Healing ||mileven||

Deal

Flashback

Hopper's POV

Damn these chairs are uncomfortable "hey, would it kill you to get me a coffee or something?"

The grey-haired man looked at me with those creepy eyes of his, but all I could really see were the bandages covering his neck and the awkward way he sat, giving away his other injuries, "if you find the girl, you know what to do, our agreement covers all eventualities and you wouldn't want to go against it. To keep the others safe, you know what to do".

"Yeah, you want me to hand over a little girl to a government lab where you keep her in a windowless room performing experiments on her..."

"With her, Chief, with her. We never force her to do anything" Force isn't always physical, you sick fuck. "We keep her here for her own safety, you witnessed what happens if she esca...if she gets out into the world. People die, innocent people. She is safe here, I take care of her."

"OK, so you want her back here, safe at the lab, else something might happen later down the line...yeah, I got it. Are we done here? I have a shit load of paperwork to do...a lot of people died at that school..."

"Those people, and the paperwork, have been taken care of Chief. You are to go back to your life and only contact us again if you find the girl, got it?"

"Yeah."

...........................

So cold, the air thick with toxins, burning lungs with every breath, cold humid air sticking to her body, coating her in ash, in decay, dark, desolate, hopeless.

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Hopper's POV

8 months, and no sign. I left the food every day, and it was taken, but I never knew if it was her, or if I was just keeping some hobo alive in the woods, until I decided to wait. I knew I was followed sometimes, I couldn't always go to the box, but it was becoming less frequent, so today, screw it, I had to know. I put the fresh food and eggos in the box and sat next to it and waited, I waited for over 3 hours but no-one came, maybe I scared them off, who knows, but I had to get going, Joyce insisted I come over for dinner, smiling. I stood up, stretching my legs, and had one last check in the box to make sure I'd left all the food as a few weeks ago I ended up at work with 3 eggos in my pocket. The box was empty, but I was sat here the whole fucking time...shit, what do I do?...can she read? There was that picture in her room but it was pretty basic...

The next day I left food and a note, I say a note, it was literally '011?' and left it in the box with a pen. I waited again, checking the box every 5 minutes, it was so frustrating, but then it was gone, everything inside was gone again, but at the bottom was the note and the pen. I picked it up, underneath the 011? was written one word, in shaky handwriting, YES.

...........................

She didn't have the strength to leave, but the longer she stayed the weaker she got, an endless descent into hopelessness.

End flashback

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General POV

Nancy told Hopper that everyone else was going up to the cabin. "Shit, we'd better go, I told her not to let anyone else in and I don't want her to panic or do something foolish" said Hopper.

"What are we gonna do when we get there?" asked Joyce. "If everyone else knows then maybe...maybe we need to actually tackle this head on, stop hiding from it".

Hopper sighed, "you're right, we've let this go on too long. It just seemed safe this way, everything staying the same, no danger. Let's bring her home, let's sort this out once and for all. Let's go" he said.

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