32 - CLEVER GIRL

Breakfast around the Lonsdale kitchen table was strange the following day. Daisy pushed around her oatmeal with a spoon as her stomach was feeling queasy, Marigold had taken one bite of her buttered toast but placed it down upon her plate without a second thought about food and Duncan nervously chewed at his bottom lip, eyes ringed red from no sleep. They were not a happy bunch of children today.


Molly Lonsdale, selective about observing the children, pattered down her flowered print dress and smiled across at her sister, who stared out the window with glazed eyes. "I want you all home tonight for dinner. Your grandfather is coming over and I expect everyone to be home and washed and presentable for him."


Daisy groaned out loud with the news. "What if we've got plans?"


"Cancel them."


Marigold could not help but let her thoughts wander about the man they called a grandfather. Daisy had mentioned the odd conversation they had shared about Duncan a few days earlier, asking many questions about his grandson and how he was adjusting. Marigold never considered Fredrick a kind man, he hadn't spent a lot of time with the family, always choosing to watch from a distance and currently, with her mind hyperactive with her familiar paranoia, she found herself second guessing her own blood.


"We'll be here mother," Marigold said and Daisy sent her a harsh glare.


Molly nodded. "Good. We wouldn't want to disappoint your grandfather."


Duncan cleared his throat. His eyes were timid in the morning light and Marigold made a mental note to make sure he was sleeping throughout the night. With being back in Hawkins and starting back at school and getting caught up with Billy Hargrove, she almost forgot she was looking after him too. "Do I have to attend dinner too?" he asked quietly.


Beatrice blinked with question. "No."


Molly slammed her spoon to the tabletop and her daughters jumped with the sudden aggressiveness,  Beatrice and Duncan did not. "Yes, you do have to attend dinner, Duncan. This is a family dinner, which means everyone has to be here. Do I make myself clear?"


Duncan gave a slow nod. Beatrice hummed a strange noise.


"What does grandfather do, exactly?" Marigold questioned, trying to make the conversation light and not at all suspicious. "I don't think you've ever mentioned it."


Daisy watched her sister closely.


Molly twisted her lips together, trying to find the correct answer. They were not a close family, not with men. Fredrick had always been a distant father and for the most part, that suited Molly and Beatrice just fine. They pretended to be the dutiful daughters to a well established town man and he funded their lives. "He's...in something boring. Nothing to get your pretty little mind worried about, Marigold."


"Boring like finance or investment?" Marigold pressed. "Or boring like you have absolutely no clue how he makes a living?"


Beatrice joined the conversation, elbows now propped up against the tabletop. Molly fanned a hand against her chest, trying to remain calm. She wished she could have lied a little better, but deep down, she never wanted to know the real work Fredrick Lonsdale did. "He was a clever man. He was the money behind the brains. He was the wizard behind the curtain. He's not a monkey, he's the wizard."


Daisy blew some air from her cheeks with her aunt's crazy rambles. She was not quite sure why Marigold was pushing so many buttons about their grandfather and today, she did not have the energy to care. "Yes, because that makes so much sense." Daisy was pushing herself up from her seat and grabbing her bag. "Mari, ready to go? We wouldn't want to be late for school."


Marigold blinked, her pretty picture perfect smile snapping into shape. She snaked a hand towards Duncan and squeezed his hand in goodbye. He returned her stare with a bleak smile, a hidden language between them.


"Don't forget about dinner tonight!" their mother called out as the girls departed the house.


As they marched down the front steps, hearing the front door slam shut, Daisy twirled towards her older sister with a frown. "Why are you hounding mum about grandad? We've got much bigger problems right now."


Marigold combed out her curls with her fingertips, eyes pinned to the end of the street. "There are things you don't know about, Daisy. Things that I can't tell you yet, just in case I'm already in danger."


"Danger? We're all in danger." Daisy snipped, eyes flamed with orange fire. "Weren't you listening to Dottie last night on the phone? She said Will's been having weird vision things and that creature that attacked Butterball the other night is still out there. We've got weird shit going on again in town and you're worried about our grandfather."


The sisters stared at each for a long moment, wind nipping at their exposed skin where their jackets didn't cover. Standing on the dying grass outside their white house, they were the sun and the moon once again. Before Marigold could even begin to explain her thought process, before she could voice her fears about being watched again, there was a heavy beat filling up the morning gloom as a blue Camaro rolled down the asphalt.


Daisy's gaze snapped towards the car, wind blowing at her hair. "You've got to be kidding me, Mari."


Marigold smiled devilishly as the car came to a stop at the curb. Billy Hargrove looked like a denim cladded demon; all smoke and venom.


"You've got your demons, sister, and I have mine." Marigold replied, sliding into the car without another word. Daisy watched as Billy Hargrove revved the engine before driving away faster than necessary. Daisy couldn't help but feel her mind ticking with one boy in particular now.



***



"Wait, Marigold's hanging around Hargrove? He's a little...twisted. Wouldn't you say?" Dottie Fields questioned at lunch break, her tray full of slightly old macaroni and cheese and more chocolate puddings than anybody would assume was allowed from the lunch lady.


Daisy shrugged. She did not even want to think about her sister right now, not when she had left her standing in the bitter breeze watching her drive away with a boy that was nothing but trouble. "We've got bigger problems."


Steve pinched a fry from Daisy's pile with a smile in her direction. "You mean like strange problems."


Dottie was shaking her head. "It's not funny, Steve. You didn't see Will standing in the middle of that football field screaming and jolting around like a fish out of water. You also didn't see that ugly bastard creature almost eat your dog. Actually, why is it always me?"


"Sorry, Dottie." Steve replied, casting his eyes downwards. Right now, he was just trying to cover his own screwed up emotions with anything. He was still reeling with what the boys had told him in the locker room, how Nancy had skipped school yesterday with Jonathan, right after their fight. A flight that felt a lot like a breakup.


Daisy sighed loudly. "Do the kids know anything more about what's going on?"


"Not really," Dottie said, scooping pudding into her mouth. "I think right now, it all circles back to Will and the Shadow Monster, not my words, that's been haunting him. They think he's seeing snippets of what's going on, but it's hard to wrap his head around. Poor kid."


A hush fell upon their table.


"So, what do we do?" Steve finally asked, as the bell chimed overhead. Students around them started sliding back metal chairs and gathering their belongings.


Dottie was hauling her extra puddings into her bag for later. "I have no idea. But you know what? I'm sick and tired of all this. I really miss the days when the biggest thing I had to worry about was if Nancy would wear pink and we'd colour coordinate by accident and then I would have a reason to talk her."


Steve offered a half smile. "Well, look on the bright side, you have a reason to talk to her now."


Dottie made a face. "Thanks, dad."


While the willowy girl blended back into the sea of students, Daisy found herself standing with Steve just a little bit longer before hurrying off to her history class. They exited the cafeteria together, hands briefly touching as they moved through the corridors. When they reached her locker, Steve leaned against it with an easy smile.


"Do you have plans tonight?"


Daisy was very ready to tell him no. "Why?"


"We could, I don't know, go hunting for monsters. Isn't that what all the cool kids do these days?" Steve asked with a hint of a laugh.


There was nothing more in the world that Daisy wanted, but her heart sank a little bit. "Shouldn't you be buying Nancy flowers? We agreed on that."


Steve nodded. "Yeah, we did."


The moment was slipping away, Daisy not quite sure how to hold onto it any longer. "I can't go monster hunting tonight. We're having a family dinner, which is most likely going to end up in disaster." Daisy paused, eyes trailing up to Steve's face. "Actually, do you want to come?"


"You said family dinner," Steve said. "Wouldn't your mum murder me if I rocked up?"


Daisy grinned. "She never said I couldn't bring someone."


Steve thought about it for a second longer. "Okay, sure."



***



As predicated, family dinner was indeed a disaster.


A delicate roast had been set up in the dinning room, a room the Lonsdale women never used, and seated around the table were the family members of golden hair and wild hearts. Steve Harrington had been the odd person out tonight; dark against the fair.


Molly had not murdered Steve or Daisy, simply because she had overcooked and more company meant more food to be shared and she was quite sure nothing bad could happen if an outsider sat at their table. Beatrice and Duncan had been shoved down the very end of the table, far away from Fredrick, who naturally, donned the head of the table. Molly took his left side and Marigold had wiggled into the seat by his right. Daisy and Steve had been left in the middle, demanded to survive in the choppy middle ground.


Dinner had started out quite nicely, everyone pretending to be sweet and lovely and everything the Lonsdale family showed the world outside their door. Fredrick had arrived on time and dinner had commenced no later than seven o'clock. Pleasant conversation had engulfed most of the evening; town events (none about the strange occurrences though), local news, the weather and questions directed to Steve, who smiled each time around a bite of mashed potato. However, all the loveliness was killed the moment Marigold decided to play investigator.


"Forgive me, grandfather," Marigold had plastered her voice in thick honey. "But what is it that you do for a living? We were speaking about this morning around breakfast, but couldn't agree."


Frederick Lonsdale offered a chuckle. "I have fingers dipped in many things throughout town, it's quite hard to pinpoint."


"Like a puppet master?" Duncan asked from the end of the table. The question had been the first words to come from his mouth the entire night. Daisy had almost forgotten he was sitting there at all.


Fredrick hummed. "Yes, I suppose so."


Marigold pressed another smile to her lips. "Did you ever have anything to do with Hawkins Lab?"


"Well, yes. It's a small town and the lab brings in quite a lot of exposure and revenue. You know, Marigold, this town was built upon science back in the day. Those laboratories were once even thought of as the heart of Hawkins." Fredrick said, taking a sip of his red wine. He was the only person drinking alcohol at the table.


Molly cleared her throat. "Such a wonderful story, father."


"I can only imagine," Marigold went on. "Did the labs ever have anything do to with something called Project MKUltra?"


Daisy choked on her water.


"No, I don't believe so." Fredrick answered, but his eyes were growing darkener by the second.


Marigold gave a cold jolt of her chin. "But you have heard about the project, correct? Your own daughter was subjected to the trails years ago back in Kentucky. Before her family was killed in a car accident. Or, so we all were led to believe."


"Marigold." The warning was clear as day from her mother, but Marigold wasn't quite done just yet.


Fredrick waved a hand at his daughter. "No, no. Let her speak."


"If you have ties dipped into everything throughout town, did you know about Dr. Brenner? Did you know he was conducting these trails in Hawkins? Do you know about the Rainbow room?" Marigold asked, a challenge in her eyes. "No. That's not it. Is it? You already knew about MKUltra. You already knew people had killed to keep it all a secret. You were the one behind bringing it here, weren't you?"


Beatrice cooed out the words she had spoken earlier that day. "He's the wizard behind the curtain."


"You knew all along didn't you?" Marigold asked, going for the kill. "When I snuck into the labs that day, when Dr. Brenner caught me, you were the reason I wasn't killed right then. You couldn't kill you own granddaughter. You just couldn't do it. So, you pushed me out of town. Only problem, you didn't expect me to find Duncan. Or to return home."


A heavy silence fell.


Nobody was quite sure what to say, or to think.


"You are mostly correct," Fredrick smiled. "Clever girl."


Marigold tilted her head. "What part did I get wrong?"


"I knew you would find Duncan," Fredrick said. "I knew you would bring him back."


A hollowness filled Marigold's heart, her head jerking towards the end of the table where Duncan sat watching and listening. He could hear his grandfather's voice in his head, speaking riddles to him. "You thought you could save me. We were wrong." Duncan whispered, his words for her alone.


Marigold blinked away hot tears. "What do you want with him?" Fredrick continued to smile; haunting and dangerous.


Duncan stared across at Marigold. "They want me to find somebody named Eleven. Then if I don't prove to be a threat and go quietly, they'll let me live. If not...well, you know how the story ends."


"Screw that." Daisy detested.


Marigold wiped a tear away from her cheek and snapped her eyes back to her grandfather. "You'll have to kill me before you hurt him. Do you hear me?"


Fredrick gave her a blank stare. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

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