Chapter Three: Interrogation

(The Vanishing Of Will Byers, Pt. 3)

***

"Okay," the police chief began, words half-muffled due to the cigarette in his mouth. Taking it out, he blew a long breath of smoke, then looked at the notepad in his hands. On the seats, Rowan and Alistair looked at each other, both wondering why they were still here, and if this was normal procedure for missing kids.

Looking at the siblings, the chief, Hopper, asked, "So, how do you both know Will Byers?"

The siblings slightly relaxed at hearing the regular question, and Alistair answered, "He's my friend. I've known him since kindergarten, where I, um, accidentally stole his crayons for my drawing, and he, uh, let me use them still since I didn't really mean to steal them. We've been friends ever since."

"And because Alistair's my brother, I know Will via him," Rowan added. "That, and I occasionally babysit him, Al and their friends when I have the time."

Hopper nodded absentmindedly, looked at the other officer, then back at the siblings again. "So you both have known him for a long time?"

They nodded.

"And when was the last time you both saw him?"

"I saw him when our aunt dropped Alistair off at the Wheelers' yesterday," Rowan answered.

"And I saw him last night, when we went back home after our campaign," Alistair replied, foot tapping as his thumb rubbed up and down across his opposite palm.

Hopper frowned, was silent for a moment, then asked, "So the both of you haven't seen him today?"

Rowan and Alistair shook their heads.

"Your aunt wasn't acting suspicious this morning?" Hopper pressed, paused, then amended, "Any more suspicious than usual?"

"No, she was the same as she was every morning," Rowan answered, leaving the part out about how her aunt had tried to talk about her nightmare. Alistair nodded to confirm her answer. Rowan then frowned, as her suspicions about these questions starting to take form. "Why are you asking us all of these questions?"

"Well, your aunt is a known con artist, thief and law-breaker, and Will Byers apparently took the road home near the area where the trailer park is, and given how you both know him well..." Hopper began, but Rowan didn't need to hear anymore; rage was deafening everything else out, as her suspicions were fully formed.

"Are you suggesting our aunt kidnapped Will?!" Rowan yelled, standing up on her foot, hands clenched, barely able to keep electricity leaping off her skin as it seethed inside her; even still, the lights flickered, and the principal, Hopper and the officer looked at them in confusion. Beside her, Alistair's eyes widened, then he glared at Hopper, a similar look of anger on his face.

Hopper looked at the angry siblings, and he said, "I'm not saying that."

"No. You're accusing that," Rowan snapped, her body trembling with fury. "This is just an interrogation! Well, I'm happy to cut it short—we don't know where Will is. And our aunt would never kidnap him!"

"Yeah, well, you both know how this looks, right?" Hopper said, just as tersely. "A kid has gone missing, a kid you are both familiar with, and you two are among the last to see him; for God's sake your aunt has a criminal record! If he doesn't show up at his dad's, or with a relative, or hasn't run away, then you need to know Aconite Graveswood, your aunt, would be the top suspect for kidnapping."

"She wouldn't kidnap him!" Rowan yelled. "Scam you, sure. Break some laws, yeah! But she would never kidnap Will! She wouldn't!"

"Our aunt knows Will's my friend," Alistair interjected, gripping the seat so hard his knuckles turned white. "She knows that. She wouldn't take him! You got to believe us!"

Hopper gave some sigh-grunt noise, like he was getting frustrated. The feeling was, reluctantly, mutual. "Okay. Look, I don't personally think your aunt would kidnap him, but it's a possibility that I need to consider while we're looking for him, along with that he would have run away, or he is at his dad's or some other relative."

"He wouldn't run away," Alistair said without hesitation. "He wouldn't. And he would never run to his dad's."

"And like we said, Aunt Aco would not kidnap him," Rowan insisted, crossing her arms. "And if he was, then it was someone else, not our aunt."

Silence ticked in the room. Rowan glared at Hopper, then said, "And besides, even if we didn't know Will, Aunt Aco wouldn't still kidnap him. She... she wouldn't."

"Care to elaborate there?" Hopper interrogated, but Rowan pressed her lips into a thin line, as she looked at her brother, thinking of the same thing: The Man and his agents, breaking into their home to take her away after her powers unlocked. Fighting their way out and getting into the car. Running for two years. Their parents dropping them off at Aunt Aco's, then dying to keep them safe, their last act of love and protection. Rowan's jaw clenched, and Alistair adopted a neutral look. No way in hell were they telling someone like Hopper all of that, even if it might help their aunt's innocence. They just... couldn't.

"She just wouldn't," Rowan eventually said. "Believe us or not, I don't care. But she wouldn't kidnap Will. No way in hell."

Her brother nodded, both confirming that he agreed with his sister and letting the officers know that he had his own belief in his criminal aunt's innocence, and that he wouldn't say anything further.

Hopper glared, looking even more frustrated. Another silence, this one uneasy and crackling with tension like the air before a storm broke, waiting for the first person to snap and break it.

Eventually, Hopper seemed to concede defeat that neither Rowan or Alistair would tell anymore—or refuse to shake their beliefs that Aunt Aco wouldn't kidnap Will—and reluctantly said, "Well, then. If neither of you aren't going to, or aren't willing to, answer any more questions, you can both go."

The siblings didn't need to be told twice. Giving Hopper twin dirty looks, they stormed to the door, Rowan in particular trying to not let her rage set off another surge and do anything more than make the lights flicker, to not let anything not bolted down fly around like something out of Exorcist or Carrie, but before they could leave, Alistair asked, "You are gonna find him, right?"

Hopper and the officer stared at him. Rowan was staring at her brother too, shocked that he almost sounded civil.

But then he spoke again, and Rowan realised that civility was actually more worry than being polite. "Will. You'll find him? He'll... he'll be okay?"

There was a pause, then Hopper said, "We'll find him, kid. And yeah, he'll be okay."

Alistair bit his lip, and Rowan could see that he didn't look convinced. Squeezing her brother's shoulder in comfort, having a feeling her little brother's concern was more than just concern for a friend, the dark-haired teen looked over her shoulder and added in a more biting tone, "You better."

Then the Graveswood siblings were walking away, letting the door slam shut behind them.

***

Rowan leaned against the wall, lighter in hand, cigarette in her mouth.

There was a click, and the cigarette was lit.

Rowan inhaled, then blew it out, smothering a cough.

"Wow, you're smoking on school grounds. I thought you didn't."

Through the haze of smoke, Rowan saw Robin standing there, along with, surprisingly, Chrissy; she wondered if Eddie was lurking somewhere nearby. She flicked some ash off and said, "I don't. I'm making an exception."

"I can see that," Robin noted, eyes on the cigarette, nose wrinkled; she hated smoking, even though she never said anything against it to Rowan, which the other girl appreciated. She leaned her back against the wall on Rowan's right, Chrissy on the left. "What happened?"

"Nothing," Rowan automatically replied, and Robin rolled her eyes.

"Ro, something obviously happened after that officer called you out of class," Chrissy pointed out, and Rowan winced; she'd forgotten Chrissy shared that class with her. "And you're smoking on school grounds, when you usually don't because you said you didn't want to risk a detention. Now spill."

Rowan thinned her lips, drew in a breath of smoke and then exhaled, before leaning her head back and saying, "You two aren't gonna give up, aren't?"

"No way," Chrissy immediately replied, Robin nodding and said, "It would take a nuclear warhead for us to give up."

Rowan hesitated, debating whether she should argue, before deciding that it wouldn't hurt to confide in her friends.

Tapping more ash off her cigarette, Rowan braced herself and said, "Will is missing."

Robin sucked in a breath and Chrissy's eyes went wide as saucers; while neither personally interacted with Will, they both had interacted with Alistair and were, of course, her friends, and via knowing them, they knew somewhat of Will. So they knew exactly who Rowan was talking of, and the worry and fear that those three words would bring.

"Shit," Robin cursed, and Chrissy asked, "Do they... do they know how long he's been missing?"

"Yeah. Apparently, he's been missing since last night, after leaving the Wheelers' place," Rowan answered.

"So the police officer wanted to talk to you about him being missing?" Chrissy pressed.

"Not exactly," Rowan said darkly. She didn't wait for her friends to process before she scowled and revealed, "The police wanted to interrogate both me and Alistair. Apparently, they think that our aunt might have kidnapped them."

The reaction was instantaneous.

"What the actual fuck?!" Robin yelled, while Chrissy just stared, her face torn between shock and anger. "What is wrong with the police? Why in hell did they think your aunt would have kidnapped Will?! Have they met you guys? You're the last people who would do this!"

"Apparently since my aunt is technically a criminal, that means she's number one on potential kidnappers if the police don't find evidence of him running away or being at a relative's," Rowan said bitterly. "That's enough reason for them to think that."

"It's a stupid reason," Robin muttered, and Chrissy nodded in agreement.

"Robin's right. I mean, your aunt isn't a saint, but she wouldn't do this," Chrissy said. She paused, then admitted, "I mean, I can see why they would think that, explore all the options, but yeah, at the end of the day, your aunt's the last person who would ever do this."

"She is, but it didn't stop them basically accusing her and interrogating me and Al," Rowan said. She stubbed the butt of her cigarette on the wall and flicked it onto the ground, then conceded, "At least they seem to be trying to find Will. That's something at least. I just rather they do it without accusing my aunt."

"Yeah," Robin muttered, then added, "Who thinks that Will's mom pushed them to consider this was more than Will running away to his dad or something?"

Neither answered, though Rowan herself had similarly suspected that Mrs. Byers was the real push behind the police for getting off their asses and look for Will; when it came to Will and Jonathan, Joyce Byers would rip the earth apart and raise hell itself to make sure they were safe. She wouldn't stop till Will was home and safe, no matter what.

Silence descended upon the three girls, broken by the sigh of the wind. Chrissy twirled her ponytail, and asked in a quiet voice, "Do you think they will find Will?"

Robin and Rowan looked at each other, before Robin said, "I think so. They have to, right? If Will is still here, they'll find him either alive or..."

She didn't finish, but Rowan and Chrissy knew what Robin couldn't say. Rowan herself tried to keep herself from imagining Will, scared and alone in the woods, or his small body in some place deep in the forest, slowly decomposing, people finding him too late.

No. She couldn't think that. Will was okay. The police or his mom and brother or someone would find him, and he would come back home. He was okay, wherever he was.

He had to be, because the other option... if he wasn't...

"They'll find him," Rowan said firmly. "They're gonna find him, and he'll be okay."

She didn't say anything more. 

Will had to be okay. He had to be, because if he wasn't...

Rowan saw Alistair, when they were leaving his principal's office. How pale he was, the bags under his eyes even more stark, the worried and scared look on his face. How he admitted that he wanted the police to find Will, find him alive and okay, because he was terrified that if they didn't, that if he saw Will next, then it would be his ghost. And her little brother couldn't even think of that happening.

Rowan herself didn't want to think that. She wanted to think Hopper and the police would find Will soon, and he would be okay.

Even as a part of her felt that he wasn't, felt that her dreams, the feelings of dread were right, as much as she wanted to deny it.

That something really bad was behind Will Byers' disappearance, and was still happening to him.

***

The car ride had been silent, until Alistair had revealed that Will was missing and both siblings admitted the police thought that Aunt Aco was responsible.

And, of course, that had made their aunt furious.

"Those fucking assholes!" Aco screamed, the car swerving before she brought it under control, but her blood was still boiling. "It's one thing to accuse me, but to interrogate you both?! Those fucking cops and that goddamn Hopper! God, Will's missing and they think I would kidnap him?! God. Fucking pricks..."

Aco blew out a harsh breath, knuckles white on the steering wheel. Turning to Rowan and Alistair, she apologised, "Sorry, kids."

"It's fine, Aunt Aco," Rowan said, Alistair nodding from where he was sitting shotgun. "We were both just as angry as you when we realised what the chief meant."

"Still I... God, I shouldn't have sworn. Not in front of you guys," Aco said, sighing. 

Silence broken by the steady beat and witchy voice of Fleetwood Mac's Dreams filled the car. Rowan looked out the window, finger tapping on her Walkman. Alistair rubbed his thumb against his hand. Aco kept her gaze fixed on the road. None of them spoke.

When they drove into the trailer park, when they saw home, Aco parked the car and turned the ignition off. Turning to her niece and nephew, Aco sighed, running a hand through her dark hair, her expression weary, and, as Rowan and Alistair soon realised, scared.

Aunt Aco was scared.

"Look, this... this may be nothing. Will may have just got lost in the woods, or he's with his dad, or something like that, and the cops will find him safe and sound. But, until he's found, I want you kids to stay in the trailer, unless you're at school, or with friends, especially at night. This may be me being paranoid, but I... I just have a bad feeling about this, okay? Do you kids understand?"

Rowan nodded; after a second, Alistair reluctantly nodded. They both knew what Aunt Aco was meaning, that there was something else behind Will's disappearance.

That The Man could be behind it, while going after one or both of them.

It was a nauseating thought, one that brought fear, panic... and guilt.

Aunt Aco nodded. "Okay. Good."

The car doors opened and the Graveswood family got out, before Aco went to the door and took out her keys to open it. Casting a wary look at the near-silent trailer park, she unlocked the door and opened it. Again, she gave it a wary once-over before nodding, deeming it safe to enter.

The family entered, Rowan keeping an arm around her little brother as Aunt Aco headed in first. Rowan saw her aunt's eyes flick to the chest at the wall, between the stove and the curtain, where her aunt's shotgun, rifle, revolver, pistol and bullets were. Where Rowan's own gun and ammunition was, a gift on her fourteenth birthday. Aunt Aco had both taught them how to load, shoot and reload the guns she had as fast as lightning. Among them were Aunt Aco's brass knuckles, switchblade, a hunting knife, a crossbow and bolts, and a sword with a sheath that had the Graveswood family sigil inscribed in it, which was their aunt's birthday present when she turned sixteen; their mom had gotten a sword, too, when she had turned sixteen. Another tradition of the Graveswood family.

All a precaution, and a way to keep themselves safe and fight The Man and his goons if he came to abduct them.

Aunt Aco didn't move to the chest; instead, she got a knife from the drawer and muttered, "Keep behind me."

Rowan and Alistair did so, staying behind their aunt, keeping an eye out, too, for anything suspicious as Aco moved throughout the rest of their trailer, going into the bathroom and their rooms. When it was all clear, she doubled back to check her workspace; nothing.

Lowering the knife, Aco said, "All clear. But just to be sure... Rowan, can you hear Hooked On A Feeling?"

Rowan pressed her lips and tilted her head to the side and up, tapping her finger on her thigh as if she was trying to hear the song; in reality, she was feeling for any electrical disturbances that would let them know there was a bug in their trailer. Screwing her eyes shut, she concentrated, and then she felt it—a discordant buzz, at odds with the rest of the hum flowing through their home, a buzz that shouldn't be there.

Looking at her aunt, she said, "I think I can hear it coming from the wall over there, near the phone. I think it's from the neighbours. Aunt Aco, can you call them and check? See if they can turn it off?"

"Yeah, it's annoying," Alistair patched on, adding onto the lie. 

Aunt Aco nodded and walked to the phone. There, she unscrewed the covers over the ends of the phone, pulling out the bug.

"Anywhere else aside from here can you hear it, Rowan?" Aco asked after she grabbed some scissors and cut the wire in half.

Rowan cocked her head, then nodded. "Yeah, I can hear it from our rooms. I think another neighbour decided to jump in and play it."

Aunt Aco nodded and went to their rooms; there, she played a game of Hot and Cold with Rowan to pinpoint the location of the bugs, before removing them. They repeated it until all the bugs were found, removed and disabled, Alistair pitching in with comments about how annoying the song was being played by all the neighbours to better sell it.

Once all the bugs were removed, Aunt Aco threw the ends of the wires with the flat discs that allowed The Place to hear them. "Crush and fry, kids."

Without hesitation, Alistair and Rowan did so, crushing the bugs while Rowan gave them a small spark of electricity to further destroy the bugs.

Once that was done, Aco scooped them up and tossed the remains into a blender, then turned it on, the blender whirring and grating as the bugs were torn to shreds.

When nothing but crumbs remained, Aco grabbed a Tupperware container from her cup broad. Inside, like black, glittering dust, was the remains of past bugs.

Aco added the new ones to the old and put the container back in the shelf, hiding it behind plates, the salt and pepper shakers, and crackers. Closing it, she turned to Rowan and Alistair.

"Okay. They're all destroyed," Aco said, confirming they were home free. She glared at the cupboard and muttered, "I thought they had given up. You'd think they learn."

Though she didn't say it, as she looked at her brother, Rowan agreed. After their parents had died, Aco had suspected that, maybe, they weren't in the clear; that was the first time she asked Rowan to use her powers to sense for any electrical disruptions that could be bugs to find them and then destroy them. They had found them, and soon destroyed them before putting them in the container, since it was too risky to put it in the trash. They had done this every time Aco was suspicious or knew something, finding and destroying the bugs, which had been almost every week or month. They hadn't found a bug for almost a year, and had all thought that they had given up at last.

Apparently, they were wrong.

The three looked at each other; the appearance of the bugs seemed to be a sign of their return, of The Place wanting to catch evidence of Rowan and Alistair using or talking of their powers, and they all wanted to think that.

But they could also be proof, proof that something bigger was going on.

That there was something suspicious about Will Byers' disappearance.

And The Place may have something to do it.

***

And here is a slightly less shorter chapter than the previous two! 

Yeah, Hopper wanted to question Rowan and Alistair about whether their aunt would have kidnapped Will. He doesn't necessarily believe it himself, but he has to explore that possible option since Aco is a career con-artist. But yeah, Rowan and Alistair were PRETTY angry at the accusation...

And here is a reason why Rowan and Alistair don't use their powers at home—Hawkins Lab bugs their trailer near daily! Rowan uses her powers to find the bugs, and then they fry and crush them and put them unto a container (they're too paranoid to not think the lab wouldn't piece together even the blended-up dust of the bugs and hear something)

Also, yes, a Graveswood family tradition is that when a Graveswood turns sixteen they receive a sword! So expect Rowan and Alistair to receive their own swords when they turn sixteen...

Next chapter will be soon! Please read, comment and vote!

GhostWriterGirl out!