Legendary | s. harrington (18+)

chapter eighteen

EVELYN, Joyce and Jonathan followed Hopper in to the house. He wouldn't tell them what he was thinking but at this point, they'd learnt not to ask.

"I think he's talking." Hopper said, grabbing a piece of paper and sitting at the kitchen table. "Just not with words." He started drawing lines and dots.

"Hey, what is that?" Everyone including Evelyn answered Steve in unison, not looking up from Hopper's crucial work.

"Morse code." When he finished writing, Lucas read it allowed.

"Here."

"Will's still in there," Hopper said as he placed down his pen. "He's talking to us." Evelyn grabbed Jonathan's coat and pulled him quickly towards the corridor. She sped to Jonathan's room and plucked something off the desk. When she turned around, she waved a cassette in his exhausted and worried face and wiggled her eyebrows. He smiled and grabbed the handle of his stereo. It read, 'the clash'.

Evelyn could read morse code, so could Dustin and Mike. They agreed that Mike would take the walkie-talkie and Dustin and Eve would stay in the house. Evelyn pulled at a piece of paper and grabbed a pen.

"What're you doing?" It was Steve and he pulled a seat beside her, looking as she started drawing on the page. She didn't look up at him. Her eyebrows were sewn together in determination and she was watching Dustin as he set the device to the correct channel.

"Reading."

"Dash, dot, dot." Dustin read out. Evelyn nodded.

"C." Lucas scowled.

"You sure?"

"Certain." And Lucas scanned the walkietalkie manual to see she was correct. Steve's mouth twitched: impressed. When they'd finally put together a word, Evelyn rolled her lips. She read their finale.

"Close gate." Evelyn looked at Steve, confused, but then the phone rang and they all scrambled to their feet.

"Shit!" Dustin hung up, but then it rang again and Nancy pulled it straight from the wall.

"It's just a phone," Steve mused. "He could be anywhere, right?" Wrong. Evelyn choked a noise at a sound she wished wasn't familiar. She stood and ran to the window. The demogorgans were coming.

They waited in the lounge, preparing for a fight. With three guns in his arms Hopper naturally passed one to Evelyn. Steve watched from the corner of his eye as she unexpectedly loaded it, made sure it wasn't jammed and then aimed it towards the door. Hopper and her Uncle had taught her how to shoot, they used to make day trips of it and buy her a milkshake afterwards from the diner on the way home. With the spare shotgun, Hopper turned to Jonathan; Steve already armed with his bat.

"Can you use this?"

"What?"

"Can you use this?" Nancy stepped forward and took her space on the other side of Evelyn.

"I can." The gun clicked and Nancy lifted it up. Lucas armed his slingshot, Mike held a candle.

The monsters grunted and snarled near the door. It sounded like they were moving around the house but Evelyn told herself not to focus on that. Hopper had told her always to breathe and let her finger itch the trigger. It moves, you shoot. She didn't need emotion to do that. Evelyn trailed the sound well. Hopper would've been proud if he'd been focusing. But then there was a noise; like the creatures yelped. There was silence and a crushing sound. Was something killing them?

The window smashed, people screamed. A demodog slid along Joyce's floor crashing limp through the window but naturally, Hopper and Evelyn followed it with their guns and pulled the trigger. It was already dead.