Evanescent | Stranger Things ¹

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

THE LINE BEFORE AFTER

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November 13, 1983. Sunday.

THE WORLD MOVES TOO fast to see as I am pulled from the depths of Hawkins Middle School.

The sky is dark and the air is cold, even with the heavy thermal blanket draped around my shoulders.  I cannot breathe properly, one of the paramedics tries to tell me.  I can hardly hear them.  I don't register the woman's touch as she turns my head from side-to-side.  She is forming words but her lips move too fast for me to comprehend.  I can hardly see straight, either.

I also don't know where any of my friends are.

That is wrong, actually.

I know where one of my companions is.  Jason Duke.  Jason had fled at the sound of sirens echoing in the distance, disappearing into the dark shadows around us.  He had left us.  I didn't try to stop him this time.

"Where's my brother?" I murmur, staring blankly ahead at the paramedic.  She doesn't meet my gaze, but it is likely because her attention is now on my arm.  Her nimble fingers tighten on the cast out of habit and I wince, trying to pull away.  "Where's Mike?" I whimper, now looking over the woman's head of puffy hair.  There is still no response from her and now my heart is beginning to beat unevenly in my chest.  Wrong.  My heart has been beating strangely in my chest for far too long to remember.  "Hey!" I grit out, biting the nervousness out of my tone.  "Where is my brother?  Where is he?"

"You need to stay still," The paramedic snips back  Finally, she pulls her gaze away from my broken arm and her dark eyes lock with my own.  "What were you doing inside the school at this hour?"

I don't even hear her words.

"Where is my brother?!" I demand ferociously.  I hastily rip my arm from her grasp and hold my cast against my chest.  My vision is blurry with tears and my heart is pumping so ferociously it feels as if the organ itself has climbed up into my throat.  "Where is Mike?  Where is he?  Where is he?!"

It feels as if I have lost my brother all over again.  It is as if Mike has jumped off the quarry's cliff and has now finally reached the bottom.  Mike feels so torn and far away from me.  My twin has a place in my heart, but right now that spot feels empty.  It feels like the absence that Eleven and the Demogorgon have left before us.  It feels dead, and I cannot stand the touch of Death's cold fingers ghosting on the edge of my skin.

"Mike!  Mike!  Where is he?!  He can't be gone.  No!  Mike!  Michael!"

"I'm right here, Mel."

My voice catches in my throat at the familiar sound of my twin brother.  I turn my head sharply to the right and I can see Mike pushing his way around the numerous adults to get to me.  His red-rimmed eyes are rattling in their sockets and he is shivering, too, despite the heavy blanket around his shinny shoulders.  Without another word, I kick my feet out to push the paramedic away and then I am falling out of the back of the ambulance and down onto the asphalt.  My knees tremble but I remain upright as I launch forward and into my brother's embrace.

Mike catches me before I fall, and his arms wind around me, pulling me into the warmth of his living soul.  We are both crying, and shaking, and clinging to each other.  I press my ear against Mike's torso, my head tucked under his chin, and for a single moment, there is no sound other than my twin's beating, living heart in his chest.  My own heart is slowing, attempting to sync with his own, and I close my eyes in relief.  Mike is the line that keeps me grounded and away from the madness of the stars above.  We are each other's only anchors in this world of terror and the supernatural.