Joey Hopper//Will Byers

The flea and the acrobat: Part 2

I wake up to the smell of dust, and weirdly enough the sound of someone screaming my name...Dad! I sit up quickly and hit my head on the cold metal. Not remembering that oh yeah, I'm in my vent.

"Dad! I'm here!" I scream as I wiggle my way out.

When I look up I'm kinda shocked by how clean my room looks. If I didn't know I never would even guess that a bunch of weird men had a mini manhunt in here.

Suddenly my dad frantically runs into my room, "Joey! Oh thank god you're okay." He says, embarrassing me in a hug.

"Of course I'm okay. What, did you think those creepy men would be able to take me?" I joke with a smirk on my face.

In reality, I'm terrified but it's always been easier to joke with my dad than have a heart to heart. Its either fighting or laughing with him, the only time we ever really share chick flick moments with each other is when we're talking about Sarah.

Suddenly a slightly confused, mostly scared look comes over his face. "Creepy men? They were here, in the house?"

"yeah..." I say, my smirk falling to the floor.

"Joey, look everywhere!" He shouts and runs off.

I follow him in shock as he opens up light bulbs, smashed picture frames, empties out the entire pantry -including the pots and pans. He throws over the table, bangs the phone against the wall a few times, opens our radio, he even rips open our couch with a pocket knife! I suppose I'm supposed to help him so I run back to my room. I open up all my drawers, I undo my made bed, I pile the clothes out of my closet, I practically look everywhere. I guess it's pretty hard to find something when you don't know what you're looking for...wait. I could try it, try using my powers like how I found my bike. I mean, Dad wouldn't even know, how could he know? I take one last look back then close my eyes.

Where is it?

All around me is darkness. It's so absent of light that it seems impossible to navigate. Especially when I'm not looking for a bright yellow bike, I'm looking for...That. A small yellow disk with a black wire peeping out. A secret camera. I push myself to look further.

Where is it?

Then the image opens up to reveal my ceiling, my light. It's inside my light!

Suddenly the darkness fades and I'm back in reality.

"Dad! Dad! It's in my light!" I scream, causing him to race into my room. 

He pushes my bed to the center of the room, then stands on it reaching his hand up and under my light. He pulls out the disk with an unreadable expression. I guess that one guy wasn't so crazy for checking my ceiling, he wasn't checking it at all, he was bugging it. But why us? Sure I guess my dads the sheriff and all but then why isn't the device in his room. Or If they were really smart in the kitchen. It is proven to be the most used room in a house after all. Dustin told me that. But no, they placed it in my room. There trying to keep tabs on...me? No that's just crazy. Even if they are those people from the freaky lab I keep remembering, they'd never be able to tell who I am. They probably just somehow know I've been hanging out with El...Right? I'm brought out of my head when my dad begins to push the bed back into position.

"I'm Sorry, Joe." Dad says as he turns to look at me.

"Why?" I respond, genuinely not understanding what he's talking about.

"Will...I just-I don't want you thinking any of this is your fault, because it isn't. Sometimes good people just die." He exclaims, getting down to my level.

What he doesn't know is that this is my fault, all of this. I opened the upside down. Will might not be dead yet but he still could die any minute, because of me...I'm a monster.

"Wow great pep talk dad," I say sarcastically, "I feel so much better now."

His face drops. "Come on, Joe. I'm trying to help you."

I look at him as anger fills me. "You're always just 'trying to help,' but you know what? Every time after you say that, my life turns to shit, so maybe you should just stop helping!" I scream.

I'm not really mad at him, I'm just mad at everything, mad at the world, mad at that stupid galaxy Sarah always loved. Maybe I don't want anymore unknown, anymore mysteries to the world. I just want my life back!

"Maybe I will stop helping. See how great everything is without a sheriff, without a dad!" He yells.

I ball my fists. "You don't even do anything! All you do is drink! Maybe if you weren't the sheriff Will wouldn't have been taken in the first place!"

Out of the corner of my eye I see the small lamp sitting on my dresser begin to flicker. Panic fills my eyes as I slowly try and calm myself down. I look back at my dad to see him looking at the floor ashamed.

"I'm sorry." I say in a small voice as my eyes trace the stains on my white sneakers. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that, I know your doing your best."

Our eyes finally meet as I wait for him to say something, anything.

"You should get ready, Will's funeral is in an hour."

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"Fear not for I am listening..."The man giving Wills service says.

I look down at my black dress, it's Weird to see that color on me. I don't think I've worn black scene Sarah...Funnily enough, this is the same dress I wore to that funeral. It's a little tight and a lot too short, falling above my knees, but I was still able to get it on. It was too big when I first wore it anyways. Thinking back on it, a funeral dress is an odd thing to buy a few sizes too big. To say, "oh It will fit her by the next funeral, don't worry". I look at the party standing beside me. It's a little hard to act sad when we all know he's not actually dead.

Dustin looks past me and snickers, "just wait until we tell Will Jennifer Hayes was crying at his funeral."

My head snaps to the side as I see Jennifer sobbing a few people over. I don't know what comes over me but I give her a nasty face.

"Ooh, Joey's Jealous." Lucas laughs as he sees my face.

I go red in embarrassment as Mrs. Wheeler shushes us. To be really honest, I am jealous but I don't even know why. Like I said earlier, he's not actually dead.

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As we walk past his coffin it sends a shiver of disgust over me. Sure that's not really Will but whatever it is, It's apparently convincing enough to trick everyone else. I drop my yellow rose in the hole and walk away.

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"Mr. Clarke?" Mike asks as we crowd around the snack table.

He sends us a saddened smile. "Oh, hey there. How you guys holding up?"

I look over to see Dustin pretending to be sad while munching down on the Nilla wafers. Lets just say, it takes everything in me not to burst out laughing.

"We're in.... mourning." Lucas says, sounding slightly robotic.

"Man these aren't real Nilla wafers!" Dustin exclaims as I let out a giggle but quickly put my hand to my mouth.

Fake tears come to my eyes, "Will always used to say that." I say patting Dustin on the back.

"Anyways, we were wondering if you had time to talk." Mike says.

"We have some questions," Lucas pops in.

"A lot of questions." I add.

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EDITED