WHISTLEBLOWER | ❝It only gets stranger...❞
Hawkins has never looked back on the events of November 1983. They know the surface-level story. 'The boy who came back to life.' Will Byers is alive and well, while the futile search for Tonya McCarth...
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FRIDAY 2nd NOVEMBER, 1984
WHEN Daphne had selfishly thought of excuses to get out of meeting Tonya's mother, getting kidnapped by the Hawkins Lab was not one of them. She is still convinced this is the stuff of her nightmares. For who knows how long by now, the three of them have been cooped up in a white-washed room with no windows, and not a single explanation given to them. All that they have been given is a metal table, three squeaky chairs and their own company.
It is too hollow of a space for Daphne's thoughts to not eat away at her. Of course this place was going to come back and bite them back. It was naive of them to assume the lab couldn't track them down, follow the breadcrumb trails to a group of teens thinking they know better. But what do they want with them? How long are they going to be cooped up in here?
The screech of Nancy's chair against the floor rudely interrupts her spaced-out train of thought with a jolt. The sealed-off room, with no outside light and ventilation, makes Daphne feel like a caged animal shrinking more and more into herself. Jonathan also seems dazed and occupied by the whole ordeal, leant back in his chair with brows knitted together. Nancy, however, is fierce — fists balled at the sides of her coat, her gunmetal eyes glare up at the security camera in the corner.
"Hey! Hey assholes! Let us out of here!" she snaps.
"I don't think yelling at them is gonna help our situation," says Daphne tiredly, letting her head sink down onto the table's surface and turn to look at Nancy.
"Well, do you have any better ideas?"
"... None that don't involve ignoring the problem. So, fair."
"Both of you just relax," Jonathan interjects wearily, "I'm sure we'll get answers soon. They can't keep us in here forever."
Don't be so sure, thinks Daphne sceptically. Last year, she remembers hearing about how Joyce and Hopper were detained just like this by Dr. Brenner. For a moment she hangs onto the idea that maybe they can't do this to legal adults, but then quickly recalls her eighteenth birthday only days ago... suddenly being an adult isn't so fun anymore.
So when the door suddenly opens, she almost thinks it's a dream, or a fatigue-induced vision — but surely enough, when Daphne lifts her head from the cool metal table, Dr. Owens is standing in the doorway. The man is still as recognisably upbeat as he was a year ago, but the greying sideburns and tired under-eyes suggest otherwise. He manages a little chuckle as he tilts his head at Daphne. "Having a little nap over there?" he says, perhaps expecting a reaction.
