❛𝐖𝐑𝐀𝐏 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐒 𝐀𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐌𝐄 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐄 𝐈 𝐃𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐎𝐒!❜
⸻ in which Rory Hargrove is obsessed to uncover
the truth behind Barbara Holland's disappearance, while
facing her brother's enemy and buried se...
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HERHEADWASTHROBBING. She felt like it had been spinning for a minute. She slowly put her hand to her forehead, massaging her temples. She slowly opened her eyelids and blinked several times, her vision still blurry.
"Should we lift her legs? What if she has a seizure?" She heard her stepsister's voice close by, but it sounded so far away.
Gradually her senses returned to her body and she was able to analyze her surroundings. She tried to turn her head to get a better view of her surroundings, but every time she did, a sharp pain hit her.
She was lying on the floor on a carpet with Max and Steve around her body. Steve had just put a pillow behind her head.
"Rory, can you hear us?"
She could. She heard Steve's low, deep voice close to her ear, felt the warm breath of his breath close to her face.
She swallowed, her throat dry.
"Yes." She whispered between her teeth, her voice barely audible.
He stroked her hair gently, brushing it away from her face.
The house she was in was either very messy or chaotically decorated. The faint yellowish light from the lamps illuminated the walls, all of which were covered in paper stuck together with glue, which seemed to have been scribbled on with blue and purple crayons in a perfect gradient. They seemed to connect, like tunnels.
Max was next to her, her knees bent on the floor, and to her left was Steve with his arm outstretched, his hand resting on the floor above Rory's head, and his head tilted a few inches above hers. A few strands of hair swayed in front of his forehead, and his gentle brown eyes scanned her not-so-sleepy face.
"Hey, sleepy head, you decided to take a nap?" he taunted, low enough for only her and Max to hear.
Rory instinctively put her elbows on the floor and tried to stand up. They helped her to sit up, leaning her back against the sofa that was still on the floor.
She looked away. Will was asleep on the sofa, and Jonathan sitting next to him, stroking his forehead with his thumb, while Nancy stood next to him, her hand on his shoulder.
There was a strangely comforting silence - as if they were all unanimously depressed and sympathetic to each other - sometimes broken by Hopper talking on the phone, actually arguing.
"What happened?" Rory asked, her voice coming out weak, scratching her head in a fallible way of remembering.
"We don't have an exact answer to that question. But you were petrified in front of the lab, in the middle of the road. We spoke to you but you didn't answer. Your gaze was distant, as if you were seeing something that wasn't there, and you seemed nervous. Just like when you saw the fire in the upside down in my house. He explained in a low voice next to her, his elbow resting on the edge of the sofa. "And then you completely fainted when I put you in the car.
