The Weirdo on Maple Street part 2
Luna watched warily as Lucas and Dustin (which she had finally figured out were the names of the other two boys) walked into Mike's room and stared at them.
"Are you out of your mind?" Lucas shouted.
"Just listen to me."
"You are out of your mind."
"They know about Will."
"What do you mean they know about Will?" Dustin asked.
"She pointed at him, at his picture. They knew he was missing. I could tell." Luna thought this was strange as they could have easily just been wondering who he was since he wasn't with the others but clearly that possibility hadn't occurred to Mike.
"You could tell?"
"Just think about it. Do you really think it was a coincidence that we found them on Mirkwood, the same place Will disappeared?"
"That is weird," Dustin said.
"And they said bad people are after them. I think maybe these bad people are the same ones that took Will."
Luna knew that wasn't true but decided not to interject. It's not like they'd believe a giant Venus flytrap-esque monster had taken their friend.
"I think they know what happened to him."
"Then why don't they tell us?" Lucas turned to Luna and El. "Do you know where he is?" Lucas started shouting and grabbed El's shoulders. "Do you know where Will is."
Luna glared at Lucas. She knew he was worried for his friend but that didn't give him the excuse to treat El that way.
She grabbed his arm and pushed it away throwing him backwards. "Leave her alone."
He glared at Luna. "If you know where he is, tell us!"
Luna only gave him a stony gaze. They wouldn't believe her anyway. And it was better if they didn't get involved in this.
"This is nuts. We should take them to your mom."
"No. Eleven said telling any adult would put us in danger."
"What kind of danger?"
"Her name is Eleven? What's the other one? Ten?"
"My name is Luna," she snapped her mind flashing to Kate at the mention of her number.
"El for short."
"Mike, what kind of danger?"
"Danger, danger." Mike mimed the gun and pointed it and Dustin before turning to Lucas who smacked his hand away.
"No, no, no! We're going back to plan A. We're telling your mom."
Lucas rushed towards the door and opened it but it slammed shut seemingly by itself.
As much as Luna didn't want to reveal themselves she understood why El did it. They couldn't have adults knowing.
Lucas tried to open the door again but El slammed it shut once more, locking it for good measure.
The boys all turned to them as El, blood dripping from her nose simply said, "No."
~~~~~
Cora stormed into the house, trying to hurry upstairs as fast as she could, already bracing for her mom's angry voice. "Cora, don't you dare try to leave without having this conversation."
She groaned and flopped down at the table. "What?"
"Don't pretend you don't know what this is about. You punched a kid. Again. It hasn't even been two weeks since your last incident. At this rate they're going to expel you."
"Oh, no. Whatever will I do," Cora muttered drily.
"Don't use that tone with me. What's your excuse this time."
"He deserved it." Her mother scoffed. "He was claiming Johnathon Byers killed his brother. All I did was try to teach him a valuable lesson of having a little sensitivity.
"Is this about Ally again? Because that was years ago. You have to get over it."
"Don't say her name."
Her mom didn't even deserve to think about Ally. She hadn't cared at all that she died. Just had the funeral and moved on a day later. She hadn't even cried.
Cora bet she would react the same if she died so she didn't understand why she cared so much about what Cora did. Probably because she didn't what anything ruining her precious reputation.
Cora forced herself to clear her mind and see past the haze of anger clouding her senses. "And it's about more than that. It's about the fact that Will is missing and Johnathon and Joyce don't deserve to be bad mouthed like that."
Cora stood up knocking the chair. "And don't pretend like you care about me. You never have." Before her mom could respond she grabbed her backpack and ran up the stairs into her room.
She opened her locket and stared at the picture inside. The only memory of her little sister she had managed to keep. A picture of the two of them smiling and playing in the snow.
Happier than Cora can ever remember being.
~~~~~
Luna sat in Mike's basement after water teleporting down there while they were eating dinner.
El came down and sat next to her giving Luna a small smile which she returned. She started playing with the super-com when the boys came down.
"El. Luna. No adults. Just us and some meatloaf." At the blank stares of the two Mike added, "Don't worry they won't tell anyone about you two. They promise. Right."
"We never would have upset you if we knew you had superpowers." Mike hit Dustin but Luna smiled at the comment.
His excitement reminded her of how Ally was always convinced that their powers no matter how much harm they caused were a gift. She would tell them stories about all the great things they'd do with their powers once they got out.
Of course, Luna hadn't done much good with her powers since escaping. But she'd done considerably less bad as well.
"What Dustin is trying to say is that they were just scared . . . earlier. That's all."
"We just wanted to find our friend."
"Friend?"
"Yeah, friend. Will."
"What is friend."
"Is she serious?"
Luna turned her head away pushing back tears as they made up all sorts of stupid and gross examples for things that friends did. She had failed as a friend. She had left. And they all had to suffer for it. Especially Marissa.
Luna lay in her bed when the door opened and guards entered pushing the little blonde haired girl forward. "She's acting up again."
Luna opened her arms and wrapped Marissa in a hug. They always brought her to Luna when she 'acted up' as her room was closest.
"They want me to do the experiments but I don't want to. They're scary." Luna's heart sank. They had all known that this was coming.
Marissa was four now. The same age they had all been when starting the experiments but she just seemed so young. Of course besides for Marissa, Luna was the youngest so she'd never had to go through this before.
Luna stroked her hair soothingly until she calmed down. "You won't have to. I promise. I won't let them. None of us will."
"But how can you stop them?"
"I have my ways. I'm quite a mystery Mar."
She giggled slightly. "No you're not Lun."
Luna did have a way to convince them not to but it was dangerous and it led to her leaving them all behind.
~~~~~
Luna was lounging on Mike's couch when El got up and walked over to the D&D board. Luna stood up, walking over to her trying to figure out what she was doing.
"What's the weirdo doing?" Lucas asked.
El closed her eyes placing her hands on the board. El opened her eye and picked up a piece from the board. "Will."
"Superpowers," Dustin whispered.
"Did you see him on Mirkwood? Do you know where he is?" Luna was very curious of this answer as well still not entirely sure what the monster was or where it was from.
El threw all the pieces onto the ground and flipped the board, placing Will's piece on it.
"I don't understand?"
"Hiding."
"Will is hiding?" El nodded her head not looking up.
"From the bad men?" She shook her head at the same time as Luna.
"Then from who?" El grabbed another piece this one of a monster that reminded Luna of a hydra.
It certainly didn't look like the creature she had seen but it might have been the best description El could give.
Luna looked at the boys regretting that they had gotten involved with this. Whatever this creature was it was deadly. And she didn't think they were prepared to handle it.