𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑶𝑻𝑯𝑬𝑹 𝑺𝑷𝒀 - Dustin Henderson

𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙡𝙤𝙜𝙪𝙚

HOPPER AND JOYCE ENTERED THE UPSIDE-DOWN LIBRARY, PRAYING THAT JOYCE'S SON IS FOUND SOON. The two walk slowly and quietly, keeping their eye out for a small brunette boy.

They find themselves in front of a wall filled with goo and vines, they spot Barbara Holland on the ground dead. Hopper shudders seeing that, he feels guitly knowing he couldn't do anything to save her but he has to keep moving so that same thing doesn't happen to Will.

As they turn, something catches their eye. Hopper gasps as he shines his flashlight over in the direction, the person freezes and slowly turns around with her hands up.

The two adults look at each other absolutely dumbfounded, the girl slowly lowers her hand and points to somewhere. Joyce turns slowly to follow where her finger is pointing but Hopper doesn't take his eyes off her, which only makes her more terrified.

"Will?" Joyce exclaims, finally Hopper turns away as he sees the kid he had been searching for for a week, strung up onto the wall with a weird tentacle coming out of his mouth.

"Watch that girl," Hopper whispered as he grabs the tentacle in Will's mouth and begins pulling it out, but it's longer than expected.

Joyce turned her attention back to the now trembling girl, she didn't move one inch, besides finally lowering her hands. She didn't know how to react, it felt like forever since she's seen another human, besides Will.

Joyce stepped forward, which finally made the girl move backwards. "You shouldn't be here," her voice came out hoarse and quivered.

"Hun, what's your name?" Joyce asked gently. She didn't answer, just looked over the woman's shoulder to see if Will was doing okay. "You can trust me, I'm not going to hurt you. Let us help you."

The girl looked back at Joyce and swallowed hard before answering, "please let him be okay." Was all she said, she didn't care about herself anymore, she felt like she lost herself ages ago, it now felt like priority number one to help this kid she used to be classmates with.

Joyce turned back around to see her son not waking up, her head switched between her son and this random, messy and extremely malnourished girl. She sighed and kneeled down next to her son to help Hopper wake the kid up.

The girl stepped forward slowly, watching cautiously for him to wake up. Hopper clenched his fists and started practically punching the boy's chest, he seemed terribly distressed by this situation.

All of a sudden, Will jolted awake. He sat up and began to cough, but his mom lay a hand on his back to rest him back down and Hopper put a mask over his mouth for air.

The girl sighed with relief, she went to walk away but was stopped by another painful headache. She stopped and held her hands up to her head, digging her fingernails into her head. "Sweetie, are you okay?" Joyce asked, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder, which made her jump and spun around, letting out quick sharp breaths.

Joyce flinched at the sudden movement, but before Joyce could say anything else the girl's eyes began to flutter and she went limp. Joyce caught the girl in her arms as she passed out.

Hopper had Will in his arms, who had fallen asleep, "should we take her back to Hawkins?"

"What type of question is that? Obviously, this is no place for a kid," he retorted.

Joyce looked back down at the girl, her face didn't have distress written all over it anymore, she just looked calm and at peace. She had no idea who this kid is but she wanted to help her no matter what.

• • •

The girl's eyes fluttered open but they were immediately bombarded by light stinging her eyes. She squinted and continued to stare at the bright square of light in the ceiling. For some reason, it didn't hurt her eyes as she got used to it, it gave her some comfort, the comfort she needed to know she is safe.