.⃗ . ༉‧₊˚✧ PROMISE!
AS THE THUNDER roars from outside, the three girls were covered in the party's jackets to keep them warm. eleven was breathing quite heavily as olivia holds her hand to comfort her. amelia was trying to keep herself calm by fidgeting with her fingers and keeping track of how many times lightning struck in her head.
"is there a number we can call for your parents?" mike asks the girls. olivia and eleven look up at him strangely. "where's your hair? do you have cancer?" dustin directs his questions toward eleven with wide eyes. "did you guys run away?" lucas asks. "are you guys in some kind of trouble?" mike asks. "is that blood?" lucas spots blood on amelia's shirt, reaching in to touch it. she still didn't pay any attention to them. she was trying to focus on her counting and she didn't have a very long attention span.
"stop it! you're gonna freak her out!" mike slaps lucas' hand away. "she's freaking me out!" he defends. "i bet she's deaf." dustin says, referring to amelia. olivia looks at the three boys as if they were idiots. which, in some cases, they were.
dustin quickly claps in front of amelia, causing her to jump and let out a small yelp. the other two girls flinch and back away. "not deaf." dustin turns back to his friends. "all right, that's enough, all right? they're just scared and cold." mike says, going over to his laundry basket.
amelia looks over at olivia and eleven with her face scrunched up. she also thought they were idiots. olivia just shrugs. mike returns with three similar outfits. he handed each of them one. "here, these are clean. okay?" eleven touches it with her face and takes off her jacket. she gets up and reaches down to take off the wet bennys shirt.
amelia and olivia quickly pull her back down as the boys panick. "no, no, no!" they exclaim in unison. mike stops her from pulling the shirt up and the other two boys turn away. "oh, my god. oh, my god." dustin repeated over and over again.
"see over there? that's the bathroom." mike points to the bathroom door. "privacy. get it?" he looks at all three of them, making sure they understand. amelia scoffs. "we know what privacy means." she says. his eyebrows raise and lucas and dustin slightly turn back around. they didn't know they could speak. "oh. okay..." mike nods.
eleven takes the clothes from the couch and looks back at the girls for approval. they nod, letting her go. she heads over to the bathroom and mike follows behind her. eleven looks around, studying the room. mike tries shutting the door before she quickly stops him.
"you don't want it closed?" he asks. "no." she says in a soft voice. "oh, so you can speak too. okay, well... um, how about we just keep the door... just like this." he moves the door to where there was a small gap between it and the frame. "is that better?" he asks. "yes." she answers. mike nods with a half smile and walks away from the bathroom.
"this is mental." dustin says. "at least they can talk." mike shrugs. "one of them basically called you stupid, the other said no and yes. your three year old sister says more. plus the last one hasn't even said anything yet!" lucas points out.
amelia scoots over to olivia. she whispers to her, "do you think they know that we can hear them?" she asks. olivia shakes her head. "probably not. they think we're dumb." she says.
"she tried to get naked. just imagine what the other two are gonna do next." dustin says. lucas immediately agrees. "there's something seriously wrong with them. like, wrong in the head."
"she just went like..." dustin motions pulling his shirt over his head, knocking his hat off. "i bet they escaped from pennhurst." lucas conspires. "from where?" mike asks. he did not seem amused. "the nuthouse in kerley county." he says as if they should know what it was.
"you got a lot of family there?" dustin asks lucas with a smile. "bite me." he replies. mike rolls his eyes. lucas turns back to him. "seriously though, think about it. that would explain her shaved hair and why they're so crazy." he says. "then how come the other two have hair?" mike asks. "i don't know!" lucas says.
"my point is, they're all escapees. they're probably psycho." lucas says. "like michael myers." dustin chimes in again with wide eyes as realization hit him. "exactly!" lucas agreed. mike groans and crosses his arms. "we should've never brought them here." lucas turns back to mike.
"so you just wanted to leave them out in that storm?" mike asks. "yes! we went out to find will, not another problem." lucas answers. dustin nods. "i think we should tell your mom." he suggests. "i second that." lucas says.
"who's crazy now?" mike asks, refusing to tell his mother about how he took three random girls home and put them in his basement. "how is that crazy?" lucas asks. "cause, we weren't supposed to be out tonight, remember?" he says as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "so?" lucas shrugs.
"so if i tell my mom, and she tells your mom and your mom..." he trails off as dustin and lucas realize what he was saying. "oh, man." dustin says. "our houses become alcatraz." lucas looks up. "exactly. we'll never find will." mike tells them.
"all right, here's the plan. they sleep here tonight." mike began. dustin immediately goes against it. "you're letting a girl-" mike cuts him off. "just listen! in the morning, they sneak around my house, go to the front door and rings my doorbell. my mom will answer and know exactly what to do. she'll send them back to pennhurst or wherever they came from. we'll be totally in the clear."
"and tomorrow night, we go back out. and this time, we find will." mike finishes. dustin and lucas look at each other, both agreeing with his plan.
olivia turns to amelia. "what do we do? they're gonna send us back to the lab." she whispers. "just play dumb, i don't wanna blow our cover. if they think we don't know anything then they'll say everything in front of us. we'll just figure it out in the morning." amelia whispered back. her plan was to do what she does best;
wing it.
LUCAS AND DUSTIN watch from the stairs as mike hands the girls sleeping bags. "here you go. here are my sleeping bags." he says to the girls. dustin asks, "do you really think they're psycho's?" lucas pauses before answering. "wouldn't want her in my house." he says, exiting the basement.
dustin sighs and watches them for a moment longer. "mental." he says and walks up the rest of the stairs.
"hey, um, i never asked for your names." mike says, looking at amelia for her answer first. she shoots a look toward olivia before she rolls up her sleeve. mikes eyebrows raise as he sees the 013 tattoo. he goes in to touch it. "is that real?" he asks. amelia immediately backs away from him. "sorry i've just... never seen a kid with a tattoo before." he says.
"what's it mean? thirteen." he asks. amelia hesitates before answering him. "it was supposed to be my name." she says. "oh. so then what's your real name?" he asks her. "amelia." she tells him.
he smiles at her. "um, well, my name's mike. short for michael. maybe we can call you lia, short for amelia." he says. amelia thinks about it for a second. "sure." she nods, liking the sound of it.
he turns to olivia next. "what about you? do you have a number and a name too?" she nods, showing him her tattoo. it revealed the number 012 on her wrist. "cool." he says. "my name is olivia. do i get a nickname?" she asks him, he nods. "does liv sound okay?"
"yeah." she tells him. he looks over at eleven, waiting for her to tell him her number and name. "she doesn't have a name. just a number." amelia explains to him. "oh." he says, looking down at her sleeve and back up at her. eleven took the signal and pulls up her sleeve. "so that's your name? eleven?" he asks. she nods. "okay. then i guess we'll call you el, short for eleven."
mike gets up. "night, guys." he says, grabbing the blanket to pull it down. "night mike." lia says before he does. he gave her a small smile before pulling the blanket down completely. he walks over to the light switch and looks back at the fort. he sighs and shuts off the lights, making his way back upstairs.
what a night.
🍒, maybankz—
i haven't watched stranger things in soo long and this felt really good to write lol
WRITTEN. may 2, 2020
EDITED. june 5, 2020
