bitchin' , ʷⁱˡˡ ᵇʸᵉʳˢ

twenty-one

chapter twenty-one
[ it's not safe! ]

the two adults and the three teenagers all sat in joyce's car, on the way to find where will said hopper was. melissa sat in the middle of the two boys, her leg bouncing up and down, terrified that something happened to her dad.

"im sorry," will mumbled, causing melissa to look over at him, "i'm sorry if i scared you before."

melissa half smiled and grabbed a hold of wills freezing hand, "it's not your fault, will. he will be okay thanks to you."

the two smiled at each other but their little moment of smiling ended when mike wheeler spoke up, "there's nothing. there's nothing here."

he was right. all there was, was grass fields.

"are....are we close?" joyce asked, turning to look at bob.

"we're in vicinity." bob answered, looking at his map.

"what's that mean, the vicinity?"

"it means we're close. i don't know. it's not precise."

"bu-but we did all that work." joyce sighed, referring to when they all tried to measure out the map of wills drawings.

"i told you, scale ratio is not exactly one-to-one. we need to take-" bob started to say, but was cut off by will.

"turn right." he said as he sat up in his seat.

"what?"

"i saw him."

"where?" joyce asked, as she and melissa start looking out the car windows for hopper.

"not here! in my now-memories!" will yelled.

"in your what?" bob looked back at him, having absolutely no idea what the fuck now-memories meant.

"turn right!" will shouted, and joyce did exactly that. she sharply turned right, causing them to hit a school sign, and everyone screamed.

"is everyone okay?" joyce asked everybody as the car came to a complete stop.

"what's jim doing here? joyce?" bob asked, looking right at jim hoppers police car which was parked right in front of them.

"dad!" mel screamed, and opened the car door, crawling over mike and running toward his car, frantically opening the doors of the car, looking in.

"melissa please get back in the car." joyce said, as she and bob approached the crying girl.

she shook her head, sobbing, "he's not here."

"shhh." joyce pulled the girl into a hug while she cried into her chest. bob looked so confused it was sad. he understood why melissa was crying since her father was missing but he didn't understand why he was missing.

"now listen." joyce pulled away from the hug and placed both her hands on melissas face, "i'm going to find him, okay? im going to find him but i need you to be safe because your dad will kill me if you get hurt. so please, go back in the car and protect will for me. can you do that?"

melissas lip trembled as she nodded and walked back over to the car, opening the passenger side door and sitting down.

"he's going to be okay." will reassured her, mike nodding in agreement.

a few minutes passed and melissa couldn't take it anymore. she opened the door, starting to get out, "mel, what are you doing?"

"they're going to die down there, mike. the least we could do is help them." melissa said, shutting the door behind her.

the two boys ended up following melissa out of car and walking up to the drug up hole in the ground, melissa's dad had made.

"do you see anything? i mean, in your now-memories?" mike asked will who shook his head in response.

the three of them then heard the sound of tires screeching from behind them. they all turned around and saw multiple hawkins power and light vans pulling up next to joyce's car.

mike immediately got a flash back from last year when they had ran into the same vans.

the teens watched as a bunch of men dressed in white protective suits climbed out of the vans with a shit load of stuff in their hands and began climbing into the hole. the kids wondered why they went down there and they soon got there answer.

will suddenly grabbed his stomach and fell onto the ground. he was shaking and grunting, obviously in a lot of pain.

"will! are you okay? what's wrong?" mike asked him.

will couldn't answer him though. instead, he flipped onto his back and started shaking more aggressively. it looked like he was having a seizure. his eyes were rolled back and his mouth was wide open while his entire body shook.

melissa and mike backed away in shock and horror as the byers boy continued shaking, "someone help him!" melissa shouted to the men who surrounded wills body, watching in fear.