voltage ; stranger things

nine ; work your magic

          COLLEEN stares hard at the tape recorder the next day, then looks back to the map of Starcourt Mall that's been doodled on the whiteboard hanging on the wall. Outside the back room of Scoops Ahoy, patrons laugh and chatter, unaware of the conspiracy on the verge of being uncovered just out of sight.

          "Let me hear it again," she says, moving to the whiteboard. Dustin clicks play and the deep, gravely voice of a Russian man begins to spout out from the speaker. Colleen follows the transcription the others have made with one hand, the other tracing across the whiteboard.

          Tread lightly; the shoe store. In China; the Chinese food place, obviously. When orange meets blue in the west. The clock in the middle of the atrium, each hand colored orange and blue. When everything is put together in front of her like this, it's hard to deny there aren't Russians in their tiny town.

          "Okay." She turns and faces the others, arms crossed behind her head. She inhales sharply. "Okay." She thought all this was over with, she thought she was done. She thought she could finally be able to live a normal life for once. The universe, apparently, thought differently.

           "When the two hands on the clock meet in the west," says Robin, "it points to 9:45, and that has to be at night. I mean, Russians wouldn't do their illegal Russian thing in the broad daylight, right?"

          "Right," says Dustin with a nod. "Because, obviously, illegal Russian things." He begins to pace back and forth, clasping his hands behind his back. "We have to see what they're doing. Here's the plan; we all meet up back here tonight, catch them in the middle of their evil plans, and save the country. I figure there's gonna be security along the way, so Collie, you can work some of your magic, and boom - we save the country."

          The three elder teens stare skeptically at him before Robin tilts her head. "Magic?" she asks, looking to Colleen. "What, are you some kind of tech wiz or something?" Colleen, Steve, and Dustin glance to one another. "Come on, if we're gonna be saving the world or whatever, there can't be any secrets between us. What is it?"

          "Well, ah..." Steve claps his hands together, mouth agape as he attempts to think of something to fill the silence. Finally, he decides upon, "Collie's been through some shit, right, and, uh..."

          "And it made me stronger," says Colleen, standing a bit taller. She nods to Steve and Dustin, telling them to relax. "Don't lose your shit or anything, okay?"

          Robin's brows knit together. "Okay...?"

          Colleen plants her feet to the ground and holds her hands out in front of her, then closes her eyes. She focuses through the darkness, reaches out and grasps what she finds.

          Around them, the lights begin to flicker and dim. The other three look up in awe as the speakers crackle to life and the Scoops Ahoy theme music begins to drift through. The radio blares the Russian message and the timer on the freezer beeps methodically, despite it being broken for two weeks now. The lights flit between light and dark, then at last decide upon creating a blue tint that shouldn't even be possible without special bulbs. Colleen opens her eyes, revealing the pale blankness behind her lids and the blood dripping from her nose.

          "Oh my god!" Robin exclaims as the lights continue to flash blue and white. The boys look between the girls, fearing the worst, until the former laughs aloud and spins in a circle to see everything. "This - this is fucking amazing! Holy shit!"

          Then, everything stops. The lights return to their normal fluorescent hue, the radio goes quiet, as does the music and beeping. Colleen's eyes melt back to their normal brown and she swallows thick, regaining her balance. She grabs Steve's arm to steady herself, grabbing a towel from a rack to wipe her nose on.