"Aftermath" - Part Three

 

Part Three

            Much as Dobby annoyed Hopp, Joyce started to take a liking to the little house-elf. She helped him feel comfortable in their home, treating him like a child and giving him cookies and milk as he watched cartoons on television. Meanwhile, Hopp worked exhaustedly to reach Si, only to get a recorded message that said, “Hi, you’ve reached Si. Sorry that I’m not available right now, but if you leave me your name and number in a voicemail, I’ll make sure to get back to you.”

            Defeated, Hopp hung up for the seventeenth time. “I can’t get her,” he told Joyce. “All I’m gettin’ is her answering machine. What’s ‘voicemail’ anyway?”

            Joyce shrugged. “Call her again and leave a message.”

            Seeing no harm in it, Hopp followed her advice and left a message: “Hey, kid…I mean, Si. It’s Hopp. We got this ‘house-elf’ who calls himself ‘Dobby’ in our…well…house. Says that wizard kid, Harry What’s-His-Face, sent him to find you. When you get the chance, can you come by and pick him up? Thanks.”

            As he hung up one last time, he overheard Joyce ask Dobby, “So, elves exist in your world – does that mean Santa Claus exists, too?”

            “Joyce! Seriously?” Jim griped.

            “I’m just saying that magic is real where he comes from,” Joyce defended her case. “The existence of Santa, the Loch Ness Monster, or even Bigfoot can’t be too far removed, can it?”

            “Dobby knows of some house-elves that do leave presents under the trees,” Dobby stated, piquing Joyce’s curiosity even further.

            “Can we drop all the Christmas talk please?!” Jim thundered.

            Dobby shuddered from Jim’s tone. “The Muggle man is deeply troubled.”

            “It’s his PTSD,” Joyce excused. “He just needs to talk it out.”

            Having been so distracted by all the insanity that had found its way into his home, Jim glanced at his watch and grunted, “Will and Jane were supposed to have been picked up from school an hour ago.”

            “Whoa!” They suddenly heard a young man say, seeing that Jonathan had walked into the living room unnoticed. He was staring directly at Dobby with bloodshot, glassy eyes. He chuckled and muttered, “I’m so high right now, ‘cause I swear there’s an elf sitting in our living room.”

            “Did you say that you’re high?” Joyce negatively reacted. She walked straight up to her eldest son and examined his dazed face. “You are high!”

            “J-Just a little…or a lot,” Jonathan stammered.

            Jim knowingly smirked. “Told ya.”

            “Not now, Hopp!” Joyce barked. She then told Jonathan, “Soon as you sober up, we are going to have a serious discussion.”

            “Okay,” Jonathan blindly acknowledged. “Can I get something to eat first?”

            Joyce could only shake her head in disgust.

            Having no time to deal with this, Hopp left for school to pick up Will and Jane.

            When he got there, however, Will was the only one waiting for him. “Where’s your sister?” Hopp asked him.

            “She was invited to hang with a girl named Angela and her friends,” Will said.

            Jim was surprised and a bit hurt that he wasn’t alerted beforehand about this, but he appreciated the fact that Jane was making friends in Lenora Hills. “As long as she remembers to be home by nine,” he said before noticing how Will had that same apprehensive look on his face from earlier that morning. “What’s wrong?”

            Will hesitated for a moment. “Angela isn’t the type of girl who wants to be friends with Jane… she’s the type of girl who wants to hurt her.”

            Hopp stiffened at this. “Where did they say they were going to hang out?”

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            Bob and Murray may have led the hunting party (which was what it felt like to Si), but Fred headed the pack, bringing them to the spot in the woods where he snapped the Hellboy photo. “Hey, check it out,” Bob brought everyone’s attention to a trail of Baby Ruth wrappers. “These are the same wrappers I found the night I saw it.”

            “Yeah, now that you mention it, I found one, too,” Robin noted.

            “So, our demonic friend has a sweet tooth,” Murray cackled. “Thankfully, he hasn’t developed the taste for human flesh…yet.” Si shook her head at his revolting conjecture; he didn’t know Hellboy like she did.

            “Looks like the trail leads to the National Laboratory they shut down last year,” Bob indicated. “Could be where the demon is.”

            Mortified, Si suggested, “Maybe we should turn back?”

            Murray eyed her incredulously. “Turn Back?! When we’re so close? Why?!”

            “I’m just sayin’, there’s a reason that place was shut down,” Si said. “Besides, the area is restricted to the public. We’ll be trespassing.”

            “It sounds to me like you’re understandably scared, child,” Murray patronized. “You’re more than welcome to go back home and spend your Friday evening talking to your friends on the phone or going to a movie or whatever it is a girl your age does. As for the rest of us brave souls, we’re pressing forward!”

            Si could’ve done without his attitude, particularly the way he referred to her as “child.” To his narrow human perception, she looked like a ditzy blond teen, no different from any others he had seen around Hawkins. She was thousands of years older than he was, for crying out loud! Unfortunately, his biological seniority held with those who weren’t aware of Si’s centuries-worth of experience, specifically Fred, Chrissy, and Eddie. Bob mostly trusted his expertise, hence why he followed like an obedient puppy.

            While everyone continued following the trail of Baby Ruth wrappers, Steve held back with Si, noticing how nervous she was. “Are you O.K.?”

            “I’m fine!” Si snapped at him.

            “It sure doesn’t sound like it,” Steve retorted.

            “Look, Steve, my friend is in danger right now, and I need to get to him before that psycho Murray does!”

            “I think this is more than about Hellboy. I think Nancy was right – you’re hiding something. And I think whatever it might be is in that lab.”

            Si glared at him and criticized, “You think too much, Harrington!”

            Steve snickered. “Well, there’s a first.” But Si wasn’t laughing. He could see in her eyes how serious this situation was for her. He wanted to slap himself for not being more supportive, especially after accusing her of keeping secrets just as Nancy did. He could only imagine what was going through Si’s mind, hearing him take the side of his ex-girlfriend (though it wasn’t his intention).

            They caught up with the hunting party, as they all entered the abandoned facility.

            Bob, being the expert technician he was, managed to get the power running again. They saw that the wrapper trail stopped at the elevator. “The only way now is down,” Bob said.

            “If it’s all the same with you guys, I’ll…uh…stay above ground,” Eddie withdrew, visibly jittered from the eerie atmosphere the abandoned building gave him.

            He wasn’t alone, as an equally jittered Chrissy followed, “I’ll stay with Eddie.”

            “Ditto,” Fred joined them.

            “I wouldn’t mind keeping away from the creepy basement either,” Erica established.

            “You guys will be safer on the ground floor anyway,” Si said, although no one – not even her own circle of friends – knew what she meant by that.

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            Down the rest of the hunting party went to the underground section of the Hawkins National Laboratory. Arriving there, they turned several corners and crossed a maze of corridors before finally arriving at what appeared to have been an observation/control room, adjacent to a room that contained a large, sprawling gate that consisted of an assortment of strange tendrils, membranes, and toxic biological growth. Connected to it, via the tendrils, was a tall, black domino-shaped monolith – Si’s TARDIS.

            “What the...?!” Mike bellowed upon seeing it, his face transfixed with horror and a hint of anger. “Please tell me that’s not what I think it is!”

            “And why’s your ship connected to it?!” Steve pressed Si.

            “Ship?!” Robin overheard, frowning questionably. “What ship?!”

            “We thought you closed the Mothergate that Halloween night – the night you first came here!” Dustin confronted Si.

            “We were going to,” Si admitted, “but we just—”

            “You just what?! You wanted to experiment with it – run tests on it just like the guys who used to work here did?!” Mike raged on her. “Did it ever occur to you that the reason the Hierarchy knew how to find us at the GLOW show was because of you?! You left the door right open for them, Si!”

            Si could hardly speak. “You’re right, Mike. I did want to study the Upside Down and its properties. And, after what we went through with Cthulhu, I was even more curious to learn about it and how the Hierarchy was using it. Hellboy and I took extra precaution not to allow anything through it.”

            “Yeah, sure!” Mike rebuffed. “You sound just like Dr. Owens!”

            “He’s not wrong, Si,” Steve supported. “You should’ve closed this thing the second after we returned from stopping Cthulhu.”

            “You need to close it now!” Mike insisted.

            “HOLD IT, CHILDREN!!” Murray interjected, his patience wearing very thin. “Will one of you care to explain what you are talking about?”

            Before any explanation could be provided for Bob, Robin, and Murray, they suddenly noticed a door materializing on the front side of the monolith, letting out a flood of white light that flushed through the dimly lit area. There was a much bigger space within the monolith, and from it emerged the very trench-coated, cigar-smoking demon they had been looking for.

            Robin, Bob, and Murray all howled in terror.

            Si stood in their line of sight, blocking Hellboy. “It’s alright,” she repeatedly told them. “You don’t have to be scared. He won’t hurt you.”

            “What’s all this about?” Hellboy gestured towards the group, his voice barely audible from inside the gate room.

            Si patched in through the intercom inside the adjacent room and told her companion, “I’ll explain later, H.B. Right now, we’re going to close the Mothergate once and for all.”

            “M’kay,” Hellboy agreed with a submissive shrug.

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            “I feel like I’m losing my mind right now, going off on a monster hunt with Chrissy Cunningham,” Eddie reflected with a smirk, standing outside near the facility’s entrance with Chrissy while Fred snapped shots of the property. “You know, this isn’t the first time we’ve…um…”

            “Hung out?” Chrissy finished his sentiment.

            Eddie shook his head. “You don’t remember me?”

            “I’m sorry. I…”

            “Middle school, talent show. You were doing this cheer thing. You know the…” He demonstrated a flimsy attempt at a cheerleader pose that made Chrissy giggle. “…the thing you do. It was pretty cool, actually. And I…I was with my band.”

            “Corroded Coffin?” Chrissy recollected.

            “Corro—You do remember!” Eddie beamed.

            “Yes, of course. With a name like that, how could I forget?”

            As Chrissy and Eddie continued to catch up on old times, Fred tried to pretend not to hear their every word. Admittedly, he was jealous of how much attention Eddie was getting from a girl like Chrissy Cunningham. They sounded like they had quite the history, despite being from separate worlds.

            DONG! DONG! DONG!

            Fred jolted when he heard the sounds of a grandfather clock, coming from deep in the woods. He turned to ask Chrissy and Eddie if they heard it, but he got his answer with how engrossed they were in their own conversation. Curious, he broke from the group, heading out alone into the woods to investigate. He doubted anyone would care or even notice he was gone. Funny how quickly they all were to forget who helped them get there.

            However, unbeknownst to young Fred Benson, he never physically moved.

            In reality, he was standing in the same spot, violently convulsing.

            Eddie and Chrissy suddenly took note of this, with Eddie moving in on Fred and frantically crying, “Fred! Are you alright? What’s going on, man? Time to wake up! Hello? Fred, wake up! I don’t like this, Fred! Wake up!”

            Chrissy was just as disturbed as Eddie at the sight of Fred’s unexplainable seizure.

            And then she heard it…

            DONG! DONG! DONG!

            A grandfather clock.

            Before Eddie knew it, Chrissy was now convulsing just as violently as Fred. He was unable to help either of them, having no clue what their conditions were or why this was even happening to them. It only got more disquieting when Chrissy and Fred’s bodies levitated ten feet in the air, their limbs and jaws twisting and snapping to inhuman proportions before their eyes then burst out of their sockets.

            Their pretzeled bodies thudded back to the earth to the terror of Eddie Munson.

            Screaming, he fled back into the building and ran to Erica, who opted to wait in the lobby. “They’re dead! THEY’RE DEAD!” he cried, falling at the confused Erica’s feet and weeping hysterically.