A little bit dangerous

Chapter 56 : Papers

One week later, Hopper and Joyce decided to see how Jane was. They were a bit worried, Hopper was sure she would be mad, while Joyce was sure she was in depression now. They knocked at the door and Cassandra opened to them.

- "Chip and Dale. Again," grumbled Cassandra.

- "We just wanna see Jane," told Joyce.

- "She is in her room, as always."

- "She didn't get out?"

- "Only for food and the bathroom, but nothing else."

- "See, I told you she wasn't ok," whispered Joyce to Hopper.

The man nodded. The two adults entered without waiting for Cassandra to allow them to and went to Jane's door to knock at it. Nobody answered. Hopper tried again and told his name to let her know it wasn't bad people, but there was still no answer.

- "She was here yesterday," told Cassandra, confused. "Maybe she got drunk, she is hard to wake up when she is drunk."

- "How does she sleep?" asked Hopper.

- "Bad, nightmares every night."

- "No, I mean, is she the kind to wear clothes?"

- "What the hell!?"

- "I don't wanna see her naked!"

- "I go!" sighed Joyce.

The mother slowly opened the door and put her head inside before widely opening it.

- "She is not here," stated Joyce. "And so is her stuff."

- "She ran away?" frowned Hopper.

- "Are you really surprised?"

- "Um, yeah, I am! I thought she would be ok now that everything was over."

- "You really think everything is over for her? Just because she is not a Red Eagle anymore doesn't mean she feels ok, it doesn't mean she feels like if she was belonging here. She needs help, and we arrived too late!"

- "Hey, hey, relax, maybe she is not far, maybe we can still find her! Look, she let a note. (takes the paper on the desk) "I'm leaving. Don't come after me. I'll be ok. Thank you and sorry.". At least she is ok."

- "She is not ok! She is alone, she is traumatized, she is scared, and she is lost! We need to find her before she decides to do something irredeemable!"

- "I agree with you. She puts an address on the paper, with a key, let's begin with that, ok?"

- "Yeah, ok."

Hopper and Joyce thanked Cassandra and left the apartment. They went in direction of this address, watching closely every street they were taking in case Jane was there, but she was nowhere. They arrived in a dirt alley going in an industry where the garbage was burnt before arriving in front of a high container in an abandoned area. Hopper took the key, opened the lock, and raised the metal door. The container was full of objects with papers taped on them and guns and weapons.

- "Wheeler's? It's Mike's guitar! It's all the objects she stole!" told Joyce.

- "I see. She puts addresses on them. She wants us to bring them back," said Hopper. "I'll call a patrol to bring them back."

- "So we can keep looking for her, right?"

- "Look, she was clear, she doesn't want us to look after her—"

- "So you're abandoning her!? Really!?"

- "No, I'm not! We just need to think, Jane is a good hider, if she doesn't want to be found, she won't let us find her. We need to be smart, I'll give her picture to all the police stations around, they will send patrols to look after her, I'll send patrols too, but I don't want her to think she is in danger, if she understands that all the patrols are after her, she will panic."

- "Maybe she is in another country now!"

- "She can't, she is blacklisted, if she tries to leave the country, I'll know. But now, I want you to go back home and to spend some time with your son, ok?"

- "Yeah, fine! You keep me in touch!"

- "Always," smiled Hopper.

- "(nods) I'll take Mike's stuff, he is at home with the others."

- "Ok."

Joyce and Hopper put Mike's stuff in the car before going to Joyce's house. When the woman entered her home, she had the guitar in her hands. Mike jumped from the couch to take it.

- "My guitar! Jane gave it back to you? Is she here? How is she?" told quickly the boy.

- "She ran away," pouted the mother.

- "WHAT!?" exclaimed all the teens.

- "Why!?" asked Bev.

- "I don't know, maybe she was feeling too bad to stay here, I don't know...But we are looking for her, don't worry."

- "You have to bring her back, mom!"

- "We will! We are working on it! When did you get all attached to her?"

- "The last time we saw her she was beaten up to death by her own father while she was spending a good night with us, it was terrifying," explained Will. "We don't need to study psychology to understand that she acted the way she did because of him. She needs you to show her how a parent is supposed to act!"

Joyce nodded. She was very proud of her son right now, he was so wise and smart, able to forgive someone who treated badly his friends because it took some time to understand them.

- "We'll get her back," affirmed the mother.

Hopper entered with the rest of Mike's stuff before going back to the container to call cops to help him. Joyce took this moment of peace to take care a bit of herself, letting the teens alone.

- "I hope she is fine," told Bev.

- "I don't fucking care," grumbled Max.

- "Why?" frowned Dustin.

- "If she wasn't feeling good, she just needed to go to someone! But noooo, she preferred running away! It's her problem now, I'm tired of her!"

- "What!? I thought you were good with her now!" stated Lucas.

- "I was, but I won't spend my time running after someone who ran away, it's her choice, she assumes! But now if you wanna spend the rest of the day crying over a girl who wasn't even our friend, do it, but I'm leaving!"

Max took her stuff before quickly leaving without giving them a chance to say something. She arrived in her apartment and threw all her stuff away. She was so mad at Jane now! She was really sure that Jane had a chance, that she could live like she wanted to, that she could finally be happy, that they could spend some time together...But Jane decided otherwise, and it wasn't her problem anymore.