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Chapter 12

The Sign

Joyce sat at the dining room table. It was a Sunday and Will was over at his friends and Jonathan was getting coffee with Nancy. Coffee sounded really good to Joyce right about now. She'd had another mostly sleepless night thinking about El's voice in her head. Something was off about it and she thought she knew why, but now she's really not as sure.

Joyce? Her voice broke through her mind once again. Joyce immediately woke up all the way and sat up straighter.

"Morning Joyce." Hopper said coming in the kitchen and giving her a kiss on the head. She smiled at him still staying quiet seeing if she can hear her one more time.

She did. Hopper?

Joyce turned to him wide eyed as he sat down in the chair across from her. It took a few seconds for him to notice her stare, but once he did he couldn't avoid it.

He looked around the room seeing if there was something wrong with it. After seeing nothing, he thought about what he was doing and if he was doing something wrong. He looked at her with bewilderment in his expression. "What?"

"Did you hear that?" She asked in a whisper worrying she might miss something.

"What?" He asked again.

I wanna go home! El's voice broke and sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

"That!" Joyce said trying to make him understand her.

He looked around again before his eyes settled on an object making a sound but not a weird sound. He turned back to her. "The refrigerator?"

"No." Joyce mentally face palmed. "Her."

"Who?" Hopper asked getting more and more confused by the second.

Joyce took a deep breath in. She knew she had to come clean about what she heard that night in El's room. "El!"

"What?"

"Ever since the one year—ever since I went into her room with Will—I've been hearing her voice in my head."

"Joyce-" Hopper started before she cut him off.

"I know, I know it sounds crazy, but this has to mean something!" Joyce said pointing at her head.

"Joyce," Hopper grabbed her hands and gave them a gentle squeeze. "Do you think that, maybe, since it was the one year, that it was because of that?"

"No!" Joyce said defensively. "No, it's not like that. You're not thinking about it they way I am."

"Joyce, the first year after Sarah died the same thing happened to me. I could hear her and that was my way of coping with it. One day though, I told myself 'Hey, you need to stop this. It's not healthy and it's time to put it in the back of your heart and start moving forward with your life.' I did that. Maybe you need to too."

"No!" Joyce said again but more defensive this time. "You're not listening! It's not like that! This is different, I know it!"

Hopper sighed and rubbed his still tired eyes thinking, "oh my god. She can't serious about this."

"I heard her!" She said with hear voice not wavering one bit.

"Okay," Hopper said clapping his hands together. "What did she say to you?"

"Well," Joyce said trying to remember all she heard. "On the anniversary, she said she loved us and was trying to come home."

"Uh-huh." Hopper said leaning back all the way in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest giving her an incredulous look.

"And two days later, I went into her room again and she just kept on yelling my name over and over again. She sounded scared, her voice was rushed like she was trying to tell me something, but she couldn't. And I heard her just a few minutes ago, right here! She called my name and your name then she said she wanted to come home!" Joyce said with a few tears slipping out as she spoke. She just wanted him to understand where she was coming from and know what she was thinking, but of course, he didn't.

"So what? You're saying that she's what? Haunting us?" He asked not knowing where she was coming from.

"No! No! Not that!" She cried hitting her hand on the table.

"Then what are you thinking, tell me?" Hopper asked just wanting this conversation to be over.

Joyce lowered her voice into a whisper. "I-I think she still might be alive."

There was a beat of silence before a scoff came from Hopper before he stood up from the table.

"Wait!" Joyce said following him into the living room. "Hopper, talk to me!"

"You almost got me there Joyce, you really did." Hopper said turning to face her.

"I'm not joking with you! What if this is a sign?"

"A sign?" Hopper said raising his eyebrows and making his voice go a little higher.

"Yes!"

"How is that a sign? How is hearing voices in your head a sign?"

"She's trying to tell me she's alive, that's a sign."

"No, it's not!"

"You're right, it's a fact!"

"Joyce." Hopper said sitting down on the couch putting his head in his hands to try to calm down. "Look, I know what you're going through. You're in the state of denial right now."

Hopper continued speaking even though Joyce talked over him by saying, "No, you don't know what I'm going through. This is El we're talking about. She's different. She had powers and didn't she say she could find other people. What if she could talk to them?"

Silence came from both end until Hopper sighed and looked at his wife. "El had amazing powers. She could do a lot with them, but I don't think she could talk to people with them."

"But-" Joyce started.

"It's done! She's gone." He said as he went up the stairs to his bedroom.

Joyce was let alone to think to herself. The more she thought, the more mad and determined she got.

To hell with him. If he's not going to get to the bottom of this I will.

Authors note
Thanks again for reading! The books starting to get exciting now!

I'm so excited!!!!

❤️❤️❤️