DON'T DO THAT AGAIN !

☀︎

THE MOMENT THAT HOPPER AND ALEX WALKED INTO WILL'S SMALL BEDROOM, JOYCE HANDED HIM A STACK OF PAPERS. Taking it in his hands, Hopper quickly rifled through them, only to see that it had all been the same scribbles. Taking a seat on Will's bed, Alex had watched as he furiously colored more of these pictures, allowing them to fall to the floor after swiping them off his desk.

Shifting his eyes from the stack, Hopper had met Joyce's eyes. She was panicked, nervously biting at her nails. There was no telling her things would be okay from where she was standing. As days passed, Will had become worse, and now with Hopper involved and Alex visiting her rather than Jonathan had been slightly alarming.

"Alex, let's hear it. What exactly are you seeing?" Hopper asked

"Uh, I don't know. It's this thing... he takes up the whole sky... he's got all these arms..." Alex shut her eyes as the image of the monster had came to her mind in more detail. How he had towered over her, every bit of terror drifting through her mind as she had thought of it. However, her description had spiked an idea in Joyce's mind. Shifting through the papers on Will's desk, she grabbed a picture that had contained more detail than those around it.

Holding out the paper out towards Alex, she tapped it a few times before her hand flew back up to her mouth. Alex's eyes had darted around the paper as she looked over the drawing that had been by Will Byers. Standing over the trees and occupying the sky had been what she had seen and what she had heard. "That's him," she said softly, unable to pull her eyes away.

"Is that the thing that's talking to you?" Hopper asked. Alex nodded her head in response, but Hopper did not fail to notice the panic settling over her as she continued to stare at the drawing. Reaching out, he gently removed the picture from her hands and tossed it on the bed behind her.

"Talking to you?" Joyce had questioned her as she hurriedly took a seat beside Alex. "Will describes them as now memories. Things that are happening now, just not to him."

"No, she really means talking to her," Hopper said with a shake of his head. "What the hell are we dealing with now?" His question had gone unanswered as another stack of papers had fallen around their feet from Will as he continued to draw. Sighing, Hopper had picked them up and looked them over once more. Still, they meant nothing— or nothing as far as he could tell.

Holding out her hand, Joyce had wiggled her fingers to signal to Hopper to pass them over. Though they had seemed meaningless from her point of view, she knew she could not feel or know what Will had been thinking. Hopeful, she held out the stack towards Alex— someone who very well could know. "Alex, does this mean anything to you?"

Alex had taken the stack form Joyce and at first felt she could be of no help. However, as she began to flip through the pages, her panicked breathing had picked back up as a rush of emotion had ran through her. It was uncertain if it was fear or comfort that she had felt flowing through her. However, inside her, she was yet to know the mixed emotions wasn't lack of understanding, but a shared brain and body with a monster that she could not rid.

Joyce had laid her hand gently on Alex's back as she felt the need to comfort her. Clearly it had been all too much but before she knew it, Alex's eyes had fluttered close and her shoulders slacked. Sitting up straight, Joyce had began to rub her back as she whispered her name in hopes of a response.

Inside her mind, Alex had lost all touch with the world around her. Deep inside she had always known that there was never a chance of escaping the horrors of the Upside Down and that dreadful night the demogorgon had attacked. Deep inside her head, she had found herself in the tunnels, the same tunnels the monster had her race through every night as she slept.

Holding the stack tightly in her hand, she had stood up from the bed, eyes closed and lost in another world. Unknowingly to her, Alex stopped in the hallway, lying the pages down on the floor, connecting them all together as she ran through the same tunnels in her mind. Hopper stared at the girl who's eyes remained closed but still managed to walk around as if they were wide open.

"They connect!" Joyce said, falling to her knees next to the girl. "Make room for her! I'll get her more papers from Will!" Joyce lifted herself off the ground, rushing back to Wills room while Hopper pushed the coffee table out of the way right when Alex started lying papers where it once stood.

Joyce returned with another stack, placing them into Alex's hands, watching as she moved rapdily around, placing them perfectly together. Standing back for a moment, she watched as the once meaningless pictures had came together in a way she felt she would've never figured out.

On the other hand, Hopper's eyes had remained on Alex as she crawled across the floor, laying out more for them to see. He was no where near amazed or thankful. He knew that with Alex here and solving something mind boggling, she had found herself in danger once again. There was still the uncertainty if he was going to be able help her this time around when he had no idea what they could be dealing with.

Standing up, Alex had made her way to the wall. Lazily slapping the pictures up, they had soon fallen to the floor at her feet. "Get the tape!" Hopper called out as he raced for the fallen pictures. "Follow her and tape them up when she tries to place them! This is one big picture they're making!"

Rushing through he living room with tape in hand, Joyce's eyes had followed the connecting pictures. "Do you think their minds are connected?" Joyce wondered out loud, taping picture after picture while she followed Alex around.

"They have to be," Hopper said, looking down at the picture unfolding in front of him. "How else would they both know what this thing really is?"

"How is she seeing this stuff though, Hop? I mean... she's never acted this way before."

"She said she went to the Upside Down like Will did. Something happened we don't know about... Jonathan hasn't said anything?"

"Jonathan? No... he hasn't. You don't think this could be some sort of outbreak?"

Hopper laughed at the idea. Knowing their luck, it could have been anything. Either way, it was another thing for them to solve on their own. "There's been no reports of things in the sky from anyone else. They're the only two."

"How can we fix her if we can't help Will?"

"We're gonna help them both. They're together now... we're gonna get all the answers we need. I mean, look at what we're getting now!" Taking the tape from Joyce, Hopper had taken his turn to follow Alex as she rushed to get more from Will. "As soon as they both pull out of whatever's going through their heads, start asking questions. Find out what she's been keeping from us."

Joyce had rushed her way back in, holding the stack in front of Alex. The moment she had taken them, Joyce could not take her eyes off of the girl. "What if she doesn't tell us? W-what if this thing has a hold of her mind? She said it's talking to her."

"Figure out how to get her alone," Hopper suggested. Despite being able to give out suggestions and theories, it was nothing compared what it would really take to find the answers they needed.

『••☀︎••』

TIME HAD PASSED AND THE PICTURE WILL AND ALEX CREATED WAS NOW TAKING OVER THE HOUSE. The moment that Alex had came to a stop and the last of the pictures had been taped up, Joyce and Hopper and audibly sighed in relief.

"Great job, kid." Hopper said, looking down at the floor in front of him, unaware she was frozen in place, eyes still shut. Her world had remained dark and empty as she trapped herself in the tunnels, unsure how how to break free.

"Hop," Joyce said walking in front of Alex, waving her hand in front of her face. "She's not waking up."

Looking up, he had hesitated, hoping that one more second and she would be willing to snap out of it and find herself back home. "Let's sit her down on the couch," Hopper said hesitantly, making his way over and guiding her towards the couch, making her sit down. He leaned down, examining the girl carefully, "Whatever is happening to her right now. It's not good."

"She looks terrified," Joyce whispered, fear in her heart.

"She's stuck."

"Wills never done this before... getting lost in his own mind like this." Joyce anxiously pulled her sweater around her tightly, trying to comfort herself. Alex Henderson had always found the Byers house as a second home and right now, it was all Joyce had wanted to bring her back to.

"She's not going through what Will is going through. She said this thing talks to her. It's only putting these now memories in Will's head..." Hopper's voice has trailed off as he tried to piece it all together, yet the two were too different to fully understand.

Joyce was hesitant as she took her eyes off Alex to meet Hoppers. "They're still seeing it all the same. It must want to control them in different ways, I just can't understand why."

"If one way of manipulation doesn't work... he's got a backup," Hopper concluded. His eyes lingered on Joyce's as he saw every bit of information run through her head.

She had slowly took a seat beside Alex as her brows had furrowed together in thought. "Then who's the backup?"

"I think we should worry more about what it wants with them. There's gotta be a bigger plan."

"There is," Joyce stated. Her eyes wandered down to the floor at the papers that were all over her house now. They all connected but it still did not tell them anything that was useful.

Hopper's eyes fell to the floor as well, confused on what this could all really mean. "Is it a storm?"

"No, the storm was red... this is all blue and it has some weird dirt color..." Joyce said. "Maybe its roots. Cause remember, he was saying it was spreading and..."

"Killing. He said they were killing," Hopper finished for her. His eyes darted right back to hers as he began to get some sort of answer. "Vines. They're vines." Confident in his answer, he had grabbed his hat as he made his way towards the front door. The minute he had opened it, cold air had flooded in, sending a shiver down Joyce's back but her concern seemed to be elsewhere.

"She's freezing," Joyce said

"Get her a blanket. She's not exactly here right now so she can't complain. Then she won't get sick." He placed his hat on top of his head as he nodded towards the blanket sitting beside Joyce.

Joyce had been hesitant to do so after her experiences with Will. He had always been so angry with the heat and knowing Alex most likely thought the same, it was only logical to believe she'd feel the same. Yet, she had gripped on tight to the blanket as she wrapped it around Alex's shoulders.

Instant regret filled the room when Alex let out a piercing, unnatural scream. Hopper rushed to rip the blanket off since Joyce had her hands occupied cupping her ears to shield the screams. As soon as the blanket was removed, Alex went back to her emotionless state like nothing had happened.

With their ears still ringing, Hopper tossed the blanket onto the table, pointing right at Joyce, "Do not do that again."

Slowly pulling her hands off her ears, Joyce could barely process much as Hopper slammed the door behind himself. Unsure what to do next, she had sat back into the couch with a heavy sigh, hoping that when the next set of events comes around, she wouldn't be alone to take it on.