CARDIGAN | SEASON III ; ACT II
.୧ ‧₊˚⋅☀️ chapter 13 ━━━━━━ ❛the flayed❜
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A MUTUALLY SHARED FEELING OF AWKWARDNESS LINGERED. The night prior, Ara had blacked out form loss of blood. She had now woken up and was in the down stairs bathroom with Mike who was fixing her up now that they had actual medical stuff in their reach.
She sat on the counter as Mike tried to find a wet rag to wipe off the blood. The two of them stayed silent for a moment before Ara spoke up.
"Thank you." She spoke slowly, her voice was hoarse.
"I should be the once thanking you." Mike said. "You shouldn't have done that." He wiped the blood.
The two stayed there in silence. There was a tension in the small room. Mike couldn't help but want to say something. Anything. Just make it known how he felt about her.
"Hold it in place." Mike told her as he went to search for a big enough bandage. "Here." He said softly as he placed the bandage.
Ara got off the counter and looked at herself in the mirror. She then turned back to Mike. She only then realized how close she was to him.
"Um-I think everything's good so just tell me if you don't feel okay." Mike stammered. Ara nodded and he opened the door.
The basement was silent as well. Max went into the bathroom with El to help her get clean up and Ara sat down on the couch, sharing a box of coco puffs with Lucas.
"Something's not right. Hopper's hiking to Illinois with Will's mom and Dustin's MIA, too? I mean, this can't be a coincidence." Mike said.
"What does it matter? The bottom line is, they're not here." Lucas stated. "It's up to us."
"Up to us to do what exactly?"
"Find Billy and stop him." Matt suggested.
"Okay, yeah, that's a really nice sentiment, but even if El could find him again, and that's a pretty big if, then what?"
"We burn the shit out of him and make sure he doesn't escape this time." Lucas added on.
"Okay, then what?"
"Then we win."
"No, see, that's the problem. We don't. We don't win. We got the Mind Flayer out of Will before and he just came right. We don't just have to stop Billy, we have to stop the Mind Flayer."
"How in the hell do we do that?"
"I don't know."
"Maybe El does." Will spoke up.
"What are they still doing in there." Mike asked.
"I don't know. Girls just like hanging out in bathrooms." Matt stated.
"You know we can still hear everything you're saying, right." Max said, chuckling.
A knock on the door could be heard.
"Not now, mom." Mike yelled.
"Mike, open the door."
"Nancy?"
----
"It was the same thing. The exact same thing that happened to Will last year." Nancy explained hastily. "And look at this. Look at the body temperatures."
They looked at a document with noted temperatures.
"He likes it cold." Will said.
"Okay, so this crazy old woman who was eating fertilizer-" Mike started.
"Mrs. Driscoll." Nancy corrected.
"Right, yeah, Mrs. Driscoll. What time was this attack?"
"Last night."
"Right, but what time last night?"
"Around 9:00."
"You waited all night to call?" Johnathan questioned.
"I was waiting for the doctors to run some test."
"You weren't there?" Will asked.
"Well, I'm here now, aren't I?"
"Hallelujah!" Nancy said sarcastically.
"Ooh." Lucas muttered while Matt tried to hide the fact that he was chuckling a bit.
"Um, so what time was your sauna test?"
"Around 9:00." The kids chorused.
"Well, that proves it. That proves my theory."
"She's flayed, just like Billy." Mike stated.
"Flayed?" Johnathan questioned.
"The Mind Flayer. He flays people. Takes over their mind. Once they do that, they basically become him."
"If there are two flayed-"
"We have to assume there are more." Will finished.
"Heather." El stated. "Billy was doing something to her. She was scared. She was screaming. Bad screams."
"What's a good scream?" Lucas asked and Ara thought she had choked on something.
"Max and Ara said-" El said before Ara and Max cut her off.
"Doesn't matter." The two chorused.
"I'm sorry, I'm lost." Nancy said. "Who is Heather?"
"She's a lifeguard at the pool."
"Heather Holloway?"
El nodded her head vigorously.
"Tom." Nancy and Johnathan said.
----
Nancy rang the house's door.
Then she rang it again.
She paused for a moment and then looked at El. The door then opened wide and they all entered.
"Tom?" Nancy called out. "Heather?"
"It's freezing." She muttered under her breath.
"Do you guys smell that?" She went on.
They then went to the kitchen and various cans of toxic chemicals were spiralled on a counter.
"Nor chemicals."
"You think they're guzzling this shit?" Johnathan asked.
"Yeah, either that or they just went on a hell of a cleaning spree."
"But last year, Will didn't eat chemicals." Max reminded.
"Did you?" Matt asked.
"No." Will answered. "This is something new."
"Mr. Clarke, fifth grade. Posit." Mike chimed in. "What happens when you mix chemicals together?"
"You crest a new substance." Lucas and Will answered.
"What if they're making something?"
"In themselves?" Ara questioned. "If you drink this crap, it'll kill you."
"Yeah, if you're human." Lucas commented.
They then went to the living. It was looking normal. Normal besides the wine bottle that was left on the carpet.
Nancy went over to examine it.
"Blood." She stated. "Yesterday, Tom had a bandage on his forehead." She then started. She took a closer look. "He was attacked."
Nancy saw the carpet in the hallway. It was ruffled up and more blood stains could be seen.
She opened a few doors and they made it to a room.
It, as well looked normal but there was some rope left in the middle of it.
"They must have tied them." Johnathan commented. "They must have taken them somewhere."
"Mrs. Driscoll." Nancy blurted out. "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 added.
"If we can find the source, then maybe we can stop him. Or at least stop it from spreading or doing what the hell he's doing with those chemicals."
"How do we find it?"
"Mrs. Driscoll." Will replied. "If she wants to go back so badly, why don't we let her?"
----
The car pulled up to the hospital. The group walking in, the walls plain. Maybe a few photos hung up. They walked past a woman, who seemed like a secretary, on the phone.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Excuse me!" The woman exclaimed hastily as they tried to pass through. "Where do you think you're going?"
"Oh, um, I was just going to visit my grandma again." Nancy began. "And- and this.. my family."
Ara tried to act casual although that wasn't really possible. The woman then looked at Lucas, suspicious.
"Extended." He added, a fake smile plastered on his face.
"I don't care who they are." The woman stated. "You know the rules. Two visitors at a time."
"Yeah, but-"
"Two!" The woman exclaimed. She went back to the phone.
Nancy and Johnathan went to visit Mrs. Driscoll and the kids stayed behind.
Lucas and Mike stood at the vending machine, the candy they had bought, stuck.
"Come on you piece of shit." Mike spoke. They two boys began to bang on the glass screen.
Subsequently, the candy, chips and chocolate bars fell out, to the surprise of the two boys.
They turned to El who was walking over. She tilted her head, signalling Lucas to talk to Ara and she spoke.
"Go talk to her." She blurted, motioning to Ara. Mike opened his mouth to speak but El cut him off. "You told me that you liked her and now's your chance. You won't regret it. I promise."
Lucas sat beside Ara.
"Hey." He spoke.
"Hi." Ara replied.
"I know you and Mike aren't really on great terms-"
"That's true."
"Yeah- but give him a chance. He knows he really messed up and he wants to make up for it. Give him a chance." Lucas finished.
After that he left and went over El and they stood together, trying to hide the fact that they were watching Mike and Ara.
Ara looked at the tiled floor, she held her knee to her chest, lost in thoughts soon to be interrupted by Mike Wheeler.
"Hey.." Mike exhaled.
"Hi."
"I brought skittles." He said as he opened the pack. He sorted out all the green ones and gave them to her.
"I know how much you hate the green ones so..." He said.
Ara rolled her eyes playfully. "Thanks."
She looked back to the floor. A small smile tried to creep onto her face. She missed the few months they had before they started hate-argue with each other.
Hate is a strong word and Ara knew, even if it was deep down, that she didn't hate him. She never did. Maybe it was because she just couldn't let go of that sweet little crush she had or maybe it was because she knew she was also in the wrong at times.
With either of those in mind, she didn't hate him.
Mike then paused in thought for a moment before speaking.
"Hey-look-I'm really sorry that I've been such a jerk to you recently."
Ara hummed and let Mike continue.
"I just- I felt like I was betraying El for liking you two at the same time and after you got bitten by the demo-dog I felt like I had to push you away to get rid of my feelings and to protect you but that honestly made things worst because we always fight for the pettiest of reasons and-I know that even with all of that I still had no right to be an ass. I didn't want to hurt you." He ranted.
To say that Ara was still going to be processing all that information later that night wasn't overreacting. But the thing that surprised her the most was the fact that Micheal Wheeler had a crush on her.
She didn't know what to say but three words came out of her mouth when Mike was ranting.
"I forgive you." She said, which caught the freckled boy by surprise. "And- I'm sorry too. I guess I was also sorta an ass."
They both smiled. Time seemed to stop for a moment like everything was going to be fine. Everything was going to be okay.
A moment went by and Ara tried to steal the rest of the pack of skittles Mike held in his hand but he had put them out of her reach.
"Oh, come on!" She laughed.
Mike bursted into laughter as she tried to tackle him causing the skittles to fall to the floor.
They cleaned up the mess they had made.
El and Lucas watched with smiles and high-fived each other for the job well done.
Mike then opened his mouth to speak again however subsequently the lights started to flicker and the group was on guard.
They got up from where they were, looking around anxiously.
El and Lucas the matchmakers
Idk what to say. This isn't really fully edited but like idk
hope you enjoyed
- Mary <3