"It was the same thing," Nancy explained to the group of kids gathered around her, "the exact same thing that happened to Will last year."
After Mike let Nancy and Jonathan in the basement, Nancy only gave them a minute to get the girls out of the bathroom before immediately telling them about what she has been seeing.
From what Nikki could gather, since she was only paying so much attention due to the pounding that flooded her ears drowning everything out, a lady decide to eat something toxic and had a fit when she got caught. Somehow, Nancy thought this connected to the Upside Down though Nikki couldn't see why.
But then again, she wasn't fully listening. Until, about now.
"And look at this," she placed a piece of paper in front of the kids. "Look at the body tempatures."
"He likes it cold," Will spoke up as Nikki made some sense of what the numbers meant for tempature. She made a mental note to thank Gwen for that later.
"Okay, so this crazy old woman who was eating fertilizer-" Mike thought out loud.
"Mrs. Driscoll," Nancy corrected.
"Right, yeah, Mrs. Driscoll," Mike nodded. "What time was this attack?"
Attack? Nikki's ears perked up. I don't remember anyone mentioning an attack.
"Last night," Nancy answered.
"Right, but what time last night?"
"Around 9:00."
Jonathon turned to her with a shocked look on her face. "You waited all night to call?"
Nancy looked back at him, looking slightly guilty. "I was waiting for the doctors to run some tests."
"You weren't there?" Will looked at his brother surprised.
Jonathon threw up his arms in a big shrug. "Well, I'm here now, aren't I?"
"Hallelujah!" Nancy rolled her eyes and smiled in fake happiness. Nikki and Lucas both cringed, knowing they were about to have fun with more relationship problems. Nancy ingored their cringes and kept trying to get to the point. "So, what time was your sauna test?"
"Around 9:00," everyone said in unison.
"Well, that proves it. That proves my theory."
Wait, when did we talk about a theory? Nikki wondered, mentally kicking herself for not paying more attention.
"She's flayed," Mike confirmed. "Just like Billy."
"Flayed?" Jonathon raised an eyebrow in question.
"The Mind Flayer. He flays people," Mike explained to the two confused teenagers. "Takes over their mind. Once they do that, they basically become him."
"If there are two flayed-" Lucas began the next thought.
"We have to assume there are more," Will concluded.
"Heather," El recalled, making the others focus on her. El looked at Nikki who sat next to Lucas with her head on his shoulder. The two girl made eye contact and they knew they were thinking along the same lines. "Billy was doing something to her. She was scared. She was screaming. Bad screams."
"What's a good scream?" Lucas asked.
"Max said-" El started but got cut off by Nikki and Max.
"We're not talking about this now."
"Doesn't matter."
"I'm sorry, I'm lost," Nancy continued the conversation. "Who is Heather?"
"She's a lifeguard at the pool," Max answered.
"Heather Holloway?" Nancy asked, getting nods back from all three girls.
Nancy and Jonathon looked at each with the same amount of fear showing in their eyes. One look that made Nikki not excited to hear what they had to say.
"Tom."
***
Nancy made them all get changed quickly before they left the house. Nikki woud thank her for that because she may not feel the best but at least she's doesn't look like she was just apart of a murder (her being the victim) anymore.
The ride to Heather's house was an awkward one due to having, what felt like, everyone in relationship issues. the only people that wasn't like that was Lucas and Nikki. Though they tried not to show it in front of everyone, because they didn't want to be labled as "that" couple. They already had one of those.
When they arrived at the house Nancy rang the doorbell a few times without an answer and turned to look at the girls who were standing right behind girl.
Nikki nudged El to do it because she knew El had a knack for invading people's privacy, so what better way to do than now.
Also, Nikki just didn't feel like doing it.
With one nod of El's head they were in and they were met with something completely different than what the girls saw not too long ago. When they were here first it was full of laughter and music. Now it was so quiet it almost seemed deadly.
"Tom?" Nancy called as they stepped inside the house. "Heather?"
"Jesus, it's freezing," Max muttered as Nancy led the way to the living room.
She stopped and looked back at the group. "Do you guys smell that?"
She continued walking to the kitchen where they were met with the overpowering stench of chemicals. The place was a mess. Chemical jars were left open and spill everywhere.
The smell was bad enough to make Nikki's head pound more.
She grabbed Lucas's hand as he was about to step in the room and got him to turn to her.
"Everything okay?" Lucas asked, immediately showing his worry for her.
"Can we just step out? I can't deal with the smell," Nikki answered honestly.
"Yeah," Lucas nodded, wrapping an arm protectively around her and leading her back into the living room.
They waited a minute in silence as Nikki got the pounding under control. She smiled at Lucas giving him the go ahead to talk since he looked like he wanted to say something.
"How are you doing?" He asked quietly.
"My back and head are killing me, but I'll live."
Lucas gave her a relived smile. "How are you feeling?"
Nikki had to think for a second before finally turning to him. "Not good, but then and when was the last time I had a good feeling."
Lucas opened his mouth to say something but he quickly dropped it when the rest of the group enter.
Nancy had a bottle of wine in her hand and looked like she was into something. The couple rejoined the group as she crouched to the carpet to examine a stain.
"Blood," she announced to everyone in the group. Nikki looked at the wine in her hand and saw that too was covered in blood. "Yesterday, Tom had a bandage on his forehead. He was attacked."
The group followed the small trail of blood that led to the garage where a piece of rope laid like it was waiting for them to find it.
"They must have tied them," Jonathon told the group. "They must have taken them somewhere."
"Mrs. Driscoll," Nancy crossed her arms in thought. "She kept saying 'I have to go back'. What if the flaying...it's taking place somewhere else? There must be a place where all this started, right? A source."
"Somewhere he didn't want me to see," El said.
"If we can find the source, then maybe we can stop him. Or at least stop it from spreading or doing whatever the hell he's doing with those chemicals."
"How do we find it?" Nikki asked, looking to El who shrugged in response.
"Mrs. Driscoll," Will answered. "If she wants to go back so badly, why don't we let her?"
Nikki could feel the pit building more in her stomach. She was about to speak up about it when she about every other time of when she did. She knew if she said something nothing would change their minds. She was still going to follow them endlessly telling them to not do it over and over until the very thing she warned them about killed her.
Lucky me.
Authors note
Yay! Another chapter out! And this within a good amount of time of the last post
Love ya!!❤️❤️❤️