"Sia?" She called out. Her voice was almost angelic, outworldly. Something that could draw you towards her. But Vee could feel something more . . . something magnetic drawing them. But he didn't want to go. As he felt that force drawing him closely, there was that voice. A sense of dread overwhelmed him, it felt like he was melting. Melting into something green, something holy.

Before him. Not him.

Vee couldn't find in himself to move, it's like he was bonded with her. Only thing he could hear was her.

"Sia?" Her voice was mysterious, like a religious icon.

An angel.

Or maybe it's the devil in disguise.

Vee didn't know until, naively he reached out for her. He let her in, every time. She gave reasons to let her in. Sometimes she'd demand, other times she only asked. Giving him the choice and each time . . . he let her take him.

Then it happens.

"My child." She calls, it creates a chill down his spine. But that chill turns into a comforting sensation that develops into something of disgust. A feeling of pain but love.

"I've found you," she whispers. "You need to see. See my child, look."

Now they entered, forcing themselves inside his mind. He screams, he kicks, he wails, he weeps / he does everything / but that wouldn't stop her. He feels it burn, he feels it suck and tear at his flesh. It entered. Piece by piece, it entered.

His skin hurts, his eyes burn. Everything was changing. He screams louder. They only laugh, the faces: they laughed and cackled even.

They poked at him, they threw him, everything flashes from that place. The Lab.

It's like he could feel that blade cut across his skin, creating an opening for the Star to appear.

The Star he was always meant to be.

Then She appeared. In all her glory, she came.

And when she came: she showed.

The crash; more like the stars.

"Hercmh, pteasj! Mercy! Maiq! Tejli!"

Vee could hear the screaming from the young woman, her orange skin glowed as whatever pod she was placed in zoomed through the stars. Whatever planet she was on, or inhabited, had been a distant star that soon turned nothingness.

Vee couldn't understand what she was screaming. Maybe it was a different language? Had to be something that wasn't of this earth. The way her tongue rolled when she said it was rather odd and her accent . . . it sounded foreign? But almost like . . . Vee's.

Though no one ever acknowledged it, he could feel that he sounded different. He could even hear it too.

The sighting.

"Sir, we've seemed to discover something . . . unknown to mankind."

The laboratory; the promise.

"Nyh'y jiomrise r'g? A home? Here?"

But that promise was quickly broken.

The testing; experiment 0-

𓄇

"Vee! Come on, kid," Hopper yelled at the lightskin boy, his senses coming back. Vee looked around and noticed that he wasn't in his bed anymore. He was covered in a deep sweat with only a large shirt one which was supposed to help make him not sweat. But he still had. "You okay, kid?"

Vee let out a couple gasps, but nodded somewhat. He didn't really know if he could classify as okay anymore. But he didn't really know what to say about his so called sleep walking dreams. They were odd, out of wack, and weirdly vivid.

Too vivid.

"Okay . . ." Vee hyperventilated but he seemed to calm down. "I think."

"Another dream?" Hopper asked. "Sleep walking terrors?"

Vee nodded, his body covered in sweat. "From . . . the lab."

Hopper looked down at the boy solemnly, his face filled with guilt. Mostly because he had nothing he could do, at least that's what Vee had felt as he touched him. He couldn't help Vee no matter how much he tried-and it seemed Will Byers had been dealing with the same thing. Or maybe not the exact symptoms but it all came together as PTSD from Hopper's stand point. Or whatever the doctor had said. "Come on, let's get you back to your room."

Vee gave another slight nod, being led to his and El's room by Hopper. His body still shaking a bit but Hopper's hand calmed him down a lot more than any other touch ever had.

Once they entered the room, the boy was carefully placed inside of his bed. "Here, kid," Hopper tried to give Vee a warm glass of milk but the boy grimaced, shaking his head. He hated milk.

Hopper chuckled a bit but tucked him in. "If you need anything . . . Uh, scream."

Vee furrowed his brows, "Scream?"

"Yeah, just-call me if you need anything." Hopper tried to reassure but Vee still looked rather confused. Eventually, the man left the room, turning the light off and leaving Vee in the darkness.

Vee pursed his lips as the man left, tossing and turning for a while. His mind wild with thoughts of his sleep walking terrors. What were they? Why was he seeing the lab again-he never wanted to see that place again. So, why was he seeing it?

And who is she?

She seemed to be a misty memory . . . of someone. Someone that Vee remembered but couldn't put his finger on. All he knew, all he remembered, was that every time he thought of her. He felt his heart start to ache, his eyes go misty, and his body start to shake.

So, maybe remembering her was the worse thing he could do.

𓄇

The smell of French Toast and pancakes hit Vee's nostrils as he approached the kitchen with his teddy dinosaur that'd been given to him to help stop the nightmares. Of course it worked, until he started to sleep walk . . . so maybe it really hadn't. Either way it was still something that he grew attached to much like other things.

Vee had noticed El's presence behind Hopper before he did-her emotions were high. He could feel it, even though he wasn't touching her, but not enough to the point of being able to manipulate them. Just a passive reaction to her having such a high emotional level of anxiety and hope.

When Hopper finally did turn around, he jumped at her covered in a white sheet with holes for her eyes. "Oh, Jesus!"

"Jesus?" Vee gave a confused glance at Hopper. What was Jesus and why did Hopper exclaim their name so loud? "What is Jesus?"

Hopper huffed, "It's-the child of God."

"God?" Vee questioned more.

"It's something people want themselves to believe so everything is promised to them. Or that it'll get better. God's a higher being kid." Hopper explained, his eye sight still stuck on El.

Higher being.

Vee has definitely heard that before.

"El, what do you want?"

"Ghost," El spoke monotone at the man.

Hopper fiddled with the plates of French toast. "Yeah, I can see that."

"Halloween."

"Sure is," Hopper payed no attention to the girl as he shuffled around the kitchen. "But right now, it's breakfast, okay? Come on, let's eat."

"They wouldn't see me." El stated making Hopper and Vee glance at her. He wondered he she was talking about before it finally clicked all at once. She was talking about trick or treating.

"Who-"

"The bad men," Vee uttered, now hearing himself speak for the first time today. Mentally, he wished he hadn't heard his voice or noticed how soft or light it was. Or how his accent rolled off his tongue. "The bad men wouldn't see us,"

El nodded with a smile, "Yes."

"We could dress up!" Vee exclaimed excitedly with a bounce in his seat. "We could pick our . . . cost-costumes! We can see Lucas and Mike. Friends! We can see Dustin, we could do get candy together. Lucas could let me stay after-"

Hopper shook his head, "Yeah, that's gonna be a-"

"Hopper, please!" Vee begged. "They won't see use! We'll be . . . costumed!"

Hopper had finalized his decision though, "Hey, no. I don't care."

"But-"

"I said no," Hopper grunted pointing a finger at them both. "You go out there, either of you, costume or not. It's a risk. And we don't take risk cause we're . . . ?"

Vee rolled his eyes, a glare itching across his face. "We're not stupid." His voice sounded with attitude and little respect as him and El repeated what the man wanted them to finish.

"Now take that off, food's getting cold."

El snatched her sheet off and huffed into her seat as Vee had a upper lip of attitude towards Hopper. All the man had done was keep them in this tiny place with no civilization to communicate with. Nobody to speak to other them themselves, which he though was enough, only their thoughts and opinions on themselves. Which had gotten boring. Lonely even after a while. Hopper noticed their disappointment and sighed a bit, rethinking his decision.

Vee could feel his emotion since the man had been rather close to him but wasn't paying attention due to his own attitude.

"All right, look . . . how about I come home early tonight, I buy us a bunch of candy, and we sit around and get fat, and watch a bunch of scary movies. How's that for a compromise?"

El furrowed a brow, "Compromise?"

"C-O-M promise. Compromise."

Vee took in the new word, the new information, with a bite of his pancakes Hopper had made him. Since he hated the taste and smell of French Toast for an odd reason. Well, for him it wasn't odd at all as it tasted like rotten eggs in his words. Or why would you make this? It's disgusting, are you trying to murder me? If you wanted to be more specific.

"It's something in between like halfway happy." Hopper explained to the two kids, they both gave each other glances before locking hands.

Vee felt all the emotion of El, gaining her thoughts about what she wanted from Hopper and once he gotten the information he needed-he let go. It was a new, rather odd, way to communicate as he couldn't really hear her thoughts anymore.

But her emotions said enough.

"By 5-1-5?" El requested.

Hopper nodded, "Yeah, 5:15."

"Promise? You will be . . . here?" Vee asked, his face with a hint of desperation in it. A pout. "On time?"

"I promise," Hopper promised.

Vee shrugged going to eat his pancakes some more with a blank face-a halfway happy face, "Halfway happy."

El agreed about to eat her French Toast right as Hopper rubbed through the girl's hair with his hands. She laughed as he did and just as Vee thought he was safe-Hopper ruffed up his curls making the boy giggle a bit and push away his hand.

With that note, the small family ate, promises left in the air to be broken.

𓄇

As the day went on, the sun went down, the more boredom and anxiety Vee feared built up throughout those hours. Wonders and thoughts of the approaching that Hopper was supposedly coming at echoed through his brain. He hadn't known why he was so anxious about it, usually he was calm. But maybe, just maybe, for once. He was excited about the man coming over-maybe even happy.

They'd finally get to spend some time together, him and El would finally not feel alone. They would feel that this place, no matter how small, could be their home.

They would feel that.

As they television played, a fashion show appeared that had mostly gained Vee's attention. A tall, rather lanky, black woman walked the runaway first. A low but hip hopish beat played in the back. El sat next to Vee, looking a bit bored, but he hadn't cared. It was his turn at the moment.

The woman walked the runway, quite flawlessly, and once she got to the end, she did her little hip turn and introduced the next woman. This woman was a beautiful light skinned beauty that had these golden jews all over his body. Vee was . . . amazed. How had she gotten all those jews on her! And her makeup! She looked so . . . beautiful.

After she did her hip turn and started to introduce a man, but he wasn't a normal darkskin man. He had these light patches of white skin all over his body, and his hair was in long locs. His makeup was something that Vee longed for and as he walked-he seemed like a great god.

Yeah, a god.

It didn't matter how many boos or bad words that were thrown at the man from the audience, he walked. He stunted. And did it all while looking like he was on top of the world. The audience began to throw things at him but still, he prevailed. He kept walking, until he introduced the next. Without a care in the world.

At least that's what it seemed.

A beep was heard from the radio behind El and Vee, immediately they both hopped up and raced towards it-seeing what it said. Luckily, they knew Morse code. And once the radio beeped accordingly, they read the code that lined up on the screen.

"L . . ." Vee started.

"A . . ."

"T . . ."

"E." El finished.

"Late." The siblings concluded the word together, both letting out exasperated breaths. Vee's face itches with a glare and the pit in his stomach finally had sunk deep, and deeper, as deep as it could.

The boy didn't know if he felt anger, resentment, irritation, or even pain. But he knew that he could feel this sadness, that aching pain, and everything else that wasn't nice.

His eyes glowed brighter than before and before El could react towards them or ask if he was alright-a flame appeared on the stove. A bright, but dark, magenta flamed roared over the stove and it made El jump a bit but Vee only stayed in his place. Everything taking him.

His emotions always got the best of him / and others / but they seemed to control him even more now. Now, the control he had was gone, as if it was never there.

He stomped through the cabin, immediately making it towards his and El's room shutting the door with his gifts. A wave of heat overtook the cabin but it never affected Vee, nothing had ever since his skin stayed to change or his hair or his eyes. Those bright emerald shaped eyes.

He promised, he thought, his thoughts his only comfort as his tears started to wet his pillow he gripped tightly. He promised. He did, he did, he did!

He's a liar. A terrible liar, he raged. He promised us! Why would he lie!

And as his thoughts raged all that anger, resentment, irritation, or even pain, he let out all of his sadness. His depression, his anxiety, his insecurities, and even his loneliness. All in one cry-everything that had been building up. Those memories, god, those memories. He let them out as well, he needed too.

He let it go.

I miss them, he reminiscent. I miss them all so much. I miss him. Very much.

And as he cried, the heat gotten hotter and even stronger. Melting away at the stove's surface.

In the background, the man who walked the runway had been followed through the backstage. It was when there, right then and there, everything he held in finally shattered into tiny pieces. Holding all his pain and suffering, that glass box was bound to break. If only the camera man knew what else he was letting out.

If only.