Risky Business ｡ Stranger Things

15 : Over the Edge

The Saturday morning sunlight came as a relief, the darkness finally disappearing. The household was awake early with Prue, Grey and Jackie hardly sleeping through the night. All night Prue could hear something move and scatter around in the shadowed woods outside her window, or at least, her mind believed something was moving and scattering around out there; she couldn't tell the difference in the early hours of the morning before dawn broke. Her mind was full of animalistic sounds, shadows and a cold that went bone-deep. Caroline Owens was humming around the kitchen making waffles that morning and Prue knew her mother's brightness was only a facade for Jackie's sake. 

"You look dead-dog tired, dear. You didn't stay up all night watching those ridiculous movies again, did you?" Caroline asked in a disapproving voice while she placed a plate of hot waffles in front of Prue. Instead of eating, Prue sipped at her warm and sweetened tea greedily.

"No, Mum," she droned back in a flat and irritated voice. "Just had trouble sleeping." Grey and Jackie, both wolfing down their golden waffles dripping in syrup, shared a look, both knowing exactly what was keeping Prue awake because it was the same thing that had kept them awake too.

"Your brain must be awfully busy then," Caroline announced, reaching for her mug of coffee, the material of her hospital scrubs rustling softly as she lowered herself down into a free seat. Caroline Owens had a shift at the hospital today, meaning that Prue was left babysitting Grey all day. And for good reasons, Prue believed that her mother preferred being at the hospital these days, away from Dr Sam Owens that had more secrets than the grave. Secrets that Misson Strange was going to uncover and expose to the light of day, because Selena Moreno was right, all truth and gossip eventually finds a way out.

"You have no idea," she muttered under her breath as her brain shifted to Mission Strange and her study date with Billy Hargrove later that morning; it was something she was dreading in the worst way, to the point that her heart would shake inside its bone cage whenever she caught a glimpse of the time ticking down. But time wasn't just ticking down for Prue's seemingly doomed study date with the unpredictable yet brutally handsome Billy Hargrove, but the strange and dangerous events that were occurring in the dark and mysterious underbelly of Hawkins.

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After Jackie's mother came to pick her up, Prue and Grey gathered in her room to plan the next stage of Mission Strange. Prue gently closed her door, making sure the door to her parent's bedroom that held a slumbering Sam Owens was closed too. He had gotten home after one in the morning, and Prue knew this because she was still awake, blinking into the darkness with her blanket pulled up around her chin. The house was peaceful with dull sunlight streaming in through the windows since Caroline had left for work, save for the two sneaking teenagers. Movie posters covered the walls of Prue's bedroom and clothes draped over the iron rails and knobs of her bed. Grey swivelled around in her desk chair while Prue was curled up on her bed, her notebook opened to the messy and mostly unhelpful notes she had written about the recon task into her father's belongings. The words U.S. Department of Energy, MKUltra, experimentation, Dr Martin Brenner and 011 were bolded and underlined extremely as Prue tried to figure out what they meant.

"Zero-one-one could be a room number?" Grey suggested, still swinging around in circles, his eyes growing dizzy.

Prue chewed on the end of her pencil. "Maybe. But if they did or are still doing experiments then maybe zero-one-one is a trial number or a test subject?" She didn't know what MKUltra was, but it didn't sound good or wholesome.

"Like a mouse or a rabbit?" He exploded with excitement. "Or a monkey!"

"What about a person?" she offered, feeling like she was grasping at empty air. Beams of sunlight reached across her carpet like fingers, ever growing as the sun drifted higher in the sky: they were running out of time.