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

And . . . We're Still Argumentative

Joyce
Someone knocks viciously on the door. "Go away, Lonnie," I say. He continues to pound on the door, harder this time. "Seriously!" I give up and go to the door. "I am gonna murd—" When it opens, Hopper is standing there, holding a sign that says "Don't say anything." He comes inside, quietly closing the door behind him. "What? What?" I whisper. He looks at all the lights hanging up around the ceiling and walls.

"Oh, Jesus," he mumbles.

He unscrews every single bulb, and when he's done, says, "It should be okay, I mean . . . I can't guarantee it, but it should be okay."

"What the hell is going on, Hopper?" I ask, still keeping my voice low.

"They bugged my place," he says.

"What?"

"They bugged my place. They put a microphone in my light. It's because I'm onto them and they know it. I don't know. . . ."

"Who?"

"I thought they might be watching you too. I don't know; the CIA, the NSA, Department of Energy . . . I don't know."

"You gotta explain this to me, 'cause I am not—"

"I went to the morgue last night, Joyce."

"What?"

"It wasn't him."

"What?"

"Will's body. It was a fake."

My knees feel weak and I slowly fall to the floor, my breathing shaky.

"You were right," Hopper says, leaning toward me. "This whole time, you were right."

I don't know whether to cry or smile.

(Y/N)
We make it to the lot of broken-down old cars by the time Dustin stops to say, "Oh, no."

"'Oh, no'? What's 'oh, no'?" Lucas asks.

"We're headed back home," Dustin says.

"What?" I ask.

"Are you sure?" Mike asks.

"Yeah, I'm sure," he says. "Setting sun, right there. We looped right back around."

"And you're just realizing this now?" Lucas asks exasperatedly.

"Why is this all on me?"

"Because you're the compass genius!" says Lucas.

"What do yours say?"

The three of us (Mike, Lucas, and me) look at our compasses. "North," we all say.

"Makes no damn sense," Dustin says.

"Did the gate move?" I suggest.

"No, I don't think it's the gate," Dustin says. "I think it's something else screwing with the compasses."

"Maybe it's something here," Mike says.

"No, it has to be, like, a super-magnet," says Dustin.

"It's not a magnet," Lucas says. "She's been acting weirder than normal." He gestures to El. "If she can slam doors with her mind, she can definitely screw up a compass."

"Why would she do that?" Mike asks.

"Because she's trying to sabotage our mission," Lucas says. "Because she's a traitor!" He walks toward her.

"Lucas, what are you doing?" I ask.

"You did it; didn't you?" he asks her, getting in her face. "You don't want us to reach the gate. You don't want us to find Will."