Tʜᴇ Fʟᴀʀᴇ ꕥ Lɪᴢᴢɪᴇ Jᴏʜɴsᴏɴ

sᴇʀɪᴇs ᴛᴡᴏ ꕥ 11

They all met up at the shed, cardboard proofing the small space. Lizzie was surprised at how everyone pulled together to help, but she knew that everyone was better in a crisis.

Lizzie winced as she watched Hopper bind Will tightly to a chair. There were red marks on his wrists from where he had tied them tightly.

"Right?" The Chief said, turning round. "Everyone except Joyce and Jonathan, go back to the house. We can't take any risks."

"No!" Mike shouted. "I'm staying."

Hopper didn't have enough energy to disagree.

Embarrassment forgotten, Dustin held Lizzie's hand tightly as they walked back to the house.

As they got inside, Max asked fearfully. "If... if he finds out where he is... will he send those... dogs after us?"

"He won't find out," Lucas reassured her immediately. "He won't."

"Yeah..." Max's bottom lip quavered. "But... say he does..."

"He won't."

Lizzie looked down as she turned to see Dustin looking over at the window. She went over to him.

"Hey..." she said. "It's okay. We're gonna find out about Will, and put an end to whatever this is-"

"Lizzie!"

They both jumped as Nancy shouted her name, only to see the lights all going wild the next second. The exact same way the ones in the school were when El conquered the Demogorgon.

"I'm going to see what's happening!" Lizzie didn't think twice about running out the front door and to the shed.

"LIZZIE!" Nancy screamed after her. "NO! IT'S TOO DANGEROUS-"

But the girl had already slammed the shed door.

"LET ME GO! LET ME GO!" Will was screaming, whilst Hopper tried to restrain him. The binds were still holding him but only just. The lights trained on him were flickering and flashing, like the ones inside. "LET ME GO! Let me go... let me go... let... me... go..."

He slowly calmed down and leaned into Hopper's arms before the Chief pushed him back into the binds.

Lizzie stood beside Mike. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," her friend answered. "Better now another person's here."

Lizzie bit her lip as she watched her friend succumb to the Mind Flayer. She was going to break soon.

Joyce was too, Lizzie saw, as she knelt down in front of her panting and tired son. "Do you know what March twenty second is?"

Will didn't answer. "It's your birthday," Joyce said tearfully. "Your birthday.

"And I remember, when you turned right, I gave you that huge box of crayons," Joyce was crying now, and so was Lizzie. "Do you remember that? It was a hundred and twenty colours. And all your friends... they got you Star Wars toys... but all you wanted to do was draw with your new colours."

Lizzie gurgled out a small laugh as a tear fell down her face. She remembered that.

"And you drew this big spaceship, but it wasn't from a movie," Joyce continued smiling and crying. "It was your spaceship. A rainbow ship... is what you called it. And you... you must've used every colour in the box."

Lizzie choked out a sob and layed her head on Mike's shoulder. Will looked confused as ever.

"You know, I- I took that with me to Melvald's," Joyce went on. "And I put it up and I told everyone who came in, "my son drew this." And you were so embarrassed," she laughed; a gurgling sound that made Lizzie and Mike smile. "But I was so proud. I was so, so proud."