brontide ; stranger things

TEN

Torpid (adj.)

dormant, lazy

-Collie's Word of the Day #200

•••

  AFTER an incredibly long drive, Collie, Jonathan, and Nancy pulled into a motel as the sky turned black and filled with stars. The three got out and walked inside to the desk, where the walls were painted an ugly yellow and it reeked of cigarette smoke. A woman sat behind the counter, eating and watching television and paying no mind to the three teens staring at her.

  Exchanging a glance with Collie, Nancy reached over and rang the bell on the counter, which seemed to have no effect on the woman.

  "We'd, uh, we'd like a room," Nancy finally said. Without even casting a glance to them, she acknowledged lazily,

  "We got those." Collie rolled her eyes, already tired of the torpid woman and jerked her head to the side subtly. At her action, the television clicked off, startling the lady. As Jonathan and Nancy immediately looked to Collie, she leaned forward and repeated lowly,

  "We'd like a room, please."

  Once they got their room, the three changed into their pajamas and climbed into bed. Since Collie had run out of the house without anything, Nancy lent her some of her clothes. While the girls climbed into the two beds, Jonathan lay out a few blankets on the floor and awkwardly sat, none of them ready to go to sleep just yet.

  "Um," Jonathan said, "I'm gonna..." He raised his hand to the light switch. Nancy hummed and he stopped, both he and Collie looking to her.

  "What?" Collie asked, a soft smile tugging at her lips.

  "Nothing, just," Nancy giggled, "deja vu, I guess." The other two glanced to each other and smiled, remembering the last time they all did something like this. "Don't you guys think it's weird? That we only seem to hang out when the world's about to end?"

  "It's not going to end," Jonathan said quickly. Nancy shrugged as Collie muttered,

  "Feels like it." They all sat in silence for a minute before Nancy smiled and held her hand out to them. Across her palm was the long scar from last year when they all sliced their hands to attract the Demogorgon.

  "You two still have yours?" she asked. Smirking, Collie held out her hand, which also was marked by the long pink scar. It was like the few that banded her face, though those were much more pale. As Jonathan joined his hand and they all compared them, Collie let out a noise of amusement.

  "Looks like mine's bigger," she taunted playfully. They all smiled and pulled away, settling into their covers. Nancy stared between Collie and Jonathan, her grin fading away.

  "What happened?" she asked, rippling the quiet. Collie furrowed her brows, nestling into her pillow.

  "What do you mean?"

  "...To us?" Nancy gestured to the three of them. "After everything, you two just... disappeared." Jonathan thought and shrugged a bit, mummuring,

  "Will needed me." Nancy's gaze switched to Collie, who held her tongue. It wasn't like she could just blurt out to them that Eleven needed her at the secret cabin in the woods where she lived. The silence stretched as they waited for her to answer, but instead she turned over to face away from them.

  "Ollie?" Jonathan asked softly. Collie didn't reply, only buried herself in the covers and pulled down her sleeve, staring at the numbers and the blinking tracker on her wrist.

•••

  The next morning after they checked out of the motel, Jonathan pulled the car before a dilapidated building that looked ready to fall apart. It was in the middle of nowhere with red spray paint decorating the outside, warnings such as 'KEEP OUT' littering the walls.

  "Are you sure this is the right place?" Collie asked, cringing as she took in the sight. Nancy pulled out the card that Barb's parents had given her of the private investigator that was on their case.

  "3833," she said. After letting out a collective sigh, they all got out and cautiously approached the front door, which was made with metal and had a huge lock on it. Collie took Jonathan's hand, feeling a bit unsafe.

  Jonathan pressed the buzzer next to the door, which emitted a loud, startling noise that sounded like metal scraping against metal.

  "Look at the camera," a man's voice came from the buzzer. "The camera." Jonathan peered down at the box, attempting to find it. "Not the loud speaker, above you to the right!" They followed the man's directions and spotted the camera, which looked just as old and rusty as the rest of the place.

  A moment later the door swung open to reveal the man, who wore a colorful robe over his boxers and a tank top. He had a beard and glasses perched on his nose as he peered at the three teens, specifically Collie.

  "Collie Raynes, Nancy Wheeler, Jonathan Byers," he greeted, "you three are a long way from home." He then stepped aside and gestured them in, to which they hesitantly obliged and stepped inside. From there he led them to what Collie guessed was a living room, though there were dozens of files scattered about, along with televisions, tarps, and more.

  "Well," the man said, "I hope you didn't come all this way to tell me about the bear in the Harrington kid's backyard. I've heard that one already." He guided them to another door, which opened into a smaller room that made all of their mouths drop open.

  On the wall of the room was a huge web of red string, all connected to different flyers, papers, photos. There was a missing poster of Will, pictures of Barb, a police sketch of Eleven, notes, everything.

  "Go ahead, don't be shy." invited the man. "I followed up on two hundred tips, most bogus, but that's how these things usually go, okay? I know every last step Barbara took that day, every last person she talked to. The answer of what happened to your friend is up there somewhere, I just need to connect the right dots."

  Collie approached an area of the wall where there were Polaroids of herself tacked up on her way to school, getting into Hopper's truck, at the store with Jonathan and Will. Creepy. Connected with red string to the photos were papers with theories on them.

  'Raynes connected to Hawkins Lab', read one. 'Possibly born there? Tested? Struck by lightning when toddler. Suspected abilities: telekinesis, weather manipulation, electromagnetism manipulation.'

  "You see, Miss Raynes," the man said with a slight smirk, "I've been keeping a tab on you. I know that asshole chief is lying-"

  "I wasn't struck by lightning," Collie interrupted, tearing her gaze away from the wall. The man stared at her for the longest moment before asking loudly,

  "What?"

  "I wasn't struck by lightning," she repeated. "And it's electrokinesis. Good try, though."

  "Your timeline's wrong," added Nancy, who had been inspecting Barb's pictures. "And the girl with the buzzed hair, she's not Russian. She's from Hawkins Lab. Her name was Eleven." The man gaped at the two, stunned, as Jonathan suggested,

  "You might want to sit down for this."