Warnings: an instance of self harm TECHNICALLY. I don't know if I can even call it self harm but it is not out of depression, but it is for demonstration. Regardless I felt the need to warn you guys in case this might be a trigger to some of you. If you are concerned it might be, I will put a signal [▪▪▪] at the beginning and the end of the instance if that makes sense? Sorry if it's weird I just have never dealt with this issue before and I don't want to trigger anybody. Also, unedited and most likely filled with grammatical errors.

||𝟑𝐑𝐃 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐏𝐎𝐕||

[FLASHBACK]

"Come on!" The giggles of the girl were softly carried through the trees.

Will Byers and Y/n Henderson were lightly jogging through the woods to the infamous Castle Byers hand in hand.

"Okay, okay" Will laughed, trying to catch up with the girl ahead of him.

It had been a few weeks since coming home from the hospital after his disappearance, and Y/n Henderson had yet to share her secret with him.

She insisted that she wait until they could talk in private, so Will had suggested Castle Byers, even though he was still uneasy about the woods since the incident.

Here they were, rushing through the trees to the makeshift fortress in the woods.

He had never stopped trying to pry any sort of information from her prior to this, but she wouldn't break.

Sure enough, the familiar flag and sign of Castle Byers came into view and the two ducked inside.

Will fought the shutter that crept up when he took a look around. The last time he had been here was in the Upside Down.

When it got him.

But when he looked at Y/n, it was different. He was still spooked but he felt grounded with her here with him.

They both took a seat, her in her normal spot. Her having been over so many times, Castle Byers had become their thing, their hideaway and she had her own corner with some of her comic books and other things of hers.

"So what is it? Is everything okay?"

She chuckled weakly and looked down, her nerves began to stir. "Yeah, everything's fine, but uh, it's weird. I'm not gonna lie, it's very weird."

Will's brows furrowed but his curiosity was peaked. Silently, he urged her to go on.

She took a deep breath and began.

"So, do you remember all that stuff we told you about that girl who helped us, El? And how she had... abilities?"

He considered this and then nodded his head. Ordinarily, he would have difficulty believing it but after the whole ordeal he went through, anything seemed possible at that point.

"Well, I think - I think it might be better if I show you."

[▪▪▪]

Before Will could ask what she meant, she took a steep breath and exhaled pulling out a small pocket knife. She awkwardly opened it and hesitantly brought it up to her palm.

Will's eyes bulged and his face went pale and he frantically reached to stop her, sputtering desperately trying to find the words to tell her to stop. But it was too late. With a sharp hiss, she dragged the blade across her palm drawing out a thick stream of blood.

"Crap, Y/n, what the hell was that? Are you okay?"

Will began to look around frantically for something to stop the blood and settled on a discarded piece of cloth that tore from the ratty sheet that was used for the entrance of the fort.

He quickly pressed the cloth to her palm and she hissed once more, glancing up at him, smiling and thanking him. She gently took the cloth and applied pressure for a few more seconds and then wiped the remaining blood away and set the cloth aside.

She shifts nervously taking a long inhale through her nose and closing her eyes. She clenched her bleeding fist and Will watched with bewilderment as her brows furrowed slightly and body tensed for a brief moment.

[▪︎▪︎▪︎]

Though only moments passed, Will took the opportunity to gaze at the girl before him. And although her face held a stern look of concentration, it had a sense of emotional vulnerability.

It took everything in him to pry his eyes from her face and to focus on her hand and while nothing seemed to present itself as unusual he knew nothing would be the same somehow.

His heart began to pound against his chest, and then it happened.

Her fingers slowly unfurled and Will gaped at what he saw. Blood still stained her fingertips and palm but the cut itself was gone. Like it had never existed.

"Wh- I- How did-?"

"I know, even I still can't believe it. And no, I don't know for sure how I got it, technically, but, there's more,"

Will clung to her every word as she retold the story of her encounter with the bad men, only this time including every detail. All the way up to what the white-haired man said to her as they tried to take her away.

It fell quiet for a moment and Will spoke up.

"So, do you think, do you think that place, is where you come from?"

She bit her lip nervously and met his eye, nodding her head.

"I mean, it's gotta be right? I can't think of any other possible explanation for it. And what's even more terrifying to think about is, if that really is the case, would I have grown up like Eleven? I can't even begin to imagine how awful it must have been,"

Y/n grew quiet and Will hung his head, sparing a glance at the girl.

"I'm sorry for bringing it up,"

"No, no," she laughed weakly. "No, it's okay. This is huge, it's hard not to want to ask questions. And I'm sorry you couldn't find out until now, but I couldn't risk anyone else overhearing or finding out or anything. And I made the others promise not to tell you. I figured it should come from me,"

"No, I'm glad it did." He smiled. "So, how much did they freak out?"

Y/n laughed as she recalled the memory, explaining how after everything calmed down they bombarded her with questions and wouldn't let it go all as she wore a fond smile on her face. It soon fell as their laughter died down and she grew more serious.

"Will,"

"Yeah?"

"Will, you faced a monster that week. Spent every moment running and hiding. But in a way, we did too. Those men were," she paused, caution even in her next few breaths."Will, they terrified me. He terrified me. The bad men. I just... I can't get the way he looked at me out of my head. Or... what he called me.

And, I knew that if they got ahold of me - if he got ahold me - he could make me disappear forever. I mean, Jesus, they made and dumped a fake you in the quarry, Will. We buried you. I don't even want to think about what would have happened if things turned out any different than it did,"

Will felt his heart break for her. Everything she had said was true. They all faced their own horrors that week, and it left scars that even she couldn't heal. Wanting desperately to console her, he reached out and took her hand in comfort.

"The point is," her chest rose suddenly as she drew in a steady deep breath and looked at him. "Will, you need to promise me that you aren't going to tell anyone. Especially my mom. The others know, obviously. But I can't risk anyone who isn't already involved to know, it puts them in danger."

"Don't worry, Y/n. Your secret is safe with me."

She smiled thankfully at him and the two of them shared a brief moment of peace which quickly turned to silence that needed to be filled.

"So, can you do it on command? You know, the wave thing?"

She smiled shyly and shook her head. "No, it's rare, and pretty much happens on its own in really bad situations"

He smiled at her and she chuckled.

"What?"

"I bet you could."

"Could what?"

"Learn to control it. I mean, look at what you did with your hand! Imagine what you could do with your other powers,"

"You know, this might sound weird, but then again, all of this is weird," the two chuckled and she continued. "But, I think all this might connect to my bizarre luck with plants. Like, who knows? I could be the next Poison Ivy," she joked.

Will breathed out a light laugh and nodded head. "Totally,"

The two smiled at each other and butterflies stirred between the two.

They both held each other's gaze and then Will speaks up.

"You should try. Practice your powers, I mean. You could do great things,"

"Yeah, I could, couldn't I?" Y/n giggled, a confident smile on her face.

She laughed and rubbed her hands together before reaching her hand out and gently placed her palm on the dirt ground and closed her eyes.

It was at that moment Will could have sworn he saw the smallest bit of movement-

[END OF FLASHBACK]

||𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋'𝐒 𝐏𝐎𝐕||

"Will?"

"Huh?"

It took a moment to come back to reality.

"Yeah. Yeah, sorry." I mumbled half-heartedly.

"Hey. What did we talk about, huh? You've got to stop it with the sorries."

"Sorry." I quickly realize what I said. "I mean, yeah, I know"

"And listen, you know, there's nothing to be nervous about, you know."

"Just tell 'em what you felt last night and what you saw. Hey, I'm gonna be there the whole time. So it's gonna be okay. Okay?"

I couldn't help but think of Y/N, and what they would do if they knew about her.

And I didn't even want to think about the possibility of them knowing about her and the fact that they could take her away at any time.

I shook my head subtly, trying to rid myself of the awful thought.

The anxiety was creeping up on me again and I rested my head on the side of the window, looking out at the open road ready to let my mind wander.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

"Sir Will, how are you? Mom? Pop? Let's take a look, see what's going on here," Dr. Owens entered the room. He greeted me, my mom and Hopper, who always came along to support us.

Dr. Owen's sat down next to me and begins looking through my file, stirring up a conversation as usual. "I see you shaved off a pound since we saw you last. Must be making room for all that Halloween candy. What's your favorite candy?"

I lightly shrugged, clamming up a bit not used to the sudden spotlight.

"Desert island candy, if you had to pick one?"

"I don't know."

"Come on, life or death situation, what would you pick?"

"I guess..."

Mom mouthed Reese's Pieces.

"Reese's Pieces."

"Good call. Good call. I'm more of a Mounds guy, but I gotta say, peanut butter and chocolate, come on, hard to beat that. All right, so tell me what's going on with you. Tell me about this episode you had."

There it was.

I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and I felt a chill run down my spine at the recollection.

"Well, my friends were there and then they just weren't, and I was back there again."

"In the Upside Down?"

I nodded my head.

"All right, so what happened next?"

"I heard this noise, and so I went outside, and it was worse."

"How was it worse?"

"There was this storm"

I could still see the flashes as clear as day.

"Okay. So how did you feel when you saw the storm?"

"I felt... frozen."

《•••》

I trembled as I stared at the monster in the sky. I could hear the faint echo of her voice.

"Will?"

It's staring at me. The shadow.

《•••》

"Heart racing?"

"Just frozen."

"Frozen, cold frozen? Frozen to the touch?"

"No. Like how you feel when you're scared, and you can't breathe or talk or do anything. I felt... I felt this evil, like it was looking at me."

"It was evil?"

"Well... What do you think the evil wanted?"

"To kill."

"To kill you?"

"Not me." For the first time since he questioned me, I looked him in the eye. "Everyone else."

My heart was pounding against my rib cage, and my palms were sweating.

I felt mom squeeze my hand.

"Do you want to tell him what you told me, baby?" She whispered.

I frowned for a second as I looked to her before I knew what she was talking about. It was a small detail I didn't even realize had happened until I was telling her about my episode.

"I remember hearing, very faintly," I took a breath, hoping to subtly stop my quickening heartbeat. "I heard this voice. My friend. She was the only one I could kind of hear."

"So your friend was with you when you had this episode?"

"Yeah," I mumbled avoiding eye contact once more.

"Is this regular for you? Can you normally hear others outside of an episode?"

"Never. And I wanted to hold onto it for as long as I could but I was too scared."

"What were you afraid would happen, Will?"

"It saw her," I could feel the color drain from my face.

My heartbeat quickened. I didn't want them to know about Y/n. But if what I am about to admit out loud really is true, that means she could be facing an even greater danger.

"Was she there with you?"

I shook my head. "No, but I could barely hear her. Like she was calling to me from a distance. And I wanted to follow that. I thought maybe if I did, the episode would stop but-" my eyes were beginning to burn, I hadn't realized I was fighting back tears.

"It's okay, take your time," Dr. Owen's said.

I took another deep breath and managed to swallow the lump in my throat.

"But I couldn't let myself,"

"And why not?"

"It saw her," I looked the man, unable to hide the growing fear in my eyes. "It saw her as a threat."