Chapter Five: Grounded

(The Weirdo On Maple Street)

***

Alistair knew the moment he snuck back in that he was in trouble.

The boy closed his window, and turned to his bedroom door. There was a chink of light underneath it, and he could see shadows moving. Plural.

Steeling himself for the tirade to come and ignoring the woman with the slit throat and blood pouring down her eighteenth-century dress staring at him from the corner, he opened the door and walked out to meet his sister and aunt's wrath.

As he did, images of the girl in the woods, the girl Alistair knew in his bones had powers, flashed before his eyes; after she had stumbled onto them, Mike, Lucas and Dustin had taken the girl to Mike's home, and while he wanted to join them, Alistair knew due to the weather that Rowan and Aunt Aco would be home, and if he wasn't home...

Though, judging by the way the lights flickered and the overall tension inside the home, they must have discovered he wasn't home.

When he entered the living space, saw the dark looks on Rowan and Aunt Aco's faces, Alistair knew without a shadow of a doubt he was in deep shit.

So he hunched his shoulders, and braced himself for the lecture and punishment to come.

***

Rowan was angry.

No, angry seemed too mild a word. She was furious, incensed, livid, positively enraged. Alistair, her little brother, the only close family she had left aside from their aunt, had snuck out, into the woods, at night, alone. Right after he promised he would stay here.

She wanted to scream, yell, cry, throw something or electrify something. But more than anything, she wanted to pull Alistair into her tightest, most bone-breaking hug ever, and never let go after being so fucking terrified she was never gonna see her little brother again.

Her aunt seemed to be going through a similar emotional roulette, but she settled on anger as she said in a tight voice, "Sit down."

Alistair complied, squirming, looking a little bit guilty. Good. He should be. He was shivering, his curls dripping water, his whole body dripping water. Jesus, had he been caught in the storm? Why hadn't he turned back immediately after it broke?

However, her questions weren't voiced as her aunt hissed, "Alistair Nathanial Graveswood, where the hell were you?"

Alistair and Rowan winced; when the full name came, you knew you were in trouble. Alistair looked down, gripping his seat as he mumbled, "I was at Mirkwood."

"Doing what?" Aco growled, though both she and Rowan knew exactly why Alistair was at that strip of road he and his friends had named after the fictional wood from the fantasy books they loved.

Alistair still answered, though. "Looking for Will."

A tense silence came, taunt and stretched too thin, like the wrong word would snap it and result in a screaming match. Eventually, Aco gritted out, "Do you have any idea how much fucking trouble you are in?"

Alistair shrunk into himself, but Aco didn't care as she plowed on, "Your friend disappeared, possibly under mysterious circumstances and by the very people your parents died to keep you and your sister out of the hands of, and you snuck out, while at night, to go searching in the woods alone with no one having any idea where you are and giving the person Rowan trusted to watch after you and keep you safe a freaking heart attack when he found out you were gone. And, if I weren't so furious, I would be proud. But right now, young man, know that what you did was far from okay, and that I am furious with what you did."

Alistair didn't say anything. Again, Rowan felt her anger rise to the surface and she got out of her chair.

"Alistair, did you honestly think it was okay?!" Rowan shouted. "You had Eddie worried—had us worried when we found out you were gone, with no idea if you were okay or if you had gone missing as well! What if someone attacked you? What if an animal attacked you? What if The Man took you?!"

"He didn't!" Alistair shouted, hands fisted. "He didn't."

"But he could have! He could have and we would have no fucking idea! Do you have any idea how fucking terrified we were?! How fucking terrified I was that my little brother had been taken, possibly being hurt and experimented upon, and I had no freaking idea?! Do you have any fucking idea?!"

The trailer grew silent except for the clap of thunder and the lashing rain and internally Rowan regretted swearing. Aunt Aco was still glaring at Alistair, arms folded tightly and her face fixed in an angry, cold glower. Alistair, for his part, had lost his defiance and seemed to be regretful of his actions, but Rowan could still see the spark of defiance in his eyes, that he would have done it still to look for Will.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I'm sorry for worrying you. I won't do it again."

"You won't, because you are grounded," Aco bit out. "You're not going anywhere except for school. No searching in the woods, no going to the arcade. You're not even allowed to go to your friends' houses."

"What?!" Alistair shrilled, any regret disappearing. "You-you can't do that!"

"I can and I will. You broke my trust, Alistair, and did so in a way that could have gone very badly. You and Rowan are the two most important things to me, practically my own kids, and I would be damned if I lost either of you, especially with what's happening right now. So from now on, you are grounded," Aco declared, and despite the situation, Rowan felt her heart warm at hearing Aunt Aco say that she and Alistair were like her own kids.

Alistair slumped, but he managed to bite out, "How long?"

"Until you regain my trust, and until either Will is found, or there's proof that there was nothing strange behind his disappearance," Aco replied, and Rowan winced; Aconite Graveswood was notorious for having trust issues, and how if you lost her trust, it was almost impossible to regain it. Coupled with the fact it was becoming extremely unlikely Will would never be found and that there was definitely something strange behind his vanishing, then Alistair was probably never going to be un-grounded.

Alistair seemed to realise this, too, because he slumped further and said in a dejected tone, "Fine."

He then shuffled back to his room. Rowan looked at her aunt, and said in a softer voice, "Was that a bit harsh?"

Her aunt looked back at her, looking exhausted. "It was needed to be done."

"I know, but... he was just looking for his friend. If Eddie, Chrissy or Robin had gone missing, I... I would do the same," Rowan admitted.

"I know, but the principle of the matter is that he went to look in a situation that was potentially dangerous for him," her aunt said. She groaned and buried her face in her hands. Rowan knelt down, an arm around her aunt as she heaved in a sigh that sounded watery.

"Are you okay, Aunty?" Rowan asked.

"I... No? The whole disappearance has got me on edge, then your brother sneaks out... I'm just worried, and scared. Scared what this all means, and scared that you two are in danger and might be gone, and I'm just doing everything I can to keep you both safe and keep my promise to your parents and I feel like I'm not fucking doing enough," her aunt confessed, her shoulders shaking and Rowan hugged her aunt as she cried, the teenager comforting her aunt as she broke down.

When her aunt calms down, she wiped her tears and tried for a smile, but it comes off as a grimace. "Sorry, kid."

"It's okay," Rowan murmured.

Neither of them say anything, then Rowan cleared her throat and said, "I... I'll get ready for bed. It's been a long day."

Her aunt only nodded, not watching Rowan as she padded away to her bedroom, or how the teen paused to look back and sees Aco stare into space—or rather, at two chairs in the corner. Chairs that none of them refused to use, even if Rowan and Alistair had their respective friends over and needed the extra chairs.

Refused to disturb the memory of the two people who used them last, as if they had their ghosts attached to them.

Rowan pulled her gaze away, and headed into her bedroom, closing the door.

Once inside, Rowan screamed and pushed down her powers, refusing to let them go even now, not wanting to lose control.

Not wanting to lose it all.

***

Once she got all her screaming out of her, Rowan dressed into her pyjamas and got into her bathroom. On her way, she noticed her brother's door ajar. She looked in, saw him huddled on the bed. He's dressed in his own pyjamas, but aside from that it looks like he hasn't done anything else. He's staring into space—or, perhaps, at a ghost. Rowan wonders if it's an animal, but she knows it isn't true. If it was, he'd be playing with its invisible form already.

Rowan, deciding that he probably doesn't want to talk to her, prepared to go into the bathroom, when Alistair's small voice spoke.

"Rowan?"

Rowan paused, and looked back. "Yeah, Al?"

Her brother fidgeted, then asked, "Can I... can I talk to you? And don't freak out, please."

Frowning in concern, Rowan walked in, moving to sit at the edge of her brother's bed. Giving Alistair her full attention, she said, "Shoot, Al. I promise I won't freak out."

Alistair blew out a breath, pulling his knees closer to her chest, not looking at her. When he finally met her gaze, he said, "I... I wasn't alone. Dustin, Mike, Lucas... they were with me. Looking for Will."

Rowan jolted, and she wanted to yell, but she clamped her mouth shut; she already yelled at her brother enough. And by the look on his face, apparently he hadn't planned for his three remaining friends to meet up with him and look for their missing fifth member.

But it seems like that isn't all there is to tell, so Rowan gently prodded, "Spill, squirt."

Alistair hesitated, biting his lip, then continued, "While we were looking, we found... someone."

Rowan's brows raised. "Someone? You found Will?"

Alistair shook his head, and her hope fell. "No. It was a girl. But she..."

"What?" Rowan whispered.

Alistair looked at her, murmured, "She... I didn't recognise her. She was wearing a Benny's Burgers shirt, and she looked.. scared."

"Scared?"

"Yeah. And her head... it was shaved."

Rowan felt a jolt run up her spine, a chill settle over her bones. No. It... it couldn't be possible. Could it? it just... it couldn't—

Blood-smeared white walls. Children and adults with snapped bones and caved-in skulls. A girl in a hospital girl with a shaved head screaming PAPA! A girl who touched a monster's back in an endless void and screamed—

It couldn't be real.

"That's not all. Rowan," her brother said, jolting Rowan out of her panicked thoughts, and she looked at her brother now, saw his wide eyes, his confusion and panic and longing as he hissed, "I could feel her energy. She... I think she has powers. Like us, like..."

Like Mom. Like Gran and our aunts and uncles and cousins. Like the Graveswood family.

Silence, as both grappled with the thoughts—or rather, Rowan grappled with the implication that the girl she thought had been nothing but a terrifying figment of her imagination or a projection of her fears if she and her brother were found and taken was actually real, that the massacre she saw when she closed her eyes was possibly real as well—when Alistair asked in a small voice, "Should... should we—"

Immediately, Rowan's attention snapped to the present and she hissed, "No."

Alistair stared at her, blinking owlishly as he asked, "Why?"

Rowan didn't answer right away, fiddling with her shirt as she tried to think of a good answer that wasn't "Because I'm pretty certain she's the girl I keep having horrifying nightmares about and I'm certain she comes from The Place and that I'm terrified that this means the other nightmares I have of a freaking massacre are real too", and settling on, "Because... because we have no idea where she comes from. If... if she's from there. If she could be dangerous."

If she could be working with The Man and help him capture us, Rowan added in her mind, but didn't say out loud, and really, Rowan wasn't really convinced of it, especially if Alistair said that the girl had been scared.

Alistair was quiet, biting his lip before he jerkily nodded. "Okay. I-I won't tell Aunt Aco."

Rowan nodded. "Good, good. Thanks, squirt. She has enough to worry about as is."

Alistair nodded again, understanding. He then looked at her, and whispered, "Should I tell her, about... about us?"

Rowan hesitated, then shook her head. "No. We don't know who she is, where she came from, or who or what she's working with. It's... it's better to be safe than sorry."

Alistair nodded again, but she could see that it pained him, to keep his abilities secret from someone who might understand, and it pained Rowan, too, but she knew that this was what was necessary to keep them safe. Even if it meant a new brand of loneliness to have potentially someone else with powers in Hawkins and unable to confess because of the fear.

Another silence descended, then Rowan said, "Well, night squirt. Don't sneak out again, okay?"

Alistair didn't say anything. Rowan didn't press.

Instead, she walked out and into the bathroom, finishing getting ready for bed. When she was done, she peeked into Alistair's room, just to check. Her brother was in bed, asleep, curls splayed across his pillows. She wondered if tonight, he would have no nightmares, and if he did, that they wouldn't leave him unable to sleep after.

Once in her own room, crawling into the warmth and safety of her bed, Rowan turned the lamp off, watching as lightning flashed across her room. A part of her yearned to be in the storm, to feel the lightning course through her and have her own electricity leap out of her skin to join it, but she squashed it down, turning away as she closed her eyes, hoping that she would not dream of the girl and the massacre again.

Hoping that she would not dream of the void, the monster...

Or of Will's broken, bloody body, lying in the woods and having that thing atop it, shrieking as it feasted.

***

Yep, Al is grounded.

(Not like it will stop him from looking for Will, though)

And yeah, while both Rowan and Aco are angry, they were more terrified and worried that Alistair had been kidnapped and they couldn't have done anything. That, and Aco is trying to do good by her promise to her sister and trying to raise her sister's kids as best she can, though she feels like she's failing it.

And yeah, this chapter exposed Rowan's biggest fear aside from being kidnapped by Brenner and used as a weapon—that she could lose her little brother, her only close family, and she can't do anything to stop it. It's also a fear she has with her friends, but marginally less so than her fear of losing her little brother. And that fear's gonna be tested in the future 😈 .

And now Rowan knows about El! Honestly, she's trying to look out for herself and Alistair while also trying to keep denying her "dreams" are real. And yeah, they're being pretty lonely right now...

Also, Merry Christmas/happy holidays!!! I hope you all have a safe and happy holidays or Christmas and enjoy this chapter!

Next chapter will be soon! Please read, vote and comment!

GhostWriterGirl out!