Billy winced as he gingerly slid his denim jacket over his shoulders. The welts on his back were still tender from the night before. The stupid tart had missed curfew and apparently Billy was the one at fault for that, something about her being his sister therefor his responsibility. He was counting down the days until he could escape back to California. Let the bint realise how good she's got it then. He lumbered through the hall, starting off loud but getting progressively quieter as he neared the living room.
Neil sat between him and the door, lounging in the knock off La-Z-Boy wearing his maintenance uniform ready for work. A Cops rerun was playing on the staticy little tv and although his attention didn't waver from the blue and red lights on the screen Billy still felt the tension around him increase. He stiffened and tried to walk as casually as he could to the front door. Neil coughed. Billy froze. "Where you off to?" Neil asked and Billy forced down his temper.
"Out with the boys." He replied and carried on walking. It was only as he was passing his dad's chair that Neil's hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. His grip was bruising and Billy wasn't able to contain the flinch that came with it. "Tommy's house first. Probably stop at Bradley's to pick up some things." He carried on, praying the strain in his voice wasn't noticeable. Thankfully Neil let him go and some of the tension drained from Billy.
"Grab a pack of Camels and more aspirin. Your sister fell of her skateboard last night when you were supposed to be supervising her, make sure it doesn't happen again." Billy's shoulders almost sagged in relief, he'd passed the test and by the sound of it Max had also been on the receiving end of Neil's discipline.
Feeling lighter than he had since he first entered the room Billy answered with a curt, "Yes sir." before finally managing to get through the front door, taking care not to upset Neil further.
Outside Tommy and James were waiting for him on the sidewalk. The moment he flashed his keys and unlocked the Camaro the two were racing for shotgun. Tommy won and James grumbled as he climbed into the back, Billy ignored them both and fired up the engine. "Hey Billy, you hear from Troy? Tommy and I were wonderin'-"
"Who cares?" Billy interrupted as he reversed the car out the drive. Although the sense of dread had faded the never ending feeling of insecurity and inadequacy that always followed a confrontation with Neil had not yet left and the slow burning of his temper was starting to bubble up.
"Did your dad get on you about the knife?" Tommy asked and then immediately ducked his head at the look Billy skewered him with.
"That fat ass knows if he touches me I'll rip his fucking head off."
"But-"
"Let's just fucking go." Billy yelled and revved up the engine, they were still sitting in the street outside his house.
"Where to?" Asked James and as if answering his question a familiar redhead dropped to the ground from her window. Her skateboard was tucked beneath her arm as she sprinted across the lawn before dropping it onto the road leading out of town.
"Let's go." Billy jerked his head towards the figure now speeding away from them and through the rearview mirror Billy could see James's face light up with a wicked smile.
Meanwhile the four boys were trekking through the woods towards El's cabin. "Why're we here again?" Lucas asked as he wiped the sweat from his brow. Even though it was morning the summer heat was still intense and whilst the trees offered them some shade they'd had to walk most of the way since the ground was too rough for their bikes. Mike and Will led up front whilst Dustin and Lucas dawdled behind, Dustin munching on one of the many Snickers from his endless supply.
"I already told you." Mike said. "El called this morning asking if we could come over."
"And that's all she said?" Dustin asked around a mouthful of candy.
"She gave me some vague directions and told me Mayfield knows the way." A slight pang of jealousy coloured his voice.
"So where's Max then?" Lucas asked and Mike threw his hands in the air.
"I don't know do I?" He exclaimed as he snatched his bike back up from where it had fallen over. The heat was making them all irritable as it stuck their shirts to their backs and made their feet squelch uncomfortably in their shoes.
The bickering probably would have continued had Will not spotted the cabin and tugged on Mike to point it out. He breathed a sigh of relief and all four of the boys picked up their pace at the promise of crashing in an air conditioned house with maybe the hope of a cool drink like lemonade as well. El must have been watching from the window because as the boys leant their bikes against the railings the front door banged open and she flew out onto the porch in a flurry of flannel and denim. "You came!" She called out as she wrapped her bony arms around them. It was hard to miss the relief in her voice which was enough for the boys to tamp down their surprise towards the unusual affection, although Mike's cheeks were stained a curious pink.
"Of course we did." Mike mumbled looking oddly pleased with himself. El spared him a shy smile before craning her neck around him to try and find the missing ginger.
"Where is Max?" She asked, a line appearing between her brows as she frowned. The other four shrugged and El's heart gave a little leap in fear, the line deepening. "She was supposed to help you find the way." Maybe it was the trepidation in her voice or the shadows of the forest but everyone's minds unhelpfully reminded them of the missing kids. Lucas was the first to wave it off, placing what he hoped was a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"I'm sure she's fine." He told her. "And we can always go look for her after we do whatever it is we're here for."
"Yeah what're we here for again?" Dustin asked, eager to divert the conversation to something lighter but El gnawed her lip worriedly and glanced back towards the house.
"I need to show you something..." El trailed off as she once again hastened a look towards the cabin.
"You mean more than what we saw at the quarry?" Dustin snickered only to be silenced by Will poking him sharply in the ribs, not that El showed any signs of hearing him anyway.
"I need to know I'm not crazy." She whispered, more to herself than the others. The four boys shared a look as she drifted back up the steps towards the door. It was only when they were following her inside did she snap her eyes back to them. "Wait, Hop doesn't like boys. Not in the cabin." She eyed them seriously.
"Don't worry we'll leave a lookout." Mike said. "Dustin?" He called and the curly haired boy's mouth dropped open in indignation. It was too late to argue though as everyone else was disappearing into the house.
"Wait wait wait, her dad is the chief. The CHIEF, what am I supposed to do if he comes back?"
"Do what you always do." Will replied, "Start talking." He and Lucas shared amused grins as they slipped out of sight.
"It is a gift y'know." Dustin huffed to himself.
Sunlight illuminated dust motes wavering lazily in the air as El led the three boys through the living room. They took in the rustic interior with wide eyes as they navigated the small area. "That's Hop's room." El pointed towards a plastic shower curtain drawn across an empty door frame. "Don't go in there." She told them, not that any of the boys wanted to anyway.
The door to the bathroom was shut and El drew to a halt a few feet away from it. She wordlessly pointed towards the door and the boys exchanged wary looks. "What are we about to walk into?" Lucas asked when she made no move to follow them.
"You'll see." El whispered, her fingers crossed behind her back that they would see and it wasn't just a figment of her imagination. Lucas's eyebrows rose.
"O-kayy." He said, drawing out the o and the ay. Mike swallowed nervously before pushing his shoulders back and twisting the knob open. Lucas and Will peered around him as the door creaked open.
"Woah." One of them breathed as they managed to glimpse inside the bathroom. The blood was still there, faded into maroon clouds on the mirror and wallpaper. Russet blots stained the tiled floor and coppery flakes drifted absentmindedly in the slow air. It was like a scene straight out of a Stephen King book.
"You see it?" El asked and the boys nodded wordlessly, their eyes wide and their mouths open as they took in the messy bathroom. El almost cried with relief. "I'm not crazy." She murmured to herself but Mike heard her and shot her a weak smile.
"If you're crazy then so are we." He reassured her.
"What happened?" Will asked. He'd moved further into the room and was examining the dried lines that had dripped from the ceiling. El shrugged.
"The sink. It came from the sink." Was all she said and Lucas crossed to the chipped porcelain bowl. He peered into the drain with a frown on his face.
"You sure?" He asked before raising his hands in surrender at the glare El directed at him. "Sorry, it just seems... odd." He said, his memory taking him back to the old loading doors. "What caused it?" He asked, miming the fountain of blood with his hands but again El shrugged.
"There were voices." She said and Mike noticeably stiffened.
"Voices?" He asked and El nodded. "What were they like?" There was no mistaking the tone of desperation and Lucas and Will exchanged worried glances.
"I thought it was Max." El said, pausing with a furrow in her brow. Lucas felt an awful cold settle in his bones and it seemed as if the others did too, the absence of one mouthy redhead far louder than it should be. "But they were younger."
"Younger? Like little kids? Like seven year olds?" El nodded and Mike paled. "Was there a girl's voice?" El balked at the intensity behind Mike's eyes.
"Mike, I don't think-"
"Shut up Will you don't know that!" He snapped and Will recoiled as if he'd been slapped.
"Mike!" Lucas yelled, placing a comforting hand on the smaller boy's shoulders. "Will's right." He opened his mouth to say more but Mike's nostrils flared with anger as he violently turned away, trying subtly to wipe away the tears, so Lucas let it go.
Once Mike had composed himself, the others all standing awkwardly and trying to pretend they didn't notice, he cast another glance around the bathroom. "We can't leave it like this." He said firmly, a steely determination in his voice to make up for the red eyes. Lucas's eyebrows rose.
"You're cleaning it?" He asked.
"We're cleaning it." Mike corrected. "You have cleaning supplies right?" He asked El who smiled shyly and nodded. Lucas scowled.
"Um no. We're not cleaning." He said and Mike frowned at him. El slipped out of the door to get the trash bags and rubber gloves whilst Will stood uncomfortably between the two boys.
"What's wrong with you?" Mike asked. "We can't just leave it like this."
"Uh yeah we can, incase you weren't listening her dad can't see it so it's fine. We can come back later and do it but right now Max is MISSING!" Mike rolled his eyes and a muscle in Lucas's jaw twitched. "I'm not wasting my time scrubbing some random girl's floor when our friend could be in danger."
"Since when was Mayfield our friend?" Mike shouted and Will cringed as an angry flush crept up Lucas's neck. Mike ignored the both of them. "You're overreacting Lucas, I'm sure she's fine."
"Fine like Holly?" Lucas asked and the question sunk like a stone between them. The temperature dropped as the tension increased.
"YOU TAKE THAT BACK!" Mike roared as he lunged forwards. Thankfully Will was in the middle and managed to intervene, barely stopping both him and Mike from tumbling over as the other boy's body collided hard with his.
"Stop it!" He cried but neither Lucas nor Mike were listening to him.
"I'm sorry about Holly but let's be honest Mike the only reason you're doing this is because El's the first girl who's not grossed out by you!" Mike fought against Will with a renewed vigour, swinging a fist over his shoulder to strike at Lucas. It barely clipped him but a fury took over the darker boy's eyes as he retaliated, missing Will by a hair's breadth but landing a blow solidly on Mike's cheek.
"Stop it!" El's voice joined Will's as she appeared at the door and dropped the stuff in her arms. She hurried forward to help Will who was struggling between the two and with a surprising strength managed to split them up. Unfortunately the combined efforts of both El and Will had thrown the boys across opposite sides of the room. For Mike it wasn't too bad, he had just tripped over and skidded back on his rump. For Lucas however, he'd stumbled into the bathtub and cracked his head on the window sill. Everyone froze in horror.
Will was besides him within seconds with Mike right behind him. El remained where she was, shaking and pale. Mike helped Will sit Lucas up as the smaller boy checked the back of his head for any open injuries. Thankfully there were none, although it was hard to tell with all the preexisting blood, and Lucas was starting to come around. His eyes opened blearily, coloured with confusion. They sharpened alarmingly quickly though as his gaze locked on Mike and he shoved the boy off of him with an angry scowl. "Lucas I'm-"
"Forget it." He growled. The others stepped back as he got to his feet and stormed past them, slamming the bathroom door on the way out. Mike glanced guiltily at the other two whilst Will helped El pick up the discarded items.
"Do we go after him?" Will asked but Mike shook his head.
"Leave him." He said. "Let him cool off but in the meantime we did say we'd help El clean this up." He gestured to the streaky room.
"You don't have to." El mumbled and Mike smiled kindly at her.
"We'll do it." He reaffirmed before sifting through the bucket of stuff and tossing plastic gloves at everyone. "But I'm not doing it on my own."
They got to it, using Ajax and rags to mop up the blood. First they cleaned the sink so that they could fill the bucket with hot water from it. Their sponges squeaked as they scrubbed at the porcelain and more than once Mike found his hand briefly touching El's as their rags collided. The shy smiles they exchanged was enough to want to make Will hurl. Thankfully they were almost finished with that side of the room. Typical that Dustin should show up when the hardest bit was done. Will frowned to himself knowing that it was mean and uncalled for especially since he was just projecting his frustrations.
"What in Gandalf's grey beard happened here?" Dustin exclaimed, stopping in the doorway to watch them.
"There's a spare set of gloves in the bucket go make yourself useful." Was his only reply. He huffed but dutifully picked up a sponge and set to work, clambering into the bathtub to scrub the window pane clear.
"Lucas is still pissed at you Mike." He said it breezily like a stranger trying to start up conversation on the bus. "You're lucky I managed to convince him to stay here or else he'd be running all over town like a headless chicken." Will felt the corner of his mouth twitch but Mike was scowling as he sloshed water over the floor.
"He can stay pissed. I get he's worried about Mayfield but honestly who'd want to take her? She's way too much of a hassle."
"Who'd want to take Holly or Barb?" Dustin replied softly and Mike's sponge hit the ground with unnecessary force. "Just apologise Mike and we can all move on."
"Hell no." He spat.
"Mike." Will warned. "First blood remember?" Dustin nodded gravely and El paused her mopping.
"What's first blood?" She asked.
"It's one of the Party's rules. Basically whoever attacks first has to be the one who apologises. If they don't then..." Dustin drew a finger across his throat and El's eyes widened in horror.
"Dustin!" Mike snapped. "He doesn't mean that literally, you'd just get thrown out of the Party."
"That's basically the same thing." Dustin argued and Will rolled his eyes, tying the knot in one of the full trash bags.
"Mike, you should apologise." He said before tossing the bag to Dustin. The betrayal in Mike's eyes cowed Will and he scuttled out of the door with another bag in tow. Dustin fixed Mike with a warning glare before following after him.
Now Mike and El were left alone, throwing the last bucket of pink water into the tub and watching it swirl down the drain. "Lucas was mean," El started hesitantly, "but I don't think he was wrong." Mike stared at her as she blushed and turned on the faucet, hoping to wash away the awkwardness that had suddenly leapt between them. He sighed.
"You're right." He conceded. "But I'm not worried about Max. I think she just got scared off, at school she's always been alone but yesterday there were five of us all playing around and being friendly. Honestly I think it probably overwhelmed her and that's why she didn't come today." El bit her lip in uncertainty.
"I'm always alone but I like friends." She pointed out.
"Yeah but you're different." Mike said, his tone shyer at the end. "Good different." He quickly reassured her. "You're kind and soft, not really anything like Max." El blushed a pretty pink.
"Thank you." She whispered. "Thank you for cleaning as well." Mike smiled and shrugged his shoulders as if to say it's no big deal.
"Hey you're homeschooled right? So you probably haven't experienced normal high school things." A crease wrinkled El's forehead as she frowned.
"I read books." She said. "And I do math."
"Yeah but I mean school dances." Mike rushed out. He twiddled his thumbs nervously. "There's this stupid winter one called the Snow Ball and I was wondering whether you would want to go. It's like six months away but I was thinking you'll be an official member of the Party by then so it would be ok for us to go together." He was bright red and looked at her with so much hope. Little did he know that El was delighted by the invite, she'd always wanted to go to a school dance.
"I'll go to the dance with my friends." She nodded happily.
"Actually I meant-" Before Mike could finish his sentence Will's voice called out for the others. Sighing in annoyance as El left to investigate Mike had little choice but to follow.
Will, joined by Lucas and Dustin, was hovering by El's bedroom door. None of them had gone inside, clearly respecting her privacy, but the door was ajar and they were staring at one of her walls with fascination. The bright yellow wallpaper was almost completely obscured by newspaper clippings. Loads of them peppered the wall, some of them thumbtacked crookedly others carefully taped. They ranged all through the years from a 1907 bank robbery to an 1876 children's Easter egg hunt. Right at the center though was a photocopied page with lots of writing and swirly signatures. An official looking seal decorated the upper left corner.
"What's that? The Declaration of Independence or something?" Mike asked as El let them in. She shook her head.
"It's the charter for Hawkins township."
"So what?" Lucas asked, still studiously avoiding Mike. "It's just another piece of paper written and signed by some stuffy old white guys." El shook her head.
"90 of them signed." She said timidly. "90 of them disappeared in winter." That caught the boy's attention.
"The entire camp went missing?" Dustin asked and El nodded.
"They thought it was Native Americans but there was no sign of attack. Hop thinks it was plague but it's like they just left." They all felt a little colder despite the heat.
"You're sure they just vanished?" Lucas asked. "Like completely without a trace." El nodded, crossing over to one of the maps she had.
"Here. There was a hole left behind but nothing else." Her finger tapped solidly on the plot of land now occupied by the abandoned steel works.
"Mirkwood." Dustin breathed and the boys all exchanged wary glances. El frowned.
"No, it's where Cornwallis and Kerley meet."
"Mirkwood's from Lord of the Rings we just call it that because freaky things happen." Mike patiently explained. "Like last year when Will's bike suddenly broke even though there was nothing wrong with it or even though we check the batteries our torches never work on that road and all the lights in the houses constantly flicker."
"Sure it's weird but it's all just superstition, like the story of the child snatcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang." Lucas rebutted.
"Except we live in a town where the child snatcher is real." Will quietly pointed out. There was a hushed silence that followed Will's words and an anxious air settled around them.
"We should check on Max." Lucas said firmly and this time no one disagreed with him.