A Different Point of View

9. J-O-Y-C-E

9th November 1983, 6:46 am

SEVEN'S POV

I woke up to the sounds of songbirds singing in the trees. I rubbed my eyes slowly open and looked around. Yep, back here. The normal version of this odd world. I got up quietly and made my way outside. The sun had barely risen, and the atmosphere was still damp and frosty from the cold night beforehand.

My gaze rested upon the Byers' house in the distance, and my thoughts instantly went to all the food and water I would be able to gather from there. It was too hard to resist, so I sleepily stumbled to the house. I almost tripped up the stairs as I walked through the back door of the Byers' house.

I could hear snores so I tried to tiptoe as quietly as possible so I didn't wake anybody up. The kitchen was the room that led from the porch so it wasn't too hard to not make myself known. After grabbing two apples, some carrots, and biscuits from a sealed tin, my eye caught a soft blanket lying over the sofa, two rooms away. It was dangerous, but if I got it, it would be worth it.

I carefully made my way over to the sofa and started to pick up the warm blanket but dropped it when I heard a door creak open. I panicked and ran to a small dining room to my left and hid behind a dining chair. It wasn't a very good cover, but if this person was just walking up to grab a snack from the kitchen and walking back to their room, I would be fine.

However, that was definitely not the case.

I peered over the chair to see a middle-aged woman with brown hair sleepily rubbing her brown eyes. She was wearing an oversized, short-sleeved sweatshirt and some gym shorts. Her hair clearly wasn't brushed and it was obvious that she had just woken up.

I watched her as she walked over to her kitchen and opened the sealed tin I had gotten my food from earlier. A confused look spread across her face as she looked around the room, then back at the tin. Then she just shook her head and opened the fridge. While she wasn't looking, I took this as my opportunity to get up and find a better hiding spot.

I moved from behind the chair and stayed crouched as I made my way back into the living room. I moved to the far side of the room and ducked down the right of the couch, with only a slither of the kitchen in view.

I watched as the woman walked out of the kitchen and sat down at the very chair I was hiding behind not fifteen seconds ago. I let out a quiet sigh of relief as I watched the woman eat for a few minutes before she walked back into the kitchen. I heard her put some dishes in the sink and observed her as she walked along a hallway back into her room.

I took this as my chance to slip away from next to the couch and find a safer place to hide. My eyes darted around the room before landing on a stand that an electric-looking box was resting on, large enough for me to hide behind.

I quietly tip-toed over to the stand and got onto my knees, hidden from almost every point of view.

Not even a few moments later, footsteps emerged from a room and I saw the same woman but with different clothes and brushed hair, plop herself down on the couch, once again, where I had been not that long ago.

I held my hand over my mouth as she made her way over to where I was hiding and switched the electric box on. I flinched as I heard the flicks switch and a constant vibration coming from one of the cords I was kneeling on.

I must have stayed in that position for a solid 2 hours before I heard her curse loudly and sit up in a hurry. I peaked my head out from behind the stand to see her taking her outer layer off and pulling a dark blue vest over to the top of her white undershirt, not bothering to turn the electric box off. I stared at her and wondered why she was so frantic all of a sudden.

I watched as she reached into a bowl on the kitchen bench and pulled out a name tag that was spelled J-O-Y-C-E. Her name must be Joyce, I assumed. She clipped her name tag onto the left of her dark blue vest and grabbed a bag from the counter and headed for the door, all in a hurry.

I sighed in relief when I heard the front door close. I slowly got up and tripped over a wire, making me realize that my foot was numb from sitting on it for so long. After a few minutes of sitting behind the electric box stand and shaking my foot every so often to get the numb feeling to go away, I slowly got up again, making sure this time I wasn't going to trip over.

I knew it probably wasn't safe to stay at the house, but it had food and blankets and was warm... well, warmer than outside, that's for sure. I also knew that if I went outside and tried to stay safe out there, that the monster might find me or I might wake up in the Dark Dimension.

The thought of losing Will, or worse, El, sent shivers down my spine. However, for some weird reason, the feeling I got whilst being in the Dark Dimension felt worse.

Instead of venturing outside in search of El or Will, who I knew was in the Dark Dimension anyway, I cuddled up on the couch with the blanket I spotted when I first entered the house and watched the electric box in front of me that was still turned on.

Time Skip - 9th November, 5:01 pm

SEVEN'S POV

I haven't been in the Dark Dimension since yesterday. And yeah, I'm calling it the Dark Dimension now.

I've been trying to fall asleep for 3 hours now, but I'm pretty sure there's not much point seeing as it's still light outside. Plus, if I'm asleep there's a higher chance I'll be caught off guard and get caught, so I guess it's not too much of an issue that I can't sleep. However, I would like to find El and possibly even Will.

And then it hit me.

"What if Will has powers too..." I whisper under my breath, thinking about all the possibilities. Just as I was about to sit up from the couch to grab an apple, I heard a car pull up.

Without hesitation, I ran into the nearest bedroom, hiding under a bed.

Not a second after I got comfortable in my hiding spot, I heard the door unlock and a frantic Joyce walked through the door, mumbling something to herself quietly through the other room.

After about 30 minutes of hearing loud banging and crashing in the living room, I heard the front door close and everything went quiet. I decided to wait another 5 minutes just to be safe before getting up from under the bed and slowly creeping out of the bedroom.

I carefully made my way down the dark hall, peering behind a corner to check if anyone was still home. All the lights were off, but I knew that was because I had heard Joyce turn them off on her way out.

After feeling certain that I was the only one in the house, I decided to make my way to the living room only to be met with a breath-taking sight.