Stand by me (steve harrington)

Chpt 22: Reunions And Goodbyes

We all began setting up for the plan. We taped up Joyce's shed so no light could get in. We took everything out and put a chair with bright lights surrounding it for Will to be strapped down. This way, the mind flayer won't know where he is, so he can't spy.

Then, Hopper, Joyce, Johnathan and Mike would ask questions only Will would know to try and get him back. The rest of us had to sit and wait patiently in the house. I was sat on the couch while Steve went out to his car. I didn't know what he was doing but i wasn't really focused on him.

I was just hoping they could get Will back and get the mind flayer out of him. As we were all waiting, we heard shouting coming from the shed and the lights began to flicker.

Steve ran back inside as we all sat in silence. "Do you think this will work?" Max asked. "It will... It has too" i said. I saw Steve staring at Nancy who was staring outside the window. She was visibly worried about Johnathan.

Steve looked to me as he saw me staring at him. I looked away quickly as i began biting my nails. He sat down next to me and stayed quiet. My eyes fell to the tapes in his hands.

I grabbed one off of him and it had the name "It's been a long, long time" taped to it. "What's this?" i asked. "Well, i know how much you liked your walkman and since you don't have it anymore, i thought you could borrow mine. Just for now. I want it back" he said sarcastically.

I gave him a small smile. "You listen to 40s music?" i questioned. "When i was looking through your disks in your room, i saw a lot of old music so i thought i'd give it a try... Turns out you have some good taste Hopper."

"I already knew that." He chuckled. I bit my tongue as i thought of what to say. "Thank you" i said. He gave a small smile.

As me and Steve were talking, Hopper burst through the door and grabbed a pen and paper. "What happened?" Lucas asked. "I think he's talking. Just not with words" Hopper said as he began writing something down.

I saw he was writing words in code, like what we use with El. "What is that?" Steve asked. "Morse code" we all replied causing him to feel stupid. "H-E-R-E" i said reading out the code.
"Wills still in there. He's taking to us" Hopper said. Joyce sighed in relief.

Hopper grabbed the code machine he had in his truck. We used this to communicate with El, but now we were using it to communicate with Will.

While Hopper was in the shed, he would tell us what taps Will would do on the chair. Then we would try and translate it from the house. Thankfully for everyone, Hopper and i were now pros at morse code.

"Dash, dot, dash, dot" Lucas said. I wrote it down and tried to translate. "C" i said as i began writing everything down. This went on for a while. As the final message came through, the words i had written down was now a sentence.

"C-L-O-S-E- G-A-T-E" the letters spelled out.

"Close gate. We have to close the gate" Nancy said. Suddenly, we all jumped as the phone began to ring. "Shit!" Dustin said as he took the phone off the hook and slammed it back down.

The phone began to ring again. Dustin tried to hang up the phone, but Nancy ripped it off it's hinges instead as she threw it on the ground.

"Do you think he heard that?" Max asked. "It's just a phone. It could be anywhere, right?" Steve questioned.

We all jumped again as Hopper barged inside with Will unconscious in his arms. "He knows. He knows where we are" Hopper said. As he spoke, we heard the demodogs howling from outside.

"That's not good" Dustin mumbled. "They're coming!" Johnathan shouted. Hopper grabbed two shot guns as he reloaded them. "Do you know how to use this?" Hopper asked Johnathan.