-8-
Mesmerised.
-8-
Kali took a deep, long breath, enjoying the scent of fresh air and the smell of flowers and trees; it was all a brand new experience for the young girl, who had spent so long trapped in an underground facility, shocked and hurt by caregivers who electrocuted her to get her to do what they wanted, to make her show off her powers.
She turned and grinned at her sister/best friend. Unlike her, who remembered some of her previous life before being kidnapped by the Lab, Kali was more used to the outdoors. But seeing her sister's expression made her smile and warmed her heart.
Seeing the look of pure awe and delight on Eleven's face was worth this.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" She asked.
"Yes it is, sister," Eleven whispered as they explored the forest.
There was some kind of hut nearby in the distance, but neither she nor her sister were bothered by that. It had been a few months since Kali, known in the Hawkins Lab as Eight, had decided to put off her plan to escape the Lab, planning to make sure that she hadn't been lied to when they had told her she - Eleven - was dead, before the orderly who was One, slaughtered every other test subject, but Kali had managed to use her powers to persuade one of the orderlies in letting her out when she became frightened of the commotion outside.
She had gotten out into the Lab, just in time to see One try to persuade Eleven to help him destroy the world; while he had some compelling arguments, seeing the corpses of their brothers and sisters, if they could indeed be called that, had hurt them a lot, so they had both fought him.
Kali had projected very strong phantasmagoria illusions into One's mind; while he was stronger than her, Kali could inflict a lot of damage, and she had probed and reached into his mind and brought out his greatest fears and desires, and Eleven had ripped open a hole and pushed him through.
Kali then used her powers to get them both out of there, and just in time before Papa found them both, using her power to project invisibility and illusions while using phantasmagoria on Papa to get revenge on him for all of his cruelty and on the other orderlies, and they got out into the outside world.
After they found some clothes and food, they fled as far as they could.
They had found a new family, who had helped them, but they were completely unable to help the two young girls who'd wandered to them. In the end, both she and Eleven left after only a month, but they had learnt a great deal about how to read, how to write, and more about the world they lived in. But truthfully, the girls knew they had scared their new family with their powers, and tensions rose between them all the time, so in the end, they had decided to leave.
It was painful.
While Eleven didn't remember her own family, she did remember a young woman who called her 'Jane,' and her dim memories had been sparked when she had been confronted by One in the Rainbow Room. Kali had liked the name, but she had been Eleven so long it just felt bizarre.
They had both decided to go exploring, using their powers to steal money and food and hiding out in case Papa's people came after them again, before their wanderings brought them out here.
Right now, the two girls were busily exploring more of the world before they found somewhere new to live. Their hopes to live a normal life had essentially passed by this point, so they weren't in a hurry, although they did wish they could go to school and learn.
"How far are we going, Kali?" Eleven asked.
"I don't know, sister," Kali nodded down the road. "We could travel down there; we should find a way to the next city, or town."
"Have you noticed the further we move, we haven't passed by many houses or towns? Maybe there aren't any down that road."
"Does it matter?"
Eleven considered. Cities and towns meant people, but as long as they were careful, Papa and the lab wouldn't find them. "No," she said at last.
"Exactly," Kali smirked at her sister as they walked closer to the hut. They could see an old man sitting outside, and now they were closer they recognised the place as a gas station, a dilapidated one.
"Hello," Kali waved at the man.
The man eyed them curiously. "What're y'youngen's doin' out here?" He drawled in his reedy voice.
"Exploring," Eleven replied.
"Where's your parents?"
"Dead."
"Y'don't sound bothered by it," the man observed with a glint in his eye that Eleven didn't like. And out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Kali also noticed, if the slight creasing of her forehead was anything to go by.
"We never knew them," Eleven said before Kali could even reply, knowing her sister in all but blood did remember her family before Brenner's people found and kidnapped her; it still didn't matter though, since Kali's memories were extremely vague, much like Eleven's own memories of the woman who had called her Jane, the same woman she knew as 'mama,' but while Eleven wished to find her mother one day, she wanted to know more about the world before she did that. "Please, we're just exploring the world, we don't want any trouble," she went on without even going voicing that she and Kali could do a lot of damage if they were provoked.
The man shrugged and drank from a filthy-looking mug. "Doesn't matter to me," he shrugged uncaringly, "Where're you heading?"
"We don't know. Is there a shortcut?"
"Yeah. Look at this map, yer go along the road, and you come to a fork leading down Bear Mountain Road, that's your shortcut," the man said.
Kali and Eleven glanced at each other before they studied the map. Unlike many other people, the two girls were in tune with each other. They had both sensed that there was something the man was hiding. But they weren't going to say or do anything in case he became suspicious.
-8-
"Did you notice the way that man looked delighted when I said we didn't have any family?" Eleven asked her sister after they left the gas station.
Kali frowned. "I did," she replied slowly, wondering just what that meant; since their escape from the lab, the two young girls had both met dozens of people, and they knew that everyone had something to hide, something to gain. They just didn't know what the old man had wanted, but if there was something, someway Kali could describe it, she would say the man was anticipating something.
But what?
"I wasn't happy about it either," Kali went on, reminding her sister of what she had revealed.
Eleven blinked, wondering what Kali meant. She went back over what she'd said, and her eyes widened.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Kali," Eleven apologised quickly as they trudged down the road towards Bear Mountain Road.
Kali smiled back at her, nudging her shoulder gently, "It's okay, sister; I know you didn't mean anything by it."
Eleven wrinkled her nose, still regretful. "When do you want me to do it for you, Kali?"
Kali pretended not to know what Eleven was getting at. "Do what?"
"Don't play games, sister, you know what I mean," Eleven chided her.
Kali sighed as they walked the seemingly endless road. Ever since their fight with One back in the lab, Eleven had seen visions of her mother from that brief encounter that she barely remembered, but Kali, being slightly older, had remembered. Eleven, understandably, wanted to find her mother, and discover what happened to her; thanks to that flash, Eleven remembered the guards snatching her mother away before she could do anything, and she was led out of the rainbow room. And that was it. Eleven didn't know if her mother was alive, or dead. So she wanted to find out, but Kali had told her that she too wanted to find out more about her own family, but she had wanted to do it when they had seen more of the world.
"How about when we get to the next town or city?" Kali suggested, trying hard to contain her worries and reluctance.
Sadly her sister caught it. She was smarter than that.
"What's wrong?" She asked pointedly, staring Kali down and refusing to back down and refusing to accept even the slightest arguments.
Kali sighed, looking ahead, and she saw they weren't far now from the branch. But she had to explain to her sister her darkest fears.
"Believe me, Jane, I am more than grateful that you want to help me find my family," she said at last, "but I'm scared if you do, you might make me see something I don't like."
"Like what?"
"You remember what happened when your mother was taken away from the Rainbow Room? What if my parents found out enough to learn what Brenner had done, and came after me, only to lose their lives?" Kali countered with questions of her own, as her worst fears bubbled to the surface. What if Brenner made sure my family died in an accident so he could get me without any loose ends?"
Eleven said nothing.
In truth, her sister hadn't said something she hadn't worried about herself. Truth be told, she hadn't pressured Kali to sit down with her, give her the chance to open herself into the void and begin looking through their memories because she was scared. But after seeing families full of happy children, well, she had been growing more and more interested in forgetting those fears.
"If you don't want me to look for your family, then let me know because I want to see if my family still exist," Eleven said at last.
Kali nodded, feeling guilt over her selfishness. "Jane, you don't have to wait for me," she said.
"I want to because we can learn about what's happened to our families at the same time," Eleven said.
Finally, they arrived at the fork in the road. The road leading down Bear Mountain Road was dark, shadowy and overgrown. It was ominous and worrying.
"Do you really want to go down there?" Kali asked.
"Are you worried?" Eleven hoped Kali was.
"A little, but like the man said, we would be going down a shortcut."
"I didn't trust that man."
"No, me neither," Kali bit her lip thoughtfully. "What if I used my powers to make sure we're not noticed?"
Eleven instantly shook her head. "No, you can't hold that power for long," she argued. "What is it about this road that worries us?"
"I don't know, sister. But we need to know," Kali said, and squaring her shoulders and taking her sister's hand, she held up her hand and concentrated. Eleven eyed her cautiously, seeing the blood trickling down from her nostril as they walked down the road.