Chapter 17: Drained
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Ten minutes later, and Dustin was on the phone to his science teacher, asking how to build a sensory deprivation tank. The question wasn't out of the blue for Mr Clark, but it was ruining his movie night, so it wasn't the Best.
Tee was sat at the table in between Nancy and Mike while Dustin was calling Mr Clarke. The three had been sat in silence when Nancy decided to talk, still not really believing that Molly was in front of her.
"So... Molly," Nancy starts, making the girl look from Dustin to her, "Do you remember me?"
"Not r-really," Tee admits to the girl, "s-sorry."
"She doesn't remember much," Mike said to Nancy, "like at all."
"Does she know about the thing?" Nancy asks, meaning about her being the cause of her own mother's death. Tee gives her a confused look as Mike shakes his head vigorously.
"No," he answers quickly, making Tee look at him in confusion too.
"What thing?" She asks the two.
"Nothing," They Both say together. Tee sends them both a glare before looking back at Dustin.
Dustin came over to the table with the phone still in his hand, asking for a notebook to write down the ingredients. Joyce passed it to them as Tee made the phone to be on loud speaker with her powers. Dustin thanked her with a nod as he placed the phone down so he could hold the notepad still as he wrote.
Nancy stared at Tee, still shocked at her power as everyone listened to Mr Clarke say ingredients.
When Dustin was done, he wished the science teacher a good night before hanging up.
"Do you still have that kiddie pool we bobbed for apples in?" Dustin asked Joyce, pointing his pencil at her.
"I think so," the woman answered, looking at Johnathan to back her up. He nods too, casting his mind to where it was, "Yeah."
"Good," Dustin said, looking back down at his list, "Then we just need salt. Lots of it."
"1,500 pounds worth," Lucas muttered looking at them all.
"Well, where are we gonna get that much salt?" Nancy asks them, leaning back in her seat.
"I think I know a place," Hopper grunted, getting up and ready to go.
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Everyone was now at the school, Going desperate ways to do their jobs. Joyce was with Tee and El in a science room - getting El ready for the bath.
Tee was messing around and looking around the room filled with cool gadgets as Joyce made El a blindfold with science goggles wrapped in duct tape. She looked though a magnifying glass at Joyce and El. It made her giggle, they looked funny.
"This will keep it dark for you." Joyce told Eleven as Tee sighed and put the magnifying glass down. She was scared it wasn't gonna work and she was gonna let everyone down. "Just like in your bathtub."
Tee turned away from the two as she tried to keep calm - she was nervous and scared and worried that it was all going to go wrong.
"You're Both very brave girls," Joyce says to them, Tee doesn't turn around as she looks over at a diagram of a cell, "You know that, right? Everything you're both doing for my boy... for Will... for my family. Thank you."
Tee finally sat down on top of one of the tables, looking over at Joyce and Eleven - Eleven looked scared of what was to come, and Tee was glad Joyce was there to offer comfort Tee couldn't provide.
"Listen," Joyce whispered, taking El's hands, "I am gonna be there with you the whole time. And if it ever gets too scary in that place, you just let me know, okay?"
The sight made tea both sad yet content - After all of this, El had Joyce, who clearly cared for the girl a lot. Tee didn't feel that way - she didn't have a figure like that. No Joyce, Hopper scared her.
She turned away from the two, to look out of the window to the dark world outside, a sigh leaving her lips as she tried to calm herself down, because at the end of the day that's the only person she can rely on.
"Yes," El whispers, Joyce let's put a ghost of a smile.
"Ready?" She asks El, who takes a moment, but finally replies back with a quiet, "ready."
Joyce looks over to Tee, who was sitting on the table looking out the window distantly and stands up, walking towards her.
"You ready, Tee?" Joyce asks her softly, putting a hand on the small girls shoulder. Tee barely nods not moving her eyes away from where she was looking. Joyce patted her back before looking back at el.
"Then let's go," Joyce smiled.
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Mike stood staring at Tee as she fiddled with the radio, getting it right so it would work when El was in the bath. El was getting ready to get in the bath, as Tee put it down. She sighed looking at it until she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked to see it was Mike, sadly smiling at her.
She barely smiled back as she took the hand on her shoulder into her own to get a small amount of comfort.
"Are you ready?" Hopper asked El as she held the goggles in her hand. Tee stepped away from Mike, who looked at her confused as she stepped a couple feet away from everyone. Hopper looked over at Tee, "you ready, kid?" He asks her, earning a nod.
"Voltages Jump at high amounts," Dustin explains to Mike who was still confused over Tee moving away from him as El put the goggles on, "she's gonna electrocute anyone within five feet of her."
"Okay," Joyce whispered as she took one of El's hands - Hopper took the other and together they helped get El into the bath. It was silent as El lay back. Tee instantly felt her whole body become icy as she stared at El - the girl already in the upside down in her mind.
Tee started to connect the two worlds, it making the electricity above them flicker wildly for a few seconds as they began to hear feet pattering and heavy breathing in the radio.
"She's there," Dustin whispers to Lucas in shock as Mike stares at Tee. The girl had furrowed brows as she kept her eyes closed, focusing on Eleven in her mind.
The radio crackled before they heard Elevens voice inside of it, "Barbara?"
They heard the sound of running water, and a squelching noise as Elevens breath picked up.
The lights flicked on and off madly for a couple seconds as little flashes of electricity were seen on Tee's hands.
"What's going on?" Nancy asks Mike as she stared at Eleven who looks distressed, before shouting, "Is Barb okay? Is she okay?"
There was a scream from Eleven over the radio as she cried out, "Gone! Gone! Gone! Gone!"
Tee's hands cracked loudly with Electricity as she tried to keep focused, Elevens screams ricocheting through her head like a round of bullets, "Gone! Gone.
Gone."
"It's okay," Joyce comforted as El continued to cry both in real life and over the radio, although in person it was a whimper, over the radio it was a scream of bloody murder.
"It's okay," Tee whispered, knowing El would be able to hear, "y-you're okay. We've g-got you."
El calmed down hearing Tee's voice, and the cracks of electricity stopped coming from Tee's hands as El stopped screaming.
A few seconds later, the radio let out El's voice again, saying "Castle Byers. Castle Byers."
They heard the girl walking towards it, and opening the curtain.
"Will," They heard Eleven whisper over the radio as the lights flickered again.
"Will?" Joyce gasped, "You tell him tell him I'm coming!"
"T-tell him h-his mom is coming," Tee whispered so El would hear it. The radio went out for a couple seconds as Tee began to feel weak, but she quickly caught the connection again.
"Your mom... she's- she's coming for you" El whispers to Will.
"Hurry," They hear Will's weak voice over the radio, making everyone look both shocked and thankful.
"Listen, you tell him to... to stay where he is," Joyce says, Tee repeating it as she says it, "We're coming."
"They're coming, Will," Tee whispers as her hands begin to crackle again and her knees get weaker.
"Just... just hold on a little longer," They hear Eleven say as Tee's knees completely give out from under her - her eyes ears and nose starting to bleed as she tries to hold on a little longer.
"Tee, you can stop," Mike says, trying to move closer, just Dustin stops him.
Eleven watches as the world she's in starts to turn into dust - Tee losing the connection and Will leaving from under her hands.
Tee's hands blew out a large spark of electricity, as her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fell backwards. El jumped out of the bath with a gasp as Mike and Nancy ran to Tee.
Mike grabs her head, lifting it onto his knees as he moves the hair out of her face. Her face looks pale, with blood covering it.
"Tee? Tee? Can you hear me?" Nancy asks, moving to grab Tee's face to try and get a response - Tee groaned as her eyes fluttered slightly, blood falling like tears, as she looked up at Mike.
"You did good, tee," Mike whispered, smiling down at her, "thank you, thank you so much."
"I-I'm tired," Tee whispers, her head hearing white noise.
"You'll be okay," Nancy tells her, "it'll all be okay."