Time to add to my rewrite of season 3 of Stranger Things. Sorry it has been ages since I even began this fic, I do want to keep up but unfortunately I suffer from a case of extreme procrastination. Whether I can keep this up regularly is anybody's guess. But for now, here is the newly-rewritten Holloway house scene from episode 5. Hope you enjoy and review below
The Wheeler's station wagon pulled up on the Holloway's driveway. All the doors opened as Nancy, Jonathan and the kids clamoured and climbed out from all sides. Nancy looked up at the house. She wasn't sure why, but she felt a domineering leering presence that she couldn't shrug off
Since El's vision of the lifeguard Heather Holloway, whom had turned up missing the day before, only for her and Max find her safe and sound, in her house making dinner for Billy and her parents. And now they knew Billy was the new host for the Mind Flayer, and after their boss's obvious but strangely forced outburst, Nancy and Jonathan wanted answers
Nancy rang the doorbell. There was no answer. Just a cool summer afternoon breeze blowing. She rang the doorbell again. And again, no answer. Jonathan even knocked on the door, just to be safe. They turned to each other, and then back towards Eleven. She frowned her brow at the door, and the latches unlocked from the inside. The door quickly opened with a short creak. Jonathan and Nancy peeked inside, before crossing the threshold, followed by El and Max, then the boys. At first glance, it didn't look that out of the ordinary, with the exception of the carpet folded and creased along the floor
"Tom?" called Nancy "Heather?"
"Jesus, it's freezing" said Max as she folded her arms. Even if the weather outside was cool for a summer's afternoon outside, inside felt like winter on a bad day
Mike looked back and decided, possibly instinctly, to block the closed door with a shoe, leaving a gap between the door and the latch, just in case they needed to get out in a hurry. He hoped it wouldn't come to that, but since they were pretty much breaking and entering into a a stranger's home, and Hopper wasn't around to give them an alibi, he didn't want to take any chances
He caught up with the others down the hallway, where they had followed Nancy and Jonathan into the living room
"You guys smell something?" They all sniffed out of unison, and they were right. Something strong and off wafted around them
Nancy and Jonathan turned around to the kitchen, where they saw the kitchen counter had been torn from the wall, and now sat like an island in the mess. There was a massive gaping hole in the back of it, which looked like it had been torn away, where they could see the insulation inside. A dozen spray cans, packets and cans, all empty, lay in a blanket of powder and dripping liquids all around the kitchentops
"You think they're guzzling this shit?" said Jonathan, picking up a bottle of Mr Clean, which seemed like the top had been ripped clean off
"Either that or they went on one hell of a cleaning spree"
"But last year, Will didn't eat chemicals" said Max "Did you?"
"No. This is something new"
"Mr Clarke, fifth grade. Posit. What happens when you mix chemicals together?"
"You create a giant mess in the middle of the classroom, which we have to spend all of lunchtime mopping up"
Mike just glared and pouted at his friend, to which Lucas just smiled away
"Theoretically, what is supposed to happen?"
"You create a new substance" Will answered
"Exactly, what if they're making something?"
"In themselves?" asked Max "I mean, come on. If you drink this stuff, it'll kill you"
"Yeah, if you're human" finished Lucas. The long silence between them was worrying
Nancy turned her head, and walked away into the dining room. The Holloway's dinners still mounted with uneaten food, wine still in their glasses, even Heather's tray of cookies just sat there on the table, uneaten and unchecked, like the whole family had just vanished. El and the kids followed Nancy and inspected the room, where she noticed an empty wine bottle lying on the floor – their first clue. She walked over, and spotted a large, red stain on the carpet
"Someone tell me that's just wine" said Max as they all walked over
Rubbing her fingers over it, Nancy grimly answered her question "It's not. It's blood". The kids just stared, the fear all over their frozen faces, and an unpleasant taste in their mouths. Sure, they had dealt with monsters before, but somehow it felt more real, and more terrifying. Jonathan kneeled down to Nancy's point of view. Nancy picked up the bottle, and saw a streak of blood on the label
"Yesterday, Tom had a bandage on his forehead" remembering her and Jonathan's earlier confrontation with their ex-boss Tom Holloway, who had a plaster on his temple. They didn't think much of it at the time. If only they had known sooner
El turned around to the hallway, where she noticed the messy rug, leading to a side corridor that led into the living room. She looked down and saw a streak of blood on the carpet floor, only partially covered by the rug. Nancy got up and also examined the scene
"They dragged them through here" she deduced. Nancy led the Party down the corridor, through the living room and past the staircase. She saw that the skirting board of the wall in front of them was open a few inches. Upon opening it, they saw a door, going down to the garage
Will was just following behind, when a sudden *THUMP* came from upstairs. He looked forward to see if anyone else had heard. Which they hadn't, they just kept following behind Nancy and Jonathan, so Will took a deep breath and decided to venture up himself, unbeknownst to anyone. As he took the first steps up, he could feel a familiar cold shiver run along the nape of his neck, but he wasn't sure if it was him sensing the Mind Flayer again, or just the basic human feeling you get when you're scared. He had almost reached the upstairs landing, when a hand grabbed his shirt from behind. Will gasped and turned around in fright, scared what he was feeling was going to pull him down the stairs. Or worse
"Hey, what are you doing?" whispered Max
Will took a few deep breaths, breathing out all the oxygen into his now stretched-out-of-fear lungs. "I heard something"
"It's a big house. It was probably nothing"
At that moment, they heard a sound coming from one of the rooms, like someone was shifting along the floor. The upstairs landing looked completely normal, like the rest of the house, and yet, like the rest of the house, nothing was normal. Will and Max took a last look at each other, before they finally walked along the corridor, to what seemed to be the master bedroom. They passed a door on the way over, with pink, glittery stickers almost falling off. Max had a feeling this was Heather's – or what used to be Heather's – room. She wanted to turn the brass knob to peer inside, see what kind of girl Heather had been
She opened the door and peeked inside the room. A bed with cushions and regular floral covering lay neatly in the middle of the room. The wallpaper was horribly pastel, but it seemed Heather made up for it by covering it with posters and various other magazine pages, pinned on the wall. Shelves with cuddly toys loomed over the bed. Sat just beside the door was a desk with a huge mirror, and boxes placed neatly along. Max was almost jealous of the serenity of Heather's room, in comparison to her own, which was never this tidy. She and Will would've fully gone inside, had there not been a *Bang* coming from the next door over
Meanwhile, back downstairs, Nancy, Jonathan and the three remaining kids had entered the garage, unknowing they were 2 teenagers short. Once again, everything looked normal. El looked down and spotted a pile of rope discarded on the floor
"He must have tied them up" said Jonathan, picking up the rope "And taken them somewhere. Where though?"
Nancy thought for a second, then finally realised "Mrs Driscoll. She kept saying "I have to go back" What if the flaying, it's happening somewhere else? Where it all started, right? Like a source"
"Somewhere he didn't want me to see" said El, remembering her vision of Billy during her sleepover
"Maybe if we get Mrs Driscoll, we can maybe find out where the source is"
"You know what's weird?" announced Mike from behind them
"What?" asked Nancy
"Anyone else think all this is a bit too easy?"
"What do you mean?" said Jonathan
"I mean if I just kidnapped a whole family and made them tear up the kitchen and guzzle a bunch of cleaning stuff, I would at least clean it all up, you know, make it look like nothing happened? So no one would get suspicious" answered Mike, pacing around "And that bottle, anyone else think it was so conveniently put there? Like they expected someone, like us, to come in here and check this place out?"
So what, you're saying Billy and Heather might still be in the house?
"Well I don't know. Just if they knew we were coming, they could've left something for us?"
"Like what?" wondered Lucas, to no answers from Mike or anyone. Humour was his coping mechanism, but this was not a great time to tell jokes
Mike turned around, to see the large chest freezer, sitting in the corner behind them. A wave of fear filled his body "More like where?" Everyone followed Mike's gaze towards the freezer, and suddenly the air around them became cold, everything became still. Mike slowly crept over to the freezer, El following close behind. She was not ready to let her guard down again, not with Mike. Nancy and the boys, who were further away, also paced slowly forward
Mike stared down at the freezer, unwilling to look what's inside, a mixture of fear and bravery swelling inside him. He then turned to El, the two locking eyes and immediately telling each other what to do, like a psychic link. El, watching with full concentration, turned her gaze to the freezer lid. They heard the sound of a lock clicking, and Mike reached down for the handle. The three others watched with .
With El glaring intensely at the freezer lid, Mike whispered "One…
Two…
Three!"
Mike quickly lifted the lid, and winced in anticipation. El gasped, waiting for the oncoming carnage. But nothing. Mike opened his eye, and they both looked inside. Nothing. Out of the ordinary anyway. It was just a normal freezer, the only thing inside were bags of frozen foods.
"It's okay, it's just a normal icebox" called Mike to the others, who all sighed with relief
"Jesus, Mike" sighed Nancy. He then looked around, noticing something was off. "Hey, where's Max and Will?"
As they all headed for the door, instead Mike reached inside and grabbed a bag of frozen peas, pasting them to his bruised face
"Ahhh" he sighed loudly. The four teenagers turned back in surprise, El was more confused seeing Mike with half his face covered by a massive frosty bag. "What?" he asked "I left my ice pack at home. My face is burning like a bi-" Mike was rudely interrupted by a creaking, directly above them
Will grabbed the brass knob, and turned it. Inside was indeed the master bedroom, with a queen-size bed in the middle of the room. Sitting on the bed was Janet Holloway, still in the clothes she wore last night. But something was off, she was all hunched over, with her back looking away from the door. Her hands were in her lap. The creaking sound of the door continued on, until it finally stopped on the side of the wardrobe with a *bump*. Janet remained still, she didn't react or respond to anything
"Mrs Holloway?" said Max nervously
''Mrs Holloway'' still didn't react. For a few seconds, until she started releasing a faint growling. She slowly stood up, her back arching up as she did. Her body then remained still, standing up with her shoulders back. Then there was a small cracking sound. Her face peeked behind her prepped hair, but her body just stayed rigid and straight. Her neck started to fold and wrinkle, as her head twisted a full 160 degrees, coming in full view of Max and Will in the open doorway. Despite having twisted her head behind her, the woman's face remained deadpan, no afflictions or emotions. Until suddenly, her mouth opened up and let out a huge screech, that hit the doorway like a sound wave from an amplifier. Will's body became frozen in fear; he recognised that screech from anywhere, it haunted him even to this day
When Janet finally stopped screeching, her face returned to her deadpan expression, despite her head had twisted behind her. Her arms then twisted fully around, her body arched backwards, pushing her stomach up. Her feet twisted around as well to grip onto the bed like hands. Fortunately, her dress barely tore. The contorted creature suddenly lunged forward, walking on all fours, off the bed, like a giant black widow spider, scurrying towards the doorway, towards her prey
Will, finally snapping out of it, grabbed the doorknob and pulled the door towards him, shutting it with a loud bang
"What the hell was that?!" cried Max. She suddenly screamed slightly to a sudden bang on the door. She stepped backwards, with her back to the opposite wall along with Will, as the door bended outwards repeatedly, with every forceful push. Thankfully, Mrs Holloway – or what used to be Mrs Holloway – didn't understand how inward doors worked, but it didn't look like that would stop her
Max just remained frozen in fear before Will shouted "Come on!" and the two ran down the landing corridor, and bounded down the stairs back to the living room, where Nancy and the others had just reached
"Where the hell were you guys?" asked Lucas
"Getting the hell out of here, that's where we're going!" shouted Max. Will was already by the open front door
"What?"
They were interrupted by the sound of breaking, splintering wood coming from upstairs, and a loud screech similar to the Mind Flayer's
"Come on" shouted Will from the open doorway. Max grabbed Lucas's hand and pulled him along. The other two estranged couples ran after them
They all sprinted out the front door, and back into their respective places in the car. Jonathan fired up the engine and locked it in reverse, before El had even shut her door. They reversed out of the driveway at full pelt, almost knocking into the brick wall by the sidewalk, before speeding off down the road. Nancy took one last look at the house, and she could've sworn she saw Mrs Holloway against the top window, for a split second
What was that?" said Jonathan
"It was Mrs Holloway. At least… at least it looked like her" said Max, breathing heavily
What do you mean?" asked El
"I don't know" answered Max, trying to catch her breath. She keeled over to rest her head in her lap, her ponytail draping over her head, with a worried El's hand rubbing her back. Lucas couldn't do anything but look on at his girl–ex girlfriend, freaking out over what she apparently just saw
"It was a trap" said a voice from behind them. Mike, El and Lucas all turned around to the source, Jonathan looking in the rear-view mirror
"It was all a trap" announced Will "The Mind Flayer knew we were coming. That house, Mrs Holloway, it was all set up because it knew it could get us there. It separated us, it almost did get us" The three of them looked at each other, as did Nancy and Jonathan. Max's blue eyes became as big as saucepans. These past few days were becoming a bit too much for young Maxine
Not wanting to admit he was right, not right now, Mike just asked from the back of the car "So, what do we do now?" as he draped his arm over his knee
"We're going to the hospital. And we're going to finish this, tonight" said Nancy
"After this week, we're all gonna need some fucking medical help" whispered Lucas to himself
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Disclaimer, I do not own Stranger Things, the characters or the script.