A World Turned Upside Down: A Will X Reader X Mike (ST)

Jealousy and Atheism

Hopper
I sneak into the lab when someone opens the door to leave. I creep through the hallways, cautious not to be seen. When I hear voices, I duck into a room and wait for the scientists to pass. I keep walking and come to the plastic curtain. I unzip it and enter. I continue down the hallway and find another door, which is locked. Next to the door is a device where you are most likely supposed to swipe a keycard.

Two guns cock behind me. "Hands up. Hands up!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," I say, turning around with my hands in the air. 

"Forget all the cameras, bub?" one of the guys asks. 

"Look, Dr. Brenner asked for me specifically, okay?" I lie. "How else do you think I got in here?"

"What's your name again?"

"It's Jim Hopper! Chief Jim Hopper!"

The man takes out a walkie-talkie. "Yeah, I've got Jim Hopper—"

I punch the guy unconscious and take his gun, aiming at the other. I grab his gun, too, and grab the keycard on his shirt. "You mind if I borrow this?" I rip it off him and unlock the door, the gun pointed at him until I'm inside the two doors. I shoot and disable the keycard slit on this side.

"Will?" I call,  exploring the hallway. It's dark and I shine my flashlight down the hall and into different rooms, calling his name continuously. I walk into a room that looks like it could be a child's room. There's a small bed and a matted stuffed lion, and a stick figure drawing on the wall of a little boy and a taller man with what seemed to be a cat on a table. Next to the man is written "Papa" and above the boy is two lines, II, maybe, or 11. All I know is maybe it's Will's. 

I continue down the hallway, calling his name. There's an alarm sounding in the distance. I come to an elevator and press the button. When it opens, I enter and it closes before the guards can reach me. When the elevator reaches the bottom floor and the door opens, I step out. The room is dark, as is the rest of the building. White specs roam the air. I call his name. The lights further into the room flicker. I cough through the thick air. I find something strange at the end of the hallway.

"What the hell?"

There's something on the wall . . . that kind of looks like a nest or something. It pulses and lets off this eerie red glow. I feel the stringy, slimy material and something dashes behind me. I shine my flashlight around and there's nothing there . . . until two men in suits capture me, probably not too happy I snuck into their little lab experience here.

Joyce
Lonnie pours me a drink and tells me to drink it. "It'll calm your nerves. Help you think straight, yeah?"

"I don't know what to do," I say. 

"I know. I know," he says.

"This whole time . . . I . . . I could . . . I could feel him," I snivel. "He was . . . He was so close. He was . . . He was right here. I knew he was alive. Our hands . . . Our hands were almost touching. Now it's like I . . . uh . . . God, it's like I can't feel him anymore." I glance at him. "Don't look at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like how everybody is looking at me. Like I'm out of my damn mind."

"Hey. You're not gonna like this, but I think you need to seriously consider the possibility that all this . . . It's in you're head. You remember your Aunt Darlene?"

"No. No, this is not that."

"I mean,  when something like this happens, your mind makes up stuff for you to cope, you know? I mean, Jesus, tomorrow there's a funeral for our little boy and you're saying his body is fake. He's in the wall. I mean, how do you explain that? It just doesn't make sense, does it? At least go talk to a shrink, or . . . What about Pastor Charles, or someone—"