What Are You Hiding? | Henry Creel / Peter Ballard / 001

Part 18 - Pumpkin

As I am driving home from the grocery store, the sun is shining down on the road in front of me.  I let my left hand hang out the window, the cool October air running through it as I mindlessly sing along to the David Bowie playing from the car radio.

When I am about to take the turn onto my street, I see a familiar, solemn face walking down the road in front of me. Mike. 

I sigh to myself as I turn off my turn signal and pull forward, coming to a crawl alongside Mike.  I turn down the music as I lean my head out the window so that I am right next to Mike. "Mike," I greet in a sing-song tone, the voice I use when I'm about to propose an outing.  "Need some cheering up?"

He shakes his head forcefully.  "No."

"Is it El again?" I ask knowingly; he is still having occasional melancholic spells over El, and I happen to always be the person who has to snap him out of it.

He nods slowly.

I chuckle, tilting my head to motion to the passenger seat.  "Come on, Mike.  Let's go eat ice cream until we pass out or something."

He sighs defeatedly, knowing there's no use in trying to argue with me as he walks around to the other side of the car.  "You're relentless," he mutters as he lowers himself into the passenger seat, closing the car door behind him.

I laugh as I rough up his dark hair with my right hand, now having moved my left hand onto the steering wheel (I tend to be a one-handed driver - my biggest vice, according to my overly-concerned mother).  "Come on, Mikey, you know I'm the only one who can cheer you up."

He laughs begrudgingly as he swats my hand away from him.  "Okay, okay, cut it out so we can get ice cream."

"You've always been a food guy," I comment as I return my gaze to the road, now accelerating so we can get to the ice cream place before Mike kills me. 

Instead of waiting for the awkward silence to fall upon us before asking the question, I decide to pop the question right away.  "So, do you want to talk about it?"

"It's just the same as always," he sighs.  "I feel like I hear her, but she's not there.  This time it was over the Supercom."

"You don't think she could actually be out there, do you?" I ask.  "Could it be possible?"

He shakes his head.  "I don't know.  I don't know if it's actually her or if it's just in my head."

I nod slowly, allowing a moment of silence before saying, "I think we all still have parts of that week in our heads.  I wake up in a cold sweat some nights because I have nightmares about that shit."  I grab the collar of my shirt, moving it aside so that a hint of the healed scar on my chest is visible.  "I have these babies to remind me of the time I was staring down a Demogorgon's throat."

"You've got to admit, that's pretty badass," Mike comments.  As I chuckle, he switches to a more serious voice as he adds on, "I, uh... well, I just remembered something about that week.  About El.  But also about Henry-"

"What?" I ask, my voice making my confusion obvious.

"El knew Henry.  She said that he convinced her to hurt people - kill them, I think.  I know this is really bad timing because it's been a whole year and you and Henry have been together for that time, but I thought I should warn you."

"Henry's fine, Mike," I insist firmly.

Mike shakes his head.  "But how do you know that?"

"He can't get to El anymore, can he?"

"No, but that's not the point.  He's dangerous, or at least was.  How can you be sure he's not a threat to you, or even to other people?"

I turn to Mike, looking him in the eyes firmly.  "Mike, don't go digging up what's best left buried."