Suspicious Minds (Stranger Things Novels #1)(61)

“I’m Alice.” She grinned back at the girl, unable not to. This was no mirage or acid-caused vision. She was in Alice’s room. How? “Are you supposed to be in here?”

“Nope!” Kali sang with glee. “I ran away. I wanted to meet Terry’s friends. She asked me to make a distraction. Are we friends now, too?”

“Of course we are,” Alice said. “I thought Terry was asking you to do that next week.” That had been the plan—did it change?

The girl rolled her eyes. “I’ll do it ’gain.”

Alice had been wondering something. “When you make illusions, does it hurt?”

“Nope,” Kali said. “Well…sometimes my head burns a little.” Alice watched as she swiped under her nose as if wiping something away. “A little blood comes out.”

“Are you hurt?” Alice descended upon her, determined to fix it if so. She muscled her way past short flailing arms and took Kali’s jaw to give her nose a closer look. Fat chance of Kali shaking off a grip that had been practiced on a dozen squirming brothers and cousins.

“I’m not doing it now,” Kali said, continuing to resist. “And anyway, it’s just the cost when it happens.”

“What cost?”

Kali shrugged her off. “That’s what Papa says. The cost of ’lusions.”

“The cost.” Alice gaped, then remembered she was the adult here. “You shouldn’t pay a cost. You’re a child.”

“You’re a child!” Kali countered. “You don’t know! You’re normal!”

Alice put a hand on the girl’s arm and held it there when she tried to shake her off. “Kali, look at me. I do understand. And I’m not normal. They hook me up to machines here and that pain, that’s my cost…The cost for the things I have to see.”

“What things?” Kali was interested now.

No way Alice was telling her about monsters and tortured little girls.

“You make illusions, things that aren’t there, right? Well, I see things that aren’t taking place right here, right now, but are real. You create illusions. I have visions.”

“Oh.” Kali gazed at her. Her eyes sparkled. “You’re like me. I have a friend like me! Are Ken and Gloria like me, too?”

“No.” Alice felt a pang. “But we’re all going to help you. Terry won’t leave you here.”

“I love you, Alice. We can be tigers.” Kali made a roaring face and an attempt at a fearsome noise.

Alice had to laugh, even as her heart burned thinking of Brenner hurting this girl. She’d never felt true rage until this moment. “Okay, we’ll be tigers.” She poked Kali’s tummy. “Right now, though, should you get going back to where you’re supposed to be?”

The girl grabbed her hand and held on. “I’ll go. Papa can’t find me here. You might get in trouble.”

Kali dropped Alice’s hand, then waved and made her way back to the door. She was so small that Alice followed to help her with it.

“I’m strong,” Kali said in protest when Alice tried. She managed it herself. Which only made sense, because how else would she have gotten here?

Alice liked stubborn girls. “I see that.”

“And I’ll see you next week!” Kali stayed in the gap of the open door for a second longer to declare, “I have a calendar.”

With that, the door closed and the delightful, confusing whirlwind named Kali was gone.





6.


“Where have you been?” Dr. Brenner demanded as Eight approached the door to her room from the hallway. He gestured for the security officers and other personnel gathered around to back off. “Give us a minute.”

“None of your business,” she said, with a stubborn set to her chin.

He saw how the others looked at Eight, practically gawking. He’d have to give them a lecture on professional responses to extreme situations. Like a little girl fooling his staff and getting out of her locked wing. Again.

He knew she wasn’t visiting Terry and so he had feared the worst: that Eight had somehow escaped. Her powers made it all too likely she’d try someday and possibly succeed…unless he extinguished her desire to. That was why he played nice with her. He hadn’t been by to see her in days, and he’d been concerned this was the result.

He let his relief sink in. A rare emotion worth indulging. She’d been here the whole time. She wanted his attention. That was all.

They weren’t there yet, to where she used her ability against him. She was only five years old. And not savvy enough to even know to want to escape. He should’ve been confident in his protocols keeping it that way.

“Now,” he said, when she didn’t go on. “Where were you? I know you didn’t go visit Miss Ives, because I was in her room when the alert went out.”

“Hiding,” Eight said.

“Where?”

Eight’s eyes were brown circles of innocence, her shrug practiced. “Nearby. I wanted to see you. I thought you’d be happy.”

“You did not think I’d be happy that I couldn’t find you.”

She kept looking at him. “You didn’t even try.”

He heard a gasp from behind him, one of the people who weren’t supposed to be listening. If he found out who it was, they’d be fired.