009 // 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐀𝐒 𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐑

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 9 : "𝐍𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐋"

"another year over and a new one just begun."

◇─◇──◇─────◇──◇─◇

Everyone was sitting in the hospital waiting room, waiting there for Will who returned from the Upside Down.

Hopper, Mr. Wheeler, Steve Harrington, Mrs. Wheeler, Nancy, Dustin, Lucas, and Mike.

Dustin and Lucas were sleeping, but Mike was wide awake. But Lucas was only dreaming about one thing.

Nine.

Mike heard a door open, seeing Jonathan. He mouthed a "come on", and Mike immediately got up, shaking his friends and running into Will's room.

"Guys. Guys, he's up. Will is up. Will's up."

The two followed Mike, chasing after him.

Once they got in the room, they immediately hugged Will on his bed,

"Byers!" Lucas said excitedly.

"Be careful," Joyce stated, "Be careful with him."

"Move," Dustin moved the other two out of the way, going in for a hug with Will.

"Guys, guys. Go easy on him."

"You won't believe what happened when you were gone, man."

"It was mental."

"You had a funeral."

"Jennifer Hayes was crying."

"And Troy peed himself and stomped in it."

"In front of the whole school," Dustin had to add.

Will started coughing, worry sprouting through the other's faces.

"You okay?" Mike asked.

"It got me," he sighed. "The Demogorgon."

"We know. It's okay. It's dead. We made two new friends. They stopped it. They saved us. But they're gone now."

"Their names are Eleven and Nine."

"Like the numbers?"

"Well, we call them 'El' and 'Nina' for short."

"They're basically wizards."

"They have superpowers."

"More like a Yoda."

"El flipped a van with her mind and Nina teleported all of us at once, and these agents were trying to shoot us—"

"Yeah, it flipped over—"

"Then she squeezed their brains out..."

"And blood was pouring out of their faces."

"It was pouring out of their eyes."

"Agents just started grabbing us and stuff..."

The boys continued to tell Will the events of the week he was gone, making sure not to miss any little detail.

Lucas's smile started to fade when they talked about Nine. The one person who he truly liked was gone. He put some blame on himself, but he knew that he couldn't do anything.

He still missed her.

-

December 25th is always a fun day for kids, you could say. But this isn't about kids.

It's about police chief Jim Hopper.

He had left his work party for the holiday, packing some food along with him.

He had driven into the middle of the woods, walking in the snowy weather. He walked to a small little wooden box that he left there. He put the container of food in there, as well as a small wrapped package of Eggos.

He closed the box, sighing.

He hoped. He had some hope.

He hoped that they were still out there somewhere.