Chapter Text
Jonathan watched her leave, uselessly pulling at the cuffs around his wrists. He could see the grip he had on Tina’s neck, the blank way he regarded her. There was something wrong, very wrong, but he couldn’t figure out what. The sound of the door shutting behind them felt terribly final.
He craned his neck towards the window, spotting a car parked haphazardly in front of the station. The two were there a moment later, the man forcefully pushing her in. She seemed so unusually docile, not fighting back at all. He squinted, wondering if she was still cuffed, but no. Her arms seemed locked by her sides nonetheless.
One of the officers, Powell if he was remembering correctly, sat in front of him. His eyes were stern, but not cruel.
“I know you’re worried about your friend, kid, but Mr. Ballard seems like a nice man. He probably won’t punish her too badly. Slap on the wrist, grounded for a few weeks. Typical stuff.”
Jonathan stares at his hands, watching them flex and loosen. “I don’t think so,” he muttered quietly.
“If-”
He was interrupted by the receptionist walking in, Nancy one step behind her with an ice pack. The cop sighed, then stepped aside, heading to the other room. Nancy took the seat Tina had been in, inspecting Jonathan’s face.
He leaned away. “I’m fine. I think I hurt him more than he did me.”
“Yeah… you certainly got him good. Where’s Tina?”
He swallowed dryly. “Her dad showed up to take her home.”
He noticed the way she tensed at his words. “Do you think he’s-”
“Abusing her? Yeah. Maybe.”
“Not letting her outside for years is insane. Did you hear what she said about not having spoken to anyone but him? Messed up stuff.”
“...before he showed up… she told me… she told me that she thinks he’ll kill her.” He breathes deeply. “Could’ve been a joke, but she seemed so serious. He grabbed her by the neck, when he led her away. His face looked wrong.”
“You’ve seen him before?”
“Yeah. After the party. He picked her up from the station without being called. Blond hair, blue-” he paused, hesitating. “Maybe brown eyes.”
“She talks about him pretty positively though, despite all that.”
“Sure, but.. She told me, earlier, in the car, that she’d been.. kidnapped? As a kid. People knew about uh, what she could do. Apparently, this guy saved her. Adopted her. Maybe that’s why she speaks so highly of him.”
She lifts a hand to her mouth, eyes widening. “I can’t believe- well we have to help her, right? We have to… to do something.”
“Jonathan!”
Both turn, seeing Joyce rushing in. She’s on her son in an instant, checking him for injuries, pressing Nancy’s ice pack to his cheek. Hopper enters a moment later, a box tucked under his arm. He drops it on the table, revealing the traps and weapons the teens had purchased earlier. The four end up in his office.
* * *
Nancy ran forward, wrapping her arms around her younger brother. “I was so worried about you.”
Mike blinks, stepping back. “Uh, yeah.. Me too.”
She glances past him, eyes locking on a young girl with dirt on her cheeks, her hair shaved. “Is that my dress?”
“This is Eleven,” Mike announces. “We found her in the woods.”
Hopper steps between them, rushing them inside. “We don’t have time for this. We need to figure out what we know and come up with a plan.”
The kids sigh, making their way into Joyce’s house. Only when they’re all piled into the living room can they finally discuss.
Mike steps up first. “We learned a bit about the Upside Down.” He draws a line across a piece of paper, then draws a stick figure on top of it. “This person, the acrobat, is us. Up above the line is our world and underneath is the Upside Down, where Will is. We can’t move off the tightrope ourselves, but with enough energy-” he stabs through the paper with his pencil, “we can make a gateway.”
He opens his mouth to continue, but Nancy cuts him off. “I know a girl who can make portals,” she says, sharing a glance with Jonathan.
Everyone turns to them, confused.
Her brother, brows knitted in confusion, continues. “We… traced a gate to the Hawkins Lab… what do you mean ‘can make portals’?”
“Yesterday…” She begins carefully. “Jonathan and I went searching for the faceless one-”
“Demogorgon.”
“Faceless one with this girl, Tina. The monster seemed able to make its own portals and was using it to go hunting in the woods or something. I went through, not realizing what it was, and entered the Upside Down. She dived in after me and… fought it off.”
Hopper leans forward. “So let me get this straight. A teenage girl named Tina, the same one that got arrested twice this week, fought off an interdimensional monster. By herself?”
“I know this sounds unbelievable but… She had this… magic, I guess. Telekinesis.”
“Like El does!” Dustin interrupts, eyes wide.
“What?”
“Yeah! El can move things with her mind. That’s why those bad men are after her, they want to study her.”
“Well, Tina did say some people kidnapped her for her abilities,” Jonathan notes. “But she was able to escape.”
Hopper leans back in his chair. “That makes things easier. Get her to make a portal, go through, get Will and Barb, come back. Means we don’t have to mess with those creeps at the lab.”
“See, well, that’s the problem.” Jonathan sighs, running a hand through his hair. “She went home with her dad. We don’t know where she lives or even what her phone number is.” He takes a breath. “Nancy and I don’t think she’s safe at home.”
There’s a silence in the room, eyes darting back and forth.
The chief runs a hand through his hair. “Eleven’s from the same place as her, right? She can make a portal.”
Everyone turns to her, but she shakes her head. “No.”
“Why not?”
“...no.”
“Fine then. Plan A. Can you find Will in the Upside Down then? Speak with him? Tell us what part he’s in?”
She nods.
“Then we do that. Find him, go in through the lab.”
“And what about my friend? What about Tina?” Nancy asks.
“Once we have Will and Barb safe at home, we’ll go figure out where she lives. It should be on file. We can keep both her and Eleven together and away from that lab.” He exhales loudly, glancing between Nancy and Jonathan. “You’re sure she’s unsafe? Her father seemed fine to me when we spoke.”
“...we don’t want to risk it. But Will and Barb first.”
* * *
Somewhere between the lab, the Upside Down, the demogorgon, Barb’s death and Will’s rescue… the thought of Tina just slipped through the cracks.
* * *
It feels wrong to say I got used to it, but I guess I did. Wake up, get untied, eat, be taken to the Upside Down, spend hours gagging on my own saliva, be brought home, get re-tied, sleep.
Somehow, the monotonous schedule that Henry seemed to despise so much became my life. That proved more than anything else that this wasn’t him. My favourite colour is still blue, but I never see it anymore.
After about a month, the slugs appeared.
I wake up to a pain in my throat, my eyes throwing open. Am I being choked? Is he finally killing me? But no, Henry was lying on his side, facing away from me. I cough, struggling against the bonds around my wrists until I can pull myself to my knees, leaning over.
The sound rouses him, a hand gently hitting my back. It feels like something is crawling inside me, curled on at the far end of my mouth. I want it out.
I collapse forward as the ropes are cut, bracing on my forearm. With my other hand, a shove two fingers down my throat and throw up on the old bedsheets. What comes out of me… is not vomit. Sitting in a neat little pile of spit is some sort of worm? It’s thick and dark, more like a slug.
I scramble back, pressing my hand against my chest. Henry, meanwhile, reaches over and picks up the creature with delicate fingers. There’s a sort of fascination in his dark eyes as he wipes it off, inspecting it. He holds it towards me.
“It’s working. They’re growing. In…” he pauses, considering, “about a month, it will be complete.”
I stare at it, this demon that was somehow grown in my body. “W-what is it?”
He smiles. “Similar to the faceless ones, but a bit smaller, faster. While the originals are like your kind, humanoid with their two legs, these ones are more reminiscent of dogs. They hunch over on all fours.”
“...you’re…growing an army of dog mutants in me.”
“If you’d like to put it so crudely. My lovely William should be doing the same right about now.”
“But he was saved!”
“Unfortunately. Less could be planted than intended. You’ll truly be making the numbers.”
I pull my knees to my chest, dig my nails into the flesh of my legs, and bury my face. “I don’t want this…”
“We’ll do beautiful things together.”
Hands wrap around my wrists, ropes secured back in place.
“Do try and sleep now.”
“Fuck you.”
He lies back down, staring blankly at the ceiling.