nostalgia - steve harrington

043

chapter forty three: the voice of an angel

"when he attacks, our friends described it as a trance. like a waking nightmare. that's why we think he's coming for them next. does any of this, anything we've told you, sound like what happened to your family? victor. i know this is hard-" nancy began but he cut her off.

"you don't know anything!" victor shouted.

"you're right. we don't know. that's why we're here. to learn, to understand." nancy said.

"we need to know how you survived that night?" robin asked which made victor laugh.

"survived? is that what you call this? did i survive? no, i assure you, i am still very much in hell." victor said.

"then help us stop others from ending up like your family." rebecca said.

"i had been back from the war some 14 years. her great uncle had died, leaving us a small fortune. enough to buy a new home, a new life. it was a magnificent home. alice said it looked like it was from a fairy tale." victor started to explain.

"alice. was this your daughter?" nancy asked him.

"mmm. yeah. but henry, my... my boy, he was a sensitive child... and i could see he felt something was wrong. we had one month of peace in that house. and then it began. dead animals, mutilated, tortured, began to appear near our home. rabbits, squirrels, chickens, even dogs. the police chief blamed the attacks on a wildcat. this... this was no wildcat. this was an evil. and evil neither animal nor human. this was a spawn of satan. a demon. and it was even closer than i realized. my family began to have encounters conjured by this demon. nightmares. waking, living nightmares. this demon, it seemed to take pleasure in tormenting us. even poor, innocent alice. it wasn't long before i began to have encounters of my own. i suppose all evil must have a home. and though i had not a rational explanation for it, i... i could sense this demon, always close. i became convinced it was hiding, nesting, somewhere within the shadows of our home. it had cursed our town. it had cursed our home. it had cursed us. it took virginia first. i tried to get the children out, to save them. but i was back to france, back in the war. it... it was a memory. i had thought german soldiers were inside. i ordered its shelling. i was wrong. this demon, it was taunting me. and i was sure it would take me, just as he'd taken my virginia. but then... i heard... another voice. at first, i believed it was an angel. and i... i followed her, only to find myself... in a nightmare far worse. while i was away, the demon took my children. henry slipped into a coma shortly after that. a week later, he died. i tried to join them. i tried. hatch stopped the bleeding. he wouldn't let me join them." victor said as he cried.

"the angel you followed, who was she?" nancy asked him.

victor didn't answer, he just started humming a song.

"victor? victor?" nancy asked.

the doors opened and they saw hatch was back.

"is he everything you hoped he would be? i just had a very interesting conversation with professor brantley. perhaps we should discuss in my office while we wait for the police." hatch said.

"damn it." rebecca mumbled.

-

"you're not listening. our friends are in danger." nancy told hatch.

"do you really expect me to believe anything you have to say at this point?" hatch asked.

"it's the truth." nancy told him.

"you are free to tell your son story to the police." hatch said.

rebecca said robin was staring off in the distance and the guard pushed her.

"move along." he said.

"don't touch me!" robin told him.

as they were walking back to his office, robin leaned over to nancy and rebecca.

"victor said the night of the attack, everything went on in the house, but he made specific mention of music. he said music was playing. and then, when we asked him about the angel, he started to hum. say nighty-night and kiss me hold me tight..." robin began singing.

"dream a little dream of me." nancy and rebecca said.

"yeah, ella fitzgerald." robin said.

"the voice of an angel." nancy said.

"yeah. hatch said that music can reach parts of the brain that words can't. so maybe that's the key, a lifeline." robin said.

"a lifeline back to reality." nancy said.

"it's worth a shot." robin said.

"okay, but how do we get out of here?" rebecca asked.

"i think we can beat him." nancy said.

"what?" robin asked her.

"to the car." nancy said.

"badass, i like it." rebecca said.

"okay. i'm warning you right now, i have terrible coordination. like, it took me six months longer to walk than all the other babies." robin said.

"just follow my lead." nancy said as she started running.

"no, my god!" robin said as her and rebecca ran after her.

"hey! get the hell back here." the guard said.

the girls took off their heels and they ran even faster.

"cinderella, you dropped your shoe!" a patient said.

"stop right there!" the guards said.

"go!" nancy shouted.

"oh, my god!" robin said as they kept running.

they made it to the car and they got in. nancy locked the doors behind them and the guards banged at the window.

"hey!" the guard said.

"go, go, go, go, go!" robin and rebecca both shouted.

"stop! get out of the car. get out of the car." the guards said.

"floor it!" rebecca said as nancy hit the gas and drove off quickly.

"holy shit! holy shit! holy shit!" robin said.

"you really are a weird runner." nancy said.

"we made it." rebecca said smiling.

"robin, where the hell are you? this is a code red. i repeat, a code red!" they heard dustin over the cerebro.

"dustin, it's robin. we copy." she told him.

"holy shit. finally! please, please tell me you guys have this figured out." dustin asked them.

dustin told them that max was in the trance again and they couldn't wake her. they told dustin what they learned about the music and they prayed it was going to work.

rebecca knew that if max's time was running low than so was hers.