𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙧𝙮 𝙥𝙤𝙥! 𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙩𝙤𝙣

SCENE THIRTY EIGHT. your brother, tommy

piper was still there, piper could still switch. and that was it, el lifted her hand to piper's face. watching the girl's eye flicker to her hand as she gently placed her hand against the girl's face. cupping her cheek slightly. but she watched the thing roar back at her. but she could now also hear the broken cry of a girl. and that pulling sensation surrounded them.

they were happy ones at first, the memories. el watched them pass as she ripped through the girls' memories.

they were two kids, sitting in a living room. parents dancing in the kitchen as they played with toys. thomas was chasing piper around, piper held a teddy to her chest. a lion teddy. thomas held some kind of makeshift sword. they were screaming, of laughter. giggling like kids do.

"i'll kill you, mr lion!" thomas laughed as he chased the younger girl around.

"nooo!" she giggled jumping onto the sofa to block her brother's attempt to get her. el couldn't help but smile as she walked through the memory. staring at the photos on the wall there were so many. yet all the same. a family. a loving family. but walking through that corridor  it grew colder, watching the family fall out through the pictures. she watched her parents fall out of love.

they were outside now, climbing trees to be exact. he was much taller than she was, but she wanted to be just like him. following in her brother's footsteps, minus the seven year age gap between them. so she climbed, and clumbed. until her child body could no longer reach the branches. before she fell. thomas looked down through the leaves of the tree to find his sister hitting the soft grass. followed by her cry. and he was quick to jump down rushing to his sister's aid. wiping the blood from her scraped knees and palms.

"for me?" the young girl questioned as she looked up at her brother with those doe eyes. and he couldn't help but smile as he held out the necklace. it had a cherry charm. she always seemed to poke fun at him whenever he would talk to his friend jessie, where he got his nickname cherry. for his bright red face. and a circle charm with the letter p printed on. for piper, and he showed her the back.

"it's for when i'm not around, when i go off to university. and you're feeling sad. you turn the charm, read the words and remember big brother thomas is always there." he grinned and she attacked him. her small arms wrapping around his neck as she leaped from the sofa. hia own arms quick to catch her.

el watched as thomas shields his younger sister from the world. he was there to wipe away her tears when she had cried about losing school friends. he was there when she had originally befriended steve harrington, she was barely over the age of ten in fact. thomas was there to protect piper, he had stopped his father from hitting the girl after she had stolen his ice cream. ice cream she had stolen to make thomas feel better when he was ill. and he was there that day at the river. el remembered seeing this memory earlier. the river, the camping trip outside hawkins. thomas had grown now, being seventeen. and she was only ten. ever since they had set up the tent michael had been complaining about having no privacy and the kids always being around. not like they were coming in the middle of the woods or whatever. so tmmy usually pulled her way, the two spending lots of time down by the river. they were skipping rocks, well he was skipping rocks. his trousers had been rolled up to his knees, the smallest pet patches growing on the bunched fabric as he stood in the calm river. the calm before the storm. his shoes sat beside the girl who sat on the river's edge, feet dangling into the water as she watched her brother.

"i wanna try!" she laughed and he nodded, leaning down to grab a rock from the bottom of the river. before going to help her up. the small girl standing next to him in the cold water. as he taught her how to skip a rock. and she did it, watching surprised as it skidded three times before sinking into the deeper part of the river.

"did you see that?" she smiled looking up at him.

"yeah, i saw that. it was awesome!" the older boy exclaimed pulling his sister into a hug as she giggled.

"again! again! again!" she exclaimed, jumping up and down as she went to pick up another flatish rock.

"piper, thomas. be careful, there's a storm coming." a man shouted, el turning to find a tent with a couple sitting on some kind of makeshift sofa. and thomas only gave his dad a thumbs up, father grinning at his son before turning to his wife. thomas quickly flickers it to flip his father off before returning to piper's aid.

the storm was getting worse. she could see piper and thomas swimming in the pondish thing that the river ran into. the water was harsh, rough. which was odd for a rover in the middle of the forest. and she watched as piper was dragged under, screaming out for her brother as she disappeared into the river. the boy screaming for her as he tried to reach out into the water for her. diving into the water as piper's head smashed against a rick, blurring the girl's vision as a hand dipped into the water. grabbing her and using all his force to drag her out. swapping their laces. el was watching piper's brother give his life for piper. piper's brother drowned saving her. el felt almost sick rewatching it all.

"piper! piper! where is your brother! where is thomas!" a voice screamed el finding piper's dad dragging her from the water. piper's mother was screaming out as she tried to find her son in the water. and her father struck his daughter. the girl falling backwards into the stones.

"what did i tell you about the storm! you killed your brother!" he screamed as she cried out, bringing her hands to her face as he went to hit her again. but she didn't cry for him to stop, nor did she cry for her mum. she was crying for her brother, for thomas.

"you didn't kill him."

and piper's heart haltered to a stop.