brontide ; stranger things

FIFTEEN

Compathy (n.)

feelings, as happiness or grief, shared with another or others

-Collie's Word of the Day #273

•••

  WHEN Collie opened her eyes, she stood in the empty black void she'd been in before with Eleven right next to her. A few feet before them was Terry, rocking back and forth in her chair as she mumbled under her breath.

  Pulling Collie by the hand, Eleven slowly led her towards her mother.

  "Mama?" she asked softly. "It's me. Jane. I'm here now." Terry's voice seemed to echo throughout the void, bouncing off of unseen walls.

  "Breathe. Rainbow. Sunflower. 450." Eleven stopped just before Terry, gazing down at her. She whispered gently,

  "I'm home." Suddenly, as if someone had flipped a switch, Terry went silent and looked directly at her daughter, her eyes narrowed.

  "No," she replied deathly low. Her hand shot out and grabbed Eleven's wrist, causing the young girl to jump.

  "Hey!" Collie shouted in alarm, her protective instincts kicking in. As soon as Terry touched Eleven, both their heads began to pound and the world seemed to spin as quick, hazy scenes played out before them.

  The first was of a woman, her face contorted in pain as she hunched over and screamed. It was Terry, her dress stained with blood from the waist down. She dropped to the ground, tears leaking from her eyes as she shouted,

  "My baby!"

  "It's okay," came another voice. Becky, looking just a bit younger. "Just breathe. Breathe." The scene flashed to a hospital, where Terry was being wheeled down a white hallway as she continued to yell and gasp in breaths.

  "Breathe," the doctors told her. "We need you to breathe, okay?" She was then in a hospital room, surrounded by tools and bustling people in scrubs. In the blink of an eye, there was the sound of a baby's cries and Terry let out a sigh of relief.

  However, one of the doctors watched the baby with a gleam of something dangerous in his eye, something evil. He looked over at Terry, then pulled off his mask to reveal his face. Martin Brenner.

  The vision went dark until Terry appeared in another hospital bed, her head rolled to the side as she woke from her sleep. Yellow sunflowers rested in a glass vase on the nightstand. Becky sat beside her, trying hard not to cry as she greeted softly,

  "Hey there." Terry sobered up a bit, frantically looking around.

  "Jane..." she murmured, searching for her daughter. Becky finally let out a strangled sob and grabbed her sister's hand.

  "I-I'm sorry," she cried, "she wasn't breathing-"

  "No!" Terry cut off, sitting up in bed as her eyes widened. "No, no, I heard her crying. I heard it. He... he was there." Becky tilted her head, tears streaming down her cheeks.

  "Who?"

  "He took her!" Terry exclaimed, making to get out of the bed. "He took her!" She ripped her IV needle out of her arm just as nurses entered the room, forcing her back down on the bed. She cried out, struggling against the several arms preventing her from getting to her daughter.

  The scene changed to show Terry murmuring to herself as she spun the combo on a safe. The clicks of the lock seemed louder than they should have been, echoing throughout the room.

  "Three to right," Terry whispered, "four to the left." She swung the safe door open and produced from it a shiny revolver, her hands trembling as she quickly loaded in several bullets. Her eyes were a bit wilder than the last scene, a bit crazier.

  The vision then cut to Terry pulling her car into the Hawkins Lab parking lot, sucking in a deep breath. She walked in with the other women on their way to work, though a guard at the front desk stood and called after her,

  "Can I see your badge, ma'am?" Terry turned and pulled the revolver from her pocket, pointing it at the guard and the people in the lobby.

  "Stay back!" she warned as people began to shrink away from the deadly object. "Stay back!" Her eyes flicked to the guard, who slowly began reaching for the gun in his holster. BANG! Without hesitating, she pulled the trigger and shot the guard in the side.

  Only a minute later, Terry was hurrying through the lab, shouldering aside fleeing scientists as an alarm blared overhead. She checked room after room, calling Jane's name as she peeked her head around each corner. When she turned, she spotted a room with a rainbow painted on the door, looking extremely out of place in the emotionless building.

  Terry rushed over and opened the door to reveal three young girls sitting on the floor and playing with toys, none of them older than six years old. The first was Jane, with long golden hair tied in pigtails down her back. The second was a bit older, her skin a fair tan and her head tilted curiously to the side. Finally, the third had her hair pulled in a braid, jagged white scars lining her face.

  A smile spread across Terry's face as she stepped toward the girls, though she was immediately grabbed and pulled back by security. The men dragged her away as she wailed and screamed, the three children staring after her.

  Terry was taken to another room, where she was strapped down to a bed next to a machine with several knobs and switches. Martin Brenner watched calmly from the side as she struggled, kicking and biting, anything to get away.

  Even as she cried and begged, a mouthpiece was put in Terry's mouth and two sensors that connected to the machine were placed on the sides of her head.

  "450," instructed Brenner in a monotone. A chubby doctor twisted a knob, which caused Terry to jump and grip the sides of the bed, unbearable pain shooting through her. The mouthpiece muffled her screams and she strained against her bonds until she suddenly went limp, panting in shallow breaths.

  Terry's voice echoed as the visions played again and again, getting faster until they were only flashes of images.

  "Breathe. Rainbow. Sunflower. 450. Three to the right. Four to the left."

  At the same time, Eleven and Collie ripped off their blindfolds and heaved in air, staring up at Terry, who continued to mumble the things that now made sense.

  "Breathe. Rainbow. Sunflower. 450. Three to the right. Four to the left." Collie sat back on her haunches and couldn't force down the lump in her throat, tears spilling from her eyes from the shared compathy. How could someone do that to another person? How could they take away their child, and then torture them until they lost their sanity?

  Eleven began to hyperventilate and sob, burying her head into Collie's chest and hugging her tightly. Collie smoothed the younger girl's hair, hearing her own heart thunder in her ears deafeningly.

  As she gazed at Terry, Collie felt a spark of something new ignite in her heart. Determination that she would protect Eleven and her family. Determination that she would get her revenge on those bastards who did this to them. Determination that she would make Hawkins Lab crash and burn.

  No matter what it took.