Stranger Things

by Gwenda Bond

  Terry pictured that, and it didn’t seem like the worst future. The two of them in their parents’ house raising a little girl together. It would liven the place up, like Andrew’s presence had at Christmas. Funny how eight months ago, it would have seemed a fate worse than death to end up in spinsterhood with Becky. But there were far, far worse things out there. Living on the run with her child, for instance, which was just as real a possibility…

  There were worse people than sensible older sisters to have in your corner.

  The phone rang in the hall, shrill and loud, jarring them out of the moment.

  “I’ll get that,” Becky said. “You lay down and rest. That’s an order.”

  “Drill sergeant.” But Terry stayed standing to see who it was.

  “Ives residence,” Becky answered. “This is Becky speaking.”

  A pause while she listened to whoever was on the other end.

  “Dr. Brenner, no, I’m not familiar with you. How do you know Terry?”

  That hadn’t taken long. Terry crept out into the hallway and put her fingers to her lips in a shhh gesture as she approached Becky. She gently pressed Becky’s curls over her shoulder so she could hold the receiver between their heads where they could both hear.

  “How’s Miss Ives feeling? I understand she’s had quite a shock. But I was hoping to get her back here soon for some tests.”

  His voice alone was as good as a direct threat. Her pulse kicked up.

  “She’s feeling better,” Becky said noncommittally.

  “I’m so glad to hear it. When can we see her?”

  Terry tensed, and Becky must have noticed. “I doubt she’ll be up to that anytime soon.”

  Becky didn’t mention the pregnancy because she didn’t think it was anyone’s official business. There was no way to change the fact that Terry was about to be an unwed mother, but Becky’s philosophy was that by emphasizing the father had died in the war, questions could be limited. It didn’t have to be a scarlet letter tattooed on her. Terry hadn’t bothered to explain that adultery wasn’t what the scarlet letter signified.

  “I’m sorry to hear that.” He paused. “Might I speak with her?”

  Terry wanted to shake her head no. But it wasn’t fair of her to ask Becky to play intermediary. It was time to stop hiding. She could learn as much from this conversation as he could. She took the phone. “It’s me.”

  “Terry, I’m so sorry to hear about your young man,” he said, smooth as if they had an audience. “And I understand congratulations are in order.”

  She expected to feel icy terror, but instead hot rage boiled through her. “As if you didn’t know when you were…” Becky was giving her a startled look and so she didn’t say it. Pumping me full of drugs while I was pregnant.

  “The child is going to be exceptional. Our child is going to be exceptional, the one we’ve made together. Isn’t that what every parent wants?”

  She could hardly breathe. You have no claim to my child. Mine and Andrew’s.

  He added, “It’s all been for your own good, for the good of everyone.”

  She wanted to smash the receiver into the wall. But she kept her voice steady when she spoke and got out the few words she could: “No, it wasn’t.” It was what you wanted for your awful experiments—that’s not the same thing.

  “Terry, are you really thinking about not coming back? I know Eight—Kali—would be the poorer for it. You’ve forced the issue. Think of your friends…I just learned the most interesting thing about one of them.”

  Now there it was. The terror beneath her rage. “What are you talking about?”

  “I know about your friend Alice. I filed emergency commitment paperwork today.”

  No, no, no. What did he mean he “knew about Alice”? Terry had always intended to stop the whole thing, but if he knew about Alice’s ability…He’d already filed the paperwork. He’d never let her go. A man like that wanted nothing more than to see the future, so he could do his best to control it.

  “Leave her alone.”

  “Terry,” Brenner went on. “I only want to help all of you reach your full potential. I can even take the pain of Andrew’s death away from you. Wouldn’t that make this easier?”

  Terry couldn’t speak. Rage filled her.

  “You’ll see I’m correct. Remember the day of your parents’ funeral? The first memory we explored? Revisit it in your mind. The pain is gone, yes? I did that. Let me help you.”

  Terry thought of the church, of her mother in her coffin, her father in his. Usually it came as nightmares, too painful for her waking mind to live in that sorrow.

  But here, now, she felt only a dull ache.

  “You are evil. Leave us alone.”

  Brenner went on. “I’m afraid I can’t. I won’t let you leave.”

  Breathe. You’ll find a way out of this for everyone. Somehow.

  Despair nearly crushed her. What if she couldn’t?

  She hung up the phone and stared at it.

  Becky had her hands at her hips. “What in the world…I can tell you’d love to climb through the phone. You’re not up to any experiment right now.”

  What to do? The truth would trouble her sister, but Terry was through lying.

  “I think I need to tell you about the Hawkins laboratory,” Terry said. “About what they’ve been doing to me there. To all of us. And, Beck, he knew I was pregnant with Andrew’s baby, for how long I don’t know, but long enough. But first, I have to make a call.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Just wait.” Terry hunted out the sheet that Stacey had made with everyone’s home and dorm numbers, then picked up the phone and dialed Gloria.

  “Gloria, hi—can you go get Alice and bring her here? I’ll call Ken, too. We need to talk.”

  “Of course,” Gloria said.

  Terry gave her the address, then she phoned Ken. He didn’t even make a quip about already being on his way.

  Then she walked into her bedroom, where Becky waited for her.

  The presence of the Disappearing Boxes had lost their comfort, but her sister still was one. And that gave her the beginnings of an idea, a remedy for her despair after talking to Brenner. They had a fellowship. They had allies. They had abilities.

  Brenner had ambition and cruelty and, yes, a government installation at his command. She’d never let him have her child. And she sure as hell wasn’t letting him have Alice, either. Or abandoning Kali there. She wanted to leave him with what he deserved…

  Nothing and no one.

  This was a war for the future, and she didn’t mean to lose anyone else.

  8.

  Within an hour, everyone had assembled at Terry and Becky’s.

  “Do you mind if we go upstairs? Talk in private?” Terry asked Becky, when Ken came through the door. Alice and Gloria had arrived moments before.

  “I’ll make some brownies,” Becky said.

  Terry hated keeping anything secret from Becky, now that she knew most of the truth, but it was safer this way. Becky had been born skeptical. The idea of people with special abilities or the government developing them would push her to the edge of what she could believe. She’d had a hard enough time with the revelation that Dr. Brenner had pumped Terry full of acid for months, knowing she was pregnant. She believed Terry only intended to go back to the lab to demand a payoff for her trauma. Raising children was expensive.

  And so up the stairs they went. Terry had been scrambling to come up with ideas, and she had a few.

  She’d meant for them to go to her room, but Alice turned into the nursery-in-progress instead. That was fine.

  Terry followed and flipped on the light.

  “Becky’s already been putting it together,” she said.
>
  There was a secondhand cradle from a girl Becky went to high school with, and a blue and red clown mobile dangling above it.

  “I’ve never met a kid who was into clowns, but this is cute,” Gloria said, giving the mobile a jiggle so the various pieces rotated. “Little baby Jane will probably love it.”

  “Everyone loves clowns,” Ken said.

  “I’m terrified of them.” Alice.

  “I’m afraid I’ve got bad news,” Terry said. “Dr. Brenner called here.”

  Maybe, just maybe, if she was able to convince the others of her completely off-the-rails plan and pull it off, that idyllic vision of raising her child in peace would come true. There was one thing for certain, though. They couldn’t discuss it openly here.

  No way Martin Brenner wasn’t eavesdropping on her. She was counting on it.

  Terry grabbed a notebook where Becky had been taking measurements for curtains and flipped to an empty page in the middle. She held up a finger and her friends surrounded her as she wrote them a note: Go along with what I’m about to say—they’re listening. Real plan later.

  “He threatened…me,” she said. “Said I have to come back.”

  “Oh?” Gloria as cool as a spy. “Soon?”

  “I’m going back this week, but I need your help with something. All of you. Alice, he’s onto you.”

  Alice fidgeted, her eyes gravitating to the notebook as Terry scribbled in it. “What?”

  Terry wrote: Would you be willing to go stay with your cousins in Canada for a while? As long as needed?

  Alice nodded, her brows drawn together.

  “We’re all in danger.” Terry took a breath. “I want to get proof once and for all of what’s going on there. It’s time to take Brenner and his project down. If I can get files from his office, I can leak them to someone—not just to the Gazette, but The New York Times or The Washington Post maybe. Someone who can do something to get those kids out of there and shut it down. And then we never go back there again.”

  “Where do we come in?” Gloria asked.

  Terry looked at Ken. “Do you think we can do this?”

  Ken said, “I have a good feeling.”

  “Then that’s all I need to hear,” Terry said. “Tough luck, Brenner.” Please let him buy this. And she launched into outlining her fake plan. “Gloria, do you think you can trip a fire alarm?”

  “Yes,” she said. “No problem.”

  Terry went through several false elements: Gloria would create a distraction, Ken would help if needed, and then Terry would sneak into Brenner’s office and steal his files. Easy. Simple.

  Not the actual plan at all.

  “What about me?” Alice asked.

  Terry wrote another note: We’ll discuss the real plan outside, later. You’re going to disable the electroshock machine so no one can tell. Hoping Kali will do the rest.

  Alice nodded.

  Hard knocks sounded at the door downstairs. Terry left the room and stopped at the top of the stairwell, the others joining her.

  Becky answered it, wiping her hands on a dish towel. “Hello? Who are you?”

  A group of uniformed men stood on the doorstep. Terry thrust the notebook in her hands at Ken and said, “Hide it.”

  He disappeared.

  The man in front at the door said, “We’re here for Alice Johnson. I have paperwork that authorizes us to take her into the custody of Hawkins National Laboratory.”

  Before Terry could process what was happening, uniformed men barged in and up the stairs. “Wait a second,” Becky protested below, but they were fast. The leader advanced on Terry and another said, “Careful with the pregnant one.”

  “We have a message for you,” the man said. “Be where you’re supposed to this week.”

  He moved her out of the way and took Alice. “I don’t want to go,” Alice said.

  “Commitment paperwork,” Terry said, realizing. “He said he did it. Alice, don’t worry. We’ll see you soon. I promise.”

  “I don’t want to go,” Alice said again as Ken returned. The three of them watched helplessly while Alice was carted down the stairs, her eyes big as stars, and put into a van. The men drove away into the night.

  Terry prayed the real plan she’d come up with could save her.

  1.

  Terry sat on her bed. It was early Thursday morning, and their plans were as ready as they could be. She’d leave to meet Gloria and Ken in a few minutes.

  But she wanted to know something first, about herself, her own capability. She closed her eyes and put her hands on her belly, and she forced herself to relax and breathe deep. No drugs, no monitor watching her, nothing but her.

  Go deeper, she coaxed herself and her surroundings faded. She walked into the black void, water beneath her feet. She’d almost given up when Alice appeared before her.

  Her friend lay on a cot, not seeing Terry’s approach. She wore her hospital gown. Dark circles under her eyes. She looked haunted.

  Alice? She sent the thought out as strongly as she could. We’re coming. Be ready.

  Alice said nothing. There was no way to know if she’d seen or heard.

  When Terry opened her eyes, the lamp at her bedside blinked on and off. She was ready.

  2.

  Brenner spent the day in his office in a state of excitement. Terry Ives had such high hopes for her plans that dashing them might be enough to make her cooperative in the long term. She’d already proven more stubborn than he’d expected. He almost respected that.

  But he couldn’t truly respect anyone who engaged in such futile actions. As if he’d allow everything he intended to build here to be destroyed. Everything he’d worked for up to now. Others might not understand his commitment to the project, but that didn’t matter. He didn’t need their understanding of it; he only needed time to prove he was correct. The only thing that would be shut down today was a rebellion.

  A tap came on his office door.

  “Sir?” the security officer said.

  “Yes. Report.”

  “Ives and Flowers have arrived,” he went on. “The man didn’t show up today.”

  Ken. Maybe he’d stop coming altogether. His results had been lackluster. “Thank you.”

  Brenner didn’t immediately go to meet Terry, but took a detour to one of the pharmaceutical laboratories on the second level of the complex. He’d given specific instructions to the assistant director who ran it.

  The lab was always a sterile, quiet flurry of activity. Men and women at large, complex machines, producing a variety of chemical substances to alter the brain or the body. It was for the latter that he came today.

  “Is it ready for me?” Dr. Brenner asked.

  The lab-coated man nodded. He was pale, as if he hadn’t seen the sun in ages, like a committed staffer should be. “It’ll take a couple of hours to work, give or take,” he said and produced a wide syringe with a cap.

  “Perfect,” Brenner said, accepting the syringe and stashing it in his pocket.

  He caught himself humming tunelessly on the way to Terry Ives’ room, winding through the labyrinth of hallways that formed his domain. He lingered at the window and watched her. She sat tall, waiting.

  Soon, he’d break her spirit.

  But first he’d have some fun.

  “I see you kept your word,” he said, letting himself in. “I’m a little surprised. Your friend is doing fine here. I detected some serious hostility when we spoke.”

  She gave him a fake smile. “Not all of us can afford to be good liars.”

  Such spirit. Would her child be the same?

  He had intended to take his time, but now that he was here, he found he couldn’t wait. He removed the syringe. “Hold out your arm, please.”
>
  “What’s this?” She frowned. “I won’t take more acid.”

  “I figured that much.” He shook his head. “That’s one of the reasons I didn’t tell you about your condition. This is an injection to help with the pregnancy. It won’t hurt you or our child.”

  He saw the way she stiffened at his use of the term. But it was their child, as much his as hers.

  “Why would I trust you to give this to me?”

  He gestured, and the orderly let himself in. “Hold her,” Brenner said.

  Terry resisted, but the man forced her to her feet. He pinned her arms to her sides.

  Brenner inserted the needle into her skin at the elbow, pressing the plunger. Solving problems was simple when you had access to the right tools.

  “What else do you want with me?” she asked, shaking off the orderly.

  “That’s it for today. I just wanted to give you the injection and take some bloodwork.” He returned her fake smile to her. “You can just wait for your friends to finish.”

  “That’s it?” she asked. “You’re going to let us leave?”

  “Why, don’t you trust me, Terry?”

  At that, she smirked. “Do I still have a brain in my head? I do. No, I don’t trust you.”

  “Just rest,” he said. “Don’t tax yourself.”

  “I will.” She reclined on the bed, playacting like a child. “Not because you said.”

  “I’ll be back later.”

  “I can’t wait.”

  He didn’t like giving her the last word, but it wasn’t really. He went back to his office to wait for her to spring her silly little scheme.

  3.

  Terry would risk going to see Kali in person if she had to—but Brenner might figure it all out too soon. Now she was confident she could reach the void without his help, without anything but herself.

  She wanted to know what he’d put in her arm, but was also relieved not to. She’d have to be content with knowing he’d never hurt a child he considered his…Well, not hurt in that way. Only in the way of imprisoning and turning them into a lab rat for his own sick purposes.