[ 𝙶𝚘𝚕𝚍 & 𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚗𝚎 ] ~ 𝙱𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝙷𝚊𝚛𝚐𝚛𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚡 𝙾𝙲

XVII - Dinner for Four

"You drive like a maniac." Justin huffed out when they stopped in the Holloway's driveway. All of them made their way to the front door of the Holloway house and Nancy pushed the doorbell before doing it again. After that not working, she turned to Jonathan and then looked at Eleven, silently asking her to open the door. "What's she doing. . ?" Justin asked cautiously as Eleven nodded her head and unlocked the front door without touching it. "Holy fuck-" Justin stumbled back slightly with wide eyes. "What the-"

"You'll get used to it." Rylie mumbled half assed, shoving past Jonathan and Nancy to get into the home.

Rylie could hear Nancy yell "Tom" into the empty house from behind her.

"You know he doesn't like you, right?" Justin snarked. "Breaking into his house isn't gonna make that any better." Rylie smiled at that, scoffing a small laugh.

"Heather?" Nancy called again, ignoring Justin's complaint.

"Jesus, it's freezing." Max murmured. Rylie kept walking until she stepped through into the kitchen.

"Do you guys smell that?" Nancy asked, turning to the kids.

"Oh-" Nancy breathed out a gag. "Oh, god-"

"Is that. . ." Rylie trailed off, her brows raising unimpressed as she looked into the kitchen. The kitchen fridge was on itss side, the back ripped open and the top completely gone.

"Bleach. And other such cleaning supplies." Justin frowned. "Like Mrs. Driscoll. . ."

"What the hell. . ." Rylie whispered.

Jonathan picked up a can of Ajax cleaning powder, looking at the blue container. "You think they're guzzling this shit?"

"Yeah, either that or they just went on a hell of a cleaning spree." Nancy returned.

"Obviously they're eating it." Justin scoffed.

"But last year, Will didn't eat chemicals." The redhead spoke up. "Did you?"

"No." Will shook his head softly.

Justin turned around, ruffling Will's hair. "Good job kid, you're not a freak." Will shoved her hand away. 

Something caught Rylie's attention out of the corner of her eye, walking through the doorway and into the dinning room that her, El and Max had been in just a couple nights ago. The rest of the words faded out as she looked at the table. It was completely set, food on the plates, glasses full of wine, even the tray of burnt cookies that Heather had brought out was sitting there, not a single cookie gone. Her fanny pack was sitting on the floor beside the table, like Heather had dropped it just after Rylie shoved it at her. 

Rylie stiffened as she felt a hand on her shoulder ."Hey, you okay?" Justin asked.

"No, not really." Rylie shook her head with a sigh. 

"Uhm. . .wanna talk about it?" Her voice peaked, clearly uncomfortable with the situation.

"Not with you." Rylie ran a hand over her face, before rolling her neck. She pulled her hair out of its ponytail and raked her hand through it to get any knots out of it and softly shook her head to let her hair fall down her back.

"Got it. Sorry." Justin pulled her hand back from Rylie's shoulder and gave her a nod.

"Wait-" Rylie sighed, just as Justin was walking back toward the kitchen.

"Hmm?" Justin's footsteps stopped.

"Sorry. I've just had a shitty week." Rylie mumbled, shaking her head.

"No problem. I don't mind. You've been a bitch since the day I met you. I think I'd have more of an issue if you were being nice." Justin shrugged.

Rylie gave a heavy laugh from her chest, her head tilting back a small amount, and her shoulder shaking softly. "I can't- I mean, you're not wrong, but my god-"

"What?" Justin huffed.

"It's not like you make it easy to like you, Henderson." Rylie shook her head, looking over her shoulder with a bright grin.

"What's that mean?" Justin smiled back.

"You're constantly in a mood." Rylie responded, her brows raising.

"For good reason."

"Oh? Like what?"

"People. . .suck." Justin shrugged.

Rylie chuckled. "Fair."

"What were you doing in here anyways?" Justin tilt her head, walking closer to the blonde. 

"Look at this." Rylie nodded toward the dining table. 

"What. . ." Justin trailed off, a confused expression growing on her face like she didn't get it.

"Eleven, Max and I were here the other night. The Holloways were having dinner with Billy, this is exactly how it was set up. Not a single thing is moved." Rylie filled her in.

"That's fucking weird-" Justin breathed out, turning her head on its side to look at the table.

"Yeah. That's one word for it." Rylie nodded, sliding her hands into the pockets of her jacket.

Nancy, Jonathan and the kids all came into the room, looking at the scene wordlessly as they walked through. Nancy stopped once she entered the living room, crouching down by the carpet and a puddle of red on the rug. "Blood." She breathed out, Jonathan crouching beside her. "Yesterday, Tom had a bandage on his forehead."

"So?" Justin scoffed.

Nancy picked up a bottle of red that was sitting just a couple feet away from the blood. It too had the sticky red substance on it. She stood up, holding the bottle up for Justin to see. "He was attacked." The group started following Nancy down the hall as she saw a hall runner that was out of place. Rylie groaned as she followed behind Jonathan.

Nancy pushed a door open before opening another and walking into the garage. There wasn't anything in there except ropes on the floor that Jonathan bent down to look closer at. "They must've tied them. They must have taken them somewhere."

"Mrs. Driscoll. She kept saying 'I have to go back.' What if the flaying, it's taking place somewhere else? There must be a place where all this started, right? A source." Nancy said.

"Somewhere he didn't want me to see." Eleven said. 

"If we can find the source, then maybe we can stop him. Or at least stop it from spreading or doing whatever the hell he's doing with those chemicals." 

"I think they're eating the chemicals." Justin mumbled, rubbing her temple with her forefinger and thumb. Rylie smiled, shaking her head.

"How do we find it?" Eleven asked them.

"Mrs. Driscoll." Jonathan's little brother offered. "If she wants to go back so badly, why don't we let her?"

"We could follow her, find out where it goes." Rylie shrugged a nod.

"Why would we want-" Justin sighed.

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Word Count - 1,073

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Published - January 30, 2024

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