~ Hidden Love ~

CH8 - The Mind Flayer [PT2]

"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore." Max asked him. "That he's a spy for the mind flayer now."

"Yeah, but he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is." Mike said as Hopper thought of an idea to cover all of the shed in the backyard up so he doesn't recognize it. And to question him. Hopper threw all of the things out of the shed into the yard. I was helping Nancy and Steve staple up a tarp to the walls. I've never felt so awkward before.

"Hey," She said, getting our attention. "What you both did, um, helping the kids.. that was.. really cool."

"Yeah, those little shits are real trouble, you know? I would have become Demo-dog food if  Y/n wasn't there, though." He said as he continued to staple up the cloth. And now it's awkward again. After doing that, I placed duct-tape wherever it was needed. As we finished the room, Jonathan carried Will out and tied him to a chair with a pole. We set up lights and another chair so whoever is interrogating him, can sit. I stood there, next to Mom. My heart was racing, beating out of my chest almost. Hopper poured this cleaner onto a cotton ball and put it to Will's nose to wake him. Will shot up, gasping. It took him a few moments to take in his surroundings.

"What? What? What is this?" Will asked as he tried to move. "What-what is this? Why am I tied up?" He asked again as Mom walked over to him.

"Will, we just wanna talk to you. We're not gonna hurt you." She told him.

"Where am I?" He asked as Hopper stepped to his level.

"You recognize this?" Hopper asked him as he showed him his drawing of the mind flayer. "Do you recognize this?" He asked louder as Will shook his head no.

"Hey." Mom started. "We wanna help you. But to do that, we have to understand how to kill it." She said softly as Will yelled at her.

"Why am I tied up?" He shouted. "Why am I tied up? Why am I tied up? Why am I tied up?" He kept shouting and he kept trying to move. "Let me go!" He started shouting as the lights started flickering. He finally calmed down. Mom got up and sat in the chair across from him.

"Do you know what March 22nd is?" She asked him. "It's your birthday. Your birthday. When you turned eight, I gave you that huge box of crayons. Do you remember that? It was 120 colors. And all your friends, they got you Star Wars toys, but all you wanted to do was draw with all your new colors. And you drew this big spaceship, but it wasn't from a movie. It was your spaceship. A rainbow ship is what you called it. And you must have used every color in the box. I took that with me to Melvald's and I put it up and told everyone who came in, 'My son drew this.' And you were so embarrassed. But I was so proud. I was so, so proud." Mom said to him as Jonathan reminded him about the day dad left. After Jonathan finished reminding him about Lonnie, I reminded him about then we went to watch 'Poltergeist' at the theatre.

"Do you remember the day when Mom finally let me buy the tickets for me and you to go see 'Poltergeist'? I barely remember how many times you asked her, but it was a lot, I know. I remember on the way to the theatre, you couldn't stop talking about how excited you were. While we were watching the movie, you kept hiding your eyes behind your hands, and everytime I saw, I would make you remove them so you would be scared with me. You promised you wouldn't have nightmares, but you made me sit in your bedroom until you fell asleep. It took you like 30 minutes to fall asleep, but I didn't mind it. That was one of my favorite days ever, nothing could ever replace it, Will." I told him as my eyes teared up. Then, Mike reminded him about the time they first met. After he finished telling him, Mom got his attention.

"Will, baby.. if you're in there, just please.. please talk to us. Please, honey, please, can you do that for me? Please. I love you so much." Mom begged as Will's face changed to sad, back to neutral.

"Let me go." He told us as we all sighed. Hopper pulled us back inside to tell us something.

"What happened?" Dustin asked Hopper.

"I think he's talking, just not with words." He said as he wrote out this line of dots and dashes.

"Morse code?" I asked him as he translated it into words under it.

"H - E - R - E" He spelled out.

"Here." All the boys said in unison.

"Will's still in there. He's talking to us." Hopper said. "Do any of you know morse code?" He asked.

"Yeah. I know it." I told him as he handed me a radio, and handed Nancy a notepad. He told us about the plan. They're gonna continue bringing back his memories as Hopper sends a 'dots and dashes' through the radio for us to translate it. I agreed and I sat down at the table with the radio beside me. All the kids sat down next to me. Dustin said what the radio was sending over, I translated it, and Nancy wrote it down.

"Dash, dot, dash, dot." He said.

"It's 'C'" I said as Nancy wrote it down. We continued doing that until we got what he was saying.

"Close gate?" Nancy said them as they all looked at Nancy's page. Suddenly the phone rang. I shot up and took it off and placed it back. We stood there for a couple seconds before it rang again. I grabbed the whole phone, ripped it off of the wall and threw it onto the ground.

"Do you think he heard that?" Max asked us.

"It's just a phone. I could be anywhere. Right?" Steve said. I sighed as we all heard growling.

"Guess we know now." I said to Steve. Hopper and them all rushed inside. We all were in the living room now as Hopper held up our old gun.

"Do you know how to use this?" He asked Jonathan.

"What?" He asked back.

"Can you use this?" He shouted at Jonathan. Nancy butted in.

"I can." She said to him as he threw her the gun. I took a few steps back, to move further away from the window and Steve moved in front of me with the bat. We heard lots more screeching.

"Where are they?" Max asked out loud. Then, we heard growling from the right side of the house. We all turned towards it.

"What are they doing?" Nancy asked as I moved closer to Steve. We heard more growling coming from the spot before, and we all turned back to it. The monster started making weird noises while we stood there. Then, the noises stopped, just as a demo-dog came flying through the window. Everyone started screaming as I grabbed onto Steve's arm. The dog didn't move from the spot it landed at.

"Is it alive?" I asked out loud as Hopper moved towards it. I noticed how close I was to Steve and I moved a bit.

"Holy shit." Dustin said.

"Is it dead?" Max asked also as Hopper walked to it and touched the dog. It didn't move. Then, we heard creaking coming from the door. It unlocked from the inside.

"Wait.." I told Steve quietly as the door creaked open. "Eleven?" I said as an edgy looking Eleven walked through the door. Mike walked up to her and smiled.

(1328 Words)

> END OF CHAPTER 8 <