Joey Hopper//Will Byers

The body: part 1

I wake up with a start and a tingle going down my spine. It's so cold, and not a Hawkins November chill, but an eerie frost that seems to be lurking all around me. I'm back, back where Will is, where he was. What is this? It feels like someone is taunting me. He's not here but I still am. I still can't help.

I jump out of my bed and walk outside. Maybe I can still do something. Maybe that's why I'm here. Maybe I couldn't save Will but I can save everyone else. Maybe I can kill the Demogorgon. I spring into a run not really caring where I'm going. I run through the trees, through the dirt, through the branches, until I stop at a familiar place. Castle Byers. I look at it from a distance. It's all dark and covered in moss and dirt, but somehow the goodness of the place still weighs out. I find myself walking towards it, being drawn to it. Then something incredible happens.

"Will?" I say as my voice breaks.

"Joey? Joe why are you here, are you okay?" He asks, getting panicked.

"Don't talk about me." I stop him, kneeling down to where he's sitting looking half dead on a cushion. "Will, we're coming for you. All of us are, but...do you know where this is?"

"N-no all I know is that it looks just like Hawkins but it-its not." He says as tears start to form in his eyes, "I want to go home."

"Will, we're going to find you. I don't care if it takes everything! I swear I'll find you!" I exclaim, reaching out and holding his hand.

I feel a shiver of relief. He's alive. He's actually alive. He's not lying lifeless in some freezer, he's here with me. He's alive.

Then he looks at me with hard eyes, "there's something here Joe. Its-its a monster," he shudders with a look of fear filling him.

Suddenly as if on cue a growl can be heard behind us. I turned around to see the Demogorgon running at us full speed. Will begins to shout at me to run to hide, but I don't flinch.

I look the thing dead in the eye and with a calm voice I say, "you can't hurt us."

I raise my hand and with force shove the thing to the side, sending it flying in the air about twenty feet away. I hear a distant whimper and the sound of it running in the opposite direction. I turn to Will to see him looking at me in shock.

"We're coming for you, Will. Just hide in the meantime, stay alive." And with that the world turns to black.

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I wake up in my light pink bed as sunlight fills my being. I'm so cold from walking in that upside down place that I climb underneath my covers and stay there for a good three minutes. Finally I get up and get ready for the day. I have to tell the party, I have to let them know Will's alive. But this seems like something I should tell them in person, not over my walkie. I throw on a pink dress and my oversized red zip-up jacket and walk over to the mirror only to be met with a shock. I have a distinct red line of blood coming down from my left nostril. Just like El. I quickly wipe it away and brush out my hair. When I'm all ready to go I run out the door, nearly forgetting to put on my dirty white sneakers. I shut the door behind me and realize my immediate problem...I don't have a bike. With a new sense of confidence I close my eyes, where's my bike? I think to myself trying to picture it in my head. Then I see it hidden behind the shovels, being covered by a tarp in the shed. I open my eyes wipe the red liquid from my nose and run over, opening the shed and letting a wave of dust explode out, like every time I come in here. I walk over pushing the old rusted shovels to the ground and lift up the tarp to see my little yellow bike sitting in the darkness. I let out a squeal as I struggle to lift the bike out and put it back on the grass. Finally I have it back. I feel slightly guilty for taking it before Dad gave it back to me, but I let that slide as I jump on my bike and ride off towards Mikes.