Shadows of the Night •a Stranger Things story•

Now-Memories

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Hopper makes his way up the driveway of the Byers' house. He pauses for a moment to adjust his hat and notices his daughter's Dodge parked near the house as well. The front door of the small home is wide open, along with all the windows. Hopper frowns slightly, tapping the front door.

"Hello?" he calls out.

"Leave it open," Joyce says, wandering in. She has a cigarette burning and she's bundled up in a sweater. "Where the hell have you been?" she mumbles.

Hopper stares at Joyce, confused. "I overslept. What the hell's going on? It's freezing."

Joyce waves him over, leading him toward Will's room. Chris is sitting at his desk, facing the boy. He's sitting on the edge of his bed, staring off into space. He's shirtless, facing his open window.

"Hey! Knock, knock. We have a visitor."

Hopper walks around the bed, sitting down next to Will. Chris hands Hopper a drawing of the giant shadow monster in the sky. Hopper peers at it, his eyes large with concern. "So this thing, this shadow thing. You told your mom it likes it like this. It likes it cold?"

"Yeah," mumbles Will, suddenly looking a little more coherent.

Hopper glances at his daughter with aging blue eyes. She's wearing her thin long sleeved shirt. She doesn't seem very chilled, in fact, she looks rosy from heat. Hopper shifts between two drawings in his hands. "How do you know that?"

Shrugging his skinny little shoulders, Will replies, "I just know."

"Does he talk to you?"

"No. It's like I don't have to think." Will's eyes look drained, the bags under his eyes are red, irritated. "I just know things now. Things I never did before."

Hopper rises from the bed, turning around to stand next to his daughter. He puts a hand on the back of her chair. "And, uh what else do you know?"

Will frowns, shaking slightly in his seat. "It's hard to explain. It's like old memories in the back of my head, only they're not my memories. I mean, I don't think they're old memories at all. They're — they're now-memories, happening all at once, now."

"Can you describe these now-memories?" wonders Hopper. He isn't trying to be pushy. He's cautious and patient, but Will is tired and scared.

"I don't know. It's — it's hard to explain," he repeats.

Joyce presses her hands to her chin, just as upset as her youngest son is. "I know it's hard but can you just — can you try? For us?"

"It's like...they're growing and spreading." Will's eyes grow dark and Chris shivers in her seat as she tries to picture what Will may be seeing. He has tears in his eyes. "Killing."

"The memories?" asks Hopper.

"I don't know." Will leans into his mother's chest. "I'm sorry," he cries.

"No, no, no. It's okay, sweetie."

Chris chews on her bottom lip, glancing at the drawings in her father's hands. "What if you didn't have to use words?"

Tucked away in her bed, Ronda is surrounded by newspaper clippings, miscellaneous notes and pictures. She is chewing on the end of a pen and adjusts her glasses on her nose. Ronda sniffs as she reads an article on an LSD laboratory in Columbus, Ohio. To be completely truthful, the girl is stumped and hasn't made any real progress about her missing brother in about two months now. She is hoping fresh eyes will help, but no one seems to want to dedicate their time to something they're unsure about.

A knock echoes across Ronda's door. She sits up straight, collecting up her work.

"Ronnie? It's just me."

Ronda relaxes a bit, and climbs off her bed. She comes to her door, opening it for her brother. Robbie gestures with his hand. "Phone call for you. It's Nancy." He peeks past her, confirming his suspicions. "When are you gonna give this up, Ronda?" he asks with an impatient sigh.

"When are you gonna stop pining over someone that loves someone else?" she snaps back, exiting her room and shutting the door behind her. Robbie glares at his twin sister, following her as she makes her way to the phone in the hallway.

"She doesn't love him—"

"Rob," Ronda gapes. "Stop fooling yourself. They're in love." Ronda reaches for the phone, noting that she isn't going to argue with her delusional brother any longer. "Hey, Nance."

"Ronda," Nancy says through the phone, sounding jittery. "We found a way to get justice for Barb."

Pushing the phone closer to her ear, Ronda straightens up. "What?"

Robbie notices the change in tone and stares at his sister, coming closer. "What? What's going on?"

Ronda raises her hand toward her brother, swatting him away. She listens as Nancy says, "Meet me and Jonathan outside your house in ten minutes, okay?"

"Okay..." Ronda hears the line click as Nancy hangs up the phone. Ronda hurries back to her bedroom, heart racing. "I gotta go."

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