･ ｡ﾟ☆: *. ☆彡ﾟ.
4| The Weirdo on Maple Street
･ ｡ﾟ☆: *. ☆彡ﾟ.

IT ALL HAPPENED QUICKLY. Before we knew it, we were all in Mike's basement, surrounding the mysterious girl we found in the woods who now sat on the couch. She had Mike's khaki colored jacket on. She looked so lost and completely helpless. It warmed my heart a bit to see that Mike took her in so easily. She sat there, staring at us like a lost puppy. But then again, there we were, staring at her, it's not everyday you see a girl with a shaved head walking around in an oversized t-shirt, unless she had cancer of course, but the choice of clothes.......

-"Is there a number we can call for your parents?" Mike asks kindly.

The girl gives him a confused look and then looks at me.

-"What he means is, is that we can contact, or uh, communicate with your parents and tell them where you are. And the number is just a combination of, well, numbers." I try to explain.

The girl doesn't really seem to follow. In fact, I don't even think that she's ever heard of a phone.

-"Where's your hair? Do you have cancer?" Dustin asks his curiosity boat taking off. I could tell that he was already forming even more questions to ask the poor girl.

-"Did you run away?" Lucas asks cautiously.

Now that sounds more logical.....

-"Are you in some kind of trouble?" Mike tries to to speak to the girl by taking a more calmer approach than the others.

-"Is that blood?" Lucas points to the dried up blood that can be seen under her nose. His finger comes close to her face and she jumps back a little like a scared bunny.

-"Stop it! You're freaking her out!" Mike defends as he slaps Lucas's hand away.

-"She's freaking me out!" Lucas defends himself.

I roll my eyes at Lucas and look back the girl. Now she's giving us a confused look and to be honest, I've never felt more unhelpful in my life.

Mike leaves from where he's standing and goes over to a corner of the basement. Dustin looks at Lucas and I before making the most outrageous statement I've ever heard so far.

-"I bet she's deaf." He tells us with raised brows.

-"Dustin why would you think that?! She's clearly reacting to everything we're saying if you haven't noticed." I exclaim while putting my hands up in confusion.

He then snaps his fingers in front of her face and she jumps back a little.

-"Not deaf," The curly haired boy mumbles to himself as he racks his brain for other ideas.

-"All right guys, come on." I say in hopes of calming the two boys down. They seemed more freaked out than her.

-"Stella's right. That's enough, alright." Mike adds looking everyone in the eye.

Thunder rumbles and the rain seems to fall more heavily. The girl we found in the woods sits still and looks around the basement like she's never seen one before. I wonder if that's true....

"Here, these are clean. Okay?" Mike hands the girl a pile on clean clothes. They almost look like the ones that he was wearing the other night.

The girl takes the clothes and gives us a strange look. She stands up and then lifts the front of her shirt up a little.

-"No! No! No!" All the boys exclaim in unison as they turn to face away from her.

The poor girl stands there confused and looks at me. I walk over to her and pull shirt back down.

-"You have to have privacy, okay?" I explain to her gently.

She gives me an expressionless glance and then looks around. Mike comes over and taps her shoulder.

-"See over there? T-that's t-the bathroom." He stutters clearly a bit shocked about the whole experience. Thankfully she didn't lift her shirt up too much.

Mike walks her over to the bathroom and goes to close the door behind her. She suddenly turns around.

-"No." She speaks, her voice low, cold, and almost threatening.

-"Oh, so you can talk. Okay, just like this?" Mike leaves the door partly open.

The girl eyes the door before looking back at Mike.

"Is that better?" He asks her calmly.

-"Yes," replies the girl in a light, but dark tone.

He pushes the door closed a little more before walking over to where Dustin, Lucas and I are standing. There was a lot of tension in the room at the moment, and for a good solid minute, no one said anything.

-"This is mental." Spoke Dustin, completely convinced with his statement.

-"At least she can talk!" Mike tries to reason.

-"Yeah, she knows what she's wants and doesn't." I add quietly while staring at the ugly basement floor in thought.

-"She said yes, and no. Your three year old sister says more." Lucas crosses his arms over his chest in agitation.

-"She tried to get naked!" Dustin whisper shouts, reminding us all of the incident that happened not too long ago.

-"Dustin, she doesn't even know what privacy is! I'm thinking it's more than mental, it can't be that, only." I look back at the bathroom door as I finish speaking my thought.

-"There's something seriously wrong with her, and you can't make me think otherwise Stella." Lucas says firmly.

What was funny, was that each of us was so sure that themself was right. We didn't even think as a group, but individually, and that's why, there was a lot of tension build up and arguing to get one's point to be the final one.

-"Like what? Wrong in the head?" Mike turns the colored boy beside him. He seemed to be getting frustrated, like the rest of us.

-"She just went like..." Dustin grabs an invisible long shirt and exaggerates as he pulls it up high over himself.

We all stood in silence as we contemplated on what really happened. She just looked so lost when we found her, heck, she doesn't even know what privacy is. Lucas lets out an exasperated sigh as he crosses his arms over his chest.

"I bet she escaped from Pennhurst." Dustin announces his thought in a low voice.

-"Dustin!" I turn to him and roll my eyes.

"There's no way she could've walked that far without being seen! Besides, how would she have escaped anyway?!" I question with raised brows.

-"Hold on Stella, from where?" Mike puts his hand up to keep me quiet. I scoff and cross my arms over my chest.

-"The nuthouse in Kerly County." Dustin informs Mike.

-"You got a lot of family there?" Lucas asks as he places his hands on his hips.

-"Bite me." Dustin threatens. He takes a step forward, in hopes of intimidating Lucas.

-"Ok, no one's gonna bite anyone," I step in between them.

-"Seriously though think about it." Dustin pounds into our heads this idea.

-"That would explain her shaved head, and why she's so crazy!" Lucas exclaims catching on.

-"No! Guys, this is impossible! There's no way...." I'm cutoff by Dustin reenacting the scene that he did earlier.

-"She's an escapee is the point,"  Says the curly haired boy.

-"What, is she a psycho now?" I ask sarcastically.

-"Like Micheal Meyers!" Mike finally speaks.

-"Exactly!" Lucas exclaims.

I shake my head and look down at my calculator watch. On it read 9:34.

-"Oh shoot! Guys I have to go, like right now!" I exclaim in panic as I grab my bag off of the table used for playing D and D.

-"Ok, ride safe!" All three say in unison.

I wave and watch as they continue to think up a cover story for the girl. I sigh deeply before taking off to my place.

( • • • )

After parking my bike under the umbrella that was left open, the lights in the house were all off, and I immediately got scared. I then remembered that Steve wasn't home, but seeing my house completely dark on the inside in the night, in the rain, sent a little shiver down my spine. I gulp back the urge to call out "hello" like they do in the movies. I approach the front door quietly and peek inside.

I reach into my backpack and pull out my spare key, pulling my converse off at the door. I grab a granola bar and a water bottle and then make my way upstairs.

I head down the hall to my room and grab some pillows and blankets. I rush downstairs to the basement and slam the door behind me. Might as well make the most of having the whole house to myself.

I look around our big and comfortable basement with my hands on my hips. Now where would be a good place to build a fort?

I choose the card table. It was just the right size and it seemed like the only possible solution.

-"Well, this'll have to do for the night," I tell myself as I admire my work. I crawl through the little doorway that I created and sit cross legged in the middle. I spill open the contents in my bag and grab my flashlight. I position it in the corner of the of the fort and then grab my walkie-talkie. I turn it on to channel six to see if Mike is on.

-"Mike? It's Stella. Over."

I wait a few minutes for a response. I glance at my calculator watch and see that it's past 10:00. There's no way that he's still awake. Just before I put the antenna down, I get a response.

-"Stella? I'm here. I have some news about the girl we found. Over."

-"That's awesome! So, is she from Pennhurst? Or was I right? Over."

-"Well, unless they number their people with tattoos and name them after their number, then yes. But we don't know for sure. Over."

-"Wait, tattoo? Over."

-"Yeah, her number is 011. So I'm calling her El, short for Elven. Over."

-"Ok, has she said anything else? Over."

-"She said "night, Mike". Well that's only because I said "night El". Over."

-"Night? Is she staying with you? Over."

-"Yeah, in my basement. We have a plan to get her back to where she came from. We'll tell you tomorrow. Gotta go! Over and out!"

-"Over and out."

I slide the antenna down and then put the rest of my belongings away. I then turn off all the lights and lie wide awake in my fort. Will's pleading face from when it was his turn to roll came to my mind and I became sad. I had to find him. I just had to.......

･ ｡ﾟ☆: *. ☆彡ﾟ.･ ｡ﾟ☆: *. ☆彡ﾟ.
I'm so sorry it took forever to get this chapter up!

I promise things will get more interesting in the next chapter!

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Thanks for reading!

<3 Catherine✎