voltage ; stranger things

eighteen ; i remember you

THE walk through the mall is silent and tense, filled with unspoken words that long to be released and nerves that jump at every sudden noise. Colleen brings up the rear of the group, watching Tony usher the younger kids along and help carry Eleven. She's grateful she has a friend like him. She's just about to join them when someone stops her.

"Hey," says Jonathan. He slows to match her pace, his hands stuffed in his pockets. "Can we talk?"

"Right now?" Colleen asks, sparing him a sideways glance.

"Well, do you see any other time to talk?"

She's quiet as they pass Radio Shack. She's still wearing this god-awful bright orange work uniform. "Fine."

Despite what they say, they don't speak for a long moment. Finally, Jonathan asks, "So are you and Steve... together now?"

The way he spits the particular word out begins to make her blood boil. Who is he to go around, pretending he gets to be mad about their situation? "Yeah, actually, we are." She pauses. "You have a problem with that?"

"Seriously, Collie?" He scoffs at her. "A few days? That's seriously how long it took you to move on from us? To him?"

"Get over yourself, Jonathan," she hisses, stopping in her tracks. They face each other, allowing the group to continue on without them. "You have no right to be asking me that or talking about him that way, what with how you screwed me over like you did. At least he was there for me."

He runs a hand through his hair, exasperated. "Look, I tried to tell you what happened, and you wouldn't listen. Why do you have to be so damn stubborn? Why can't you just listen to me?"

"I don't owe you anything!" she says, raising her voice. "Not my time, not my forgiveness, nothing! In fact, you-"

"Hey!" They both break their furious staring match to find Will standing before them, his eyes pink and his mouth screwed up into an angry sneer. Behind him, the others watch silently. "Will you guys just stop fighting? Why are you doing this?"

Colleen and Jonathan stare at him, then look back to each other. They each take a deep breath before the latter tells his brother, "Just go on ahead, buddy, we-"

"No!" Will shouts. He startles them. "You guys are being so selfish, both of you! You're so worried about yourselves you can't even see that you're hurting other people." He sniffs loudly. "Why couldn't you guys just work it out, like always? Why'd you have to get a new boyfriend, and why'd you have to be such an asshole?"

The pair of older teens are left speechless as he wipes at his nose, then storms back to the others. They look down, then slowly meet each other's gazes. It's then that Colleen realizes how stupid this all is. Compared to being tortured by Russians, drugged up to hell and back, and battling a giant demon... their problems seem so small. So tiny. Maybe they can solve this one first.

"Look, Jonathan," she says quietly. She reaches her hand out. Slowly, hesitantly, he takes it. It's just as she remembers it; warm and secure and comforting. But it isn't the same. "What happened... happened. We can't change it - not you, not me. The damage has been done." She swallows. "It was a pretty dream, while we had it. But it's gone now. We woke up."

In the dim, neon lights of the mall's interior, she can see tears brimming his eyes. "I'm sorry," he whispers. "If I just... if I had just..."

She takes his shoulder, holding him closer. Like they used to. "It's time," she says. "It's time to stop thinking it could have ended differently. It's time to move on." She wipes away a tear that travels down his cheek. "I'll always love you, Jonathan. But not that way anymore."

She pulls him into a hug. She wraps her arms around his middle, holding him close and tight, and allows him to embrace her in return. There's a snap, then, like a chain breaking, a door closing, a chapter ending. When they pull away, there's still emotion swimming in their eyes, raw and unfiltered. But they both understand now. They're untethered, but they'll always wear the ropes around their wrists and keep the feelings in their hearts.

And so, they let go.

They catch up to the others just as they reach the doors and return to their duties as older siblings. Colleen takes her sister from Tony and helps her pile in with Mike, Lucas, and Will into the trunk of the car, then slams it shut and gets into the back with Tony and Max. In the driver's seat, Nancy shoves the key into the ignition and turns it. The car stalls.

"What's going on?" Lucas asks.

"I don't know," says Nancy. She tries again. The car refuses to start. "Jonathan, pop the hood." The pair get out and examine the engine as the others nervously scan the horizon, looking for the Mind Flayer. It'll be upon them soon.

"The ignition cable is missing," Jonathan calls to them. "They're... they're gone!"

Just then, a pair of bright headlights blind the group, forcing them to look away. Colleen shields her eyes, squinting against the glow, and peers into the single car facing them in the parking lot. Billy Hargrove sits behind the wheel, but it's not him in the slightest. His eyes are red and bloodshot, his forehead and muscles slick with sweat and crimson liquid. He looks like a madman.

Then, he speaks. Colleen can just barely make out the movement of his mouth from where she is, but she hears him deafeningly and crystal-clear, in the back of her mind. "Do you remember me?" Realization hits her like a blow to the face; the whispers in her head, the touches she's felt. It's been him. The Mind Flayer, possessing Billy, and using the upside down to watch her. He speaks again. "I remember you."

"Get out of the car!" Mike exclaims. He flinches as Billy revs his car's engine. "Go, get back to the mall!"

Everyone leaps from the car, making a beeline for the mall's doors. Colleen stops, silhouetted by the headlights' flare. She and Billy stare hard at one another, neither hardly blinking.

"I'm not afraid of you," she says, but her voice shakes and her hands tremble.

Billy's knuckles flex around the steering wheel. "You should be."