"It was the same thing, the exact same thing that happened to Will last year:" Nancy spoke when she showed up, Cassie crossed her legs as she looked up at her. "And look at this. Look at the body temperatures."

Will leaned over the sheet she laid out before looking up. "He likes it cold."

"Okay, so this crazy old lady who was eating fertilizer-" Mike began.

"Mrs. Driscoll." Nancy corrected him.

"Right, yeah, Mrs Driscoll. What time was this attack?" Mike looked toward his sister and Wills brother.

"Last night." Nancy repeated herself.

"Right, but what time last night?" Mike asked her with a curious look.

"Around nine." Nancy nodded her head.

"You waited all night to call?" Jonathan asked in disbelief. Cassie rose her eyebrows.

"I was waiting for the doctors to run some test." Nancy side glanced his way.

"You weren't there?" Will asked his brother in disbelief.

"Well, i'm here now, aren't I?" Jonathan rose his hands with a shrug.

"Hallelujah!" Nancy scoffed.

"I love a lovers spat." Cassie gushed as she put a hand on her heart.

Lucas rubbed her back. "Not now, Cas."

"Um, so, what time was your sauna test?" Nancy recalled the explanation Mike gave when she arrived.

"Around nine." they all said on sync.

"Well, that proves it. That proves my theory." Nancy's face lit up slightly as she looked at each of them.

"She's flayed, just like Billy." Mike nodded his head in agreement.

"Flayed?" Jonathan gave a questionable look.

"The Mind Flayer. He flays people." Mike explained quickly. "Takes over their mind. Once they do that, they basically become him."

"Takes over their brains, changes them entirely to act like excruciatingly devastating creatures." Cassie inhaled with a head shake. "So heartbreaking."

"If there are two flayed-"Lucas began.

"We have to assume there are more." Will cut him off from the other side of El.

"Heather." El spoke up, looking at Max. "Billy was doing something to her. She was scared. She was screaming. Bad screams."

"What's a good scream?" Lucas gave an odd look.

"Max said-" El began.

"Doesn't matter." Max added.

"I'm sorry, i'm lost. Who's Heather?" Nancy spoke up with a questionable look.

"The acceptingly pretty girl at the pool?" Cassie looked to Max and El, getting a nod.

"Heather Holloway?" Nancy's eyebrows went up. Her and Jonathan shared a look. "Tom."

"Tom?" Nancy called down the hallway. "Heather?"

"Jesus, it's freezing." Max commented. Lucas looked back to make sure Cassie was still following, her eyes looking around.

"This house is depressingly terrible." Cassie frowned as she looked around. "No extravagant colors, no heart tugging photos."

"Do you guys smell that?" Nancy asked as they all paused in the living room, taking a sniff of the air. Walking into the kitchen, they all held their noses at the strong smell. "God, more chemicals."

"You think they're guzzling this shit?" Jonathan asked her as he picked up one of the bottles.

"Either that or they just went on a hell of a cleaning spree." Nancy looked at the empty bottles across the counter.

"But last year, Will didn't eat chemicals." Max pointed out from the other side of the Byers boy. "Did you?"

"No. This is something new." Will confirmed.

"Mr.Clarke, fifth grade. Posit, he always talked about chemicals."

"Sure, he said that..." Cassie trialed off. "Mixing two chemicals together could lead to a once in a life time, extremely eye catching, memory stamping, reaction."

"Yup, those were his exact words." Lucas agreed sarcastically.

"What if they're making something?" Mike asked out loud.

"In themselves?" Max questioned. "I mean, come on, if you drink this crap, it'll kill you."

"Yeah, if you're human." Lucas shrugged. Nancy began to walk toward the dining room, the rest of them following after the girl in purple.

She leaned down to the stain on the ground. "Blood. Yesterday Tom had a bandage on his forehead."

She grabbed the wine bottle, looking at the blood smeared across the side. "He was attacked."

Nancy followed the bunched up carpet, opening the door closest to it. Cassie hid behind Lucas. "Like a terrifying twist of scenery."

"They must have tied them." Jonathan looked at the loose cords across the floor. "They must have taken them somewhere."

"Mrs Driscoll." Nancy spoke up once more, getting their attention. "She kept saying 'I have to go back.' What if the flaying, it's taking place somewhere else? There must be a place all this started, right? A source."

"Somewhere he didn't want me to see." El went along with her words.

"If we can find the source, then maybe we can stop him." Nancy nodded her head. "Or at least stop it from spreading or doing whatever the hell he's doing with these chemicals."

"Mrs Driscoll." Will spoke up from behind the pair. "If she wants to go back so badly, why don't we let her?"

The group attempted to sneak past the woman in the front desk, failing miserably as she stopped the phone call. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Excuse me! Where do you think you're going?"

Nancy turned around with her best forced, good girl smile. "Oh, um. I was just going to visit my grandma again. And-and this is my family."

The nurse gave a look of disbelief toward Lucas and Cassie as he grinned. "Extended."

"I don't care who they are. You know the rules. Two visitors at a time." the nurse shook her head at the group, eyeing each of them suspiciously.

"Yeah, but-" Nancy began.

"Two!" she rose her voice.

"This is beyond unfair and extremely, terribly, heartbreakingly, devastating." Cassie huffed as she walked toward the stairs while Jonathan and Nancy went off to the woman's room. The older Byers held her shoulder before going. Lucas sat down next to her. "We are atrocious partners."

"So true." he agreed. "Wanna share a butterfinger?"

Cassie grinned, walking toward the vending machine as Lucas followed. She put the coin in, hitting the button as it fell. Reaching under, Lucas pulled it out and cracked it down the middle. "For you."

"Why, thank you, kind sir." Cassie took it with a grin.

Mike got the same idea they had, walking to try and get his own snack, but the machine was frozen. "Come on, you piece of shit!"

Cassie and Lucas shared a eyebrow raised look, the machine suddenly buffering forward as multiple snacks fell. Cassies eyes widened. "Heaven is really real."

"Thanks." Mike called toward El as she whipped the bloody nose.

Cassie bumped into Mike hard as he stumbled to the side, pulling the snacks out. "Lucas, help me!"

He leaned down to help her, the two pulling as many out as the could as they stood up with arm fulls of snacks, laughing and giggling in the most creepy, on sync, uneasy way and both jumping up and down as they got louder by the second.

"Quiet!" the woman around the corner, at the desk, called out to the two.

"Sorry." they mumbled on sync.

•

kylie speaks

imagining them jumping
up and down with evil laughs
that get louder and louder
is sending me for some reason