{The Spy, Part II}

Alice couldn't sleep that night. Every time she closed her eyes, Dart appeared in her dreams and started chomping on everyone she cared about. First, Dustin lost a hand. Then, her mother lost a foot. Dart was halfway done chewing Steve's kneecaps off when Alice's alarm clock blared.

In a sleep-deprived stupor, she slammed the button to stop the noise. For one blissful moment, she forgot why she set her alarm for so early on a weekend. Then it all rushed back: Dart. Mews. Raw meat. Wild goose chase.

Alice's chest tightened and the scar on her palm stung again. It was still cold to the touch. Alice ignored the cool sensation by putting on a pair of winter gloves.

She packed her backpack with essentials for baby demogorgon hunting, including a bottle of hairspray and a lighter.

Alice met her brother and mom at the breakfast table, not surprised to see how puffy Mrs. Henderson's eyes were.

"Still no sign of Mews!" Mrs. Henderson sniffled, loading eggs and bacon onto Alice's plate. "No one in Loch Nora has seen her."

"Don't give up yet!" Dustin said. Alice noticed his fingers crossed under the table as he said, "Maybe she's by Maple Street?"

"I hope so," Mrs. Henderson said. She began wringing her hands. "Maybe the Wheelers have seen her..."

The doorbell startled her.

"Who's here this early?" she asked, standing. "Did somebody find Mew-Mew?"

"That's just Steve," Alice explained in between bites. "He's going to, um..."

"Drive us around town and try and find Mews," Dustin interrupted. "He's giving up his whole Saturday for us."

Mrs. Henderson beamed and clasped her hands together.

"How sweet!" she said. "Let me go let him in. He should eat with us."

Dustin and Alice shared a look. While their mom was at the door, Alice leaned over.

"Steve's not dense enough to let it slip about Dart, is he?" Alice hissed.

Dustin gave her a look.

"Have you met him, Al?"

Before she could respond, Mrs. Henderson was leading Mr. Good Hair into the kitchen, babbling on about how grateful she was.

"Mewsie is my little angel," she cooed. "I just pray that she's still out there somewhere, crying out for Mommy to find her."

Steve gulped.

"I'm sure she is, ma'am," he said, smiling weakly. "I'm sure she's happy, and safe, and not in any harm whatsoever—"

"Let's go, guys!" Alice cut in, grabbing Steve's arm and pinching it to get him to shut up. "We've got to search all over town and bring good old Mews home."

Mrs. Henderson gave them hugs and snacks for their journey, adding, "Don't forget to put up the signs I made!"

She handed them a stack of homemade "Lost Cat" signs. It was obvious she'd spent all night on them. The photo on the front was the picture of Alice, Dustin, and Mews from Halloween. It had only been a few days ago, but it felt like a century had passed since then.

The teens waved goodbye and promised to be careful. The second they were out of the house, Alice dropped the flyers into the recycling bin.

"They're not any use to us," she sighed. "Rest in peace, Mews."

"No time to waste," Dustin said, climbing in the passenger seat Steve's car. "We need to get ground beef, and lots of it."

"This is so weird," Steve muttered as he pulled out of the Henderson's driveway. "I can't believe I'm spending my Saturday monster hunting."

"Thanks for this," Alice said, patting his shoulder from the backseat. "We really appreciate your help."

She tried to use her powers on Steve to ease his fears about hunting Dart. However, her palms didn't warm up and her nose didn't start to bleed. She frowned, removing her glove and inspecting the scarred palm. The scar from when Will blasted her backward was glowing a faint blue color.

She quietly slipped the glove back on, ignoring the alarm bells in her mind. Fretting wouldn't do anything to fix her suddenly dormant powers. She had no clue if Will had done this, or if something else had caused it, or if she could get them back somehow.

Maybe this is a good thing, Alice thought. Maybe I can finally be normal again.

But it would be a shame if someone got hurt by Dart and you couldn't heal them, a small voice in the back of her mind whispered. Wouldn't you hate for someone to get hurt on your watch?

Alice forced these anxieties away, tuning back into Steve and Dustin's argument about what to listen to on the radio.

🚘 🚘 🚘 

After an interesting trip to the grocery store—and some weird looks from the cashier—the trio was ready for their demogorgon hunt.

Steve parked his car by the woods near Maple Street. He handed out pairs of yellow gloves and each teen grabbed a bucket of raw meat.

"So," Alice asked, wrinkling her nose and holding her bucket away from her nose, "we're just going to throw this along the train tracks?"

"Yep," Dustin said. "Dart is bound to be close by. If we leave a trail of meat we can lure him to the junkyard...I hope."

His walkie-talkie, which was clipped to his belt, began popping with noise.

"Dustin!" a garbled voice said. "This is Lucas. Do you copy? Dustin!"

Dustin pressed a button on his headset and began speaking into it.

"Well, well, well, look who it is?" Dustin snapped.

"Sorry, man," Lucas said over the radio. "My stupid sister turned it off."

"Well," Dustin said, "when you were having sister problems, Dart grew again, he escaped, and I'm pretty sure he's a baby demogorgon."

"Wait, what?!" Lucas screeched.

"I'll explain later. Meet me, Alice, and Steve at the old junkyard."

"Steve?" Lucas said.

"And bring your binoculars and wrist rocket."

"Steve Harrington?"

Dustin ignored Lucas cries of protest.

"Just be there, stat," he said. "Over and out."

He turned off the device, grabbing his bucket of beef.

"All right," Steve said. He sucked in a breath. "Let's go."

He turned to Alice.

"You ready?"

Alice nodded and ignored the dull ache in her palm.

"As ready as I'll ever be."

🍂 🍂 🍂 

Forty-five minutes and a few rousing rounds of I Spy later, the teens were getting burnt out. To pass the time, Steve began asking more about Dart.

"You found him in the garbage?" he asked. "Dude, why were you dumpster diving?"

"I wasn't dumpster diving!" Dustin protested. "The trash can started to rattle. I wasn't just going to walk away!"

"And you let him keep this thing?" Steve said, elbowing Alice.

"Hey, don't judge me," she said. She shot a glare at her brother. "Dustin told me it was a lizard."

"That's what I thought it was!"

"And you kept something you knew was probably dangerous in order to impress a girl who you just met?" Steve said. He shook his head. "For a kid who's practically a genius, you don't have much common sense."

"Hey, that's grossly oversimplifying things!" Dustin said, tossing a chunk of beef onto the tracks.

Steve still couldn't wrap his mind around the whole situation.

"Why would a girl like some nasty slug anyway?" Steve asked with a shudder.

"An inter-dimensional slug?" Dustin said. "Because it's awesome."

"I hate to be a Benedict Arnold," Alice said, "but Steve is right. Dart is nasty as hell."

Dustin narrowed his eyes.

"Geez, okay, I get it!" Dustin said. "He's gross."

"Well," Steve said, tossing another piece of meat, "even if she thought it was cool, I don't know. I feel like you're trying too hard."

Dustin stuck his nose in the air and scoffed.

"Not everyone can have your perfect hair, all right?" he said.

"Yeah," Alice piped up. "Not everyone has an extra hour every morning to style it just right, Mr. Good Hair."

She smirked at Steve, and he shot her a look.

"It's not about the hair, man," Steve said. "The key with girls is acting like you don't care."

Alice frowned, not quite sure if that was the best advice for her younger brother.

"Even if you do?" Dustin asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Yeah," Steve said. His eyes flickered mischievously. "It drives them nuts."

Dustin hung onto every word.

"Then what?" he asked.

"Then, you wait until, uh..." Steve paled and cleared his throat. "Until you feel it."

"Feel what?" Alice interrupted.

Steve blushed.

"Oh, well, um—"

"Yeah, feel what?" Dustin asked.

"Don't get shy on us now, Dr. Harrington," Alice teased.

"Doctor?" Steve asked with furrowed eyebrows.

"Dr. Harrington, M.D. of Love," she said with a giggle and a snort.

Steve's cheeks turned even darker pink.

"Haha, very funny," he said sarcastically. "I'll keep my advice to myself, then."

"No, tell me!" Dustin said. "I need the advice!"

Steve sighed.

"Fine," he said. "It's like, before it's going to storm, you know? You can't see it but you feel it. It's like an electricity, you know?"

Dustin nodded in understanding.

"Oh," he said. "Like in the electromagnetic field when the clouds in the atmosphere—"

"No, no, no!" Steve said. "Like a...um...well...a sexual electricity."

It was Alice's turn to blush. She awkwardly chuckled, laughing louder than normal.

"Seriously?" she said, walking a little faster so Steve and Dustin wouldn't see her embarrassment. "I'm walking away from this conversation now."

"You feel that and then you make your move," Steve explained to Dustin.

"So that's when you kiss her?"

Alice rolled her eyes, uninterested in "bro talk" with her brother and her best friend's boyfriend (or, perhaps, ex-boyfriend). She tuned them out, listening to the crows and the wind in the trees.

She grabbed another piece of meat, but before she threw it, she tried to heat it up slightly. She used all her concentration, remembering the things Dr. Owens had been telling her: "You need to relax. Don't try so hard. Focus on your breathing. Start slow—don't try to ignite anything right away."

Alice felt her palm warm up a few degrees. Her nose bled and the meat in her hand sizzled as if it was getting cooked. She grinned at it, pleased that her powers were showing signs of returning.

Just as it was getting warmer, a cold chill zipped down her palm. She yelped and dropped the beef in her hand, surprised to see the outside covered in a light layer of frost.

"Alice? Is everything okay?"

Steve and Dustin's conversation about lions and ninjas and haircare was abruptly cut short by Alice's cry. She shivered, but before she could say anything Dustin interrupted.

"Um...Alice?"

He pointed to her nosebleed.

She took off her yellow gloves and went to wipe it away, only to discover that the blood droplet was frozen solid on her upper lip.

"That isn't normal," Steve said, incredulous.

"No shit, Harrington," Dustin snapped.

"I knew something was wrong," Alice muttered, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand. Dustin and Steve gasped when they noticed the scar on her palm, now a deep purple.

"What the hell is that?" Steve asked, grabbing her hand and inspecting the scar.

"It's the scar from when Will shocked you," Dustin said. "But that doesn't make any sense!"

"Nothing makes sense anymore!" Alice exploded, yanking her hand out of Steve's grip. "We're spending our weekend chasing a baby demogorgon, our town is probably going to have a hamburger shortage, and everything I touch turns to cold! This sucks!"

She threw her bucket down and kicked it, scattering meat across the tracks.

"Hey! Don't do that!" Dustin yelled. "We don't want Dart to get confused!"

"Okay, everyone just chill—"

Alice glared daggers at Steve. He closed his eyes and sighed.

"Sorry," he said. "Poor choice of words. Everyone relax."

He turned to Dustin.

"You go on ahead," Steve explained, "while Alice and I collect this beef and fix the trail. We'll be right behind you."

Dustin grumbled something but nodded, turning on his heel and making his way down the tracks.

Alice put her yellow gloves back on and helped Steve collect the rest of her beef.

"Do you have any way to contact your doctors at Hawkins Lab?" Steve asked quietly as they worked. "Maybe there's a payphone nearby, and you can call them and they can help you understand what's going on?"

Alice looked up at Steve—stupid Steve and his stupid, perfect hair. A voice in her head hissed, planting irrational thoughts into her head.

Her face contorted into a mask of anger.

"Do you want Hawkins Lab to take me away or something?" Alice snapped. "Do you think I'm some kind of freak?!"

"What? No!" Steve said. "I just wasn't sure if you needed to get help—"

"I don't need help from anyone," she said sharply. "I can do this on my own!"

Steve's nostrils flared.

"No offense, Al," he said through clenched teeth, "but you obviously can't! If you could, you and your brother wouldn't have dragged me into this wild goose chase!"

"Why are you helping us if you don't want to be here so badly?" Alice yelled. "Just go home, Harrington!"

She threw a chunk of beef at him and stood, storming off past Dustin.

Steve shook his head in disbelief, unsure of what prompted the fight to break out.

"What the hell is wrong with her?" Dustin called to Steve, watching as Alice hurled the raw meat on the tracks.

"I don't know," Steve said, "but I think you should come check this out."

Steve's wide, frightened eyes were glued to where Alice had been sitting moments before.

Dustin obliged, dropping his bucket in shock when he saw what Steve was looking at: the leaves Alice had been sitting on were now ashy black, covered in a thick layer of frost. Before their very eyes, they exploded into frosty bits.

{Posted on Nov. 9th, 2019}

{Edited August 26, 2021; Republished January 4, 2025}

A/N [from 2019] I'm actually really happy with how this chapter turned out! It's way longer than some of my previous ones!

What's your opinion on what's going on with Alice?! Something hasn't been quite right since the Mindflayer zapped her...

Remember to vote and comment! QOTD: Which is better, fall or winter?