Suspicious Minds (Stranger Things Novels #1)(58)

Alice had a weirdly hopeful expression as her attention darted among the other three. Terry didn’t want to get her hopes up on that account yet.

“I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t stop him,” Terry said.

Gloria absorbed that. “I get it. Trust me. But it’d be good if we had an escape hatch.”

“We don’t though,” Ken said, softly. “We don’t leave. Not yet. I don’t know that much, but I know it’s not that easy.” He closed his eyes, then opened them. “We’re all scared. We’d be morons not to be.”

“And we’re not morons. Look what Gloria just figured out! We have each other and we shouldn’t forget that. We’re the best allies we’ve got.” Terry’s voice wavered and she hated that. Hated it. But her emotions filled her up and she couldn’t keep them inside. They had to spill over.

“Brenner’s not going to let any of us leave without good reason,” Alice said. “He’s not going to give up whatever he’s doing with the kids without it either. That’s just logical. So we need to create the reason. That means helping Terry get her evidence.”

“But then what?” Gloria asked.

Terry’s heart rose into her throat and her eyes heated. She sipped the water Alice had given her. “We’ll figure that out,” she managed. “Maybe we could get a reporter to investigate.”

“To figuring out how to be noble fools, then,” Gloria said, raising her hand as if making a toast.

Ken let out a breath. “The noblest and most foolish,” he said.

Terry would love to see inside his mind…But, no, if anything was becoming increasingly clear, it was that knowing the future didn’t fix a damn thing.

“It’s going to be harder this time, the distraction,” Terry said. “Brenner stays on top of me lately.”

Alice gnawed her lip. Then, “Would it make more sense for one of us to try to get to his office?”

“No.” Terry rejected it outright. “He’s already been angry at me, best to keep that away from you. I have a Polaroid camera now, after all—and I think I might be able to convince Kali to help us.” Terry didn’t know if that was true after the girl’s meltdown last time they talked, but it might help her to have something to do. Terry needed to make her understand that her freedom was in the balance, too.

In order to help Kali, she needed Kali to trust her.

Terry stood. “I have to go home and sleep now or I’ll just cry at Brenner all day tomorrow.” She paused. “Maybe I should stay up all night. He deserves it.”

“But you don’t. I’m going to keep looking for things we can use during my sessions.” Alice got up and forced Terry into another hug. The tight circle of her arms and the faint smell of grease and sweat from her work clothes was a comfort. Then Ken was there, putting his arms around them both as Alice squirmed. And, last, Gloria added her arms gracefully around the very outside of all of them. They swayed a little.

Ken said to Terry, “You’re stronger than even you know.”

Terry prayed that he truly was a psychic and this was one of his certainties. She needed all the strength she could get.

The group hug ended when Alice started humming a Beatles song, and they went their separate ways into the night.

Terry fell into her narrow dorm bed, waved at Stacey, and went straight to sleep. She dreamed of the forest and being chased through it by Alice’s monsters. She woke before she discovered whether she got away.





3.


Ken wasn’t sure who would answer his knock and how he’d explain being here. But he got lucky.

“Ken?” Andrew squinted through the screen door at his parents’ house. He’d been given his regulation army haircut. “What are you doing here?”

His eyes brightened and he looked past Ken toward the car. “Is Terry with you?”

“No,” Ken said. “I came alone. Terry doesn’t know I’m here, and keeping it that way would be good. I got your address from Dave.”

Andrew blinked. Letting the door shut behind him, he stepped outside. “Can I ask…why?”

“You don’t even have to,” Ken said. “I’ll tell you.”

Being here was surprisingly hard. The house reminded Ken of his own family’s home. He hadn’t been there in three years. The Riches had the same kind of two-story house, a wide planked porch with a swing, the same flower beds covered for the winter and tended—he’d lay money—by the family matriarch.

“You can come in,” Andrew said. “My mom will probably fix you something to eat.”

“I’ll take you up on that, but can we stay out here for now?” Ken asked. “I wanted to talk.”

“Be my guest.” Andrew gestured to the porch swing.

They migrated to it, the swing swaying under their weight. “It feels strange to deliver bad news on a porch swing,” Ken said.

“So this is that kind of visit then.” Andrew sighed. “I don’t know if I believe you’re psychic. You here to tell me I don’t make it?”

Ken put down a foot to stop the swing from moving. There.

“No, brother, I don’t know about that.” Ken paused. “I’ve tried. To see what happens for you and Terry, but all I have is a feeling. She’s struggling.”