Trust - Lucas Sinclair

The Flayed (Part 2)

"It was the same thing," Nancy explained to the group of kids gathered around her, "the exact same thing that happened to Will last year."

After Mike let Nancy and Jonathan in the basement, Nancy only gave them a minute to get the girls out of the bathroom before immediately telling them about what she has been seeing.

From what Nikki could gather, since she was only paying so much attention due to the pounding that flooded her ears drowning everything out, a lady decide to eat something toxic and had a fit when she got caught. Somehow, Nancy thought this connected to the Upside Down though Nikki couldn't see why.

But then again, she wasn't fully listening. Until, about now.

"And look at this," she placed a piece of paper in front of the kids. "Look at the body tempatures."

"He likes it cold," Will spoke up as Nikki made some sense of what the numbers meant for tempature. She made a mental note to thank Gwen for that later.

"Okay, so this crazy old woman who was eating fertilizer-" Mike thought out loud.

"Mrs. Driscoll," Nancy corrected.

"Right, yeah, Mrs. Driscoll," Mike nodded. "What time was this attack?"

Attack? Nikki's ears perked up. I don't remember anyone mentioning an attack.

"Last night," Nancy answered.

"Right, but what time last night?"

"Around 9:00."

Jonathon turned to her with a shocked look on her face. "You waited all night to call?"

Nancy looked back at him, looking slightly guilty. "I was waiting for the doctors to run some tests."

"You weren't there?" Will looked at his brother surprised.

Jonathon threw up his arms in a big shrug. "Well, I'm here now, aren't I?"

"Hallelujah!" Nancy rolled her eyes and smiled in fake happiness. Nikki and Lucas both cringed, knowing they were about to have fun with more relationship problems. Nancy ingored their cringes and kept trying to get to the point. "So, what time was your sauna test?"

"Around 9:00," everyone said in unison.

"Well, that proves it. That proves my theory."

Wait, when did we talk about a theory? Nikki wondered, mentally kicking herself for not paying more attention.

"She's flayed," Mike confirmed. "Just like Billy."

"Flayed?" Jonathon raised an eyebrow in question.

"The Mind Flayer. He flays people," Mike explained to the two confused teenagers. "Takes over their mind. Once they do that, they basically become him."

"If there are two flayed-" Lucas began the next thought.

"We have to assume there are more," Will concluded.

"Heather," El recalled, making the others focus on her. El looked at Nikki who sat next to Lucas with her head on his shoulder. The two girl made eye contact and they knew they were thinking along the same lines. "Billy was doing something to her. She was scared. She was screaming. Bad screams."

"What's a good scream?" Lucas asked.

"Max said-" El started but got cut off by Nikki and Max.

"We're not talking about this now."

"Doesn't matter."

"I'm sorry, I'm lost," Nancy continued the conversation. "Who is Heather?"

"She's a lifeguard at the pool," Max answered.