Still-Stranger Things Season Two AU

Chapter Five

Jonathan, Mandi and Nancy arrived at a motel. Mandi rang the bell at the receptionist's desk but she didn't look up. "We'd like a, uh, some rooms", she said. "We got those", the receptionist responded, still not looking at them. "But only two. So two of you will have to share". They exchanged looks and Nancy quickly darted off to one of the rooms and locked herself in.

Jonathan and Mandi sat up in their beds. "Mandi...", he said, leaning forward to look at her. "Uh, on or off?"

"Hmm"

"What?"

"Nothing. Just...deja vu"

"Yeah"

"Don't you think it's weird?"

"What?"

"Nowadays, how we only seem to hang out when the world's about to end?"

"It's not going to end"

"Feels like it"

She leaned over the table separating their beds, holding out her hand which still had a mark from where the knife had sliced through. "Still have yours?" she asked. "Yeah", he said, putting his hand alongside hers.

"Yeah, mine's bigger"

"Congratulations"

"Thanks"

They looked at each other for a moment before she removed her hand and they both laid down on their sides. "What happened?" she said.

"What do you mean?"

"To us? After everything, you just...disappeared"

"Yeah, Will needed me. And I honestly thought you wanted nothing to with me"

"I waited. I waited for you for a month before I realised you weren't gonna call"

"It was only a month"

She turned around to lie on her other side. "I want them off", she said. He turned them off and lay down on his other side.

A rock song played on the stereo as Jonathan drove them to what looked like an abandoned warehouse. "Are you positive this is the right place?" he asked Nancy. "3833. Yeah", she replied, reading it off of a small piece of paper.

"Alright"

They got out of the car and a train horn blared in the distance as they approached the door. Keep door closed was written in red spray paint on the door. Jonathan pressed the button near the door and it buzzed loudly. "Look at the camera", a voice instructed through a speaker. "The camera". "What camera?" Jonathan asked.

"Not the loudspeaker. Above you, to the right"

They finally found it and looked up. The door rattled and opened, revealing a half-bald man with a beard and glasses. "Nancy Wheeler. Jonathan Byers. Mandi Crawford. You're a long way from home", he said before gesturing for them to come in.

"Well...", he said, leading them into the living room. "I hope you didn't come all this way to tell me about the bear in the Harrington kid's backyard. I've heard that one already". He led them through another door.

"Take a look. Go ahead, don't be shy"

It was a bulletin board full of evidence and newspaper clippings.

"I followed up on 200 tips, most bogus, but that's how these things always go, okay? I know every last step Barbara took that day, every last person she talked to. The answer to what happened to your friend, it's up here somewhere. I assure you that. I just gotta connect the right dots"