𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐂𝐔𝐄! ✽ 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗼𝗻

46

𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐀𝐍 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐇𝐎𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐑 as he burst from this shed into the night. steve jumped away from the entrance. as the red-haired girl followed behind, steve nabbed her wrist and began to walk towards the house with her. "what happened? are you okay?" he rushed out. his eyes flew up and down her body, examining her to insure that she was, in fact, all right.

"i think hopper might have some sort of break in the case," she explained, avoiding her best friend's latter inquiry. they all tramped up the steps and into the dining room. jim nabbed a nearby pen and an opened envelope. the man plopped down at the dining room table and began to illustrate a series of dots and lines on the back of the letter.

"what happened?" dustin demanded, just as steve had done moments ago. his voice was filled with a sense of urgency. everyone that was in the house had all crowded around the table.

hopper sighed, continuing writing. "i think he's talking, just not with words."

"what is that?" steve asked.

"morse code," all the boys replied in unison. sheridan wasn't sure what she was thinking it was, but it wasn't that.

"h-e-r-e," hopper muttered as he wrote out the letters.

"here," the four stated simultaneously, yet again. joyce glanced at her two children that were in their home. sherrie turned around and her eyes met steve's. they didn't need words to communicate with each other at this point in their friendship. with a simple look, they had mutually understood that will was somewhere in there. he was mirroring the pair in finding his own way to make contact minus words.

"will's still in there. he's talking to us," hopper confirmed. through the swarming cloud of stillness, a plan had developed and hatched in jonathan's mind. he ran from the room, down the hallway towards his bedroom. the middle byers sibling came back in with a boom box, and a tape. dani recognized it instantly as one of will's favorites. the pair nodded their heads; they knew what they had to do.

together, they headed out to the shed, with their mother, mike, and hopper tagging along. steve waited inside with everyone else, his body slowly conforming to the anxiety. jonathan set the stereo down, slid the tape inside, and pressed play. sheridan nodded her head along to the guitar lick at the beginning of the song. jonathan knelt in front of will again, with her standing just behind his shoulder. "do you remember the first time i played you this?" jonathan asked him.

sherrie smacked his shoulder and scoffed. "well if we wanna get technical, i showed will this tape because you stole it from my room."

"whatever!" he huffed, will's eyes glaring back at him. "when i played this for you, mom and dad were both arguing in the next room. and it was the first time you got into music. real music." as jonathan's anecdote had come to a close, will's fingers had begun to tap against the chair's leg. with the walkie talkie behind his back, hopper pressed the button with each strike. inside, dustin and the rest of the gang decoded will's message.

"o-or the first time i showed you david bowie," dani cut in. "and aerosmith and pink floyd and the beatles and all those guys. every day, you'd come home from school and beg to look through my records and let you listen to a few. and you made me make tapes for the drives to school."