DESIDERIUM [ 3 ] ↠ STRANGER THINGS

5. THE END OF AN ERA

DESIDERIUM
CHAPTER FIVE

➝ THE END OF AN ERA

COLLEEN HID THE LARGE ENVELOPE THAT WAS HANDED TO HER SECURELY IN HER COAT, TUCKED UNDER HER LEFT ARM. She followed Deputy O'Connell out of the file room, as he crept around the police station carefully. He knew that if word had gotten back to Chief Hopper, he would have his head on a platter. Most of their police force had gone home for the night, and it was the easiest night to be able to sneak in and steal the files. Once they walked out of the building and started to head over to his police car, Colleen took the envelope out from underneath her coat and stared down at the file— "CLASSIFIED: HAWKINS LAB".

They climbed into the car and Colleen sat in the passenger seat, "You think this is it?"

"That's all I could find about missing people from around that time. Her name was Annabeth Wilson, and she had a child about nineteen years ago in the lab. His name was disclosed, no birth records other than the clinic visit inside the laboratory."

Colleen let out a breath before pulling the flap and opening up the envelope, and her fingers gripping tightly around the piece of paper. She had gotten tired of waiting on Hopper to find more information, so she put matters into her own hands. She had told Terrence that it was for a summer project that she was preparing for school next year. And it was going to be for an early admissions essay for college.

But little did he know... it was for Nine.

His eyes darted over towards Colleen who was reading the file. Her brows furrowed together as she was reading over the information. There wasn't much in the file, meaning that the lab must have kept the experimentations and prosecutes under wraps. But there it was— childbirth... hidden in the small details of her clinic log. September 6, 1969. The woman had dirty blonde hair and light eyes, with a strong jawline. Colleen could see the resemblance to Nine. This could be it.

"Well?" Officer O'Connell spoke up, pulling her focus from the page, and she gave him a smile. He quirked an eyebrow, "Find anything good?"

Colleen exhaled, "Yeah. Yeah, I think we did."

___

Colleen was waiting by the front door for Steve to beep when he was outside of the house. Six had left to head to the diner for his first day of work and Nine was watching movies in the living room with El and Hopper. Hopper had decided to let El come over for the night to keep Nine company, but secretly— he also wanted to be around when Colleen got home from her friend's graduation party. He knew that last summer was a troubling time for the young girl, and although things seemed to have turned around for the better... he still wanted to keep a watchful eye on her.

"Do you have to go?" Colleen heard a timid voice from behind her, so she turned around to find Eleven was now sitting on the bottom stair. She had her chin in her hand and had a slight frown lining her pink lips. She exhaled, "Mike is playing game tonight with Will and Lucas."