Halley's comet | Steve Harrington

xi. light up my life

"𝑾𝒊𝒍𝒍? 𝑾𝒊𝒍𝒍, 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒏, 𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒆."

➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶

The boys had filled her in last night, with the demogorgon, and the upside down. She wasn't totally sure if it was actually the demogorgon, or a creature they just decided to call that, either way, it wasn't the time to ask.

Briefly, she was able to speak to El, though, for the most part the girl was curled up in her fort, eating whatever food Mike had snuck down. That's not to say she didn't demonstrate her superpowers by nearly scaring the shit out of Halley when she made a pencil levetate with her fucking mind.

Needless to say, she didn't get very much sleep that night. Okay, so she did not get even a little sleep, but she had a strong feeling that she blacked out for about twenty minutes between four and five in the morning, so there was that.

Around six, maybe six thirty, she wasn't really sure, she heard a voice coming from across the hall. Will's room.

Out of the bed almost immediately, Halley struggled to pull a pair of pants on as she hopped toward the door. She pulled at the waist band the same time she opened the door, nearly running into Jonathan.

They looked at each other, clearly thinking the same thing. Now that there wasn't a door, or in her brother's case, a wall, it was clear that it wasn't Will's voice.

Joyce was talking aloud again, and they couldn't totally make out what she was saying, but Halley had a hunch it had something to do with her youngest brother.

Giving the door a soft knock before pushing it open, the kids were in a stupor for a good ten seconds. Halley rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands, maybe she had actually fallen asleep and was currently dreaming. No. She pulled her hands away from her face, and there was her mom. Still surrounded by every lamp they had ever owned. All of them plugged in and shined way too bright for whatever time it was.

"Mom?" Jonathan was the first to speak, pushing hair from his eyes, sparing a glance to Halley, probably to make sure she was seeing the same thing. "What is this?"

Joyce was quick to look up, her eyes widening as she saw her eldest. A frantic look overtook her and she reached out, "Jonathan, Halley, come here, come here." She gestured to the empty space beside her on Will's bed.

Taking a step into the room, Halley was able to see the full effect of her mother's redecoration.

"What's—" she cut herself off as she nearly tripped over a power cord. Steadying herself she kept the same, what she hoped was, level tone, "What's going on?"

"It's Will," Joyce said quickly, checking the lamps as if they would affirm it. "He's, he's trying to talk to me."

Jonathan turned to Halley, who had taken a seat beside their mother. Her thoughts spun as she listened to the others.

"He's... trying to talk to you?" Jonathan crossed his arms.

"Yes. Through...through the lights." Joyce stammered. Opening his mouth to no doubt try to convince her Will was't talking through the lights, Joyce held up her hand. "I know, I, I know that it sounds crazy, but watch," she turned her attention to the lamp directly in front of her, and Halley looked on intently, "Will? Your brother and sister are here. Can you show them what you showed me, Baby? Please?"

Halley flinched as the lights flickered. "Holy shit."

"Did you see that?" Joyce said excitedly, looking from one child to the other. "You saw that, right? He's trying to talk to us!"

There was a horrible moment of silence, the only sound being Jonathan's long sigh, before he finally said, "It's the electricity mom, it's just— it's acting up." Joyce shook her head, but before she could speak: "It's just the same thing that fried the phone."

"No! It's not the electricity, Jonathan," Joyce said, struggling to keep her voice stable. "Something is going on here. Yesterday the wall—"

He cut her off, "What? What about the wall, Mom?"

The look she gave him was utterly lost. Halley watched as her mother fought to find the words until she finally gave up, weakly replying with, "I don't know, I just, I don't know." She pushed her hair from her face with a shaky hand. "I just know that Will is here. He's trying to talk to me."

Jonathan scowled at Halley, clearly waiting for her to jump in on his side and continue to interrogate their mom who was obviously under a lot of stress.

"Maybe I just need more lamps." She stood up, looking around already, as if she would find some miscellaneous lightbulb not yet lit up.

Without hesitating, Jonathan took hold of her hand, slowly guiding her backward to where she had been sitting on the bed. "No. No more lamps, Mom. You need to stop this. He's just lost, okay? People are looking for him. This isn't helping." Maybe his word choice wasn't the best, but his tone was soft and it seemed to get Joyce to slow down for a moment.

"Okay," she said quietly. Halley could see her eyes welling up and she wished everything was okay.

"Mom, can you do something for me? Can you take a little break, get some rest? I promise if the phone rings you'll wake up in time to get it." That was a lie, but it didn't stop Halley from putting her hand on her mother's shoulder, giving her the most reassuring smile she could muster.

"I- Okay, I will, I promise, I just... Let me sit here for a little, I just need to sit here for a little." The two teenagers' eyes met and they came to a silent agreement.

Adjusting his weight from side to side, Jonathan spoke, "Okay. I'll start breakfast then." Halley gave him a little nod in order to gently wave him away, he got the message, quietly closing the door behind him.

Joyce looked at her oldest daughter, and Halley surprised them both as she reached forward, and took hold of one of the lamps.

"Will? Are you there?" her grip tightening on the neck of the fixture when nothing happened. "Will? Will, come on, answer me," her own eyes were starting to feel hot and she didn't notice Joyce's hand on her shoulder until she was pushing the lamp out of Halley's hands, and pulling the younger girl closer.

"We're gonna find him, Baby," Joyce whispered against the top of her head, "we're gonna find him."