Surreal ✿ M. Wheeler ✿

✿ eight ✿

After her shower, Mike and Josie made their way back to the basement where the others resided. His sight and hearing was given back to him after Josie had finished putting on the spare clothes Mike had gotten for her. Mike was still confused on how it could have gone missing in the first place, but then again, there was a lot of things about this Josie that left the boy confused. Questions swarmed his brain as they descended the steps to where the others were.

Lucas and Dustin were both sitting on the couch, nervous looks on their faces as they stared at the floor. Dustin's thumb was in his mouth as he bit on the nail, rocking himself gently. Lucas remained still, the only movement coming from his fingers as he rubbed his temples. Eleven was sat in her little hut, messing with the walkie-talkie as she waited patiently. Upon hearing Mike and Josie's descent, the three of them looked up from what they were doing. Lucas and Dustin stood up rapidly and in sync. Eleven remained sitting.

"Hey," Josie spoke awkwardly. Mike walked around her and she watched as he went to take a stand next to Lucas. She started to comb her fingers through her hair. "I'm sure you have questions."

"Like hell," Dustin exclaimed. Josie closed her eyes, but he didn't falter from his speech. "You worried us to shits! We already lost Will the night before and to know that you went missing as well? You were taken before we even design a plan."

"I know," Josie sighed, not opening her eyes as she continued to run her fingers through her damp hair.

She ignored the buzzes that she was feeling in the air. The vulnerability that she was feeling radiating off of her friends. It was just a feeling that she got when her mind was telling her that it would be easy to control them. It would be easy to grasp a hold of their body and control it. But she had to remember that these are her best friends. Doing things to her friends would make her feel so bad about herself. She'd feel like an equivalent to her adoptive father.

"Where'd you go?" Mike asked, his voice not coming above a whisper.

Josie opened her eyes and looked over at the dark haired boy in front of her. Of course her arrival would be the most effective on Mike who called out to her for days. Who she saw on the couch last night, crying his eyes out and promising her things she was sure he probably didn't know he was promising. Wishing that she'd come back as well as Will and things would be back to normal. Of course, she wasn't going to tell him she witnessed what transpired last night. By the look on Mike's face, though, Josie had a feeling she didn't have to tell him.

"That I can't say," she answered, walking over to Eleven who was giving her an expectant glance. Josie got on her knees and sat down on her heels, looking at Eleven with those doe brown eyes, "I'm sure she told you why?"

"Bad men?" Lucas asked. Josie turned her head over her shoulder and looked at the boy who was watching her. She nodded her head at him and Lucas huffed, "So she wasn't lying then? About the men? Any of it?"

"No," Eleven spoke.

Eleven looked at Lucas with a pained expression, probably sensing that he doubted her. Josie sighed, of course Lucas would doubt Eleven. He had this weird thing where he doubted people he didn't know. Josie could understand his need to doubt, though. It made sense. She was a stranger and by the sounds of it, they found her in the middle of the road. Though she had a habit of getting herself into situations where she was always getting into another's business, Josie was sure that she probably would have doubted Eleven's cover story as well. It was just too bad that they lived through the same crap.

"So you didn't run away?" Dustin asked.

"No, of course not," Josie said, standing up and turning to her friends. Her face was pained as she looked between their hesitant glances. Her eyes cast downwards, "You guys thought I ran away?"