009 | mike wheeler | S4 SPOILERS!

FOUR

TW: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS MENTION OF A CORPSE, VOMITING, AND AN IMPLIED ED!! 

the parts that include the following trigger warnings will be sectioned off, so you can skip over it if you like. please do not read the sections if you don't feel comfortable doing so!! 

...

Later that night, Dawn met up with a very distressed Joyce and Jonathan. They were all scared, and cold, and their faces were wet, from the rain, and how much they were crying. They all shuddered, wrapped in each other's arms, while the police looked through the house. Joyce had gotten in contact with Will using the lights, and then something crawled out of the wallpaper, though the wall had no evidence.

"Our working theory is that Will... crashed his bike, he... made his way over to the quarry and uh..." Hopper's voice was barely audible from where she was standing, not to mention her heart aggressively beating. Jonathan had his hands on her shoulders, trying to shield her from the cold truth.

Now that Will was dead, they only had each other. Dawn could tell that Will and Jonathan were close, but she never exactly saw Jonathan as a brother. They didn't talk much, and it was more of a mutual connection via Will. There was something about the way they stood there, how they were both holding onto each other for support.

Something about it was able to communicate that they both needed Will, but since they didn't have them, they both held onto each other instead. It had only just come to her attention that Dawn didn't ever remember hugging Jonathan. Maybe it was something in the air, or how their mom was going crazy, but Dawn and Jonathan both knew that a lot was about to change.

"Whoever you found is not my boy." Joyce countered.

"Joyce..." Hopper started. "No, you-you doesn't understand," Joyce stammered. "I talked to him... half an hour ago." Joyce sniffled and retrieved one of the many jumbles of Christmas lights she had lying around the house. "He was... talking, with these," She affirmed, holding up the lights. Joyce began explaining her different light contraptions around the house, explaining how they 'talked'.

Dawn thought she had Jonathan and Joyce, but now, the way Joyce was walking around, shakily pointing to Christmas lights, it was very evident that she only had Jonathan.

Jonathan dropped his arms from Dawn, and walked up to Joyce, Dawn following behind."Mom, come on, please." Jonathan begged, holding Joyce's arms, aware of her insanity. "No he-he's, it's after him!" Joyce sputtered. "He's in danger we have to find him!" She advocated, moving her hands from Jonathan's arms to Hopper's. "What exactly was this thing you said it was some kind of animal?" Hopper asked. "It- it was like, it was human, but it wasn't," Joyce explained, Jonathan's face filling with tears again. "It had these, long, long arms, and it didn't have a face." Joyce described. "Come on," Jonathan whispered to Dawn, who nodded back. They walked out quickly, slamming the door behind them.

They sat on the front step, both crying, their arms around each other's shoulders. Dawn began building up the courage to break the silence. "I- I just realized- were... never gonna see him again." Dawn stammered through tears, her voice breaking.

Jonathan tried to swallow his sorrow, but he couldn't stay quiet either. "I don't- I" Was the only words he could get out without violently sobbing. He placed his hand over his face. He was supposed to be the brave one. He was supposed to hug Dawn and tell her everything would be ok. But nothing was ok, and there was nothing they could do about it. After a couple of minutes, he finally built up the courage to speak again."I- Dawn. I'm so sorry. I feel so bad. I mean, we never talk, but now..." He breathed. Dawn let out a small sob and hugged her brother. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.