too.

"you really think they're gonna find him? be honest." she looked down at the floor, wiping the tears from her eyes.

of course vance knew they wouldn't find him. they didn't even bother trying to find the other boys, after griffin and billys disappearance, they just went to peoples houses asking if they had seen the kids, then did nothing else except for keep their eye out for them, "honestly, no. but we will find him."

"are you sure?" she asked, looking up at the boy beside her.

"im sure. if we dont, who will?"

that made piper smile for the first time ever since she found out about her brother going missing, vance hopper was being nice to her, and god, he was even helping her.

she just hoped this was all a bad nightmare, and when she woke up robin would be downstairs as always, insulting her for getting up late.