( darkest before dawn / act two )
episode five | stranger things

❛ A MAP OF HAWKINS ❜

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AURORA AND MIKE STOOD in Wills room as he explained what was happening. "It's like...it's like I feel what the shadow monster's feeling. See what he's seeing." Aurora sat next to Will, and grabbed his hand. Her eyes widened at the coldness Will radiated.

Mike wandered around, taking in anything different about Wills room, "Like in the Upside Down?"

"Some of him is there." Will had sweat covering the collar of his shirt as he spoke, "but some of him is here, too."

"Here, like, in this house?" Aurora asked the boy softly, speaking for the first time since she had been invited inside.

"In this house and...in me." Wills voice shaking, "It's like...it's like he's reaching into Hawkins more and more. And the more he spreads, the more connected to him I feel."

"And the more you see these now-memories," Aurora trailed off, waiting for Will to finish.

"At first, I just felt it in the back of my head," Will was crying as he spoke, "I didn't even really know it was there. It's like, when you have a dream and you can't remember it unless you think really hard. It was like that. But now it's like...now I remember. I remember all the time."

Aurora stood up, leaving the room. She turned to the bathroom, and made sure the door was closed. She clutched the sink harshly, trying to limit her hands from shaking as she tried to figure out a way to help Will.

From the times she practiced with her aunts, she was told that she could put someone in a dreamless sleep. One where they couldn't have nightmares. Maybe, that could work with Will. Aurora turned on the water, and slashed her face with it before walking out of the bathroom.

She stood at the door, hearing Will and Mike talk about the former being a spy for the shadow monster.

"Will," Auroras voice was soft, as if not to spook him, "I can help you, if you wanna talk a small nap, without having to worry about having any now-memories?"

Wills eyes lit up, "Really?"

"Remember last year," Aurora took a few steps into the room, "when you had trouble sleeping as I helped you fall asleep, I can do it again. You won't have to worry about the shadow monster or anything like that."

Wills hands shook, "Promise?"

Aurora held her pinky out, "pinky promise."

Will linked his finger with hers as Mrs. Byers spoke up from the door frame, "It's safe right?" When Aurora nodded, Mrs. Byers walked towards the group, "If that's what you want, baby."

Aurora sighed, and grabbed Wills arm. She took a deep breath in as she channeled her strongest emotions, calling her power as she remember what her aunts told her.

"Your power is just an extension of your emotions," Flora spoke as the two of them set in the woods behind their home, "in order to fully control it, you must control your emotions. You must know how much of it to us, and how to stop it from overpowering your mind."

"Thank you," Will whispered as Aurora extended her power through the connection she had made with Will. She opened her eyes when she felt Wills hand go limp in her hold.

Mrs. Byers pulled the girl into a hug, that she stumbled into, "Thank you, Aurora. Thank you for helping him."

"'Course," Aurora mumbled, drowsiness creeping up on her as she smiled into the hug. Mrs. Byers led the pair out of his room, and gave them some food before settling Mike in Wills room and Aurora in her room.

The two of them called in a mandatory sleepover with their parents/aunts, before quickly falling asleep.

Aurora was up before the sun and she joined Mike in Wills room waiting for the boy to wake up. They talked, even if it was a bit awkward, they were there for Will - and Aurora would be dammed if she let her feelings get in the way of helping Will.

When Will woke up with a gasp, Mike, and Aurora were at his side helping him. And when Will demanded to go to the living room to tell them all something, the two of them helped him into the living room. They stood behind the boy as he breathed heavily.

"Mom," Will whimpered, "I saw him."

Mrs. Byers gasped, "you saw who, baby?"

"Hopper." Aurora and Mike glanced between each other in a panic. "I think he's in trouble. I think he's going to die."

Mrs. Byers jumped into action, urging Will to describe exactly where he saw Hopper. She hurriedly grabbed a piece of paper and crayons for him. Will immediately started sketching lines into the paper, the three of them watched him intently.

When he finished, he dropped the crayons and Mrs. Byers bent down to his level. "Hey, is this where you saw him? Is-is this where you saw Hopper?"

"I think so." Will nodded, "yeah."

At his assurance, Mrs. Byers, Mike and Aurora began glancing around, trying to find where Wills old drawings connected to his newest one. They hurried up the halls, Joyce holding the picture up trying to connect them.

"Here," Mike pointed to the wall, where the picture aligned with the one in Mrs. Byers' hand.

"Okay," Mrs. Byers pressed the image to the wall, making sure it lined up, "so...so Hopper is here?"

"But where is here?" Aurora voiced what everyone had been wondering.

"That's what we need to find out," Mike nodded, "did he say anything? I mean, before he left?"

Mrs. Byers sighed, "uh, some...something about vines?" She jumped up when a car approached the house, "Hopper!" When they glanced out the front window, Mrs. Byers seemed to dim, glancing at the pictures filling the walls. "Okay, you two stay here, I'll...I'll be back."

Mrs. Byers opened the door, and slipped out to go greet Bob while Mike and Aurora stood idly, Aurora looked around, trying to find what connected everything.

"What?" Mike questioned, noticing the look, "what's that look for?"

"I feel like," Aurora started, motioning around them, "I feel like we're missing something, that's like...right in front of us."

After a moment, the door flew open, revealing Mrs. Byers and a nice looking man beside her. Smiling genuinely, the man spoke, "Hello, I'm Bob."

"Hi! I'm Aurora," the girl spoke, grinning as she connected the dots to who the man was.

"Mike," the boy next to her introduced, a smile appearing on his face. "You created the Hawkins AV Club, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did!" Bob exclaimed, looking around at the walls covered in pictures. "Say, what is all this hanging up on the walls?"

"Bob, no questions," Mrs. Byers ordered, causing Bob to nod. "We just need you to help us figure out what..." Mrs. Byers walked to the next room, only to realize that he wasn't following, "Bob! Bob!" As the man turned, Mrs. Byers ushered him into the next room, Aurora and Mike grinned before following the two of them to the kitchen.

They watched as Mrs. Byers drew a big red 'X' in the center of Will's drawing.

"That's the objective," Mike told the man. "Find the X."

"Yeah?" Bob exclaimed, a smile forming on his lips. "What's at the X? Pirate treasure?"

"More like hell," Mike mumbled, causing Aurora to nudge his side jokingly.

"Bob, no questions," Mrs. Byers' repeated.

As the two adults left privately, Will, Aurora, and Mike took a seat at the kitchen table - dumbfounded.

Tapping his fingers on the table, Mike spoke, "What if Hopper is already gone?"

"Vines," Aurora mumbled, trying to think about what she had heard when she'd gone to the station yesterday, "vines...at the station, there were some guys in there, mentioning something about farms getting destroyed, poisoning, if I remember correctly."

"What's that got to do with this?" Mike questioned. "And why were you at the station?"

Aurora pushed herself up, ignoring Mikes question, "so what if..." Aurora dragged her finger across the pictures, trying to find the connection.

"...okay, I get it! That's Lake Jordan!" A voice spoke, coming out of Mrs. Byers' room. "And if that's Lake Jordan, then you can probably find..."

Walking into the room where the three kids stood, Bob searched the walls, snapping his fingers and exclaiming, "Yeah, that's uh, Sattler's quarry!"

"And if you just follow it naturally, it moves to..." Bob trailed off, stopping in the living room. "The Eno River. Okay, so the lines aren't roads, but they act like roads. And they act like roads, 'cause when you follow them, you'll see, they don't go over water."

"Oh my gosh!" Aurora exclaimed, understanding what Bob was going on about, "it's a map!"

"Don't you get it? It's not a puzzle..." Bob trailed off, lifting his hands up. "It's a map! It's a map of Hawkins!"

Raising his eyebrows, Mike jumped up and had the same look as Will, glancing at Aurora. If Will's drawings were a map of Hawkins, that meant the demogorgan was here. In Hawkins. Again.

Bob grinned, proud of what he had just realized as he everyone watched with wide eyes. Before he rushed to grab a map, and pulled out a pen from his jacket and began to ask for the coordinates. Aurora made her way to the living room as he called out, "All right. I'm 3.6 inches, what do you got?"

"Twenty one feet, four inches," Mrs. Byers called from the hallway.

"What about Tippacanoe to Danford Creek?" Bob asked.

"Danford.....where's Danford?"

"Dining room!" Will called.

Mrs. Byers sighed, "Sixteen feet, ten inches."

"What about Danford to Jordan?"

"Oh, come on," Mrs. Byers groaned, jogging over to Bob in the kitchen. "That's gotta be enough."

Bob sighed, "It's not..it's really not."

"Can't you figure it out?"

"It's hard," Bob groaned, "I mean it's not exactly a ratio of one-to-one! If you were twisting my arm, and you are twisting my arm...would say that the X is...maybe a half mile southeast of Danford?"

"Thank you!" Mrs. Byers sighed in relief, kissing Bob's cheek in appreciation as she grabbed the map. "Thank you!"

Following Mrs. Byers outside, the three kids left Bob sitting dumfounded, "Wait...are we really going?"

"I think things are about to get weird," Aurora told Bob, as the group piled into the car.

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IT WAS DARK BY the time the group had made it to the location. Well, they hoped it was Hoppers location as they stood over a freshly dug hole, Aurora felt a twinge of panic rush through her veins. Maybe Hopper was a bit rude to her - maybe she shouldn't have put him to sleep in a fit of rage - but she hoped that he survived. He didn't deserve to die.

But, she knew that he had a slim chance of surviving overnight, she just hopped it was big enough.

"Did you see anything?" Mike asked, turning to Will. "I mean, in your now-memories?" Wills now memories had been a key part in helping the group find the location. But now, Will shook his head.

When Bob had followed Joyce down into the tunnels, was when the three kids had jumped from the truck. And now, they were panicking as they waiting for them to appear again.

An abrupt screeching of tires caused the group of friends to turn around. When they did, they were met with multiple headlights driving towards the scene.

"Shit," Aurora cursed, "it's them. It's the bad men." At Auroras revelation, Mike grabbed her hand and pulled her closer to his body. Shielding her from the men.

As the vans pulled up, multiple men hopped out in what seemed to look like space suits. "Don't worry," the man spoke, his voice muffled by the mask. "We'll take it from here."

Breathing heavily, Aurora watched as the men hoisted themselves into the hole. The men seemed to scatter everywhere around the area - flashlights in their hands as they studied the location.

A sudden gasp turned the heads of Mike and Aurora, only to find Will collapsed on the ground - his body shaking violently as his eyes rolled the back of his head.

"Will, Will are you okay?!" Mike spoke, shaking the boy.

Aurora knelt down beside him, "Will, what's wrong?"

The shaking got worse, and suddenly, Will's body flipped over and screamed at the top of his lungs. Aurora reached for Wills arm, grabbing at the power in the back of her head and calling it forward, before shoving it through the connecting she had opened.

Wills shaking had stopped, and the loudest sound in the area was now Auroras sobbing. Mike grabbed her, pulling the girl away from Wills lifeless boy and into his arms.

"Don't look," Mike spoke, laying Auroras head on his chest so she faced the opposite direction. "Don't look."

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( LET ME SPEAK : )

guys my girl is going through it lol
next chapter is shorter but the
lab invasion is a LONGGGG one
and then the confession!! :))

credit goes to fivehxrgreeves