Jailbird || Stranger Things

fifty ➵ desperate times

"I didn't think it was anything at first," Will spoke, the party now reunited in the Wheeler basement. Or rather, as Reese would call it, the Baxter Basement. "I mean, I think I just didn't want to believe it," he looked up, meeting the eyes of his friends, "The first time I felt it was at Day of the Dead."

    "Power went out that night, too," said Mike.

    If only they knew about Teresa's reaction to that power outage...

    "And then I felt it again at the field near the Nelson farm the next day. Then again yesterday outside Castle Byers."

    "What does it feel like?" Max asked, confusion setting in, although she couldn't help but recognise some of these descriptions.

    "It's almost like—You know when you drop on a roller coaster?"

    "Sure."

    "Yeah."

    "No."

    The group looked to El, though the tension was significantly more broken after her honest admittance.

    "It's like everything inside your body is just sinking all at once," Will helped her out. "But... This is worse. Your body—it goes cold and and you can't breathe," he turned back, staring at his hands in front of him, "I've felt it before, whenever he was close."

    "Whenever who was close?"

    "The Mind Flayer."

    "I closed the gate," El shook her head, confused by the turn of events.

    "I know, but...what if he never left? What if we locked him out here with us?"

    He could tell at least the girls weren't really on board yet, so Will Byers did what he believed he was best at.

    "This is him. All of him," he drew with charcoal on a spare piece of paper. "But, that day on the field, a part of him attached itself to me," he explained, drawing in the legs, then pulling his hand over the drawing, leaving his hand black, "My mom got it out of me, and Eleven closed the gate," he turned the sheet around. "But the part that was still in me, what if it's still in our world?" he left his black handprint on the paper. "In Hawkins."

    "But Reese—" El cut off, furrowing her eyebrows. "She would have nightmares."

    "How do you know she hasn't?" Lucas asked, making both girls look at him with vicious intent which in turn made him raise arms in defense. "Okay, she hasn't."

    "I don't understand. The Demodogs died when El closed the gate," Max shook her head, watching Will for an answer as she tried to ignore the annoyance Lucas inspired in her. "If the brain dies, the body dies," she recited.

    "We can't take any chances," Mike replied, "We need to assume the worst. The Mind Flayer's back."

    "Yeah. And if he is, he'd want to attach himself to someone again. A new me. A new host."

    The girls shared a look, their visit to the Holloway house and Teresa's insistence that it must not have been the same Billy she knew inside.

    "How can you tell if someone is a host?"

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Having figured out where exactly Jim had seen the motorcyclist before, the top team of the cynic and the hopeful parents of the kids targeted the mayor. For once, Jim Hopper was about to take a leaf out of his daughter's book.