The love story of Valerie and Eddie

Chapter 7

Mrs. Byers storms in with my dad. He stares at me and gives me a glare and I look away sheepishly. Mrs. Byers speaks. "Hey. Jonathan? Jesus, what...what happened?" One of the cops look at her. "Ma'am..." "I'm fine," Jonathan says to his mum. She looks at the officer. "Why is he wearing handcuffs?" "Well, your boy assaulted a police officer. That's why." "Take them off." "I'm afraid I cannot do that." "Take them off!" Dad looks at the officer. "You heard her. Take 'em off." 

The other officer speaks. "Chief, I get everyone's emotional here, but there's something you need to see." Dad glares at me one more time before leaving with the other two officers. We sit down in an awkward silence as we wait for them to come back. When they come back, they've got the box of supplies we were gonna use to kill the monster. Fuck, I'm screwed. Mrs. Byers looks at the stuff. "What is this?"

"Why don't you ask your son? We found it in his car." "Why are you going through my car?" "Is that really the question you should be asking right now? I wanna see you in my office." "You won't believe me." "Why don't you give me a try?" We go to Hopper's office together and we show them the picture of the thing. We explain everything that happened to us. He looks at me and I can tell he's upset. 

"You say blood draws this thing?" Jonathan answers. "We don't know." "You say blood draws this thing?" Jonathan looks at them. "We don't know." "It's just a theory," Nancy adds in. Jonathan and Mrs. go outside to speak and Dad pulls me to the corner of his office. "What were you thinking?" "I'm sorry, Dad. I just wanted to help." He sighs. "Val, I can't lose you too." "I know. I'm sorry." "What would've happened? If this thing came and took you, Nancy, and Jonathan. Or if this thing killed you?"

I look down. "Sweetie, you are currently the only source of my happiness. Without you, I would never have gotten better." I nod. "I'm sorry." I hug him and he puts his chin on top of my head. Suddenly shouting is heard. I flinch at the sound and Dad groans. "I'm gonna go deal with that." I chuckle. "Have fun." Dad comes back in after a few minutes and tells us we need to go. I sit between Nancy and Jonathan in the car and we end up at Nancy's house. 

There's a bunch of people walking in and out of her house. Like government agents. Nancy steps out of the car. "I have to go home." Hopper shakes his head. "No you can't." "My mom....my dad are there." "They're gonna be okay." I step out the car grabbing Nancy's hand. She starts to walks away and I try to stop her but apparently I'm not strong enough so Dad steps in grabbing her. "The last thing in the world we need is them knowing you're mixed up in all of this." "Mike is over there--" Dad shakes his head before pointing to the sky.

"They haven't found him. Not yet, at least." I look and there's a fucking helicopter. Jesus, this kid has gotten himself into some trouble. I drag Nancy back to car. Dad turns to her. "Look, we need to find them before they do. Do you have any idea where he might have gone?" "No, I don't." "I need you to think." "I don't know. We haven't talked a lot. I mean, lately..." She sighs. "Is there any place that your... your parents don't know about that he might go?" She looks at Mrs. Byers. "I don't know." 

"I might." We look at Jonathan confused. "What?" "I don't know where he is, but I think I know how to ask him." He tells us to go his house and Dad speeds off. On the way, Jonathan explains to us that the boys use walkie talkies to communicate so if we use Will's, we'll probably be able to reach the others. We get to their house and go to Will's room to look for his walkie. While we're walking through the living room, I notice what a mess it is. My eyes widen but I don't comment. Mrs. Byers finds the walkie and hands it to Nancy.

"Mike, are you there? Mike? Mike, it's me, Nancy. Mike, are you there? Answer. Mike, we need you to answer. This is an emergency, Mike. Do you copy? Mike, do you copy? I need you to answer. We need to know that you're there, Mike." Dad grabs the walkie from Nancy's hand. "Listen, kid, this is the chief. If you're there, pick up. We know you're in trouble and we know about the girl. We can protect you, we can help you, but you gotta pick up. Are you there? Do you copy? Over." 

When there's no answer he sighs and puts down the walkie. "Anybody got any other ideas?" Suddenly we hear Mike's voice. "Yeah, I copy. It's Mike. I'm here. We're here." We all sigh in relief. He tells us their location. Dad goes to pick them up and we sit in the living room anxiously waiting for them to arrive. Finally we hear the sound of a car. 

 They're here and Nancy is out of the door quicker than anyone hugging Mike and telling him how worried she was. He tells her awkwardly that he was worried too. I think it's cute how awkward they are around each other.  We go inside and sit as the kids explain about the acrobat and the flea and the gate and stuff. Suddenly Dad pipes in. "Is this gate underground by a large water tank?" Eleven nods. "Yes." One of the boys whose name I don't know look at him confused. "How do you know all that?" But Mike answers before he does. "Because he's seen it."

I look at him confused and my eyes widen. "That's why you tried to shoot me." Everyone looks at me with both confusion and concern. Dad sighs. "Don't say it like that. I thought you were the bad government that got me unconscious and bugged our house. Plus, I didn't pull the trigger." "Cause that makes it better." Ms Byers interrupts us. "Is there any way you can talk to my Will in this alternate dimension?" Eleven gives her a nod. Nancy pipes up as well. "And what about Barbara can you find her?" 

Eleven gives another nod and we give El a photo of Barbara and Will and turn the radio until it's just static. We watch as she closes her eyes concentrating really hard. Then she opens her eyes and looks straight at us. "I'm sorry." "What's wrong El?" She sighs. "I can't find either of them." She walks out. I watch after her concerned. Ms. Byers puts her head in her hands. Mike and the boys explain about her powers. Then suddenly El comes in and says quietly, "The bath, I can find them in the bath." I look at her confused but the boys seem to have gotten what she means and they make a plan to get a kid named Dustin on the phone to talk to Mr. Clarke, their middle school science teacher. Something about a sensory deprivation tank.

We're watching Dustin as he speaks on the phone. Suddenly he starts yelling and soon he's writing ingredients on what to get. When he's done he looks at Ms Byers. "Do you still have that kiddie pool we bobbed for apples in?" Ms. Byers looks at him confused. "Um yeah, I think so." He smiles. "Perfect and we're gonna need a shit ton of salt." "How much is that?" "1500 pounds." We all look at him shocked. "Where are we gonna get that?" Dad gets an idea and tells us to all meet at the middle school.

We get to the school and we all split up. Nancy and Mike go get hoses, Hopper and Jonathan go get salt, and Eleven and Mrs. Byers go get her ready for her dunk. I stay with Dustin and the other kid whose name I found out was Lucas. We set up the pool together. They're whispering to each other and suddenly Lucas speaks up. "Dustin thinks you're hot." I look at him and Dustin whacks Lucas looking betrayed. I chuckle. 

"Thank you." He smiles and we continue to set up the pool. It's harder than it looks but by the time the others walk in, we have it up. We put water and salt in the pool and test if it's working with an egg. When the egg finally stays afloat, we know it's working. Eleven walks in and Mrs. Byers helps her get ready. She hands Mike his watch before grabbing the goggles and getting into the water. I kneel beside Nancy as Eleven lays on her back floating on the water. There are a few minutes of silence then she quietly says "Barbara." Nancy's head rises up quickly as she waits to hear what El will say next. "Gone!"

I hug Nancy as tears spring to her eyes. El starts panicking and Mrs. Byers and Dad grab one of her hands each. Mrs. Byers whispers comforting words until El calms down. Then she says quietly "Castle Byers." I gasp quietly. Then she says "Will," and I can feel the tension in the room. "Tell my baby I'm coming for him." We hear the radio turning and Will's voice comes out. "Hurry." Then all of a sudden El rises up crying. Mrs. Byers hugs her and tells her it's okay. 

Dad and Ms Byers leave but Dad tries to shake her off. He tells her he might not make it and that makes my heart break. She tells him she's going anyway because he's her son. He sighs and she goes up to Jonathan. I look at Dad. "Try not to die, please." He nods. "I'll do my best." I kiss his cheek and they both go to car before driving off. I walk with Jonathan and we find Nancy sitting on the floor outside the gym. We sit on either side of her quietly. 

"We have to go back to the station." We both look at Nancy. "What?" "Your parents 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." Jonathan looks at both of us. "You still wanna try it out." "I wanna finish what we started. I want to kill it." I nod with Nancy. We need to kill this monster.  We leave and Jonathan and Nancy sneak into the station and I sit in the car in case we need a quick getaway. I feel bad for leaving the kids behind but at least they're safe at the school.