"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-Nine: The Recovery Stage
(The Gate, Pt. 6)
***
The car trip from the tunnels was just as chaotic as the trip toward them.
In the front, Rowan wasn't squashed with the kids, but that didn't mean the chaos wasn't reaching her in the front. And maybe squashing five kids together, especially one with a possibly injured ankle, wasn't the best idea, but how the fuck were they going to fit the kids together? Still, the bickering coming from the back was doing Rowan's head in and was not helping her concussion and it was all she could do from turning around and screaming at the kids to shut the fuck up or completing what Hargrove had tried to do three times and knock herself out. By her side, Steve was similarly exasperated and looking like he wanted to throttle the kids as well but substituted by gripping the steering wheel in a white-knuckled grip and clenching his jaw so tight Rowan swore she heard his teeth grinding.
Case in point as a smack sounded from the back, followed by a shriek of, "OW! Dustin, that was my leg!"
"Sorry, I was trying to get to Lucas!"
"How could you get to me over there!?"
"I would have found a way!"
"A way that doesn't involve breaking my leg!?"
"Yes!"
"Lucas move, you're crushing me!"
"I can't move—hey, stop elbowing me!"
"Then move, you el idiota!"
"WHERE!?"
"Rowan, Steve! Max hit me!"
"Wha—I didn't hit you!"
"YOU HIT ME!"
"I DIDN'T BUT I'M GONNA TOO NOW!"
"MOVE LUCAS!"
"NO!"
"SHUT UP!" Rowan screamed, twisting around and glaring venomously at the kids—Cami and Lucas had their hands pressed against each other's faces, Dustin and Max looked inches away from fighting as well and were only separated by Mike sitting right in the centre, the raven-haired boy wearing the most exasperated look on his face. They immediately stopped fighting as Rowan pointed a finger at each of them and hissed, "If you gremlins don't stop fighting, I'm gonna sting you! Got it, gremlins?"
It was an empty threat. Rowan was too tanked out to really do anything, and even if she was at full-power, she would never sting them. Still, it worked and the kids stopped trying to attack each other, grumbling sullenly. Rowan turned back to the front, pressing her fingers against her temples to stave off the headache these kids and her concussion had formed.
