"𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒂𝒔𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒂 𝒉𝒚𝒑𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍."
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It was dark by the time they got back. Aside from Hopper's comment earlier, the ride was completely silent. The chief wasn't going to start questioning until Joyce was there and Halley had no idea where to even start.
The kids clambered out of the car once Hopper had pulled into the driveway, and just as Halley was shutting the door, Nancy was bolting from the porch, where Jonathan and Joyce still stood, and practically tackled Mike in a hug. He stood there, and even with his back turned to her, Halley knew he was completely unsure how to react.
Nancy took his shoulders and stared at him, "I was so worried about you."
"Yeah. uh... me too," Mike said. Glancing around. Halley had taken the other two boys under her arms as she hadn't had a chance to really appreciate them being somewhat safe yet. Eleven, who was weary of the people around her, stood more off to the side, and watched how they interacted.
Looking past Mike, and at the girl she had never seen before, Nancy gave Eleven a calculated look. "Is that my dress?"
Reading the room, Halley let go of Dustin and Lucas and stepped forward, effectively taking away the attention from El. "We should get inside, it's cold and we don't need anyone seeing us if they drive by."
Joyce nodded, seeming to break out from a trance she had gone into after seeing the boys. Halley expected it was due to the lack of Will.
Noticing an unsure look etched across Eleven's face, Halley gently took her hand and led her toward the door. "Come on."
Halley and El were the last in the house, closing the door behind them, they followed the others into the living room, where the kids had taken a seat on the couch and Hopper and Joyce stared down at them.
Grabbing a blanket off the top of a chair and wrapping it over El's shoulders, Halley spoke up. "Alright. So obviously this is bad." El nodded with her small hands curled tightly around the soft fabric. "I've already explained the little bit of this," she gestured to the boys, "at least what I know. But what the hell were you guys doing out there. You said yourself that 'bad men' were coming and I don't see any man worse than the fu-" she stopped herself from cursing, not that her mother would care too much given the situation. "Why were you so far away in the middle of nowhere?"
"We were looking for Will." Dustin was quiet, and didn't look up from the ground, but it was loud enough for the five uninvolved in what had happened to hear.
Halley shook her head. "Try again. You and I both know we heard him on your radio thing."
"He's telling the truth, Halley." Mike was more confident than Dustin, and his eyes begged her to believe him. "Really." He stood up and grabbed a piece of paper from their kitchen table. No one said anything as he continued to draw a crude stick figure and what Halley assumed was a bug on opposite sides of a crooked line.
"Mike-" Nancy said, but he waved her off.
"No, no, look," he held up the paper from the group, "So, we're the acrobat," he pointed to the person, "Will, and Barbara, and that monster are the flea. And this," he gestured to the side of the paper separated from the person, "is the upside down. That's where Will is. Mr. Clarke said the only way to get there is through a rip of time and space."
"Mr. Clarke? Like your science teacher? He's in on this?" Halley asked, wondering how many other people they would have to track down.
Lucas shook his head. "No, uh, we just asked him under a hypothetical."
"Oh. Great. They asked him under a hypothetical."
"Anyway," Mike cut back in, "it's like a gate. And we traced it back to Hawkin's lab."
"With our compasses," Dusin said.
The boys were the only ones who seemed to understand that part. Halley and Jonathan looked at eachother, usually when one of the boys said something Will would be able to translate for them, but...
Dustin, picking up on the total confusion, continued, "Okay, so the gate had a really strong electromagnetic field, and that can change the direction of the compass needles."
For the first time since the car ride, Hopper spoke, "is this gate underground?" he had taken a seat in a green chair by the window, and his face wore an expression that Halley couldn't quite put her finger on.
"Yes." El said.
"Near a large water tank?" Hopper was looking at her now, leaning forward in the chair.
"Yes."
"How... how do you know all that?" Dustin asked, looking between them.
Wind blew from outside, rocking old branches against their window. Hopper didn't answer the question. But he didn't have to. "He's seen it," Mike said.
Attention was turned as Joyce cleared her throat, "is there, uh, is there any way you could... that you could reach Will? That you could talk to him?"
Eleven nodded, an almost calm look on her face.
"And my friend Barbara," Nancy said quickly, "can you find her too?" the younger girl nodded again. And for the first time there was a glimmer of actual hope on Nancy's face.
Within the next two minutes, El gave one worded commands for the objects she needed. The young girl sat at the Byers's kitchen table, her eyes closed with Will's walkie and a picture of Barbara on a diving board in front of her. Everyone else was crowded around her, waiting on bated breath for a sliver of proof of something working.
Static played softly from a radio, and they could see El's eyes darting beneath her eyelids.
The overhead light flickered, and Halley moved closer to her mom, grabbing Joyce's arm— just in case. But nothing happened. The flickering ceased, and El opened her eyes. She was...disappointed, it seemed.
With quivering lips, El whispered out, "I'm sorry."
Joyce, with her death hold on Halley's hand, stumbled over herself as she tried to form words. "What-what do you mean? What was, what happened?"
"I can't find them," El said quietly, not meeting anyone's eyes. Joyce was up— walking away without a word and Jonathan was going after her.
Halley sighed. It wasn't El's fault. She was still a kid after all, and they couldn't just treat her like a weapon or a tool. She wiped her hand over her mouth, and stood up.
"Come on, Kiddo, it's okay." She helped El out of the chair and led her toward their bathroom to give her just a little bit of privacy.
For the most part, it was quiet. Halley could still hear a slight buzz of talking through the door, but El didn't seem to notice. The latter was standing in front of the mirror, the faucet running cold water, and she stared in the mirror.
Halley sat on the rim of the bathtub, trying to convince El that it was okay. From the reflection, she could see tears slip out from gloomy brown eyes.
The two were quiet for a moment, giving the situation enough time to really settle in.
"God," a pause, followed by a sharp and hollow laugh: "I need a cigarette."
El looked at her, her eyebrows pinching. "Halley? What is 'cig-a-rette'?"
Halley sighed, shaking her head. "It's... it's something that makes you feel like you're somewhere else. Like it tricks your mind into thinking you're in another place when your body's still right here." she pinched the bridge of her nose. "It's not good, Kiddo."
El cupped water into her hands and splashed it over her face. Rubbing slightly harder than necessary on her skin. She shut off the water, and turned to face Halley, her eyes wandered to the tub, "Idea."
She left the room before Halley could respond.
Trying to catch up and ask her what 'idea' was supposed to mean, Halley nearly fell over from some sort of unwelcomed dizziness. For a split second her head spun wildly with an ache unlike any she'd had before.
"Fuck," she muttered, crouching down against the tub wall for a moment. It felt like her eyes were buzzing, even behind her clenched lids, and a distant rush of water ran through her head. It reminded her of the quarry, from the nights when she couldn't sleep and wandered down to the cliffside.
She bolted upright as an image cleared and she saw Mike jump over the edge.
Jesus, she needed more sleep.
Halley thought about what she'd seen as she finally got up. It was strange, definitely, but explainable: she was tired as shit, and everyone in the town thought her brother drowned from falling into the Quarry. It was probably just her subconscious fucking with her. Unappreciated, but at least she had a logical explanation.
Just as she rejoined the rest of the others in her dining room, Halley caught what El had meant by: 'idea'.
"The Bath." The room stared at her. "I can find them."