𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐂𝐔𝐄! ✽ 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗼𝗻

14

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐘𝐄𝐑𝐒' 𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐖𝐀𝐘 rumbled underneath betsy. dani placed her sunglasses on her head and noticed flickering colored lights beaming through the living room window. well, through the parts of the window that weren't covered in newspaper clippings. a hollow sigh slipped through sheridan's lips.

the girl slammed her car door shut and trudged into the house. she shut the front door behind her, noticing her mother, crying in a cabinet with a glowing ball of christmas lights in her hand. "... mom?" dani asked, confusion intertwined in her voice. the woman jumped at the sudden sound of her daughter.

"sheridan, come here, it's your brother!" the woman insisted. "it's will, he's talking to me!" the lights lit up once, then off, then once again; almost as if they were on command. dani's mouth fell open and her brows dipped. she gently set her bag on the floor and neared the cabinet hesitantly.

"okay, that was weird." sherrie sat on the floor next to joyce, who explained that one blink meant "yes" and two was "no". the lights lit up once. "even weirder," the ginger-haired girl responded.

"baby, i have to know..." joyce began, the tears keeping their steady flow. "are you alive?" dani's eyes widened at the abrupt question.

the ball lit up once, casting a white glow onto joyce and sherrie's faces.

tears lined the bottom of sheridan's eyes. she thought her mom was crazy; and after last night, she thought she was crazy, too. even she didn't buy the story her mom was trying to sell. will was gone; but he's talking through the lights? might as well go crazy together, right?

"are you safe?"

two times.

✽

𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐀𝐍 𝐖𝐈𝐏𝐄𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒 down the front of her old p.e. t-shirt and plaid green pajama pants and took a step back to view her and her mother's masterpiece. joyce had hung up more christmas lights on the wall in the living room, cracked open a can of black house paint, and enlisted the artistic skills of her daughter. the girl made a oujia board of some sort, painting the letters of the alphabet under a light for will to light up in attempts to communicate.

she hadn't touched paint since her father died. despite the circumstances, the process was liberating, in a way.

just as the two had finished up, the sounds of sirens approached. a confused look fell over dani's face as she turned around to peek out the window. surely enough, they were headed that way.

sheridan swung the front door open and ran to the porch, watching as multiple police cars and an ambulance flew past their house, blowing away the leaves that graced their path. will.

pushing past her mother, she grabbed her keys from the end table and began running towards her car, after slipping on a pair of sneakers. "where are you going?!" joyce asked, hollering over the noise.

"to follow that ambulance!" sherrie answered before slamming the door shut. joyce did not follow behind her.

dani started betsy up and didn't even bother to buckle herself, screeching out of the driveway instantly. without looking left or right, the ginger-haired girl turned onto the main road in attempt to catch up with the emergency vehicles. she failed to notice that her speed neared 75 miles per hour. and unbeknownst to her, a familiar car drove closely behind her.

once the police had turned down an old dirt road, sherrie knew exactly where they were headed, and it flipped her stomach completely. her skin flushed of any color at all, and her mouth felt as though she hadn't had a drink of water in ten years.

she stopped betsy at the edge of the gravel which led to the quarry. the tires wailed upon her harsh stop, sherrie exiting the car without even shutting it off. the police stood watch at the water in silence. the air was thick with the unspoken truth, and it became clear to dani that her gut was right.

sheridan sauntered towards the water, the shore being barely visible past chief hopper's tall figure. the shaffer girl watched as a gurney floated into the quarry and a limp, lifeless body lie on top of it. dani knew that vest, and that button-up, and that haircut. her hand found itself over her mouth, silencing her cries and her heaving breaths. her heart retched at the sight of her youngest brother being brought up to land.

"sherrie..." a voice gently called behind her. she turned around, tears already spilling in droves down her cheeks. she was shivering, both from the cold air and as a natural reaction to the tragedy.

steve harrington peeled his hawkins hoodie off of his body, and draped it over the girl's figure. she set her face free of her hands, wriggling her arms into the sleeves. she bundled up the cuffs to cover her hands and cried into them, steve wrapping his arms around her. sheridan sobbed like she never had before. she cried with what seemed like no end.

"he's gone," dani whimpered, her voice cracking. "he's gone, he's really gone," she repeated. steve shushed the girl and ran his hand up and down her back, just as it did earlier in the day. sherrie hugged steve back and buried her face into his chest. steve never knew somebody could hug that hard. sherrie wasn't sure why steve was there in that exact moment, but she was glad he was.

in the distance, mike, lucas, and dustin noticed the pair in their embrace; it made this awful situation 1,000,000 times worse. "dani and steve 'the hair' harrington?" lucas questioned quietly. "isn't he, like... going out with nancy?"

"dani and the hair? sounds like a good band name."

"not the time, dustin."

✽