Not edited, and as always enjoy!
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Once Jim got over his smugness, they all seemed to have calmed down enough to coax Alexei into spilling his secrets. Natalie was leaning forward in her seat, her eyebrow furrowed as she watched Alexei pick up his burger wrapper again. On the wrapper, there were some scribbles the represented a building or something.
"What's he saying?" Natalie asked, looking between Murray and Alexei again.
Murray sighed deeply, "he's saying that there's some kind of key. They call it a key and this key emits great energy." Murray leaned over to listen to Alexei correct him and cleared his throat, "It requires much strength, power. It's been drawing energy from the town's power grid."
"Why build this key here?" Jim asked, concern gracing his features, "why aren't they doing this in their own backyard? Are they trying to blow us to smithereens?"
Murray shook his head as he listened to Alexei speak, "no, there were many of these keys in Russia, but they turned out wrong."
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Natalie commented, feeling her stomach flip in fear.
Murray leaned closer to Alexei, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion, "they had to come here where, um, where the what? I don't understand what he's trying to say."
Jim scoffed, "I thought you were fluent in Russian?"
"Oh, I'm sorry," Murray snapped, "Are my free translation services not good enough for you? Because you can just go ahead and file your complaint right up my ass! "
Jim rose in his seat once he noticed Alexei scooting across the floor to grab something, "what's Smirnoff doing?"
"He's showing us something, Jim," Natalie shot back at him.
Alexei smiled at her briefly and held up a Burger King wrapper and a straw.
He turned to face Murray and started speaking again."Okay, so it looks like he's saying the straw is trying to penetrate some hole in a box? No, more like a break through a barrier. The straw represents the key, which emits great energy. So, they're trying to use the key to break down a barrier, to open a doorway between worlds." Murray paused, his eyes shifting in worry, "but the key was only half the equation. Location was the other half, and-"
"What?" Jim asked, his eyes wide.
"In Hawkins, the door has already been open once, it was still healing." Murray finished with a sigh.
"Jesus Christ," Jim said and pinched the bridge of his nose, "so this door, is it open now?"
"He says it's opening," Murray concluded.
Joyce immediately stood up and booked it towards the phone. Natalie was hot on her heel, wringing her hands nervously.
"What are you doing?" Jim asked, his voice heavy with concern."I'm calling our children," Joyce said seriously and began rapidly dialing her landline off of Murray's phone.
Natalie watched as Jim rushed to the kitchen and fumble through Murray's cabinets looking for what she presumed was a drink. Murray was close behind him. She sighed and looked at Joyce who seemingly had no luck contacting the kids. All the information they had on them was from Mike's mom saying they were on the Fourth of July festival.
"What are we gonna do now?" Joyce said.
"I think we need to go back to Hawkins. Whatever this thing is this time, it's done something to those rats." Natalie's eyes widened, Billy. "something was wrong with Billy Hargrove too." She recalled how strange he was acting a couple of days ago and how bad he looked. His veins were so dark and prominent on his skin.
"Doesn't Max, Billy's younger sister, hang out with the whole group now?" Joyce asked.
Natalie nodded, growing more concerned. She wouldn't be surprised if the kids were involved with this stuff again. "We need to go back."
Jim walked back into the room still looking shaken, but more relaxed after his shot of vodka, "so if there's a key, then there's a way to shut it off then?"
Alexei laughed from the ground and shook his head. He turned to face Murray and laughed again when he looked at Jim.
"What the hell is he laughing about?" Jim growled, his face growing red with anger.
"He says there's a way to shut it off, he can help us get there. But, it's impossible to navigate through the tunnels under the mall. He does like your courage though, he says you remind him of Rambo, well a fat Rambo."
Jim's hands curled into fists, Natalie grabbed his hand and looked up at him. Jim sighed, unclenching his fist and letting his hand slip into hers.
"Breaking in is impossible," Murray added.
"We can call Sam Owens," Jim said, "that seems to be our only option."
Natalie frowned, "I doubt he's gonna help. That guy was always a little slimy to me."
Joyce nodded in agreement, "yeah, so we're supposed to wait here a whole state away for Owens to go save our kids? I'll pass."
Jim held up his hands in frustration, "just let me call him, okay? We're gonna need the army there if what Alexei said is true. The five of us can't take on a Russian base."
Joyce and Natalie said nothing but shared a look with one another as they listened to Jim call Dr. Owens. The whole thing seemed pointless to Natalie and she refrained from rolling her eyes again when Jim brought the phone away from his ear to tell them what he was just told."The receptionist said he'll pass the message on to Sam."
"You really think that's gonna do anything?" Joyce snapped and grabbed the phone out of Jim's hand and began shouting to whoever was on the other line, "look I don't think Antique Chariot properly conveyed the urgency of our situation!" Joyce paused and then stomped her foot angrily, "Don't you dare patronize me! I don't know who you are if you're some glorified secretary or what, but if you don't wanna lose your job, here's what's gonna happen. When I hang up, you're gonna get up off your ass, and you're gonna go find Owens and tell him what's going on. We don't have time to talk about it and neither does he. He's gotta get to Hawkins, and he's gotta bring his men right now! Do you understand me? Thank you!" Joyce slammed the phone down causing the end table it was on to shake.
For the next minute they waited to hear if anyone was going to call back, but it was silent.
"Okay let's go. I'm sick of waiting," Natalie said.
"It's been one minute, Nat," Jim said gently.
"I don't care, we're going. We need to be with the kids."Joyce walked over to Alexei and grabbed him by the shoulder, "we're going to Hawkins, Alexei. Vroom Vroom."
Alexei nodded and stumbled after Natalie and Joyce to the car. Natalie grabbed the keys off the table by the door and unlocked the car.
"Whoa, what're you doing?" Jim said, a little shocked.
"I'm driving, get in the passenger seat," Natalie said, seriously.
Jim shook his head, "no way, you drive like a bat out of hell."
Natalie gave him an incredulous look, "exactly, get in the car."
YOU ARE READING
Smoke -- Jim Hopper
Fanfiction"Jim," Natalie whispered as she clung to his jacket. Specks of who knows what floated around them as they walked deeper into the upside down. She tugged again on his jacket, "Jim." Jim Hopper wrapped a heavy arm around Natalie and pulled her close...
