Stranger Things | Traces

Chapter two ² | KFC

𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠. . . Chapter ²

"How did you guys rope me into this again?" Felix asked, almost whining out as he, Nancy and Steve walked up the front yard of a house, his German accent slightly more thick than usual. Felix handing Steve his sunglasses sinced he'd taken them home earlier with him when he'd left school.

"One, you're Felix and two, support." Nancy spoke, holding up one finger first and then added a second before dropping her hand.

"Okay. Ready?" Steve asked once all three stood in front of the door, glancing at the two.

"Yeah." Nancy answered back, they'd put off the dinner enough times and she'd convinced Felix to tag along this time.

"No..." Felix started speaking honestly but glanced at Steve and Nancy who gave him back an expecting stare causing him to change his answer with an awkward thumbs up "Yup, totally ready."

"Okay." Steve shortly replied, keeping a sigh back not wanting to do this either before moving his hand over to the doorbell and pressing it once firmly.

Ding Dong

Felix looked over at the counter near the dinner table looking at all the photos of Barb, it made him slightly queasy knowing exactly what had happened to her while her parents were oblivious to it and continued hoping she was out there somewhere. He hadn't known Barb really at all when he first moved but still, no one should disappear or die like that. No one.

"I'm so sorry I didn't get to cook. I was going to make that baked ziti you guys like so much, but I just forgot about the time, and before you know it, oh my god, it's five o'clock." Marsha Holland, Barb's mother, apologises for having lost track of the day.

"It's fine. It's great." Nancy reassured looking over at Steve and Felix.

"Right. I love KFC." Steve also reassured before shoving a piece of chicken into his mouth, chewing on it so he didn't have to say anything else.

"Have you ever had KFC before?" Marsha asked Felix with a smile. Felix had looked away from the photos when they started talking, at her question he tilted his head confused looking down at his plate and back up before realising what she meant.

"In Germany we have KFC too..." Felix spoke, causing her to hum.

"Right sweetheart, what about chocolate?" She asked afterwards, causing Felix to blink one, twice, thrice before just silently nodding yes as an answer. Felix was not going to answer another question if it was going to be like the last two, yes Marsha was American and not German, but if she had stupid questions like that she could look into it herself.

"So, I noticed a 'For Sale' sign out in your yard. Is that the neighbours, or..." Nancy tried changing the topic as fast as possible.

"You wanna tell them?" Marsha asked her husband.

"Go ahead." He answered back eating instead, letting her tell them.

"We hired a man named Murray Bauman. Have either of you heard of him?" Marsha informed them with a small smile and wondered if they already knew him. Nancy and Steve said no while Felix shrugged, though the name sounded familiar he thought Jim had talked about him in passing once.

"He was an investigative journalist for the Chicago Sun Times." Marsha started off as she explained the three listened in.

"He's pretty well known." Mr. Holland chimed in even though he said Marsha could explain it, handing Steve the man's card.

"Anyway, he's freelance now, and he agreed to take the case." She explained how they'd gotten the guy to help as Steve handed Nancy the card since Felix had already seen it over his shoulder.