"Kassidy, you get your butt up now or you'll make Karen late!" Jonathan yelled loudly from somewhere.
"What?" I shouted back, the sound of water muffled his voice. "I can't hear you. Wait til I'm out."
Five minutes later I dressed and walking out of the bathroom. I headed toward the kitchen when I heard Mom mumbling incoherent things.
Jonathan came out of a different room and went straight in. "Mom, what's wrong?" He asked.
She began to explain about how Will trying to communicate with her through the lights.
"Not to be a downer, Mom, but that sounds straight up Steven King."
"I know, I know, just... just watch." She paused before turning back to the light bulb. "Will, your siblings are here can you show them what you showed me, baby?" The light flickered for a second then went out.
This is crazy
As Mom went crazy over the flicker Jonathan tried to calm her down reasonably.
"It not the electricity, Jonathan, something is going on here. Yesterday the wall-"
I thought back over my nightmare of the wall opening up and a hand coming out.
"What, Mom, the wall had a hand coming out of it?" I asked.
"The lights then the wall." Jonathan was trying so hard to make sense of this madness.
"I just know Will is here." She cried.
"Except he's not here." I leaned against the door frame. "He isn't here at all."
"Maybe if I get more lamps-"
"You don't need more lights. You need to calm down and pull yourself together." I snapped.
Jonathan tried again to calm her and this time it worked.
"Can you try to get some sleep, okay, Mommy, you'll need it for when we find him." I stated with a smile.
Mom smiled a little and nodded her head.
"I'll go make breakfast." Jon got up. "You wanna help, Kassy?" He asked while passing me at the door.
I followed him into the kitchen. "Mom's really losing it this time." I commented, handing him the eggs out of the fridge.
"Kassidy, Mom's just scared for our brother, okay, try to be a little more sensitive." His tone of voice was hard and stone cold.
"Sorry." I held my hands up in defense. "Will do."
"On a different note is that my shirt?" He questioned, looking down at my outfit.
"I'm cold." I explained. I stole his The Clash sweatshirt out of his room early this morning. Ever since last night at the Wheeler's I can't get warm. I think that girl did something when she touched me. Or maybe it's the lack of medication. Or being throw in a pool
He laughed. "That's no excuse, Kass." Once the eggs were done, he pulled me into a hug.
I stiffened at first, shocked by the sudden contact. "I'm sorry I was mad yesterday."
"It's fine, but I gotta run." I pulled away. "I'm watching Holly while Karen does some errands and goes to the doctor." I grabbed my bag and headed toward the door.
"Don't forget your doctor's appointment." Jonathan called after me.

........

I arrived exactly ten minutes later which meant I was five minutes early. I knocked on the door and waited.
"Hello, Kassidy, I'm so glad your early they moved my appointment up." Karen told me as we walked to the basement door.
"Always happy to help." I replied.
"Boys, time for school." She yelled down, and a few seconds later Dustin and Lucas appeared.
"Kassy!" Lucas ran over and hugged me.
I hugged him back. "Hey, Lucas, Dustin, aren't you two missing a man?"
As if perfectly timed Karen yelled for Mike. He yelled something back.
"What's a matter, is he to busy with his new toy to go to school?" I sarcastically asked the boys. They both smiled and nodded.
"Kass!" Holly's small voice carried through the house. She came walking slowly into the room.
"Hi, Holly." Dustin smiled at the little blonde, who immediately shied away from him.
"How's my girl?" I asked, picking her up and setting her on my hip. Holly only smiled in response.

.......

"Hey, Holly, you want in on one of your brother's secrets?" I asked as I crept down the basement stairs. Holly nodded, but Eleven was no where in the room.
"Eleven?" I called, running back upstairs. I dropped Holly off in her room and began the search for Eleven. One trip I was not aware I'd make more than once.
I finally found the weirdo. "Hello, El." I voice as calm as I could make it.
El looked frightened at first, but then in a blink of an eye she was hugging me tightly. "Kassy," She mumbled. "I'm sorry."
Surprisingly I didn't push her away. "Sorry?"
She nodded her head. "You're not bad like Papa." She trailed out.
Tilting my head to the side in a questioning manner I spoke, "How do you know me?"
"F-fam-ily." She shakily got the word out, motioning between me and her.
"We're family?" I asked.
She nodded again. If this girl nods much more her head is gonna fall off.
"Kassy." Holly hopped down the steps. "We have to go meet Mommy." She stopped next to me and reached up to grab my hand.
"Okay, let's go then. It was nice talking to you, El." I waved goodbye to her as Holly pulled me to the door.

.........

We were meeting Karen at the middle school because she had to drop off a book for Mike.
"Mommy!" Holly got excited as Mrs. Wheeler's car pulled in.
We walked over to the car and I buckled Holly in.
"Thanks, so much, Kassy." Karen handed me the book for Mike.
"Anytime." I took the book and made my way around the back of the school.
The boys would be at recess right now. When I finally found them Troy was walking up.
"Yeah, shut up, Lucas." Troy said, as the boys sprung apart. "What are you losers doing back here."
"Probably looking for their missing friend." James answered.
"That's not funny. It's serious he's in danger." Dustin cut in.
Danger? Did they know something I didn't?
"I hate to break it to you, Toothless, but he's not in danger. He's dead. That's what my dad says. Said he was probably killed by some other queer." The two boys laugh at their mean joke.
"Or his crazy sister." James got out between laughs.
"Come on. Just ignore them." Mike started to walk away when Troy tripped him. His face hit a big rock with a cracking sound.
"Mike, are you okay?" I as well as Lucas and Dustin rushed forward.
"Watch where you're going, Frogface." Troy said.
"Shut it, Troy." I shot him an unamused glare. Nobody hurts my baby boy.
"You alright?" Lucas asked.
"Yeah." Mike looked like he was about to cry.
"Hey." Dustin picked up a rock and showed it to them asking if it would work.
Mike smiled. "Yeah this is it."
Lucas held it up. "Oh yeah. Yeah, this is the monster killer." He smiled proudly at it.
"The monster what now?" I half demanded.
They began to fill me in on what El had told them. About how Will was on the other side of the game board hiding from the Demogorgon.
"The Demogorgon?"
Dustin nodded. "The one and only."
Will used to have nightmares where the Demogorgon would take him away, but he hadn't had one since he was around nine or so.
"You in?" Mike asked. He never apologized for last night, but he didn't have to.
"Yeah, okay, I'm in." I agreed a moment later. This meant I'd miss my doctors appointment, but I'm sure Doctor Brenner won't care if I miss.

.......

"El," Mike said as we approached her. "You okay?"
She jut stared at him.
"Hop on." He patted the seat behind him, and El complied.
We were halfway through the woods when I heard El speak up. "Why do they hurt you?" She asked Mike, then pointed to the cut on his chin.
"Oh, that, I just fell at recess." Mike lied.
"Mike." She said softly.
"Yeah?"
"Friends tell the truth." She stated.
Honestly these kids are adorable. I swear if she doesn't leave they'll end up together.
He sighed. "I was tripped by this mouthbreather Troy."
"Mouthbreather?" El echoed.
"Yeah, ya know, a dumb person. A knucklehead."
"Knucklehead?" She repeated again.
"They're sickening." Lucas said with disgust, making it impossible to easdrop on their conversation anymore.
"They're cute." Dustin disagreed.
"I second Dustin's thinking." I laughed.
Lucas made a face as we continued our trek.
Eleven led us right back to my house. "Here."
"Why are we here? This is my house." I asked confused, staring up at my home.
"Hiding." She whispered.
"No, no, this is where he lives. He's missing from here, understand?" Mike said.
Dustin and Lucas both threw their bikes down in an exhausted manner.
"What are we doing here?!" Lucas sighed.
"She said he's hiding here." Mike replied.
"Um. No," Lucas stated.
"I swear if we walked all the way out here for nothing." Dustin trailed off.
"That's the thing. We did." I said, running a hand through my hair.
"-I told you she didn't know what the heck she was talking about!" Lucas raised his voice a little as he spoke and emphasized each word with his hand.
Mike turned back to her. "Why did you bring us here?"
"Because she knows nothing." I mumbled under my breath. Dustin smiled, signally he heard me.
El started to speak but Lucas beat her to it. "Mike, don't waste your time with her."
"What do you wanna do then?" He asked.
"Call the cops and let Hopper handle this." I said, the other two boys nodding in agreement. a
Mike and Lucas began to argue over calling the cops.
"Guys." I nudged Dustin, as sirens squealed.
"You guys, Look!" Dustin said.
We all watched as cars flew by.
"Will."
We began to follow them though the woods.
We ended up at the quarry on the other side of town. It was obvious they found something.
Peeking out from behind the firetruck, we watched as they pulled a smaller body out of the water.
I gasp, tears threatening to spill. The'd found them. They'd found my little brother and he would never come home again.
"It's not Will." Mike said quietly. "It can't be."
"But it is." I tried to sound normal, but it came out more like a cry.
"It's Will. It's really Will." Lucas conformed.
El tried to calm Mike, but it only made him angrier. He lashed out at her.
"Mike, don't be so harsh." I said.
He grabbed his bike and took off.
"Mike, come on, don't do this man." Lucas pleaded.
"Come back, Mike." But he didn't.
We all stood there for a minute not knowing what to do, but finally I broke down into tears.
Eleven surprisingly dropped down beside me and pulled me into a hug. "It'll be okay, Kassy." She whispered.
"It's going to be alright." Lucas joined us on the ground. "We'll make it through this."

#############################
I almost made myself cry just thinking about writing that last scene.
The next chapter will be a complete flashback that was suppose to be in this chapter, but I decided it'd make it too long so it gets its own chapter.
Bye - Izzy