Brave Like You (Steve Harrington)

Six.

Us older kids helped get the shed in the backyard ready. We were going to confuse Will and try to get some information out of him. Nancy seemed to have an attitude change towards Steve at least. She told him that what he did for the kids was really cool.

I tried my best not to roll my eyes at her. I didn't want to argue again. I had to keep my Munson Temper in check. I wanted to tell her off, ask her where the hell she was that Dustin's last resort was Steve. Steve was owed at least that much.

We waited in the house anxiously. Hopper stood as guard while Mrs. Byers, Jonathan, and Mike all took turns asking Will questions. Steve was swinging his bat around, taking practice swings. Dustin came and sat next to me on the couch. "You alright, kid?" I ask, after seeing the look on his face.

"I'm just scared for Will I guess," He admits.

"We all are," I confess, "I don't even know Will and I am scared for him. This is all so scary. I've had to take in so much information today, but I believe we're all overwhelmed."

"How did you not hear us making all that noise at the junkyard?" Steve asks, looking at me now.

"I'm a very heavy sleeper," I say, shrugging. "I used to sleep through my parents arguing and then loud parties going on outside of the bedrooms and a lot of other fucked up shit. I learned to adapt, I guess, with the childhood that I had." I looked at Dustin then and I continued my story, "My brother Eddie, on the other hand, is such a light sleeper. He says it was because he was watching out for me. There were nights he wouldn't sleep at all because our dad left us somewhere sketchy at a party or something and he wanted to make sure I was safe."

"Is that why your Uncle took you two in?" Steve asked, but I knew he knew the answer.

I nodded, "Yeah, he saved us both."

They all came back then, and Hopper wrote a series of dots and dashes on a piece of paper. "What is that?" Steve asked as he peered over the Chief's shoulder. 

"Morse Code," I told him, "Will is communicating to them."

Hopper wrote out H-E-R-E in Morse Code on the paper. They decided to take it up a notch. Jonathan got his boombox out and blasted Will's favorite song at him in the shed. Hopper used a walkie to relay speaker taps in Morse Code to us back in the house, and Dustin is our translator. After a while, we got C-L-O-S-E G-A-T-E.

Just as we got the message, the telephone rang. Dustin was quick to make it stop. He grabbed the receiver and hung it up just as fast. It rang again, and Nancy ripped the phone out of the wall and threw it on the ground.

We heard a sound, like the one in the woods, and at the junkyard. It was those Demo-dogs. Will heard the phone, and the Mind Flayer had to have taken over and called those dogs to us. They all entered the house again. Hopper called out for us to get back from the window.

Hopper handed a hunting rifle out to Jonathan, asking him if he knew how to use it, but he didn't. Jonathan was stunned, but it was obvious that he couldn't.

"I can," Nancy said, confidence radiating off of her.

Hopped nodded, and he handed her the weapon with no questions asked. She stood in the front, ready to shoot if she needed to. Steve held his bat up, ready to strike, and even Lucas had his slingshot ready to go as well.

The door opened one it own, and we all prepared for the Demo-dogs to attack, but instead a young girl entered the Byers's house. Everyone lowered their weapons. Mike steps towards her, and my questions about who she was when Mike whispered, "Eleven," to her and they hugged.

"Mike," she whispers back as they hug.

"I never gave up on you," Mike told her, his tone was so much nicer and happier now that she was here. "I called you every night for -"