El was back at the cabin in her bed. She was lying down with her eyes closed but she was not asleep. She was waiting.
She was waiting until all noise had stopped, until Hopper had gone to bed. She waited there, longer than she thought she would. She knew he went to sleep late, but the wait seemed so long tonight. Maybe impatience, maybe he was up to something.
As she waited there she thought about what she was about to do. She remembered the last time she saw Barb. One of the last times anyone saw Barb. It wasn't a pleasant memory.
And despite this she was still going back. She was willingly going into that place to see a person she knew was dead...and rotting. Would she even still be there? Would she even be able to see that at all?
But that's what bothered her. Everything she had seen in that place, everything she was able to connect with was alive. Will was alive, her mom, her sister. How could she have connected to Barb if she was dead? She guessed is was possible to connect to something dead but...
There was just something so off about it. Even when she first saw her, she didn't say she was dead. She didn't think about it until now but when she saw Barb she said- Gone. She wasn't sure why she said it that way. She knew what death was, why did she say gone.
She turned over in her covers.
Because it felt right. These were the words that fell into place.
Maybe not. Maybe she just took the photo because she felt bad that Nancy was still so sad about her, maybe she just felt ...guilty. Nancy had said there was nothing that she did, but that didn't wave those emotion away.
The cabin was finally silent. She tip toed out of bed and grab the picture and the blind fold. She began her process.
She was there. She took a deep breath to prepare herself for what she was about to see.
She walked forward, slowly, toward the familiar mass on the ground ahead.
Barb was still there. In fact nothing much had changed at all. But it was still disturbing and put her on edge.
Her body was motionless and just like last time things werecrawling out of her mouth. Everything about her looked sick and awful, sad...
She wanted to run, she wanted to leave- anything. Just not but there. She started to cry, but she stayed there.
She tried to control herself and breath. Then she reached out her hand. She hesitated, pulled her hand back, but no, she had to proceed, she had to find out what she needed. Whatever that was.
She touched her face. She pulled it back quickly, startled by the results. Warm. She was warm. A fever even. She put her hand back on to confirm the results. She felt at her neck.
A pulse.