In My Blood

Episode 9 - Truth Time

"Hang on," Charity stopped me, and I quieted. "You lost me. Other dimension? Portals? I think you watched one-to-many horror movies and had some dream about it all."

"No, I didn't," I pushed, and she rolled her eyes. "I know it sounds crazy and completely... out there, but everything I'm saying is true. This Project MKUltra connected with it somehow. Maybe the scientists already knew about the dangers of the Upside Down and wanted-"

"The Upside Down?" Diana repeated.

"It's just what we called it: the Upside Down. Everything there looks the same as here, but it's all decayed and rotted. An- and these creatures live there, the Demogorgons, and-"

"Rachel Hopper, please," Charity held a hand up to shut me up. "What you're speaking about is absolute insanity. Will Byers was a freak accident last year and nothing more! Besides, you can't just say these types of things and not even offer proof. Demogorgons? The Upside Down? I mean, come on!" I looked over to Diana for support, but she gave me an apologetic shrug instead. My face was beginning to burn from embarrassment. I knew what I was saying was outlandish, but some part of me was hoping they would believe half of it. My embarrassment turned to bitter anger, and my hands started to reach for the bottom of my pajama shirt.

"Proof. You want proof?" I asked them both, my emotions spilling into my tone. My fingers grabbed the cloth and began to lift my shirt. "Maybe I can finally stop hiding these for once!"

"Rachel, please, I don't want to fight- oh, my God!" Diana gasped when I revealed the nasty scar on the left side of my stomach. The skin had lightened during its healing process, but it was bumpy and still looked as swollen as it did when my skin first closed back together again. She began to reach toward the old injury and stopped herself, but I shifted closer to her in encouragement. "What... how did this even happen?"

"I said shit went down, didn't I?" My eyes locked on Charity's as Diana inspected the war wound, her face pale at the sight of it. "Little bit easier to believe?" The blonde blinked a few times before coming to her senses.

"Nuh, uh," she shook her head. "That has to be like... a dog."

"I don't think dogs can do this, Charity," Diana responded nervously, her finger lightly tracing over the middle claw mark.

"A bear then!" she tried, and I raised an eyebrow at her.

"When was the last time you saw a bear in Indiana?" I questioned her. "Hawkins, no less?"

"This doesn't make any sense!" she exclaimed, standing up from the bed and towering over me and Diana. "My dad's gone hunting before, to get claw marks like that... shit." Charity plopped back down on the bed, holding her head in her hands. "Shit, shit, shit." Diana watched her worriedly for a moment before retracting her hand away from my stomach, allowing me to drop my shirt back down.

"How big was it?" she asked me. "Is it... is it still here? In Hawkins?" I shook my head, and Diana looked slightly relieved.

"I almost died the night it attacked us, but El- someone killed it," I caught myself. I might have been telling them everything, but Eleven was not going to be part of the story, nor my abilities. "The Demogorgon was massive, we're talking like... ten feet tall. This thing stood on two legs and its face would open up like a flower, except this flower had sharp teeth and was hell-bent on eating you." Diana blanched, and Charity just shook her head back and forth. "It doesn't matter anymore though; it's dead."

"No, it does matter," Charity disagreed with me. She got up from the bed to search through her sleepover bag, pulling out the file the two freshman girls handed us one day at lunch. "If this lab could hide such a... monster away from the press, convince an entire town that a kid is dead and another is missing, who knows what they could get away with! This is bigger than all of us, and I thought my biggest concern was my parents divorcing one day."