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Chapter Eight - part four

They were converting the shed into an interrogation room, making it to where Will would not be able to know where he was at so the mind flayer would not be able to find them. Hopper had thrown everything out of the shed into a giant pile and Steve and Phina were putting up tarp all over the walls.
Steve was up on a step ladder, using a staple gun to put the tarp in place. Phina watched him, ripping pieces of duct tape off to use on the tarp. He had been quiet since they got out here, focusing on his job.
"Are you okay, Steve," she asks, ripping off another piece of tape.
He glances down at her, "I'm fine, why?"
She shrugs, "I just... it seems like something's bothering you."
Steve shakes his head, trying to fight away the heat that rose to his cheeks, he knew exactly what was making him act like this, "I'm fine, Phina, really."
"Is it Nancy," she asks, "her and Jon?"
He sighs, it should be about Nancy, but it isn't, "no, I'm not bothered by them, if anything, I'm happy for them."
"Steve," Phina chides.
He chuckles, "I really am, Phina. I've known for a while now that they liked each other, I was angry about it for a while too but, I don't... it doesn't bother me anymore."
She stares into his eyes, "then what's bothering you now? Don't say you're fine because I can tell you're not, Steve."
Steve smiles down at her, his eyes scanning her face in a way that made her warm all over, "something else has got my attention now, and I'm not sure how she feels."
The door to the shed suddenly opens and everyone starts to pile in. Steve turns away from Phina quickly and goes back to stapling the tarp. Everyone pretends not to notice the redness in Phina's face as they get to work.
While she helps, Phina's mind is not completely on the task at hand, but on what Steve had said. His attention was on something else, someone else other than her sister. The way he had been looking at her suggested who it was, and he was right, she didn't know how to feel about that.

Piece by piece, the walls were covered until it was finally done. Jonathan carried Will out to the shed, setting the unconscious boy down on the chair. Phina helps him tie Will to it and the wooden pole behind it. It pained both of them to do it, but they knew they had to, for not only his sake, but all of theirs'.
They set up blinding white lights behind a chair across from him so he wouldn't be able to see the door and the people behind it. The people closest to him would be trying to get him to remember them, to get him to tell them what they needed to know.
"All right," Hopper says to Joyce, "you ready?"
"Yeah," she says, not taking her eyes off Will.
Hopper nods, swirling around some liquid inside a jug as he walks over to the boy. He kneels in front of him, pouring the liquid onto a cotton ball. He holds the cotton beneath Will's nose for a moment. Everyone jumps as Will gasps awake.
Will looks all around him, at the people surrounding him. Joyce, Jonathan, Phina, Mike, and Hopper. He starts to move, realizing he is tied down.
"What? What," he grunts, "what is this? What? What is this? Why am I tied up?"
Joyce kneels down in front of him, "Will, we just wanna talk to you. We're not gonna hurt you."
"Where am I," Will asks.
Hopper kneels down next to Joyce, the drawing of the mind flayer in his hands, "you recognize this? Do you recognize this?"
Will shakes his head, staring at the drawing in Hopper's hand.
"Hey," Joyce whispers calmly, "we wanna help you. But to do that, we have to understand how to kill it."
"Why am I tied up," Will yells again, "why am I tied up? Why am I tied up? Why am I tied up?"
Hopper and Joyce try to calm him down. His anger rises along with his voice. The lights in the room begin to flicker and Phina pulls Mike into her side, grabbing Jonathan's hand tightly in her own.
His yelling continues, "why am I tied up? Let me go! Let me go! let me go! Let me go!"
Jon's eyes begin to tear up as he watches his brother and Phina grips his hand tighter, her eyes burning as she tries not to cry as well.
"Let me go! Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!" Hopper holds the struggling boy back as Joyce looks away from him. "Let me go! Let me go! Let me go! Let me go! Let me go! Let me go. Let me go. Let me... go."
He slowly calms down, his breathing heavy. Hopper pulls away from him as the boy stops fighting. Joyce stares at Will and he stares back, his eyes without emotion. Joyce sits in the chair across from her son, leaning on her knees to get closer to him.
"Do you know what March 22nd is," she asks him, "it's your birthday. Your birthday. When you turned eight, I gave you that huge box of crayons. Do you remember that? It was 120 colors. And all of your friends, they got you Star Wars toys, but all you wanted to do was draw with all your new colors. And you drew this big spaceship, but it wasn't from a movie it... it was your spaceship. A rainbow ship is what you called it. And you must have used every color in the box. I took that with me to Melvald's and I put it up, and I told everyone who came in, my son drew this. And you were so embarrassed. But I was so proud. I was so, so proud."
The room was silent, all of them staring down at Will, pleading for any sort of reaction. There was none. Will didn't show any sign that he had even heard what she said.
"Do you remember the day Dad left," Jonathan suddenly asks, letting go a Phina's hand to kneel next to Joyce, "we stayed up all night building Castle Byers... just the way you drew it. And it took so long because you were so bad at hammering... You'd miss the nail every time. And then it started raining, but we stayed out there anyway. We were both sick for like a week after that, Phina made us chicken noodle soup every time we asked for it even though she was a terrible cook then. But we just had to finish it, didn't we? We just had to."
"Do you remember the first day that we met," Mike asks, tears streaming down his cheeks, "it was... It was the first day of Kindergarten. I knew nobody. I had no friends and... I just felt so alone and so scared, but... I saw you on the swings and you were alone, too. You were just swinging by yourself. And I just walked up to you and... I asked. I asked if you wanted to be my friend... And you said yes. You said yes... It was the best thing I've ever done."
"I remember the first time I showed you my drawings," Phina says, her voice breaking as tears streamed down her cheeks, "you were so excited and so awestruck at my stupid little doodles. You told me, when I grow up, I'm going to be an artist, just like you, Phina. You grabbed every single one of your drawings and showed them to me, even the ones off the fridge that you had shown me every single day, wanting me to see what you could do, wanting me to say your drawings were good because you thought I was the best artist there was. After that, we sat in your room and drew for hours. We didn't come out until our fingers were cramping and our hands were completely covered in crayon and graphite. I have all of those drawings from that day, all of the ones you've ever given me, all of them, tucked away in three different scrapbooks. Whenever I'm feeling sad, I look at those drawings, your drawings, and I can't help but smile because they bring me nothing but joy, Will."
"Will," Joyce says, leaning forward, "baby... if you're in there, just, please... please talk to us. Please, honey, please, can you do that for me? Please. I love you so much."
Will trembles, like he heard them like he was about to cry, "let me go."
Everyone's hearts break. It hadn't worked, they hadn't gotten Will back. Or did they? Hopper looks at the kid, his eyes going down to his hand which taps rhythmically on the bottom of the chair. His eyes narrow as he watches the taps. That's when it hits him, they had gotten to Will.

-1524 words-
I love this chapter. One because of that little Steve and Phina scene at the beginning ;) and two because of the story Phina told Will, I honestly began to tear up a little when I wrote it if I'm being one hundred percent honest. I love the relationship Phina has with the Byers, even though it hasn't been seen much this season, it's one of my favorite parts about Phina, she went from having nothing to having a big, loving family with the Wheelers, the Byers, and the kids in the Party. Anyway, enough rambling did you like this chapter, I hope you did!
-Morgan