it's the end of the world as we know it.

09. should i stay or should i go

They had a plan; they were to transform the Byers' back shed into an unrecognizable place and set Will up for questioning, and Hopper currently spent time outside dumping out everything from the shed. Luke and Steve headed out to the back with nail guns and tarp as they nailed the tarp to the wall. Frankie helped them set up the interior once everything was in motion, he put a chair in the center of the room where they had a bungee cord to strap Will to, with a blinding white light to point right at him, to disassociate everything around him.

Hopper retreated to the house and came back carrying Will's limp body over his shoulder, before setting the boy on the chair, and Jonathan tightly bound him to the pole and chair. Frankie couldn't imagine being in Jonathan and Joyce's position; he already felt overwhelmed enough as someone just helping them, but being in their family? He tried to think about it as if Stella were in Will's position, and he shuddered at the thought.

When the rest of the kids, Nancy, Steve, and Luke turned to go back into the house, Frankie followed, but at the last minute, as his foot stepped over the door, Jonathan quickly grabbed his wrist. "Wait," He murmured, pulling Frankie back into the shed, "Stay? I - I can't do this without you here."

Frankie's heart pattered quickly, but he nodded. "Of course."

"Ready?" Hopper glanced at Joyce, and she nodded. With a can of ammonia, Hopper dabbed some onto a few cotton rounds and slid it under Will's nose. With the stench, the kid gasped and his head snapped up, eyes wide.

Will glanced around the shed frantically, eyes wide as he stared, horrified. "What? What is this?" He struggled against the bounds, seemingly normal. "Why am I tied up?!"

Joyce walked over and crouched down in front of him. "Will, we just want to talk to you. We're not gonna hurt you."

"Where am I?" Will demanded, glancing around. Hopper joined Joyce's side and thrust the paper of the Mind Flayer drawing at Will.

"Do you recognize this?"

Will shook his head. Frankie glanced at Jonathan, trying to read the emotion on his face. While most of it was hidden as he stared at Will, Frankie could see the pain and the guilt behind them. He chewed the inside of his lip as in the darkness, he reached out, his pinkie finger wrapping around Jonathan's. As Frankie was going to leave it only at that, Jonathan quickly shifted them to hold Frankie's entire hand, and he squeezed softly.

"We wanna help you." Joyce told her son, staring up at him. "But to do that, we have to understand how to kill it."

"Why am I tied up?!" Will yelled suddenly, startling them all. His voice raised in a panic state as he repeated himself. "Why am I tied up?!"

He began thrashing around, and Hopper had to hold him still. "Let me go! Let me go, let me go!"

The lights in the shed flickered, and Frankie grimaced in horror as Will's voice distorted slightly to sound more demonic as he screamed. Frankie felt Jonathan squeeze his hand tighter. Will seemed to calm down slowly, either he ran out of energy or gave up, and the lights returned to the steady hum.

Joyce sat in the chair in front of Will. "Do you know what March 22 is? It's your birthday. When you turned eight, I gave you a huge box of crayons. Do you remember that? It was 120 colors. And all your friends, they got you Star Wars toys, but all you wanted to do was draw with all your new colors. And you drew this big spaceship, but it wasn't from a movie. It was your spaceship. A rainbow ship, is what you called it. And you must've used every color in the box. I took that with me to Melvald's and I put it up and I told everyone who came in, "my son drew this." And you were so embarrassed. But I was so proud."

"Do you remember the day dad left?" Jonathan spoke up, and Frankie glanced at him, watching as Jonathan let go of his hand to join Joyce's side. "We stayed up all night building Castle Byers... just the way you drew it. And it took so long because you were so bad at hammering. You missed the nail everytime. But it started raining, and we stayed out there anyway. We were both sick for like a week after that... but we just had to finish it, didn't we? We just had to."