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“WHERE IS COLE?” NANCY PANICKED, sitting beside Riley and Jonathan at the small, round kitchen table. "He's had no parental supervision, nobody checking up on him — anything could've happened. Oh, my God." Her eyes went wide and she threaded her hands through her hair, putting her elbows against the table. "What if he's dead? Anybody could've taken him. He could've been —"
"I'm sure he's fine," Jonathan cut her off before she went on anymore. He shrugged. "He's probably just at Dustinʼs or something."
"And he's probably losing his mind," Nancy argued. "He can't be without Kali, he gets too scared. He's so attached." She shook her head. "I should've checked up on him."
Riley frowned. "He'll be okay," she said kindly, trying to help. "He's ten, he's not a baby."
Jonathan cringed and shook his head. Nancy sent a glare at the girl.
"Kal will never forgive herself if he's missing," she continued. "This is all my fault. If I hadn't left, if I hadn't said —"
"Hey, no," Jonathan told her sternly. "This isn't your fault." He shrugged. "Kali will come back when she's prepared, she doesn't like to do things when she's emotional, it makes her worry more. She hates worrying."
Riley chuckled awkwardly, still not used to all of this. "Kali?" she asked. "Emotional?"
Nancy glared at her best friend again. "Kali is a very sensitive person," she defended sharply.
Jonathan nodded, wrapping his arm around his girlfriend. "She is," he agreed.
"Oh." Riley smiled uncomfortably. "Sorry."
"It's fine." Nancy shook her head. "Sorry for snapping. I'm just...stressed out."
After what happened at the hospital, the group retreated to the cabin in the woods, where the Hopper family lived their not-so-quiet-and-absolutely-not-peaceful-life. Nancy, Jonathan, Mike and Max — and obviously, Eleven — had been there plenty of times, but Lucas had only visited a couple of times and was intrigued by almost everything he saw, as most homes in Hawkins were huge, town houses and weren't owned by a police chief and his supernatural, adopted children. Riley had never been there ever before, either, but she just stuck to Jonathanʼs side, not used to being around such a large, family-like group.
The kids were gathered in the small living room, which was joint by the kitchen, where the older teens where, while El was in her own bedroom, using her telepathic powers to find the flayed people, such as Kali, Billy, Heather and Mrs Driscoll.
"It can't be good for her to be in there for this long," worried Mike.
Sitting on Kaliʼs single couch, Max rolled her eyes. "Mike, you need to relax," she said.
The boy decided to go with the opposite of her advice. "What if she gets brain damage or something?"
"Oh, shit," said Lucas, holding up a box of cereal. "Is that, like, a real thing?"
