freaks | steve harrington | book 1

halloween - 002

once the final bell rang for school, i rushed down to the station on my board. i ran into hopper's office, going to tell him that i was sorry about always coming in a little late, when i noticed him, callahan, powell, and mr. eugene sitting. "what happened now?" i sighed, as i shut the office door.

"oh nothin'. just the same old shit that's been going on for the past day." eugene complained.

"so you're telling me, merill poisoned your farm, because he thinks that you poisoned his, which of course, you didn't?" hopper confirmed.

"no sir! and i got me an alibi if he accuses me!"

"did you actually see merill?" i asked eugene, while sitting on the edge of hopper's desk.

"he's lost his mind! threatening me and what not."

"maybe the cold weather is causing the rotting-" hopper pointed out.

"it's october." eugene was angry.

"yea, that's a cold month..." i mumbled.

eugene held his hands up. "you see these hands?"

"yea-" hopper said.

"do you know why they look like that?" he asked.

"because you're old?" i chuckled.

the rest of us snickered, except eugene.

"you're damn right. i've been doin' this a very long time. i ain't eva' seen anything in the likes of this." he paused. "none of us have."

"none of us?" hopper questioned.

"well, merill didn't just hit me last night. he damned everyone!"

"what are you talking about?" i asked, leaning forward.

"he got everyone else too! all of their crops, DEAD!"

i looked at hopper in confusion, and fear.

he opened his drawer, and pulled out a notepad. "give me those names."

we all left the police station.

powell and callahan left and went to one of the farms eugene named.

hopper and i went to eugene's farm to investigate.

once we got there, eugene's family was standing outside of their house, watching us examine the pumpkins.

eugene followed us.

"now, try and tell me the cold did all of this." he said.

the smell of the pumpkins makes me want to vomit.

"how far does this go?" i asked.

we followed eugene toward the woods. we noticed some of the trees were dead, and were also covered in white slime.

my immature self wanted to say "oh my fucking god. it's covered in cum!"

hopper stuck his glove in the white slime, and it stuck to it.

it smelled even worse.

"chief?" the walkie talkie buzzed.

hopper shook his hand to try and get the slime off. he used his clean hand to respond to powell. "yea? how does it look?" he responded.

"like a giant pissed all over jack's bean field, and it smells too. does it smell for you guys?"

"yea, a little bit." i said.

"i want you guys to track the rot, see how far it goes. mark anything that's dead." hopper ordered.

"that's gonna take some time-" powell said.