7. uncanny encounter

Waking up earlier than the day before, Clemency went down stairs, and there is still an awkward atmosphere between her and her mom. She was scared that her suspicions were true, but if it was, she is glad her mom did not actually leave. As Clemency sat down for breakfast, she saw her mom dress in the same swimsuit she always wore, and again, all dolled up. She did like seeing her mom dressed up and thought it suits her and all, but what she thought might be the reason behind it, worries her.

She didn't have work today, but instead of relaxing at home, or maybe hanging out with Eddie, she decided to ask if Nancy needed her for anything as she noticed that Nancy seems to have a hard time at her work. She did not know exactly what caused it, but she wanted to come by there to see for herself, and the timing is also perfect since Nancy is planning on going to an old woman's house, complaining about rats. And after finally looking decent enough, Clemency went down stairs just as their phone started ringing. "I'll get it." Karen says, as Clemency nodded in response as she went on to getting her shoes on, but as she struggled to put them on, she is also being nosy and listening to who is on the phone. "Mike! Phone!" Karen yelled to Mike, who is currently in their basement. "Okay!" The boy yelled back, and Clemency assumed it was probably Eleven.

Clemency stayed for a bit, seeing that her mom was still on the phone listening to the two kid's talking, suddenly her mom's expression changed, as she slowly became more and more horrified by the second, making Clemency worry about what she might be hearing on the other line. "What?" Karen suddenly exclaimed.

"Mom! Get off the phone! How many times?!" Mike yelled back, making Clemency more and more confused, yet entertained, all at the same time. "Did Nana call?!" Karen worriedly yelled back to Mike.

"No, Mom! Just get off the phone!" Mike yelled back, sounding more and more frustrated, as Karen scoffed and put the phone back down. "What happened?" Clemency asked horrified, as Karen just shrugged in response.

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Reaching the Hawkins post, Clemency confidently asked the woman at the front desk if she could come in, since her sister's working there, and they somehow allowed her inside.

"Careful there, Nancy Drew. Careful." An annoyingly sounding man says, just as Clemency walks in, getting their attention as she glared at the snickering, disgusting men.

"Nance..." She softly says, as Nancy ever so slightly shook her head at her. "If only they knew what you could do..." She says, referring to both skills and mindset wise, as Nancy shushed her.

"What can she do, little lady?" The blonde disgusting man asked, mockingly as Clemency fake smiled at him. "Many things better than you could, actually..." she quietly says as Nancy widened her eyes at her, trying to shut her up. "What?" The blonde man asked, as Clemency looked back at him and smiled. "Nothing." She says, as the two left.

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"Mrs. Driscoll?" Nancy asks as they are met by an old woman at the door. "Yes?" The woman asked, confused, as she looked at the three teens in front of her.

"Hi, uhm, I'm Nancy. Nancy Wheeler. We spoke briefly on the phone last night." Nancy reminded the woman. "We're from The Hawkins Post." Jonathan added, as Clemency just smiled, awkwardly, at the woman, as the exclaimed. "Oh! Oh, yes! Oh, my goodness." The woman exclaimed, as the three awkwardly smiled at her.

"Oh. You look too young for reporters." The old woman says, as Clemency pursed her lips at the two as they looked back at her then back at the old woman. "We get that a lot." Jonathan says, as the sisters awkwardly smiled and nodded in agreement.

"Follow me." The woman invited them in, as Clemency nervously followed behind them. And the three followed the woman, while Clemency admired her place, the old woman then led them to her basement, peeking in, it horrified Clemency. She might have a basement at their house, but this basement is horrifyingly dark, and is used as a room storage.

As the three walked inside, they witnessed the mess the rats had made, and all the fertilizers had holes in it. While Nancy and Clemency crouched down to get a closer look at the damage, Jonathan took photos.

"Now you tell me, why would rats want to eat a poor old woman's fertilizer?" Mrs. Driscoll asked, as Nancy skeptically looked back at the woman. "Are you sure they did? Maybe just gnawed the bag? I mean... eating fertilizer seems-" Nancy says as the old woman interrupted her.

"Crazy. Believe me, I know, honey. But... something's not right with these rats..." The old woman says, getting more information from her, Mrs. Driscoll guessed it could be rabies, and they are all suddenly interrupted by a loud thud, startling them as it turns out the old woman had caught one of the rats.

Nancy proceeded to take a quick call, finding any reports of rabid rats around other areas, to no avail, as the old woman gave them lemonade while they were at it, and from sheer luck, they eventually found other people having missing fertilizers in a few other areas.

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Putting her shoes on, Clemency saw Nancy hurrying her way out of the house, and called for her. "Hey, good luck with your report about the case, okay?" Clemency says, as Nancy nodded to her, with determination in her eyes and walked out the door, as Clemency sighed.

She had this feeling those shitty men at Nancy's work would make fun of her again, and she really hoped her sister's boss would listen, and it scares Clemency that this whole rat-thing might be more serious than they thought, but she did not want to think much of it, because the monster stuff is finally over.

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Steve and Dustin are out spying on people around the Starcourt mall to find anyone suspicious that could be russian spies, as Steve is getting distracted instead, looking at the girl he tried hitting on just the other day, and doing a bad job as a spy, as Dustin took his place in spying instead.

"I don't get why you're looking at girls. You have the perfect one in front of you." Dustin says as Steve sighed. "Seriously, if you say Robin again-" Dustin then cuts him off, by repeatedly saying Robin. In which he straightforwardly denied and rejected.

"No, man, she's not my type. She's not even... in the ballpark of what my type is, all right?" Steve says, as Dustin kept his focus on looking for their target. "What's your type again? Not awesome?" Dustin sarcastically says.

"Then just date Clemency then. If not Robin, then Clemency." Dustin says, looking over at Steve, as he looks back at him in disbelief. "Clemency? Really? My ex-girlfriend's older sister.. Uh huh, yeah, no. And besides, Clemency's mean, she bullies me all the time, all right." Steve sighed, as an annoyed Dustin rolled his eyes at him.

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As Clemency is listening to music in her walkman, while washing the dishes, Amanda bursts in looking for her to the other employees, as they pointed where she is, and tapped her on the shoulders, startling her, as she turned her head to face the girl, with a questioning look across her face.

"Hey, your sister and her boyfriend are looking for you." Amanda says, as the girl looked at her, in confusion. As she went into the cafeteria, there they were, slightly drenched from the rain outside, with Nancy having a worried look on her face. "What's going on?" Clemency asks nervously as the two look at each other, then back at her.

"Do you wanna get off work early?" Nancy asks quietly, as Clemency widening her eyes at her, still confused, and slowly looking over her co-worker. "It's fine, I'll just say there's a family emergency." Amanda whispered as Clemency quickly nodded and left with the two.

As the three reaches Mrs. Driscoll's house, they ran from the car getting wet from the strong pouring rain, as they reached for the door, panting and knocking, but nobody seemed to answer. "Mrs. Driscoll?" Nancy frantically called out, but still no answer.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." Clemency says feeling agitated, as the two worryingly look at her and back at the door, as Nancy keeps on knocking. "She must not be home." Jonathan says.

Clemency and Nancy's eyebrows furrowed at him. "She's an 80-year-old woman and it's pouring. Where else would she be?" Nancy sternly says. "And even if she could leave her house in this condition, did you not see all the lightning?" Clemency backed Nancy up, and exclaimed, while frantically looking at the sky.

Nancy slowly turned the door knob as Jonathan looked at her in panic. "Woah, what are you doing?" He exclaimed, as Nancy turned her head to him. "I think we should go in... I'm worried, there are a lot of cases of old people left alone in their house with nobody around, falling and helpless. What if something happened, at least we could help." Clemency informed, with concern on her voice, as Jonathan sighed and Nancy opened the door.

With Jonathan still not liking the idea of them walking on an acquaintance's house uninvited, Nancy walked inside, as the two followed behind her, looking around, while Nancy called for the old lady.

The three nervously walked inside, while the loud sounds of pouring rain and thunder could be heard, they went looking for Mrs. Driscoll, calling for her, letting her know that they came, but still, they are answered by silence.

The three finally reached the basement, the only other place in the house they have not looked in on, slowly going down the flight of stairs, getting engulfed by the darkness of it, as Nancy opened the light, more opened up fertilizers could be seen scattered on the ground, suddenly the three heard snarling, they grabbed whatever stuff they could for their own protection, as they slowly walked further in the basement.

And there they see, Mrs. Dricoll, digging in the fertilizers, as they looked at her in horror. "I think we should call the authorities... or the hospital, or something- Hurry!" Clemency frantically exclaimed as the three rushed back up.

As the officer Callahan and the ambulance finally came, they put the old woman on a stretcher and tied her down as she screamed and tried stopping them. "Let me go! Let me go!"

"Doris, we need you to stay calm for us, okay? Stay calm." The care assistant informs the old woman as she keeps squirming around, trying to get herself out. "I have to go back!" The woman kept screaming repeatedly as officer Callahan and the three looked at her, horrified.

Their eyes followed Mrs. Driscoll as the ambulance staff took her away in the ambulance, with confusion and worry in their eyes. "Okay, so, you three want to explain to me what in the name of Jesus just happened here." the officer stammeringly asks.

As they finished getting questioned by the police, and the sisters reached their home, still shaken by what they had just witnessed, their mom looked at them, surprised. "You two, why are you drenched?" She says as she gave them towels, and furrows her eyebrows as she realizes the worried expression on their faces. "Did something happen?" She asked the two as they looked at each other and back to her. "Nothing, just a tiring day." Nancy says, as Clemency agreed, and smiles awkwardly at Karen. As the two went up stairs, and Clemency went inside her room, Nancy went back from hers, and went inside her sister's room, making Clemency look at her.

"Sorry for... getting you caught up in all of that..." Nancy apologized quietly, with her head down low as Clemency looked at her with furrowed eyebrows. "Don't apologize, Nance. I should be the one to apologize- but then again, if we weren't stubborn and didn't went into Mrs. Driscoll's house, something much worse might've happened... but, I'm worried you and Jonathan might still get in trouble for work tomorrow..." She says as Nancy sighed. "We'll handle it, okay? Get some rest, you still have work tomorrow as well..." Nancy says as her sister nodded in response.

‧₊˚

Walking on the Scoops Ahoy's booths, Clemency furrowed her eyebrows upon seeing many ice creams as Robin, Dustin and Erica sat there, Clemency slowly approached and leaned her arms by the railings. "Why are there so many ice creams?" She tiringly said as the three looked at her.

"You seem oddly less teasing today Clemency..." Robin teased, as Clemency lightly chuckled and sighed heavily making Robin sort of worried, but brushed it off. "Well, we already explained this to Erica, but you see this?" Robin says, pointing and showing a map of vents on the mall. "We needed her to get into the vent from Scoops Ahoy, and this is the route she is taking." Robin explained, making Clemency flabbergasted by the idea.

"Wait- you're making this kid enter a vent? Are you crazy?" Clemency exclaimed, as Dustin gave her a deadpanned look. "I know right? Like I said, Child Endangerment." Erica added, glaring at the two.

"What do you guys need it for, anyways..." Clemency asked in confusion, not catching up to what was going on, just as Erica interrupted her. "Know what I love most about this country? Capitalism. Do you know what capitalism is?" She asked the three, as they all agreed to knowing it. "It means this is a free market system. Which means people get paid for their services, depending on how valuable their contributions are." Clemency just looked at the child, and was amazed with her intelligence.

"...And it seems to me, my ability to fit into that little vent is very, very valuable to you all. So, you want my help? This USS Butterscotch better be the first of many. And I'm talking free ice cream, for life." She says as she went back to having her ice cream, as Robin and Dustin gave a deadpanned look at each other, as Clemency giggled. "I think that's a great deal." Clemency added as the two looked at her in disbelief and Erica satisfyingly smiled at her, as Clemency shrugged at Robin and Dustin.

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