Alice the Amazing ⇒ STRANGER THINGS

[31] A Lady's Hands are Cold

{The Gate, Part I}

Eleven rushed into the room and headed straight to Mike. He gazed at her lovingly.

"I never gave up on you," he said quickly. "I called you every night. Every night for—"

"For 353 days," Eleven said, beaming. "I heard."

"Why didn't you tell me you were there?!" Mike asked. "That you were okay?"

"I wouldn't let her," Hopper interjected.

Mike whirled around and glared at him.

"You've been hiding her this whole time?" he said angrily.

Hopper anticipated what was about to happen.

"Let's talk," Hopper said to Mike. "Alone."

The two of them stormed off, though their voices carried to the living room. Their conversation wasn't exactly private.

Eleven, Lucas, and Dustin began catching up. Alice looked on with a grin. It was surreal seeing Eleven again—the only other superpowered kid Alice knew. She was glad she was okay after the face-off at Hawkins Middle last fall.

Steve's brow creased as he watched Dustin interact with the strange punk girl he'd never seen.

"Who is that?" Steve asked quietly.

"Eleven," Alice said. "She escaped from Hawkins Lab last year and helped stop the Demogorgon."

"So, wait," Steve whispered, nodding in the direction of Eleven. "She's like you? She has powers?"

"Yep," Alice said, repressing a shiver. She ignored her stinging shoulder and said, "She has telekinetic powers, and she can see what other people are doing."

"Like, generally?"

Alice rolled her eyes.

"I mean, yeah," she said, "but if she's blindfolded and surrounded by white noise, she sort of projects into this other dimension thingie. And she can see and talk to people in other places. You get it?"

Steve nodded, then shook his head.

"Not at all."

Alice chuckled, but stopped when she suddenly felt weak. Her knees buckled and she sunk to the ground, gripping her chest. Her lungs felt like they were constricting, like every breath was an inhalation of glass.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Steve said, falling to his knees next to her. "What's wrong?"

Alice pulled off her jacket, eliciting a gasp from Steve.

Her shoulder wound had spread across her clavicle and down her other shoulder. The frost was spreading through her faster than before, and it chilled her to the bone.

"I think I'm freezing to death," she said, an icy chill racing from her head to toe.

"Al!" Dustin said as he raced over, Lucas, Eleven, Max, Joyce, Nancy, and Jonathan on his heels. "Your skin! You're practically blue!"