We just arrived at Heather's house.
When we got out, Nancy rang the doorbell, but no answer.
She pressed it again.
No answer.
Then Nancy and Jonatan looked at each other, and looked at El.
El then, of course, opened the door with her mind.
Then the door slammed open, only to reveal a house, mid-trashed up.
Then we all stepped inside.
"Tom?" Nancy called. No answer. "Heather?"
"Jesus, it's freezing." Max commented.
There was a weird smell.
"Do you guys smell that?" Nancy asked.
We entered the dining room, and to see a ruined table with chemicals and cleaning shit spilled all over it.
"Oh, jeez," I commented.
"Oh, God," Nancy said. "More chemicals."
We all got closer to it.
"You think they're guzzling this shit?" Jonathan asked.
"Yeah, either that or they just on a hell of a cleaning spree." Nancy said.
"But last year, Will didn't eat chemicals. Did you?" Max said.
"No," Will replied. "This is something new."
"Mr. Clarke, fifth grade. Posit. What happens when you mix chemicals together?" Mike asked.
"You create a new substance..." Me, Will, and Lucas jinxed.
"What if they're making something?" Mike said.
"In themselves? I mean, come on, if you drink this crap, it's kill you." Max said.
"Yeah, if you're human." Lucas said.
Nancy looked around, as we headed for the dining room.
There were slightly burnt cookies on the table, left untouched, and spilled wine all over the table.
I looked ahead of me and there was a lonely wine bottle with a blood streak on it. There was also a splotch of blood on the rug. What?
Nancy grazed her fingers over it. "Blood," She said. "Yesterday, Tom had a bandage on his forehead." She picked up the wine bottle and looked at it. "He was attacked..." She looked around some more, as if piecing things together.
We looked ahead of us and saw a mini rug out of place and crinkled on the end, leading to the door, with a blood streak on it.
We followed the rug and saw yet another blood streak, leading into another room.
Nancy opened the door, leading into the garage, as we all flowed in.
There was a lonely rope with a few blood stains on the ground.
"They must've tied them," Jonathan said. "They must've taken them somewhere."
"Mrs. Driscoll," Nancy said. "She kept saying... 'I have to go back.' What if the flaying, it's taking place somewhere else? There must be a place where this started, right? A source."
"Somewhere he didn't want me to see." El said.
"If we can find the source, then maybe we can stop him." Nancy continued. Or at least stop it from spreading or doing whatever the hell he's doing with those chemicals."
"How do we find it?" El asked.
"Mrs. Driscoll." Will said. "Is she wants to go back so badly, why don't we let her?"
We all looked at each other.
-
Now, we were in the hospital, where Mrs. Driscoll was, apparently.
The woman at the front desk was chatting away, as we tried to sneak past her distracted ass.
"See, you're the only one who gon' tell-- Whoah, whoah, WHOAH! Excuse me!" She got up. "Where do you think you're going?"
Nancy looked a bit defeated. "Oh, um... I was just going to visit my grandma again."
The lady put her hand to her hip and gave us a sassy face.
Nancy continued. "And-- and this..." She looked at us, "this is my family."
She stared directly at Lucas.
"Extended." He said, giving her a fake grin.
"I don't care who they are, you know the rules. Two visitors at a time." She sassed.
"Yeah, but--" Nancy trie to speak.
"TWO!" She got back to her phone. "Girl, this child has lost her mind."
I rolled my eyes, and Nancy brought Jonathan with her.
The rest of us were in the lobby, waiting for something to happen.
Mike went with Lucas to get a snack at the vending machine.
I looked over at them, but heard no sound of a snack falling down.
"Oh, come, you piece of shit!" Mike said, and started banging the machine. I snickered.
Suddenly then there was a light bang and I heard all the snacks fall down, and looked at EL.
She wiped her nose.
Oh, I wonder what could've possibly happened to the vending machine. (Note the sarcasm)
"Thanks," I heard Mike say.
I let out a deep breath, and tied my hair up, because it was prickling my neck.
Hell, I had nothing to do, so I was stuck pacing in the hospital lobby. Nice.
Then I slid down against the wall, waiting for something exciting to happen.
Oh boy.
-
It was only a few minutes, and it's felt like days already.
Lucas was throwing Skittle into Max's mouth, and Mike, I think, of course, was going to talk to El, which is making things just a *tad* bit more boring.
Yay.
I looked at Mike, and he sat down next to El. He signaled Will with his eyes to get out, and I felt bad for Will.
I mean, Will did get up and leave, but maybe it's both of us that feel that all Mike and Lucas are focusing on these days is GIRLS.
Girls, with a capital G.
And actually, before I realized, Will was sitting next to me.
"Oh, hi." I said, dully, not looking at him.
I still wasn't 100% ready to face any of them yet. In fact, I don't know if I ever will be by now.
"Hey," He said, popping a Skittle into his mouth. "How you holding up?" He said, trying to start conversation.
"Been better." I said, still trying not to look at his gorgeous face.
It was hard, okay? Trust me. If you were in this moment, you'd say the same.
(You know it's true if you love Will XD)
There was an awkward moment of silence.
"I'm sorry... you know... about everything that's been going on..." He said.
"No, I deserve it. I lied, and friends don't lie. I'm the one who should be sorry." I said.
He paused for a second. It was like he didn't know what to say.
Then, I guess, to break the awkwardness, he offered me some Skittles.
I took some, and popped in my mouth.
"Pyrokinesis, though. That must be pretty cool." He said, chewing.
"Yeah, I nearly burnt my house down when I discovered I had it." I said, with a laugh on the end.
"Really?"
"Yeah, I set some random book on fire. I could've died," I said, with small laughs now.
We kept talking, and for those few minutes, I felt... normal.
I felt like nothing was wrong.
I felt like nothing happened, like I never lost anyone.
I felt... good.
After those few minutes, Will and I got up, and sat down on the chairs next to El and Mike.
But suddenly, Will looked up, like something was wrong.
"Will?" I asked. No response.
I looked up to try and see what was going on, and the the lights were flickering slightly.
Then they flickered more and more, as Will got up.
Wait--
No, no, no...
"Will?"
I looked at the others, whose attentions had been grabbed, too.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
Was the Mind Flayer up?