Chapter 4: Superpowers
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Tee was standing in the bathroom half an hour after what had happened in the wardrobe. She'd been in there the whole time just staring at her reflection.
She felt numb, papa had hurt her so much and now she was free. She should be happy and excited for the life she has awaiting her - but she's not.
She washed her face with water for the umpteenth time as a knock was heard on the door, she froze, scared of who it could be before she heard Mike's voice.
"Tee? Are you okay? Can I come in?" He asks her. Tee walks over to the door and opens it, letting the boy into the bathroom as she goes back over to the sink and wipes her face on the towel next to it.
"Are you okay?" Mike asks her as he watches her - he was worried. He'd never seen so much terror in one face before, clearly she'd been through something very traumatic.
She nods her head lightly as she stares at her reflection, "Just M-M-Memories," she shrugs, looking down at her feet for a moment.
"You have a stutter," Mike pointed out to her, "I've never met anyone with a stutter before."
"I-I did-didn't used t-t-t-to," She says to him, Mike looks at her in surprise. She definitely had better English than El.
"Tee, whatever happened to you I won't let happen again, okay? I'm not gonna lose you, I'm gonna keep you safe and away from the bad men," he tells her, stepping towards her.
"P-Promise?" She asks, mike nods.
"I promise," Mike says, "cross my heart and hope to die." Tee gives him a weird look, "it's a saying."
"Oh," She whispers, looking at her feet. Mike stares at her for a moment; the girl was beautiful, really beautiful, yet also familiar. Where had he seen her before?
"Come on, El's waiting for us in my room," he says putting out his hand for her to take. She takes it hesitantly and lets him lead her out of the bathroom, trying to forget about the memories that haunted her.
-
"Are you out of your mind?" Lucas asks as he and Dustin walk into Mike's room. Tee and El were sitting on the bed, El once again finding herself staring at Tee. The boys noticed it and thought it was weird; it made El look more insane.
"Just listen to me," Mike tries, casting the boys attention from the two girls and back to him.
"You are out of your mind!" Lucas says again, his voice raising as he looks at his friend.
"They know about Will." Mike says quickly to them, causing them both to stiffen up slightly in shock.
"What do you mean they know about Will?" Dustin asks, Mike sighs and picks up the photo the two had recognised earlier.
"El pointed at him, at his picture. She knew he was missing. I could tell," Mike says pointing at will and then at Fee.
"You called her El?" Dustin asks.
"Short for Eleven," He says simply, brushing over the topic as if it was normal - but none of this was.
"Eleven-" Dustin starts to question, only to get cut off by Lucas.
"Doesn't matter, You could tell?" He asks Mike.
"Just think about it. Do you really think it was a coincidence that we found them on Mirkwood, the same place where Will disappeared?" Mike asks them, causing the two boys to think for a moment.
"That is weird," Dustin points out, his eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly in thought and worry but also hope; maybe they could help with Will.
"And Tee said bad people are after them," Mike says, "I think maybe these bad people are the same ones that took Will. I think she knows what happened to him."
"Then why doesn't she tell us?" Lucas asks, he looks over at the two before walking over, "Do you know where he is? Do you know where Will is?" He asks grabbing Tee's shoulders.
"Stop it, you're scaring her!" Mike shouts at Lucas, knowing how fragile Tee was after earlier.
"She should be scared! If you know where he is, tell us!" Lucas says to Tee before looking at El who had tears in her eyes as she looked at him in anger.
"I-I don't!" Tee says to him with a little anger - who was he to treat her like that?
"This is nuts," Lucas shouts at the two boys behind him, turning towards them as he spoke before the boys could interrupt, "We have to take them to your mom."
"No! Twelve and Eleven said telling any adult would put us and them in danger," Mike argued - he really wanted to keep the two safe.
"What kind of danger?" Dustin asks, a small amount of alarm in his voice.
"Their names Are Twelve and Eleven?" Lucas asks.
"Like I said earlier, Tee and El for short," Mike says with a small eye roll, getting agitated with Lucas.
"Mike, what kind of danger?" Dustin asks again.
"Danger danger," Mike says before copying Tee's actions from that morning where he put finger gun to their heads.
"No, no, no!" Lucas says slapping Mike's hand away, "We're going back to plan A. We're telling your mom." Lucas says opening the door, but El closes it with her mind.
When Lucas tried to open it again, he jumped back, the thing suddenly causing a small shock of static electricity to go through his body.
"No," Tee spoke as the two had Blood dripping from their noses, glares on their faces.
-
Tee walked down the stairs when Mike, Dustin, Lucas and Mike's family ate dinner. She was already bored of staying inside - she'd been inside for so long that she was getting sick of it. She didn't run away just to be kept inside again.
She walked around and heard the boys choke as she walked down. She assumed she did the wrong thing and ran back upstairs again.
This wasn't as easy as she thought.
-
"El? Tee?" Mike asks, walking to the basement where the two were messing with the supercomm. He has a tray with him and Dustin and Lucas following behind. "No adults. Just us and some meatloaf."
El smiles at him as Tee stares at Dustin and Lucas, still keeping her guard up. Mike notices. "Don't worry. They won't tell anyone about you guys. They promise. Right?" Mike asks the last bit to the boys behind.
"We never would've upset you if we knew you guys had superpowers," Dustin says in awe, Mike slaps his leg, "Ow!"
"What Dustin is trying to say is that they were just scared... earlier. That's all." Mike explains.
"We just wanted to find our friend," Lucas tells the two.
"Friend?" El asks them.
"Yeah, friend. Will?" Lucas says, confused as to why El is asking.
"What is "friend"?" El asks.
"Is she serious?" Lucas asks Dustin who shrugs. "Um, a friend-"
"Is someone that you'd do anything for," Mike cuts him off.
"A-Anything?" Tee asks.
"Yeah," Dustin smiles at her - she had a speech impediment like he did. "You lend them your cool stuff, like comic books and trading cards."
"And they never break a promise," Mike adds
"Especially when there's spit," Lucas says.
"Spit?" The two girls ask, confused.
"A spit swear means..." Lucas spits into his hand, "you never break your word. It's a bond." He puts his hand in Dustins. Dustin makes a disgusted face.
"That's super important, because friends they tell each other things. Things that parents don't know." Mike explains, Tee stares at him as El stares at Lucas and Dustin. Dustin was still disgusted and couldn't help but smile at the 'friends'
-
"What's the weirdo doing?" Lucas asks. Watching El sit down at the table, in front of a board game, Tee glared at the boy for using such a word. She was messing around with a toy on the side.
"El?" Mike asks, El picks up a figurine for them all to see.
"Will," She says, meaning the figurine represented will.
"Superpowers," Dustin mumbles.
Mike sat down next to El and tried to get an answer to his burning questions, "Did you see him? On Mirkwood? Do you know where he is?"
El moved all the pieces off of the board and turned the board upside down. El put 'Will' back on the bottom of the board.
"I don't understand," Mike says, confused.
"Hiding," El whispers, looking at the board intently.
"Will is hiding?" Dustin asks, She nods at him.
"From the bad men?" Mike asks carefully. El shakes her head, "Then from who?"
El bent down on the floor and found a demagorgon figurine, she put it onto the board.
All the boys sighed as Tee took a step back. Dustin put his hands behind his head and Lucas rolled his eyes.
While Lucas didn't believe, Dustin did. If two girls had superpowers, anything could be real. You just never know.
The boys really didn't know, because while they were hopelessly trying to find their friend, there was something bigger, scarier and stronger than all of them, taking Barb for a feast.