cardigan𓏲

the body pt 1

rory arrived back home in hysterics. her body shook with tears and her eyes were red and puffy. she had snot dripping from her nose and all over the sleeve of her jumper.

her mother stared blankly at the wall as chief jim hopper talked to her, "a trooper found something in the, uh, water that's at the quarry. our working theory right now is that, will crashed his bike, he... made his way over to the quarry and, uh... accidentally fell in. the earth must've given way."

joyce didn't respond, her face pale like a ghost, her mouth moving slightly as if she wanted to say something.

"joyce?" hopper asked, to no answer. "joyce? do you understand what i'm saying?"

"no," joyce breathed out, shaking her head."whoever you found... is not my boy." her voice trembled, refusing to believe.

"joyce."

"no you don't understand," she interrupted, shakily. "i talked to him...a half hour ago, he was- he was here, he was talking with these."

joyce walked over to the small storage cupboard and pulled out another bundle of christmas lights.

"talking?" hopper inquired.

"uh huh, one blink for yes, two for no," she shook the lights. rory watched from the doorway, tears still gushing from her eyes. "and then i made this so he could talk to me." she pointed at the sloppy painted letters.

"cause he was hiding," she continued. from that... that thing."

"the thing that came out of the wall? the thing that chased you?" hopped asked.

"yeah."

"mom, come on, please," jonathan said, stepping out from behind the police officer. rory walked over and stood next to jonathan. "you've gotta stop this."

"it's after him!" she said, grabbing on to jonathan's arms."he's in danger! we have to find him!"

"what exactly was this thing?" hopped asked, slowly." some kind of animal you said?"

"uh, no, it was," joyce stumbled over her words, moving her hands up to her head.
"it- it was almost human... but it wasn't, it... these long arms and didn't have a face."

jonathan choked on a sob and walked away, retreating to the comfort of his room.

"it didn't have a face?" hopper asked.

rory pieced together what her mom was saying and what eleven had said.

"the demogorgon." she said quietly.

"what?" hopper asked, now turning to her.

"the-the demogorgon, it's a monster in dnd but-"

hopper turned back to joyce and led her to the couch, telling her about grief and how she needed to go to the morgue and see the body for herself. rory left to will's room, shuffling through all the drawings he had made and through the tapes jonathan had given to him.

she lay in his bed, and wrapped herself in his blanket, his scent still faintly resting on the fabric.

she returned to her room, eleven resting on the blankets by rory's bed, fiddling with the static on rory's walkie talkie.

rory moved towards her bed and lay down.

"can you please stop that?" she said, motioning with her hand to the static radio. the radio switched off.

but as soon as rory turned away, the crackling resumed.

"are you deaf? i thought we were friends, you know? but friends tell eachother the truth and the definitely don't lie to each other. you made me think that will was okay, that he was still out there but he wasn't. he wasn't," rory sobbed."maybe you thought you were helping but you weren't. you hurt me. do you understand?" she turned to face el, who looked at her, hurt painted on her face.

she returned to the static radio, playing with the dials when will's voice rang through the speaker, "so come on and let me know, should i stay or should i go," he sung, his voice shaking.

rory leapt from her bed and sat next to el.

"should i stay or should i go now? should i stay or should i go now? if i go there will be trouble, if i stay it will be double." el passed the walkie talkie to rory, who took it with shaky hands.

"will is that you? it's rory, do you copy? over." rory said, holding down the button on the side to talk. she let go of the button, only to be met with the same static as before.

"will are you there? will!"

the radio crackled, returning to static.

"was that...was it?" rory breathed out, looking the girl dead in the eye, tears threatening to spill.

"will." el smiled.

VIV'S THOUGHTS: i will defend el until the day that i die🫶