The Long Game, Lucas Sinclair

005. what even is my life anymore

CHAPTER FIVE.
1x05: The Flea and the Acrobat

"What was Will saying?"

They were now out of the school, retreated to Mike's basement to recuperate. Eleven was drained from using her powers earlier, so she was lying stomach down on Mike's couch, head to the side as she stared at nothing in particular. The rest of the kids (Sam, Lucas, Mike, and Dustin) were racking their brains, trying to piece together what the hell just happened.

"Like home..." Mike repeated. "Like home... but dark?"

Lucas exhaled shakily. "And empty," he added.

Sam's nod was unstable. "And cold."

Dustin, who was sat on the basement's stairs, furrowed his eyebrows. "Are we sure he said empty and cold? What does that even mean?"

"I don't know." Lucas shrugged sharply. "The stupid radio kept doing in and out."

"It's like riddles in the dark," Dustin muttered underneath his breath. "Doesn't help that none of us could reach him."

Then—being reminded of something very important—Lucas, Mike, and Dustin straightened up. Knowing where this was going, Sam stiffened. Slowly (and creepily) they turned in unison to face Sam.

"Sam could," Lucas corrected, an unreadable look on his face.

Sam's face fell, her heart steadily being filled with dread.

"Don't look at me like that," she protested feebly.

"You talked to him, Sam," Mike insisted, with an underlying message that told Sam his point was irrefutable.

Stubbornly, Sam shook her head. "N-no I didn't, alright?" she said. "I don't know why he would... Maybe the radio cut out? We had to have missed part of what he said. He couldn't have said my name."

Somehow, they all made identical faces: raising their eyebrows, unamused.

"I didn't do anything," Sam said slowly. She felt herself slowly getting upset. It didn't make any sense for her to have communicated with Will, who not even Eleven was able to speak to.

"You spoke to him!" Mike insisted desperately, as if begging Sam to get it through her head. "How are you misinterpreting this?"

Sam's hands were slowly starting to shake, so she crossed her arms to hide them. She simply shrugged. "He was speaking to his mom," she countered. "That's the important part. Did you hear what he was saying?"