"Hey, you remember what I said last year, right? We're Zombie Boy and Ghost Boy. I'm not ever gonna leave you."
"Promise?"
"One hundred percent."
***
In which Alistair fights the monster that possessed his friend alongside his friends, while trying...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Chapter Seventy: Interrogation
(The Massacre At Hawkins Lab)
***
"And what exactly were you all doing at the lake?"
As one, Alistair, Cami, Lucas, Dustin and Max looked at each other from where they were crammed on the couch in the Wheelers' living room, where they'd been sitting for a good few minutes. In front of them, sitting on a chair, was Chief Powell, and standing next to him was Officer Callahan as on the other couch was Mrs. and Mr. Wheeler and Mrs. and Mr. Martinêz and standing around the room was Mrs. Henderson, Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair, Erica and Holly, and two other cops. All wanting answers for why they were at the lake—answers that they had to lie about and pray to God sounded convincing.
Instead, the five of them stared at each other, blanking, before Dustin said, "Uh... it's comp..."
He trailed off and Alistair picked up as he rubbed his neck, saying, "It's, uh, it's a funny story, actually..."
"Yeah, we were, uh..." Cami added in, the words disappearing as her eyes screamed for help—which Max gave as she lied, "We were... we were just going for a walk."
"A walk?" Officer Callahan questioned skeptically. "At 9:00 PM?"
"To the lake!" Dustin exclaimed, voice going up an octave. Alistair shot a look at Dustin, screaming at him to stop now, but it was too late as Dustin rambled, "We were gonna take a little swim. Little night swim."
Alistair wanted to facepalm—no one was anyone going to believe that—but he substituted for a weak smile that yeah, they totally were going for a night swim in the lake as if they totally weren't wearing any swimsuits and it totally wasn't March.
... Yeah, they were totally gonna get caught out on the lie. He could practically see his aunt shaking her head in disappointment.
"Dusty. Someone was just murdered there," Dustin's mom said in a shocked voice, reminding Alistair of the other reason why a night swim at Lover's Lake was a totally unbelievable lie right now.
"Yeah, we... we didn't realise that until we got there," Dustin lied, totally committing to the lie now—as if Alistair hadn't literally just said he'd do the talking and be able to somewhat lie their way out of this.
"That's why we didn't swim," Lucas said, jumping onto it as Cami nodded before she added, "Yeah, that put us off, because, like, who'd want to swim where someone had been murdered? Who knows what's under the water, right?"
She laughed, and Alistair hoped no one caught how nervous it sounded as he muttered, "Yeah, and it's March as well. Probably not a good idea going swimming anyway."
That caused Dustin and Lucas to chuckle and Alistair to give a strained smile—for being raised by a con artist, he was failing at lying—as Mrs. Wheeler asked, worry and panic clear in her face, "And Nancy, was she with you at this night swim?"
