A PARTY OF OUR OWN !

☀︎

IT WAS VITAL FOR THE LARGE GROUP TO GET MORE INFORMATION THAN WHAT THEY HAD NOW. With Will lost in the Shadow Monsters grasp, dread filled the group with what was going on in the boys mind. With the watchful eye of the monster in the sky, everyone separated into different groups to prepare the Byers shed to call the boy back home and to his rightful reality.

Alex headed inside after time spent digging through garbage to cover the shed to see if Mike and Max had any luck looking for more supplies in the kitchen. As soon as she made her way through the doorway, Mike had sent her a dangerous look, warning her to not say anything as he walked passed her. His conversation with Max had not gone well as intended and their dislike for one another had not gone away. 

Alex had let him go off as she stepped over the littered floor before taking a seat beside her on the kitchen floor. Max had avoided eye contact as she continued to duct tap cardboard over the legs of a chair. Alex knew she wanted to let out her frustrations, but couldn't find it in herself to speak up in fear another person would push her away but Alex wasn't like that. "Still not in the party?" she asked softly.

"Guess not," she whispered

She leaned forward, lightly punching Max's arm to get her to look. "Well, if they don't let you in their party then we'll start a party of our own."

"Don't tell me we have to invite Steve into our party," Max groaned as she played along. Steve had made it quite clear and obvious he was the smallest bit jealous that not a single person had invited him into the party despite him not even knowing what it had all meant.

Alex shook her head in response with a small laugh. "Gross, of course not."

Max couldn't hold back her smile any longer as she dropped the duct tape into her lap. "As long as we don't invite Billy either. No boys, they suck."

"Screw boys," Alex playfully agreed. It seemed that every boy around the two had managed to be the absolute dumbest or be some sort of asshole when they were around— and if they weren't any of that, they were clueless, typical boys.

After the laughter died down, both girls grew silent, lost in their own heads. Max, thinking of her brother, Billy Hargrove, wondering why he couldn't have been nicer. She thought that if he had been, Alex Henderson, someone she hadn't known long but had already known she'd never let go, would fall for him so she could be the one to say her brother had someone she would proudly tell everyone about.

Alex on the other hand thought of the other boy Max had brought up. Steve Harrington always littered her thoughts, however with the arrival of Nancy Wheeler, she could already feel him slipping away from her once again. Nancy was beautiful, sweet and smart— everything that Alex couldn't blame anyone for falling for.

Yet when both girls looked each other in the eyes once again, they're worries about the older boys had completely vanished. Despite the age difference, they had found a life long friend in each other.

Alex was the first to stand up, grabbing more duct tape off the counter. "Come on, let's go help them." Sticking out a hand, she offered Max a helping hand. "Most of them out there helping are boys so I'm sure they already found a way to totally screw everything up."

Taking her hand, Max had pushed herself up off the floor as she looked to Alex. "This is crazy, you know— all this is just insane."

Alex placed her arm around Max's shoulder as they walked out of the kitchen. Pulling her in close as they walked, she let out a small laugh. It really was all insane and she had been dragged right into it. "It's a lot, but it brought us all closer together. So, welcome to the family. You're officially stuck with us."

『••☀︎••』

WILL HAD BEEN PLACED IN THE SHED AND UNAWARE OF WHERE HE HAD BEEN. Staying with him had been Joyce, Hopper, Jonathan and Mike in hopes of getting some answers on how to defeat the Mind Flayer. The rest of the group had been left to wait in the Byers house to wait it out and stand guard in case anything had been sent their way.

Alex had been sat on the couch in the living room, left all alone with Steve Harrington. The others had placed themselves in the kitchen and the hallway leading to the bedrooms. Right now had not felt like the time to keep up light hearted conversations and joke around with one another. This was a waiting game and they didn't know if they were waiting for the good or the bad to follow.

To keep himself occupied, Steve swung his bat as he imagined himself knocking back those demodogs in the junkyard. Alex hadn't been all that amused as he had swung so close to her. "You hit me with that, and I kill you, Harrington."

Smiling to himself, he gave it another swing and following after, Alex stood from the couch. "Okay, okay, calm down," he said as he placed his bat down. "Jesus, I didn't think you were serious."

"You were close to hitting me," she frowned as she fell back into her seat. Copying her actions, Steve threw himself down beside her with a loud huff. Alex had lazily smacked his chest with the back of her hand, "Shut up," she whispered.

"I didn't say anything," he said quietly back.

"Yeah, but you were going to and knowing you, it'd be dumb."

"Okay, ouch," he responded back sarcastically. "I just wanted to ask you if you talked to Nancy at all."

Alex had given a small shrug as she focused down on her hands in her lap. "Yeah, but only for a bit. I really hoped you two talked though because she had a lot on her mind and I know you had a lot you wanted to say."

"Oh, yeah, we did. It went better than expected— she wasn't drunk and calling me bullshit for starters."

Alex had fought back a smile at his playful attitude because she knew how much this break up had effected him. All he ever wanted to talk about was Nancy Wheeler before the two started dating, and once he got what he wanted, he was prepared to do anything for her. And just like that it was all over. "I'm really sorry, Steve. I know you love her."

"No," he frowned with a small shake of his head. Looking over to her, he met her eyes and gave a small shrug as he clarified. "I mean, I thought so. I don't know, maybe I did, but not now. Once someone breaks your heart that bad, sorta forget how much you loved them. Like all you can think about is what they did to you and not how they made you feel before. Maybe I'm just being stupid."

"It's not stupid. She hurt you, feel whatever you want to feel. I'm just glad you got to say what you wanted. You are allowed to be happy, you know that, right?"

"I am happy," he said with a nudge to her side. "Come on, Henderson. I've got you, what's not to be happy about?"

She rolled her eyes as she laughed, leaning her head on Steve's shoulder. She was happy just to know he was because he was right— they had each other.

Walking in through the door, Hopper had motioned for Alex to follow with him. Picking her head up off Steve, she followed after with him trailing behind to be included. As everyone began to gather around the kitchen table, Hopper grabbed a piece of paper and pen as he began to scribble down everything he had remembered. Following in after, Joyce, Mike and Jonathan had joined in with the group.

"I think he's talking, just not with words," Hopper explained. A series of dots and dashes had been written across the paper as he wrote the letters correlating with each part.

• • • • • • — • •
H E R E

Leaning over Alex's shoulder, a prominent frown had came to Steve's lips as he tried to understand. "What is that?"

"Morse code," had been the response from several people in the group, but still he had seemed lost. HERE had been printed across the paper causing Hopper to sit back in his seat. "Will's still in there. He's talking to us." Tossing his pen down onto the table, he stood up and moved his way through the group. "We need to keep talking to him just as we were. Get him to remember things. Tell him stories, remind him how he felt, how you felt, everything."

"What about the rest of us?" Dustin questioned as the group began to pull apart once more.

"Stay here," he instructed. "We can't risk too many in there. As far as he's concerned, none of you have ever been with us. Makes it harder on this thing if he doesn't realize what kind of back up we got." His eyes shifted over to Alex as he raised a finger up to her. "As far as he's concerned, you aren't with us. We don't know how much of him is still in you, if anything. He might not be with you like Will, but we can't guarantee he doesn't have access somehow. If he channels even the smallest bit, we lose and worse than that, we lose you."

"Got it," Dustin spoke for the group. "We aren't here and Alex doesn't exist."

"Okay, screw you," she whispered to him, proceeding to shove his back. "At least Hopper said it in a nice way."

"You're my sister, I don't do nice," he shot back as Hopper made his exit with his original group. Alex had scoffed at her brothers words and took a seat at the table. They had to prepare for Hopper's messages to come threw to translate the morse code.

"I don't know Morse Code," Steve whispered to her as he took his own seat.

"Okay... then just pretend you know what's going on," she sighed, passing a pen over to Nancy.

The group left in the Byer's house had all sat around in chairs, listening for Hopper's signal as he repeated back Will's taps of morse code. Nancy had continued to copy down every letter until they had gotten the clear answer they were looking for.

CLOSE GATE.

They had all looked to one another as they repeated the message under their breaths. Finally, those eyes had shifted over towards Alex, awaiting an answer she wasn't sure she could give. She held her breath for a moment as she kept her eyes on the message. Nothing had came to mind or maybe it had been buried so deep into her mind, she wasn't sure if she could pull it out. Either way, her shoulders slacked and she let out that long breath of air in defeat. "I don't know what it means." Her eyes shifted around the table, seeing that most held disappointment. "I'm sorry, guys. I-I want to help."

The phone in the Byers house had rang loud and clear, causing all of them to jump and put Alex's guilt on hold for the moment. Dustin had been the first to react as he jumped from his seat, knocking it over as he raced towards it. Picking it up, he instantly slammed it back down, sighing in relief that he had possibly saved it. That relief was short lived when the phone had gone off once again. Shoving Dustin out of her way, Nancy's frustration grew as she yanked the phone clean off the wall and threw it down to the floor to prevent it from ever ringing again.

"Do you think he heard that?" Max asked.

"It's just a phone. It could be anywhere, right?" Steve asked from the back of the group.

"He knows," Alex sighed.

Turning around, Lucas pointed to her as he looked to the others for backup. "How do you know that? How does she know that? She's working for him!"

"I know that because I'm not an idiot! I know how he thinks!" She shouted back at him, grabbing her bat and stomping into the living room in frustration. The monsters screeched in the distance, confirming everything Alex had said. Lucas felt terrible for accusing her in the heat of the moment but there was no time to apologize.

The ones that were in the shed came running back to the house with Will in hand. Hopper got his rifle ready, yelling at all of them to move away from the window. Everyone held onto a weapon, some better than others. Mike probably the weakest with a candlestick.

"Mike, that might be a weapon in Clue but do you really think that'll stop a demodog?" Alex questioned him nervously, gripping onto her bat even tighter, trying to keep her eyes focus on the window.

"I'm gonna kill it with a candlestick and then you won't ever doubt me," he said confidently back, though in his mind, gripping onto a candlestick now seemed a tad ridiculous.

They all watched in silence, listening for a demodog to come tearing through the window to kill them. The growling grew louder and louder the closer the demodog got to the house. Everyone jumped when the sound of the growling was right outside, seconds away from becoming a real problem.

The screeching of the demodog halted, terrifying the group even further. This all of a sudden made the world around them eerily quiet. All that could be heard around them was the sound of their lingered breathing and the thumping of their hearts.

Glass shattered around them as a demodog broke through the front window. Steve turned himself, shielding Alex from the flying glass and the demodog, ready to take whatever was coming their way all for her. Fortunately for them, the demodog laid there motionless on the floor.

"Is it dead?" Max asked, breaking the silence as they all stared down at the demodog in wonder. Alex pushed passed Steve, kicking the demodog hard with her foot and it made no movements at all. She dropped her bat back down to her side with relief.

"Yeah. It's dead," she confirmed, looking to all of them with a nod. The front door rattled, making their sense of relief disappear.

Everyone stood watching as the lock undid itself, keeping their weapons held up for whatever was about to come through that door.

The door creaked open and in walked a young girl, nose bleeding and a determined look on her face. Alex dropped her bat once again. The fight wasn't over yet but they had their strongest fighter now. Eleven was here with a new look and the urge to end this once and for all.

Alex's grin grew as she watched El walk through the door. Leaning down to Alex's ear, Steve felt he was at a complete loss for what was happening. "Who's that?"