mercy ; peter ballard

16. s i g n o f t h e t i m e s

march 27, 1986

"so are we going to talk about the elephant in the room?" erica said, gesturing to beatrice. "you guys are just going to gloss over the fact that ms. francis is literally one of them? nancy literally said she saw her running in the vision that creep showed her. not to mention, she literally entered vecna's mindscape thing."

max crossed her arms. "he also mentioned bea. he says something about her not being able to help me like how she couldn't stop him. bea, would you like to explain?"

all eyes were on beatrice as she sat silently on the ground.

"well, when i was about nine, my parents died and i was taken by hawkins laboratory. there i met a boy called peter or one. i never learned his real name or how he got there. he was my best friend. when i was about eighteen and he was around maybe twenty, we were both transferred to the orderly ward. we took care of the children."

beatrice lifted up her hair to show the scar from soteria.

"shit," lucas said under his breath.

"they suppressed our abilities with a device called soteria. during this time, peter and i became more than friends. relationships like that were prohibited in the laboratory. we had to keep quiet or risk punishment from brenner. one day, i was in my room because i had a migraine. then i was back in my old home with my parents the night i was taken. i was forced to relive it...then i woke up and i took a shard of shattered glass from the damage and took out soteria. all the children were dead. soldiers, dead. orderly and scientists, dead."

beatrice pauses remembering the bodies that covered the floor. nine. the blood covered walls.

"the vision he showed us," nancy whispered. "eleven fought him."

"i walked into the rainbow room and i saw him and eleven. his white clothes stained with blood. i couldn't even tell if it was his or if it was someone else's. i seemed to distract him and eleven was able to pin him against a wall."

"you ran out," nancy remembered the vision of younger bea fleeing.

"i knew i couldn't do anything. i had been in love with him for twenty years. i couldn't watch him die, but i couldn't stop eleven. it just wasn't right for him to be free. to kill again. she killed him. or at least i thought she did. i left before i saw him die. with all of the security measures down and my abilities slowly coming back, i was able to escape the lab. i found my aunt and i lived with her up until she died from cancer. we agreed, i stop using my abilities so i wouldn't be tracked. i still don't use my abilities often."

bea holds up a coin from her pocket. she tosses it up and it turns into a button.

"i can, um, change matter. when i was younger, i turned a stuffed animal into a living, talking, white rabbit. like from alice's adventures in wonderland. i can also see into the future. before we started climbing out of the gate, i saw a vision that steve was going to be possessed if he had gone in a certain place and i had him change places with nancy and i, but it seems vecna can interfere with my visions. he was after nancy all along."

"well, that was a lot," erica complained.

lucas pushed her arm. "erica!"