Suspicious Minds (Stranger Things Novels #1)(60)

Kali shrugged.

“Kali, how long have you been here?” But Terry realized that wasn’t the question. “How long have you been with Dr. Brenner?” Still not right. “With Papa, I mean.”

“I didn’t have a calendar before. I don’t know.”

“You said they gave you a calendar—who is they?”

“My minders,” Kali said. “Papa’s helpers.”

Terry tried to keep her voice steady. “So you stay here?”

“Home for now.” Kali shrugged.

Yes, just for now, Terry wanted to say, but didn’t. “Does Papa ever get mad at you?”

Kali nodded. “All the time. He gets so mad!” The girl giggled, truly joyous. “Sometimes he gives me candy to make me be good. That’s how I got the calendar.”

Terry didn’t want to ask Kali to do anything that might make him mad at her. A terrible thought occurred to her. “Does he…hurt you? When he’s mad?”

Kali considered. “Not really. He just lies. I still don’t have my friend.” She paused. “Other than you. But he swears I’ll have one someday soon.”

So that sounded like a no. Which was odd…given what Alice had seen him do to the future girl, the way she’d been sent away in punishment.

But Kali wasn’t prone to lies. The little girl was honest. He must not hurt her, not in that sense. Just in the sense that he’s making her live here.

Terry decided to go on. “I told you about my other friends the last time I was here, remember? There’s Alice and Ken and Gloria. And he does hurt them—us. He makes us take medicine we don’t want to. We don’t want to come here anymore.”

“You’re going to leave me?” Kali asked.

“We want everyone to go.” Terry wondered what would seem like a symbol of the outside to a five-year-old. “Would you like to go to a zoo someday? See a real tiger?”

“Yes,” Kali said. “I want to meet your friends, too.”

“Someday you can,” Terry said. “I want to try to get you out of here. To get all of us out of here.”

“Papa won’t allow it,” Kali said.

“Maybe we can make him.” She said it with care, gauging Kali’s reaction. “To help my friends—all of them, including you—I need to go to Papa’s office the next time I’m here. Do you think you could come up with a distraction? Nothing that would make him too mad. I just need him and everyone else to leave me alone for a few minutes.”

Kali took this in. She was in no rush to respond.

Then, when Terry had nearly given up hope, she said, “I can do it. Papa deserves pranks for the lies he tells.”

“Yes.” Terry couldn’t agree more. “He does.”

“Okay! I gotta go!” Kali skipped away before Terry could even attempt to hug her.

Why did she feel so unsure this would go right? She’d specifically not asked Kali to use her powers, because that would make her no better than Brenner.

She had a week to worry about whether it would work. For now, she walked back through the void, making soundless splashes. She imagined that phantom tigers lurked in the shadows as she went.





5.


They’d been in Hawkins for hours and hours already and Alice knew soon they’d get to leave. Not soon enough, but she held on to the fact. The electricity was done for today. So she sat on the edge of the cot and waited for the entire marathon day to be over.

She’d been more reserved than usual with Dr. Parks, answering her questions with every word chosen carefully. Dr. Parks hadn’t seemed to notice. The idea of Brenner knowing what she saw and understanding…it had scared Alice to her core.

But she’d be strong for Terry. And for the little girl in the future.

Alice had glimpsed her again in today’s visions. She’d been repeating something back to a pleased Brenner. That had been it, and then her brain took over with a surge of random imagery. She’d pushed herself the other night, almost too far. She could feel herself stretched thin, and so today she’d been careful not to press.

If only there was some way to tell that girl in the future she wasn’t alone, that Alice watched for and suffered for her. That Terry was going to help her. That they all knew about her.

But, of course, there wasn’t.

Dr. Parks had left, along with the orderly, after a “Code Indigo” had been announced over the PA in the here and now. “Indigo” was a nice word. A nice color. The suggestion and the remaining acid in her system bathed the room in a rich purple-blue hue. When the door opened, Alice expected Dr. Parks to appear and tell her it was time to go.

Instead it was a little girl. Not her little girl, though.

No, this was the one Terry had described. Somehow Alice hadn’t pictured her in a hospital gown identical to the one she wore. The girl was even smaller, younger, than the one in Alice’s visions of the future.

Alice got up from the cot and moved closer to her. Maybe she was hallucinating. Finally.

“Kali?” She squinted. “Are you really here?”

The girl grinned at her. “How did you know? Did you just know?” Then she shook her head. “Terry told you. I was hoping you were like me. Who are you?”