BAD TIMES • STEVE HARRINGTON

21. one thousand lies

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chapter twenty-one

FINDING LUCAS HAD BEEN EASY, but figuring out what the hell he was doing with his teammates was a whole other problem that Diana hadn't had time for. He was safe and that was all that mattered for now. As for the culprit behind Chrissy's death, Diana had never been good with the past, but she was sure that Eddie Munson wasn't a murder. There was something lurking right out of her line of sight—something that felt unsettlingly familiar. Something that felt beyond their prowess. Diana had gotten that all in under forty minutes, and she was still trying to work around that godforsaken vision, which would soon prove to be impossible.

And in just forty minutes, she was nursing a full blown headache, and she needed breakfast. She'd holed herself up in the break room and no one had come to bother her, but she could hear Max's, Dustin's, and Robin's voices as they called any friend of Eddie's they could find. Steve had been left to deal with customers.

When Diana emerged from her solitude, Steve was unenthusiastically helping none other than Adya Ramesh, who was dressed in a flowy lilac long sleeved shirt that came a bit off of her shoulders. She'd always dressed well. Diana had remembered that about her. She seemed to be pretending to be interested in whatever Steve was saying.

Everyone looked to her for a moment, but it was Adya's relieved face that caught her attention. She smiled widely leaving Steve in the middle of what he was saying and heading straight for Diana. He waved the Grease VHS tape with a defeated sigh.

Diana shut the door behind herself and gave Adya a strained smile, which was all she could muster at that moment.

"I knew you were here," Adya said brightly. There was something different about her, but maybe Diana didn't know her well enough to gauge any difference. She shot Steve a glare and made sure he could hear her next words. "Your boyfriend must think I'm a ditz because he insisted you weren't here, even though your car's out front. Which is the reason I stopped by, by the way."

Steve let out a breath as he went to save the tape. "She was busy," he murmured. Neither girl acknowledged that.

"You stopped for me?" Diana asked, confused. "Uh, why?"

Adya glanced around—the store had only one other customer— before pulling Diana between the shelves, and forcing Di to huddle with her. This close, Diana could see the faint but artificial blush that covered the girl's brown cheeks. Her eyes were tinted red, as if she'd been crying. Then it dawned on Diana. Adya must've known about her friend's death by now. Diana felt a bolt of sorrow flash through her chest at the girl's clear pain. "Okay, so logically I should start with, are you really a psychic?"

Diana blinked. Then she blinked again. And again. "What?"

"Oh Diana, honey, don't be dense," Adya let out with a nervous laugh. "Marsha B. heard from Marsha D. who heard from some other people who heard from some middle schoolers that you were psychic. It was a rumor for a while before people just forgot about it, but," she continued, "I didn't."

Adya had looked quite proud of herself by the end of her explanation. Diana was at a loss for words. The younger girl seemed to be good at doing that. Diana couldn't help but to focus on the least important part of the girl's statement. "Marsha?"

Adya rolled her eyes. "Look I thought it was crazy, but then I overheard your little brother talking about it again at the arcade—I was dropping off my little sister— and I thought to myself, what if?" She pursed her lips then. "What if it's fucking true? And what if I haven't been imagining the crazy stuff that's been going on in this town?"