Through the Looking Glass ⇒ Alice the Amazing Short Stories

[IV] Ghostbusting for Dummies // part three

Or, The One Where They Really Fuck Up

{August 1984 \\ pre-season 2}

Hopper spent a long time sitting at his desk and glaring at the wall.

Alice and Jonathan sat across from him, bleeding and sweating, wondering if they should interrupt his train of thought.

"Hopper," Alice said after a few minutes, "what...what are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking about what I should kill first," he said gruffly. "The things in that house, or you two, for putting yourselves in danger."

"Please don't kill us," Jonathan begged. "We're really, really sorry."

Hopper sighed and stood.

"Get up," he said.

When the teens didn't move, he scowled.

"Get up, now!" he barked.

Alice and Jonathan shot out of their chairs.

"I'm taking you two to the hospital," Hopper continued. "We're going to tell the ER doctors that you got attacked by raccoons. Got it?"

"Is that believable?" Alice asked.

"Stranger things have happened," Hopper said. "Let's go."

He lead them through the precinct, waving away Officer Callahan.

"I'll be back later," he told Flo. "Make sure the town doesn't burn to the ground before then."

Alice and Jonathan squeezed into the front of his truck, wincing at how loud he listened to his music.

♢♢♢

The next morning, Alice felt hungover.

Which was strange, because she'd never drank before.

The world was too bright and too loud. She had a splitting headache, and the place on her neck where she'd been bitten was sore.

Of course, no scar remained—one advantage of her powers. But the pain persisted.

During Henderson family breakfast, the phone rang.

"Alley Cat, it's for you!" Mrs. Henderson said.

She held out the landline with a wink.

"It's a boy!" she whispered excitedly.

"Mom!" Alice hissed, snatching the phone from her mother's hand. "Hello?"

"Hey, Al. It's Jonathan Byers."

Alice let out a breath. For some reason, she had expected (or hoped) it was someone else calling.

"Oh, hey Jonathan."

Mrs. Henderson and Dustin snickered from the breakfast table, misreading the situation. Jonathan's early-morning call wasn't a sign of infatuation or love. It was purely business.

"Feel better today?" Jonathan asked. 

"A little," Alice lied. "You?"

"Alice, you're a terrible liar."

She blushed, although Jonathan couldn't see it through the phone.