Escape ~ S.Harrington

27} The Dark Magic Begins

When school let out, Jenna went over to the middle school to finish the talk about Dart. As she walked to the AV room she found Max standing outside the door, which seemed to be locked, yelling, "Hello? Hello?"
"Did the buttheads lock you out?" Jenna asked from behind her.
"Jeez! You scared me," She said while holding a hand to her chest.
"Sorry. Um, you wanna learn how to pick a lock?"

Jenna took a Bobby pin and showed Max how to pick the lock.
"Ah hah!" They yelled when they heard the lock pop open.
"Where'd you learn how to do that?" Max asked.
"From Hopper," Jenna calmly answered, "Now, let's bomb their party."
Right as they opened the door, Dart jumped out and ran for dear life down the hallway. The boys plowed into Jenna and Max with Dustin falling onto Max and scrambling to stand up, while Lucas fell onto Jenna. When he realized, he gave her a smug smirk with raised eyebrows. Jenna sighed and shoved him off of her.

"What was that?" Max asked.
"Dart," Mike snapped at her, "You let him escape."
"Mike," Jenna snapped right back, "I was the one who opened the door, don't blame her."
"Whatever," Dustin yelled and pointed at Mike, "Why did YOU attack him?"
"Come on," Mike hollered while running down the hall in the great hunt for Dart.
"Don't hurt him. Don't you hurt him," Dustin yelled at Mike.

~

Everyone went off on their own to scour the school. Each kid ran off with a walkie-talkie in hand to inform everyone else on their findings. As Jenna roamed around she caught sight of a figure that wasn't any of the boys, or Max.
"Hello?" She yelled.
No reply followed so she continued roaming until she saw the figure again, this time getting a better view of their face.
"Eleven?" She called out.
The figure ran.
"El? If that's you, it's okay. It's just me; Jenna."
Jenna ran around a corner to find El braced against the wall in an attempt to hide.
"Hey," Jenna quietly whispered while slowly approaching the girl, "It's okay. I won't tell anybody."
El's tense posture loosened, then she latched her arms around Jenna in a hug.

"I missed you," El whispered into Jenna's shoulder.
"I missed you, too," Jenna whispered back.
"I have to go now," El whimpered, "I'm not supposed to be seen."
She untangled her arms from Jenna while a tear rolled down her face.
"I'll see you again," Jenna attempted to calm the girl as she brushed the tear from her face. "I don't know where you've been or how the hell you're still alive, but I'm glad that you are. I love your hair, by the way."
El reached up and ran a couple fingers through it and asked, "Pretty?"
"You always are. Now, if you're in danger, go now. I won't let anyone find you."
El nodded then ran out of the building, but not before looking back towards the gym with a look of despair.
"Did you find Mike?" Jenna asked, innocently.
"Yeah," Eleven sighed, "I go now. I'll see you another time."
Jenna waved goodbye to the girl as she ran out the doors at the end of the hall.
How is she alive? Where has she been this whole time? Why not tell us? Where the hell did she learn to talk in full sentences? Either way, I'm glad she's alive. Now, how the hell am I not going to tell the boys!?

~

"Guys... I found him," Will's voice crackled through the walkies.
"Where?" Dustin asked.
"In the bathroom by Mr. Salerno's," Will responded.
"Copy that," Mike replied.
Everyone sprinted through the Hawkins Middle halls. Luckily, Jenna found her brother along the way. She had no clue where she was going seeing as she hadn't gone there in like 4 years.

Once at the bathroom, Dustin slammed open every stall door until he got to the final one where he found Dart and put him under his hat.
"Did you find him?" Jenna asked when she finally entered, followed by Lucas, Mike, and Max.
"No, he's not here," Dustin lied.
"What?" Mike asked in disbelief and started to look into the stalls.
Jenna looked around and didn't see Will. She backed out of the bathroom with brows furrowed trying to find him. She looked around the hall and finally spotted him outside through a couple windows on a set of doors. She jogged outside to find Will paralyzed out on the lawn.
"Will?" She called.
She approached Will to find him not responding.
Jenna grabbed his shoulders and took a deep breath in, closing her eyes in the process and trying to connect to him. She found something.
You.

A minute or two later, her own eyes flickered open, even though it only felt like a couple seconds to her. She found all of the kids and Joyce running onto the lawn towards Will. Jenna backed away from him in fear at what her mind forged up and if she would hurt Will on accident. This was a dangerous thing to be messing around with and she wasn't going to risk him getting hurt. Joyce took Will by the shoulders, like Jenna had done moments ago, and started yelling for dear life for her boy to wake up. Jenna quickly grabbed her Walkman that fell on the ground beside her and put her headphones on. The Chain blared through them while Dustin came to sit by her side.

He's everywhere now. He's got Will. I didn't know he was still there after all this time.
[And if you don't love me now, you will never love me again. I can still hear you saying we must never break the chain.]

Images of the past flickered through Jenna's head while the guitar solo blasted in her ears. Images that would seem to haunt her forever.
[Chain, keep us together (run in the shadows). Chain, keep us together (running in the shadows).]

At this point, the music seemed to be taunting her. She threw her headphones off right as Will woke up, also ending the funky feeling seeping through her veins.
"Jenna," Dustin asked quietly, "Are you okay? You don't look good. Oh, shit. Your nose is bleeding"
"I'm... I'm fine. I'll be fine, Dust," Jenna cut off before he could talk more and wiped her nose in the process.
Dustin nodded and just pulled his distraught sister in for a hug.
"Let's just go home," Dustin mumbled into her shoulder.
Jenna nodded in agreement.

They all walked to the front of the school where Will and Joyce left together in a hurry, for obvious reasons. Lucas ended up talking about if Will had 'True Sight' which he had to shut up about quickly due to Max being right there.
"Does anyone need a ride home?" Jenna quietly asked.
"Um..." Max started to say while twisting her foot on the ground, shyly, "Billy probably already left and I don't really want to ride my skateboard for that long of a distance..."
"Come on," Jenna gestured, "I'll give you a ride. Boys, you have your bikes, right? Except for you, Dust. I know I have to drive you back with me."
"Yup," All the boys replied.
"Good, let's head out."

"Heads up, she's a really bad driver," Dustin warned as they walked to the car.
"Shut up," Jenna shoved his shoulder at that, "You know what, you can sit in the back. Max can sit up front."
"What!? What about our sibling bond?" He asked.
"No, she rides up front. You're annoying."
"Fine. Safer for me, I guess," He grumbled.

Jenna blasted Break My Stride by: Matthew Wilder on their ride back.
"What's your address?" Jenna asked as she looked over at Max.
Max told her and Jenna knew. Right where to go. They pulled up to Max's house and, luckily, she didn't spot Billy.
"I'm so glad your step-brother isn't home," Jenna told Max, "He won't leave me alone."
"Well, consider yourself special," Max replied, sarcastically, "He normally doesn't do that."
"Yippee!" Jenna dragged out, her voice fully laced with sarcasm, "Well, hope you have a good night!"
"You, too, Jenna," Max smiled at Jenna, "And by the way, your driving wasn't THAT bad."
"Thanks, Max. I think I like you more than dipwad back there."
"Hey! Rude!" Dustin screamed.

Jenna shoved her middle finger in the back seat in retaliation. Dustin shut right up and just hopped over the center console to the passenger's seat. Jenna watched as Max walked into her house and made sure that she could get in. Once she was safely inside, Jenna looked over at her brother and ruffled his hair.

"That was a joke, Dust. I could never love anyone more than you."
"Thanks, Jen. I don't think I could love anyone more than you."
He ruffled her hair right back. Both of them sat there laughing their asses off for a minute, then they drove back to their house, singing along to the music together, completely out of tune.
"Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride. Nobody gonna slow me down, oh no, I got to keep on moving. Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride. I'm running and I won't touch ground, oh no, I got to keep on moving."

Throughout their sloppy singing, Jenna  looked over at Dustin and saw him flashing his new 'pearls'. It made her so happy to see him content and not as fucked up as she felt. It gave her the best distraction from life that she could ever wish for: to have a happy and fun time with her favorite person in the whole world.
Man, I really fucking needed this.