And he answered briefly, barely audible, but it was enough, it summed up everything she wanted to hear:

"I know."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The rest of the walk to Mr. Murdoch's house had been as dark as before, but Olivia had not been scared anymore. The strong figure of Elliot walking beside her had taken away the edge of fear, leaving only a pinching nervousness inside her.

It wasn't a new feeling; she had felt it many times before. She had felt it often back then when they had gone to arrest the criminal. Sometimes the criminals had been very dangerous, and there had been no guarantee of success, but she hadn't been afraid. Elliot had been with her, and she had trusted him like a rock.

And when they had finally disentangled from each other on the dark road, Olivia had decided to rely on that trust. It had gone without saying that Elliot hadn't had the slightest intention of leaving her and going home, so Olivia had had no choice. Even if she wanted nothing more than to take Elliot with her, to bury themselves under the blanket and hide him from the evil world, she knew she couldn't do that. It was her job to protect the children on the farm, and she couldn't do that if she let her fear get the better of her.

And that's why they were now standing in front of Mr. Murdoch's gloomy house, side by side, breathing deeply.

"Okay, this is probably nothing," Olivia said quietly, pointing at the house with her flashlight. "He can't be the serial killer, right?"

"Right," Elliot answered. "I haven't seen him many times, but from what I've heard and seen, he's just a harmless old man who likes to live alone."

Olivia gulped. She couldn't say how many times she had broken into the suspect's home. It was familiar to her, she knew what to do. But this time she was more nervous than ever before. Perhaps it was the circumstances; the trees rustling in the dark and the creaking old house didn't particularly cheer up the atmosphere. Maybe it was because of what they had seen in the basement, because she really didn't want to face the person in the dark who was capable of such acts. Or maybe it was because Elliot was standing next to her in a place where the menacing atmosphere felt almost suffocating, and she was more afraid than ever that someone would hurt him.

At the same moment, Elliot started to walk forward, and hastily she grabbed his arm.

"El!" She hissed, and he turned to look at her questioningly.

"What?"

"I… Could you…"

"Liv," Elliot sighed. "You know as well as I do that I'm not going to let you go into the house alone. Besides, I think staying outside alone is an even worse option because someone might attack me without warning."

Olivia swallowed, hating that Elliot was right. Her every cell was against the idea of him coming into the house with her, but on the other hand, she absolutely didn't want to leave him alone. So, she sighed, but without releasing her grip on his arm she sighed:

"Fine. But El…"

That's when Elliot leaned forward and planted a light kiss on her lips. It made her feel like little electric shocks would have run through her body, and the heat radiating from his body made her want to wrap herself in his embrace forever.

"I know, I'm careful," Elliot smiled against her lips, and Olivia had to force herself to loosen her grip on his arm.

"You'd better, because if you d-…" She tried to speak but couldn't finish her sentence. "I'll kill you," she snorted, and then directed her flashlight towards the house again. "Okay then, I hope we won't disturb the ghosts."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The door had opened surprisingly easily, and Olivia and Elliot entered the dark house. It was clear that the house hadn't been lived in for a while, as the dust flying around them played in the flashlight light, and the furniture had gotten a gray coating. However, they didn't dare to test if the lights worked, and without saying a word they glanced at each other and diverged into different rooms.

Olivia had always loved this when they had been partners. They were able to communicate without words, a mere glance often told the other more than a thousand words. It was one of the reasons they had been such good detectives, they complemented each other. In serious situations they became one, they were two bodies with a common mind.

At the bedroom door, however, she stopped, and cold shivers ran down her spine. Someone had clearly slept in the bed. The blanket was bumpy, and the bed wasn't nearly as dusty as the other furniture. There were also shoe prints on the floor, and after a quick glance around the room, she slowly backed away, intending to go back to Elliot. There had been someone in the house, and she didn't want to leave Elliot alone.

She returned to the hallway, and with her heart pounding furiously, she tried to find her former partner. However, to her surprise she could not see him, even the light of his flashlight had disappeared. Panic began to creep up inside her, and tears welled up in her eyes.

But then she got so scared that for a moment she thought her soul was leaving her body. Low clangs filled the house, and it was a wonder she could hold back the squeal that was about to escape her lips. For a few seconds she had to look for the source of the sound before her eyes fell on a piece of furniture standing in the living room.

The grandfather clock.

And at the same moment, the light of a flashlight appeared from somewhere behind the wall and dazzled her eyes. Then she saw a familiar figure, and relief washed over her like a tidal wave.

Elliot.

"That damn clock almost scared the hell out of me," he hissed, and Olivia had to use all her willpower to stop herself from clinging to him like her life depended on it.

"You said it," she whispered. "Where…"

"Someone's been in the house," Elliot interrupted her. "There are footprints all around here."

"Yeah, someone has slept in the bed," she answered. "I don't know what's going on, but I don't like this. Where's Gilbert?"

"If only I knew... Have you checked upstairs?"

Olivia swallowed. Her common sense was screaming to her to leave the house, take Elliot with her and run far away. However, she couldn't do that, because if they had even the slightest chance to save Mike, they couldn't throw it away because of their own fear.

"No, I haven't. You coming?"

Elliot nodded silently, and after searching for a while, they found the stairs, which they slowly began to climb after taking a deep breath first. The atmosphere was so oppressive it could have been cut with a knife, and Olivia felt like her heart was going to jump out of her throat at any moment. Elliot behind her was the only thing keeping her sane, even though it was also the thing that made her want to escape more than anything else in the whole situation.

Despite expectations, nothing was found upstairs, not even footprints. It seemed mostly like a stock where no one had been for a long time. They returned downstairs in silence, and after investigating the rooms a little longer, Elliot tapped her on the shoulder with the flashlight and whispered, slowly and with obvious reluctance:

"Have you seen if the house has a basement?"

Olivia felt her heart skip a beat, and she clenched her fists.

A basement.

If the basement of the abandoned house had been suitable for the murderer, there was no reason why the basement of this house wouldn't also be good enough for him if he was behind everything. Olivia hadn't noticed the basement, but it would only be a matter of time before they found it, and she wasn't sure she even wanted to find it.

The situation was starting to feel like a horror movie. She wasn't particularly a fan of horror movies, as the stupid choices made by the characters in the movies started to annoy her so much that she usually couldn't finish watching the movie. But this time they were the protagonists of the film, making the very same stupid and reckless choices that bystanders would have forbidden them to make.

But they had no choice, because Mike had no time.

And that's why she heard herself answer: "No, I haven't, but we have to find it."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Olivia and Elliot knew that it wasn't a very good idea to split up anymore, but in order to find the basement faster, Elliot went to search outside, and Olivia stayed inside. In all houses, the basement was not necessarily under the houses, but in some yards there could be, for example, a separate root cellar.

After checking the entire house, Olivia could be almost certain that there wasn't a basement door at least inside the house. Lifting the dusty carpets in the hope of revealing a trapdoor beneath them had made her nose tickle, and she'd had to hold back the sneezes that forcefully tried to reveal her. Nothing had been found, however, and frustrated, she turned on her heels to go help Elliot. Through the window, she could see the light from his flashlight moving outside, and she wiped her dusty hands on her pants as she started to walk. She was more than happy to get out of the house, inside which the menacing atmosphere seemed to be constantly thickening.

But she didn't have time to take more than a couple of steps when the floor behind her creaked.

She took a frightened breath and turned around, but too late. Something hit her hard in the back of her head, and her legs collapsed.

And before all went black, she saw, by the light of the flashlight that had fallen to the floor, a dark figure standing in the doorway with a shovel in his hand.

Luckily, these two haven't seen Season 4 of Stranger Things:D
You know if you know...