𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑔𝑎𝑛 || 𝑚．𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑟

thirteen . . . the flayed

CARDIGAN | SEASON III ; ACT II
.୧ ‧₊˚⋅☀️ chapter 13 ━━━━━━ ❛the flayed❜
꒦꒷🎞️꒷꒦

A MUTUALLY SHARED FEELING OF AWKWARDNESS LINGERED. The night prior, Ara had blacked out form loss of blood. She had now woken up and was in the down stairs bathroom with Mike who was fixing her up now that they had actual medical stuff in their reach.

She sat on the counter as Mike tried to find a wet rag to wipe off the blood. The two of them stayed silent for a moment before Ara spoke up.

"Thank you." She spoke slowly, her voice was hoarse.

"I should be the once thanking you." Mike said. "You shouldn't have done that." He wiped the blood.

The two stayed there in silence. There was a tension in the small room. Mike couldn't help but want to say something. Anything. Just make it known how he felt about her.

"Hold it in place." Mike told her as he went to search for a big enough bandage. "Here." He said softly as he placed the bandage.

Ara got off the counter and looked at herself in the mirror. She then turned back to Mike. She only then realized how close she was to him.

"Um-I think everything's good so just tell me if you don't feel okay." Mike stammered. Ara nodded and he opened the door.

The basement was silent as well. Max went into the bathroom with El to help her get clean up and Ara sat down on the couch, sharing a box of coco puffs with Lucas.

"Something's not right. Hopper's hiking to Illinois with Will's mom and Dustin's MIA, too? I mean, this can't be a coincidence." Mike said.

"What does it matter? The bottom line is, they're not here." Lucas stated. "It's up to us."

"Up to us to do what exactly?"

"Find Billy and stop him." Matt suggested.

"Okay, yeah, that's a really nice sentiment, but even if El could find him again, and that's a pretty big if, then what?"

"We burn the shit out of him and make sure he doesn't escape this time." Lucas added on.

"Okay, then what?"

"Then we win."

"No, see, that's the problem. We don't. We don't win. We got the Mind Flayer out of Will before and he just came right. We don't just have to stop Billy, we have to stop the Mind Flayer."

"How in the hell do we do that?"

"I don't know."

"Maybe El does." Will spoke up.

"What are they still doing in there." Mike asked.

"I don't know. Girls just like hanging out in bathrooms." Matt stated.

"You know we can still hear everything you're saying, right." Max said, chuckling.

A knock on the door could be heard.

"Not now, mom." Mike yelled.

"Mike, open the door."

"Nancy?"

----

"It was the same thing. The exact same thing that happened to Will last year." Nancy explained hastily. "And look at this. Look at the body temperatures."