Lost Souls ↠ Steve Harrington ✓

Chapter Four ✓

THE SAUNA TEST

JESS SAT ON ONE OF HOPPER'S COUCH, HER AND JOYCE WERE WAITING FOR HIM TO WAKE UP. He took a brutal beating. Joyce cleaned him up while he slept and tried to heal. Jess couldn't stop chewing all her fingernails off.

Why was that man there?

Why was he at the lab?

Why, why did he beat up the chief of police? 

She didn't have any answers to her questions which were just driving her mad. "Joyce," the man himself said when he woke up. Jess looked at him with widened eyes, glad that he was awake and so far seemed okay. Joyce hurried over to kneel down next to him, smiling a little. "Hey, I'm right here." The two stared at each other for a slight moment, and Hopper bend over.

"Oh god," Jess choked, "here, here," Joyce said, sticking the garbage bin under him. "It's okay. That's it. Got it. Got it." "How long have I been out?" "A while," Jess answered. "You've been drifting," Joyce told him. "Yeah but, how did I get here?" Joyce gave Hopper an Advil to help the pain and he took it. "Slowly," Joyce replied.

"Very slowly." Jess said.

"What's the last thing you remember?" The girl asked.

"Some thug attacked me."

Hopper tried sitting up, he was in no position to do so. "Hey, you need to rest," Joyce told him.

"No. I'm fine."

"No, you're not fine, Hopper. Ahh!" Hoppers towel fell off his waist, making Joyce yell out and Jess to cover her eyes. Hopper let out a yelp. Joyce turned the other way. "Where are my clothes?" "Uh-" "outside," Jess answered.

"Their outside."

-

"I mean, did you recognize him?" Joyce asked as the two walked back inside. "Who?" "The thug," Jess said. "Well, I didn't get a good look."

"Well, I mean, he's gotta be government, right?" Jess said. Hopper went to the fridge and grabbed a bear. "Yeah, but if he's government, what's he doing slinking around? W-why is he running? You know, why didn't we find anything down there?" "Let's ask him," Jess said, pulling out the numbers she wrote down the license plate.

"What is that?"

"His license plate." She answered in a 'duh tone.

"What are the dashes?" "Well, they are blanks. I think there was either an H or a P with the part rubbed off. And there was definitely a Y. For sure. And that, I think was a B, but it also could have been an eight." She sighed. "Could you do a fun search or something?" Joyce asked. "I just think you have to lower your expectations," Hop said, grabbing a new pair of clothes.

"I mean, this is state government agency. Gonna take weeks before they find a match."

Joyce and Jess shared a look. "Weeks?" The woman asked.

"If we're lucky. And, I mean, what are the odds that this guy registers a car in his own name?"

"It wasn't a car." Jess said.