Chapter Eleven
Steve stared down at Piper in shock, his brown eyes wide and mouth slightly agape. Piper didn't know what to say and just stared back at her friend with tears swimming in her eyes and falling down her freckled cheeks. Steve felt for a second that the world around him became entirely still. The only sound that he could hear was the rusty squeak of a swing that was in the park only a few feet away.
"Steve?" Piper whispered softly.
He blinked his eyes a few times and turned away from her, his heart spiking into his throat as panic began to fill him. In the car behind him, Dustin and Max watched with both worry and confusion all over their faces. His sneakers scoffed along the pebbled road kicking up the dust slightly. Piper's hazel eyes followed his tall frame as he moved from one side to another.
"Steve?" Piper spoke a little louder, worried he hadn't heard her the first time.
"Hold on!" Steve muttered, reaching a hand up to rub along his mouth, "Are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me?"
Piper's eyes widened as Steve's voice rose. She knew it wasn't directed at her, his clear panic all over his face and body language. Piper looked around the abandoned trailer park with hesitation and worry, before catching movement back at the car, seeing Max and Dustin still waiting at the car.
"How are you sure?" Steve asked, stepping in front of her more. "I mean...nightmares, those are normal. Yeah? I mean...w-we don't know if it's this Vecna creep or not. It can just be something else, right"
Steve wasn't sure if he was trying to convince himself more, or Piper. He felt like his throat was closing and cutting off his airway with the panic coursing through his body.
"I don't know...but I have this sickening feeling...these nightmares came out of nowhere, Steve. And the thing that I've seen looks like it's right out from the Upside Down."
His shoulders sagged slightly, "Fuck." Steve paused for a moment "And Hargrove knows none of this?"
"He knows some. He's been there for some of the nightmares and stuff, but everything else? No."
"Fuck," Steve reach and moved his fingers through his hair.
"Steve!? Piper?! What's going on? Are we going or not?" Dustin shouted out from the car.
"One second, man," Steve shouted back, keeping his eyes locked on Piper and waving his hand back to his car. Steve took a few deep breaths before speaking again, "I believe you ok? But...c-can we wait? See if you're wrong?"
Piper gnawed on her lower lip, before nodding her head slowly, "Y-Yeah, we can wait."
"Stay with me ok? I don't want you alone if this is what you're thinking." Steve reached forward and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, pulling her close to his chest. Piper relaxed in his arms and found comfort in them. Steve rubbed his hand up and down her back in comfort. "We're gonna figure this out ok? I'm not letting anything happen to you."
Piper couldn't speak. Her throat was slightly clogged as she pressed her face tighter into Steve's chest. She believed everything Steve said, and she couldn't ignore the weight lifted off her shoulder telling someone the truth.
The entire drive my Ms. Kelly's home was in silence. The tension between Piper and Steve was heavy and thick that it made the car awkward with silence. Dustin and Max kept shooting looks at one another in the back seat of Steve's BMW. But when Steve turned onto the corner of the guidance counselor's home, he parked halfway down the block to make it less inconspicuous.
"Alright, Max." Piper turned around and faced the redhead, "Just see what you can find out from her. Don't make it too obvious?"
"Come on, it's me we're talking about...I've got this." Max smirked slightly before opening up the backseat door and leaving.
Dustin, Steve, and Piper all sat in the BMW and watched as she walked down the street, crossing it quickly, before walking up the steps toward the small ranch-style home. The awkward tense silence quickly returned after seeing Max disappear through the front door of Ms. Kelly's house. Dustin slowly moved to the center console between Steve and Piper, his head peeking out between the both of them. He moved so slowly and silently that Piper nearly jumped from her seat the moment she realized that Dustin was there.
"So what's going on with you two?" Dustin asked, turning his head side to side to look at them both.
"Nothing," Steve and Piper spoke quickly. Too quickly to where it was suspicious.
Piper's hazel eyes snap up towards Steve with obvious nervousness on her face. Dustin's gaze hardened slightly as he looked between the two older teens.
"Looked to be in a bit of heated conversation earlier..." Dustin paused for a moment, "Looked a little stressed."
"Just worried about everything that's going on, especially with this Vecna running around," Piper spoke, looking down at her lap, fidgeting with the rings on her fingers.
"Also we now have Nancy and Robin running off doing god-knows what," Steve spoke, grumbling slightly.
"You disappointed to be hanging out with us?" Dustin asked, leaning back to look at Steve more.
"Always stuck babysitting," Steve rolled his eyes.
"I'm here, taking offense to that," Piper spoke, turning her eyes back to Ms. Kelly's home for a moment, before looking back to Steve. "And they aren't kids anymore, so it's not babysitting."
"You truly believe that we don't end up watching out for them, especially with this one?" Steve asked, pointing his finger toward Dustin.
Whose face quickly twisted with an offense.
"Excuse me," Dustin started "But it was I who ended up figuring this thing out. Not my fault that you couldn't go with your ex-girlfriend who you obviously are still fawning over."
Steve's jaw dropped slightly. "I am not fawning over Nancy,"
"That is so true!" Dustin pointed his finger into Steve's face, "You have googly eyes for her the entire time we were at the trailer park. You nearly jumped at the chance to be alone with her. And just be honest that's the only plausible reason you won't date Robin."
Piper couldn't stop the chuckle that slipped from her lips, "That's not the only reason. But I do have to agree with the kid here that you did seem pretty disappointed to not be going off with Nancy."
Steve groaned and wiped his hand over his face, but before he could speak or argue back, Max appeared from within the home. She raced quickly across the front lawn and back towards Steve's car, looking back over her shoulder a few times as if she was expecting someone to be chasing after her. Max aggressively opened the back passenger door and slid in, before slamming it back shut.
"What happened?"
"Go! Go!" Max shouted at the same time Piper twisted in her seat to ask her the question.
Steve fumbled for a moment as he rushed to start his car back up, feeling the frantic panicking coming from Max behind him. The car was started quickly before Steve was speeding down the residential streets of Hawkins.
"What happened?!" Piper asked again, as Steve continued to drive away.
"The connection between Fred and Chrissy is right, they were seeing Ms. Kelly. But she wouldn't tell me why...something about confidentiality or some shit, so..." Max rose up a hand with a pair of keys dangling from her grasp, "...I thought we could go and see for ourselves."
"You stole her keys!" Dustin shouted
"I thought for us to get our answers, we have to see through the files ourselves." Max shrugged her shoulders.
"I shouldn't be condoning this, but Max...your a genius." Piper smiled as Steve turned the direction that headed toward the High School.
Billy pulled up outside of the town center with the panic from this morning still moving through him like electricity. He'd searched through the town for Piper without seeing not a sign of her. He checked back at the Mayfield's trailer and saw that things were blocked off again due to police tape being everywhere. Billy's first thought was that something had happened to Piper. The nightmare he'd woken up from was still flashing pictures through his mind like a haunting reminder. But his worries were quickly silenced when news of a male student from Hawkins High School was the victim.
Billy thought that he was losing his mind about not being able to find his girlfriend. He checked in at Family Video only to see Keith behind the counter.
"Steve and Robin don't work today, sorry dude," The tall manager spoke from behind the counter.
Billy checked the Wheeler's, only to see not a single car in the driveway. He was starting to become frustrated even more when he drove past the Harrington home and saw the same results of no cars in the driveway. But he had a small spark of hope form when he saw a familiar car parked outside the Library in the middle of the town's center. Billy just had stepped out of his car and head toward the double doors, two figures stepped out from the library and into the cool night.
"Wheeler!" Billy shouted as he watched her walk down the other path from the library with Robin beside her, both of them snap their heads in the direction of the voice.
"Billy?" Nancy questioned and took a few steps towards him. His blonde curly hair was disheveled and his eyes wide and crazed as he rushed toward her.
"Where is Piper?" He asked, panting slightly
"W-What?" Nancy asked
"Piper, where is Piper!" Billy frantically asked, "I've been searching through this town all fucking day for her and can't find her. Please...please tell me that you've seen her."
"Woah, Billy...buddy, calm down..." Robin started to speak, but Billy quickly interrupted.
"No! You don't understand," Billy's voice cracked slightly, his emotions quickly getting the best of him. Tears filled his ocean-blue eyes. "S-She's in danger...I-I need to make sure that she's ok...that he doesn't have her."
Nancy and Piper looked at each other quickly, before looking back to Billy.
"Make sure who doesn't have her?" Nancy asked
Billy opened his mouth a few times, before groaning and running his fingers through his hair, "I-I don't know...I can't explain it, you're gonna think I'm crazy!"
"Trust me, we are one of the last to ever call you crazy," Robin spoke with a nervous laugh.
Billy took a few deep breaths before speaking again, "I ha-had a nightmare...dream and it felt so real. I thought that I was back in the hospital room with Piper...a-and everything seemed normal...ti-till it wasn't."
Robin's face dropped as Billy continued to speak, it felt like ice was dumped into her veins and making her chest feel tight.
"T-There was this creature, but I knew him...I-I knew him from last year."
"Last year?" Nancy questioned
"When you were flayed?" Robin spoke, Billy quickly nodding his head.
"But when I was flayed...possessed, whatever! They used a copy of me, I was looking at myself. But in this nightmare, it wasn't myself that I was looking at, I was looking a-at some monster."
Nancy and Robin looked at each other with intense fear and worry, before looking back to Billy.
"Why do I feel like you know something?" Billy whimpered
"How much as Piper told you, Billy?" Robin asked
"Something about how the Upside Down is the cause for everything that's happening and Eddie is being blamed for it, but it's not him."
Nancy sighed heavily, "We're gonna have to catch you up on a few things. But we saw Piper a few hours ago and she was safe and perfectly fine."
Billy seemed to visibly relax as the words left Nancy's lips.
"S-She is?" Billy sighed heavily.
"Yeah, she's with Steve right now." Robin moved her bag to swing around to her front, pulling out one of Dustin's walkie-talkies. "We can page them right now."
Robin pressed down on the button to call out to Dustin.
"Dustin? Dustin, do you copy?" Robin spoke,
The sound of static came through before soon it was cut off and followed by a voice.
"Yeah, I copy." Dustin replied, "You guys find anything at the library?"
Robin perked up slightly, "Yeah, actually, Nancy is a genius. Her little hunch about Victor Creel might actually lead us to something."
Across town moving through the darkened halls of Hawkins High School with nothing but flashlights in their hands – Steve, Piper, Max, and Dustin quickly moved toward the back of the building where Ms. Kelly's office was housed. Piper felt a weird feeling of flashbacks and nostalgia as she moved through the halls of her old high school.
"That's so cool," Dustin's voice hinted with sarcasm as the stress of the situation he was in seemed finally hit him. "But can't really talk right now...kind of in a situation."
"What are you doing? Is Piper still with you guys?"
"Yeah, she's here," Dustin answered back, chasing after Steve and the rest of the group as they turned down a corner. "But we're breaking and entering into the school. Gotta go, get your asses here quickly!"
Dustin cut off the walkie as Max rushed up toward the wooden door a with "Counselor" plaque in the center. She used the keys she'd stolen only a few hours ago and unlocked the door quickly as Dustin, Steve, and Piper ushered in after her.
"This is like our own little Watergate," Dustin spoke with a smirk as the door closed behind him.
"Didn't those guys get caught?" Steve asked, standing beside him as Piper and Max moved toward the wall of cabinets beside the large wooden desk at the back of the room.
"Hawkins-gate," Dustin chuckled, ignoring Steve's comment.
Piper couldn't help but roll her eyes as she listened to the two bickering behind her. Max unlocked the first row from the cabinet and pulled it out quickly. Piper brought the flashlight in her hand up so the two of them could see better. Almost immediately she noticed the two files toward the center of the section they were looking at.
"Holy shit," Max whispered, seemingly seeing the same thing.
"You find it?"
Piper reached down and grabbed the two files from within the cabinet, "Max was right, both Fred and Chrissy were seeing Ms. Kelly. Along with a few other students."
Piper frowned when she saw the file with Max's name toward the back of the pile. She moved toward the desk with the files in her grasp so it would be easier to look through them. Steve stepped up beside Piper and helped her flop out the files, seeing the scribbles of the guidance counselors across the papers in front of them.
"Look here," Piper spoke as she snatched a piece of paper from Fred's file, along with Chrissy's.
On the piece of paper were written notes from what looked to be a session, one paper per person. As Piper's eyes scanned over the list in front of her, she felt as if she was looking at a symptoms chart for herself.
Headaches
Nightmares
Nose Bleeds
Trouble Sleeping
Fatigue
Past Trauma
Hallucinations
"Piper? What's wrong?" Max asked from beside Piper, her voice sounding like it was underwater.
It was only then that Piper realized that the room seemed to be zeroing in around her, the papers in front of her seeming farther and farther away. Also, her breath was coming out harsh and labored. The sound of her blood rushing in her ears as her chest rose and fell with each harsh breath.
"Piper!? Piper?!" Steve spoke, moving to grab her shoulders and shake her slightly. Her eyes were focused forward and seemed to not even acknowledge him. "Piper!?"
A ticking started to find farther off in the distance for Piper, her head turning around slowly toward the door that led out into the hallway. Everything around her began to fade into the background as she walked away from everyone and stepped out into the hallway, the ticking now sounding louder. Her brows pulled together tightly in confusion as she followed along toward the noise, her steps small and hesitant in the dark hallway. When she turned down the hallway toward the gym, she was struck back by what was in front of her. Seemingly smashed into the far wall was a large, dark wooden, grandfather clock. The arms of the clock ticked with each passing second, but for a moment, it felt like it was beckoning her.
So she stepped closer and closer and closer...
"Piper! Piper!?" a deep voice echoed till, finally, she felt herself being pulled out.
A large gasp left her with a small scream, gripping tightly to the arms that held her, and recognizing slowly who was around her and where she was at. Piper's eyes were wide with shock and fear as she noticed that she was once again in Ms. Kelly's office. No longer within the hallways of the high school. Steve, Nancy, Robin, and Dustin stood behind Billy and Max all of them staring at her with deep concern and worry. For a moment, Piper was sure that she saw tears in some of their eyes.
"W-What? What ha-happened?" Piper panted heavily, her nails digging into the coat arm of her boyfriend's jacket. She could feel the leather cracking under her fingernails.
"You were under some trance," Max spoke,
Billy reached to caress her face and have her focus on him, his thumb reaching down and wiping away the tears that trailed down her cheeks.
"I-I..." Her eyes searched around the room, looking at all their faces before finally settling on Billy. "I swore...I-I thought..."
"You were under when we got here," Billy soothingly spoke,
"Fuck," Piper's brows pulled together, before looking past Billy and at Steve.
His hand was fisted and against his mouth and he seemingly seemed to fight against the urge to cry.
"Steve..." Piper spoke, "I-I...do you believe me now?"
Steve's eyes tightly closed as he shook his head and hung it slightly.
"What is she talking about Harrington?" Billy asked, turning around to face him, but keeping an arm wrapped around Piper.
"I-I told Steve earlier...after Nancy and Robin left...a-about some of the stuff that's been going on. On how...how I've been seeing things..." Piper whispered "And don't...don't get mad at Steve for not telling you all right away. We wanted to make sure that it was true."
"True? That what was true?" Nancy asked
"That I'm cursed," Piper whispered, causing everyone to freeze for a moment.
"W-What?" Dustin was the first to speak, "C-Cursed? Like Vecna's curse?"
Piper nodded her head and stepped away from Billy, fidgeting with her hands as she stood in front of everyone. All looking at her with deep sympathy, worry, and fear.
"Talking with Eddie and all of us slowly putting these pieces together was what really made me finally figure out what was going on." Piper chuckled with false humor, "But ever since I came back to this goddamn town I have had been...plagued with nightmares. Constantly having them to the point where they feel so real, screaming myself out of them is the only way to wake up. And then it was followed by hallucinations... the first one was when we checked into the hotel," Piper spoke with tears coming down her cheeks as she spoke.
"You were calling for your mom," Billy spoke softly, but everyone was able to hear him.
Piper bit down on her lower lip and nodded her head, "And then I saw her again after the ceremony. I-It was like I was no longer in Hawkins...I-I was in the Upside Down. And she was so angry...b-blaming me for her death, for my father's death."
Billy reached up and scratched along his stubbled jaw, "I-I thought it was the stress of being here."
"S-So you've been having these visions for almost a week?" Nancy asked
Piper nodded her head, "The worst was the nightmare I had after you dropped me off from finding Eddie. I saw him...Vecna."
"What?!" Robin, Nancy, Dustin, and Max all seemed to say at once.
"You're fucking kidding me right?" Robin added on, causing Piper to shake her head.
"I-I didn't connect the dots till we all were at the trailer park." Piper reached to wipe her tears. "Looking at those files Chrissy had her visions start a week ago, Fred five days ago...and I just saw the clock on top of everything else! So god only knows how long I have."
Nancy looked between Billy and Piper before speaking up, "Billy...d-didn't you saw that you had a nightmare about Piper?"