evil hour | stranger things

seven: steve don't be an asshole

Rowan stopped in her tracks, cursing herself for speaking her thoughts. Dustin suddenly appeared before her, yet failed to notice how she changed her look from worried to unbothered.

"Yeah. She's my — sister."

"El?" Lucas repeated.

"Uh-huh. El is short for... Elena," she noticed the confused looks on their faces, "Uh, good luck finding your friends."

"Wait!"

Max stopped her again before she could take a step, "How do you know Mike?"

"Doesn't matter."

She took their confused and curious state as a moment to quickly leave, making them even more puzzled when they turned around and saw that she was gone. As if she disappeared into thin air.

Hawkins middle school was no help. Even though Jim was nowhere to be found as well, the police station felt like her only option. She had to find out where he was. As much as she was scared to admit her mistake, he needed to know the truth. That man protected Eleven like his own eyes, maybe even better.

Before she walked in the station, she needed a story. A plan. She could sneak in, no problem; that was like second nature to her, but she'd miss the chance to ask if someone knew where he was. So, she walked in as his niece that was visiting.

"Excuse me, young lady!"

She turned around and faced two officers. One with glasses and the other holding a stack of cards. Must be Jim's deputies.

"Oh, sorry! Uncle Jim told me I could find him here?" she faked her voice a pitch higher, plastering and innocent and childish look across her features.

"Uncle Jim?" the one with glasses asked, "As in Chief Jim Hopper?"

She smiled with a nod, "The one and only. Don't tell me he hasn't told you we were visiting?"

It was almost hilarious to look at their faces go from puzzled, concerned and even terrified at just how well their Chief kept his family so secretive.

"I'm his niece. Maya," she stretched her hand and shook it with the shorter deputy holding the stack of cards, "He and my dad had this, like, super stupid fight when they were fifteen and stopped telling people they were related out of spite. I guess, they're still doing it, huh?"

The two men remained silent until one of them spoke up again, "Right... Uh, why don't you wait here, we'll be right back."

"Sure!" she watched with a smile as they walked off, throwing that fake smile off her face, "Losers."

Her feet quickly made it in his office, shutting the door behind her and beginning to look for anything she might find helpful. However, it didn't help how his office was the epitome of a mess as if it had been struck with a nuclear weapon. Did this man even function in here?

She managed to steal one of his flashlights because she was sure the sun would set shortly. As she rummaged around, a yellow sticky note caught her eye as well as his messy handwriting.

Owens today. At lab, 8 am. Byers.

Owens? Lab? Hawkins lab? Byers? Who was Byers? It was already 4pm, he should've been back from the lab by now, otherwise what would he be doing there for that long? Something was completely off. She just couldn't put her finger on it.

Her head looked up quickly as she heard hurried footsteps towards Jim's office. She spun around, lifting the blinds, opening the window and jumping out. Rowan landed on her feet, grunting for a second before sprinting far from the station, not looking back to see if anyone had saw her.