atlantis | stranger things
03 trouble of connection
-
narrator
jack went to work usually bored because he didn't have anything else to do. he would only see his friends in after hours and his off-days are always on weekends.
it was 10 in the morning as he opened the store. he put on his vest and name tag. the first person came inside.
"welcome to 'freddy's comics'." he spoke in a monotone voice.
the girl stared at him, confused. jack noticed it wasn't a customer but sophie. he chuckled. "i thought you were a customer."
sophie smiled. "i am a customer, i'm here to pick out something for henry. he's at scoops,"
jack nodded. "how's steve?"
"fine, you saw him yesterday at his house."
sophie went to see comics in an alsie, jack sat back at his chair, whistling.
another person came in, jack repeated his words, welcoming them.
his co-worker came in after a while, he decided he would get to scoops ahoy. turns out, sophie and dustin were there but no henry.
"where's henry?" he asked, taking a seat next to dustin. they shook their heads.
"don't know. he just left," sophie shrugged.
dustin took out a recorder and a book. "what's this?"
"the next big thing." he pressed on the recorder. russian words played, jack's eyes widened. "where'd you get this?"
"yesterday when after everyone ditched me. i was trying to reach my girlfriend, suzie, when this came on and i recorded it." dustin explained.
sophie grabbed the book. "so you're gonna learn russian?"
dustin grabbed it from her, opening it. "exactly,"
jack chuckled. "russian is hard to learn, bud. anyway, i gotta go back to work. welcome back to boring old hawkins." jack ruffled his hair.
dustin grinned at him, sophie rolled her eyes at his admiration. "what?"
"nothing. he's right, though. it's hard to learn russian."
later on, steve came and joined them. "hello there, guys. whatcha up to?"
"talking about how russian is hard to learn is all," sophie sarcastically smiled at him.
steve rolled his eyes and went to get dustin a banana sundae. sophie got up, "nice catching up with ya, dusty. i'll be back."
-
sophie went inside again after spying on the boys, going into scoops ahoy. she saw steve in the front. "where's robin and dustin?"
he pointed in the back as he gave the customer their ice cream.
robin was pacing around in room as dustin played the recording. "wait, that last part, just one more time. hey, soph!"
dustin waved at her. "okay." he reminded the tape, it continued back where she stopped it.
"okay, that word." he stopped the tape.
"it's pronounced. . . 'dly-nna-ya.'" she said. sophie sat on the floor, grabbing m&ms from her backpack. "dly-nna-ya," dustin repeated.
"which is spelled. . . d- d, d, d. . ." the buckley girl sighed. dustin got up at went to the board.
"the- the chair. the chair-looking thingy." robin wrote it down. "yeah, okay."
after forming the word, they had their first sentence. she opened the window. "we've got our first sentence,"
"oh, seriously?" steve came up to her. "yeah, the week is long." she said in a russian accent.
"well, that's thrilling."
"i know. but progress." she closed it again.
sophie watch robin sat back down, listening to the tape.
-
cameron went to the skate park with her skateboard. she saw charlie there, she waved at her. "char!"
charlie looked up from the ground where she was sitting at, cameron joined her. "hey, cameron. why are you here?"
"i was looking for you. because apparently, i don't know what nick likes as a hobby or something?"
charlie furrowed her eyebrows. "right! they said that he likes belly rubs and just running around like normal dogs do."
cameron grabbed her skateboard. "thanks, char!"
cameron skated back home, she realized she hadn't seen max that day yet. they always saw each other every day.
cameron did a u-turn back, heading to the mall where she figured max would be.
turns out, she was there with the boys and eleven. she hooked her arms around the two girls. "hello, ladies. boys. what's going on here?"
max tilted her head. "oh nothing, just that mike lied to eleven."
"as i was saying what's wrong with you?" mike asked max. "you know she's not allowed to be here." he added.
"if i may cut in-"
"shut up!" mike interrupted henry from speaking.
"what is she, your little pet?" max asked.
"yeah. am i your pet?" cameron quietly chuckled at mike's reaction to eleven's words.
"what? no!"
"then why do you treat me like garbage?" the younger girl asked.
"oh shit," sophie went beside cameron as she saw them.
sophie got on cameron's back to see better. "what is with everyone coming on my back?"
"what?"
"you said nana was sick." eleven stated.
"she is. she is. she is sick." mike turned to lucas, henry and will to ask for help.
"yeah, sick- she's sick." mike spoke. lucas tried to help.
"she's sick. she's super sick. that's why we're here, actually."
"yeah, shopping."
sophie chuckled. "shopping as in having three dollars and having nothing in their hands? shopping as in trying different perfumes and trying to buy expensive jewelry?"
mike looked at her with wide eyes. "you followed us?!"
"duh, henry asked me to." henry looked down in embarrassment.
"you lie." eleven suddenly spoke again, causing mike to look up from the ground.
"why do you lie?" she turned around to the bus there.
she stepped forward, getting near him. "i dump your ass."
cameron and sophie gasped as max's mouth dropped. "bomb dropped." henry whispered into will's ear.
eleven walked away from them. max, cameron and sophie who was still on cameron's back, followed behind her.
sophie got down. "sorry but i gotta go. dustin needs me inside."
cameron nodded. "sure, see you tomorrow?"
sophie nodded, running back inside. cameron sat down behind the two girls. "what a surprise! eleven and max getting along,"
max and eleven stared at her. "sure,"
the scoops ahoy trio were still working on the russian learning.
they went on like this for the entire day, sophie helped out. she went to the library to learn russian, especially on the letters.
when she went back they were closing. she went inside scoops ahoy, the trio were reading aloud.
"the weeks is long, the silver cat feeds, when blue meets yellow in the west." sophie groaned. "you kidding me?! i learnt russian for what?"
steve patted her shoulder. "sorry, soph."
robin hooked her arm around her shoulder as she grabbed her things. "sorry, strawberry."
steve closed the store when they were out of the store. "i mean. . . it just- it just can't be right."
"i triple checked after you guys read it, it's correct. robin did a good job, i doubt you two helped."
"thank you," robin put her head on her shoulder.
steve sighed, locking the lock. "whatever, i think it's great news." dustin stated.
"how is this great news? i mean, so much for being american heroes. it's total nonsense." steve chuckled, getting up from the floor.
"it's not nonsense, maybe you're the nonsense?"
"it's not nonsense. it's too specific, it's obviously a code." dustin chimed.
"what do you mean, a code?" steve asked.
"like a super secret spy code,"
"that's a total stretch."
robin lifted her head off of sophie's shoulder. "i don't know, is it?"
"you're buying into this?"
"we all are, stevie."
"listen, just for kicks, let's entertain the possibility that it is a secret russian transmission. what'd you think they were gonna say, 'fire the warhead at noon'?" robin explained.
"exactly,"
"see, she knows. y'know steve, for someone your age, they would think you'd be smarter." sophie shrugged.
"what's that supposed to mean?"
"you just proved my point!"
"and my translation is correct. i know that for sure because sophie happens to conveniently know russian for no reason, so. . . 'the silver cat feeds.' why would anyone talk like that unless they're trying to mask the true meaning of their message?" robin continued.
"exactly,"
"and why would anyone mask the true meaning of their message unless the message was somehow sensitive?" she pondered aloud.
"exactly,"
"dustin stop saying exactly. it's ruining my brain,"
"sorry,"
"so i guess that confirms your suspicion,"
"evil russians,"
"i can't believe i'm about to agree with this strange child, but, yeah, totally evil russians." robin giggled.
"so how do we crack it?" dustin asked sophie's thoughts.
"well, i guess we translate the rest and hopefully a pattern emerges."
"i can help since i've learnt the language itself."
"right. a pattern. right, like maybe 'silver cat' is a meeting place?"
"or a person."
"maybe it could be a time perhaps. i don't know, just maybe. when blue meets yellow in the west could be the clock there." she whispered to herself.
"second hand and first hand," she stared at the clock.
"or a weapon."
"it's probably gonna take like a super genius to crack it, but. . ."
"we already have that, you."
"where's steve?" they turned around to see the older boy, searching his pockets in front of a horse ride.
"hey, steve. what are you doing?"
"uh, it's a quarter. i need- do you have a quarter?" sophie ran to him, realizing his catch.
the music.
she handed him a quarter from her pocket. "sure you're tall enough for that ride?" robin asked as she and dustin approached them.
he inserted it. the same music played from the recording.
robin said something but sophie was so in her head to hear it.
the recording wasn't from russia, it's from here. why hawkins? what's so interesting- the upside down. shit.
-
jack reached his house, grabbing the plastic bag with chinese food inside. he sighed as he saw the lights on inside.
he went inside, locking the door. "cameron! i know you're. . ." he saw his dad in the living room.
"home," he finished.
his dad was drunk, his suit was drenched in some awful smell. "hey, son."
author speaks !
jack's father is an asshole is all i've gotta say. be prepared for the next chapter, it may be hard to take in his past
[ 1681 ]
edited: ✘