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chapter eighteen the power of friendship
Alex, Dustin, and Mike return home that night alone. El does not stand close to Mike. Lucas does not walk in the space between Alex and Dustin. Alex wakes up alone, too. Steve and her parents are downstairs, she sneaks out through the back window because she does not have the strength to face her family today. The bike ride to Mike's house is silent, and Alex wishes that she has Dustin by her side. He always seems to know how to make things better. But Dustin's already in the Wheeler's basement when she steps in through the back door.
She's splayed out across the surface of the coffee table while Mike paces the length of the room and Dustin perches on the stairs, as per usual. Alex stares dejectedly at the desk under which El had once resided. There was a small, fickle hope that when Alex entered the basement, El would be sitting there under the blankets in the fort perhaps playing with the frequency of Mike's Supercomm once more. But that hope was snuffed out when she was greeted by silence when she opens the door. All that's left is the ghost of where El once sat criss-cross and the remnants of the destroyed fort.
The basement feels empty now that they're missing two members of their group. The absence of Lucas and El are only reminders of yesterday; the blood-curdling, almost inhuman scream, the knife of betrayal cutting straight across their jugular, Lucas's body hitting the ground with a thud, the hand around her heart that squeezed until she felt that she couldn't breathe, the though that El had killed Lucas. She wishes she could block it all out.
They need Lucas. They can't do this without him.
Mike lets out a sigh. "I just...I can't believe she didn't come back."
"You did kind of flip out on her," Alex pipes up. "She's probably too scared."
She's scared for El, too. There are millions of things that can go wrong with El's disappearance. A civilian reports her. The bad men could have caught up to her. Maybe she's already being dragged away back to wherever she had come from, fighting tooth and nail. But they wouldn't know. And what if her discovery leads the bad men straight to them. What if they're next?
But she's also scared of El. Four days ago, she was nothing but a timid girl who was afraid of thunder. Now...Alex isn't quite sure what she is. She remembers the blood smeared on her face mixed with tears. She remembers the fresh blood that stains the sleeve of her jacket. The blood that ultimately betrays not just them, but her as well. She sees Lucas's body flying through the air every time she closes her eyes. The girl seems more like a nightmare now than a comfort.
