CHAPTER NINE:
"Bad Friends."
VIOLET cried all the way back home from the junkyard. And when she returned to her empty three story house, she was so exhausted and drained that she was out like a light as soon as her head hit the pillow on her bed. She slept through the night and she woke the next morning to someone running their fingers through her hair, when she opened her eyes she was faced with her mother, Carrie Harrington.
Her mother pulled her into her arms, and she held her close as Violet clung onto her for dear life as the tears ran down her face. Even though she had hardly ever seen her mother, she was grateful that she took her into her home and raised her like she was her flesh and blood. Despite her absence, Violet loved her.
And after all the hurtful things that Lucas said to her the other day, she really needed her.
Carrie suggested that they should have breakfast together, so they could catch up and talk about what she had missed while she was out of town on her business trip with her father Marcus Harrington. Violet found it to be a good idea, since she didn't have anything else to do, and her friends... well, she wasn't even sure that they were her friends anymore.
If they ever were to begin with.
When they got to the diner, Violet hoped her mother hadn't heard about the happenings in town, but since the place was so small, word traveled fast about Will Byers. Apparently, Will wasn't the only person who went missing in town. She was surprised to find on the news on the box TV above the diner counter that Barb, the girl from Steve's little get together that she helped was gone, too.
Not to mention that she didn't even make it home that night. Just like Will hadn't. So, without a doubt, she was in the Upside Down.
She wondered if Nancy Wheeler knew, considering Barb said that she was her best friend. Would it be too much of a stretch to assume that both Joyce Byers and Nancy Wheeler knew something about what was really happening? She doubted if they had, but she had to think.
What if?
As they ate their food, her mother talked about what she did during her business trip, and Violet played the part of a girl mourning her best friend and talked about Will's funeral. Her mom reached across the table and grabbed her hand, telling her that she was sorry that she wasn't there for her. Violet told her that it was okay, and that she was just happy that she was here for her now.
She couldn't tell her mom the truth, she'd never believe her anyway. She would just say she's being delusional and not accepting the fact that Will was gone, and she really didn't care to have that talk with her.
She had her own plan, and it didn't involve the other boys. She was gonna go back to the lab and get into that gate, fight off whatever monster was lurking inside of there and get her best friend back. Even if she had to kill the monster of a man who started it all, she was gonna bring Will home.
When her breakfast with her mom came to an end, and the afternoon rolled around as she got back home, she walked up to her room and told her mom she was gonna take a nap. When in-fact, she was gonna dress up for a rescue mission and make an escape through her window.
She put a black DC Raven t-shirt, a pair of black jeans that she rolled at the ankles, and she pulled on her signature purple jacket. She styled her hair into two braids that rested on her shoulders, and she stuffed her feet into her black and white chucks.
Then she walked to her closet and pulled out the extra sheet she used to make El's fort, she sat on the edge of her bed and tied the sheets into rope, then once she finished making the rope she needed she opened up her window and threw it down. Once she made sure it was close enough to the ground below, she walked over to her backpack and grabbed her compass before zipping it up and pulling the straps over her shoulders.
She glanced over at her desk at her walkie for a few seconds, she doubts she would need it, but the better part of her leads her to the desk to pick it up and clip it to her jeans. She locks her bedroom door, and crossed over to her window. Then she carefully climbed out and gripped onto the sheet that hangs out her window, she slowly goes down it, and eventually her sneakers hit the ground.
She bolts around the house and makes her way to the garage, she opens it and prays that her mom doesn't hear her as she grabs her bike and walks it out before putting the garage back down. Before her mom even has the chance to wonder who opened their garage, she hops on her bike and gets to pedaling, leaving her home behind her as she begins her journey back into the woods.
Since she didn't remember exactly where the lab was hidden smack dab in the middle of the woods, she used to compass that was strapped to the handle bars of her bike to lead her there. As she walked around the trees, smashed leaves beneath her sneakers, and stepped on twigs, she heard movement from somewhere behind her.
She halted in her steps, her eyes wide as she looked around for whoever was in the woods with her. Then, she hears a twig snap and she whipped her head in the direction that it came from. Her eyes landed on the mocha skinned boy with his bandanna tied around his head, and an orange jacket over his arms, as his hands gripped tightly to his bike that he was walking through the leaves.
It was Lucas, the very last person that she wanted to see.
"Violet?" He asked her, his tone filled with disbelief. She rolled her eyes and turned around, keeping her pace as she continued forward. "What are you doing here?"
A scoff leaves her lips, "The hell does it look like I'm doing, Lucas?"
"I thought you didn't care about finding Will." Lucas assumed, striking a nerve in her.
Her head snapped back to look at him, her words were sharp. "Well, you thought wrong." She looked forward again, "I can't believe that you would even think for a second that I don't want to bring Will home. You may not believe it, but he's my best friend, too."
"I can't believe anything you say, not after yesterday." Lucas replies to her bitterly, "You're a traitor. You played us. You let us believe that we were finding Will." He scoffs a little ways behind her, "But what I can't seem to understand... is why? If you're here right now and you're looking for him, then why did you do it? Why did you screw with the compasses. Why did you lead us the wrong way?"
A heavy sigh heaves from her chest, and falls from her lips. She couldn't keep it from the boys forever, they would find out eventually. She might as well just tell Lucas the truth right now, because even after what he said to her yesterday, he was still her best friend. And she would always care about him, no matter what. And she didn't want him to hate her, it was time for the truth to come out.
"Lucas." She she keeps walking as she goes to speak, "You're right. I am a traitor. Me and El screwed with the compasses, and we sent you guys off the path to the gate. But I did it to keep you safe." She halts in her steps, glancing back at him. "I know where the gate is. And I know how it got opened in the first place." His face is washed over with shock, and a breath leaves her lips as she turns forward and keeps walking. "Feel free to ask your questions. I'm not gonna hide anything from you anymore."
"Where's the gate?" Lucas asked her almost immediately.
"Hawkins Lab." She answered him simply.
"Did you know the whole time?" He questions her again.
She shook her head, "No. I didn't, not until I noticed El acting strange like you did. When you said you saw us talking behind you on the tracks yesterday, she told me everything."
"And why didn't you tell us?" Lucas continued to ask, picking up his pace as he walked behind her.
"Because I promised her that I wouldn't. And you of all people know how important promises are." She shakes her head as a soft scoff falls from her lips, "But that makes me a hypocrite, doesn't it? I promised no more secrets, then I hid a big one from you guys." She glanced down at her shoes, "I don't blame you for hating me, Lucas."
"Hey," Lucas catches up, then he slows down to walk alongside her. "I don't hate you, Vi." She looks up at him, meeting his dark ebony eyes. "I'm just angry. That's all."
Violet nodded understandably, "You have every right to be angry with me, Lucas." She ducks her head down, "I know you have more questions. Go ahead, ask me."
Out of the corner of her eye, she sees him nod his head. "How did El know where the gate was?"
"Because she's seen it." She inhaled deeply as she prepared herself, knowing she was about to drop a huge bomb on him. "She opened it."
Lucas gapes, then his face hardens as he grows angry. "I knew it!"
"But she didn't mean to!" She quickly spat out, her eyes wide as she halted in her steps and turned to face him. "She was forced to. The head scientist there, his name is Dr. Brenner, he controlled all of us there. If he wanted the gate open, then none of us would have a choice. Not unless we wanted to be punished. Trust me, Lucas, if she had a choice she wouldn't have done it. I know that you don't trust El, but please, trust me."
She looks into his eyes imploringly, and after a moment or two, his facial features softens and a small sigh leaves his lips as he shoulders drop. "Fine." He lets out reluctantly, "I trust you, Vi." She feels a weight lift off her chest, "You told us about the lab, and what you, El, and all those other kids had to deal with. I believe you when you say that El wouldn't have had a choice."
"You do?"
He nods his head, "Yes, I do. And I believe that you only stalled us yesterday because you wanted to keep us safe. Which means you do care about Will, and you didn't want to put the rest of us at risk when he already was." A guilty look washed over his face as his eyes soften. "I'm sorry for what I said yesterday. I didn't mean any of it, I was being a bad friend to you."
Violet sent him a tiny empathetic smile, "It's okay, Lucas. I was being a bad friend, too. I should've told you guys right away, not kept it from you and screwed you all over."
"I get it." Lucas replies, sending her a small smile of his own. "You just wanted to protect us."
Violet smiles, "I may not be apart of the party, but I'm always gonna be there to protect you from danger if I can. All of you."
A smiled pulled at Lucas' lips, "You know, it's never too late to try and get into D&D. Maybe we could get El into it, too. You both can be our Mages."
Violet snorted, "El can be a Mage. I wanna be a Witch."
"Mages and Witches are two different-"
Violet huffed dramatically as she cut him off. "Just let me be a witch, Lucas!"
He chuckled to himself, shaking his head. "Okay, fine. You're a witch."
Violet grinned goofily, "Awesome."
They made it to a hill that they had to trudge their way up, and once they arrived there they were faced with a metal fence. She walked forward and placed her hand onto the curved metal, then she glanced down at her compass and saw the needle moved, her eyes shot up to her left and a sigh falls from her lips.
"We're not there yet, the compass is moving down along the fence."
"Oh, man." Lucas grunts in frustration beside her.
"Come on," Violet urged him softly, "We're almost there."
Together they walk their bikes down the trail of fences, following their compasses and the direction they sent them in. Eventually, she stopped when the needle stayed on north, not moving as much as it was before. She looked through the fence, but she couldn't see much, not over the multitude of trees.
"I can't see anything." She turns to Lucas, "Can you?"
He shakes his head, "No, can't see shit."
She huffs out a breath, "Fuck." For a split second she decides to throw all caution to the wind and climb the fence, but then, her gaze moved over to the tree close by them, and a small smile began to grow upon her lips. "Hey, Lucas?"
"Yeah?" He asked her, turning her way and noticing her smile. His brows furrowed, "What's that face for, Vi?"
She flashes him a mischievous grin, "You up for some tree climbing?"
The both of them leave their bikes on the ground, and make their way up the tree by the fence. They balance themselves as they climb onto the thick branch and they find an end where two thick boughs meet and they perch themselves there. Lucas pulls his binoculars out of the his bag, then he offers them to Violet.
She frowns at him, "Why are you giving them to me?"
"You're from here." He replies to her, "You actually know what you're looking at."
She nods wordlessly and takes the binoculars from him, then, she puts them over her eyes and looks out of them. In her sights was the doors of the lab from a top level of sorts, it was maybe the highest floor and people were walking inside. No doubt that they were other scientists, and maybe people from the government.
"You see anything?" Lucas questions beside her.
She shakes her head as she moved her gaze up towards the roof, spotting a huge satellite dish. "Just people walking inside. Definitely scientists."
"Look down at the ground level." He suggested, and she nods and moves her head downwards to see.
In her view is a bunch of trees, but they're not completely in the way. Through the branches she sees what looks like an army truck leaving the parking lot, and as she followed it's trail her eyes widened she saw a whole bunch of white vans.
A shocked gasp left her lips as she lowered the binoculars, and she realized just what they meant. She had seen those white vans around town, in Mike, Lucas, and Dustin's neighborhood, and even in her own. But whenever she saw them she never thought anything of it. But that was the point, wasn't it? To make sure that they were unseen, so everybody in town was none the wiser.
But she understands now.
"Vi, what is it?" Lucas asked her, his voice tinted in slight panic. "Did you see anything?"
She doesn't answer him as she raised the binoculars again, watching as the vans drive out of the parking lot. Then she drops them and looks back at him, his dark ebony eyes are wide. "They've been watching us. All of us." She hands him the binoculars so he can see himself, "You see those vans that are leaving?"
"Oh, shit!" Lucas exclaimed, lowering the binoculars in his hands to meet her eyes. "The bad men?"
"Yeah." She nods her head and his eyes grow big, "The bad men."
—micaela speaks
YO.
So uhm, I REALLY love this chapter. I've been planning for Violet and Lucas to have this heart to heart talk for dayssss now.
Also, I've been watching The 100 like CRAZY. I started a couple days ago and now I'm on season 4.
I tried watching it a year or two ago, but for some reason I stopped like right at the start of season two, which was weird because I loved it.
I guess I just got distracted, but man am I glad that I gave it another shot.
This show is soooo fucking good.
Although the Alie and her A.I. plot line in season 3 gave me ACTUAL A.I. centered nightmares last night. I didn't know it freaked me out so much till I woke up, yikes.
But ANYWAYYY,,, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and I will see you all in the next one.