Alicia came from the uneventful town of Hawkins, where nothing extraordinary ever occurred. However, within the confines of Hawkins' laboratory, a different tale unfolded. Alicia's mother, subjected to mysterious substances during pregnancy, underwe...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Sleeping on the couch in the Byers home turned out to be surprisingly comfortable. However, before bedtime, we engaged in a few hours of conversation. I shared the basics of what had happened to me, and they expressed genuine sympathy. I also felt sorry for them. They had lost a brother and a son. Joyce clung to hope along with Jonathan, but there was only so much they could do in the search for him. I couldn't reveal that I had witnessed his abduction from miles away and in my mind. This new day offered me the chance to search for him on my own, with a better chance of beating whatever took him in the first place.
"We need to make, what, two hundred, three hundred copies?" Joyce's distressed voice reached my ears. I woke up to the distress, sitting up on the couch she had offered me. Although Jonathan had suggested I use his bed, I didn't want to get up. "How much is a copy? Ten cents?" Joyce seemed to be losing control.
"Ok. Mom. Mom. Mom!" Jonathan's voice escalated with each word, grabbing his mother's attention. He stammered a few words at first, clearly scared. "You can't get like this, ok?" he continued.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry,"
"No, it's ok." My heart went out to them both; I couldn't imagine losing a child or a sibling. I pushed the blanket aside, rose from the couch, and headed through the archway into the kitchen. Both of them looked at me, realizing that I was still there. I must have slipped their minds for a moment in the commotion.
"Morning," I said quietly, playing nervously with my fingers and avoiding direct eye contact.
"Want some breakfast?" Jonathan asked, raising an eyebrow, but I shook my head, feeling like I couldn't eat given the circumstances. "The bathroom is just right there," he pointed around the corner to the first door down the hall, assuming that I needed it in the morning. My feet dragged across the wooden floor, and down the hallway, finding the bathroom in a matter of seconds. Before I entered, a hard knock came to the door, bringing me into alert mode. I rushed forward, slammed the door to the bathroom, and pressed my back against it. My breathing began to pick up, imagining that it was the agents finding me to bring me back to the lab. The pounding in my chest only got faster with the thoughts running through my mind.
"No. It was him. It was Will," I don't know how long I stood there, missing the start of her conversation with a deep-voiced man. "And he was scared. And then something --" her voice broke as she recounted what had happened during the storm.
"It was probably just a prank call. Somebody trying to scare you," this man spoke, dismissing her theory that it was Will.
"Who would do that?" Jonathan demanded, finding it hard to believe someone would put his family in more distress than they were already in.
"Well, this thing's been on TV. It brings out all the crazies, you know. False leads, prank calls, uh—"
"No, Hopper, it was not a prank. It was him," Joyce wasn't going to let go of this anytime soon.
