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The next day during lunch time, the door to the AV Club opened, revealing a brunette sitting in the middle of the room, writing on a paper. And beside him, two other kids Will, Mike, Dustin and neither Lucas had known. Those two children were Hallow and Jaeden, frightened when they first saw the group of young teen boys enter the room.
"What the hell!?" Lucas shouts, slamming the door behind the group as Max, the redhead, quickly pushes herself inside the room.
"Hi.." Ethan smiles softly, looking the group of boys up and down, taking note of their growth since the last time they saw each other. He looks at the redhead, not recognizing her even though she stuck oddly close to Lucas. "I'm alive."
Will begins to breathe heavily while Dustin sets the fake Ghostbuster trap on the table. Mike looks at the three kids while they show off their tattooed wrists. Jaeden holding a 004, and Hallow with 002, Ethan shows his, proving his identity to be 003. It's them.
"You have to help us. Something bad is coming, I just need these two safe." Ethan quickly pleads, standing up and showing off his bland, white outfit. He wears a plain white t-shirt and sweatpants just like his two friends beside him. On the back, he showcases the 'Property of HNL' across the shirt.
Each of the kids had grown out and tidy hair, maybe some hairs sticking out of place, but they didn't look homeless or abused, somehow. Ethan's hair was a bit longer than the past year, he'd also grown a few inches himself. Hallow and Jaeden pulled themselves together into a side hug, keeping themselves together as some comforting coping method. The kids could barely spell their own names, let alone help Ethan explain their situation. They were physically thirteen with the vocabulary of three year olds.
"We escaped last night. You cannot let anyone except, like, my mom, and Will's mom, we exist. Probably Hopper too. So much has happened, I know what rests beneath their lies. Something horrible happened a while after I escaped the first time a couple years ago. A massacre, caused by El-" Ethan was cut off by Will, crushing him with a warm embrace, starting to sob.
"Is this real?" Will questions, scanning Ethan's face, looking at the small height difference between the two now. "How is this happening, where, when, how?" Will frantically asks many questions as Ethan holds him in his arms, tangling his fingers in the distressed boy's hair.
Will isn't sure if this is another cruel vision or not, but he's scared either way.
Ethan shushes Will's sobs as Lucas, Mike, and Dustin stare in confusion and shock, also happy their hopes of their missing friend being alive had come true. Max stares confused, quietly asking Lucas what was going on. The dark skinned boy had to make up a few dumb excuses on what was happening, that Ethan went missing the day Will was found last year, and brought back some other missing friends.
"How is this real right now?" Will sobs, staring at Ethan as the boy gives him a small smile.
"Okay, what happened again, and why were you hiding in here?" Mike asks, his arms crossed as he spoke in a sassy tone.
