Ṫḧë Ṡöüṅḋ öḟ Ṗëṛïḷ (M. Wheeler)

The Flayed (pt. ii)

Hey guys! Hope y'all like badass Dylan, because here he comes!

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The ride to the hospital was quick and simple. El sat on Dylan's lap again, but luckily, Mike's mind was on other things now; other important things, like defeating the Mind Flayer. It mad Dylan smile, knowing that the boy was finally getting his head in the proper area of the game.

After finding a place to park, the eight of them walked into the hospital and attempted to walk past the receptionist, but unfortunately, the woman decided that moment would be a good time to remember she had a job.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, excuse me!" She said, stopping her impertinent phone call to chide them. Dylan winced at how high pitched her voice got, but didn't let his discomfort show.

Nancy closed her eyes and resignation, reluctantly turning around to face the unimpressed woman.

"Where do you think you're going?" She asked in a snarky tone, hand placed sassily on her hip. Dylan internally groaned. Great—she was one of those women...

"Oh, um..." Nancy spoke, clearly trying to portray innocent that the woman was clearly not buying. "I was just going to visit my grandma again." Dylan smirked. Grandma, huh? So that was how Nancy got to visit Mrs. Driscoll before.

"And- and this—" she awkwardly gestured to the lot of them. "This is my family..."

Dylan looked at her with slight incredulity. Was she serious?

The desk lady gave a pointed look in Lucas's direction to which he smiled sheepishly at.

"Extended," he said, and Dylan suppressed a snort of amusement, Well, he tried.

"I don't care who they are, you know the rules," the woman sassed. "Two visitors at a time."

Nancy tried to reason. "Yeah, but—"

"Two!" The woman reiterated, putting two fingers up for emphasis. Nancy and Jonathan exchanged defeated looks before looking back at the group. Dylan just shrugged, waving them off a bit.

"It's okay. You two go," he said, walking towards the chairs to sit himself down. They seemed a little surprised at how okay with this he was, but really, Dylan didn't see the problem here. It wasn't like all of them were needed to get Mrs. Driscoll—well, he hoped not at least. If she was, then Dylan would be able to sense their distress instantly and they'd be upstairs in seconds, despite what the annoying desk lady said. Between El and himself, security wouldn't be able to stop them.

Eventually, the rest of the teens followed him, Will sitting a couple of seats away from him while Max and El started to look at some magazines. Mike and Lucas were at the vending machines, trying to get some kind of candy—keyword there was try, because after Mike slotted the coin and typed out what he wanted, the machine decided to stop working.

Both him and Lucas gazed at the machine with vast disappointment and irritation. "Come on, you piece of shit!" Mike exclaimed, both him and Lucas starting to rather pathetically hit the machine to make the candy drop. Dylan snickered behind his hand. It was quite entertaining to watch.

He caught El's attention and inclined his head towards the boys. "Think they need some assistance there," He murmured and El nodded, concentrating on the machine before jerking her head to the side. The springs holding the candy popped loose, all of the junk food falling to the bottom of the machine, which surprised Mike and Lucas. They looked over to see El subtly wiping her nose.

"Thanks," Mike murmured.

El nodded towards Dylan. "His idea," she said simply, before returning to her magazine.