𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐄𝐑 , steve harrington ⁽ ¹ ⁾

26; the four

THE BYERS'S HOUSE WAS COVERED WITH HANGING CHRISTMAS LIGHTS. The alphabet was written sloppily on one wall, and along another the wallpaper had been ripped right off. A couch had been pushed away from the wall at an odd angle and an axe lay discarded in front of it.

Sar's fingers curled in the pockets of her jacket as she gazed around the Byers' living room. She didn't exactly have anywhere to stay anyway. She had booked a room at the dodgy motel in the middle of town, but it looked like she wouldn't need it after all. The eight of them were sitting around a wooden table, Sar with her arms crossed in front of her. Jonathan was leaning on the table beside his mother, Joyce wringing her hands. Eleven had gone into the bathroom. Their attempts to get her to find both Will and Barbara through their pictures had been no success. Sar lifted a hand to cradle her face.

"Eleven," Mike was explaining to the others, "she gets drained after using too much of her powers."

"Like a bad battery," Dustin added.

Sar nodded. "I get that too. It's like a restriction cap on our powers. We can grow and stretch it, but too much..." She snapped her fingers. "We just go out. I've seen..." her voice hovered on the words, "I've seen the kids die before when they use too much. It's just too hard on their bodies. Their consciousness isn't supposed to stretch that far past the limits of what they're doing. It snaps."

"Like a rubber band?" Dustin asked, eyebrows raised high.

"Like a rubber band," she agreed, "or a ruler." The girl tapped her fingers on the table. "So we have to be mindful."

Joyce Byers was looking between them nervously. "Well... h-how do we make her better?" The woman was stuttering as she gestured her hands in front of her.

"We don't. We just have to wait and try again," Mike said. He was standing with his hands placed down on the table. Dustin and Lucas were nodding along in agreement. When the others turned to Sar for confirmation, she gave them the slightest dip of her head. Her fingers scratched marks in the wood dining table.

Joyce had her eyebrows stitched together, lip curled into an expression of worry. "Does— does this mean she can't find Will?"

Sar lifted a hand to bury into her hair. "I don't know. It depends how much she can stretch her powers." Sar was shaking her head, blonde hair draping over her shoulders.

Joyce was raising a hand to her. "But— but why can't you do it?" Her fingers were shaking in the air.

The blonde girl gave her a grimace. "I can touch minds. Talk to them, read them. But Eleven can do something special. While I can skip through dreams, she can hover in a state between consciousness and unconciousness. She can walk through both worlds. It means she can find all the threats before I can even locate them. And she can see them. And so far, I haven't heard from Barbara. We don't know how my powers work in the Upside Down, so if I can't even find Barb then we have no idea if I can help lead people there. I wouldn't trust it."

Joyce looked anxious and Hopper was dragging a hand down his face. Sar leant her chin on the back of her hand. Her knuckles curled beneath her skin. The chief sighed and gestured to her, "Kid, tell me more about these experiments." Hopper was waving a hand limply in the air. He gestured between him and Joyce. "We only know parts." Joyce was nodding in quick movements.

Sar raised a gentle eyebrow and gave a short nod. Her lips were curled softly. "You must know we were taken away from our families when we were young." Hopper and Joyce nodded at that, exchanging looks. The boys looked at each other with lowered eyebrows, hearing this information for the first time. "There were 12 of us. Had been 12 when I escaped, at least. But I didn't feel any new power from there, so I think it's safe to say at least that Hawkins Lab stopped with new experiments." The edges of her lips curled upwards in disdain. "They used affection to condition us," she spat at the mention of Brenner. "So that we would do what they wanted us to. And punishment when we didn't. When we were younger, all 12 of us were in dormitories, save for those who the lab had plans for. As we grew older we became more separated. They had us honing in on our separate abilities." She had her eyebrows raised as she spoke, fingers tapping at the table. She shrugged her shoulders. "That's when I got away."

Joyce's eyebrows furrowed and Hopper clasped his hands together on the table. "You escaped on your own?" They were all looking at her now, wondering the same thing. How had a single girl escaped a complex filled with guards?

"No," Sar admitted after a moment. "There were four of us." The bolt of pain shot through her chest at the very mention of it.

Hopper leaned forward. "Four of you? Four of you escaped?"

"Twelve and Four, they're the ones I'm always contacting. The ones who got away," Sar said, ignoring what Hopper had asked. "They're practically my family. I don't live with them anymore. I miss them greatly but I just felt like I had to go my own way... you know? Too many memories staying with them." She thought about the stick-on-stars on her ceiling. She chose to avoid their gazes, instead, focusing on the scratches she was making in the wood. Her fingernails picked at a loose splinter. "And there's another girl out there, too. Eight. We heard she escaped a while after us. We know she's out there, and she knows we are too, but we just don't go near each other." She raised her eyes now. "Too dangerous for both of us. Two experiment runaways. What could go wrong?" She shrugged and the fabric of her jumper slid off her pale shoulder. Sar reached up to adjust it. "Best to go at it alone."

The room was silent for a moment. "That must be lonely," Nancy said from across the table, voice small like she wasn't sure if she should have said anything at all.

The corner of Sar's lips quirked upwards bittersweetly. Oh, it is. A crease appeared in the middle of her eyebrows. "It's okay. Better than getting us all in trouble." Plus, I hear she kills people now.

The same expression of concern was mirrored on all of their faces. Sar just raised her eyebrows a bit, trying to lighten the mood. Nancy raised her eyebrows too. "But Eight... she wasn't the other one you escaped with?" Sar looked back down. Her eyes scanned the small scars on the back of her hands. The "no" was on the tip of her tongue when quiet footsteps came from the hallway from their left.

All of them turned their heads as they heard Eleven enter behind them. Her face was covered in droplets of water from the splashing from a sink, and the shadows under her eyes looked darker than ever. "The bath," Eleven said softly.

Joyce furrowed her eyebrows. "What?" she asked in a gentle voice.

"Will and Barbara. I can find them... in the bath," Eleven repeated. Sar looked over at her and snapped her finger into a point.

•°•☆•°•

Again, not one of my greatest chapters. I find the chapters that are really dialogue heavy aren't my best.

School begins again tomorrow. Yay. Year 11, wooo (can you detect the sarcasm?). Basically this means I won't be updating as frequently and will have to set scheduled updating days. I'll be deciding these once school starts and I figure out my schedules. (Also if anyone likes the 100 I've also got a the 100 fanfiction and I'd appreciate it if you'd read)

And hooray, the story is all coming together! Hopefully all of you guys are figuring things out about Sar's backstories and possible ideas for what is going on. I promise the next few chapters are when it all gets interesting and intense. So excited for what I've got coming up!