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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( trigger warning: panic attacks)
FRIDAY 2nd NOVEMBER, 1984
THE walk back to Hawkins High is a slow and contemplative one, but at least it gives Daphne time to calm herself down again... or at least try. Every time she inhales deep gulps of crisp November air, instead she finds it morphing into the stuffy atmosphere of the Hawkins Lab, which left her clawing at the walls like a caged animal.
Coward. That's what she feels like for not tagging along. After everything they had been through last year, festering regret eats away at Daphne as she wonders where Nancy and Jonathan are now. How far is it to this Murray Bauman guy? Is he as legitimate as Nancy is convinced he is, or just some rip-off? Deep down, she hopes it works; she hopes they expose all of the lab's dirty secrets. But more overpowering is the fear of what would happen if it backfired.
Calm the fuck down, she repeats slowly in her head, as if talking to a spooked creature. Take it easy... you're out of that place now.
Daphne doubts she'll be able to concentrate on any of her remaining lessons, but anything where she can take her mind off her own thoughts sounds like a good plan. The hallways are mostly empty of students, most of them cooped up in classrooms — she can hear the muffled dronings of teachers and her Converses squeaking along the floor. Why are her shoes so loud? It bugs her for some reason, the noise scratching her eardrums uncomfortably like nails on a chalkboard.
She skids to a halt in the hallway. Wait, where the hell am I going?
Her mind has gone totally blank. Being spaced out on a daily basis is one thing, but after the lab she feels completely scatterbrained. Daphne fishes around in her bag for her timetable, slightly creased and swarmed with doodles: it is currently almost the end of Fourth Period, after which she discovers she has Spanish and Algebra, followed by her Film Studies elective to round it all off. Always a good way to end a Friday, she reminds herself, trying to be optimistic — even if most of the people in the class only signed up so they had an excuse to watch movies.
She retraces the route to her Algebra class, and is just about to procrastinate getting there when she spots a lone student at his locker. The tall, slender figure is instantly recognisable to her, even if his face is obscured by his locker door.
Felix.
She hasn't seen or heard from him since Tina's Halloween party. Daphne edges gingerly over to his locker, leaning her back against the next door down from his and craning her neck up to face him. Will he be mad at her for not bringing him home? Or calling him back? There is only one way to find out.
