chapter four:
i spy with my little eye (2)
DAY TIME
HAWKINS LAB
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AXEL STOPS HIS JEEP close to the entrance of the lab. all four of them grab their things and head towards the door. hopper grabs the bolt cutters to cut the chains from the doors. it looked the same as the last time joyce and hopper were there. they walked over the broken shattered door. scott stood behind joyce to protect her in case some evil scientist or demogorgan tried to attack her. he'd constantly look behind himself making sure no one was following them.
"hello?" hopper called out.
"shhh!"
"anybody home?"
he calls out again.
"i don't think yelling and letting the lab people know we are here is being cautious." axel whispers.
"we come in peace."
hopper ignores axel.
"hopper if some russian guy comes bursting through these doors and attacking you. i am not jumping in." scott says before stopping his steps and noticing joyce looking at a specific spot. "joyce?"
joyce was getting deja vu from the last time she ever saw bob. the last thing she saw of him was being tackled and attacked by a demogorgan. she could hear herself screaming. she could hear him screaming in pain. bob extended his hand to her as he was being attacked.
"joyce?"
scott calls again.
she snapped back to reality and looked at scott.
"what?"
"you okay?"
he asks.
"yeah and no, but i'll be fine."
she smiles. "let's go follow the guys."
scott doesn't say anything and walks side to side with joyce. he knew joyce being here was bothering her. "if you want to talk about it, i'm all ears. i'm a pretty good listener." he smiles as they walk. which made joyce smile. "it's just coming back here brings back bad memories from the last time i was here, you know? anytime, i think of the bad memories, i want to go back and redo them...i miss him."
scott gives her a sad smile. he felt bad for joyce, not one good thing had happened to her. first the divorce, then, will's disappearance, and now when she thought she had found love and happiness, she gets it taken away from her. life hasn't been fair to her.
"it's okay to grieve, but it's not okay to grieve forever. bob wouldn't want you to be sad forever, he wants you to go out there and do great things. we can't go back and redo all of this. it really does suck, but we gotta accept it and move on, you know? he wants you to create new memories. he doesn't want you to close your book just yet. you still have a lot more to write in it. he wants you to write in your book about you meeting someone, and making these beautiful memories with that special person. he might of already send that special person, but you stood them up." scott finishes.
joyce smiles as she looked at hopper. then, gives scott a motherly hug. "aw, thank you for listening to me talk. you know how to make a person feel better. you're my little hero." she says. the two follow axel and hopper as they continue talking not realizing they are being recorded by a security camera.
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DUSTIN CONTINUED LOOKING AROUND WITH HIS BINOCULARS, trying to still find their russian guy. of course, steve was bored out of his mind since he couldn't see sam anymore. she was back at her workplace after eating lunch with robin at scoops. her back was turned away from him with her earphones to her ear, listening to the russian recording. steve making noises with his lips until he waited for a signal from dustin.
"target acquired."
dustin announces.
"where?"
"ten o'clock. sam goody's."
"give me that." steve says as dustin hands him the binoculars. it was a blonde man with a duffel bag. "shit."
the boys look at each other.
"evil russian."
before the two could follow the "russian" guy. steve took a quick look at sam, who still had her back turned away. "okay, we can go now." he said as the two boys followed after the blonde man. they run up the escalators as they push everyone out of their way trying not to lose the guy.
"slow down, steve."
dustin says."
"we're losin' him."
"you're getting too close."
steve accidentally bumps into a guy. "watch it dickwad!" the guy yells grabbing the blonde man's attention. they quickly hide and pretend to seem preoccupied. once the blonde guy turns away, the boys resume to follow. they hide behind a wall as they watch the man walk into jazzercise.
"alright everyone, listen up!" the man yells as he unzips the duffel bag. "i just got one question for you." he pulls out a boombox stereo. "who is ready to sweat?" all the women begin to cheer as the boys seem dissatisfied about the blonde guy not being their russian, and just some stupid dance teacher. the blonde guy began unzipping his jacket revealing his purple tank top as he began moving his thighs and hips, and the girls followed.
"i have a girlfriend."
dustin says as he covers his eyes and looks away. steve watches the girls move their hips around. "i don't know about you henderson, but sam has a better ass than those girls." he says.
dustin shoves steve. "gross! that's my girlfriend's sister you're talking about, dude."
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SAM WAS REPEATING THE FULL
PHRASE that she and robin translated during their lunch. she was trying to figure out what the secret code meant. she continued to repeat it until she heard a knock from the back door of her workplace. she walked away from the service counter, as she checked the clock. shipment arrived. she unlocked the door as he greeted the delivery man. she took a glimpse at his uniform had the company LYNX TRANSPORTATION, and so did his hat.
"have a good day."
the guy says.
"yeah, you too."
she unhurriedly said still looking at his hat. the guy walked out as she followed behind him, stopping. his uniform had a silver cat at the back.
"silver cat." sam replays. "silver...cat." she says again when the realization hits her. she runs out of her workplace. "peter, i'll be back!"
"take your time!"
he shouts back.
sam runs as fast as she can to scoops ahoy to notify robin that she has cracked the code. she bursts through their break room as robin stands by scoops back door grinning.
"silver cat."
they said in sync.
the girls sprint out of the breakroom.
"move! move!" sam shouts as she shoves through dustin and steve leaving the boys confused. the girls stand in the middle of the mall.
"a trip to china sounds nice," sam says.
the girls look around until they see the imperial panda. "a trip to china sounds nice." sam smiles. robin then glanced at her notepad. "if you tread lightly." robin said as they looked around.
KAUFMAN SHOES.
"if you tread, lightly." robin smiles as sam does the same. sam looks back at her notepad. "when blue and yellow meet in the west." she says as the girls look around, spotting the blue and yellow clock.
"blue and yellow, meet west."
sam says as the boys walk up to the girls.
"guys, what are you doing?"
steve questions.
"we cracked it,"
robin spoke.
"cracked what?"
"the code."
sam smiles.
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THEY CONTINUED TO WALK THROUGH THE LAB until they made it to the gate of the upside down that allowed hopper and joyce locate will years back. hopper knocks on the wall. "no one's home." he says leaving joyce confused.
"all the cavities have been filled. i watched
them do it, joyce." hopper says. joyce began to remember the moment they saved will in the upside down ripping the mind flayer out of will.
"it's over."
he says.
joyce walks away as she sits near the stairs with the boys following her. "i feel like i'm losing my mind." she says.
"you're not losing your mind."
hopper says.
"we all are losing our minds."
axel joined.
"you know, the other day, i almost shot betsy payne's dog because it came rushing at me from behind this fence, and i...i swear to god, i thought it was one of those things." hopper says.
"last month, i almost killed axel with the nail bat because i heard him scream so loud. i thought that thing had got him. when this whole time, this fool was screaming at a spider. that was not cool, by the way." scott joined.
"the spider was crawling on the ceiling. it could have jumped on me and i would have died." axel defended himself.
"after all of this, you shouldn't be disturbed by spiders anymore, axel. that thing is what should be more horrifying than a stupid spider." scott argued.
"yeah i guess, you're right. i remember after tara coming back home from the hospital. i isolated her at home. i was too terrified to have her go outside because all i thought was that thing coming back and attacking her. i would even barricade all of our windows and her windows. i'd even be in her room as she slept, so i would make sure that thing wouldn't come back at night. if i ever closed my eyes, i'd get nightmares from the night the thing almost killed tara at the middle school. it got to a point where i was afraid to even sleep. sam would beg me to let her out, and assured me everyday that the thing was gone." axel rants.
"you guys know that i'm keeping a close eye on those things, right?" hopper says.
"yeah."
"because it's important to me. it is important to me that you guys feel safe, and your families. i would take my life, if it meant those things never hurt you guys again. i want this place to still feel like your home." hopper says as joyce sighs. hopper knows. "you'd think i'd find out about that?" he says.
"find about what?"
scott asks."
"gary called us and he said he's fixing up joyce's house to put on the market." axel responds.
"you're leaving?" scott says as his face falls. "no. no. no, you can't leave. you can't leave us. you can't leave me. i was starting to see you as a mom. you're the mom i never had during childhood. you can't leave. i mean, does the kids even know yet?"
joyce doesn't respond trying her best to not
cry right now. hopper sits in front of her, "after sarah, i had to get away...i had to get the hell out of that place, you know? outrun those, uh...those memories, i guess." hopper sighs. "i mean, why do you think i ended up back in this shit hole? but you have something that i never had. you have people that know what you've been through. you have people that care about you. right here...in hawkins."
"you have us."
axel says.
"us as in scott clarke too?"
joyce jokes.
scott looks at hopper.
"here we go again."
"it was a joke guys."
she chuckles as everyone chuckles with her. their moment was interrupted by a clang! sound coming from the inside of the lab. joyce flashes her light. "what's that?"
hopper and axel move towards
the sound. "scott, stay with her." axel says as the boys walk out to where the sound came from. they are walking around when a door creeks closed, the two reload their guns.
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THE BLUE AND YELLOW CLOCK MET WEST as scoops, dustin and sam were spying on the LYNX trucks leaving shipment for some guys with immense guns.
"look for imperial panda and kaufman shoes,"
robin says. steve is soaked and wet from the rainstorm since he chose to lend sam his only raincoat, so she wouldn't get wet. dustin was peeking through his binoculars. some dude whistling, comes out with loads of imperial panda boxes.
"they're with that whistling guy, ten o' clock."
dustin points.
"what do you think is in there?"
steve asks.
"guns, bombs."
"chemical weapons."
sam says. "whatever it is, they're armed to
the teeth."
"great." steve wipes the water off his face. "that's great."
one of the armed guys opens the big door
revealing more boxes.
"hey, what's in there?"
robin asks.
"it's just more boxes."
dustin responds.
"let me check it out."
steve says trying to take the binoculars.
"no, i'm still looking."
"lemme see it."
"hang on!"
the binoculars hit the roof making a loud thud sound. "duck!"
everyone hides under the roof. sam and steve not noticing how close their bodies were to one another. they had their hands intertwined tightly. obviously, dustin and robin noticed and they shared a look. sam being the first to notice. she saw their hands, and quickly let go. steve pulled himself away, pretending he felt uncomfortable. they sneak away before the armed guys can come looking for them.
"well, i think we found your russians."
robin says. sam was farther away from the others than usual, looking at steve who was walking in front of her. she couldn't lie, but when she felt their hands intertwined . she felt the electricity.
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HOPPER FLASHES HIS LIGHT AROUND as him and axel were still trying to find the person who was inside the lab with them. again, hearing a clanging sound as they follow it leading to a door while aiming their guns around.
"this hawkins chief of police! come out with your hands up!" hopper yells. "you hear me? hands up!" he yells before breaking the door open with his foot. no one was inside. they continue aiming around. axel notices a sliding door half way open. but no one was outside. a secretive man creeps behind hopper and throws a punch at him making hopper shoot his gun toward the wall. "axel!" he shouts before he falls to the ground in pain.
"hey!" axel shouts before he runs to the guy, shoving him against the wall as he flings a punch. the guy grabs axel by the collar and pushes him towards the sliding door. axel shoves the guy off of him as he throws another punch. the guy runs to him pushes axel up against a wall and punches him repeatedly. he lets go of him as axel collapses to the ground, moaning in pain. the mysterious man was way too muscular for axel to fight. the man kicks axel in the face with his foot making axel go unconscious. a tear streams down hoppers eyes as he sees the sight of axel's unconscious body. he forces himself and attacks the guy down as hopper continually punches him out of rage. the guy grabs hopper by the neck attempting to choke him, and punches him right in the rib.
"hopper!?"
"axel!?"
hopper heard the inaudible voices of joyce and scott. once the mysterious man heard someone else was there, he escaped before the others could encounter him. he left hopper on the ground coughing as he tried to catch his breath, and axel's body was unconscious on the ground. hopper crawls himself towards axel to check him. he still had a pulse, but wasn't waking up. joyce and scott came in as she gasped. joyce was standing by the door frozen. while scott checked up on axel. the revving of a motorcycle motor was heard outside. joyce walked outside through the sliding door to see someone driving away.
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THE GIRLS BIKED ALL THE WAY TO HEATHER'S HOME. after el seeing heather crying out for help, she knew there was something wrong. so did tara. max was still doubting this whole theory the other girls had come up with. but there was only one way to find out.
"is this it?"
max asks as she stops her bike. the girls stand in front of a big house with a red door. el nods.
the girls get off their bikes and walk to the door. tara not being able to peel off the feeling she was sensing.
"i don't know guys, there's something off," tara says.
"what do you mean?"
max questions as they walk.
"like something bad is going to happen. worse than the demo-dogs."
"you're probably still scared from what happened, last year. i'm sure nothing bad is going to happen. i mean we got the mind-flayer out of will, right?"
"i don't know."
tara was about to knock, but el stopped her. "i'll do it." she said. el focuses on the door as she makes the door open by itself. "what the hell are we going to say to heather's parents when we just walk in without knocking?" tara asks, a little freaked out.
"we'll just lie."
max whispers as they welcome themselves into the house. the girls go through a hallway of pictures, one being a family portrait of heather, her mother and father.
"this is her house."
max says.
"what?"
el questions.
"heather's house."
the girls hear a female laughing as they slowly walk to the dining room. matt laughing with heather's mother and father. his smile sinks when he sees tara "tara." he says.
"i-"
"we didn't mean to...barge in. we tried to knock, but maybe you didn't hear us over the storm." max finishes for tara. all matt does is gaze between tara and el.
"i'm sorry, who is this dripping all over my living room right now?" heather's father asks.
matt chuckles. "i'm sorry. janet, tom. this...is my future sister in law tamara, her best friend maxine and..." matt forgets el's name. he gets up walking towards el. "sorry, what was your name again?" he grins.
"e-"
"i'm sorry, we just wanted to make sure everything was okay." tara says before el can answer.
"okay? why wouldn't it be okay?"
matt questions.
"well, you called me by my first time. which no one ever does...remember?" tara clarifies.
matt chuckles as he looks at janet and tom. the couple smiled at him. "why can't i call you by your first name, tamara?"
"because-"
"where is she?"
el asks, stopping tara mid-sentence. matt quickly looks at el as they both stare at each other. "i'm sorry. where is who?"
heather walks out of the kitchen. "well, they're a little burnt, i'm sorry-" she stops. "more guests?" she questions.
"heather! this my future sister-in-law...tamara. her best friend, maxine. and, i'm sorry, i did not quite catch your name." matt says as he stares at el.
el looks at matt.
"el."
"el. now, what is it you were saying, el? you were looking for somebody?" matt asks. his voice sounding evil.
"i- i saw you-"
"your manager."
tara blurted.
"at the pool."
max joined. "yeah, he said you guys didn't come into work today, so we got worried. and matt, you never miss work. so, we got more worried."
"heather wasn't feeling so hot today. so, we thought we'd take the day off to nurse her back to health. but you're feeling just fine right now, aren't you, heather?" matt asks.
"i'm feeling so much better."
heather smiles.
tara scoffs. "so you're telling me that you forget
the date with my-"
"do you guys want a cookie?" heather cuts in as she extends the baking tray. "they're fresh out of the oven." she smiles.
"you-"
"no, thank you! we just ate, but we gotta get going. we're so glad to see you two okay." max smiles as she pulls tara away. "alright, bye!"
the girls quickly leave the house and bike away. matt watches el from the door. he visions the moment when el was closing the gate before the mind-flayer could get to her. his pupils dilate.
"eleven."
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"MALDITO IDIOTA!"
(fucking idiot)
tara cusses in spanish.
"tara."
"i'm not done!" tara yells as she paces back and forth in max's room. while el and max were on the floor watching tara rant. "¡me llamó tamara! ¡¿quién carajo me llama tamara?! eh, nadie. luego hace su fea sonrisa, sabiendo muy bien que no me gusta que me llamen tamara!" (he called me tamara! who the fuck calls me tamara?! uh, no one. then he does his ugly smirk, knowing damn well i don't like being called tamara.)
el inclines on max.
"what is tara saying?" she whispers.
"she's talking spanish. when sam and tara are really mad, they speak spanish very fast. all i know, tara is mad that matt called her, tamara." max explains.
"oh."
"¿entonces matt tiene la audacia de cuidar a la maldita heather en lugar de ir a su cita de aniversario con mi hermana? y heather pregunta, ¿quieres una galleta? galleta mi puto culo." tara continues to rant.
(then matt has the audacity to nurse fucking heather than go to his anniversay date with my sister? and, heather asks, do you want a cookie? cookie my fucking ass.)
"tara, english,"
max says.
tara sighs.
"sorry."
"it's alright."
"it's just weird. he missed his anniversary date with sam, but won't miss the day heather gets sick. it just bothers me. sam has been through enough and matt doing this?...something is definitely wrong." tara says.
"tara is right."
el spoke.
"guys, everything is fine. maybe, matt was joking around. her parents might of been busy, so he maybe stepped in to take care of her." max says.
"really? taking care of a women who can clearly take care of herself? max, if you really think about it. the way matt use to act and the way he acts now. it doesn't make sense." tar explains.
"and heather." el spoke. "the blood, the ice."
max looks at el.
"heather had a fever, so she took a cold bath, but she's better now. that has to be it. i don't where the blood even came from, but...we saw her. we all saw her. she's totally fine."
"but matt seemed wrong."
el says.
"thank you!"
max sighs.
"there's nothing wrong with anyone, i'm so sure they're both perfectly okay." tara and el were looking at each other. they both know something isn't right. no matter how many times max assures them. they know something is going to go...
upside down.