Hearing that, Charles turned pale, knowing this voice very well. "No! No! NO! Are you even hearing yourself?! You want to experiment on your kid, Martin!" the woman yelled back. "But he'll be a lot safer than out in the open! There are already rumors spreading in the neighborhood about him!" The man yelled back this time.
"Eli... I just want to keep him from becoming a tool, and in my opinion, the most appropriate solution is...": the husband calmly told his wife. Seeing no answer, the man pushed once more. "He'll be safe. He'll have other kids like him around. So, he won't feel alienated," the man assured her calmly.
The woman couldn't say anything and slowly started sobbing. She couldn't believe it and even now, she couldn't believe it. Her son had powers. The power to move things with his mind and to talk to animals, among other things. Her sweet little boy was in danger. The husband, Martin, walked up to her, wrapping his arms around her.
"He'll be okay… I promise. His powers… I'll deal with all that. I'll give us a week… A week to have a normal family, then I'll have to take him to Hawkins before the rumors reach anyone dangerous." The man told his wife, who was sobbing in his arms as if she had lost her baby at that moment. Slowly, she nodded back, not knowing what to do.
When the kid had come back from the kindergarten, he had picked up the depressed mood in the house. "Mom? Dad? What's wrong?" The boy asked his parents, worried about them. Though the man showed an expression that let any emotions on his face, inside, he was hurting deeply. Still, he remained composed.
But the mother wasn't the same. Hearing the worry in her child, she started sobbing and took him in her hug. "Nothing sweetie, everything will be fine." She told him, but mainly, it was to herself. She was going to be alright. That her baby was going to be okay. That night, Elizabeth Thomas started humming a lullaby to her son before sending him to sleep.
"Whenever you feel lonely, remember this lullaby, okay?" The mother told her son, who nodded back. She went back to humming the song, greatly relaxing the boy. For hours and hours, the mother continued humming the lullaby to her son, who had already fallen asleep. Watching his peaceful expression on the bed, she teared up again. But didn't stop her humming.
She continued this for 4 days straight. Every night, before sleep, she would start humming the lullaby to her son, who would listen to her happily and peacefully. There were now only three more days before the end of the time for their normal family time to be over. But something or someone had decided that it should end earlier. The rumors had reached a spy. A Russian spy who lived in the same town as the family.
Sara, with a snap of her finger, changed the scene again. This time, the house was filled with small holes, bullet holes on the walls. Everything was broken and in pieces. "Run Ryan! In the forest! GO!" she said, but the boy wasn't moving at all. Instead, with his nose bleeding, he was looking back at the house. Inside, there were 5 grown men with pistols in their hands.
Seeing her son not moving, she ran from her cover behind a wall towards her son, who was outside in the backyard. The men, seeing the woman, shot at her, most missed except two bullets. One went through her thigh, and the other landed on her lower back, to the left side. She cried in pain for a second, but still pushed through. Taking her son's hand in hers, and ran to the forest that connected to her backyard.
Behind them, the man exited the house and kept shooting at the mother and son duo. But it didn't take too long for them to stop. As soon as the mother and son entered the forest. They heard a loud roar, and some howls mixed with growls. Growls full of anger and wrath were aimed at the men who were on the porch now.
The boy looked at his mom, and seeing her in pain, he gave the signal. "GO!" he yelled in anger, adding fuel to the animals. Exiting the forest was a bear and a pack of 10 wolfs. But they weren't alone. The ravens, pigeons, and falcons in the area also dived at the men. The men yelled in surprise, retreating little by little and shooting at the animals.
With a new trace of blood coming from the boy's nose, he raised his arms at the armed men, precisely their hands that were holding their pistols. Without hesitation, he twisted their entire arms. Even the bone was twisted and snapped, making them all cry in pain now. The boy's summons, taking that opportunity, jumped at the men, eating them alive.
That day was the day the boy's power developed through sheer anger. He could sense that whenever they were about to go unconscious, he would wake them up. Making sure they felt pain for attacking his mom. Elizabeth, still in pain, looked at the animals feasting on the men, who were screaming in their mother tongue.
"Ryan…" she called out to her son, who turned to look at her with worry. His lower face filled with blood coming from his nose. The veins on his face were visible to anyone. His cheeks sank deeper into the boy's face. Making it seem like he hadn't eaten anything for days. His eyes were hollow and filled with anger, but they were also filled with pain. So much pain.
Hearing his mother, he couched to her in worry. "Mom…" He called out to her. The mother, even though she wanted to say something, the pain was too much. Taking notice of that, the boy used his powers on her, and slowly, the pain was gone from the woman's body. Sensing that, she was greatly surprised. Looking at her son, who restarted bleeding from his nose, she wiped his lower face.
"Thank you…" she said, not knowing what else to say. With now tears filling in the 5 years old's eyes, he started sobbing in fear, the situation hitting him now. She smiled and brought the boy in her hug and started humming the lullaby that the boy loved very much. Though she was feeling sleepy herself, she stayed awake and continued to hum the song to her son.
The animals that had killed the men circled the boy and the mother. Expressing their sadness in their own way. Some howling to the world, others lowering their head. The humming had continued for more than 40 minutes before it stopped. Elizabeth Thomas had fallen asleep forever. Sensing that his mother was no longer alive. His rage grew.
The peddles that were on the ground were crushed to dust and slowly levitated, dirt and the dust as well. Slowly circling the boy, it kept growing and growing. Until they circled the entire forest in a fury of dirt and dust and stone storm. The boy, still in his mom's stiff arms, continued to cry in anger.
Slowly, even the trees got crushed, turning into dust, feeding the unnatural storm, making it bigger and bigger. The animals that were around the boy and mother didn't care and started to roar or howl. The storm wasn't affecting them at all.
Meanwhile, while the storm was growing, certain government cars parked by the house and entered the backyard. Looking at the storm right in front of them. The boy sensed the arrival of more men and turned towards them. Sensing their intent to do harm and fear, he shouted at them, "GO AWAY!". Hearing the boy's voice in the storm, they grew stiff.
They didn't listen to him and instead, slowly walked towards it. But that was a mistake, because, with another warning from the boy, a part of the black dust storm transformed into a limp, crashing it down on the agents, killing them by suffocation.
Seeing all this happen, a man walked up to the storm in worry. "Ryan?" He called out carefully. Hearing the man's voice, the boy's eyes widened. "Dad?" He called out to the man. Who took a couple of more steps toward the storm that had covered the entire backyard forest. "It's me, son." The man confirmed.
Slowly, the black dust storm slowly calmed down and there was the boy hugging his dead mom. Seeing that, Martin's eyes widened. Running towards them. "What happened?" He asked his son while taking pulses from his wife, but he wasn't feeling anything. "Bad men… Bad men hurt mom." The boy told his father, now sobbing in his father's arms.
Not knowing what to say, he simply tried to comfort the boy in his arms, while looking at the face of his wife. She looked so peaceful, and it was almost as if she didn't suffer at all during her last moments.
Staying like that for a couple of more minutes, some men approached the now widower with his child in his hand. "Dr. Brenner, we h-"a certain female agent said, but before she could finish. "I know!" He interrupted her, his voice filled with anger.
"Papa?" Charles spoke, his eyes wide open from surprise and shock. Martin Brenner was Twelve's real father. Understanding the boy's confusion on her side, Sara Hopper snapped her finger, bringing the boy back to the dark void. Turning to look at her, the little blonde girl had a serious expression.
The boy stood there in shock for hours and hours. Digesting all this new information, but also new questions were popping into his head. Why did his papa, his dad, distance himself from the boy? Why did his dad treat him so harshly back at the lab? And most importantly, why didn't his dad save him from the guards? But the most important thing was that his real mama, his mom, was gone. So he cried in grief.
Sara understood him and gave him all the time in the world because she could. Waiting for him to digest it all fully. Waiting for him to pass through all the stages of grief and helping him. Being by his side. Their sense of time was nonexistent at the moment. During the boy's grief, a stage would take him hours, while others would take him days or even months. This was an important step for the 13-year-old boy.
And when it felt like years, the boy finally overcame his grief over his mother's death. Slowly standing up now, he sniffled once, wiping away his snot with his sleeves. "That was your past, Charles, but it will also be your future if nothing changes." She said, adding another curveball at the boy. The boy simply stood there, not knowing what to do. But he remembered his two names. Ryan, a little king, and Charles, a free man. Thinking deeply about this, he finally heard a question from the girl.
A random one that wasn't linked to what he had just seen, but one that he was thinking about. "My name is Sara Hopper. What's your name?" The blonde girl asked him. Opening his mouth after a while, "Charles Ryan Thomas…" the blue-eyed boy answered. Nodding once with a smile, "Now, let's talk about your future. What you'll do as soon as you wake up." The girl said, earning a determined nod from the boy.
"First, you will promise that you won't hurt my dad." She stated with a pout, melting all the tension in the boy's body. Giving her a nod, she continued. "The next thing, be patient. You'll be tested very soon. A certain voice will whisper to you. But it lies. Don't give in to it. Be patient, because that'll be your key to having a normal life once this is all over." She told Charles seriously and earned another nod from him. She continued giving the boy her best advice.