Escape ~ S.Harrington

11} Communications from Beyond the Grave

BEEP

Ugh.

BE-

I can't believe that I forgot to turn that damn thing off.

"Kids! Get your asses up! Dust, get out of my room and El, get changed into the clothes I left next to you. I need to get you to the Wheeler's."
Dustin scrambled out of his sister's room while Jenna frantically looked around for her own set of clean clothes. The only clean thing she could find was an old floral tie up shirt that her mom wore back in the 70's and a pair of bell bottoms.
Great. Guess I'm goin full 70's today.

Jenna got dressed and quickly ran out to the kitchen to steal some breakfast for Eleven. All she could find that seemed semi appealing was Eggos which she popped in the toaster while she went to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

"HEY DUSTIN?" She yelled down the hall while her toothbrush was half in her mouth.
"YEAH?"
"YOU WANT A RIDE TO SCHOOL?"
"NO!"
"FINE. HAVE A NICE DAY THEN!"
"THANKS JEN!"

Jenna heard the toaster pop so she spit out her toothpaste and walked out into the hall so she could get to the Eggos. She grabbed them out of the toaster, put them on a napkin, and walked back to her room to find a well put together El.
"You look very nice," She told the girl.
"You too," She said back.
They both smiled at each other and Jenna offered her hand out so they could sneak out of the house. Together, they walked to Jenna's car and Jenna drove them over to Mike's. Once there, Jenna and Eleven held hands and went over to the basement door. Mike begrudgingly opened the door and let Eleven and Jenna in. Right as Jenna was about to turn around to leave, Eleven stopped her and said, "Wait. One minute."
"Oh, alright. What's going on?"

Eleven wanted to show Mike that Will was in fact still alive. She took his walkie-talkie and started fiddling with it.
Wait, is she doing what I think she's doing? No, it can't be...
"Hey," Mike told her, "Stop doing that. It's weirding me out. You know, I can't believe I trusted you."
Before Mike could continue on his rant, Eleven caught just what she was looking for. The sound of someone singing Should I Stay or Should I Go echoed through the walkie-talkie. Jenna and Mike stared at her in amazement, both for different reasons though.

"Will!" Mike screamed into the walkie-talkie, "It's Mike! Can you hear me! Will!"
No no no. I can't with this right now. How the hell did Will end up there with those awful things? We're fucked.

When Jenna came back to, the walkie was static again and Mike was freaking out.
"My mom already said I could stay home today," He told them, "So now all I need to do is tell the rest of the party. Jenna, do you mind skipping?"
"I mean, I've already done it once this week," She said hesitantly, "But, I guess one more time won't hurt."
Jenna sat with El as Mike nagged Lucas on the walkie-talkie and told him to bring Dustin with him. Now all they could do was wait for the kids to show up.
See, Dustin should've taken my offer to drive him.

~

The whole party, plus El, sat in a circle on the basement floor with Eleven messing with the walkie-talkie.
"We keep losing the signal," Mike said, "but you heard it, right?"
"Yeah," Lucas told him, "I heard a baby."
"What?" Mike questioned.
"Mike," Lucas reasoned, "you obviously tapped into a baby monitor. It's probably the Blackburns' next door."
"Uh, did that sound like a baby to you?" Mike asked him, "That was Will!"
"Mike," Lucas started.
"Lucas," Mike interrupted, "you don't understand. He spoke just a little bit ago. Words! He was singing that weird song he loves. Jenna can back me up on this."
"Come on Mike," Lucas told him, "Jenna is too smart to go along with your stupid fantasies."

"Speak for yourself, shithead," She snapped at Lucas, "I will in fact back Mike up. I can say that I did clearly hear Will singing just a few moments ago. Now shut up, you aren't always the one that's right, Sinclair."
"Well, alright," Dustin said with full hope in his sister, "Then what channel does Eleven have to be on so we can talk to Will?"
"It's not about the channel," Jenna told the group, "She's channeling him through it."
"How do you know that?" Dustin asked.
"I don't," She quickly said, "I'm just making a reasonable assumption based on what I know. And what I know is she's been messing around between channels all morning and she seems to get a signal from various ones. So, it's not the channel, but her."

Eleven smiled up at Jenna, and that was all Jenna needed as her confirmation that she was in fact right.
"So..." Dustin said quietly, "that means she's like... Professor X."
"Yeah!" Mike exclaimed.
"Are you actually believing this crap?" Lucas asked Dustin.
"I don't know," Dustin told him, "I mean, if Jenna says it happened, I believe it cuz I DO NOT want to fight with her. Also, do you remember when Will fell off his bike and broke his finger? He sounded a lot like that."
"Did you guys not see what I saw?" Lucas questioned whilst looking around the circle like we were all insane, "They pulled Will's body out of the water. He's dead!"
"Well," Dustin reasoned, "maybe it's his ghost. Maybe he's haunting us."
"It's not his ghost," Mike deadpanned.
"So how do you know that?" Lucas asked him.
"I just do!" Mike said back.
"Then what was in that water?" Lucas asked.

"I don't know!" Mike yelled back, "All I know is Will is alive. Will is alive! He's out there somewhere. All we have to do is find him."
Right as Mike finished with his mini speech, Eleven kept making noise with the walkie.
"This isn't gonna work," Jenna told the party, "We need to get her to a stronger radio."
Dustin looked up, smiled, then said, "Mr. Clarke's Heathkit ham shack."
"Yeah," Mike agreed.
"Mr. Claire's  whosie-whatsie?" Jenna asked in confuzzlement.
"It's one of our teacher's special radios," Lucas explained, "But, there is no way we're gonna get the weirdo in there without anyone noticing. I mean... look at her."

Everyone turned their gaze onto the poor girl just fiddling with Mike's walkie-talkie. Jenna thought she looked pretty, but to social norms of middle school, she did look a bit off.
"Wait," Jenna announced, "I have an idea."

~

Jenna told the boys to look through Nancy's old Halloween costumes for a nice dress that El could wear while Jenna took the girl upstairs to do a bit of makeup. Jenna stole her best gal pal's makeup box and started to dig through it. She found a bit of blush, chapstick, and eyeshadow. The older girl started to dip a big, fluffy brush into the blush then proceeded to swipe it on El's face. Eleven pulled back in confusion.

"Hey," Jenna told her while chuckling a bit, "It's ok. It's just blush. It makes your cheeks look pink and pretty."
Eleven smiled a bit afterwards and let Jenna continue to work her magic. She put a bit of glitter eyeshadow on Eleven's eyelids and had her pucker up for a touch of chapstick. When she was all done, the boys came running upstairs with a pink dress and a blonde wig.
"Woah," Dustin said, "I didn't know you had, like, ANY makeup skills Jenna. You never wear any."
"For the record," She told him, "The only reason why I don't wear makeup, is because I'm too fucking lazy to put any on. I'm used to doing Nancy's for her at sleepovers, so I do have practice thank you very much."
"Sheesh," he snarked back, "Sor-ry."
"Here," Mike said while handing the dress over to Jenna, "Just let her get changed."
Jenna kicked the boys out of the room while she helped El finish her makeover.

Jenna put her final touch on El's new look by straightening her wig out, then took a step back to get a good look at the girl.
"You look really pretty," She told her, "I mean, you were pretty before, but now you have a different kind of pretty."
"Thank you," El told her, "But, YOU are pretty, can I have your face?"
"No need for that," Jenna told her through laughter, "You are pretty enough on your own. Now, let's go show the boys."

Jenna opened the door and flared her hand out, almost announcing Eleven's entrance. Mike stared at her in awe while the other boys were shocked that Jenna had actually transformed the girl they'd found lost in the woods days prior.

"Wow," Dustin said, "She looks..."
"Pretty," Mike said in a star-struck trance, "Good. You look pretty good."
"No," Jenna told the girl, "remember what I told you, just pretty. Pretty good would be if one of those nitwits did your makeup and messed it up."
Eleven walked down the hall and finally got a proper look at herself in a big mirror. She started to mess with her new hair and whispered to herself, "Pretty."
Jenna just smiled at this, happy that El found herself pretty.