suıʞʍɐɥ oʇ ǝɯoɔlǝʍ sƃuıɥʇ ɹǝƃuɐɹʇs

Chapter Seven: Continued

pǝnuıʇuoɔ
uǝʌǝs ɹǝʇdɐɥɔ

After Dustin hung up with Mr. Clark, he pointed at Joyce, "Do you still have that kiddie pool we bobbed for apples in?" He asked. "I think so. Yeah. Yeah," she said. "Good. Then we just need salt. Lots of it," he said. "How much is "lots"?" Hopper asked. Dustin looked down at the notepad and looked back up at us. "Fifteen-hundred pounds," he said. "Fifteen-hundred pounds!Well, where the hell are we gonna get that much salt?" I asked.

We were now pulling up in front of the Middle School. They had bags of rock salt for when it snowed that we could use. We all had jobs to do. Gather the salt, gather hoses, set up the pool in the gym. Joyce was with Eleven making her blacked out goggles. We had to fill the pool with warm water and salt so El could float on top of the water. We turned the radio on a channel that was just static and she got into the pool. The lights flickered and went off.

We stood and knelt beside the pool and stayed silent. "Barb? Barbara?" Eleven said quickly. The lights flickered and Nancy looked at Mike, "What's going on?" She asked. "I don't know," he said. "Is Barb okay? Is she okay?" Nancy asked El. "Gone! Gone! Gone! Gone! Gone! Gone. Gone. Gone," Eleven started to repeat. Joyce grabbed her hand, "It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. Hey. It's okay. It's okay, we're right here. We're right here, honey. It's okay. I got you. Don't be afraid. I'm right here with you. I'm right here with you. It's okay, you're safe. You're okay, honey," she told her.

Eleven's breathing evened out as she calmed down. "Castle Byers. Castle Byers," she said. We looked around at each other. Will had a fort he had built out in the woods that he named Castle Byers. He would go there to get away when things became too much and he wanted to be alone. "Will?" Eleven said. Joyce gasped, "You... you tell him... tell him I'm coming.
Mom is coming," she said.

"Hurry," my head snapped over to the radio as did everyone else's when his voice came through. She had found him and he was alive but it sounded like he didn't have much time. "Okay. Listen, you tell him to... to stay where he is. We're coming. We're coming, okay? We're coming, honey."

Dustin and Lucas gasped and fell back when Eleven jolted forward and pulled the goggles off. She was breathing heaven and Joyce wrapped her arms around her to comfort her. "Oh, okay, okay. I've got you. It's okay. I got you. I got you. I got you, honey. You did so good. Are you okay?" She asked, holding on to her. We helped her out and the boys wrapped towels around her, helping her to the bleachers.

Me and Nancy were sitting on the floor, backs against the wall outside the gym. Joyce and Hopper went to go and find Will in the upside down. Jonathan came back inside and sat on the other side of Nancy. "We have to go back to the station," Nancy said. Me and Jonathan looked at each other then at Nancy. "What?" Jonathan asked. "Your mom and Hopper are just walking in there like bait. That thing is still in there. And we can't just sit here and let it get them, too. We can't," she said.

They had explained their plan to me earlier about trapping this monster. "You still wanna try it out?" Jonathan asked. "I wanna finish what we started. I want to kill it," she told us.

uʍop ǝpısdn ǝɥʇ: ʇɥƃıǝ ɹǝʇdɐɥɔ

We nodded and stood up. I stopped at the doors and looked back, "what about the kids?" I asked. "They'll be fine. Come on," Nancy said. I sighed, pulled my keys out of my pocket and got in my car. I followed Jonathan to the police station so we could get the box of stuff he and Nancy got to trap the monster. It was still in Hoppers office so we would need to sneak in and get it. Nancy and I stood watch while Jonathan sneaked down the all and grabbed the box. On our way out Nancy grabbed the fire extinguisher off the wall and we quickly got back in our cars and headed to the Byers house.

As soon as we got inside we looked around before we started putting the bulbs back into the Christmas lights. After that we set up the traps. Jonathan nailed the bear traps to the floor in the hallway. I took my bat and Nancy's bat and started pounding nails into them. I added some barbed wire I had found to mine, wrapping it in between the nails. Nancy poured a line of gasoline from the bear traps to spot we marked off, we didn't want to set the whole house on fire. Nancy and I helped Jonathan open and lock the bear traps and then set the yo-yo up. The only thing that needed to be done was the blood.

We stood in a circle, a knife in each of our dominant hands, our other hand palm up. "Remember..." Jonathan said, looking at us. "Straight into Will's room. And—" Nancy started. "Don't step on the trap," I said. "Wait for the yo-yo to move," Nancy said. "Then..." Jonathan flicked on the lighter. All right. You ready?" He asked us. "Ready," we said in unison. "On three. One... two... You don't have to do this—"Jonathan said, looking at us. "Jonathan, stop talking," Nancy said. I'm just saying, you don't have to—" I looked at Nancy, "Three," I said and we closed our hands around the blade of our knives then pulled back with a hiss.

We went around and let our blood drip onto the floor so the demogorgon or whatever the hell this thing was would follow it into our trap. I wrapped my hand up and helped Nancy with hers. "Thank you," she whispered and I nodded. I stood up and pushed Jonathan down on the couch. "Nancy will patch you up," I said. She gently took his hand and started to clean the cut and slowly wrap it. I was pacing back and forth when we heard a small noise.

"Did you hear that?" Nancy asked. I stopped pacing and we listened for a couple minutes. "It's just the wind," Jonathan said. Nancy went back to wrapping his hand. "Don't worry.
My mom, she said the lights speak when it comes," he told her. "Speak?" She asked. "Blink. Think of them as alarms," he said. "Is that too tight?" She asked him, finishing off the bandage. "No, it's fine. Thanks. Nancy?" He asked. "Yeah?" Before he could say anything more there was a loud banding on the door.