I, Will Byers, Am Not a Victim

Chapter 20: The Gate is Open

As I got home, Jonathan was out on the porch, waiting for me.

"Where did you go?" he asked with a worried expression. "Mom's been worried. We saw your note, but we didn't think you'd be gone for so long."

"I just went out to clear my head," I lied. "I lost track of time."

"Hey, Mom. Sorry I was out so late," I told my mom as I walked in.

"It's okay, honey" she answered. She's so understanding, and I felt bad keeping this from her, but I had to do it. As much as I knew she would always be there for me, if I told her what I was doing, it would only make her worry more, and only El had a true understanding of what I was going through.

I slept well that night. With everything that happened, I thought for sure that I would get nightmares, but that wasn't the case. Maybe they came earlier because I was denying the truth about myself, and my visits to El have helped me with that.

I did have one dream though. At least, I thought it was a dream. I was back in the black void where I had been when I visited her house. The only things I could hear were the sounds of water dropping and a familiar female voice, El's voice.

"Will. Will." she said. "Do you feel it? I can feel it. The gate is open. You must learn to control your powers. I need you." I tried to yell back, but she was gone before I could say anything. I knew that I had to contact her the next day so that I could learn more.

I woke up normally and well-rested despite what El had told me. The only thing I noticed that was different from before was that I was getting a weird chill in the back of my neck periodically. I didn't know this at the time, but that was very important. I had a plan for our future meetings, but that would have to wait, since the next day, the party planned on meeting at Dustin's house, and if I skipped out on it, I would raise suspicions.

I got through school normally. For the first time in a while, I was focused in school. Since it was Friday, the lessons were pretty straight forward. The other members of the party did not look at me with that look of concern that they had given me so much after my traumatic experiences. I could never quite tell if it was pity or not, but it drove me crazy. I just wanted them to see me the way they did before everything happened.