doomsday. ( yellowjackets )

soixante-onze.

xxx.

chapter soixante-onze.
chapter seventy one.

1997.

xxx.

             Theo didn't want to try to have another vision. It had never worked in her favor in the past, and certainly not the most recent time, it literally blew up in her face as a complete backfire. However, Theo didn't have the ability to tell Lottie no, which was becoming quite the dangerous situation.

That meant she was sitting at the edge of the lake, the water just barely reaching the tips of her shoes when it rocked too roughly towards the shore. Theo held her arms against her knees, eyes squinted as she looked up at the sky— the sun beamed brightly down on her, warming her skin and the ground she sat on, and the landscape behind it was a perfect shade of blue.

Beside her, Lottie sat with her legs crossed below her, with her own stare focused on the water before them. She'd asked Theo what she did to cause the vision of Coach Scott, and when Theo told her she went to the lake, she didn't give much detail past that. Lottie seemed like she was internally debating something, but Theo didn't mind the silence. Talking with Lottie anymore seemed to almost always involve speaking about the Wilderness, It, and Theo had gotten to a point where she just couldn't take it.

When they'd been told what happened to Javi, she thought they were both on the same page: the Wilderness thing had gone too far, regardless of if something was really influencing them or not, they had tried to hunt Natalie to death, and ended up killing and eating Javi in the process. Theo had wrongly assumed that Lottie handing over leadership to Natalie was a way for them to leave It in the past.

It was so much more than that, and Theo could finally see that. It was part of Lottie, there was no way around it. Whether she was the same Lottie Theo had known before the crash, the one she had a stupid crush on, or not, didn't matter anymore. This was Lottie, and she was going to have to learn to handle it, she couldn't abandon her now.

" I practically water boarded myself to see it, and it was wrong. " Theo abruptly said, finally answering Lottie's past question, asking what she had done to really get It to speak to her. The shorter girl finally pulled her eyes from the sun and looked at Lottie beside her, little green blotches appearing on her vision, " What good is a vision if it's wrong? "

" Maybe it wasn't wrong, and you just misinterpreted it. " Lottie tried, though even she didn't seem too confident in that. Her eyes were sulky when Theo met them, like a child that had just been told a stern no. Still, Lottie moved on, digging around in her pocket before she presented her hand out to Theo, " You could try doing what Travis did. "

           " No, thanks, Lot. The last time that happened, everyone assaulted and nearly gutted Travis because they thought he was a deer. " Theo pointed out bluntly, causing Lottie to frown guiltily. She turned her head forward again, shaking it lightly, " I don't even know that I can trust what I'm seeing, if it's not the truth then it'll do more harm than good. "

          " Theo. " Lottie called, a desperation behind her eyes that made the other girl stop; she held her gaze, swallowing when Lottie exhaled a small breath and held her hand further out towards her. In a smaller voice, Lottie said, " Please. We have to know what It wants from us, before they bring them back. "