Suspicious Minds (Stranger Things Novels #1)(68)

4.


Terry was like a sleepwalker suddenly woken up. The world felt strange, but also not so far away as it had the past few weeks. Even at the Hawkins lab. Telling Andrew she felt like his going was her fault had lifted away guilt she hadn’t even realized she was carting around with her.

Dr. Brenner entered the room and sat a small cup of pills on the table beside her, along with another cup filled with liquid. “Vitamins,” he said. “I can tell you aren’t taking the ones I sent home. That’s water.”

She sipped the water with care until she was pretty sure it was only water. Then she threw back the vitamins despite…

“No, I haven’t been taking them. But something you’re giving me is messing up my metabolism, my weight,” she said.

“Your boyfriend complaining?” he asked.

She didn’t have a boyfriend anymore, not technically. She’d survived the goodbye. She still said a prayer for Andrew that morning and would again that night. Her worry for him was a constant. She no longer burst into tears at every sappy song on the radio. Was this what “carrying on” felt like? She didn’t like it, but it was better than the misery of waiting for a shoe to drop. Better than having kept a big secret from him.

She still chose to ignore Brenner’s question. “What’s causing it?”

He studied her, moving in with that stethoscope, and somehow she kept from flinching when he pressed it against her chest. The cold metal a sting against her skin through the gown. He shifted it down to listen to her belly.

“You look alert. More than you have recently.”

She’d warned the others, with a quiet signal on the van to the lab, that she intended to try again to talk with Kali. Would the girl finally show up in the void? They were running out of good options.

“You’re feeling better today?” Brenner prodded.

“I feel good today.” A grudging admission.

“That’s what we give you working.” He said it in a way that made it clear he did not expect her to challenge the statement.

“Or not.”

He gave her a long look. “Miss Ives, if you can’t do what’s best for you, then…”

Oh, she wanted to push back harder. She wanted to demand he finish that sentence, which sounded an awful lot like the beginning of a threat. But.

She remembered how he’d shown up at Gloria’s, how rattled she’d been when she told Terry about his visit. He’d charmed her parents. They had to play this cautiously.

“I took the vitamins,” she said. “You just saw me.”

“Good,” he said. “Now this.”

A small tab of acid appeared between his fingers and she plucked it away.

Terry placed the hit on her tongue and, ignoring Brenner’s presence, closed her eyes to wait. She didn’t open them even when she heard someone come in. The orderly joining them, no doubt. She recalled that first day here, watching the heart monitor, and conjured that red line—spike, spike, then steady, steady—in her mind.

Before long, or so it seemed, she went deeper. The water rippled around her feet, the void around her.

She waited. She felt strong, awake.

Kali’s arms were crossed in front of her when she strode out of the darkness.

Terry almost fell to her knees in relief.

“I couldn’t come,” Kali said. “I was too sleepy. I’m not sure these are dreams.”

“Were you sick?”

“I felt sick. Papa came to see me every day,” Kali said. “I hope Alice isn’t sad I haven’t visited her. I promised Papa I’d be a good girl.”

Terry’s heart spiked. She forced it to calm. “He doesn’t know you met Alice, though?”

Kali shook her head no.

“Do you think you can still manage to distract him? It won’t get you in trouble, will it?”

Kali tilted her head and considered. “It needs to make him come see me, you said?”

“Whatever you did the other day worked out great. I just need some time alone.”

“He got mad about that one, but I have another idea,” Kali announced. And then she disappeared.

Back in the lab, Terry opened her eyes and pretended to stretch and yawn. “I may lay down,” she said. “Not feeling so good after all.”

Brenner lifted his hand in the general direction of the cot. Was it possible to be sarcastic without saying a word? If so, he’d mastered the art.

Terry shuffled over, acting as tired as she possibly could. She poured herself onto the thin mattress and rolled onto her side with her arms up to cover her face.

The PA speaker mounted high on the wall crackled. “We have a ‘Code Indigo,’?” said a man’s voice. “Paging Dr. Brenner to wing G for a ‘Code Indigo.’?”

Dr. Brenner’s face tightened with what looked like rage. His body was drawn like a bow as he started forward. Terry swung her feet around, disconcerted.

“What’s happening?” she asked, innocently. She worried about that expression and Kali.

“None of your concern.” He waved for the orderly to follow him into the hall as the PA repeated its summoning.

Terry went to the window and looked out into the hall. She couldn’t allow Kali’s effort to go to waste. She waited until they were out of sight, then slung her bag over her shoulder and darted into the hallway. This time, she didn’t make any wrong turns.