𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘴 ~ (ᴍɪᴋᴇ ᴡʜᴇᴇʟᴇʀ)

.12.

Five didn't stop running until her legs gave up on her. She felt stupid, she hated herself for doing that - she didn't even know why she did it. The inconsolable girl collapsed against a tree, letting the bark burn through her back.

"Monster, monster, monster," She screamed into her hands, forcing a powerful wind to push her surroundings.

"Why? Why?" Five squeezed her eyes shut and hit her head against the rough tree but fell through it when she tried a second time - the tree became nothing but ash that covered her body, and the birds that once nested in it came tumbling to the ground - the eggs breaking instantly. "Monster..."

-

"Look we gotta go through this again," Joyce implored Hopper after he had told her that Will was, in fact still alive.

"I told you everything I saw," He sighed, taking another puff of his cigarette.

"Tell me again," She insisted.

"Upstairs or downstairs?"

"Upstairs."

"There was a laboratory," He repeated, "It was where they must do their experiments or something, and then..." He paused, inhaling deeply, "There was a kids room."

"How do you know it was a kids room?" She impelled.

"More like a prison," He amended.

"Why would you think it was a kids room, then?" Joyce stressed, inhaling the stale smoke.

"Because, I told you, the size of the bed, there was a drawing, there was a stuffed animal-"

"You didn't say there was a drawing," Joyce interrupted.

"Yeah, there was a drawing of a... kid, an adult and a..." Hopper stopped for a moment. "And?" "I don't know... some sort of bunny or something," He shrugged, tapping some of the ash onto the table, "It was wearing a police badge and a hat. It said 'Five' on it."

"Was it good?" She pressed.

"It was a kids drawing, Joyce. It was stick figures."

Then, Joyce stood up, smiling, and slammed one of Will's drawings on the table, "Wasn't Will."

Hopper's eyes widened, "The night Benny died, Earl said he saw two kids - one with their head shaved, the other not." He continued speaking as he moved into the living room, "Now I pressed him, he said it might be Will, but maybe..."

"Wait... Maybe it wasn't?" Joyce gaped.

"Look... this woman, Terry Ives. She claims to have lost her daughter, Jane. She sued the government but while the claims came up with nothing, maybe... one of these kids are hers."

"B-but what about the other?" Joyce asked, concerned as Hopper sank into the couch his hand coming to his face.

"I didn't want to mention it but..."

"But?" She urged, impatiently.

"But," He sighed, "I-I think I met the other."

"You what?" Joyce gasped, "You met one and said nothing?"

"Well, I didn't exactly meet her, Joyce," He rubbed his neck, earning a puzzled look from the woman next to him, "I heard her, alright?"

"Heard her?" She scoffed, "What the hell does that mean?"

Hopper sat up and turned to her, "Yesterday, at the morgue, when you and Johnathan left, some kid called out to me. She sounded scared but I couldn't see her - and she didn't know why I could hear her. But when she heard my name, Joyce, she knew me."

Jim stood up and walked into the corner, "She... I think-"

"You think what, Hop?"

"I think she might've been my daughter."

"What?" Joyce whispered, afraid she might've heard him wrong, "But, Hopper, she's..."

"Dead?" He finished forcefully, "I know that Joyce, but that was her voice. A-and that picture..."

"What about the picture?" She questioned standing up, taking a few steps towards him.

"When she was young, we used to play this game - 'detective rabbits'. We were partners, you know? But she called it that because she couldn't get over that our name was Hopper - so she made a game out of it," He tensed thinking back to that time, "I think that drawing-"

"Was of you," Joyce finished for him, her hand coming over her mouth.

"I know it's insane, Joyce, but you see it too, right? I-I think Sarah's back somehow," Hopper welled up.

"I think she's coming back to me."