STATUS: UNKNOWN [stranger things] [2/2]

II - Humans

•

"Brain is weird, full of fear,

you don't know what I know.

Tripping up, falling down,

climbing through my halo.

Oh, counting cracks in the ceiling.

Wide awake while I'm dreaming.

•

Carina Punt has beating hearts in the palms of her hands when she walks into work in the morning, fixing her hair in the store window as she walks past it.

She's had beating hearts in the palms of her hands since she was a child, you see. She held them through the tough years, held them when she took a new name and made friends with the girl with pretty brown hair, held them still when her hands no longer looked the same and held them still when she ran until her legs ached. When the hearts beating were more than just hers. When she left a beating heart behind.

She's standing at the till come the afternoon, serving a teenage girl she knows is skipping school, and she is handing her the change for the pink scarf she just bought. It's tacky and garish but she doesn't look like she cares.

The young girls eyes linger on her hands. Carina bids her a goodbye with a warm smile and moves them under the counter.

"Tits is back." He coworker, Louise, smirks as she passed by with a basket of earrings. "With the little demons, too."

"And her poor bastard." Carina muttered in reply, watching their regular enter the store with a buggy and two screaming toddlers. The woman always walked in, messed up the displays, let her children cause a scene, and left, usually without buying anything. She came at least three times a week. Her husband usually wasn't with her, but any time he was he looked downright miserable.

Carina liked her job at the boutique aside from tits, anyway. It always smelleed like flowers, and the soft colours and quiet symphonies made her feel calm. It had taken her a very long time to find something that made her feel calm, but everything in her life the past year seemed calm. Numbingly calm, sometimes, but calm. It was better than she had before, at the very least, and at the most it resembled something normal.

The eldest of the little monsters is tugging at dresses on the hangar. The tired dad herds him away and fixes the rack so that it looks somewhat tidy, but Louisa makes no move to go near it.

Carinas can feel eyes on her. Feels something creeping up her arms and feels her blood run hot. It's a familiar feeling by now - leftover paranoia from her life before, she imagines. But they cannot find her. She's spent many nights awake convincing herself that they have no way to find her. She's safe and free, and she has no reason to worry. No reason to fear the feeling of being watched because she knows she is not. 

Nevertheless, she turns around to check, instead coming face-to-face with the returns sign on the wall. She jumps when someone slams their hand down on the counter, whipping around to face the woman opposite her.

This day is one of the rare ones that Tits decides to buy something  - a pair of earrings with a pink jewel inset. She throws it down onto the counter when Carina turns to face her, and when  she picks them up, the womans son gasps and points. "Your fingers are gone, miss!" He said, in the most typical childish wonder and lack of consideration.

The mother does not care. She scoffs, crossing her arms, and the father tells his son not to be so rude and apologised to Carina.

"Don't worry about it, sir." Carina gives him a smile, before telling the woman the price.  To be honest, she preferred a young child yelling about it rather than the awkward or disgusted looks from people who would then avoid her eyes. The phone behind the counter begins to ring and Tits gives her a sour look as Carina waves down Louisa to answer the phone.

Carina tells the woman the price and she scoffs as if she didn't decide the buy the earrings in the first place. She doesn't wait for Carina to offer her a bag, just snatches the earrings off of the counter when she gets her change and marches on out with her tiny army of hostages right behind her. Carina thinks that it can't be too long before her husband considers a divorce. It was the kind if marriage that shouldn't even be allowed to last more than a month, let alone years.

"Bitch." She mutters under her breath, looking at Louisa who had the phone to her ear.

She thought of Louisa as a friend. She liked her as much. Louisa always wore her light hair in braids, differing styles every shift, and she had gotten over the awkwardness of Carinas hands in under a month of working with her. Carina was pretty sure Louisa and her roommates were all dating one another. She was also pretty sure that Louisa knew all about her and Tiff. Neither of them mentioned it to one another, comments slipping by in conversation that would trip up others.

They understood one another without having to talk about it much. And she was also a damn good laugh on a night out, even if she did get a little cuddly when she got tipsy.

"It's for you, 'Rina." Louisa said, holding out the phone.

They swap places, Louisa taking up the spot at the till in case any customers came along, and Carina walked to the far side of the counter to speak. "Carina speaking?"

"I felt someone watching me." Carinas blood runs from hot to cold in an instant at the sound of the voice. "There was nobody there but I could feel them. I think they've found me."

A beat of silence passed, and Carina lowered her voice, turning her back to Louisa. "I've felt it too, Kal." 

It can't be the lab, though, it simply was not possible. She would know if the lab were tracking her. Kali would know if the lab were tracking her. They were not stupid. Those very people had trained them for such things, taught them how to see their surroundings at all times and how to stay invisible. It was a lovely show of irony that they used their lessons to defy their teachers.

Carina turned her arm over, eyes grazing over the violets on her arm. She could still feel the numbers on her, though the flowers had covered them entirely. 

"It's not the lab." She whispered in realisation, looking over briefly to see Louisa doodling on the back of a receipt. She let her voice go back to a normal level. "I'll be right there, okay? Don't worry, I'll be there soon."

She heard Kali click her tongue, saw Louisa looking at her out of the corner of her eye. "See you soon, Rosemary." She said, and the line went dead.

"See you soon." She muttered, and Louisa turned to her fully, giving her a concerned look. She put the phone down, clicking her teeth together before walking towards her coworker. "Can you do me a favour?" She asked in a pleading tone, feeling guilty at having to ask her friend to do something for her. "My sisters sick, it's bad - I need time off, I don't have time to tell Dawey myself."

It wasn't a complete lie, to be fair, it was to do with her sisters - and it wouldn't be totally wrong to say Kali was a little sick in the head at times. Nonetheless, it didn't feel so good to lie to Louisa. 

Louisa furrowed her eyebrows, her face softening. "Of course - I can cover any shifts he won't give you off, take as much time as you need. You - you can go now," She offered. She waved a hand before Rosemary could say anything. "I'll lock up today. I can handle it. Saturdays are always so slow, anyway." She puts a gentle hand on Carinas shoulder. "I'm so sorry. 'Rina. If you need anything, anything at all, just call me. I hope she gets better soon."

Carina put her hand over hers, giving her a grateful smile. "Me too." 

When she walks out of the boutique five and a half minutes later, she can feel the hearts in the palms of her hands her hands beating. She can feel them bleeding. Breaking into shards.

She curls her hands into fists and makes her way home.