· 。ﾟ☆: *.☽
˚ ₊ ♡ ❰  𝚃𝙷𝚁𝙸𝙻𝙻𝙴𝚁  ❱ ˖⋆࿐໋ ⋆ ✰
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO ━━
the battle of hawkins lab

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     THE TIME HAD COME FOR EL AND HOPPER TO LEAVE  for the Hawkins Laboratory where the 'gate' was growing larger by the minute while Joyce, Jonathan, Nancy and Milo were going to take Will out into the woods where Hopper had directed them to go so they could hopefully burn the Mind Flayer out of him.

     "You won't lose me," Milo was braught out of his thoughts when he heard Eleven gentle voice as she tried to assure Mike,

     "Do you promise?" Mike pleaded, his voice a lot less stronger than Eleven determined one.

     "Promise."   

     Before the two kids had time to properly say goodbye, Hopper broke them apart by opening his truck door and the two kids immediately took a step back.

     "El, come on. Let's go...it's time."  Eleven's eyes were glazed over as she held back her tears , slowly turning around to look at Hopper before stealing one last longing glance at Mike who nodded encouraging.

     Milo, who stood beside his father's car door gave the girl a reassuring smile, the same one he gave her years ago before he turned his attention to Hopper. "I feel when monster gone from Will." While his sentences were still a mess, the fact that he was slowly growing his vocabulary was making the young blonde happier than he would think he would be.

     "Just be careful alright, I don't want to lose you again." Jim's own eyes were watery as he started at the boy in front of him.

    Milo did his best to give the man a convincing smile but he wasn't sure if he was able to keep such a promise. "I try."

    Slowly, the boy stepped away form the car and turned towards Jonathan's car where Nancy, Will and Joyce were already waiting for him. The momemt he sat down, Jonathan but his car into gear and rode away.

    The drive to Hopper's cabin was spend in utter silence, only the sound of Will's heavy breathing filling the space. The made the boy quite amxious just to see the youngest Byers being taken over by the shadowmonster especially when he knew the boy to be so full of life. With a soft sigh, Milo rested his head against the cold window to look outside. The darkness of the rapidly falling night didn't make that task easy but he was content by just watching the shadows of the trees as the passed. Everything was better than watching Will suffer.

     "I think we're here." Jonathan announced when they reached the end of the road and stopped the car. The headlights illuminating a part of the forest but Milo couldn't see anything that resembled a house whatsoever.

    Nancy was the first to spring into motion as she opened the car door and grabbed her bag from the floor before Joyce followed suit, tasking Milo with watching Will as she grabbed two more bags from the trunk of the car.

     Milo watched as Jonathan turned the engine off before he reached the door at Will's side to pick his younger brother up. After that, Milo opened his own door and grabbed the last bag from the trunk.

    Hopper was right when he said it was about a five minute walk to the cabin, the small wooden structure was almost hidden in the shadows of the trees.

    One by one, they all filled inside the room and looked around inside, while dust was covering the floor, it actually looked quite cozy.

     "It's actually kinda nice." Nancy spoke softly to break the silence just as Jonathan carefully placed his little brother on the couch.

    No one said anything in reply to her comment as Joyce walked further in the room before crouching down in fron of s fireplace. She turned her head around to look at the three teenagers. "We'll do it here."

     The three nodded before they went to gather everything they needed. Both Milo and Jonathan spotted a bed in the other room and carefully braught it as close to the fireplace as possible. As soon as they had set it down, Nancy had ripped the sheets away so Joyce could place the boy down in the bed.

    Milo bit the inside of his cheek as he watched Will sleeping almost lifelessly in the bed and he quickly averted his eyes from the sight and instead focused on placing enough firewood in the fireplace while Nancy and Jonathan surrounded Will with heathers and Joyce tied her son to the bed.

    "Are you sure this is a good idea?" Jonathan whispered as they all stood beside one another.

     "This thing has had Will long enough." Joyce stated firmly before letting out one last nervous breath. "Let's kill the son of a bitch."

    With those words, Nancy lit a match and threw it in the fireplace, the hot flames flicker casting an orange glow over her face.

    Milo turned his attention back to Will who still laid unmoving on the bed before they turned all the heathen on, creating more warmth.

     Now the waiting game had started.

     Twenty minutes had passed and there was still no sign of life from Will. Everyone had shed their jackets, sweaty hair clinging to their faces as they waited for a sign their plan was working. And like their prayers had finally been answered, Will's eyes snapped open and an almost inaudiable gasp left his lips.

    They watched as the boy started to trash around in his restraints, a look of utter confusion written over his face. "What's happening?" He finally turned his head to look at the other four in the room. "It hurts." He grunted.

     He started to wildly move against the ropes holding him against the bed, his grunts growing louder by the second. "It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!"

    Milo watched with shaking hands as Will continue to scream in agony and from the corner of his eye he could see Joyce and Jonathan clutching onto each other and try to drain out the desperate pleas of help.

     "Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!"

     Milo could feel it insid him, the thread connecting Will to the Shadowmonster, the way it tried to hold onto Will making the boy just suffer more.

     With narrowed eyes, the blonde reached for one of the heathens and turned it up as Joyce did the same to the one next to her.

     The extra heath only made it worse, the screaming intestifying and Milo had to look away from the scene just like Jonathan buried his face in the crook on Nancy's neck.

     "It's not working. It's not working." Jonathon stated with tears in his eyes. "Mom are you listening to me?"

    But Joyce focus wasn't on her eldest, instead her gaze was focused on Milo who in turn was intensely watching the youngest in their mids.

    He could feel it, slowly stretching out on the verge of breaking like an elastic band. Almost he could here himself saying, not even sure if he was talking to himself or to the others.

    "Just wait!" But Joyce did hear the boy and all her hope was now on the blonde teenager who had his eyes closed in concentration.

      "How much longer?!"

     "Mum look at him!" Jonathan continued, stepping closer to his younger brother. "You're killing him!

     "Jonathan just wait!"

     The boy didn't listen however and instead reached for the equipment and tried to turn them off while Joyce tried to pull him away.

    "Wait! Jonathan! Jonathan. His neck! His neck!" It was Nancy screaming over the two that made Milo open his eyes again to see dark veins traveling up and down and if they thought they had seen Will struggling to get free before they hadn't seen the worst of it as the boy ripped his left hand free.

    Joyce tried to keep the boy down, but instead, Will's hand wrapped around her throat, the dark veins covering his face makinh his appearance all the more threathening. Before his hand dropped suddenly, like some other force was intervering.

    Everyone turned to look at Milo but the boy shook his head, but he could feel it, the connecting with the shadowmonster and Will growing weaker. And then like some sort of horror movie, black smoke piled from Will's mouth making everyone jump back in surprise. It seemed like he wasn't responsive for a moment and everyone dreaded the worst before his eyes fluttered open.

     Milo smiled softly when he felt the connection break, and the Byers family embraced each other. The blonde looked at Nancy standing close beside him before he spoke. "It is gone."

Jonathan sprung up and reached for his walkie talkie. "Chief, chief are you there? Chief do you copy?"

    There was a moment of anxious silence before the familair crackling noise filled the room.

    "Yeah I copy."

     "Close it."

     Everyone in the room breathed in relief, oblivious to Milo who was lingering behind the group who still wondered the same thing as before. He was connected to everyone, the shadowmonster included. Maybe not the same way Will had been, but he was one of the parts that the shadowmonster could hold onto to for a grasp at this world.

     He could feel the air in his lungs leaving, the strain of his muscles, the rining in his ears, the shouts of the shadowmonsters inside his head and he knew, El was doing it. El was saving the world.

    But he wasn't part of that world, not anymore

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