Chapter Eleven

"Stacey!" I looked up from the book I was reading and I looked over at Dustin, who had this wide grin on his face and was still wearing his Ghostbusters costumes. "You'll never believe what I just discovered."

I sighed and got up, closing my book. I walked out of my room and entered his, we walked over to his tank. I looked down in it. "I don't see anything."

"Look closely," a little... well, creature comes out, it looks up at me. It was... kind of disgusting. It had a long tail and it was fat.

"What is that?" It hides back under the shade. "Dustin, throw it out!"

"No!" Dustin whined. "It's cute, I called it D'Artagnan. Dart for short."

I scowled at him. "Where did you find... Dart?" I watched him give more chocolate.

"I found him in our trash." Dustin explained. "I think I've found a new discovery. A new species."

I sighed. "Get rid of Dart, if Claudia finds out-"

"She won't." Dustin cuts me off. "Promise you won't tell her?"

"Fine." I agreed. "As long as you keep Dart under control. I'll see you in the morning, night Dustin."

He gave me a grin. "Night, Stacey."

I walked out of his room and down the hallway, where my room and entered. I put my PJs on and turned off the light before climbing in bed.

-

I walked into the Hawkin's Station the next day, looking for a job, or at least something to do while I'm on "vacation".

I walked over to the receptionist, Florence who looked up and smiled. "Hello, Stacey, how may I help you?" She asked.

"Um, can I talk to Chief Hopper?" I asked politely, a small frown set on her face.

"I'm afraid he's busy at the moment." Florence tells me.

I sighed in annoyance. "Please, it'll only be just a second, we know each other rather well. Please."

She sighed. "Okay. I'll call him up, he's in his office." I hide my smirk as she called him. "Hopper? There's a young lady named Stacey wanting to see you." Pause. "Okay." She hangs up. "He'll see you in his office."

I smiled and walked down the hall to where his office was. I knocked on the door before entering and there was Hopper. "Hey, Hopper." I greet.

"Yes, Stacey?" He turned around.

"I'm bored." I begin. "And since I haven't gone back home yet, I just wanted to see if you need any help."

"Help?" He scrunched up his face. "What do you know about the law?"

"My boyfriend's Dad is the Sheriff of my town and I know his Dad pretty well, plus, we basically help the police 24/7, so..." I gave him a smile. "Please? I'll even just shut up for the entire time, you don't even need to pay me I'm just bored."

He sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. "You'll do it for free?"

"Yes!" I nod my head.

"Okay, fine." He agreed. "I've been investigating on these farms, these farms have been poisoned, and I'm trying to figure out what it could mean and I keep finding weird slivar on the trees. Right now, I just discovered that there's something in the middle of this and that's where we're going."

"Right now?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Right now." Hopper nods and grabbed his coat and hat, he walked out of his office and I followed him into the Chief's car.

-

"Grass, crops, trees. Everything in this area is either dead or dying, and that's a radius of over three miles." Hopper explained to Dr. Owens as we stand in his office at Dr. Owen's lab, where Will goes for his appointments. "And it all leads back to here."

Hopper had pointed at the middle, where the lab is. "See, these patterns here are really pretty. I like the design." Dr. Owens tells us, I frowned. "It's almost psychedelic."

"This is a joke to you, huh?" Hopper sighed in frustration.

"No, it's not a joke." Dr. Owen said. "I just... I don't understand what this has to do with me, Chief Hopper and Detective McCall."

I hide my smirk, that was the cover up name. I even have a fake badge that Hopper got made quickly. How did that happen? I'm not sure. Is this illegal? Oh, yeah. It's a good thing I'm wearing all black as well, it just adds to my undercover.

The reason why I got all this, I suggested it, mainly, only because it'll make things easier to explain why the hell I'm here, a 17-year-old girl with a Chief, working on this case. My badge says I'm 21.

"Whatever's happening is spreading from this place, from this lab." Hopper pointed out.

"That's impossible." Dr. Owens shakes his head. "It's... that last burn was two days ago. It's contained."

"What if there's a leak?" Hopper had sat down on the couch, I stand in the corner with my arms folded.

"A leak?" Dr. Owen scoffs.

"I don't know, man. You're the scientist." Hopper exclaimed.

"Exactly," Dr. Owens nods. "And I'm telling you there's nothing to worry about."

"Convince us." I then spoke, Hopper shot me a look.

Dr. Owens looked over at me. "Convince you's?"

I took a step forward. "Yeah. You and your egghead friends go out there to every area on this map and you run your tests, or whatever the hell it is you do, and see if anything comes up."

Dr. Owens scoffs again. "All right, so... so you're... you're giving me orders now?" Dr. Owens shakes his head. "No."

Hopper stands up. "I keep things nice and quiet for you... and you keep your shit out of my town. That is the deal. I have done my part, now you do yours." He shoved the map forward. "Convince us."

-

"Well, you were right about these pumpkins." I watched as the men in decked out protection inspect the pumpkins in the field. "Some nasty stuff. And the smell... Gee, mother of God."

"What exactly do you think is going on-"

"Well, I told you what I think." Dr. Owens cuts Hopper off. "But we'll run the tests, and we'll see what comes up. In the meantime, I just need you and Detective McCall to keep the area clear for us. I don't think it will be more than a day or two."

Hopper turned to Dr. Owens. "What do you want me to tell people?"

Dr. Owens gave us a smile. "I'm you'll figure something out." He turned to me. "You are a Detective, aren't you?"

I gave me a fake laugh. He patted me on the shoulder and I turned to Hopper. "Hey, Chief, you copy?" Someone on the radio speaks. Hopper got out the radio.

"Yeah." He answered.

"Do you remember that Russian girl Murray was going on about the other day?" The officer asked. "Yeah, well, now I'm thinking he's not so crazy after all."

Hopper grabbed my arm and dragged me. "Stay where you are, do not move." I jumped into the vehicle and so did Hopper and he drives off.

"Who's the Russian girl?" I asked curiously.

He looked over at me. "They're talking about Eleven."

"What? She's alive?" I asked, perking up.

He had this hard thinking face look on his face. "If I say what I'm about to say, you keep it a secret, okay? None of the boys can know, no one who knows about things, can know, especially not Mike."

"What is it?" I asked eagerly.

"Eleven's alive." He sighed. "I've been keeping her in my cabin and I fear that she's gone out wandering by herself because we got into an argument the other night."

"What!?" I screamed. "You made us believe she was dead!"

"Well, she isn't." Hopper snapped. "I'm sorry, but this is for her safety. I swear to God McCall, if you tell anyone-"

"I won't." I sighed. "As much as I want to, I promise to keep it a secret."

"She is in so much trouble," Hopper grumbled before speeding off. "I'm dropping you off home, remember; not a single word."

"But I want to see her-"

"No," Hopper cuts me off. "It's best she doesn't see you."

I nod my head, understanding, and leant back, before closing my eyes.

-

The next day, Hopper and I walked into Byers' home after Hopper receiving a call from Florence that he needed to see Joyce.

Hopper had picked me up along the way. "Hello?" Hopper called out.

"Leave it open," Joyce says from afar before she comes in with a cigarette. She walked over to us. "Where the hell have you been?"

"I overslept," Hopper said. "What the hell's going on? It's freezing." He's right, it is freezing. At least I have a jacket on.

Joyce made a hand gesture for us to follow her, so we did and we followed her into Will's room. "Hey! Knock, knock." Joyce had knocked on the door and opened it, there sat Will in the bathtub. "We have two visitors."

Will was sitting on his bed, still in his PJs and shirtless, just staring ahead. Joyce had shown us some pictures of what Will had Joyce and explained. "So this thing, the shadow thing. You told your Mum it looks like this. It likes it cold?"

We were on Will's bed, Joyce, Hopper, Will and I. Will nodded his head. "Yeah." He whispered.

"How do you know that?" I asked the boy, who looked over at me.

"I just know." He answered.

"Does he talk to you?" Hopper questioned, looking down at the drawing.

"No. It's like..." Will trailed off. "I don't have to think. I just know things now. Things I never did before."

Hopper stands up and sat on the desk chair. "And uh... what else do you know?"

Will looked over at Hopper. "It's hard to explain. It's like old memories in the back of my head, only... they're not my memories."

"Okay." Hopper carefully said.

"I mean, I don't think they're old memories at all." Will continued, his voice breaking a little. "They're... they're now-memories, happening all at once, now."

"Can you describe these now-memories?" I asked softly.

"I don't know." Will softly said. "It's... its hard to explain."

"I know it's hard but can you just... can you try?" Joyce asked her son gently, her facial expression softening. "For us?"

Will's eyes begin to water, but he doesn't let them fall. "It's like... they're growing and spreading... killing."

"The memories?" Joyce asked, Will looked terrified.

"I don't know." Will whimpered. "I'm sorry."

"No, no, no. It's okay, sweetie." Joyce comforts her son as she pulled him into a hug as he cried into her shoulder. "Hey, hey, sweetie..." He pulled back. "What if you didn't have to use words?"

With that, we got the crayons out and some pictures, set Will at a table and he begins to draw what he saw, rather quickly. Joyce, Hopper, and I stand back, watching in amazement.

"This is more the same." I come into the lounge after picking up some more pictures of what Will had drawn. I sat down on the couch next to Joyce and Hopper.

"Oh, it's nothing," Hopper grumbled. "It's just scribbles."

"Wait!" Joyce suddenly said as Hopper had flicked through some papers.

"What? What?" Hopper asked, but Joyce didn't answer as she looked down at her own pile of papers.

"Wait, wait." She mumbled. She pulled up one of hers. "These black lines, see?"

"What?" Hopper scrunched up his face.

Joyce matches up the black lines on the paper. "Look, they connect." My eyes widen slightly, they do connect! "They connect."

Hopper had moved the table out of the way, creating space for us so we can connect the pictures together. We spread out the pictures and just tried to connect the pictures together.

I had gathered more pictures from what Will was drawing and put them back on the ground next to Joyce and Hopper who sort them out, I got on my knees and began to sort them out, too.

Once we had finished, we all stood up in a line and looked down at the papers. There were a lot of pictures on the floors.

"Does this mean anything to either one of you?" Hopper had asked us.

"No," Joyce answered. "I mean is it some sort of maze or road? I mean, it's sort of forking and branching like... like lighting."

"You think it's a storm?" Hopper asked.

"No, the storm he drew was completely different," Joyce explained. "He used red. And this is all blue and it has some weird dirt color. I mean, maybe it's roots. 'Cause remember, he was saying it was spreading and-"

"Killing." Hopper cuts in. "He said they were killing." Hopper paused for a second. "Vines." Hopper had got his jacket and hat, putting them on and he opened the door. He looked at us. "He's drawing vines."

-

It was later that afternoon, there was a loud banging on the outside. "Hello?" Joyce and I had looked at each other. It was Mike. "Will! Mrs. Byers?" Joyce opened up the door. "Hey."

"Hey, Mike." Joyce says kindly.

"Is Will here?" Mike asked and looked over and spotted me beside her. "Hey, Stacey!"

I gave him a bright smile. "Hi, Mike!"

"You know what? Now's not a really good time." Joyce advised Mike.

"Is he okay?" Mike asked.

Joyce sighed and we moved out of the door and closed it, to make sure Mike doesn't see the drawings. "Yeah. You know, he's... he's just not feeling real well. He's laying down, so I'll tell him you stopped by, okay?"

As Joyce and I turned to leave, Mike stopped us. "It's about the shadow monster, isn't it?" Joyce and I looked back at him, I frowned.

How does he know that?

A/N

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