Say Anything | Steve Harrington |

Ch. 29 The Mind Flayer

November 5th, 1984
The Byers House

Once we had arrived home, Jonathan carried Will inside with Nancy following behind him. Though mom stayed in her place in Jonathan's car, almost like she was glued to the seat.

After Steve had let us out on the passenger side of the car, I made my way towards mom, who leaned her head against the glass.

Lightly tapping on the window, she turned her head slightly to find me looking down at her from the other side. "I'm coming." She whispered from inside the car.

Her eyes reflected how broken she felt inside, feeling a hand on my shoulder, I turned to find Hopper standing next to me. "I'll get her inside." He stated, looking down at me before turning his gaze to her. "What happened in there?" I asked Hopper as I gestured towards my mother, causing a frown to slowly edge out on his features.

"We thought we could use Will's connection against this thing, but it's too strong. But we only led it towards us, the lab got overrun. Those things killed everyone in sight." Hopper explained as he walked me away from the car. "They got Bob."

Placing a hand over my mouth I tried to stop the tears that welled up in my eyes from falling. "I couldn't save him but it was too late. The best I could do was get your mother out of there before they got her too."

Nodding, I slowly moved away from Hopper. "Thank you." I whispered, looking down at my dirtied converse. "We can't rush her," I started, before looking back over at the car. "She'll come out when she's ready."

Nodding in agreement, Hopper made his way back towards the house before I slowly followed behind him, rejoining Steve and the rest of the party. "Max, do you wanna go home?" I asked the girl quietly as the boys made their way inside the house before us.

Shaking her head aggressively, she turned to face me, "I would rather stay with you guys." She stated before entering the house as well.

Making my way in, I found that Jonathan had placed Will on the couch and was now crouching by his side. Placing his hand on Wills, he leaned over the boy whispering to him quietly.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there. I should have been there." He whispered to our sleeping brother while Nancy gently rubbed his shoulder.

Stopping next to the two, I kneeled down next to Jonathan, lightly placing my hand on the one that he had placed on Will. "We're gonna fix this. We're here now." I whispered, causing Jonathan to nod slightly.

Slowly standing, I turned to find Steve leaning against the wall in front of an annoyed-looking Hopper who was now speaking angrily into the phone.

"Sam Owens. Dr. Sam Owens." He said into the speaker, barely waiting for the person on the other line to respond. "I don't know how many people are there! I don't know how many people are left alive!" He stated, raising his voice more than it had already been.

"Let's go sit down." Steve mumbled to me, placing an arm around my shoulders as we walked past Hop and into the kitchen. "I am the police! Chief Jim Hopper!"

Taking a seat at the table with the rest of the party, Steve stood behind my chair, resting one hand on my shoulder and the other on the side of the chair.