Secrets // Steve Harrington

Chapter Twenty - The Bus

Word Count: 3,701 words. 

Warnings: None. 

Rushing into the Byers residence Jonathon and I barged through the door of Will's room. "Where did you say you saw it?" I posed, rifling through the pictures on his desk.

I didn't have time to look at the monsters he drew or the ones of him and his friends. I didn't even have the spare seconds to think of a compliment for the one I noticed he had drawn of me.

"I thought it was on his desk." Jonathon replied, getting onto his hands and knees to look under the bed.

"Well," I began, aimlessly throwing the sheets of paper onto the ground. I would clean them up later. "There isn't any walkie on the desk!"

"Found it," he exclaimed, holding the radio up before hurrying to his feet and back into the kitchen he handed it to Nancy.

"What do I do with it?" she asked.

"Press the button on the side," I told her. "If his radio is on, which lets hope it is, he'll be able to hear you. Release for him to respond."

"Mike, are you there?" she asked, letting go. There was only static. "Mike, its me, Nancy." I could hear the shake in her voice as she waited for her brother to talk to us. He didn't respond.

"Mike are you there?" she asked again. "Answer. Mike, we need you to answer. This is an emergency Mike. Do you copy? Mike, do you copy?"

Static. Just static. Mike Wheeler never turned off his radio which meant either he could hear her and he was ignoring it or... they got him. I let out a shuddering breath. What if they got him? The thought of those kids in that box made me cross my arms in fear.

"We need to know that you're there, Mike."

Before we had time to wait for an answer, Hopper took the walkie, holding it up to him mouth as he turned away. "Listen kid, this is the Chief. If you're there, pick up. We know you're in trouble and we know about the girl."

Nothing. I could hear Hopper sigh, placing a hand on his waist. "We can protect you, we can help you, but you gotta pick up."

When it was clear that we weren't going to get an answer, the hand that held the walkie dropped and Hopper turned around to us.

"No," I muttered, rushing forward and taking it from him. Pressing the button on the side, I brought it to my lips. "Mike, it's Thalia. If you're there answer the goddamn radio."

"Why won't he answer?" Nancy asked, shaking her head.

I sighed. "He might think it's a trap. Brenner."

"So how do we convince him that we aren't this... Brenner?" Joyce posed.

I closed my eyes for a moment. Eleven. I could convince Eleven. Voice softer, I pressed the button. "El," I began, "El, do you remember that room? The rainbow room with the colours and the building blocks. The ones we would turn upside down and backwards and try to make words out of them because neither of us really know how to talk?" Static.

"You were what? Five when I left? But do you remember in the weeks before, I knew something was wrong, we both did." – I tried to force my mind to think of that week, of what it was that settled the fear I now had in my stomach, but I couldn't – "Do you remember the block... the one that had numbers on it rather than letters? Do remember the knife I stole and how much trouble I got into for it? I carved two things into that block of wood. The numbers two and eleven, do you remember that?"