▸ Should I Stay or Should I Go - The Clash

T H E  M I N D  F L A Y E R  
P T . I I

Mike ended up showing Hopper a shed. We cleaned it out, removing all the tools and objects the Byers had in it. Hopper told Nancy and Steve to nail trash bags to the walls so Will wouldn't find anything to trigger him to know where he was.

Danny and I were cutting the trash bags along the seams, only leaving one side alone. Once we finished another batch, I started to head to the shed.

"What you did, um, helping the kids with the Henderson twins...that was...really cool." I overheard Nancy tell Steve.

"Yeah." Steve replied. "Those little shits are real trouble, you know?"

"Believe me, I know." Nancy chuckled. "So, uh, you and Dawn seem pretty close."

I stopped in my tracks, curious to see what they were going to say.

"Yeah." Steve said. "She's a great girl."

I smiled, a blush creeping into my cheeks.

"She is." Nancy agreed. "So, uh, do you like her?"

"Of course, yeah." Steve quickly responded. "How about you and Johnathon?"

"Oh, um, yeah, I guess, yeah." Nancy awkwardly stumbled out. It grew quiet, the only sound coming from the nail gun. I waited a minute to see if they were going to talk again.

"Hey," I walked in with the bags. Steve looked over his shoulder and smiled at me. "Got some more ready for you guys. Do you think this is enough?"

"Erm," Nancy walked to me and grabbed the bags. She counted them and then looked at the walls. The shed was halfway covered in black trash bags. " I think should be enough. Thanks Dawn."

"No problem. I'm gonna head back in." I jabbed my thumb towards the house. "See what else Hopper needs help with."

"Alright, tell him that we should be done in a out ten minutes max." Steve told me. I nodded and left.

▷

We were all now duct taping cardboard boxes and other brown paper over the trash bags in the shed.  I just finished duct taping a cardboard box over a chair before I set it in the corner.

Johnathon came in with Will, who was still asleep. Joyce tied him to the chair and gave him another does of a sedative. Mike was fixing lamps, directing them lightbulb to Will. Lucas plugged in an outlet strip before plugging all of the lamp's extension cords. All of the lamps turned on.

"Okay, you guys can head inside." Hopper nodded to all of us after we finished. "We've got him from here."

"Come on guys." I started to walk out of the shed.

"I'm going to stay." Mike walked next to Johnathon.

"Okay." Danny nodded.

Hopper, Joyce, Johnathon, and Mike stayed behind in the shed with Mike.
The rest of us slowly made our way into the house. Dustin going straight to the window in the kitchen to see what was going on inside the area Will was in. Frowning, I wrapped an arm around my little brother's shoulder and placed my chin on top of his head.

"He's going to be okay. Will's tough." I reassured him.

"I know." Dustin breathed out. He took his cap off and walked away, running a frustrated hand through his curls.

Taking a deep breath in, I raked my hands down my face. The whole day was stressful as it was trying to hunt down monsters, but we've actually experienced another loss. Eleven, and now Bob. Who else was going to get hurt or worse tonight?

"You okay?" Steve walked over to me.

"Not really no." I looked up at him through my eyelashes. "All of this has me stressing."

"Well, lets go destress you." Steve grabbed my hand and stared to lead me towards the front door.

"How?" I questioned.

"Remember that there are kids present." Danny patted Steve's shoulder with a smug smile before winking at me.

"Wait, what?" I blinked rapidly. My face started to grow hot.

"No, not that." Steve smacked Danny's shoulder. My older brother laughed. "I was going to let her strike a tree with her huge ass knife."

"Machete." I raised an eyebrow. "It's a machete."

"Whatever." Steve chuckled, slinging his bat over his shoulder. "Now c'mon."

The two of us exited the house. We passed our cars and across the road to find a tree that was far away from Will. Once we start hitting our weapons against a tree trunk, the sound of it breaking the tree will carry to the shed. We didn't want to alert Will and the mind flayer what was going on.

"Okay," Steve stopped in front of a tree. He flicked his hand to it. "Have at it. Just not too loud just in case Will hears."

I nodded and unsheathed my machete. Gripping the handle, I took a step closer to the tree and swung. The metal bit into the tree trunk, wooden chips flying about.

"Woah, that felt good." I chuckled, yanking the machete out. I held out the machete to Steve. "Want to give it a try?"

"Why not?" Steve shrugged, grabbing the weapon from me. He tested the handle and weight of the long blade. Biting back a smile, Steve swung the machete like a baseball bat. "I think I might steal this from you."

"No thanks." I bumped my shoulder against his with a grin. Steve breathe out a laugh, nudging me. He took out the machete from the tree and gave it back to me. "I like my weapon very much."

"I can tell." Steve noted. "You feelin' better?"

"Yeah, thanks." I tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. I sheathed my machete. Biting my lip, I stood on my tip toes and kissed Steve's cheek. "We better get back."

"We stay for another minute." Steve smirked. He grabbed waist, bringing me closer to him.

Blushing, I placing my hands against his chest. Steve hooked his finger under my chin, causing me to look up at him. Butterflies erupted in my stomach at the thought of what was going to happen next.

Steve leaned down, pressing his lips against mine. I kissed him back. Our lips moved in synch as mine parted for him. Before Steve could get any ideas, I pulled away and sent him a teasing grin.

"I think that's enough for now." I patted his chest.

"But we barely even started." Steve protested, a pout starting to form on his lips.

"You can kiss me after we save the world from Demogorgons, demo-dogs, and mind flayers." I told him.

"Fine. Let's go, Henderson." Steve held out his hand. Smiling at him, I laced our fingers together.

We entered the house, our smiles dropping. The atmosphere was depressing and filled with anxiety. Danny looked up from the couch. He gave us a knowing smirk.

"Shut up." I glared at him.

Hopper came into the house with Joyce, Johnathon, and Mike. He started looking through some of the things the Byers had on table near the door. Hopper grabbed an open envelope and a pen, placing it on the kitchen table.

"What happened?" Dustin asked. Hopper sat down.

"I think he's talking, just not with words." Hopper sighed. We all gathered around him. He started to draw dots and dashes in the back of the envelope.

"What is that?" Steve questioned. Hopper wrote and capital 'h' under the first three dots.

"Morse code." The younger boys all said together.

"H-E-R-E." Hopper spelled out as he wrote it down.

"Here." Mike read. Joyce looked at Johnathon with a hopeful smile.

"What does he mean by that then?" Danny crossed his arms.

"Will's still in there. He's talking to us." Hopper concluded.

"I know how to talk to him." Johnathon rushed out of the kitchen. A few minutes later he came back with a boom box and a cassette. "Hopper, Mom, you guys come with me. Mike, Dustin, and Lucas, you guys are the only one beside Hopper who knows Morse code."

"I'll send the taps to you guys though the radio." Hopper grabbed Lucas' radio as he stood up. "Grab an other piece of paper and get ready to write it down."

"Will has a pamphlet of how to read Morse code from a talkie. We all got it from Mr. Clarke." Mike said.

"I'll go grab it." Lucas shot up from his seat. He ran towards Will's room.
Hopper, Joyce, Mike, and Johnathon left to the shed, leaving the rest us all at the table.

"Well, you heard the man. Let's go." Danny urged the boys. Everyone scrambled to grab paper and Dustin's radio. Dustin turned it on and handed it to Lucas when he came back.

"I'll write, you tell me." Dustin grabbed a pencil and paper, sitting in a chair.

"Okay, he started." Lucas said. Dustin got ready to write. "Dash, dot, dash, dot."

Dustin quickly started writing the code on the notebook paper. As young boys did their job, Max, Nancy, and I were looking up what the dashes and dots represented in the alphabet. Max and I would look up the dashes and dots and tell Nancy what the letter was. Nancy would then write it down.

"Okay. Yeah got it." Lucas nodded.

"C." Max and I told Nancy. Nancy wrote the letter down on the back of a notepad.

Dustin and Lucas had to wait until Hopper gave them more code. Steve and Danny would help them if they noticed the beeping before them.

"L." I informed Nancy, who wrote down the letter.

"Dash, dash." Lucas told Dustin.

"O." Max looked at Nancy.

"S."

"E."

"G."

"A."

"T."

"E." Lucas told us the last letter.

We all gathered around Nancy to see what the letters spelt.

CLOSEGATE

"Close gate." We all read aloud. The phone rang, startling all of us.

"Someone turn it off!" Danny scrambled out of his chair. We all stood up.

"Shit. Shit." Dustin cursed, rushing towards the phone. He picked it up and slammed it back.

"You think they could hear it from the shed?" I asked, looking at everyone in fear.

The phone rang again. Dustin quickly picked it up. Nancy yelled as he yanked the phone off of the wall. She threw it to the floor.

"Well...do you think he head that one?" Max stared at the phone.

"It's just a phone. It could be anywhere. Right?" Steve glanced at me.

Familiar monstrous screeches echoed from outside. I gulped, know that our question was answered. We all went to the door and looked outside.

"He heard." Danny gravely informed.

"That's not good." Dustin sighed.

We came back inside, the younger kids rushing towards the window in the living room that overlooked the front yard. I was pacing, pinching my lower lip.

"Hey. Hey, get away from the windows!" Hopper game into the room with two rifles. The kids scrambled away and stood next to me. Hopper walked towards us, looking at Johnathon. "Do you know how to use one of these?"

"What?" Johnathon breathed out.

"Can you use this?" Hopper held out a rifle.

"I can." Nancy stepped towards Hopper. Hopper tossed the rifle towards her. Nancy caught it and cocked the gun. Both of them aimed their rifles at the door.

"Alright, guys stay behind us." I held an arm in front of Dustin and his friends. Joyce and Jonathan were next to the kids unarmed. Mike had managed to grab a trophy to use as a weapon. Lucas grabbed his slingshot and popped a rock in the cradle of the rubber, stretching it back.

I unsheathed my machete as Danny grabbed his weapon from the coffee table. Steve readied his bat. The screeches were getting closer.

"Where are they?" Max's voice shook.

A loud chittering sound came from the right of the house. There was a loud thud. Someone gasped in fear behind me. I tightened my grip of the machete as I turned my body to face the right.

"What are they doing?" Nancy asked.

One of the branches in front of the window moved. There was more snarls. I turned back o the front door. Joyce screamed. A monster groaned from the other side of the door. More chittering and screeches came from the front of the house.

Then their was a strangled cry before the sounds stopped.

A demo-dog flew through the window and crashed into a chair. I jumped from shock. There were screams. I took a step closer to the monster. It wasn't moving. 

"Stay." Hopper stopped me. I held back a groan and nodded. Hopper slowly walked toward the monster with his gun pointed at it.

"Holy shit." Dustin gasped. We all started to grow closer to the monster.

"Is it dead?" Max asked.

Hopper placed his foot on the demo-dog. A squelch came after he stepped in it. He kicked it a few times and there was no response from the monster.

The door creaked. We all spun around. The lock on the door flipped by itself, unlocking it. We all held our weapons out in front of us and aimed at the door. The chain slide of, unlocking the last lock on the door.

"How is that possible?" Danny muttered to himself from beside me. I tilted my head as I thought.

"You don't think..." I momentarily glanced at my twin. We shared a knowing look. The door slowly swung open. Someone stepped into the house, the door still covering their face. I lowered my weapon. A smile grew on my face when I saw who it was. "I called it."

Eleven stood in front of us dressed in dark eye makeup and her growing hair slicked back. She was dressed differently than the girl we last saw her as in a pink dress. El was now sporting rolled up jeans, a black shirt and jacket.

Mike stepped passed everyone to look at her. The two had a moment of watery smiles and longing looks.

"Welcome back El." I grinned, sheathing my machete. "Glad to know you're still with us. Ready for another mission?"

So I wrote this chapter in a car with bad phone service and going back and forth between the wattpad app and Netflix app.

But it was worth it. One more chapter left until part 2 is done with.

Idk if I will be able to update tomorrow, but hopefully by Sunday or Monday I will.

Until next time
Much love,
Lux