𝐈𝐒𝐍'𝐓 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐋𝐘 | stranger things
Marleen thought that maybe after fighting an interdimensional monster everything would've come back to normal. And it did, at least for a year.
Then another monster decided to take a liking...
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chapter twenty two, rescue mission.
THE ESCAPE ROUTE turned out to be the ventilation system of the base. Marleen thanked whatever God existed that it was big enough for them to crawl easily. At some point during their escape, when they reached one of the fans and stopped for Dustin to disable it, Erica asked the million-dollar question.
"Now," she began saying, her voice full of sass, "you two are going to tell me what the shit is going on or so help me God..." She trailed off, but her threat remained unsaid.
For a ten-year-old, Erica could be scary.
Dustin and Marleen looked at each other. Wordlessly asking the other what to do. In the end, Marleen huffed and nodded.
"Tell her," the blonde said from her place on the floor, "what's the worst that could happen? She already saw the gate."
Dustin nodded and began telling Erica the story. "It all began when Will went missing..."
With Dustin narrating and Marleen adding her side to the story, they promptly summed up the past two years in Hawkins.
"But now, for some insane reason, the Russians appear to be trying to reopen it, which just destroys everything we risked our lives for." Dustin ended.
"By 'we', you're including Lucas?"
"Yes." Marleen nodded.
"Yes, of course."
Erica, however, persisted. "So, all that shit you told me, Lucas was there?"
"Yeah."
"My brother..." Erica continued. "Lucas Charles Sinclair?"
"Yes!"
"I don't believe you."
"You believe everything we told you," Marleen started saying, confused. "From the monsters to El and her having powers but not... Lucas being there?"
"Yep. That's correct." Erica nodded.
Dustin turned around, muttering to himself, as he continued tinkering with the box. However, instead of silence, Erica and Dustin began bickering again. This time, Marleen tuned them out. It wasn't hard to do, their voices turning into white noise as the blonde closed her eyes. Instead of listening, she began mapping out a plan: as soon as Dustin disabled the fan, they would find a way out, or at least a safe place where she could leave them; then she would find Steve and Robin on her own. Marleen huffed. That was a shit plan. Worse than Steve's earlier plan of kicking a Russian's ass, at least that one worked. Dammit, Steve would never let that go.
"Hey," Dustin snapped his fingers, breaking Marleen out of her musings. "C'mon, we're going."
