"You're pretty."

Explaining things to the chief hadn't exactly been the most comfortable moment in her short life time, feeling like she was being judged very harshly as they told him about the faceless monster currently terrorising Hawkins and the fact the three teens had gone to fight it with nothing more than a gun and a threatening looking bat. But, explaining to Hopper about how she was pretty sure she was, in fact, a witch with a rather explosive temper which had been the cause of Callahan's dramatic tumble had most definitely been a whole lot worse.

Especially considering he was looking more and more stressed out by the moment, and his face was starting to closely resemble some kind of gigantic tomato with a vein in his neck twitching and throbbing in time with his right eyebrow and he was blinking alot. Like a whole lot, like on the verge of having a stroke of some kind...and Blair was quite confident in her assessment that she didn't want to be there when it happened.

But after a long, tense couple of minutes with the chief just staring her down in complete silence, with only the sound of her anxious heart beat pounding in her ears, did he finally sigh and take a step back with a loud grunt, rubbing his fingers across his sweating forehead as if that would soothe the headache he had no doubt formed listening to their chaotic tales before looking at the other two sitting either side of her, disappoint shining in his cloudy eyes as he sucked his teeth. "I gotta' say, I expected this kind of shit from her, but you two? Well you two have me suprised."

"Fuck you." Blair instantly spat with a voice like venom, crossing her arms over her chest with a dark scowl painting her features, glaring off to the side as Hopper picked up the picture of the creature Jonathan had handed to him and looked it over once more, his eyes narrowing at the, quite frankly, freaky looking bastard that could of fine well been the cause of all of this shit that was going down, before handing it over to Joyce without so much of a backward glance...seemingly far too busy glaring at the young girl who was going to great efforts to ignore him.

"You say blood draws this thing?"

"Fuck if I know."

"It's just a theory." Nancy quickly mumbled, contradicting the young witches down right nasty attitude. But she didn't seem to care that much anymore, didn't really seem to care about anything as she sat there silently, stewing with a hidden rage that made its home inside her, constantly filling her up with disastrous anger that made her hurt. In all honesty, Blair just wanted to go home, curl up in a ball and scream until her throat filled with blood and her own unconscious took her, because she didn't know how much longer she could keep any of this up.

"Mhm, okay. Everyone out." The chief finally ordered after a silent minute, and everyone was quick to rise up on anxious feet, feeling the tension of the room like a thick cloud of smoke hammering away at their senses, but just as Blair went to stand, desperate to stretch the aches forming in her legs, Hopper pointed a thick finger towards her and shook his head dangerously. "Not you. You better sit your ass back down."

Apparently, he didn't have to tell them twice, because the young girl felt like she'd only blinked before everyone was gone from her blurry vision, the sound of the door closing echoing around the small office as she cursed loudly, face twisting into a scowl as she plopped herself back down on the uncomfortable chair just in front of his desk, glaring back over towards the wall to the side of her and focusing on the crumbling paint, the little dents and imperfections of the plaster in an effort to avoid looking at the chief who's stare she could practically feel digging into the side of her head as she grumbled.

"This is ridiculous."

"No, no, what's ridiculous is the fact that you've been causing chaos everywhere you go. You could of gotten yourself killed and then what the fuck would I do? Huh?" Hopper finally exploded with a loud yell of frustration, finally sick of her nonchalant attitude to the whole situation and slamming his hands on his desk with snarl upon his lips, staring down at her with anger flashing in the blue of his eyes that made them appear so much darker as she lifted her narrowed gaze to meet his. "You going to answer me, smart-ass?"

"I don't know why you're picking on me! It wasn't even my fucking idea! I just went to make sure those two idiots didn't get eaten-"

The chief laughing sarcastically interrupted her before she could even begin to explain, stepping towards her with a nod of his large head and digging his tongue into the side of his cheek as if genuinely listening to her but Blair knew for a fact that he wasn't, that he was just doing this whole dramatic bit to be an even bigger asshole than she thought he was as he finally reached the front of his desk where he leaned against it. "Oh, well in that case I still don't care. You could of gotten yourself killed, are you not hearing me, kid?"

Blair clenched her trembing hands into fists with her nails digging into the scabbed over mess until blood welled up underneath them, shoving them under her armpits as her breathing hitched uncontrollably, practically feeling the blood rushing to her veins and threatening to drown her as her whole body suddenly wracked in terrible tremors, trying to keep her temper at bay.

And yet she couldn't, she never could because she was nothing more than a crazy bitch just like they all said she was. So instead of biting her tongue, she stood on shaking legs and matched his ferocity as a sudden breeze blew through the windows and made his papers go flying across the room. "I'm hearing you asshole, but I didn't! You're saying this shit like someone would even notice if I dropped down dead but they fucking wouldn't! Because just like my grams I'm nothing more than the town's resident psycho-"

"Hey! That's enough! I promised your grams I'd look after you kid and you're making it extremely difficult....I just need you to meet me halfway here, alright?" Hopper sighed, pinching his nose between his thumb and forefinger as he tried to calm himself down as he took a deep breath, running the heel of his palm down his face tiredly before he finally confessed something that had been heavy on his mind since the day it happened. "Look, your grams wasn't crazy, she just knew stuff. Stuff that no one else knew. She tried to- she tried to tell me about Sarah but I didn't believe her, wrote her off as crazy like everyone else and that was that. I should of believed her, I should of."

Then there was a moment, a single moment of hesitation when he opened his mouth once more and stared at her with new eyes, taking half a step forward towards her...but then moving backwards, shaking his head and then clearing his throat, all while she blinked up at him in obvious confusion, wondering just what he'd stopped himself from saying, from telling her.

"But I believe you now, alright? So work with me here." He chose to grunt instead, rubbing the palm of his hand down his tired face again and Blair had to fight off the strange well of guilt that festered inside her stomach like starving maggots, glancing off to the side with her shoulders physically dropping as she curled in on herself regretfully, before giving one, single nod of her head to show that she understood, that she'd stop with the fighting, and try to stop her vicious tongue from snapping in her overwhelming rage.

"Great. Glad that's settled, now come on. We'll sort this out."

But the second the two were finally out of the office it seemed the poor Chief couldn't catch a break as he was quickly called over by his officers to a rather red-faced looking woman holding a snot-nosed brat that Blair was sure she'd seen being an asshole to her boys a couple of times, though every time she'd even attempted to do or say something about it they'd begged her not too, something about it being embarrassing having your babysitter standing up for you. She personally didn't see what the problem was, it wasn't like she was going to actually hurt him...physically anyway.

Yet she took the out while she could and wandered over to where Nancy stood, watching as Jonathan and Joyce embraced with a certain almost sad look in her eyes that if Blair cared enough to ask about, was sure was probably about something humane and boring like her own relationship with her mother. But she didn't, so instead, she leaned her back against the wall and rubbed the heel of her scabby palm across her cheekbone, yawning tiredly and desperately trying to ignore the urge for a cigarette as she glanced out the window boredly.

"What did he want?" It was Nancy who broke the silence, not that the young witch actually wanted the silence to be broken in the first place, quite comfortable in the awkward atmosphere they'd created and only just managing to smother her sigh as she shrugged her aching shoulders, watching the cars that drove by in blissful ignorance of what kind of fucked up horror movie gone wrong that was currently happening in Hawkins and jealous of that simplicity as the wind blew and the trees swayed, nonplussed by the strange happenings because for mother nature, the world would always just go round while she felt like hers was falling apart.

"Honestly? No idea. Something about me being more responsible or something...which is ironic considering I'm the most responsible one out of our monster hunting trio if we're being realistic."

"I don't think-"

"I'd choose your next words carefully Mrs. I crawl into things that don't even resemble something vaguely human and then get shocked when I get chased by some freaky looking monster." Blair said surprisingly calmly considering, but the Wheeler girl flinched all the same, because it didn't matter if Blair bitch spat venom or threw fists in her vile rage, there had always just been something about her that hovered on the edge of something terrible and something great, and maybe that's why people were so intimated by her, never knowing which was she'd inevitably fall.

And now that they knew just what she was, everything was beginning to fall into place like broken pieces of a puzzle. However, before Nancy could do or say anything else, Hopper suddenly came storming over with a face like thunder, his footsteps practically causing the earth to shake underneath him as he reached forward and grabbed Blair by the forearm to yank her alongside him while she cursed at him at the rough manhandling, fruitlesly trying to tug her arm away from his strong grip with a snarl. "Whoa Hopper, where's the fire you fucking lunatic?"

"Look I don't have time for your snarky attitude, I think the kids are in trouble."

"Wait, what kids?" Nancy asked, struggling to catch up to the two with wide eyes and a rather worrying stone forming in the pit of her stomach as they raced ahead, the door to the station swinging open as the Cgief shouldered on through it with Blair in tow, leading them towards his car after gesturing towards Jonathan and Joyce, a certain anxious energy radiating from the usually confident man as he paused, just for a moment, to glance at her with a certain pity in his eyes that absolutely did nothing to ease her worry.

"...Your brother and his friends, so we need to get to your house. Now."
_________________________________________________

The next hour coursed on by in a terrible blur, finding out from the chief about some bald girl that was running about town with some, well, some sort of powers that had caused havoc that had somehow managed to get involved with her boys...who were now apparently on the run from the government with said little bald girl and taking refuge in some junkyard which the strange group of adults and teens learned from managing to speak to them on their stupid walkie-talkies, though after a super long pause that had been filled with suspicion from both ends...before eventually Hopper dropped them off at the Byers home so he could go and get them.

And of course, Blair had almost instantly said that she was going with him, because at the end of the day the kids trusted her...and no offence to the Chief but he wasn't exactly the most welcoming person you'd want to see after a stressful and, quite frankly, terrible night.

However, barely even twenty minutes later, she was regretting that decision, regretting it more than any decision she had ever made in the shit show she called a life, and that included the time she tried to bleach her hair blonde and had been forced to shave it off after it had destroyed her dark curls with some kind of vicious vengeance.

Because the problem was that Hopper managed to drive like a fucking lunatic as he drove through at least four red lights, growling and cursing up such a storm that Blair had almost blushed. And she'd found it rather ironic indeed considering he was the chief of police...and yet this was the unsafest she'd felt in a while now as she was thrown left and right in the passenger seat, her hand pressed against the roof of the car and her face permanently set in a horrified grimace as tires squealed and other cars beeped in indignation at their reckless driving that she had no part of, already regretting offering her assistance as her life flashed before her eyes in quick bursts.

This was definitely not how she wanted to die, not that she'd ever really put much thought into it, but she'd at least hoped it would be in some cool, perhaps dramatic way...and not from almost being thrown out of the window as Hopper stepped on the breaks and she was yanked forwards so roughly, she'd jerked forward and slammed her head against the dashboard with a pained yelp, quickly pulling herself up to rub at her forming bruise with a scowl.

"I told you to put a seatbelt on." He said gruffly, barely even sparing her another glance as he climbed out of the car as she just sat there wide eyed and bushy haired, hand on her chest in an effort to calm her racing heart as it pounded against her palm, and she was almost scared that it was about to leap out of her flesh as she finally managed to pull herself out of the passenger door, legs a bit more unsteady than she wanted them to be and her face slightly green, but she was counting the whole experience as a win considering she hadn't blown up anything in her fear or thrown up.

And with the absolute hell spawn this week had been, she was taking whatever small victories she could while she could.

The grass crunched under her feet, the cool crusps of winter already taking hold as she walked over to Hopper quickly, eyes flickering around the abandoned junkyard, looking over the corpses of cars sticking out of the ground, left to rust until the colours grew dull. But as she continued to move, gaze desperately searching for any sign of the kids as they strolled up the hill, something inside her began to lurch, like she was going to be sick or something close to it but not at the same time. Something she couldn't describe other than some form of alarm bells ringing inside her head...and she didn't have to be a genius to realise that her witchy senses were trying to tell her something.

She quickly latched out, shaking fingers clenching tightly around the material of the Chiefs jacket and pulling him to a stop as he grunted down at her in confusion, thick brows furrowed to the point that she could hardly even see his eyes anymore as he frowned only to realise the sudden seriousness on her bruised features, and he bent his head towards her just slightly with his fingers itching towards the gun at his waist. "What? What's going on?"

"Something isn't right...I- fuck- I don't think we're the only ones here." Blair told him, her expression pained at the hesitation in her words as she desperately tried to sort through the strange feeling twisting at her insides until it practically burned, but instead of focusing on that, she instead remembered the spells that weighed heavy on her mind like a threatening promise as Hopper nodded, taking her warning as he began to walk once more, though this time holding a certain caution as she followed just behind him, eyes instantly zeroing in on the two cars that looked very out of place indeed in the graveyard of shitty old parts.

Suddenly, she felt Hopper's hand on her shoulder as he forced her down behind a large heap of scrap metal with a quiet curse, and she almost snapped at him with venom cruely hanging on the tip of her tongue until she glanced over his shoulder and found the cause for his abrupt shove. Because sniffing just outside of an old looking bus was a man dressed in a suit, and even she could see the gun by his waist as he bent at the knee to look at...holy fuck, those were the kids bikes. Those were the kids bikes! She thought, looking over inside the broken windows for any sign of them and not knowing whether to feel relief or fear when she couldn't...but just as she was about to move for a closer look, she was shoved even further down by a rough hand.

"Not a chance. Stay here and stay low, I'll handle this." The Chief snapped gruffly, shaking his head with a grunt as she began to protest and not even giving her a moment to remind him that she was the witch here! And that her chances against the agent was just as good as his, but he had already moved out from their improv cover and left her squatting down there like a shitting dog with a scowl on her features and a snarl upon her lips.

"You've got to be kidding me!" She whisper-shouted at nothing, resisting the urge to throw her arms up in the air in her dangerous frustration and glaring at his back as he moved with purpose over towards where the man stood hovering at the entrance of the bus where she had a very strong suspicion that that was where the kids were hiding, and before she'd even had time to blink Hopper's arm was winding back and he was slamming it across the agents face who fell with a mightly crack, leaving Blair feeling somewhat giddy at the violence as she grinned.

"All right, let's go. Let's go!"

And for a moment she finally felt calm as she watched the kids and their little unharmed heads pop up from behind the seats to stare up in awe at the larger than life figure of Hopper as he yelled at them to move, relief winding in her bones like a warm embrace as she allowed herself a small smile, feeling it stretch over the scabs on her lips and welcoming the sting...but that moment came and went when she noticed movement out of the corner of her eye and she turned her face to find another agent, his gun drawn and pointed straight towards the Chief's head.

It was like time had slowed down around her, becoming dull and hard to grasp onto, like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands as she blinked with her mouth hanging open. But she didn't have time to think, to hesitate or to even pause as she stood on trembling legs, something dark flashing in her eyes and making its home there as the threatening promise of magic coiled within her, winding through her veins, warming the tips of her fingers, making her feel whole as she cast her arm out and met the agents gaze with her dangerous one.

"Phasmatos Motus Robix!" She snarled thickly, and it felt as if time had suddenly snapped back into place as he was thrown off of his feet with a super manly sounding scream, hitting the side of the bus with a resounding crack that echoed through the silence of the junkyard and slumping down onto the ground below him, not rising up again as Blair swayed on her feet with a groan, feeling her mouth fill with bile as she rested her arms on her knees, trying her hardest to catch her breath as nausea rocked her body. The harrowing spell doing absolutely nothing for her migraine that had been steadily forming as she desperately tried not to throw up in her own mouth and not feeling as badass as she thought she would as she gagged quietly.

"Holy shit!" But it was a familar voice that brought her out of her heaving state, and she looked up sharply to see the kids staring at her in wide-eyed wonder, shock still at whatever the fuck their little eyes were forced to comprehend...before the questions began as they rushed towards her, stumbling over themselves as they talked over each other, for some odd reason Mike lifting her trembling arm to see her inner wrist and frowning when bare skin greeted him, asking strange questions about numbers and moving things with her mind like Eleven which was really just adding onto her pounding headache and helpless confusion.

And thankfully, salvation came in the form of Hopper as he moved towards them, dark eyes flickering over to the unconscious agent with a hint of something that closely resembled gratitude as he reached out and tugged the kids away from her with a scowl. "Look, you have all the time in the world to start asking questions, alright? But right now, we're in a bit of a situation here and we need to move. So shut up and start walking." He snapped, squatting down to hold each of their gazes before gesturing his head over towards his car with a grunt.

Blair took a second to catch her breath as she straighter her back and grunting at the crack that came with it, rubbing her chest where an ache had formed, until she realized that while the three boys had been subdued through the Chief's callous attitude...there were still eyes watching her, and when she lifted her head she froze as she met brown eyes holding such hope that it almost knocked her off her unsteady feet, her mind flashing back to that strange vision of a bloody nose and shaved hair and knowing, knowing that that was her.

"Hey, so you must be the one causing all this trouble, huh?" She smiled gently as the wind breezed on through her dark strands of hair, watching as the girl mirrored it before she shuffled closer, shoulders drawn up to her ears as she stared up at her with curiosity shining in her gaze, circling over the young witch as if searching for something, something Blair didn't understand and then, quite like Mike, the girl reached forward to flip her inner wrist for a closer look and then furrowing her brows in confusion.

"You're...like me?"

"Well, I've never made someone piss their pants yet. But at this rate, it's only a matter of time." Blair chuckled, remembering the terror in the little bullies eyes when he spoke of the dangerous girl who could do things with her mind, incredible things obviously if the government was so desperate to get her back...but she also knew that she and the kid in front of her were nothing alike through their shared strangeness, there wasn't the barest hint of magic flowing through her veins like a haunting promise, there was just nothing but something almost wrong, something off putting about her that made her senses rear with terrible warning.

But she refused to be scared of her, she refused to be anything but kind to the brown-eyed girl who looked uncertain and scared and strangely awed until she seemed to be unable to take the silence anymore. "You're pretty." She finally whispered quietly, voice getting caught in the wind as she shivered, pulling the dark blue jacket closer to her little body in a way that tugged at Blair's heartstrings as she smiled down at her with an unusual softness in her gaze.

"Thank you, I think you're pretty too. Now, how about we get out of this cold yeah? Because if I get ill I can promise you now that no one is going to hear the end of it." The witch grumbled, stretching her arms over her chest to try and release some tension as the girl smiled shyly, and just as Blair turned her back to walk the way she'd come with the grouchy Chief of Police, she suddenly felt a hand slip into her rather messy and scabby one, quickly glancing down to see the strange kid holding onto her tightly, as if the taller girl was about to float away as she began to lead her down the small hill with an encouraging smile. "So, what's your name anyway?"

"Eleven."

What the fuck? "...Okay, well I'm Blair. It's nice to meet you."
________________________________________________

It seemed that getting to the Byer's house had been the easy part as she was forced to explain over her shoulder at the frantic kids about the absolute hell her week had been, but most specifically about her mage ways because for some odd reason the kids refused to call her anything but, telling them about the strange visions, the spells, and the way she could set things of fire with her mind that had warranted a need for a demonstration from the excited kids which was very quickly put down by an increasingly stressed Hopper who looked moments away from exploding.

The hard part, however, was trying to even begin to understand just what the hell the kids were talking about as they all sat scattered around the living room talking about the upside down and electromagnetic fields and compasses, Eleven hovering right under Blair's arm away from the others scrutinizing eyes who was having alot of trouble keeping her eyes on Mike as he ranted, her gaze constantly flickering to the rather...different decor that was all over the house but keeping her comments to herself.

Until finally, Joyce leaned forward to ask the question heavy on everyone's mind, her eyes watery and hopeful and face looking more aged than Blair had ever seen her, skinny hands trembling with such a force that she was sure that if the older woman even attempted to hold something it would shatter in her hand like glass in a earthquake. "Is there any way that you could...that you could reach Will? That you could talk to him in this- the upside down."

Eleven nodded her head, a sheen of determination shining in her dark eyes as Joyce seemed to physically slump in on herself in relief, looking close to bursting into tears as Nancy moved from where she was sitting against the soft and well-worn sofa, staring down at the young girl with her lower lip wobbling as her chin jutted out. "And my friend Barbara, can you find her too?"

And barely a few minutes later and they were all sitting around the kitchen table, Eleven at the head of it with Blair right behind her, nervously chewing around the skin of her nails and ignoring Hopper's warning look as she did so, eyes flickering down to the torn up and sticked back together again picture of Barbara at the pool with the monster looming behind her, to the walkie-talkie emitting uncomfortable static, echoing through the silence of the home until it was all anyone could hear, that and their pounding hearts at the thought of having this ordeal over with sooner rather than later.

But eventually, the noise died down, and just as the young girls eyes snapped open the lights gave a sudden flicker. And then there was silence for a second, thick and brimming with hope, but Eleven's lower lip was wobbling, and her small hands were clenched in tiny fists and Blair could almost feel the terror, the fear and the sadness clinging to the girl like a second skin as she looked over at Joyce with her voice shaking and oh so fragile sounding. "I’m sorry."

"What? What's wrong? What happened?"

"I can't find them." She sobbed pitifully as everyone physically reacted with hopelessness, either moving away or crying out, but Blair found herself barely giving them another glance before she was kneeling beside the telekinetic girl with a gentle smile, hushing her quietly and brushing the tears away from her trembling face as if they hadn't of even been there in the first place as she calmed the girl who'd tried her best, and feeling something twinge painfully in her stomach when Eleven nuzzled into her palm like a wounded dog.

"Hey, hey it's alright. It's okay, you're okay. Why don't you get yourself cleaned up, the bathroom is just over there. Do you want me to come with you? No? Okay, that's okay." The words rushed out of her mouth quickly, almost desperately in her attempt to comfort her...but the moment the girls little shaved head was finally out of view she spun on her heel to glare down at the remaining children with a flash of warning in her eyes, arms crossing over her chest in her agitation. "Alright, so what the fuck was that about?"

"Whenever she uses her powers, she gets weak. 
The more energy she uses, the more tired she gets. Like, she flipped the van earlier-" Mike began to explain quickly, and although Blair was definitely struggling to hear anything other than white noise as her headache blossomed, she tried her best to keep at attention instead of fading out like she had before, a strange swell of protectiveness rising inside her like roaring waves. "-But now she’s drained...Like a bad battery."

"Well- how-how do we make her better?"

"Hey! Look let's not hound her, alright? She's just a kid." Blair said as soon as those words had escaped the Joyce's anxious lips with a scowl that made her look half feral, not quite snapping but close to it as she looked at the mother and son duo who shot her betrayed looks that made her feel all sorts of guilty, understanding that they wanted to find Will but not liking the pressure that had been suddenly placed on the girls shoulders who'd looked close to crying at disappointing them when she'd walked to the bathroom to clean herself up from the steadily dripping red that blossomed down her nose like something ominous indeed.

"She's the only one who can find Will and Barb, Blair. She's our only chance, she needs to-"

"She doesn't need to do shit, she's not a show pony that can do whatever trick you want her too, whenever you want her too. She's just a fucking kid who's got some fucked up powers who looks like she's barely had a fucking good meal in years...and that definitely doesn't mean that she's going to be able to fix everything. Let her rest for a fucking minute, Jesus." The young witch narrowed her eyes at them all, feeling defensive and angry and almost something far more worse as the lights flickered dangerously above her head for a moment that had everyone shifting in unease at the very sight of it.

But before anyone could do or say anything else about the matter, or better yet even attempt to challenge the sudden and strange protective nature the witch was channeling, they all found themselves jumping in fright as Eleven seemed to appear out of fucking nowhere, staring up at Blair with an absolute determination in her gaze that looked like she was prepared for war. "The bath."

"What?"

"I can find them in the bath."