fear

noun

an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.

"Help me get him to the car!" Joyce cried as she clutched her child, asking if he was okay and getting no response from him. There was terror over all of his youthful features, making him look closer to seven than thirteen.

Before Emilia could even do anything to help Joyce, the woman wrapped her arms around her child and carried him with inhumane strength only a mother could muster in a moment like that, and she dashed towards her car. The kids were all chatting and shouting, wondering what was going on with him. Emilia noticed that Max was there, looking confused and rather freaked out by what she had just seen. It was clear that even though she was hanging out with Will's friend group, she had no idea about the Upside Down, the Demagorgon, and everything else that happened.

Running after Joyce, Emilia was stopped by Jenny, who gripped her hand. Beside Jenny was a surprisingly tall thirteen year old with sweaty brown hair, looking curiously at Joyce and Will, who were cramming into her car.

"What the hell was that?" Jenny asked, then pointed, "Is he okay?"

Emilia had to think on her toes, "Yeah, epileptic episode. Uhm, that's Jonathan's brother, so I should really be there for them right now. Uhm... thank you for everything, Jen-"

"Emilia!" Joyce shouted from the car, "I need you!"

Emilia cast one more solemn and sympathetic look at Jenny, and then dashed towards Joyce. She left behind her bag and her car, hoping Jenny would figure it out and put the bag in her car. That way, when she eventually returned to the middle school parking lot, she'd have everything she needed there. But Emilia didn't think about that for long, as she ran to Joyce and hopped into the car. They drove to the Byers house at a speed that made Emilia feel sick.

When they got inside, they all sat at the kitchen table, and Emilia couldn't help but feel like an intruder in this home now. Jonathan wasn't there, she also noticed, and she wondered where he was, if he was okay. Emilia's mind went blank as Joyce asked Will if he was okay, hardly able to focus on his soft answers.

But she still heard what he said.

When Joyce brought the drawing of this devious creature, that was when Will finally cracked.

"I felt it... everywhere," he finally admitted after explaining that the monster came for him. "I still feel it..."

"I don't think that these are just visions... I think that maybe this is real," Joyce told her son, and Emilia. Her eyes flickered up towards Emilia, "I'm worried about you, too, Emilia."

"I have never seen anything like this," Emilia admitted. Her eyes glancing over at Will, studying just how pale he was, how filled with fear he was, the unknown that filled him, the questions that they all had just glowing in his eyes.

Tension filled the room, and then Joyce decided that Will should get some rest. Emilia watched anxiously as Joyce and Will disappeared down the hall, and then her eyes turned to the front door, hoping Jonathan would walk in. Maybe now that there was something serious going on, their problems wouldn't seem so big, and everything could go back to normal between them. It was a selfish thought, she knew, and so to busy herself until Joyce returned, she went to the kitchen and put the kettle on the stove.

By the time she had finished her tea, she realized that Joyce wasn't coming out. Emilia had no ride, her car was still at the middle school, and so she wondered what to do. Glancing down the hallway was Jonathan's bedroom, where so many things had happened between her and Jonathan. It felt wrong to sleep in his bed, so Emilia walked to the couch and draped a blanket over herself, staring at the wall that Joyce once hacked her way through, a wall once covered in Christmas lights that blinked when Will was talking to them.

A time when things seemed so impossible, and yet they were less terrifying than knowing what might be coming their way now.

Hopper followed the lead, having heard that someone spotted El in town, but eventually ended up back at the cabin. El wasn't there, and he wondered if she would even come back. He waited hours, standing in front of the cabin with his back against the wall, his boot propped up, scuffing the siding. Smoking cigarette after cigarette, he waited and waited, until he saw her small shape appear in the distance. Slowly she moved closer, closer to the house, and with each step she took Hopper felt an anger growing inside of him.

The shouting began.

"'Friends don't lie'. Isn't that your bullshit saying?" Hopper shouted at her, knowing he was starting this off entirely wrong, but not knowing how else to get it through to El that she was putting her life at risk out there. She walked right passed him towards her bedroom, slamming the door but Hopper cut in before she could.

"Where'd you go on your little field trip?" he asked, blocking the door. He asked again when she ignored him. "Where? Did you go see Mike?"

El replied sourly, spitefully, "He didn't see me."

"Yeah well that mother and her daughter did, and they called the cops," Hopper explained to her, entering the room. "Now, did anyone else see you? Anyone at all? Come on, I need you to think!"

"No one saw me!" She shouted at last.

Hopper couldn't believe she thought that that made it okay; she broke all three of his rules in one day, over a stupid fight about how hard he worked to keep her safe. His words began to come out all in anger, and he knew that he was overstepping, but he was so scared of losing her, that he started to push her away. As things got more heated, Hopper decided to prove a point.

"You're grounded," he told her. "That means no more Eggo's, and no more TV."

But when he tried to move the TV, she refused to let him. Using her powers, she bolted it to the ground so that no matter how he tried, he couldn't move it an inch. Threatening her again, this time with two weeks of grounding. Then a month. When nothing got through to her, he yanked the wires right from the back of the TV, showing that he was the parent, he had to make he see that her actions had consequences, and he stated as much.

"You're a brat, you know that? Why can't you be more like Emilia?" he asked.

She glared at him, like he had slapped her across the cheek.

"You know what that word means? How about that be your word of the day, huh? Brat." He grabbed a dictionary. "Why don't we look it up? B-R-A-T. Brat."

He tossed the dictionary at her, but El stopped it midair. Throwing it back at him, Hopper blocked it but still shouted at her. Then as he came towards her, she slammed the couch into his leg, forcing him to sway at the impact of it hitting his knee. Rage filled him as he rushed towards her, unsure of what he was going to do when he got to her. El knocked the bookshelf over in her rage, then slammed the door like a child having a tantrum, only her tantrums could cause a lot of damage.

Hopper shouted at her through the door, El screamed back, and then every window in the house blew to shards.

He had pushed her too far. 

Sorry this chapter was a bit filler, I had to make sure everything that is going on is pretty clear. I'm so bloody tired, I was up until 11 (and guys, I go to bed at 930 so that's late for me, plus I work 8-7 every day) for my sister's Gender Reveal party (whatever the fuck that means). Turns out she is having a girl, woo.

Question of the Day: How stupid were both Hopper and El in this scene? They both went off their rockers mental and obviously let anger drive their words, I was so mad at them. (but it also fits both of their characters)