𝐦𝐢𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞~𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬

𝐀𝐂𝐓 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐄 𝐒𝐈𝐗𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

𝒂/𝒏 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒈𝒖𝒚𝒔 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘, 𝒊 𝒅𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒕/𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒇 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒎𝒚𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇, 𝒔𝒐 𝒊𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔, 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒎𝒚 𝒅𝒚𝒔𝒍𝒆𝒙𝒊𝒄 𝒂𝒔𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝑿𝑫
𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒐 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒕𝒐 im_a_beguette647 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒗𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒊𝒕 𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚
𝒊𝒎𝒎𝒂 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒑 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒚 𝒏𝒐𝒘, 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒇𝒇 𝒊𝒔 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔
c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶c̶

𝐒𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐃𝐎𝐄𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓  𝐋𝐈𝐄
ғᴇᴇᴅ ᴍᴇ ʙᴀᴄᴋ ᴀɴᴅ ғᴏʀᴛʜ ʏᴏᴜʀ ʟɪᴇs
ʟᴇᴛ ᴍᴇ ɢᴇᴛ ɪɴsɪᴅᴇ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴇʏᴇs
'ᴄᴀᴜsᴇ ɪ'ᴍ ɴᴏᴛ ɢᴇᴛᴛɪɴɢ ʙᴇᴛᴛᴇʀ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀᴡɪsᴇ

𝑾𝒊𝒍𝒍'𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒗
Ashley dragged him into the house, and they stopped by the living room (𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒎 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒇𝒂). The ceiling was covered with Christmas lights, which made Will chuckle a little. He tried to jump to reach the lights, but he was too short. He silently cursed himself as Ashley started to laugh.
"What are you laughing at?" he asked, walking over to her
"Laughing at-" she didn't have the chance to finish, because Will grabbed her by the waist and started to tickle her, sending her into a fit of giggles. Her laugh was adorable, it was quiet, but real, and it made Will feel all warm inside.
"W-will s-st-stop" she said between giggles
"Not so funny now huh?" he smirked, and she rolled her eyes
"St-still funny" she laughed, and Will pouted. He let her go, and they both slid down the wall, sitting on the floor to catch their breath.
He took her wrist and traced his finger over her 010 tattoo.
"You're never going to have to go back there again, you hear me? I'm not going to let anybody hurt you anymore, as far as i can help it. No more experiments, not more poking, prodding, or being watched. I promise"
She looked up at him, her eyes teary, before wrapping her arms around
his waist in a hug, soaking his (already damp) shoulder with tears. He brushed his fingers through her hair until she pulled away, wiping her eyes with a sleeve and standing up, pulling him up too.
"Okay, so i need to reach these lights, but we're both too short so i thought i could give you a piggyback ride and you can reach them that way?"
She stared at him blankly
"What is piggyback?"
"Oh, basically i can carry you on my back so you're a bit taller" he tried to explain, but he didn't realise how difficult it was to explain what a piggyback ride was to someone. (𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆'𝒔 𝒂 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒌𝒊𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒐𝒏 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝒑𝒊𝒈𝒈𝒚𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒓𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝑿𝑫)
He squatted down a little so she could reach and instructed her to get on his back
"So yeah. Just get on my back. Yep. Okay, now put your legs around my waist- there. Good. Wrap your arms around my neck, but try not to choke me. If you need, just wrap your arms around my shoulders, yeah like that. I'm gonna stand up now, okay? Just hold on"
He stood up, and she was really light and super easy to carry. Will shouldn't have been surprised, she was so skinny.
"Okay, now can you reach the lights?"
He felt Ashley shift a little as she reached up, presumably to tap one of the lights
"Reach the lights. Yep. Mama is here"
"So you see that little um hole thing in the wall?" he pointed to a space in the wall, usually used for storage but it was big enough for a person to sit in (𝒊 𝒅𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒐 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 "𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒆𝒔, 𝒕𝒘𝒐 𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒌𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒏𝒐" 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒄𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒎𝒂𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒆𝒔, 𝒊'𝒎 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒍𝒖𝒅𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒃𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑯𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒚, 𝒍𝒆𝒕'𝒔 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒈𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒐𝒏)
"We want to lead my mom there, it's a small space so it will echo less"
"Okay" she lifted her arm up to touch the lights and Will walked across the room, listening for his mom's soft footsteps. Once they reached the other side of the room, Ashley jumped down and Will held the light just above the cupboard in the wall. It glowed orange and he turned to Ashley. She didn't say anything, she just nodded. Will wondered why, but he didn't get the chance to ask because a clump of christmas lights appeared in front of him. He picked them up and sat in the cupboard.
"Will, are you here?" he heard his mom ask. He held the lights a little tighter, and they glowed once. Somewhere around him, he heard his mom gasp in delight.
"Blink once for yes, twice for no. Can you do that for me?" Will made the lights glow once.
"Good boy, good boy"
Ashley giggled at his mom's words as she sat down next to him
"Like a dog" he heard her mumble
His mom spoke again
"Baby i need to know" she hesitated "are you alive?"
He blinked the lights once and his mom sighed with relief
"Are you safe?" she asked, and Will turned to Ashley, who gave him that 'are you stupid' look before speaking
"Not safe. Not safe at all. Monster is coming"
Will blinked the lights twice for no, and his mom went quiet for a few moments, as if to think
"I need to know where to find you. Honey, where are you? Can you tell me where you are?" her voice began to break "Please baby, i need to find you, tell me what to do"
Not long after, Will heard movement around the room and the distinct smell of paint wafted up his nose. Ashley ran to the other side of the room and pointed at the wall, where black letters were painting themselves.
"Letters?" Ashley asked, walking back over to him.
"Yeah. Letters. I think she wants us to tell her where we are, so we can spell things out with the letters"
Once the final letter had been painted, his mother spoke again
"Talk to me, where are you?"
"What do we tell her?" Will asked
"Maybe... Right here?"
"Okay, I'll stand on this side, you can stand over there" he tapped the light above the letter R, earning praise from his mom. After tapping the letter I, he turned to Ashley
"Okay, now press the G light"
She stared at him blankly
"Oh right, can't read. Um do you know any letters? How about your name?" (𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒉𝒚 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒔𝒉𝒍𝒆𝒚. 𝑰 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒈𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒂𝒔𝒉𝒍𝒆𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒊𝒕)
"Yes"
"Okay. The third letter of your name, H"
she pointed to it, it was right next to her
"The letter to the left of it.  That's G. Tap the light, and then the one next to it"
"G and then H" she said as she tapped both of them in turn. After, Will tapped the T light on his side.
"That spells right. Ash, tap the H light again, then the E. E is the fifth letter of your name." He watched as she counted to five on her fingers, and tapped the H and then the E. He tapped R and instructed her to tap the E light again.
"Right here" he stated
"Right here" his mom repeated "I-i don't know what that means. I need you to tell me what to do. What should-"
Ashley grabbed his wrist, and he stopped listening to his mom.
"What-" she clamped a hand over his mouth, and he almost lost his balance. He grabbed her arm to steady himself
"Look" she whispered, pointing behind him.
He turned around to face a demogorgon, but it wasn't paying them any attention. Instead it was scratching at the wall, trying to break through. He turned back to the letter wall and spelled out R-U-N, hoping his mom would get the message in time, before grabbing Ashley's hand and running out of the house.